RIVALRY OF PLANTS 153 



kittens, an appeal no human being can misun- 

 derstand, just as strongly and just as clearly do 

 the snowballs, by the beauty and helplessness of 

 their self-sterilized flowers, appeal to us to see 

 to their protection and effect the perpetuation of 

 their kind. 



Many violets, as they grow wild in the woods, 

 bear two kinds of blossoms. 



One is the flower, rich in color and often 

 in fragrance, which is borne at the top of 

 the plant. 



The other, an egg nest without petals, odor, or 

 beauty, or other advertisement — which is borne 

 near the base of the plant. 



The flower at the top, like the flower of a 

 geranium, advertises to the insects to bring 

 pollen from other plants. 



The flowerless egg nest below needs no insect 

 to bring it pollen — it pollinates itself and pro- 

 duces fertile eggs with only a single strain of 

 heredity; this through necessity and not to the 

 best interest of the heredity of the plant, though 

 these are fertile seeds. 



Some of these violets with upper and lower 

 blossoms, particularly those which grow in the 

 shade, never open their upper flowers — as if 

 knowing that the friendly insects so prefer the 

 sun that no attempt at advertisement could lure 



