140 THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. 



for a shorter time upon its downward course. 

 For evolution is not, as most people seem to 

 fancy, a thing which used once to take place ; 

 it is a process taking place around us every 

 day, and it must necessarily continue to take 

 place to the end of all time. By family the 

 groundsel is a daisy ; but it has acquired the 

 strange and somewhat abnormal habit of 

 self- fertilisation, which in all probability will 

 ultimately lead to its total extinction. Hence 

 it does not need the assistance of insects ; 

 and it has accordingly never developed or 

 else got rid of the bright outer ray-florets 

 which may once have attracted them. Its 

 tiny bell-shaped blossoms still retain their 

 dwarf yellow corollas ; but they are almost 

 hidden by the green cup-like investment of 

 the flower-head, and they are not conspicuous 

 enough to arrest the attention of the passing 

 flies. Here, then, we have an example of a 

 plant just beginning to start on the retrograde 

 path already traversed by the plantain and 

 the spurges. If we could meet prophetically 



