62 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [CHAP. 



a chance of becoming a parent as has the one which is the 

 most favoured in beauty of form and colour. 



Again, the peculiar outline and coloration of certain 

 orchids notably of our own bee, fly, and spider orchids 

 seem hardly explicable by any action of " Natural Selection." 

 Mr. Darwin says very little on this singular resemblance 

 of flowers to insects, and what he does say seems hardly to 

 be what an advocate of " Natural Selection " would require. 

 Surely, for minute accidental indefinite variations to have 

 built up such a striking resemblance to insects, we ought 

 to find that the preservation of the plant, or the perpetua- 

 tion of its race, depends almost constantly on relations 

 between bees, spiders, and flies respectively and the bee, 

 spider, and fly orchids. 1 This process must have continued 

 for ages constantly and perseveringly, and yet what is the 

 fact ? Mr. Darwin tells us, in his work on the Fertilization 

 of Orchids, that neither the spider nor the fly orchids are 

 much visited by insects, while, with regard to the bee orchid, 

 he says, " I have never seen an insect visit these flowers." 

 And he shows how this species is even specially modi- 

 fied to effect self-fertilization. 



In the work just referred to, Mr. Darwin gives a series 

 of the most wonderful and minute contrivances by which 

 the visits of insects are utilized for the fertilization of 

 orchids, structures so wonderful that nothing could well 

 be more so, except the attribution of their origin to minute, 

 fortuitous, and indefinite variations. 



The instances are too numerous and too long to quote, 



1 It has been suggested in opposition to what is said above, that there 

 is no real resemblance, but that the likeness is "fanciful!" The denial, 

 however, 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 "Tant pis pour les faits !" 



