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Their surfaces become sticky, that
pollen brought from another flower may adhere to them. Notice
that the pistils in the white ray florets have no hairbrushes on
their tips, because, no stamens being there, there is no pollen
to be swept out. Because daisies are among the most conspicuous
of flowers, and have facilitated dining for their visitors by
offering them countless cups of refreshment that may be drained
with a minimum loss of time, almost every insect on wings alights
on them sooner or later. In short, they run their business on the
principle of a cooperative department store. Immense quantities
of the most vigorous, because cross-fertilized, seed being set in
every patch, small wonder that our fields are white with daisies
- a long and a merry life to them!

Since all flowers must once have passed through a white stage
before attaining gay colors, so evolution teaches, it is not
surprising that occasional reversions to the white type should be
found even among the brightest-hued species.


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