THE BELFAST ADDRESS 189 



a bucket, with an aperture serving as a spout, is formed 

 in an orchid. Bees visit the flower: in eager search of 

 material for their combs, they push each other into the 

 bucket, the drenched ones escaping from their involuntary 

 bath by the spout. Here they rub their backs against the 

 viscid stigma of the flower and obtain glue; then against 

 the pollen-masses, which are thus stuck to the back of the 

 bee and carried away. *'"When the bee, so provided, flies 

 to another flower, or to the same flower a second time, and 

 is pushed by its comrades into the bucket, and then crawls 

 out by the passage, the pollen-mass upon its back neces- 

 sarily 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 Catasetum, 

 *'Bees visit these flowers in order to gnaw the labellum; 

 in doing this they inevitably touch a long, tapering, sensi- 

 tive projection. This, when touched, transmits a sensa- 

 tion 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 ad- 

 heres by its viscid extremity 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, accord- 

 ing to him, the method of nature, not the "technic" of 

 a manlike Artificer. The beauty of flowers is due to nat- 

 ural selection. Those that distinguish themselves by viv 

 idly 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 

 selection. Colored berries also readily attract the atten- 



