ADAPTATIONS IN ANIMALS AND PLANTS 31 



Many facts have been brought forward to prove that this 

 relation actually exists, but not entirely on the assumption 

 laid down by Lubbock. Recent studies by Bouvier, on the 

 "Relation of Bees to Flowers," are summarized as follows: 

 Nectar and nectaries are certainly intended primarily for the 

 plant itself and do not prove an adaptation of the flower 

 to insects. The colors and perfumes of flowers may be, perhaps, 

 the result of such an adaptation, but in any case they strongly 

 attract anthrophilian insects, signalling to them the presence 

 of booty. In many cases, if not all, the complicated forms 

 of the flowers must be attributed to the adaptation of flowers 

 to their visits. It is almost unanimously conceded nowadays 

 that Mellifera (or bees), at least in so far as their collecting 

 apparatus is concerned, are beautifully adapted to the flowers, 

 but, despite the fact that practice has shown that plants are 

 in every way more plastic than animals, it is still strongly 

 disputed that flowering plants have adapted themselves to 

 bees. "If there does not exist any reciprocal modification," 

 says Bouvier, "between the Mellifera (bees) and the flowering 

 plants, it is not at all necessary to suppose that one group has 

 been modified for the benefit of the other. Each has evolved 

 on its own account." Explained thus, the many objections to 

 the theory of reciprocal adaptation are overthrown. The bee 

 has but one object, the pursuit of food, and all things which 

 aid him in it are welcome. Usually, the plant profits thereby; 

 sometimes it suffers. On the other hand, the plant seeks only 

 to assure its propagation and all its modifications tend toward 

 that goal. M. Gaston Bonnier quotes Claude Bernard as 

 saying, "The law of the physiological finality is in each indi- 

 vidual being and not outside it; the living organism is made 

 for itself; it has its own intrinsic laws. It works for itself and 

 not for others." 



Darwin, IMiiller, Lubbock, as well as others, have written 

 detailed accounts of the adaptations of flowers to insects.^ 

 During the visits of insects to flowers for the purpose of obtain- 

 ing secretions of nectar and pollen, they involuntarily carry 

 the pollen of one flower to the stigma of another, and thus 



^ For a discussion of this subject consult Wallace, " Natural Selection and 

 Tropical Nature," p. -400. 



