VIOLETS. 119 



almost without petals, but they produce the seed 

 which preserves the species ; very rarely is this per- 

 fected hy the ordinary hlossoms, in fact it has been 

 said by Bentham that the pansy (V. tricolor) is the 

 only one of our English species in which the showy 

 flowers generally produce seed. The cleistogamic 

 flowers are self-fertilizing, and therefore do not re- 

 quire the visits of insects to aid in the perfecting of 

 their seed. They are believed to be degraded forms 

 of the ordinary showy flowers, since all intermediate 

 forms can be traced. If this be the case, it seems 

 to me that the continued existence of the ordinary 

 coloured flowers is difficult to be explained on Dar- 

 winian principles. According to his theory (which is, 

 as I have shown in a former paper, that generally 

 accepted by naturalists), the colour of flowers has 

 been developed by the visits of insects, and such 

 colour has been developed only because it was ad- 

 vantageous to the plant in the " struggle for exist- 

 ence." But if, as is believed, the cleistogamic flowers 

 are aborted forms of the showy ones, then it must 

 have been a great advantage to the plant to possess 

 such aborted forms. And if the violets are as a rule 

 perpetuated by the development of seed from these 

 colourless blossoms, un visited by insects, of what 

 advantages to the plant at all are the coloured 

 flowers ? It could get on just as well without them. 

 Sir J. Lubbock says he thinks " the persistence of 

 the showy ones can only be accounted for by the 

 fact that the ordinary flowers are useful in securing 

 an occasional cross." This seems to me unsatisfac- 

 tory, and implies an enormous excess of energy over 

 the effect to be produced. 



