'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 Qatcisetum. *' Bees visit these 

 flowers in order to gnaw the labellurn; in doing this they 

 inevitably touch a long, tape"rmg, 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. 



It is the mind thus stored with the choicest materials of 

 the teleologist 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 the 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 



