THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 77 



And wantoned on his climbing coil. 



Contending roots fought for the soil 



Like frightened demons : with despair 



Competing branches pushed for air. 



Green conqu ors from overhead 



Bestrode the bodies of their dead : 



The Caesars of the sylvan field, 



Unused to fail, foredoomed to yield : 



For in the groins of branches, lo ! 



The cancers of the orchid grow. 



Silent, as in the listed ring, 



Two chartered wrestlers strain and cling ; 



Dumb as by yellow Hooghly's side 



The suffocating captives died ; 



So hushed the woodland warfare goes 



Unceasing; and the silent foes 



Grapple and smother, strain and clasp 



Without a cry, without a gasp. 



Here also sound Thy fans, God, 



Here too Thy banners move abroad : 



Forest and city, sea and shore, 



And the whole earth, Thy threshing-floor ! 



The drums of war, the drums of peace. 



Roll through our cities without cease, 



And all the iron halls of life 



Ring with the unremitting strife. 



But as we continue oui illustrations of struggle 

 among plants we lose the competitive note alto- 

 gether, — ^in cases like the desert plant with- 

 standing exceptional drought, and the northern 

 plant withstanding unusually keen frost. No one 

 doubts that extremes of drought and cold, and 

 the like, press upon the ceaseless endeavour of 

 even vegetable life, and that the plants answer 

 back. They do not take every assault lying 

 down. 



Illustration oi' the Complexity of the 

 Struggle for Existence. — To convey a broad 



