II.] INCIPIENT STRUCTURES. 67 



Mr. Wallace " makes an analogous remark with regard 

 to the organ of voice in man the human larynx. He says 

 of singing : " The habits of savages give no indication of 

 how this faculty could have been developed by Natural Se- 

 lection, because it is never required or used by them. The 

 singing of savages is a more or less monotonous howling, 

 and the females seldom sing at all. Savages certainly never 

 choose their wives for fine voices, but for rude health, and 

 strength, and physical beauty. Sexual selection could not 

 therefore have developed this wonderful power, which only 

 comes into play among civilized people." 



Reverting once more to beauty of form and color, there 

 is one manifestation of it for which no one can pretend that 

 sexual selection can possibly account. The instance re- 

 ferred to is that presented by bivalve shell-fish. 30 Here we 

 meet with charming tints and elegant forms and markings 

 of no direct use to their possessors 31 in the struggle for life, 

 and of no indirect utility as regards sexual selection, for 

 fertilization takes place by the mere action of currents of 

 water, and the least beautiful individual has fully as good 

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

 most favored in beauty of form and color. 



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 Selec- 

 tion." Mr. Darwin says very little on this singular resem- 

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

 hardly to be what an advocate of " Natural Selection " 



29 " Natural Selection," p. 350. 



30 Bivalve shell-fish are creatures belonging to the oyster, scallop, and 

 cockle group, i. e., to the class Lamellibranchiata. 



31 The attempt has been made to explain these facts as owing to 

 " manner and symmetry of growth, and to color being incidental on the 

 chemical nature of the constituents of the shell." But surely beauty 

 depends on some such matters in all cases ! 



