NATURAL SELECTION 113 



promising and the least promising crushed out of existence to- 

 gether? Does the dragon-fly larva (Libellulid<e), noted as a 

 most aggressive and predacious reprobate, succeed in catching 

 only the less fit tadpoles, or does he suck the blood of the fit 

 and the unfit alike? The cod-fish (Gadus morrhua) strews the 

 breeding-grounds with millions of eggs, and a very large pro- 

 portion of them are devoured before the life in any has begun 

 to stir, before comparative fitness has had time to show itself. 

 Even when the embryos hatch out, they must be preyed upon 

 by enemies with whom the infinitesimal differences between the 

 young individuals count for nothing. 



With each species we must remember the one supreme object, 

 so to speak, is the continuance of itself. Life is a trust which 

 each generation must hand on. It is better, therefore, that a 

 pine-tree should wastefully fling its showers of pollen than run 

 any risk of not fertilising the ovules within the cones. It is far 

 better that a horse chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanuin) should 

 produce, year after year, hundreds of seeds in vain, than that 

 it should miss any opportunity of establishing a seedling. Of 

 cod-fish, too, and their prodigality of eggs we may say that any 

 amount of waste is better than the slightest risk of extinction. 



And further, it must be remembered that all the destruction 

 even in the cases mentioned is not indiscriminate. Among cod- 

 lings there are, beyond a doubt, the fit and the unfit : different 

 grades of vigour, of instinct or even, perhaps, of intelligence. 

 After a great deal of indiscriminate slaughter of embryos and 

 small fry comes a time of selective destruction when merit 

 to a great extent makes itself felt. So, no doubt, it is with 

 frogs, even if the trifling superiorities and inferiorities in the 

 tadpole stage count for little ; and so it is, when the grand 

 opportunity comes, with seedling plants. 



But obviously, if any species could prevent waste, it would 

 have an advantage. Many plants, therefore, have produced the Waste-re- 

 most elaborate contrivances for transferring pollen from flower ducin j? 

 to flower by some more economical agency than the wind. The ances 

 services of insects have been enlisted and the world has been 

 beautified with thousands of varieties of flowers which help, all 



