Personality of plants

EVERY
CHAPTER V
Allies of the Plant World
"1 wish I were a willow tree—
Young wind in the green hair of me
And old brown water round my feet,
And a familiar bird to greet"
—Elizabeth Fahnestock.
division of terrestrial life consti-
tutes a struggle. The plants grow and
carry on their business and social activities so
unobtrusively that we seldom think of them as
appealing to arms— yet their whole existence
is a battle royal. They must fight with aspiring
neighbours for every inch of their upward
growth, and at the same time wage incessant
warfare against a hundred insects and animal
foes.
Under such strenuous conditions, it is only
to be expected that the plants should seek profit-
able alliances with birds, insects and animals
having interests similiar to their own. Such
pacts are described by botanists as examples of
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