LUTHER BURBANK 



stigma and the pollen bundles are separate and 

 single, too; but in another orchid which has two 

 receptive stigmas, the pollen bundles are in doub- 

 lets, held together with a strap. 



Thus the insect visiting this second orchid 

 carries away two pollen bundles on its forehead, 

 each so nicely placed that their dust will reach 

 both sticky stigmas of the next flower entered. 

 ***** 



Similarly, the pollen of the milkweed is stored 

 in two little bags, connected by a strap. When 

 the bee visits the flower its feet become entangled 

 in this strap and when it leaves it carries both bags 

 with it. 



And so, throughout the whole range of plant 

 life, each fresh investigation would show a new 

 display of ingenuity — infinite ingenuity directed 

 toward the single end of combining the tendencies 

 of two lines of heredity — so that the off'spring may 

 be different from and better than the parent. 



We should see that there are those flowers 

 which bloom only in the night. Flowers which, as 

 if having tried to perfect a lure for the insects of 

 the day, and having failed, have reversed the order 

 of things and send forth blossoms of white or 

 yellow — luminous colors always — to attract the 

 moths that fly after the sun goes down. 



We should find many interesting half hours 



[86] 



