Beauty can be defined in many ways. However, regardless of its definition, beauty is limited by four characteristics: symmetry, health, vibrancy, and complexity. Michael Pollan, in the book The Botany of Desire, examines our role in nature. Pollan sets out to discover why the most beautiful flowers have manipulated animals to propagate their genes. Most people believe that humans are the only domesticators of nature, although beauty has in a sense domesticated us by making us select what we perceive as beautiful. In flowers, for example, the most attractive ones ensure survival and reproductive success; therefore the tulip domesticated us in the same way ensuring its reproduction. Whether it's beauty or the instinct humans have towards flowers, they have domesticated us anyway. Humans have long recognized that flowers are an indication of future fruit. Therefore it was crucial for nomadic hunters to remember where in the wilderness they saw flowers. And also each type of flower produced a specific fruit. Fruits and flowers therefore had something in common; preference for a fruit meant preference for a type of flower. Very often, as in modern times, the healthiest looking flower shows signs that it will produce quality fruit. The beauty of a flower told the hunters that a nutritious fruit would ripen after the flowers bloomed. This concept explains how we evolved to prefer healthy-looking flowers. But how can this be explained with the safety of the reproduction of a plant? It is necessary to remember that plants not only produce fruits to prevent herbivores from eating them, but, in their diabolical plan, plants have found a new way to spread their seeds through fruits. Herbivores would eat the fruit and... half the paper... and could reproduce. He also states that the ability to modify the environment also makes it vital for survival. The tulip in its complexity has changed to adapt to desire. So who manipulated who? The tulip for its part has conveyed to us the desire for beauty, while we in turn select the most beautiful. Instead, we are experiencing a coevolutionary relationship as Pollan explains. Nomadic hunters relied on distinguishing flowers to get to future fruits before others. The vibrant colors of genetically produced tulips also favored us in choosing certain varieties. Flowers have somehow domesticated us to choose their strains. Plants linked the beauty of their flowers to subsequent reproduction and then evolved the flower to suit human desire. Flowers have actually manipulated humans to satisfy their pollination needs. Works Cited The Botany for Desire