Contrivance 

 Cookery 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



130 



When the flowers first open they would be 

 attractive to insects, for the receptacle al- 

 ready contains nectar; and at this period 

 the rostellum lies so close to the channeled 

 labellum that a bee could not pass down its 

 proboscis without touching the medial fur- 

 row of the rostellum. This I know to be the 

 case by repeated trials with a bristle. We 

 thus see how beautifully everything is con- 

 trived that the pollinia should be withdrawn 

 by insects visiting the flowers. They are al- 

 ready attached to the disk by their threads, 

 and, from the early withering of the anther- 

 cells, they hang loosely suspended. . . . 

 The touch of the proboscis causes the rostel- 

 lum to split in front and behind, and frees 

 the long, narrow, boat-formed disk, which is 

 filled with extremely viscid matter, and is 

 sure to adhere longitudinally to the probos- 

 cis. When the bee flies away, so surely will 

 it carry away the pollinia. DARWIN Fer- 

 tilization of Orchids, ch. 4, p. 111. (A., 

 1898.) 



644. CONTRIVANCE FOR SEED-DIS- 

 PERSAL Burs of the Burdock Animals as 

 Distributers of Seeds. If you examine a bur- 

 dock blossom you will find the lower part of 

 the flower-head covered with green scales, each 

 of which projects upward and outward, and 

 at the tip curves over into a sharp-pointed 

 hook, much the shape of a fish-hook. As the 

 flower matures these hooks gradually become 

 dry. Finally, when the seeds are ripe, the 

 hooks are ready to catch hold of any animal 

 that brushes against the plant. By this 

 time the connection with the stem at the 

 base of the Sower-head has become . suffi- 

 ciently loosened so that the bur pulls off 

 readily. Yet it holds on tight enough to 

 remain attached to the plant through the 

 winter, unless the grappling-hooks are taken 

 hold of by some external agency. Conse- 

 quently, the period during which the seeds 

 are open to dissemination extends over many 

 months. This, of course, is a decided ad- 

 vantage, for it greatly increases the chances 

 that the seeds will be carried to other lo- 

 calities. When the bur becomes attached 

 to the hair of an animal, it may be some 

 time before it is removed. As it is rubbed 

 by the creature or is brushed against trees 

 or branches, it is likely to be pushed open, 

 and the dozen or more seeds are likely, one 

 by one, to drop to the ground. The individ- 

 ual seeds are rather large, in color brown 

 mottled with black, and rather smooth ex- 

 cept for a few slightly projecting, longi- 

 tudinal ridges. WEED Seed-travelers, pt. iii, 

 p. 49. (G. & Co., 1899.) 



645. 



Seeds Shot as from 



Thumb and Finger. The witch-hazel bears 

 a hard, woody, nutlike fruit, as large as a 

 hazelnut; when ripe, the apex gapes open 

 more and more, the sides pressing harder 

 against each smooth seed, till finally it is 

 shot, sometimes for a distance of thirty feet. 

 BEAL Seed Dispersal, ch. 6, p. 60. (G. & 

 Co., 1898.) 



646. CONTRIVANCE IN NATURE- 



Beauty and Completeness of Adaptation Ex- 

 ceed Imagination. The more I study Na- 

 ture, the more I become impressed with ever- 

 increasing force that the contrivances 

 and beautiful adaptations slowly acquired 

 through each part, occasionally varying in a 

 slight degree, but in many ways, with the 

 preservation of those variations which were 

 beneficial to the organism under complex 

 and ever-varying conditions of life, transcend 

 in an incomparable manner the contrivances 

 and adaptations which the most fertile im- 

 agination of man could invent. DARWIN 

 Fertilization of Orchids, ch. 9, p. 285. (A., 

 1898.) 



647. CONTRIVANCE NOT UNWOR- 

 THY OF THE SUPREME WILL This 



idea of the relation in which law stands to 

 will, and in which will stands to law, is 

 familiar to us in the works of man; but it 

 is less familiar to us as equally holding 

 good in the works of Nature. We feel, some- 

 times, as if it were an unworthy notion of 

 the will which works in Nature, to suppose 

 that it should never act except through the 

 use of means. But our notions of unworthi- 

 ness are themselves often the unworthiest of 

 all. They must be ruled and disciplined by 

 observation of that which is not founded 

 on a priori conceptions of what ought to be. 

 Nothing is more certain than that the whole 

 order of Nature is one vast system of con- 

 trivance. And what is contrivance but that 

 kind of arrangement by which the unchange- 

 able demands of law are met and satisfied? 

 ARGYLL Reign of Law, ch. 3, p. 76. 

 (Burt.) 



648. CONTROVERSY BETWEEN 

 HOLDERS OF PARTIAL TRUTHS 



Geologic Theories of Formation of Rocks by 

 Fire and by Water. There were many well- 

 fought battles between geologists before it 

 was understood that these two elements [fire 

 and water] had been equally active in build- 

 ing up the crust of the earth. The ground 

 was hotly contested by the disciples of the 

 two geological schools, one of which held 

 that the solid envelope of the earth was ex- 

 clusively due to the influence of fire, while 

 the other insisted that it had been accumu- 

 lated wholly under the agency of water. 

 This difference of opinion grew up very nat- 

 urally; for the great leaders of the two 

 schools lived in different localities, and pur- 

 sued their investigations over regions where 

 the geological phenomena were of an en- 

 tirely opposite character the one exhibit- 

 ing the effect of volcanic eruptions, the 

 other that of stratified deposits. It was the 

 old story of the two knights on opposite 

 sides of the shield. AGASSIZ Geological 

 Sketches, ser. i, ch. 1, p. 6. (H. M. & Co., 

 1896.) 



649. CONTROVERSY OVER LITTLE 

 HILL Rival Schools of Cosmogony. Near 

 the highroad which passes between the 

 towns of Eger and Franzenbad in Bohemia, 



