RIVALRY OF PLANTS 171 



are the dianthus plants that did not learn to 

 advertise to the bee — and where are the desert 

 cactus plants that could not protect themselves 

 with thorns? 



On and on we go, one step backward some- 

 times, then two steps forward — marking time 

 awhile, then onward with a spurt — the pear tree, 

 the dianthus, the cactus plants, and we — each 

 individual among us a little different from the 

 rest, each with a separate combination of old 

 environment stored within us, finding always 

 an infinity of new environment to bring it out; 

 growing up together, the pear trees, the dian- 

 thus, the cactus plants and we, all of us depend- 

 ing on the others, and each of us playing his 

 separate part in the march of adaptation. 



On and on we go, because of Infinite Vari- 

 ation. 



And so, from whatever viewpoint we approach 

 the study of plants — whether with an eager eye 

 to the future and the past, or whether with an 

 eye, opened only a slit, to see simply the things 

 we can touch and feel, we find evidences of adap- 

 tation made possible through variation. 



The violet, responding to kindness, became a 

 pansy. 



The pear, responding to racial tastes, adapted 

 itself to the Orientals and to us. 



