8o PICTURING MIRACLES 



male blossoms grow to the surface on a spiral-like 

 stem which just accommodates itself to the distance 

 from root to surface, which may be of varying 

 lengths. This stem allows the saucer-shaped blos- 

 som to reach the surface and then very gently sub- 

 merges it. So the blossom, although on the surface, 

 is pulled down just enough to be but a little below 

 the level of the surrounding water. This is very 

 slight but still it is downward to the blossom on all 

 sides. About this time large numbers of male blos- 

 soms bearing pollen grains ripen, break off near the 

 root and come floating to the surface. The chance 

 of one of them reaching this slight depression and 

 drifting down into it where the female is waiting 

 may be one in a thousand but still it is enough to 

 enable the plant to carry on. This process seems con- 

 sciously performed and shortly afterwards the stem 

 coils, pulling the blossom down to the bottom again 

 where the fertile seeds mature and the chain of life 

 goes on. 



Flowers seem to know, as the higher forms of life 

 do, that to retain their vigor and to be able to exist 

 in the severe competition of life they must not use 

 their own pollen as the fertilizing agent of the plant 

 to be, but must produce their strong healthy seeds, 

 giving them the ability to carry on, by cross-pollen- 

 ization. Nature with her usual wisdom resorts to 



