476 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
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 fertilized. Or 
take this other case of the Catasetum. "Bees visit these 
flowers in order to gnaw the labellurn; 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 ex- 
tremity to the back of the bee." In this way the fertilizing 
pollen is spread abroad. ^J^^- TJ V*" 
It is the mind thus stored with the choicest materials of 
the teleplogist that rejects teleology, seeking to refer these 
wonders to natural causes. They illustrate, according to 
him, the method of nature, not the " technic" of a man- 
like Artificer. The beauty of flowers is due to natural 
selection. Those that distinguish themselves by vividly 
contrasting colors from the surrounding green leaves are 
most readily seen, most frequently visited by insects, most 
often fertilized, and hence most favored by natural selec- 
tion. Colored berries also readily attract the attention of 
birds and beasts, which feed upon them, spread their 
manured seeds abroad, thus giving trees and shrubs possess- 
ing such berries a greater chance in the struggle for 
existence. 
With profound analytic and synthetic skill, Mr. Darwin 
investigates the cell-making instinct of the hive-bee. His 
method of dealing with it is representative. He falls back 
from the more perfectly to the less perfectly developed 
instinct from the hive-bee to tne humble-bee, which uses 
its own cocoon as a comb, and to classes of bees of inter- 
mediate skill, endeavoring to show how the passage might 
be gradually made from the lowest to the highest. The 
saving of wax is the most important point in the economy 
of bees. Twelve to fifteen pounds of dry sugar are said to 
be needed for the secretion of a single pound of wax. The 
quantities of nectar necessary for the wax must therefore 
be vast; and every improvement of constructive instinct 
which results in the saving of wax is a direct profit to the 
insect's life. The time that would otherwise be devoted 
to the making of wax, is devoted to the gathering and 
storing of honey for winter food. Mr. Darwin passes from, 
