CHAPTER V 



THE WEB OF LIFE 



(INTRICACY OF INTER-KELATIONS) 



'Sbe 10 all tbings. Sbe rewards berself anD punisbes 

 berself; fs ber own jog anD ber own misery. . . .' 



4 1bcr cbiiDren are numberless. Co none is sbe altogether 

 miserly ; but sbe bas ber favourites, on wbom sbe squan&ers 

 mucb, anD for wbom sbe makes great sacrifices.' 



Ooethe's Aphorisms, translated by Huxley. 



The Balance of Nature Linkages The Living Earth Mutual 

 Dependence for the Continuance of Life Ants and Seeds 

 Mussels and Minnows Bees and Flowers Other Illustrations 

 Inter-Relations of a Pitcher-plant Ants and Plants 

 Epizoic Associations Shelter Associations Commensalism 

 Symbiosis Parasitism Domestic Complications The Cuc- 

 koo's Habit^Animal Societies The Ant Hill The Bee Hive 

 The Termitary Other Illustrations Domestication Guests 

 and Pets Slave- making Man and the Web of Life. 



ONE of Darwin's master-ideas has during the last 

 half -century passed into general intellectual cur- 

 rency the idea of the web of life. Nothing is unimportant, 

 nothing is isolated, nature is a vast system of inter-relations 

 and linkages. Earthworms have made most of the fertile 

 soil of the Earth ; cats have to do with next year's clover- 

 crop ; eighty seeds may germinate from one clodlet on one 

 bird's foot. These are Darwinian instances and we are 

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