A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. 



of the beautiful green things, know well that 

 nowhere on earth is the struggle for life so 

 real, so intense, so continuous, so merciless 

 as among the herbs and flowers. Every 

 weed in the meadows, every creeper in the 

 woodland, is battling for its own hand each 

 day and all day long against a crushing 

 competition. It is battling for food and 

 drink, for air and sunlight, for a place to 

 stand in, for a right to existence. Its rivals 

 around are striving hard with their roots to 

 deprive it of its fair share of water and of 

 manure ; are striving hard with their leaves 

 to forestall it in access to carbonic acid and 

 sunshine ; are striving hard with their 

 flowers to entice away the friendly bee and 

 the fertilizing beetle ; are striving hard with 

 their winged or protected seeds to anticipate 

 the vacant spots on which it fain would 

 cast its own feeble offspring. A struggle 

 for the Hinterland goes on without ceasing. 

 The very fact that plants can hardly move 

 at all from the spot where they grow makes 



IOJ 



