APPENDIX II 163 



CHAPTER XV 

 REPRODUCTION 



IN beginning to consider the matter of reproduction, it 

 must be borne in mind that it is to this end that the plant 

 works. It strives first to build up a strong healthy body or 

 vegetative portion, and to accumulate proper materials, both 

 in kind and in quality, in order that the provisions made for 

 reproducing its kind and perpetuating the species may be 

 adequate. 



It is for the purpose of providing for this that some 

 plants find it advantageous to protect themselves against 

 unfavorable conditions and animals which would otherwise 

 prey upon them, to store up nourishment to be expended 

 for this purpose, to adopt the habits of epiphytes, parasites, 

 saprophytes, or insectivorous plants, to grow high, to remain 

 low, or to climb up over their neighbors. In fact, every 

 variation in plant structure and habit is probably explainable 

 upon the idea that the plant has to struggle to maintain 

 itself in a condition to reproduce its kind. That some 

 plants adopt one set of methods, and others, another, leads 

 to the infinite variation in plant life which we find. 



