INTELLIGENCE OF FLOWERS 



with awful threats, the normally insoluble problem of cross- 

 fertilization. As the result of what numberless and immemo- 

 rial experiments did they observe that self-fertilization — that 

 is the fertilization of the stigma by the pollen falling from the 

 anthers that surround it in the same corolla — rapidly induces 

 the degeneration of the species? They have observed nothing, 

 we are told, nor profited by any experience. The force of 

 things, quite simply and little by little, eliminated the seeds 

 and plants weakened by self-fertilization. Soon, only those 

 survived which, through some anomaly, such as the exag- 

 gerated length of the pistil, rendering it inaccessible to the 

 anthers, were prevented from fertilizing themselves. These 

 exceptions alone endured, through a thousand accidents; 

 heredity finally determined the work of chance; and the nor- 

 mal type disappeared. 



12 



We shall see presently what light these explanations af- 

 ford. For the moment, let us stroll into the garden or the 

 field, to study more closely two or three curious inventions 

 of the genius of the flower. And already, without going 

 far from the house, we have here, frequented by the bees, a 



[ 53 ] 



