CHAPTER X. 



Fertilisation of Flowers. 



[In the letters already given we have had occasion to 

 notice the general bearing of a number of botanical problems 

 on the wider question of Evolution. The detailed work in 

 botany which my father accomplished by the guidance of the 

 light cast on the study of natural history by his own work on 

 Evolution remains to be noticed. In a letter to Mr. Murray, 

 September 24th, 1861, speaking of his book on the 'Ferti- 

 lisation of Orchids,' he says : " It will perhaps serve to illus- 

 trate how Natural History may be worked under the belief 

 of the modification of species." This remark gives a sugges- 

 tion as to the value and interest of his botanical work, and 

 it might be expressed in far more emphatic 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 to his doctrines given by 

 these researches was of another kind. They supplied an 

 argument against those critics who have so freely dogma- 

 tised as to the uselessness of particular structures, and as to 

 the 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, horns, who will now ven- 

 ture 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) :— 



