The Relation of Science and Religion.pdf - Online Christian Library

164 SCIENCE AND RELIGION.by varied colors, and providing for them bysecreting stores of honey; on the other hand,these insects (flies, bees, wasps, etc.), seekingthe honey which satisfies their wants, at thesame time~carry the pollen from one flowerto another, thus providing for the fertilizingof the plants. In some cases, fertilization issecured by a natural process within the organismitself; in other cases, the pollen isscattered over a region by the wind; butthe most wonderful, and at the same timeefficient mode of providing for the growthof vigorous plants, is fertilization by theagency of insect life.A brief outline of the ordinary structure ofthe flower will introduce to a ready appreciationof the scientific interest attaching to thislast mode of fertilization, both as concerlliiigthe f~~nctions of different portions of the flowers,and the relation of dependence establishedbetween higher and lower forms of organism,so that each is dependent on the other.Every flower as it unfolds from the bud,consists of a series of whorls, or layers of substancetwined or twirled round in such a man-ner as to uiifold or coil back, as the floweropens. The outermost of these whorls (calyx)