Cleavers. 1 2 1 



the ancestors of the goose-grass had the same sort of 



flowers when they were at the same or some analogous 



stage of development. Moreover, amongst the stellate 



plants themselves there are several which still retain 



the long tubes to the blossom ; and 



these are rather the less developed tlian 



the more developed members of the 



little group. Such are the pretty blue 



field-madder, which has a funnel-shaped 



corolla, and the sweet woodruff, which 



has bell-shaped flowers. But the ga- 



liums, which are the most advanced (or 



degraded) species of all, have the tube Fiower of F.eld- 



very short or hardly perceptible, and ""* 



the more so in proportion as they are most widely 



divergent from the primitive t)"pc. 



Why, however, should a flower which was once 

 tubular have lost its tube.' If it was an advantage 

 to acquire such a long narrow throat, must it not also 

 be an advantage always to retain it .' That depends 

 entirely upon the nature of the circumstances to which 

 the plant must adapt itself Now the fact is, the 

 original madder group seems to have had large and 

 showy flowers, which were fertilised by regular honey- 

 sucking in.sects, such as bees and butterflies and hum- 

 ming-bird hawk-moths. These arc tropical shrubs, 



