14:96 THE STORY OF THE UNIVERSE 



pollen is formed for the sole purpose of fertilization, 

 its destruction appears to be a simple loss to the plant; 

 yet if a little pollen were carried, at first occasionally 

 and then habitually, by the pollen-devouring insects 

 from flower to flower, and a cross thus effected, al- 

 though nine-tenths of the pollen were destroyed it 

 might still be a great gain to the plant to be thus 

 robbed; and the individuals which produced more 

 and more pollen, and had larger anthers, would be 

 selected. 



When our plant, by the above process long con- 

 tinued, had been rendered highly attractive to in- 

 sects, they would, unintentionally on their part, regu- 

 larly carry pollen from flower to flower; and that 

 they do this effectually, I could easily show by many 

 striking facts. 



Let us now turn to the nectar-feeding insects; we 

 may suppose the plant, of which we have been slowly 

 increasing the nectar by continued selection, to be a 

 common plant; and that certain insects depended in 

 main part on its nectar for food. I could give many 

 facts showing how anxious bees are to save time: for 

 instance, their habit of cutting holes and sucking the 

 nectar at the bases of certain flowers, which with a 

 very little more trouble they can enter by the mouth. 

 Bearing such facts in mind, it may be believed that 

 under certain circumstances individual differences in 

 the curvature or length of the proboscis, etc., too 

 slight to be appreciated by us, might profit a bee or 

 other insect, so that certain individuals would be 

 able to obtain their food more quickly than others; 

 and thus the communities to which they belonged 



