THE STRUGGLE FOB THE LIFE OF OTHERS. 235 



moment of its life. And it is through this very help- 

 lessness that these new Co-operations are called forth. 

 The fertilizing pollen grows on one part of the flower, 

 the stigma which is to receive it grows on another, or it 

 may be on a different plant. But as these parts can- 

 not move towards one another, the flower calls in the 

 aid of moving things. Unconscious of their vicarious 

 service, the butterfly and the bee, as they flit from 

 flower to flower, or the wind as it blows across the 

 fields, carry the fertilizing dust to the waiting stigma, 

 and complete that act without which in a generation 

 the species would become extinct. No flower in the 

 world, at least no entomophilous flower, can contin- 

 uously develop healthy offspring without the Co-oper- 

 ations of an insect ; and multitudes of flowers without 

 such aid could never seed at all. It is to these Co- 

 operations that we owe all that is beautiful and 

 fragrant in the flower-world. To attract the insect 

 and recompense it for its trouble, a banquet of honey 

 is spread in the heart of the flower ; and to enable the 

 visitor to find the nectar, the leaves of the flower are 

 made showy or conspicuous beyond all other leaves. 

 To meet the case of insects which love the dusk, many 

 flowers are colored white ; for those which move 

 about at night and cannot see at all, the night-flowers 

 load the darkness with their sweet perfume. The 

 loveliness, the variegations of shade and tint, the 

 ornamentations, the scents, the shapes, the sizes of 

 flowers, are all the gifts of Co-operation. The flower 

 in every detail, in fact, is a monument to the Co-oper- 

 ative Principle. 



Scarcely less singular are the Co-operations among 

 flowers themselves the better to attract the attention 



