CHAPTER XVI 



THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM IN ITS SPECIAL RELATION 



TO MAN 



IT is obvious that, as animal life has from its very origin 

 depended upon and been developed in relation to plant life, 

 the entire organisation of the former would, by the continuous 

 action of variation and survival of the fittest, become so 

 harmoniously adapted to the latter, that it would inevitably 

 have every appearance of the plant having been formed and 

 preordained for the express purpose of sustaining and 

 benefiting the animal. This harmonious co- adaptation 

 cannot therefore be adduced as, of itself, being any proof of 

 design, but neither is it any proof against it. So with man 

 himself, so far as his mere animal wants are concerned, his 

 dependence on plants, either directly or indirectly, for his 

 entire sustenance by food, and therefore for his very life, 

 affords no grounds for supposing that either of the two 

 kingdoms came into existence in order to render the earth 

 a possible dwelling-place for him. But as regards those 

 special qualities in which he rises so far above all other 

 animals, and especially those on which the higher races 

 found their claim to be " civilised," there seem to be ample 

 grounds for such an argument, as I hope to be able to show. 

 Taking first the innumerable different kinds of wood, 

 whose qualities of strength, lightness, ease of cutting and 

 planing, smoothness of surface, beauty, and durability, are 

 so exactly suited to the needs of civilised man that it is 

 almost doubtful if he could have reached civilisation without 

 them. The considerable range in their hardness, in their 

 durability when exposed to the action of water or of the 

 soil, in their weight and in their elasticity, render them 



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