CHAP. iii.J PROTECTIVE ARRANGEMENTS. 109 



be remembered that every particle of the enormous 

 amoant of material constituting the trunk and branches 

 of a tree have been converted by the plant into what 

 they are from inorganic matter derived from the air and 

 the soil, borrowed as it were for a purpose by the plant, 

 and retained so long as its own life-force predominates, 

 and all this enormous amount of work for the purpose of 

 protecting itself from enemies and securing the share of 

 light necessary for holding its own in the struggle for 

 existence. This arrangement also places the flowers or 

 reproductive organs in favourable positions for securing 

 cross-fertilization, and thus secures as far as possible the 

 continuance of the species in time. It may be asked, if 

 the development of the trunk has done so much for the 

 vegetable kingdom, what more can be desired. We are 

 not cognizant of the possibilities of life, not even plant 

 life ; and if all the above advantages can be secured with 

 a less expenditure of energy, it will by most people be 

 admitted as an improvement, and expressing plant ideas 

 from the human method of reasoning, many modern 

 plants have realised this fact, and have in part or entirely 

 forsaken the old-fashioned massive trunk idea, which may 

 be described as the method of accomplishing an object by 

 brute force, depending on sheer strength, regardless of 

 cost, and in it's place developed a certain amount of sen- 

 sibility — a step in the direction of the animal kingdom — 

 manifested by the more highly organized protoplasm 

 possessing a greater control over other forces, as light 

 and heat, and utilizing them for its own advantage. It is 

 impossible in the space at command to trace all the 

 varied attempts in this connection, and all that can 

 be done is to indicate the modern methods that have 



