112 PLANT LIFE 



The narrow diameter of the stem is incom- 

 patible with waste or inefficiency in any of 

 its parts, whilst by its unsuitability to act 

 as an organ of storage, the obscuring effects 

 of subsidiary functions are comparatively 

 eliminated. 



But there is always a danger in an appeal 

 to metaphor, and the suggestion conveyed in 

 the term compromise ought not to be accepted 

 as containing any definite explanation of the 

 facts, for it implicitly begs the whole ques- 

 tion as to whether the plant can adapt itself 

 to the exigencies of a particular environment ; 

 it rather indicates, without actually giving, an 

 affirmative reply. But it may well be that 

 the question is to be answered in a totally 

 different way, and that what strikes us at 

 first sight as an obvious " adaptation " may 

 be still better described as an " adaptedness " 

 brought about by causes and conditions not 

 at all directly connected with the circum- 

 stances under which they are so clearly 

 appropriate. In other words, the power of 

 direct adaptation may be (and probably is) 

 a very small part of the whole problem of the 

 fitness so generally to be discerned between 

 the plant (or animal) and its natural 

 surroundings. 



It is a remarkable circumstance that many 

 of the climbers, especially the more advanced 

 ones, exhibit a considerable degree of anoma- 

 lous structure in their stems, and especially 

 in their main stem. A large number of 



