THE ASSERTIVE PLANT n 



simply because their overshadowing growth will 

 smother all the adjacent species. 



Consider the position of seedlings coming up 

 among the stems of a good-sized Dock. Com- 

 pletely sheltered from the light and air by the 

 great leaves, there is not the slightest chance 

 that they could ever come to perfection. In 

 pulling aside the foliage of any large Dock plant 

 we may find the remains of the unfortunate seed- 

 lings which have perished under the sheltering 

 leaves. The British Dock is quite a pygmy be- 

 side the great American Gunneras. These plants, 

 which in their appearance are suggestive of vast 

 Rhubarb, produce leaves that are enormous. 

 Borne on long, stout stems, which are at times as 

 much as ten feet in height, the great leaves spread 

 out in a canopy that keeps an immense area of 

 ground in perpetual shade. The shelter which the 

 leaves afford may be realised when it is stated 

 that not infrequently the huge organs are six 

 feet across. 



Very much the same kind of thing happens in 

 the world of trees. When one sees the enormous 

 crop of acorns produced by the Oak, and watches 

 the myriads of Sycamore seeds which flutter to 

 the ground in the early autumn, it is difficult to 

 realise how it is that the whole country is not 



