tilize itself. In the geranium, the
stamen and the pistil in the same flower mature at different times. In
some species, as among the lilies, the style is so long that the pollen
could not fall upon it without artificial aid. Some flowers are so
constructed that they can be fertilized by certain kinds of insects and
by no others; among these are the orchids and our clovers and
milk-weeds. Again, some flowers have an ovary but no stamens, while a
neighbor has stamens but no ovary, making self-fertilization absolutely
impossible.

Indeed there is nothing more fascinating in the study of botany than the
methods by which the flowers secure cross-fertilization, nearly all of
our common garden-flowers affording illustrations. Here too, is a field
where the young botanist can do really valuable work, for while much is
known and has been written on the subject, much remains unknown. There
are many books that give valuable and delightful information about
cross-fertilization.

The method of fertilization of the flowers satisfactorily accounts for
the great amount of pollen produced. Being blown by the wind or carried
by insects, much of it is wasted, consequently there must be ample
allowance made for this waste. So the flowers produce thousands of
pollen grains which they can never use themselves.

VIII

WHAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM THE LIFE OF THE FISH

Whatever is universal is good.

Whatever is universal is true.

Whatever is universal is beautiful.

Nothing disperses, so to speak, the fogs enveloping the thought of sex
like the realization of its universality. The air clears when we know
that every living thing is bound by the same laws, even the flowers in
our gardens.

We have an interesting testimony as to the helpfulness of this thought
from one of the great educators of youth, Froebel. Speaking of his own
childhood when he became conscious of what his father, who was a
minister, was constantly meeting in his parish work, he says:

"Matrimonial and family relations were often the subject of his
admonitory and corrective conversation and remonstrances. The way
in which my father spoke of this, made me consider the subject as
one of the most pressing and difficult for man, and in my youth and
innocence, I felt deep grief and pain that man alone among created
things should pay the penalty of such a sexual difference that made
it hard for him to do right.... Just then my o