It may be worth while to give another and more complex illustration of the action of natural selection.

Certain plants excrete sweet juice, apparently for the sake of eliminating something injurious from the sap: this is effected, for instance, by glands at the base of the stipules in some Leguminosae, and at the backs of the leaves of the common laurel.

This juice, though small in quantity, is greedily sought by insects; but their visits do not in any way benefit the plant.