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 

 Ficaria). 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. 2 Flowers and Insects, p. 6. 



