<p 
OST of the plants to which 
v we must now devote a few 
pages may be best described as 
degenerate Lilies—plants that 
have turned their backs upon 
the insect friends that have in- 
duced so many of the family to become brilliant, 
gaily-coloured, and often sweet-scented. They appear 
to have argued that expensive petals richly coloured, 
with their adjuncts sweet perfumes and sweet liqueurs, 
made too heavy a demand upon their resources; they 
must retrench. They have retrenched to such an 
extent that all-round degeneration has resulted— 
simple stems, leaves scarcely recognisable as _ such, 
and poor little brown or green flowers massed 
together in cymes, and fertilised by the winds. 
They have been edged out of the richer lands, 
and have had to crowd together in the poor soil 
of bogs and marshes, sandy seashores, or moist 
places on the moorland. Yet, in spite of their de- 
generation, they have clung to the evidences of their 
339 
