Personality of plants

PERSONALITY OF PLANTS
sure of the promise of spring? When the Al-
pine flowers are so positive that spring has
really come that they push their inquiring heads
up through the snow which still covers the
mountains, they are showing a superhuman
faith, literally risking death in order that they
may get a strong and early start in life.
Charity? When trees like the Oak and the
Maple allow a whole multitude of lesser plants
to dwell in the snugness of their shadows, they
are showing forth some of the kindly qualities
of plantdom. If they chose to they could dis-
courage lowly neighbours after the manner of
the monopolistic Beech or the aristrocatic Pine.
Name a human sin or virtue, good quality
or bad, and one does not have to search far in
the plant world for its counterpart. Along with
kindness, mercy, gratitude, submissiveness, and
parental love we also find cruelty, hard-hearted-
ness, ingratitude, arrogance and neglect of off-
spring. Even at that, the credit side always ex-
ceeds the debit and no plant is guilty of selfdestruction.
It must be borne in mind, that what
we call sin and malignity are to them legitimate
courses of action.
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