82 Life and Love. 



hardihood, or better developed hoofs or horns, or 

 some advantage in size or shape or coloring, sur- 

 vive to hand down these characteristics to their 

 descendants. 



Thus the animal is to an extent dependent upon 

 its surroundings for its form, — those best adapted 

 to their surroundings crowding out of the life strug- 

 gle those less well adapted This is what Darwin 

 calls natural' selection, and Huxley the survival of 

 the fittest, and is as operative in plants as in ani- 

 mals. Any development of plant life which better 

 enables it to live and get nourishment gives it an 

 advantage over its less well endowed companions, 

 so that its seeds are more likely to mature and 

 grow. 



The initial power to change, then, resides in the 

 plant; .this power to vary expressing itself in many 

 ways, natural selection finally determines which of 

 the forms shall become permanent, — and natural 

 selection in this case is often insect selection. 



In order to understand this, let us recall the fact 

 that too close relationship between reproducing 

 individuals is no more desirable for many plants 

 than for animals, and in the course of ages man)- 

 flowers have become so formed or modified as to 

 render self-fertilization impossible. The flower has 

 evolved the most curious and ingenious devices 

 imaginable to this end. 



Sometimes stamens and pistil mature at different 

 times, so that when one is ripe the other is not, 



