Personality of plants

COMRADES OF THE PLANT WORLD
cutting is made to form a bodily union with
some plant of an entirely dissimilar species.
In some cases, the intruder sends roots into
the tissue of its host like a true dependent.
Grafts of Prickly Pears, Mexican Grapevines
and Agaves put forth food-suckers in the soft
flesh of the Giant Cactus or the Barrel Cactus
much as they would do if planted in the earth.
There is here no true diffusive union of part-
ners but mere absorption on the part of the in-
vader.
Even grafting of allied species of Grapes
sometimes results in the young plants sending
roots through the tissues of the scion, eventually
reaching the earth by way of the body of the
host. In such cases, the parasite also draws
nutriment from its messmate by means of a
superior osmotic pressure.
Almost everything lies in the point of view.
No man, no animal, no plant is so debased and
degraded that it does not radiate some little
measure of helpfulness. If "all things work
together for good," even that member of a plant
union which seems to act upon that inverted
principle of "all coming in and nothing going
[67]