LUTHER BURBANK 



which the moth gradually developed its special 

 pair of pollen-gathering jaws, while the plant 

 correspondingly shortened its pistil and became 

 more and more dependent upon the peculiar 

 process of fertilization to which the moth was 

 becoming adapted. 



To any one who has not thought long and 

 carefully, with the examination of many examples, 

 along the lines of the evolution of organic forms 

 through natural selection, as explained by Darwin, 

 all this will probably seem rather vague and 

 unsatisfactory. And, indeed, it must be admitted 

 that among all the extraordinary cases of adapta- 

 tion through which insects and plants have come 

 to be mutually helpful, this is at least as difficult 

 to understand as any other. 



The seeming intelligence of the act of gathering 

 and depositing the ball of pollen is emphasized by 

 the fact that this pollen is never of direct use to 

 the progeny of the moth, yet is vitally important to 

 them indirectly because it fertilizes the seed 

 embryos of the plant that are to serve them as 

 food. At first glance, then, one can scarcely escape 

 the thought that the moth must have had some 

 such comprehension of the plant's needs as that 

 which leads the human plant-experimenter to 

 cross-pollenize his flowers. 



One might even be excused a momentary half- 



[202] 



