Personality of plants

"
CHAPTER IV
Comrades of the Plant World
which links by a fraternal tie
The meanest of His creatures with the high'*
—Lamartine
THE
first and greatest problem for every
terrestrial creature is to live. The chief
means of doing so is to eat. Therefore, the rela-
tion of being to being and species to species is
dominated by the necessity for food. Among
man this fact is somewhat masked and obscured,
but in the rest of the world it is entirely plain
and obvious. Again and again on every hand,
we see that plant, animal, and man all maintain
their life impulses by consuming the tissue of
their fellows.
In view of this fundamental fact, we can afford
to look with some degree of charity upon
that class of plants which are termed parasites.
These interesting creatures are merely carrying
out in a very direct and apparent way a principle
which permeates all domains of life. A
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