Environment and Adaptation 227 



for protective purposes; but we soon meet with 

 flowers in which these are replaced by more or 

 less conspicuous floral leaves. It is safe to say 

 that no showy flower is entirely destitute of 

 insect visitors, although it may not be abso- 

 lutely dependent upon them for its pollination, and 

 cross-pollination must occur in a great many 

 cases. If cross-pollination is prevented, however, 

 many flowers are capable of pollinating them- 

 selves. Such flowers as the buttercup or anemone 

 and the inflorescences of many Compositae, like the 

 dandelion, are of this character. In the latter case, 

 however, cross-pollination of a sort really does oc- 

 cur, as we have to do, not with a single flower, but 

 with a group of flowers in which each individual 

 flower is likely to be pollinated from another one. 



Specialization of the Flower. In the simpler 

 hermaphrodite floral types, such as the water-lily 

 or magnolia, there is a multiplication of parts and 

 an indefiniteness in their number that is in strong 

 contrast to the very definite structures of such a 

 flower as a foxglove or orchid. This definiteness 

 of structure involves a reduction in the number of 

 certain parts (see chapter on Angiosperms for de- 

 tails), and later a cohesion of the floral organs. 

 This begins with the carpels, which in a majority of 

 the higher plants are fewer in number than the 

 other organs, and are more or less completely united 

 into a compound pistil. Next follows the reduction 

 in the number of stamens, which reaches its maxi- 



