62 SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



Such process is called " Fertilisation." No fact in 

 modern botany has been better proved than that 

 " crossing " is beneficial — in other words, that the 

 seeds of flowers whose pistils have been fertilised by 

 the pollen brought from the stamens of another 

 flower, and especially from that of another plant, 

 produce better and stronger individuals than the 

 seeds would have ripened into if the pistils had 

 been fertilised by pollen from the stamens of the 

 same flower. 



The strongest efforts of the floral world are 

 put forth with the view to flowers being "crossed." 

 In every country, in every geological period since 

 flowers were first differentiated, the competition has 

 been going on. It is now in the midst of its fiercest 

 and intensest action, for never before, in the entire 

 history of our planet, were the agencies involved in 

 it so complex. Here the race is to the swift, and 

 the battle to the strong. Those best handicapped 

 in the race win — the hindmost linger on as best they 

 can. The botanist recognises self- fertilisation or 

 only occasional crossing, in the weakly, dwarfed, 

 small-flowered species, most of which are best known 

 by the popular name of " weeds," a term expressive 

 of their uselessness and usual lack of floral beauty 

 and strength. 



Between such individuals and the most complex 

 of floral mechanisms we find every possible stage of 

 organisation. It is because of this gradation that 



