ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION, 
No. 138.] JUNE. [1898. 
DCVIIL—TEA BLIGHTS. 
(With Plate.) 
The field of nature is one of incessant struggle. Every plant 
has to hold its own in the face of foes bent continuously and 
relentlessly on its destruction. If it sueceeds it is only because 
its defensive resources are on the average superior to the attacks 
made upon it. The final result is one Es equilibrium, in which 
foe and vie ctim each manage to survive. This is arrived at 
through the interaction of tae ead "étais difficult to trace, 
but ponent into Man after a long period of struggle. 
When appea the scene and for his own purposes 
destroys ibo m nod pra piep horing anew with increased 
severity. He grows some one plant in wide stretches after 
clearing the ground of its pT A But in so doing he 
relaxes the E of all its ion and. often gives them a chos 
they have never possessed befor 
Plants and their n DAMM es to live in nature as best they 
may. The host can do without the parasite, but the parasite 
cannot do without he host. A plant may exist alone in a forest and 
ihe parasite which kills it will find its own fate sealed if it cannot 
transfer its attacks to a neighbouring individual. "The straits to 
whieh a parasite in consequence is put t o continue its existence, 
and the varied means by which this is effected. form one of the 
most fascinating subjects of biological study. But t me net result 
Turpe are Eae d. A phere}: having by acci lent fastened 
on an individual plant in a plantation and done its fatal work, 
can then extend, usually with little difficulty, to contiguodg 
plants. Under such circumstances the spread of a fungoid disease 
can only be compared to a conflagration, which beginning on à 
small scale may increase to disastrous dimensions. Such tro troubles 
are part of the price which man has to pay for disturbing the 
order of nature. The only way to treat them is to endeavour 
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