MALADIE ET SYMBIOSE 247 



greatly he has misunderstood the meaning of Symbiosis, which 

 has led him to confound healthy with moribund associations. 

 Though in Neottia Nidus-avis, orchid and fungus have come 

 closer together, this is by no means proof of progress in a real 

 sense. The closer union is merely connected with the orchid's 

 " progress " in saprophytism, which antagonised an erstwhile 

 healthier interaction though with more limited confinement 

 of the fungus' sphere of application. True the propagation of 

 the fungus takes place within the orchid ; but there is no indication 

 that such intimacy takes any other but a selfish course, that the 

 fungus takes upon itself say any share of the " partner's " labours 

 of reproduction, as it does in the case of the more benignly 

 compounded lichen. Neottia Nidus-avis, indeed, illustrates the 

 downward terminus of Symbiosis, with the "shadow" the 

 physical attachment well to the fore, but with the " substance " 

 the mutual elevation in the background, if not altogether 

 wanting. It is possible, however, that in the past, and under 

 special conditions, the fungi have been more useful to the orchids 

 than frequently they are now, so that the past association of 

 these plants may have been fraught with considerable conse- 

 quences, though not exactly those visualised by Prof. Bernard. 

 We may recall here the case of Heterodera, the Nematode which 

 is useful to the plants in the desert, though highly injurious on 

 meeting them in cultivation. Much, therefore, depends upon 

 time and space with their different compatibilities. 



Be this as it may, inasmuch as the orchids tend to luxuriate 

 rather than to " spin," this, in my opinion, inevitably makes for 

 loss of vitality with compatibilities towards the pathological 

 order. The metabolism of these plants, as the result of increasing 

 in-feeding, must needs proceed pathologically, with the result 

 that scavengers are " chemotropically " attracted. Some such 

 scavengers, so long as they are not yet too immoderate and still 

 " prepares a la vie commune," may, for a time, and precariously, 

 be taken into a kind of co-partnership by the higher plant. The 

 fungus becomes a hewer of wood breaking down cellulose and 

 a drawer of water, employed much in the same way as the plant 

 employs elemental agencies for its various purposes, save for the 

 difference in sociological implications. But just as an anemo- 

 philous plant, relying upon low associations and with a consequent 

 wasteful production of pollen, is of inferior status to an entomo- 

 philous one, so a plant of low organic associations, other things 



