Personality of plants

PERSONALITY OF PLANTS
Tiger kills its prey; an Ox devours unoffending
Grass; the parasitic Dodder robs some healthy
neighbour of part of its juices.
The word "parasite" originally referred to
a member of a college of priests who had their
meals in common. Later, it came to mean liv-
ing at another's expense, as large numbers of
people did in classical times. When one re-
alizes that there are twenty-five hundred species
of parasitical seed plants, he hesitates to brand
them all as thieves and degenerates. Taking
into consideration plants which depend upon
the soil fungi for part of their sustenance, we
should have to call half the seed plants in the
world "parasites." On a basis of strict account-
ability, it would also be necessary to classify all
fruits as "parasites" as they draw nourishment
from the parent boughs and give no return.
The fact is there are very few plants which
are not more or less dependent upon some liv-
ing fellow creature for their food supply.
Sometimes the relation is strictly reciprocal;
sometimes the advantage appears to greatly
favour one or the other of the participants. In
other cases the occurrence arises accidently
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