A WINTER WEED. 45 



other field-weeds. These plants have learnt to press 

 their foliage closely down in a little circle upon the 

 ground, so as to prevent any grasses from growing 

 up around them and intercepting the sun and air. In 

 other words, such individuals among them as happened 

 to display this tendency, in a slight degree, survived 

 the best; and among their descendants, such as 

 carried it out further and further, spread most afield,, 

 while such as fell short of the desired quality, got 

 killed off young by neighbouring weeds. Thus, at 

 last, the daisy acquired its present successful habit of 

 growing close to the ground, and so checking com- 

 petition in the bud, or, rather, in the very seedling. 



But why, it may be objected, do not all other plants 

 do the same? The answer is, because all are not 

 adapted for the same sort of life as the daisy. One- 

 kind survives in virtue of one point of vantage, 

 another kind survives in virtue of another. Tho 

 English meadow plantains are three closely-allied 

 types of weed, hardly differing from one another in 

 any essential point ; yet each of them has solved this 

 problem of foliage in a separate way. The great 

 plantain sends up big, broad leaves on longish stalks, 

 something like those of garden lettuce, which overtop 

 most of its neighbours; the hoary plantain spreads a 

 little tuft close to the earth, like the daisy ; and the 

 ribwort plantain meets the grasses on their own 

 ground, by reducing its leaves to mere long, thin, 

 lance-like blades. In each case, the explanation must 

 be accepted on its own merits, without prejudice to- 



