THE WELCOME OF THE FLOWERS 



381 



his experiments also 

 went to show that "when 

 the two processes were 

 continued for a few 

 years the plants derived 

 by successive self-fertili- 

 zation in a few genera- 

 tions not only recover 

 themselves, so to say, 

 but sooner or later sur- 

 passed in fertility the 

 descendants of plants 

 successfully intercrossed 

 for the same number of 

 years." 



However, the fact re- 

 mains. Cross-fertiliza- 

 tion occurs much more 

 frequently in Nature 

 than self-fertilization ; 

 and this truth may be 

 readily accepted without 

 committing oneself to 

 the dictum of Darwin 

 which, indeed, is no 

 longer taken seriously 

 by competent botanists 

 that Nature abhors 

 self-fertilization. 



A via media between 

 Darwin and Henslow is 

 offered in Step's Ro- 

 mance of Wild-flowers : 

 (Capsella bursa-pastoris ) 



IE. Step. 



FIG. 469. LAMB'S-EAR PLANTAIN (Plantago media). 

 With wind-pollinated (anemophilous) flowers. 



" The small but ubiquitous Shepherd's Purse 

 may be taken as a type of the inconspicuous- 

 flowered weeds of this family [Cruciferce], which fertilize themselves, and 

 produce such abundance of seed that they take possession of all cultivated 

 ground so soon as the husbandman's back is turned. Their flowers range in 

 diameter from one-fourth to one-twelfth of an inch, and in some cases the 

 petals have been converted into stamens as being more useful to plants once 

 dependent upon the visits of insects, but which have now learned to do 

 without them. The presence of these minute white petals, and in some 

 cases honey-glands that no longer secrete honey, testifies to the fact that 

 these plants have come down in the world. Yet, in spite of their lack of 

 show or ' presence,' they are a standing rebuke to those writers who have 



