PO VERTY AND BANKR UPTC V. 



209 



of the higher floral rank enjoyed by their ancestors 

 may still be found in their flowers, as in the lodicicles 

 or inner scales of the 

 wind -fertilised flow- 

 ers of Wheat, many 

 species of Grasses, 

 in the Wood -rushes 

 {Luzula)^ and Jun- 

 caceae, ^^Jtmcus btifo- 

 nms, for instance, 

 which are all that 

 remain of the original 

 petals ; just as a poor 

 but proud and ancient 

 family cling to their ^ 

 " crest " and coat-of- 

 arms long after their 

 ancestral estates and 

 property have dis- 

 appeared. Changes 

 from the entomophilous to the anemophilous habit of 

 life, and contrariwise, have constantly been going on 

 in flowers, pendulum-like, from one extreme to the 

 other, according as the change has been necessary or 

 beneficial, or preserved species from total extinction. 

 Every botanist is aware that many plants not 

 only bear fewer sepals and petals than they ought, 

 according to the typical structure of their flowers, but 

 fewer carpels as well. Five is the normal number 



P 



Fig. 81. — The Toad Rush {/uncus hifonuis). 



