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

RELATIONS OF ORGANISMS. 177tears off so much from the store adheringto the head of the bee, and still leaves therewhat may supply the requirements of manyflowers besides. The description thus givenwill suffice to indicate how close is the relatioiiof the lower orders of animal life withvegetable life, and will illustrate how thelower organism may be dependent for existenceon the higher, an illustration in somerespect the converse of the facts illustratingorigin of species by development.There remains in this department of inquiryonly one additional set of facts, towhich reference may be made, as illustratingilistribution of work among insects and birds,assigning them to different orders of plants.This will illustrate contrivance on a still widerscale, discovering distinct sets of affinity, whichimply common localization for given plantsand animals. In this it appears that flies,humble bees, and birds with long slender bills,such as the humming birds, all have a sharein the work required for fertilizing plants.There is one example, ep@actis latifolia,with a cup-shaped labellum, in which honeyis secreted, and which bees are never seen tofrequent. What, however, the bees pass, the