72 The Botanical Gazette. 
Evolution in methods of pollination. 
ALICE CARTER. 
[Concluded from p. 46.| 
Among animals, the phase of natural selection known 4s 
sexual selection comes to the front in the production of many 
things which we call beautiful or curious, such as the gor- 
geous colors of male birds and butterflies, the horns of beetles 
and reindeer, the tusks of boars and elephants, the chirping 
the picture ; the animals themselves are the other. Side by 
side with the flowers they frequent they have themselves beet 
changed, their proboscides lengthening with the flower tubes, 
their bodies becoming better adapted to the forms of the blos- ~ 
soms and to the carrying of the pollen, their wits sharpened 
to find the means of getting at the hidden honey with the — 
least possible loss of time and strength, and to read quickly 
the posters hung out by the plants, which enable the more = 
telligent customers to distinguish one kind of flower from | 
another, and show them when the time for visiting is reached of ‘ 
- So now, instead of the primeval cockroach-like 
creatures, there are insects as varied and wonderful in form 
and structure as the flowers they frequent. a 
This subject is full of interest, and since the time of Dat — 
win has been widely studied, but the knowledge accumulated 
should be put into form convenient for every day use. , zl 
we believe, flowers have been produced by a gradual adapta; 
Sor pene 
d i 
] sen and therefore perpetuated those best adapted to theit 
own needs which mu: ; 
