84 SYMBIOSIS 



like some of the wind-fertilised weeds, for instance, are apt to 

 be noxious, though, no doubt, they still fill an important place 

 in the Economy of Nature. Whether a plant relies upon physical 

 or biological agency for the conquest of space, its chief reliance 

 must always be upon service. It is this alone whicli gives 

 sanction and status. Ability to rely upon duly remunerated 

 biological agency, moreover, makes possible a progressive avoid- 

 ance of waste of energy on the part of the plant and a corresponding 

 better endowment of the protoplasm and the seed both for " home '* 

 and for " export " purposes. We may, therefore, amplify 

 Maeterlinck's remarks thus : Plant-intelligence arose out of a 

 double necessity (i) to provide for its own immediate needs and 

 (2) to supply at the same time, and in a progressive manner, the 

 needs of " organic civilisation." This explanation will be seen 

 to remove much of the apparent " strangeness " of the plant's 

 world. The plant's limitations may now be viewed as those of 

 a specialist in division of labour ; they are seen to be essential 

 to the success of the whole organic family, and thus to entail 

 in the end great compensations to the plant. The very limita- 

 tions of symbiotic partners, as we have recognised, in the end 

 make for psychical progress. It cannot be emphasised enough, 

 therefore, that the achievements of the plant, referred to by 

 Maeterlinck, as well as the apparently strange vicissitudes of the 

 plant world, must be viewed in the light of Bio-Economics. 



Maeterlinck speaks of a mysterious law of " destiny," or of 

 " fate," by which, he thinks, the plant is ruled. I should say, 

 on the contrary, that the plant is exemplary of the way destiny 

 should be controlled by the organism, though in obedience to 

 the bio-moral law. My interpretation t sees in the momenta 

 created by symbiotic systems the main directive force of pro- 

 gressive evolution, towards the establishment of which force all 

 organisms, though in different degrees, contribute their quota. 

 There is no need to postulate any " destiny " or " fate " on this 

 view. Organisms which weary of service or flout the symbiotic 

 relation, are themselves to be blamed, as it were, for their 

 degeneracy. 



Again, what are the circumstances under which, as Maeter- 

 linck says, a plant may " lose its head." They are precisely 

 those equivalent to a loss of " symbiotic sense," which sense is 

 the source of all orientation and of all knowledge of relatedness 

 in the world of life. I have shown in previous chapters that 



