DICOTYLEDONS 209 



Foxglove, and Yellow-Rattle, which have highly special- 

 ized corollas and a reduced number of stamens, are more 

 advanced than the Tubiflorse, which have regular, 

 sympetalous, tubular, or funnel-shaped corollas; the 

 Bindweed (Plate XIX.) and the Henbane (Plate XX.) 

 are examples. There are many points that have to be 

 taken into account before we can definitely decide upon 

 the exact position in which we may place a plant in the 

 evolutionary scale; and in formulating a decision we 

 have to bear in mind not only the points above men- 

 tioned, but the fact that apparent simplicity may be 

 due to specialization; also that there is degradation as 

 well as advance, both in the animal and plant kingdoms. 

 We have decided that the Sympetalse, with their 

 united petals, are higher than the Choripetalse, which 

 have free petals. But in each great division there are 

 grades of development ; indeed, we may liken the whole 

 plant realm, or any great division of it, to the human 

 race. There are peoples which are in the van of progress, 

 they are versatile and equipped for the exigencies of 

 competition; other peoples are less pushful, and quite 

 content to benefit by progress without making it. Some 

 men think in terms of the twentieth century; others are 

 medieval in outlook. Some are at the heart of civili- 

 zation, others are at its fringe or beyond its borders. 

 Some tribes are confirmed degenerates; others show a 

 disposition to progress. There are the highly cultured, 

 the less cultured, and the barely cultured. It is a far 

 cry from the civilization of the remote Highlands to 

 that discoverable in the Metropolis, and, although the 

 distance is shorter, the gulf is no less pronounced between 

 Whitechapel and Park Lane. Humanity in the aggre- 



27 



