324 
DARWINISM 
CHAP. 
and as the chief use of these is to attract insects, they could 
hardly have existed in primitive flowers. 1 We know, moreover, 
that when the petals cease to be required for the attraction of 
1 The Rev. George Henslow, in his Origin of Floral Structures, says : 
“ There is little doubt but that all wind-fertilised angiosperms are degradations 
from insect - fertilised flowers. . . . Poterium sanguisorba is anemophilous ; 
and Sanguisorba officinalis presumably was so formerly, but has reacquired 
an entomophilous habit ; the whole tribe Poteriese being, in fact, a degraded 
group which has descended from Potentillese. Plantains retain their corolla 
but in a degraded form. Juncese are degraded Lilies ; while Cyperacete and 
Graminese among monocotyledons may be ranked with Amentifera among 
dicotyledons, as representing orders which have retrograded very far from 
the entomophilous forms from which they were possibly and probably de¬ 
scended” (p. 266). 
“ The genus Piantago, like Thalictrum minus, Poterium, and others, well 
illustrate the change from an entomophilous to the anemophilous state. 
P. lanceolata has polymorphic flowers, and is visited by pollen-seeking insects, 
so that it can be fertilised either by insects or the wind. P. media illustrates 
transitions in point of structure, as the filaments are pink, the anthers 
motionless, and the pollen grains aggregated, and it is regularly visited by 
Bombus terrestris. On the other hand, the slender filaments, versatile anthers, 
powdery pollen, and elongated protogynous style are features of other species 
indicating anemophily ; while the presence of a degraded corolla shows its 
ancestors to have been entomophilous. P. media, therefore, illustrates, not 
a primitive entomophilous condition, but a return to it : just as is the case 
with Sanguisorba officinalis and Scdix Caprea ; but these show no capacity of 
restoring the corolla, the attractive features having to be borne by the calyx, 
which is purplish in Sanguisorba, by the pink filaments of Piantago, and by 
the yellow anthers in the Sallow willow” (p. 271). 
“ The interpretation, then, I would offer of inconspicuousness and all kinds 
of degradations is the exact opposite to that of conspicuousness and great 
differentiations ; namely, that species with minute flowers, rarely or never 
visited by insects, and habitually self-fertilised, have primarily arisen through 
the neglect of insects, and have in consequence assumed their present floral 
structures ” (p. 282). 
In a letter just received from Mr. Henslow, he gives a few additional 
illustrations of his Hews, of which the following are the most important : 
“ Passing to Incomplete, the orders known collectively as ‘ Cyclospermeae ’ 
are related to Caryopliyllene ; and to my mind are degradations from it, of 
which Orache is anemophilous. Cupuliferae have an inferior ovary and rudi¬ 
mentary calyx-limb on the top. These, as far as I know, cannot be inter¬ 
preted except as degradations. The whole of Monocotyledons appear to me 
(from anatomical reasons especially) to be degradations from Dicotyledons, 
and primarily through the agency of growth in water. Many subsequently 
became terrestrial, but retained the effects of their primitive habitat through 
heredity. The 3-merous perianth of grasses, the parts of the flower being in 
whorls, point to a degradation from a sub-liliaceous condition.” 
Mr. Henslow informs me that he has long held these views, but, as far as 
he knows, alone. Mr. Grant Allen, however, set forth a similar theory in his 
Vignettes from Nature (p. 15) and more fully in The Colours of Flowers 
(chap, v.), where he develops it fully and uses similar arguments to those of 
Mr. Henslow. 
