LIFE OF FLOWER 141 



sphere in which the phenomena is generally observed, 

 forms a column of steam or spray, which has been 

 erroneously taken for water." 



Secondly, he drew attention to the importance of the 

 rudiments of hind-limbs which occur in many whales as 

 affording decisive evidence of the descent of the group 

 from land mammals. And thirdly, he emphasised the 

 marked distinction between baleen, or whalebone, 

 whales (Mystacoceti), and toothed whales and dolphins 

 (Odontoceti) ; although he appears never to have gone so 

 far in this direction as some modern naturalists, who 

 are of opinion that these two groups have originated 

 independently of one another from separate types of 

 land mammals. 



Another point to which Flower devoted a considerable 

 share of attention was the dimensions attained by the 

 larger species of whales. Previously, there is no doubt 

 that very great exaggeration had been current in this 

 respect, and that such things as I5o-feet whales are 

 unknown. With his excessive caution, and determina- 

 tion to be on the safe side, it is however probable that in 

 some instances notably the Greenland right-whale and 

 the sperm-whale Flower somewhat under-estimated 

 the maximum dimensions. 



At what date Flower first began to study whales 

 seriously, it is not easy to ascertain. From the fact of 

 his contributing three papers on this subject to the 

 Zoological Society's Proceedings for 1864, it may, how- 

 ever, be inferred that by that time he had devoted no 

 inconsiderable amount of attention to the group. In 

 the first of those he described a specimen of a lesser fin- 

 whale, then recently stranded on the Norfolk coast ; 



