CHAPTER II 

 THE DISCOVERY OF THE SECRET OF FLOWERS 



THE human race has long assumed (being the only organ- 

 ism at liberty to place upon itself its own valuation) that 

 it occupies a position of fictitious importance in the uni- 

 verse. It was a current maxim in the Middle Ages that man 

 was the measure of all things. The world and its inhabitants, 

 so ran this pleasant myth, was created a few thousand years 

 ago, solely to provide him with a congenial place of abode; 

 and, because of his paramount importance, was placed in the 

 centre of the heavens. Not a little ingenious (and to-day 

 amusing) speculation was expended in an effort to explain how 

 natural cataclasms and noxious animals and plants were dis- 

 guised blessings; but that such was the fact, no doubt was per 

 mitted to exist. From these modest pretensions we have bee 

 receding for some centuries with much hesitation and reluctance 

 Perhaps the close of another hundred years will see them aban 

 doned altogether, and humanity willing to admit that it is a 

 part of nature, not outside and above her. 



So long as these teachings prevailed it was very naturally a 

 popular notion that the bright colors of flowers were of no 

 importance except as they gave human pleasure. Much super- 

 fluous pity was wasted on those blossoms which, to use the 

 words of the poet Gray, blushed unseen and wasted their sweet- 

 ness on the desert air. Only a few years ago a similar senti- 

 ment was expressed by the editor of one of our popular maga- 

 zines: 'There was apparently no particular reason why the 

 earth, at the time of Adam, should have been literally strewn 



8 





