PURPOSIVENESS 67 



his neighbours likewise striving. So with this 

 instinct goading him on he is driven to probe deeper 

 still into the mystery of the forest life. 



Of selection and adaptation we have seen evi- 

 dence throughout the whole forest life. Now, 

 where there is selection and where there is adaptation 

 there must be purposiveness. Selection implies the 

 power of choice, and we have seen how plants as 

 well as animals deliberately and effectively exercise 

 this power of choice. And adaptation implies 

 adjustment to an end, and we have seen how won- 

 derfully plants no less than animals adapt them- 

 selves to certain ends. And where individuals have 

 the power of choice and exercise that power; and 

 where they have the power of adapting themselves 

 to certain ends and exercise that power, there 

 obviously is purposiveness. 



Purposiveness runs like a streak through every 

 activity. It permeates the whole forest life. It is 

 observable in plants no less than in animals. 

 Naturalists, indeed, regard trees and plants as truly 

 sentient beings. And the means plants employ to 

 compass the end they have in view are truly won- 

 derful. Still more remarkable is the fact that 

 hardly two attain their object by exactly the same 

 means. The tropical forest is full of climbing 

 plants bent upon reaching the sunlight. But some 

 climb by coiling round the trunk of a tree like a 

 snake, some swarm up it by holding on with claws, 

 some ascend by means of adhering aerial roots, and 

 some reach what they want by pushing through a 

 tangle of branches spreading out arms and hauling 



