INGENUITY IN VARIATION 185 



To combine the characters of two parent corn 

 plants, all that is necessary is to dust the pollen 

 from the tassel of one on the silken ducts of the 

 ear of another. 



And the breezes, as they swish a waving field 

 of corn gracefully to and fro — as they play 

 through a forest of pines, or as they ripple the 

 gi'asses of our lawns — are performing their 

 function in the scheme of reproduction as effec- 

 tively as the bee does when it goes from dianthus 

 to dianthus in search of sweets. 



Consider the simple salt-water cell, as seen re- 

 producing itself under the microscope merely 

 by splitting in two ; and those two each becoming 

 two, and so on, endlessly. 



Obsei've that, with only a single line of parent- 

 age from which to draw tendencies, the individ- 

 uals to be found in this, the lowest fonn of life 

 we know, are molded wholly by the variation in 

 its temperature, or those other limited changes 

 within a short-lived environment. 



And then consider the dianthus, the arum and 

 the orchid — with a thousand added complica- 

 tions in their lives brought about by a single 

 dominant purpose — a thousand self-imposed dif- 

 ficulties and obstacles which would be needless 

 except for that guiding desire to give the off- 

 spring a better chance than the parent had! 



