THE STRUCTURE OF FLOWERS, 6i 



vegetative system of plants, wherever organs are 

 subjected to strains ; and assuming tliat it is equally 

 so in flowers, we have a key to the origin of all the 

 phenomena of floral structures in plants, in that they 

 are supposed to be the direct results of the superficial 

 irritations set up by the insects themselves. 



Next, with regard to the inconspicuous flowers. If 

 conspicuous flowers cease to be visited by their usual 

 insects — as by the seeds having been carried away 

 into other districts or countries — then the cessations of 

 the irritations is presumably sufficient to account for 

 the degradations in such flowers. All the above- 

 mentioned correlations, having been brought into ex- 

 istence through the irritating action of insects, will now 

 presumably degenerate when the cause ceases to act. 

 Just so the eye — the result of the stimulus of light 

 upon animal protoplasm — atrophies until the owner 

 becomes blind in continual darkness, as do animals 

 at the bottom of a very deep sea or in pitch-dark caves. 



But while degradations may go on in one direction 

 in flowers, fresh adaptations arise in others, Avhich 

 bring about self-fertilization instead. The corolla, not 

 being wanted, dwindles or disappears ; but the anthers 

 (no longer stimulated to develop themselves in advance 

 of the stigmas) mature simultaneously with these, and 

 remain closely applied to them as they are in bud ; 

 hence the result is a sure and certain pollination with 

 an abundance of seed. 



