CH. XI] B. MORPHOLOGICAL 119 



anthers opening by valves, ovary superior with oo locuU ; fruit a 

 schizocarp; embryo with no endosperm, no cotyledons, and 

 curved radicle, a family would be produced that no one at any 

 rate would imagine to have any relationship whatever to the 

 Rubiaceae, and yet half-a-dozen to a dozen mutations might 

 produce it. 



Divergence such as that shown by alternate and opposite 

 leaves, or any of the divergences shown in the list of "abnormal" 

 characters of the Rubiaceae is a matter of extraordinary difficulty 

 to explain by aid of the hypothesis of natural selection. 

 Neither of the divergent characters has any functional value to 

 the plant that anyone has ever been able to prove, or even to 

 suggest; nor as a rule is there any possible intermediate, nor 

 could it have any value or the reverse. Yet the divergences show 

 in so many different places among the flowering plants that they 

 must be very easily acquired; they are even found quite com- 

 monly between one genus and the next, or between some species 

 and the next. But for such differences to be quickly acquired by 

 natural selection, there would have to be some very pronounced 

 advantage to be gained by their acquisition, and that is just 

 what no one has ever been able to indicate. There is nothing to 

 show that either opposite or alternate leaves have any advantage 

 the one over the other, whilst an intermediate would still have 

 alternate leaves, with a particular phyllotaxy. A point which is 

 usually lost sight of, but is of great importance, is the difficulty 

 of passing by aid of natural selection from say 95 to 100 per cent 

 of perfection, already dealt with in Test case no. x. 



This question of the relative value or disadvantage of a 

 character is another thing that has been completely ignored 

 during the long reign of natural selection. The great struggle for 

 existence is among the seedlings, and a character that is of im- 

 portance one way or the other to a seedling has a far greater 

 relative value than for example a character of the flower or fruit 

 which only appears in later life, when the plant is more esta- 

 blished and has greater reserves of food and vitality. Leaves, for 

 example, are much more important, individually and even collec- 

 tively, when the plant is young. Even if a character were defi- 

 nitely disadvantageous it might still survive if it only appeared 

 when the plant was old, whilst a disadvantageous character of 

 any kind would probably be fatal to a seedling. 



The only reasonable explanation of alternate and opposite 

 leaves would seem to be to suppose that they are determined by 



