INTELLIGENCE OF FLOWERS 



same purpose and be turned to the same use as the dust of the 

 anthers, although its taste, smell and colour are absolutely 

 different. 



What I have said in the matter of the bees might, I 

 think. Mutatis mutandis^ be confirmed in the kingdom of the 

 flowers. It were probably enough for the wonderful evolu- 

 tionary efforts of the numerous varieties of the Sage, for in- 

 stance, to be subjected to a few experiments and studied more 

 systematically than a layman like myself is capable of doing. 

 Meanwhile, among many other indications that could easily 

 be collected, we learn from a curious monograph on cereals, 

 by Babinet, that certain plants, when transported far from 

 their wonted climate, observe the new circumstances and avail 

 themselves of them, exactly as the bees do. Thus, in the 

 hottest regions of Asia, Africa and America, where the win- 

 ter does not kill it annually, our corn becomes again what it 

 must have been at first, a perennial plant, like grass. It re- 

 mains always green, multiplies by the root and ceases to bear 

 either ears or grain. When, therefore, from its original trop- 

 ical country, it came to be acclimatized in our frost regions, 

 it had to upset its habits and invent a new method of multiply- 

 ing. As Babinet so well says : 



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