Parr V 
. 
BATTLES OF PLANTS IN THE WORLD 
CHAPTER XXX 
THE STRUGGLES OF A SCOTCH PINE 
Many seeds but few trees. If all the seeds of the 
pine which fall year after year from the trees in the 
forest and from individual trees in the fields should 
grow and form trees, the world could not contain them. 
For every seed ripened the chances of becoming a tree 
are very few. It seems a great waste of energy on the 
part of the tree to form so many seeds when so few can 
ever hope to become trees. But it is a very fortunate 
provision of Nature that a single plant should ripen so 
many seeds where we know the chances for life are so 
small. Many trees bear thousands and thousands of 
seeds, but where are the young pines? Often there 
are none to be seen in the neighbourhood of very 
prolific trees. 
The struggle for a start. Irom some of the trees 
the seeds fall on cultivated ground, and if the seedlings 
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