250 LESSONS FROM NATURE. [CHAP. Vlli. 



tinct natural orders, all large shrubs or trees, and all natives 

 of Brazil. He says : &quot; Not only the form of the wing, 

 but its very texture and the arrangement of the veins, are 

 reproduced most accurately in all the species, a dissection of 

 the fruit alone showing their essential difference in structure. 

 So close, indeed, and deceptive is this resemblance when the 

 plant is not in flower, that the very specimen&quot; from which 

 Mr. Bennett s drawing is made, &quot; in the Berlin Herbarium, is 

 labelled by so experienced a botanist as Klotzsch as Securi- 

 daca; and Walpers, in his Kepertorium, has erroneously 

 described five species of Seguiera as Securidacas&quot; 



Mr. Bennett s verdict as to all such cases of mimicry is to 

 the effect that &quot; no conjunction of external circumstances 

 will avail to account for them, whether acting through 

 natural selection or any other known process.&quot; 



As to the bee orchis he observes : &quot; It might well be as 

 sumed that the extraordinary resemblance of the flower of 

 this singular plant to the body of a bee was designed to 

 attract these insects to the flower ; but, unhappily for this 

 theory, the bee orchis appears to be one of the comparatively 

 small number of plants that are independent of insect agency 

 for the maturing of their seeds.&quot; Yet surely for minute acci 

 dental variations to have built up such a striking resemblance 

 to insects we ought to find the preservation of the plant or 

 the continuance of its race depending on relations between 

 bees and it. It has indeed been suggested, in opposition to 

 this contention, that there is no real resemblance, but that the 

 likeness is &quot;fanciful!&quot; The denial, however, in the interests 

 of an arbitrary hypothesis, of the fact of a resemblance which 

 has struck so many observers, reminds one of the French 

 philosopher s estimate of facts hostile to his theory &quot; Ta nt 

 pis pour les faits !&quot; 



It seems, then, that these facts * of mimicry reduce us to 

 the acceptance of a belief in an innate tendency implanted 



* I have a note, which I am unable at this moment to verify, of the occur 

 rence, near Mentone, of galls simulating cones on a juniper. 



