NATURAL SELECTION. 
267 
one of the plants had some roughness in its stem 
which proved helpful in keeping otf injurious insects. 
Such individuals would stand a better chance of de¬ 
veloping their seed than the others. Some of the 
plants from that seed would develop individuals 
which possessed the means of protection to a still 
greater extent than the parent stem. Thus in time 
the poisonous bristles may have come into being. 
The common strawberry may serve as an illustra¬ 
tion of the same thing. This plant, it seems evident, 
once had dry, hard seeds like the buttercup. The plant 
which distributes its seeds most widely is the best 
equipped for the struggle. We have noticed how ripe 
red cherries attract robins. So the strawberry plants, 
whose red berries are most attractive to the birds, have 
the best chance of getting their seeds distributed. 
If one of them had a spot of color, it would have 
had the advantage; then if a juicy pulp were added, 
it was still better. Those plants would stand the best 
chance of being propagated, and in the course of 
ages our sweet wild berry was the result. 
This all sounds very plausible; but, as Mr. Allen 
has remarked, the little potentilla seems to be still in 
its pristine condition. Why did it, too, not wake up to 
its privileges and produce the red berry ? Indeed, it 
does not appear to need the coveted berry, as it has 
survived without it. Such questions are very awk¬ 
ward, to say the least. We can only plead that we 
probably do not know all the facts about it. Perhaps 
it is a much younger plant, and has not had the time 
required to perfect such fruit. This is clear: there 
