28 Who painted the Flowers ? 



which take the trouble to visit it, which special source 

 of attraction will suggest another question presently. 

 But a far more puzzling problem is presented by Words- 

 worth's pet flower, the Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus 

 Ficarid). Appearing in early spring, when insects have 

 hardly begun to stir, this little plant indulges in a 

 luxuriance of blossomhood not inferior to that of its 

 cousins, the summer Buttercups. That from a decora- 

 tive and aesthetic point of view such display is worth 

 making, no one will deny who looks forward, as one of 

 the chief charms of spring, to see the Celandines "take 

 the winds of March with beauty." But as a mere 

 matter of business, where does the plant find its account 

 for all this expenditure? Not certainly in its fertiliza- 

 tion by insects, which is sufficiently evidenced by the 

 fact that Celandines are seldom fertilized at all. The 

 examination of a whole field after flowering will 

 hardly result in the discovery of a single ripened 

 head. Yet the Celandine contrives to increase and 

 multiply, and that by a process which not only 

 emphasizes the difficulty already started, but seems to 

 strike a blow at the very root of the whole insect 

 theory. 



The main principle on which the need of insect 

 agency is supposed to rest is the necessity for cross- 

 fertilization. The ovules of a plant, it is said, should 

 for full development be impregnated by pollen from 

 another plant of the same species, and insects afford 

 the surest means of securing this. Now, without doubt, 

 cross-fertilization is often highly advantageous. But is 

 it universally, or quasi-universally, necessary ? To judge 

 by the utterances of some men of science, we should 

 suppose so. " Nature," says Mr. Darwin, " abhors 

 perpetual self-fertilization." 1 "I will not enter," says 

 Sir John Lubbock,' 2 "into the large question why cross- 

 fertilization should be an advantage, but that it is so 

 has been clearly proved." And the whole gist of the 



1 Quoted by Asa Gray, /. c. p. 600. - Flowers and Insect s> p. 6. 



