INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON PLANTS 3851 
-general habit serve to show us that there is, throughout 
the vegetable kingdom, a constant effort on the part of the 
plant to adapt itself to its surroundings, so as to make the 
best of the external conditions. This struggle, though 
perhaps most easily realised by a survey of large groups 
which are affected, is really carried out by the individual 
organisms, and the comparatively striking effects seen are 
the result of the cumulative efforts of a long series of indi- 
viduals, each of whom has possessed in different degrees 
powers of reacting to varying external conditions. These 
powers will be considered in subsequent chapters. 
