ON ADAPTATION 



"Just as a mother cat can make a dumb appeal 

 for the protection or the sustenance of her kittens, 

 an appeal no human being can misunderstand, 

 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 in scent, 

 which is borne at the top of the plant. 



The other, an egg nest without 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 colorless flower at the bottom needs no 

 insect to bring it pollen it pollenates itself and 

 produces fertile eggs with only a single strain of 

 heredity. 



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 them 



[113] 



