LUTHER BURBANK 



produce nectar to feed the insect allies, since 

 these have been renounced. And it may very well 

 chance that the saving of energy thus effected 

 more than counterbalances the waste through 

 excessive pollen production. 



At all events the plants that have adopted this 

 system of pollenizing give evidence that their plan 

 is not a bad one in the very fact of their extreme 

 abundance. 



Moreover the "wind-loving" or "anemophilous" 

 plants, as the botanist terms them, have not only 

 produced a great variety of species and vast 

 numbers of individuals, making up the bulk of 

 our forests, but the individuals themselves are of 

 such virility of constitution as to attain gigantic 

 size. Indeed a moment's consideration makes it 

 clear that the plants that had depended on the 

 wind rather than on insects for fertilization are 

 quite in a class by themselves in the matter of 

 size, inasmuch as they constitute the bulk of our 

 forest trees. 



This relation between size and habit of 

 spreading the pollen broadcast on the winds 

 cannot be altogether accidental. 



But whether the trees grew large because they 

 had given up the alliance with the insects, or 

 whether they gave up the alliance because they 

 were growing large, it would be hard to say. 



[70] 



