RED CAMPION AGAIN. 43 



as regards its method of fertilisation differs 

 greatly from plant to plant, and has impressed 

 itself markedly upon their forms. There is 

 one great group of pinks which lays itself 

 open to all the small flies and beetles of the 

 world, who come and eat its pollen freely to 

 their hearts' content. Of these, the common 

 chickweed and the white, stichwort are familiar 

 examples. Most of them are petty, mean- 

 looking, inconspicuous, weedy plants, because 

 they lay themselves out for mixed small deer 

 of uncertain and undecided tastes, and do not 

 attempt specially to attract the colour-loving 

 bees and butterflies, the aesthetic aristocrats 

 of the insect world. Hence their petals are 

 small, ragged, and mostly white, and their 

 calyx consists of five separate spreading 

 pieces. They keep open house, as it were, 

 for all comers without inquiry, displaying 

 their pollen unprotected to whoever wants it, 

 on the chance of a stray grain or two being 

 carried by the insects from head to head. 

 But the campions belong to a higher and 



