1 86 PROBLEMS OF EVOLUTION 



Witness the Swiss mountain gentians whose colour far outdoes 

 the blue of the sky, and on the blue, as if that were not beauty 

 enough for one flower, floats a rich purple bloom. But the 

 English flowers, taking the primrose, 1 the wild rose, 2 the grass 

 vetch 3 as examples, are not far behind the Swiss gentians, each 

 in its own kind of beauty. The varieties of shape are no less 

 wonderful than the colours. Take for example the common 

 broom, 4 the dandelion, 5 the purple loosestrife. 6 And these and 

 like things of beauty are to be found over the greater part of 

 the land surface of the globe. The little purple saxifrage 7 is 

 common in Arctic regions where it does much to support animal 

 life. Even in the Sahara there are flowers, though not equal in 

 beauty to those of the more hospitable regions of the earth. 

 Wherever life is thoroughly vigorous, there you find flowers in 

 Darwin- abundance. If there is any truth in Darwinism it can offer an 

 somehow ex pl anation f this. If it can offer none, it is indeed the barren 

 account for formula that the Duke of Argyll maintained that it was. It 

 rs must be a principle of universal application in the animal and 

 vegetable kingdoms or it must fall to the ground. There may 

 be other laws which resist its operation but it must be at work 

 everywhere, or else we must send it to the limbo of exploded 

 theories. 



If physical science were to tell us that the conservation of 

 energy is the rule, except in certain cases, we should have but 

 little respect for physical science and its laws. In the same way 

 the struggle for existence must go on wherever plants or animals 

 are to be found ; Natural Selection must regulate all evolution or 

 else be condemned as mere foolishness. 



In spite of this we must expect to find some points of which 

 we can as yet give no explanation beyond such suggestions as 

 the following : the structures that are apparently useless may be 

 correlated with others that are useful : colours may be mere by- 

 products. The latter explanation may serve to account for the 

 lovely hues of the stamens of many grasses, whose wind-fertilised 



1 Primula vtris. 2 Ro-a arvensis and R. canina. :i Lathyrus nissolia 



4 Cytisus scoparius. 5 Taraxacum dens leonis. 6 Lythrum salicaria. 



7 Saxifraga oppositifolia. 



