276 CAUSES OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



and when a hive has lost its queen, the worker 

 bees produce another 1 (Lacordaire). 



Plants afford many instances of degeneration due 

 to defect of nutrition. 



4. Atrophy of the superior flowers in Car ex. In 

 the tall spikes of Carex, it frequently happens that 

 the flowers towards the summit are rudimentary, 

 and authorities are agreed in regarding this condi- 

 tion as the result of defect in nutrition. 



5. Atrophy of pistils and stamens. Cases of 

 atrophy of the stamens or pistils normal in species 

 may be given. 



In Fritillaria persica the flowers are disposed in 

 bunches. The lower flowers possess six perianth 

 members, two cycles of three stamens each, and a 

 pistil. In the median flowers the pistil is smaller, 

 and rarely capable of being fertilized. In the 

 superior flowers the degeneration is complete, the 

 pistil hardly being formed. It might be shown 



1 The transference of a function is not invariably accompanied 

 by degeneration. Thus, in the functional development of an 

 individual's nervous system voluntary acts which have been re- 

 peated frequently become reflex actions, and have their seat in a 

 different region of the nervous system as, for instance, walking 

 and acquired professional dexterities. It has been sought to ex- 

 plain the development of the instincts of species in this Avay by 

 supposing that frequently repeated voluntary acts have become 

 inherited reflexes. As pathological degeneration in man frequently 

 affects the higher regions of the brain, reflexes and instincts may 

 persist after loss of voluntary action. In the cases of transference 

 of nervous functions to lower centres the higher centres do not 

 degenerate but remain able to acquire new voluntary functions. 



