650 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



terious sense of touch by which a tendril can distinguish a brother 

 tendril from an ordinary twig, and can distinguish the weight of a 

 drop of rain hanging to it from a bit of thread in short, all the deli- 

 cate contrivances which place tendril-bearers so eminently at the head 

 of the climbing plants. 



There is only one more fact connected with the evolution of climb- 

 ing plants which must be alluded to, namely, the curious way in which 

 the representatives of the class are scattered throughout the vegetable 

 kingdom. Lindley divided flowering plants into fifty-nine classes, 

 called Alliances, and in no less than thirty-five of these climbing plants 

 are found. This fact shows two things : First, how strong has been 

 the motive power the search after light which has driven so many 

 distinct kind of plants to become climbers ; secondly, that the power 

 of revolving, which is the first step in the ladder of development of 

 the power of climbing, is present in an undeveloped state in almost 

 every plant in the vegetable series. Popular Science Review. 



^ESTHETIC FEELING IN BIRDS. 



By Pbofeseor GEANT ALLEN. 



THERE is no portion of Mr. Darwin's great superstructure which 

 has been subjected to more searching criticism than his theory of 

 sexual selection the theory that beauty in animals is dependent, in 

 part at least, upon the choice of brightly colored, ornamented, or mu- 

 sically endowed mates by one or other sex among all the more highly 

 developed classes, such as insects, crustaceans, birds, and mammals. 

 Not only have opponents argued strongly against the existence of such 

 esthetic tastes in the lower animals as would account for the supposed 

 preference for beautiful partners, but even many of those who accept 

 the evolutionist hypothesis as a whole have declared themselves unable 

 to give in their adhesion to this particular speculation. Professor 

 Mivart has brought forward strong objections to the great naturalist's 

 view, and Mr. A. R. Wallace has raised a counter-theory on the subject 

 of coloration at least, which has done much to convince many waver- 

 ing biologists, and tb insure their rejection of the suggested cause as 

 adequate for the production of that beauty which all alike recognize 

 in the animal world. It seems to me, however, that a little too much 

 stress has been laid upon the notion that comparatively advanced intel- 

 ligence is necessary for the appreciation of beauty in the opposite sex. 

 It is true that our own highly complex {esthetic feelings are largely 

 composed of elevated intellectual and emotional elements ; but it may 

 perhaps be shown that aesthetic tastes quite sufficient for the produc- 

 tion of the known results do actually exist in many cases, and consist 



