A YEAR IN THE FIELDS 



or act of intelligent selection, to the trees. 

 In the case of the little hemlock upon the 

 partly submerged log, roots were probably 

 thrown out equally in all directions ; on all 

 sides but one they reached the water and 

 stopped growing ; the water checked them ; 

 but on the land side, the root on the top of 

 the log, not meeting with any obstacle of 

 the kind, kept on growing, and thus pushing 

 its way toward the shore. It was a case 

 of survival, not of the fittest, but of that 

 which the situation favored, — the fittest 

 with reference to position. 



So with the pine-tree on the side of the 

 hill. It probably started its roots in all di- 

 rections, but only the one on the upper side 

 survived and matured. Those on the lower 

 side finally perished, and others lower down 

 took their places. Thus the whole life upon 

 the globe, as we see it, is the result of this 

 blind groping and putting forth of Nature 

 in every direction, with failure of some of 

 her ventures and the success of others, the 

 circumstances, the environments, supplying 

 the checks and supplying the stimulus, the 

 seed falling upon the barren places just the 

 same as upon the fertile. No discrimina- 

 tion on the part of Nature that we can ex« 



194 



