From a plant's point of view, its flowers are only a means to an end. Their purpose is to attract pollen-carrying insects. Once the ovules are fertilized, the plant devotes its energies to nurturing the infant seeds and so does not produce as many flowers as it might. This is good for the plant's posterity, but bad for flower lovers.
Last week Dr. Herbert L. Everett of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station told about a frustrated petunia that remains forever virgin and so goes right on flowering. Dr. Everett crossed two widely different varieties of petunia. One of the offspring was sterile;...
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