INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 



effectually guarding their pollen from the possibility of being 

 blown away by the wind, dissolved by the rain, or stolen by 

 insects. They are called cleistogainous flowers. 



Nature's clever devices for securing a wide dispersion of 

 seeds have been already hinted at. One is tempted to dwell at 

 length upon the ingenious mechanism of the elastically bursting 

 capsules of one species, and the deft adjustment of the silky sails 

 which waft the seeds of others ; on the barbed fruits which have 

 pressed the most unwilling into their prickly service, and the 

 bright berries which so temptingly invite the hungry winter 

 birds to peck at them till their precious contents are released, 

 or to devour them, digesting only the pulpy covering and allow- 

 ing the seeds to escape uninjured into the earth at some conven- 

 iently remote spot. 



Then one would like to pause long enough to note the slow 

 movements of the climbing plants and the uncanny ways of the 

 insect-devourers. At our very feet lie wonders for whose eluci- 

 dation a lifetime would be far too short. Yet if we study for 

 ourselves the mysteries of the flowers, and, when daunted, seek 

 their interpretation in those devoted students who have made 

 this task part of their life-work, we may hope finally to attain at 

 least a partial insight into those charmed lives which find 



" — tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 

 Sermons in stones, and good in everything." 



XXVll 



