RIDDLES IN FLOWERS 



203 



great savants had been asked, " You have shown 

 us that it is so, but 7v/iy is it thus ?" they could 

 only have replied, "We know not; we only know 

 that an all-wise Providence has so ordained and 

 created it." 



Take this little collection, which I have here 

 presented, of stamens and petals selected at ran- 

 dom from common blossoms. What inexplicable 

 riddles to the botanist of a hundred years ago, 

 even of sixty years ago ! For not until that time 



:^^ 'f^ (i\i)i 



