AN ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY. 25 



part of the same inheritance, may be held through life with 

 a little care. The tendency of education has been, and to 

 a great extent still is, toward the development of the rea- 

 soning at the expense of the observing faculties. But in 

 the actual affairs of life the capacity of quick and accurate 

 observation is as essential to success as is the power to 

 reach correct conclusions. The one faculty should be de- 

 veloped equally with the other ; or, rather, while the one 

 is being developed, the other should be carefully preserved, 

 and to aid in its preservation is the proper function of na- 

 ture study, whether in the home or in the school. 



An Aristocratic Family. II. 



BY FREDERICK W. BATCHELDER. 



As stated in the last article, all the wonderful transform- 

 ations which have taken place in the flowers of orchids, 

 making them so ver}- unlike the original type from which 

 they are doubtless derived, are in the interest of cross-fer- 

 tilization. For some reason, neither easily assigned nor 

 explained, it has become necessary to the orchid that any 

 flower shall be fertilized by pollen from some other flower. 

 The exceptions are so few that they only ser\'e to prove 

 the rule. 



Now in all flowering plants fertilization is effected by the 

 action of pollen brought in contact with the stigma. Pol- 

 len is distributed in two ways : first, by simple gravitation 

 and by currents of air; second, by the aid of insects. That 

 which is to be broadcast by the first method is usually pro- 

 duced in great abundance, so that waste of material is of 

 little consequence. In the other case greater economy pre- 

 vails, and, as we shall see later, in the orchid family this 

 economy is carried to the farthest limit. Between the wind 

 blown pollen of the pines, which, in the flowering season, 



