56. Much remains to be discovered.—"In this, as in other branches of science, we have made a beginning. We have learned just enough to perceive how little we know. Our great masters in natural history have immortalized themselves by their discoveries, but they have not exhausted the field; and if seeds and fruits cannot vie with flowers in the brilliance and color with which they decorate our gardens and our fields, still they surely rival them—it would be impossible to excel them—in the almost infinite variety of the problems they present to us, the ingenuity, the interest, and the charm of the beautiful contrivances which they offer for our study and our admiration."5
5 Flowers, Fruits, and Leaves, by Sir John Lubbock, p. 96.
Frequent rotations seem to be the rule for many plants, when left to themselves in a state of nature. Confining to a permanent spot invites parasites and other enemies, and a depleted soil, while health and vigor are secured by frequent migrations. The more we study in detail the methods of plant dispersion, the more we shall come to agree with a statement made by Darwin concerning the devices for securing cross-fertilization of flowers, that they "transcend, in an incomparable degree, the contrivances and adaptations which the most fertile imagination of the most imaginative man could suggest with unlimited time at his disposal."6
6 Fertilization of Orchids, p. 351.
Let no reader think that the topics here taken up are treated exhaustively, for if he will go over any part of this work and verify any observation or experiment, he will be sure to find something new, and very likely something different from what is here stated.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Means of Plant Dispersion. By E. J. HILL. Am. Nat. Vol. xvii, pp. 811, 1028. 1883.
Why Certain Kinds of Timber Prevail in Certain Localities. By JOHN T. CAMPBELL. Am. Nat. Vol. xix, p. 337. 1885.
Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Agriculture for 1888. Article on the "Food of Crows." By W. B. BARROWS. p. 498.