68 THE SUM IMPRESSION 



themselves up. And when plants have attained 

 maturity and flowered, the flowers employ number- 

 less ways of attracting insects for the purpose of 

 fertilisation. In a still, tropical forest, such as that 

 of Lower Sikkim, there is no hope of the pollen 

 being carried from one flower to another by air- 

 currents. The flowers have therefore to devise a 

 means for the transport of the pollen. Efforts are 

 made to induce winged creatures — insects in most 

 cases, but sometimes birds — to render assistance. 

 Colours for day-flying insects and scent for night- 

 flying insects are accordingly employed as means to 

 this end. Brilliant colours attract butterflies and 

 bees by day. Strong scent — sometimes pleasant to 

 our taste, sometimes the reverse — attracts moths 

 and other insects by night. And the flowers which 

 depend on their scents and not on colour are usually 

 white or dull brown or green. And this scent is 

 not exhaled when it is not needed, but only when 

 the insects which the flowers wish to attract are 

 about. 



Orchids especially seem to know what they 

 want. Their aerial roots wander about in search 

 of what they want and seem to smell their way. 

 They use discrimination in utilising their know- 

 ledge. They choose. And each individual seems 

 to choose in its own way. From among many 

 means of achieving the same end they make a 

 definite choice, and different plants make different 

 choices — they use different means. 



Plants, therefore, quite evidently employ means 

 to an end. They have an end in view — sometimes 

 their own maintenance, sometimes the perpetua- 



