32 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
Here she pierces the pistil and deposits her eggs among the 
ovules or unfertilised seeds, and then swiftly runs to the top 
of the pistil and pushes the pollen-pellet into the wide mouth 
of the stigma. Observe, that without this interchange of 
offices between insect and plant, the race of each would cease 
to exist. It has been proved that the ovules cannot be 
fertilised unless pollen, preferably from another blossom, is 
intentionally inserted into the funnel of the stigma; if they 
were not so fertilised they would afford no food for the grubs 
of the ministering moth. When all goes well, the grubs eat 
about half the ovules, leaving a hundred or so to ripen as 
seeds, and to perpetuate the herb which is essential to the 
existence of the moth. It is difficult to recognise merely 
sentient automatism in the means by which this inter-depend- 
ence of host and guest is maintained, the action closely re- 
sembles that of effective consciousness. Yet if it be extrava- 
gant to attribute to the moth an understanding of vegetable 
physiology, what is left but to speculate upon the source 
whence the race of Pronuba derives the impulse directing each 
individual female moth to go through the very same complex 
performance? ‘‘ Amid the mysteries,’’ wrote Herbert 
Spencer, ‘‘ that become the more mysterious the more they are 
thought about, there will remain the one absolute certainty, 
that we are ever in the presence of an infinite and eternal 
energy, from which all things proceed.”’ ; 
Among those who have devoted their lives to probing the 
enigma of animal intelligence, none has done so with mere 
scrupulous industry in experiment and vigilant research than 
the late Henri Fabre. His years were prolonged so far hevond 
the usual span that it was his privilege, through reiterated 
»bservation, to check, recast, and, in some cases, to revoke his 
earlier impressions and conclusions. Focussing all his pene- 
(rating wits upon the insect world, he not only placed on record 
a detailed description of the routine behaviour of many genera 
and species, but also submitted to intense scrutiny the actions 
of individuals when placed in unfamiliar environment and 
abnormal circumstance. Fabre’s opportunity for this study 
was so favourable and prolonged—he turned it to such ad- 
mirable purpose by scientific method and untiring patience, 
