CHAPTER XX 



THE LATEX AND HOW IT IS COAGULATED 



WHAT exactly is latex? and what useful purpose does it 

 serve in the economy of the tree? are questions often 

 discussed but never satisfactorily answered. The Darwinian 

 theory that in the struggle for existence a variation is only 

 apt to survive when of value to the possessor seems out of focus 

 here as in very many other cases. Scientific authorities are 

 fond of warning us not to think of any attribute of plant or 

 animal life as having been evolved for the benefit of humanity 

 at large. This, they warn us, is a crude, ignorant and conceited 

 idea for which there is no warrant. 



To the mere materialist of course this is self-evident. It is 

 done and disposed of. Discussion is futile and a mere beating 

 of the air ; yet, to those who realize a harmony and evident co- 

 operation in the universe, this loud-voiced utterance has an 

 empty sound. There is a co-operation in Nature, often un- 

 witting, of even the most discordant elements. 



If, as is recognized by all, a cell in a root can work in co- 

 operation with a far-away, out-of-sight cell in the leaf on the 

 tip of a branch and send up to it solutions of food apparently 

 knowing that a portion of these will be returned in a manu- 

 factured form for its nourishment and growth as its share is 

 not that an instance of what may take place on a wider scale? 

 Nay, more, if the pollen cells on one tree can be set free to 

 fertilize the female elements in the ovules on another tree 

 at a distance, surely it is not an undue stretch of the imagina- 

 tion to suppose that the Designer of the Universe if His 

 existence is to be permitted by some of our wiseacres could 

 have a purpose for the laticiferous cells of the Hevea outside 

 the tree itself. 



Indeed, the co-operation in Nature has a wider scope than 

 many dream of. Take the extraordinary instance cited by 



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