Development and Distribution of Vegetation. 49 
with the originals of the fields and woodlands, the lesson becomes irresistably 
suggestive to active minds. Take for example the wild rose with its five 
deciduous petals and compare it with a Marechal Niel or the newer Sunset. 
Can it be considered more remarkable that five petals should be developed in 
one instance, than that a hundred should be added in another? 
Having thus hastily called attention to changes occurring under the domin- 
ion of man, a few examples of curious and interesting modifications of the’ 
floral organs of plants that have in some way arisen from simpler states with- 
out man’s influence may be presented. If, as it has been asserted, the sepals 
and petals of flowers are what remains of former real leaves, then flowers in 
which these parts are separate and similar in shape and size are the least trans- 
formed and specialized. A buttercup or a spring beauty illustrates this stage. 
But examine a pansy with its odd caricature of a human face. The petals 
are indeed separate from each other but wonderfully distinct in shape, size and 
coloring. There isa small opening below the centre of the flower. From 
this a channel leads into the ‘‘spur” next the stem. In the latter there isa 
deposit of nectar or honey. Bees are fond of this last; but the only way they 
can secure it is through the small orifice in the face of the flower. Just 
within this opening and above the canal leading to the nectar the swollen end 
of the pistil is located with a sort of swinging trap-door opening downward 
and backward. Pollen is abundantly deposited upon a velvety cushion 
farther back in the canal. If now a bumblebee thrusts its long tongue into 
the facial opening and down the canal it will become covered with the: ad- 
hesive pollen grains. “As the smeared tongue is withdrawn the back of the 
little trap-door only is touched and perhaps closed. To fertilize the ovary it 
is essential that pollen be placed on the part exposed by the opening of the 
valve-like door. It seems clear that this is not likely to happen as the bee 
withdraws its pollen-coated tongue; but let the latter be thrust anew into 
another flower and the point demanded by the flower is attained. The pansy 
rarely sets seeds in these showy flowers without the aid of insects. To attract 
these the honey is secreted. Fragrance aids. The conspicuous coloring is a 
sign, calling attention to the free lunch offered within. 
[The flowers of the common sage, the snap-dragon, and the Dutchman’s pipe 
were explained by the aid of colored figures. It is difficult without cuts to 
describe them. | 
What do these things mean, the wonderful departure from the simple and 
regular forms to secure this adaptation of a flower to an insect? How came 
the transformation about? However we may explain the process, the means 
and methods, the two were made for each other! We have seen the irregular 
and peculiar flowers followed in time the simple and regular ones. The change 
was no noubt, a gradual one and the simpler ones are real ancestors of the 
strangely modified ones. There is no reason to assert it is any the less the 
‘ Creator’s work because the way the matter is accomplished is understood. If 
‘man performs through the medium of a machine of his construction any 
labor, man, not the machine is the true agent of the accomplishment. The 
real Agent of these wonderful transformations remains the same whether we 
ascribe them to direct creations or to the operations of natural selection. 
DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 
Formerly it was assumed that the native habitat of a species was, in some 
peculiar sense, the best place on the Earth for the growth and development of 
the plants constituting the group. The natural conditions and surroundings 
of the home place were, according to this thought, all favorable; any change 
was likely to be detrimental. It was often further assumed that each species 
was created for the given locality in which it was found growing in nature. 
