178 From Matter to Man. 



Section 10. The Aim and Purpose of Vegetal Evolu- 

 tion : 



If plants are unconscious automata, we cannot 

 accord them ambitions, aspirations, aims, ends, 

 and intentions, although a semblance of all these 

 feelings may be traced in the vegetal kingdom. 

 Assuming that the ideal vegetal is a tree of great 

 height, of proportionate width, with graceful trunk, 

 tapering branches, lovely foliage, brilliant flowers, and 

 luscious fruit — the most beautiful, most useful, and 

 most prolific object in nature — do any plants, either 

 intentionally or automatically, evolve on these lines ? 

 The only answer is a negative. The finest apples 

 often grow on the most gnarled of trunks, the 

 choicest roses on the most scruffy of stems, while 

 the loveliest outlines appear on the most barren of 

 plants ; hence, no known law correlates the size, 

 worth, and beauty of a tree to the excellence of its 

 fruit, flowers, and form. Seemingly, then, a vegetal 

 cherishes no object in existence beyond mere exis- 

 tence. As a mere ambition or aspiration it has no 

 intentional desire to propagate better flowers or fruit 

 than other trees ; hence, if this end be attained it is 

 solely by accident. The tree can claim no merit, for 

 it is all a game of chance. 



Again, trees harbour no intentional rivalry, yet for 

 the purposes of fertilisation they vie with each other in 

 enlisting birds and insects into their service. Further, 

 although not murderously inclined and entertaining 

 no premeditated design to kill and root out one 



