CHAPTER XVI. 



FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. 



The botanical work which my father accomplished by 

 the guidance of the light cast on the study of natural his- 

 tory by his own work on evolution remains to be noticed. 

 In a letter to Mr. Murray, September 24th, 1861, speaking of 

 his book the Fertilisation of Orchids, he says : " It will per- 

 haps serve to illustrate how Natural History may be worked 

 under the belief of the modification of species." This re- 

 mark gives a suggestion as to the value and interest of his 

 botanical work, and it might be expressed in far more em- 

 phatic language without danger of exaggeration. 



In the same letter to Mr. Murray, he says: "I think 

 this little volume will do good to the Origin, as it will show 

 that I have worked hard at details." It is true that his 

 botanical work added a mass of corroborative detail to the 

 case for Evolution, but the chief support given to his doc- 

 trines by these researches was of another kind. They sup- 

 plied an argument against those critics who have so freely 

 dogmatised as to the uselessness of particular structures, 

 and as to tfie consequent impossibility of their having been 

 developed by means of natural selection. His observations 

 on Orchids enabled him to say : " I can show the meaning 

 of some of the apparently meaningless ridges and horns; 

 who will now venture to say that this or that structure is 

 useless ? " A kindred point is expressed in a letter to Sir J. 

 D. Hooker (May 14th, 1862) : 



" When many parts of structure, as in the woodpecker, 

 show distinct adaptation to external bodies, it is preposter- 

 ous to attribute them to the effects of climate, &c, but when 

 a single point alone, as a hooked seed, it is conceivable it 

 may thus have arisen. I have found the study of Orchids 

 eminently useful in showing me how nearly all parts of the 

 flower are co-adapted for fertilisation by insects, and there- 



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