8i0 LUTHER BURBANK 



Thus the little water pUat called yUlarma 

 nympkoidei tends out its flowers from its sub- 

 merged haunts as little detached ballooQs that 

 float to the surface of the water and then burst 

 open to offer their poUen to the iuect messengers. 



And the eel grass {Fmttimena spirolii), by an 

 even more wonderful arrangement, projects its 

 pistillate flower up to the sorfsce of the water on 

 a long spiral stem grown solely for that purpose; 

 while its staminate flower strains at the short 

 stalk on which it is tethered until it breaks away 

 and rises detached to the surface. The pistillate 

 flower, once poUen has been brought to it by 

 its detached floating mate, which drifts off to 

 perish, is drawn again beneath the water by the 

 recoiling stem, nerer to reappear. 



In the preevolutionary days, such instances 

 as these were dted as giving incontrovertible 

 evidence of design in nature. 



But no one nowadays regards them in that 

 Kgfat, if we use the word in the old teleological 

 sense. Since Darwin taught us the way, we are 

 able to explain these marvelous adaptations; 

 but as endences of the operation of the great 

 principle of natural selection they are no less 

 wonderful. 



And most remarkable of all, as viewed from 

 the present standpoint, are the orchids, the ex- 



