BOTANICAL SUBJECTS. 109 



however masked the relationshijD might be by outward forms and 

 adaptations. 



In the beginning of vegetable life, as long as plants remained 

 simple cells, the temperature, and nourishment held in solution in 

 water, were perhaps among the few agencies that took part in 

 their modification, besides their own polarity, and the force caused 

 by cell-multiplication. 



However simple the surroundings of these simple forms may 

 appear, a vast variety of ingredients may have been held in 

 solution, and variations in even the simplest forms* might readily 

 have been the cause of new selective powers. Therefore, simple 

 as these monads may have been, some may have had the means 

 of elbowing out other competitors by their greater fitness for 

 occupying certain places. 



Cells aggregate to form more complex plants, and whole 

 forests of seaweeds must have been in one continuous war with 

 each other, and with the animals that occupied the same element. 



As soon as plants began to emerge from water into air, the 

 modifying agencies which surrounded them began to multiply. 

 They continued to need water, holding in solution nourishing 

 ingredients. This want would have given rise to circulation, and 

 a vascular system, and as I said, a complicated system of roots. 



In addition, they would have to adapt themselves to whatever 

 surroundings they may have been born in, or perish. There can 

 be little doubt that myriads must have perished in the attempt to 

 occupy and establish themselves in different places. Xature must 

 have used up and wasted an infinite number of individuals,! i^ 

 making experiments to suit plants to new surroundings, in order 

 to people the earth with the millions of forms so varied, and yet 

 so related. 



Nature did and does exactly what the horticulturist does when 

 he gets hold of a new plant that he desires to possess and to 

 propagate. He tries this and that experiment, giving the plant 

 this and that surrounding, and watches results, until he succeeds 

 in finding a comfortable home, in which it will thrive and feel 



* As Dallinger has shown. 



•j- We call these individuals because they become separated from their 

 parents, but at the same time vre should not lose sight of the fact that they 

 are all branches of the same sfefn. 



