The Struggle for Life in the Swamp. 
By James Rodway, F.L.S, 
T is evident to the most casual observer that a 
grand struggle for life is going on in the 
forest. Every tree is an emblem of strength, 
and if there is a difficulty in conceiving them wieldingtheir 
immense arms in a fight, there is none in a belief that 
the forest giants offer passive resistance to each other. 
This is not so obvious in the swamp. How can these 
apparently weak, limp creatures carry on anything like a 
struggle ? Floods come and wrench them away in 
myriads ; at one season they are deluged with water, 
and at another dry and withered in the fierce rays of a 
tropical sun. Yet they live on and cover miles and 
miles of open country, although apparently killed off by 
every drought and decimated annually by the great 
floods. That they still exist is however the strongest 
proof of a wealth of resource perhaps exceeding that of 
the forest trees. 
In looking over a stretch of English meadow in all its 
beauty of grass and flowers, few can appreciate that 
every species has been fitting itself for this annual show 
through countless generations. In temperate climates 
the winter brings rest, but as the sun's light and heat 
grow stronger and stronger, every plant strives with 
might and main to attain a position and keep it until the 
ruthless scythe cuts them down. And woe betide the 
species which has not ripened its seeds before that 
catastrophe takes place — it loses its position and has to 
GG 
