BUTTERCUP EVOLUTION 



In Fig. io8, Plate 'j'], (inset), a section view of the 

 flower is shown, where the stamens are seen 

 bending upwards into the opening as they mature. 

 As the stigma does not ripen and bend upwards 

 until all the stamens have ascended and returned, 

 it need scarcely be added that it is cross-fertilisation 

 which is effected. 



What I have said above applies in a large 

 degree to the Monkshood {Aconitimi Napelhis), 

 only that here the bilateral feature of the blue- 

 coloured calyx has still further evolved ; while the 

 two nectaries have become much more complex, 

 their honey-bearing parts being hidden in the 

 upper helmet-shaped sepal. In Fig. 109 (Plate 

 78) various aspects of the flowers are shown, 

 including one from which I have removed the 

 coloured calyx and exposed the two curious 

 nectaries which, as a little observation will show, 

 only humble-bees can reach — so evolved and 

 specialised have these floral structures become. 



Thus the complex structures of these highest 

 buttercup types are the direct outcome of the 

 selective tastes of the various insects that have 

 most profitably patronised them in the course of 

 their evolution ; by their unconscious agency have 

 the various and complex forms been moulded. 

 Thus originated all the choice Buttercup species 

 man now delights in cultivating under other 

 names ; cultivation has enlarged their merits, the 

 foundations of which were laid, however, ages 



ago. 



185 



