35 
THE BATTLE OF LIFE AMONO PLANTS. 
By MAXWELL T. MASTERS, M.D., F,R.S. 
I NVERT day, every hour, there is going on around us a 
j veritable death-struggle. It excites little attention. 
People would be in no hurry to read the telegraphic despatches 
concerning it from the seat of war, even if there were any to 
read. Special correspondents there are, but their letters are 
appreciated but by a few. Nevertheless, it cannot be said 
that mankind in general is not interested in the result of the 
struggle. On the contrary, little as the affair is heeded, it is of 
very serious import to the human race. Our food-supplies de- 
pend on it; the well-being of our flocks and herds is essentially 
dependent on it ; the building of our houses, the fabrication of 
our raiment, are to a large extent contingent on it ; nay, the 
soil beneath our feet, and the very sky above our heads, are 
materially, very materially, influenced by the result of the 
contest of which we are about to speak. Edward Forbes was 
wont to say that the movement of a periwinkle over a rock 
might be of greater consequence to the human race than the 
progress of an Alexander ; and the results of the wars of the 
plants are assuredly of no less importance, seeing that the very 
existence of an Alexander depends in no slight degree upon 
them. The campaigns we speak of are real; they are not 
mental figments, or allegorical illustrations. Success in the 
practice of horticulture, of agriculture, of forestry, depends on 
the action we men take towards the combatants. If we 
remain neutral, the weakest goes to the wall, overpowered by 
the stronger ; if we interfere, we exert a very powerful influ- 
ence for the time ; but immediately we cease to exert our 
power, the combat begins again, and with enhanced violence. 
The essence of successful cultivation often consists almost 
entirely in the removal of the plant from the influence of that 
hostile “ environment ” to which, under natural circumstances, 
it would be subjected. It is this that accounts, in a great 
measure, though of course not wholly, for the oft-observed fact 
D 2 
