RED CAMPION AGAIN. 47 



differentiation one not attained by the vast 

 majority of the most developed plant types. 

 The open pinks, such as chickweed, have 

 stamens and pistils in each flower, and trust 

 to chance for avoiding the evils of self-fertili- 

 sation. Even the other campions have the 

 same common arrangement ; but the red and 

 white campions are peculiar in the fact that 

 they have suppressed the stamens of some 

 flowers and the pistils of others, thus making 

 separate individuals wholly male or wholly 

 female. Such an arrangement of course 

 makes cross-fertilisation absolutely certain, 

 and gives the species a great advantage in 

 the struggle for life over its less differentiated 

 neighbours. But the recent date of the im- 

 provement is shown by its incompleteness ; 

 for you may still find some stray campions 

 with perfect stamens and fertile capsules in 

 the same blossom. 



Here, as in so many other cases, we catch 

 modification in the very act. For it is a fatal 

 habit to picture evolution to oneself as a 



