BARBERRY MANNERS 229 



the same cluster (C). Entering it as before, the 

 notched edge of the stigmatic rim comes in con- 

 tact with the pollen on his tongue and face, and 

 the flower is thus fertilized by pollen from an- 

 other barberry blossom, the intention of the flow- 

 er now perfectly realized in cross-iertilization. 



The seeds from cross -iertiVized flowers are al- 

 most invariably more vigorous, and thus yield 

 more vigorous plants, than those of flowers fertil- 

 ized with their own pollen, and this is why most 

 flowers have necessarily developed some means 

 by which cross-fertilization can be secured. And 

 this has been done through evolution working on 

 the lines of natural selection, those seedlings 

 which had originally happened, by a variation in 

 the flower, to be thus favored by some chance 

 peculiarity which insured cross -fertilization, win- 

 ning in the struggle with the previous weaker in- 

 dividuals, and finally supplanting them altogether. 



