THE FLOWER 



231 



261. Survival of the fittest. In the fierce struggle 

 continually going on among both plants and animals for 

 food, shelter, and elbow room in the world, any indi- 

 vidual that happens to vary in a way which adapts it to 

 its surroundings a 



little better than its 

 rivals, has an advan- 

 tage that will enable 

 it to survive when 

 less favored mem- 

 bers of the species 

 will perish. Its off- 

 spring, or some of 

 them, may inherit 

 this quality and 

 transmit it, with the 

 attendant advan- 

 tage, to their poster- 

 ity, and so on, till 

 that particular 

 breed outstrips all 

 competitors, and in 

 time, as the less fa- 

 vored intervening 

 forms die out, be- 

 comes differentiated 

 as a new species. This is, in brief, the doctrine of natural 

 selection and the survival of the fittest. 



262. Artificial selection. Artificial selection enables the 

 breeder to accomplish more quickly what nature appears to 

 do by the slow process of natural selection. It is by this 

 means that our choicest fruits and vegetables have been de- 

 veloped from greatly inferior, and sometimes inedible, wild 

 forms. Plants respond so readily to the influence of selec- 

 tion, and the changes brought about by it are so rapid, 

 that new styles of fruits and flowers succeed each other in 



Fro. 338. A field of pumpkins grown from selected 



