Studies of Selected Spermatophytes. 243 



must happen can be seen when the quality of the pollen is 

 considered, together with the fact that the flower is at the 

 arched end of a long stem and must in consequence often 

 be shaken by the wind. Since the opening at the lower 

 end of the funnel is closed by the style, the pollen that has 

 fallen into this part cannot escape through the opening. 

 One may imitate the wind as best he can ; one may blow 

 into the flower or shake it ever so hard, provided the fun- 

 nel is not injured or pressed upon in so doing, and still not 

 a grain of the pollen is brought to hght. Since, now, the 

 projecting bent end of the style is the stigma, the arrange- 

 ment of this flower must seem perfectly absurd to one 

 who knows about the pollination of flowers by mechanical 

 means only ; for all other parts of the pistil become polU- 

 nated, which does not have the sUghtest influence upon 

 fertiUzation, and precisely the stigma alone, which must 

 necessarily be polUnated if fertilization is to foUow, is ex- 

 cluded from polUuation. If, then, we were to conceive of 

 pollination as taking place solely by mechanical means, we 

 should have to beheve either that fertilization never takes 

 place in this flower, which, however, is against the facts, 

 or that the flower, notwithstanding its possession of all the 

 parts required in natural fertilization, is fertiUzed by God 

 in an unnatural way and by a miracle, just because its parts 

 are so strangely and impractically constructed and arranged. 

 And that is the same as saying, as we must think, that on 

 account of the mistake which He has made in the construc- 

 tion of this flower God punishes Himself by the necessity 

 of performing a miracle on each successive individual. 

 Now if we are neither to deny the existence of anything 

 that is, nor affirm the existence of the impossible, nothing 

 remains for us but to resort to insects. And since the bees, 

 which, as we have heard, visit this flower, have already so 



