FROM BUTTERCUPS TO MONK'S-HOOD. 65 



speed, with his tail between his legs. It would be some time before 

 he could be induced to enter the house again, and even then he would 

 tremble violently. 



Certainly in the case of this dog the mental phenomena exhibited 

 can safely be termed superstition, and, whether it was normal or super- 

 induced by momentary insanity, it was plain that for the time being 

 he actually saw " ghosts." For this reason the case is a very interest- 

 ing one, as it furnishes additional evidence of the similarity existing 

 between the mental actions of man and those of the lower animals. 



FEOM BUTTEKCUPS TO MONK'S-HOOD. 



Br Professor GRANT ALLEN. 



TO look at these queer, irregular blue flowers, growing on a long 

 and handsome spike in the old-fashioned garden border, nobody 

 would ever dream of saying that they were in reality altered and 

 modified buttercups. And yet that is just what they really are, with 

 all the marks of their curious pedigree still clearly impressed upon 

 their very form. Pull one of the blue blossoms off, and pick it care- 

 fully to pieces, and you will see how strangely and profoundly it has 

 been distorted by insect selection. Monk's-hood is most essentially a 

 bee-flower, and in examining it we see the results of bee action plainly 

 set forth in every organ. If we pick a common meadow buttercup 

 for comparison with it, we shall be able to see exactly wherein the 

 two flowers differ, as well as why the one has gained an advantage in 

 the struggle for existence over the other. 



The outside whorl of the buttercup consists, of course, of five 

 separate greenish sepals, which together make up its calyx. Inside 

 the sepals come the five golden petals composing the cup-shaped co- 

 rolla ; and inside the petals, again, come the numerous stamens, and 

 the equally numerous carpels or unripe fruits, each containing a single 

 solitary little seed. Moreover, all these parts are regularly and sym- 

 metrically arranged round a common center, so as to form a series of 

 concentric whorls. But when we look at the monk's-hood we see no 

 such simple and orderly arrangement in its architectural plan. At 

 first sight, we recognize no distinct sepals or petals : and the colored 

 organs that take their place are very irregular in shape, and disposed 

 in an unsymmetrical fashion or rather, to speak more correctly, their 

 symmetry is not radial, but bilateral. When we begin to pull our 

 blue blossom to pieces, however, we gradually recognize the various 

 parts of which it is composed. First of all come five sepals, not green- 

 ish as in the buttercup, but bright blue ; and not all alike, but specially 

 modified to fulfill their separate functions. The uppermost sepal of 



VOL. XXIII. 5 



