CHAPTER II 

 THE DISCOVERY OF THE SECRET OF FLOWERS 



THE human race has long assumed (being the only organ- 

 ism at liberty to place upon itself its own valuation) that 

 it occupies a position of fictitious importance in the uni- 

 verse. It was a current maxim in the Middle Ages that man 

 was the measure of all things. The world and its inhabitants, 

 so ran this pleasant myth, was created a few thousand years 

 ago, solely to provide him with a congenial place of abode; 

 and, because of his paramount importance, was placed in the 

 centre of the heavens. Not a little ingenious (and to-day 

 amusing) speculation was expended in an effort to explain how 

 natural cataclasms and noxious animals and plants were dis- 

 guised blessings ; but that such was the fact, no doubt was per- 

 mitted to exist. From these modest pretensions we have been 

 receding for some centuries with much hesitation and reluctance. 

 Perhaps the close of another hundred years will see them aban- 

 doned altogether, and humanity willing to admit that it is a 

 part of nature, not outside and above her. 



So long as these teachings prevailed it was very naturally a 

 popular notion that the bright colors of flowers were of no 

 importance except as they gave human pleasure. Much super- 

 fluous pity was wasted on those blossoms which, to use the 

 words of the poet Gray, blushed unseen and wasted their sweet- 

 ness on the desert air. Only a few years ago a similar senti- 

 ment was expressed by the editor of one of our popular maga- 

 zines: "There was apparently no particular reason why the 

 earth, at the time of Adam, should have been literally strewn 



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