THE COSMIC ADAPTATION OF THE SEED 447 



We have above been concerned with the effects of the 

 repressive influence of the life-conditions. I will now illustrate 

 the results of their relaxation or expansion. Here the con- 

 dititions press gently on the organism, and we see the results 

 in the giants amongst our trees, as represented by the Sequoias The 

 of the elevated plateaus and flat-topped mountain-spurs of the iUustStl the 

 Sierra Nevada in California and by the gigantic Eucalyptus 3^X0?'"'^ 

 trees of the deep valleys and gorges of the mountains of nature. 

 South-eastern Australia. 



Those who have read Clarence King's Mountaineering in 

 the Sierra Nevada and can recall his graphic description of the 

 environment of the Sequoias will remember that it was the 

 peculiarity in the climatic conditions that appealed to the imagina- 

 tion of this gifted writer. Life's conditions press lightly on the 

 trees of this ancient race. " Possessing hardly any roots, and 

 resting on the ground with a few short pedestal-like feet penetrat- 

 ing the earth for a little way," they grow under " a sky which 

 at this elevation of 6000 feet is deep, pure blue, and often 

 cloudless." ..." It is, then, the vast respiring power, the 

 atmosphere, the bland regular climate, which give such long 

 life, and not any richness or abundance of food received from 

 the soil." So it may be premised that in a kindred fashion 

 nature makes existence easy for the giant Eucalyptus trees 

 that attain heights of 400 feet and over in the shelter of the 

 deep valleys and gorges of the mountains of Victoria, as 

 described by Thomas Ward in his Rambles of an Australian 

 Naturalist (1907). 



From the point of view, therefore, of plant-life which Postulating- 



„^ , , 1 r 1 1 . a flora of the 



postulates a flora of the cosmos, the stage or development cosmos, the 

 attained depends on the pressure of the conditions, being dlvlfopment 

 least advanced where the conditions are the most rigid and f^^\^^^^ 

 unyielding, as in the state where only the stage of plant-life different 

 represented by the seed is possible, and most advanced where J'epends on 

 the conditions are light and easy, allowing the relatively un- p'jggguffof*'^ 

 hindered growth of trunk, branch, and foliage. From such a the condi- 



IT u tions. 



Standpoint also the flowermg and seedmg stage would present 



