THE FLOWER 239 



But how do the bright petals, the perfume, and the 

 honey glands serve the flower ? At first sight their 

 function seems to be purely aesthetic. Formerly, when 

 man considered himself the centre of the universe, 

 when even the sun was believed to revolve around him, 

 it was easy enough to admit that everything existed for 

 the benefit of his eye, his sense of smell, or his taste. 

 But gradually, with the development of science, this 

 point of view lost more and more its hold. On the other 

 hand, failing to observe in these parts of the flower any 

 immediate purpose, botanists were in the habit of calling 

 them non-essential. They looked upon them simply 

 as the plant's bridal dress, to use a poetical and meta- 

 phorical expression. Both opinions proved to be wrong. 

 To begin with, all these organs turned out to exist not 

 at all for man, but for insects, and, above all, for the plant 

 itself ; secondly, they proved to be verj' essential, 

 something even absolutely necessary for plants ; without 

 them the so-called essential organs themselves would 

 not have answered their purpose ; and, finally, they were 

 proved to be useful precisely in so far as they are bright, 

 perfumed, and sweet, i.e. in so far as they serve as bait 

 for insects. Let us explain the matter. 



The ecclesiastical and civil laws of most nations, except 

 those at the lowest stage of civilisation, censure, forbid, 

 and even persecute marriages between near relations. 

 Doctors and physiologists have tried to prove by statis- 

 tics the justice of this law so widespread over the earth, 

 and indeed there is abundant proof that near relationship 

 between parents has a very bad effect on their children's 

 health. To-day such proofs are scarcely needed any 

 longer, because a whole series of investigations prove 

 that it not only applies to man and the animal kingdom, 

 but also to the vegetable kingdom ; that this law is 

 general for all the organic world. Nothing so convinces 

 us of this truth as the plant. 



We know, as a fact, that the fertilisation of the pistil 



