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of mind. There is now before us a beautiful flower—the purple 
Iris. Its three lower petaloid sepals are delicately striped with 
a lighter tint, which are there, according to the Evolutionist, to 
direct the bee or butterfly to where it will find the store of 
nectar for which it is in search. Above these painted sepals 
are three delicate stamens, with their long, pocket-like 
anthers laden with their precious pollen. ‘These important 
organs are so arranged that when the insect enters the flower 
to reach the nectary, it must of necessity rub its back against 
the anthers, and so brush off on to itself some of the pollen, 
and then on its exit the precious material is carried to the 
stigma of the pistil, which is open to receive the necessary 
fertilizing agent. 
Here, then, is a beautiful instance of a mechanical arrange- 
ment to effect the particular purpose of fertilization. Whence 
this plan? Did the plant invent it? If it did, then it must 
have been gifted with intelligence. If it acquired this parti- 
cular organization, as we are told it did, it must have had power 
to mould its parts accordingly : it must have exercised a quality 
which is found only in connexion with mind. That this self- 
acquiring power is attributed to plants by the Evolutionist is 
proved by referring to their writings. One example must suffice. 
Mr. Grant Allen, in his article “Chestnuts Fall,” in Knowledgefor 
Oct. 26, 1883, says :—‘‘ The key to this strange resemblance 
between the chestnut and the horse-chestnut is to be found in 
the fact that they are both nuts; they have survived in the 
struggle for existence by adopting for their seed-vessels the 
exactly opposite tactics from those adopted by the true fruits.” 
“Nuts have concentrated all their efforts upon repelling rather 
than upon attracting the attention of animals.” ‘The filbert 
has not only encased itself without in a green husk covered 
by sharp and annoying little hairs, but has also acquired 
a very solid and difficult shell.’? Now, no instance is found, 
in the present, of inanimate matter arranging for itself means 
to ends. What authority, then, is there for saying such 
phenomena did occur in the past? Scientific dogmatism may 
demand that its dictum in this particular must be accepted, but 
those who believe in a Creator protest against the intolerance. 
Again. Whence, we ask, the wonderful order and system 
which characterises the whole vegetable world ? Why isit that 
dicotyledonous seeds produce exogenous stems,while the mono- 
cotyledonous produce endogenous? Why have the leaves 
of the former reticulated veins, while those of the latter have 
parallel? And why are the floral leaves of exogens found to 
be either four or five, or some power of those numbers, while 
those of the endogens are three, or some power of three? 
