344 CELL INTELLIGENCE THE CAUSE OF EVOLUTION 



proceed without any previous instructions to build the 

 cells of the comb, just as perfectly as the older bee. If 

 for any reason she gets started wrong, she will tear it all 

 down and start it all over again. She will work at it un- 

 til she gets it right. Where do these actions appear like 

 habit and when did the bee ever have a chance to prac- 

 tise in a conscious way, in the past any more than today, 

 so as to form a habit? You see the idea is absurd. Why 

 should the bee's acts be instinctive any more than Mr. 

 Darwin's? Why should the bee's actions be considered 

 blind and unconscious? 



Take another case of the plant that makes traps in 

 which to catch insects. My school book on botany de- 

 scribes it as follows : "The leaves of pitcher plants form 

 tubes or urns of various forms, which contain water; and 

 to these insects are attracted and drowned. The com- 

 mon pitcher plant of the northern states, a Sarracenia, is 

 a well known bog plant, but is not so elaborately con- 

 structed for capturing insects as is a common southern 

 Sarracenia. In this plant the leaves are slender, hollow 

 cones, and rise in a tuft from the swampy ground. T,he 

 mouth of this conical urn is overarched and shaded by a 

 hood, in which are translucent spots, like numerous small 

 windows. Around the mouth of the urn are glands which 

 secrete a sweet liquid, known as nectar. Inside, just 

 below the rim of the urn, is a glazed zone, so smooth that 

 insects cannot walk upon it. Below the glazed zone is 

 another one, thickly set with stiff, downward pointing 

 hairs ; and below this is the liquid in the bottom of the 

 urn. If a fly attracted to the nectar at the rim of the urn 

 attempts to descend within the urn, it slips on the glazed 

 zone and falls into the water ; and if it attempts to escape 

 by crawling, the downward pointing hairs prevent. If it 

 seeks to fly from the rim, it naturally flies toward the 



