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CHAPTER VII. 



FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. 



[IN the letters already given we have had occasion to notice 

 the general bearing of a number of botanical problems on the 

 wider question of Evolution. The detailed work in botany 

 which my father accomplished by the guidance of the light 

 cast on the study of natural history by his own work on 

 Evolution remains to be noticed. In a letter to Mr. Murray, 

 September 24th, 1861, speaking of his book on the ' Ferti- 

 lisation of Orchids/ he says : " It will perhaps serve to 

 illustrate how Natural History may be worked under the 

 belief of the modification of species." This remark gives a 

 suggestion as to the value and interest of his botanical work, 

 and it might be expressed in far more emphatic language 

 without danger of exaggeration. 



In the same letter to Mr. Murray, he says : " I think this 

 little volume will do good to the ' Origin/ as it will show that 

 I have worked hard at details." It is true that his botanical 

 work added a mass of corroborative detail to the case for 

 Evolution, but the chief support to his doctrines given by 

 these researches was of another kind. They supplied an 

 argument against those critics who have so freely dogmatised 

 as to the uselessness of particular structures, and as to the 

 consequent impossibility of their having been developed by 

 means of natural selection. His observations on Orchids 

 enabled him to say : " I can show the meaning of some of 

 the apparently meaningless ridges, horns ; who will now 



