THE BELFAST ADDRESS. 179 



flower : in eager search of material for their combs, 

 they push each other into the bucket, the drenched 

 ones escaping from their involuntary bath by the spout. 

 Here they rub their backs against the viscid stigma of 

 the flower and obtain glue ; then against the pollen- 

 masses, which are thus stuck to the back of the bee 

 and carried away. ' When the bee, so provided, flies to 

 another flower, or to the same flower a second time, 

 and is pushed by its comrades into the bucket, and 

 then crawls out by the passage, the pollen-mass upon 

 its back necessarily comes first into contact with the 

 viscid stigma,' which takes up the pollen ; and this is 

 how that orchid is fertilised. Or take this other case 

 of the Catasetum. ' Bees visit these flowers in order 

 to gnaw the labellum ; in doing this they inevitably 

 touch a long, tapering, sensitive projection. This, 

 when touched, transmits a sensation or vibration to a 

 certain membrane, which is instantly ruptured, setting 

 free a spring, by which the pollen-mass is shot forth 

 like an arrow in the right direction, and adheres by its 

 viscid extremity to the back of the bee.' In this way 

 the fertilising pollen is spread abroad. 



It is the mind thus stored with the choicest 

 materials of the teleologist that rejects teleology, 

 seeking to refer these wonders to natural causes. They 

 illustrate, according to him, the method of nature, not 

 the c technic ' of a manlike Artificer. The beauty of 

 flowers is due to natural selection. Those that distin- 

 guish themselves by vividly contrasting colours from 

 the surrounding green leaves are most readily seen, 

 most frequently visited by insects, most often fertilised, 

 and hence most favoured by natural selection. Coloured 

 berries also readily attract the attention of birds and 

 beasts, which feed upon them, spread their manured 

 seeds abroad, thus giving trees and shrubs possessing 



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