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56 REFLECTIONS ON THE ACT common since such plants are likely to serve important ecosys- tem functions, whereas naturally rare species are less signifi- cant. With their loss, the argument runs, less is lost. But naturally rare species, as much as common ones, signify exuber- ance in nature-each presents a unique expression of prolific evolutionary potential. The rare flower is a botanical achieve- ment, abit of brilliance, a problem resolved, a niche filled. The local endemic species, perhaps one specialized for an unusual habitat, represents a rare discovery in nature before it provides rare values to the nation and its people. Although it might be true that naturally rare plant species are of lesser ecological value on a regional scale, rarity need not reduce scientific, aes- thetic, educational, historical, and recreational values. If one- insists on a restricted evolutionary theory, rare plants are random accidents resulting from mutations and contingen- cies of natural history. Such a biological origin might seem to suggest little of value, little duty, and little to be lost. But a more comprehensive theory also suggests that surviving plants must be satisfactory fits in their environments. Sometimes they live on the cutting edge of exploratory probing; sometimes they are relicts of the past; often neither new nor old, they occupy niches that have always been rare. Whatever the explanation of their rarity, they offer evidence, promise, and memory of an inventive natural history. Even more poignantly than the. common, they are a sign of life persisting in struggling beauty, flourishing, pushing on at the edge of perishing. The rare flower-if one opens to a wider, philosophical perspective-offers a moment of perennial truth. Life is a many-splendored thing; extinction of the rare forms duns this luster. Rhododendron chapmanii, though rare, has proved its right to life, has proved that it is right for life, when tested by natural selection. It is a satisfactory fit in its niche in the transition zone between the dry longleaf pine forests and the moist Cyrilla thickets. Some rare plants may be en route to natural extinction, but it does not follow that most have less biological achievement than common species. Endemics or specialized species may competently occupy restricted niches. When the nation and its people encounter such a species, its adaptive fitness in an ecosys- tem generates a presumption that it is right for us to let them be. A rare plant's roots literally go down in the landowner's land,