A PLANT THAT MELTS ICE 45 



shaped blossoms, again, even after they open, are 

 admirably adapted for keeping in the heat ; and 

 they are also exactly fitted to the shape and size of 

 the bees and flies that act as their chartered carriers 

 of pollen. A plant, in short, has to accommodate 

 itself at every point to the needs of its situation ; 

 it has to secure for itself a firm foothold in the 

 soil, and a due share of food from the surrounding 

 air (for its diet after all is chiefly gaseous) ; it has 

 to take care that its pollen shall be duly dis- 

 persed, and its seedlets fertilised ; and finally, it 

 has to see that its young are satisfactorily settled 

 in the world, and deposited on likely spots where 

 they can germinate to advantage. It must be a 

 good parent as well as a prudent and cautious 

 adventurer. 



The struggle for life carried on under these 

 circumstances has sharpened the wits of plants 

 to a far higher degree than most people imagine. 

 Plants have developed almost as many dodges and 

 devices for securing food or avoiding enemies as 

 animals themselves have ; and this single instance 

 enables us to see with what forethought and clever- 

 ness they often provide against adverse chances. 

 Soldanella, indeed, could not exist at all upon its 

 ice-clad heights if it did not lay up food and fuel 

 in summer against the needs of winter, like the bee 

 and the ant ; if it did not burn up its own fat for 

 warmth, like the dormouse ; if it did not tunnel 

 the ice as the mole tunnels the earth ; if it did not 

 retire beneath the snow-sheet on the approach of 

 winter as the queen wasp retires into the shelter of 



