PERFECT FLOWERS 39 



tects them from enfeeblement and extermination. 

 These simple, accessible flowers do not depend upon 

 cunning mechanisms, but upon a principle which 

 rules the flower-world: namely, that the pollen of 

 a flower is not as effective on its own stigma as 

 the pollen from another flower of the same plant, 

 \vhile pollen from a different plant of the same 

 kind is the most effective of all. This prepotence 

 of pollen from afar will be more fully dealt with 

 later. 



The flowers under consideration most likely re- 

 ceive some of their pollen on their own stigmas, 

 but they seem to count upon the luck found in 

 numbers. The more numerous the insect visitors, 

 the greater their chance to bring foreign pollen 

 which will prevail in fertilising power over that of 

 home production, and the resulting seedlings will 

 have increase of vigour and superior adaptability, 

 the better to fit them for ever-changing conditions, 

 that they may win in the perpetual struggle for 

 life. 



Apparently the wide-open flowers succeeded all 

 too well in attracting the insects. The latter, be- 

 ing copiously fed, became sleek and fat, propagated 

 enormously, and charged in ever-increasing hordes 

 upon the flowers. Uninvited and undesirable 

 guests came unbidden to the free banquet, and 



