APKIL 79 



Nettles (Lamium album and maculatum), growing in 

 the selfsame places as the Stinging Nettle, though 

 belonging to a totally different family of plants, have 

 sought protection by assuming foliage in close imitation 

 of that of the Stinging Nettle, and yet have failed to 

 distil poison from the soil or turn its hairs into sting- 

 ing tubes ? 



XXXV 



Of all the mysteries of plant life, none brings us up 

 with such an imperious 'Halt!' as this power of simula- 

 tion, of which the Dead Nettle offers such a vegetable 

 familiar example. The more closely it is M^CT 

 considered, the further it seems to be from intelligible 

 explanation. The most salient features and properties 

 of plants are devised, for the most part, to ensure 

 reproduction, and especially that degree of cross-ferti- 

 lisation which is essential to the vigour of the race and 

 its success in competitive existence. But a few plants 

 get on better without cross-fertilisation, and ingenious 

 devices are contrived to guard against it. Sometimes 

 these devices are simply structural, as in the fig, of 

 which the flowers are inside what becomes the rind of 

 the fruit ; but often they show a profoundly intellectual 

 strategy. The Bee and Fly Orchids, for example, 

 which, but for the ravages of greedy collectors (Lord ! 

 what a mischievous race they are!), would be much 

 more commonly seen on English downs than they are, 

 transact their own fertilisation, and don't want to be 

 bothered by busy bees and inquisitive flies; so, look 



