484 BEES AND FLOWKKS. 



to the theory of ivciprocul adaptation arc overthrown. The bee has 

 but one object, the pursuit of food, and all thinos which aid him in it 

 are welcome. Usually the plant profits thereby; sometimes it sutlers. 

 On the other hand, the plant seeks only to assure its propagation and 

 all of its modifications tend only toward that goal. It is only indi- 

 rectly that the colors and perfumes are of advantage to insects; the 

 complicated flower, most favorable to the reproduction of the plant, is 

 to the bees an obstacle. The cleistogamous flowers give a striking 

 proof of the independence of a plant so far as insects are concerned. 

 These tiny, feeble flowers are close-fertilized without any interven- 

 tion ; insects never visit them. Found generally among normal flow- 

 ers, they prove that plants seek by all possible means to render 

 fertilization inevitable. 



Claude Bernard has splendidly fornndated this truth in an aphor- 

 ism quoted by M. Oaston lionnier in his work on the nectaries: " The 

 law of the physiological finality is in each individual 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." It is not pos- 

 sible better to define the recii)rocal adaptations which we have showMi 

 exists l)etween bees and flowers. It is by no means for the benefit of 

 the plant that the collecting apparatus of the bees is modified, but 

 only that the bee may better nourish itself. On the other hand, it is 

 to the distinct advantage of the plant and its propagation that flow- 

 ers are modified in shape, color, and odor. The insect has gained by 

 the conformation of the flowers; the flower by the visits of the insect. 

 But each of these beings has been evolved on its own account and 

 adapted itself, as pointed out by the illustrious Lamarck, to the vital 

 conditions of the world in which it lives. 



