ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF GOD 



polka dot plays a large part in the scheme of 

 coloration which protects the wearer, allures 

 its mate, warns an unwary enemy, or mimics 

 the protective device of some other creature. 



Admitting all this, however, there still 

 seems to be evidence to show that nature is 

 fond of the polka dot, per se; otherwise, she 

 would have achieved any of the ends men- 

 tioned in some other way, as she so well 

 knows how to do. She is always doing things 

 in some other way in scores of other ways ; 

 there is nothing she likes to do better. When 

 she chooses as she does in South America 

 she gives a butterfly a pungently disagree- 

 able odor which protects it, in spite of its 

 lack of adaptive coloring. Again, she 

 hatches one egg by making a bird do time 

 by sitting upon it; another egg is incubated 

 in the sand, the warmth of that cosmic 

 brooder, the sun, answering as well at a dis- 

 tance of some ninety-three million miles as 

 the warmth of a hen at closer range. 



An equal versatility of method is dis- 

 played in the production of seeds and spores. 

 One fern bears its spores on the under side 



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