FLORAL DIPLOMACY. 91 



as that of Marcgravia (given by Bell in his Naturalist 

 in Nicaragtca), we cannot fail to see how successfully 

 its flowers have become adapted to the visits of 

 humming-birds. Indeed, the new philosophy of 

 botany has elevated the study to a higher platform, 

 by showing the numberless specialities and contriv- 

 ances assumed by flowers in every part of the world 

 to secure the all-important end of cross-fertilisation. 

 The student will find most of them in Muller's 

 Fertilisation of Flozvers^ and will there also see the 

 devices in vogue among a great many flowers for 

 ensuring self- fertilisation, in case they have not 

 succeeded in getting properly crossed. Some kinds 

 of plants actually possess both conspicuous and 

 inconspicuous flowers. Failures undoubtedly have 

 been recorded, and still are experienced by these 

 floral adventurers ; but the world hears little of 

 them, any more than it does of failure in other 

 directions. What it does concern itself with is 

 success, which rises up from the ashes of failure to a 

 higher level than would have been attained had no 

 such thing as failure ever occurred in the world. 



