ioo PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



thing, is the use and origin of the beard. The answer can 

 scarcely be found in the general view that it serves as a kind 

 of sign-post to direct intruding insects towards the nectar 

 in search of which they come. For why should most bulbous 

 Irises be either beardless or else so closely shorn that the 

 beard is only microscopic, while at the same time two or 

 three species adorn themselves with conspicuous beards ? Is 

 it mere chance, or can any design or purpose be detected ? 

 Why do many species find a beard necessary while as many 

 prosper without it ? 



Moreover, there is the position of the crested species 

 to be considered. Is the crest an intermediate or an 

 extreme character ? Did the crest arise as a variation 

 of the beard or the beard from the crest, or did they 

 both arise independently from a parent possessing 

 neither ? 



Another point, on which some light may perhaps be 

 thrown by comparing Irises with other genera of plants, 

 is this. About half the species may each be readily 

 distinguished by their seeds alone, while others belong 

 to groups, each having seeds of a certain type. Within 

 each of these groups the seeds cannot with certainty be 

 distinguished. On the supposition that all Irises have 

 developed in the course of ages from one ancestor, 

 which are the more ancient, the species whose seeds 

 are peculiar to themselves, or the members of groups whose 

 seeds are indistinguishable among themselves though readily 

 differentiated from those of all other groups? Or what 

 is the explanation of the phenomenon ? 



These are some of the many interesting problems to 

 which the close study of any group of living organisms 



