Who painted the Flowers ? 43 



were to believe that he has arrived at a comprehension 

 of the universe by tracing the phenomena of nature to 

 mechanical principles. He would thereby forget that 

 the assumption of eternal matter, with its eternal laws, 

 by no means satisfies our intellectual need for causality. 

 We require before everything an explanation of the fact 

 that relationships everywhere exist between the parts of 

 the universe." x And the same author, than whom it 

 would be impossible to find a higher authority, quotes 

 with approbation the words of Von Baer : " The laws of 

 nature are the permanent expressions of the Will of the 

 Creative Principle." 



Briefly to recapitulate. It is maintained, on the one 

 hand, that all the beauty of flowers can be explained 

 on Darwinian principles, as being of advantage to them 

 in the struggle for existence by attracting the visits of 

 honey-seeking insects, which assist the process of fertili- 

 zation. It appears, on the other hand, however, that 

 there are many difficulties in the way of such a theory, to 

 be found by ordinary observation in the fields around us. 

 The problem of beauty of form remains untouched by 

 such an explanation. There are conspicuous and highly- 

 coloured flowers which contain no honey, and others 

 which produce no seed ; while some of the least notice- 

 able of blossoms are richest in honey and the greatest 

 favourites of bees. Some of the most successful tribes 

 of plants do without insect agency, and prosper better 

 than those which employ it most, and some which 

 largely employ it, never being fertilized, obtain no benefit 

 in return. Plants of the same genus may differ abso- 

 lutely in their attitude as to insects,' and yet their 

 development be so little affected that they bear their 

 affinity to one another stamped upon every feature, and 

 no diversity of insect workers can alter any one minutest 

 character in individuals of one species. 



1 Studies in the Theories of Descent. English translation, with 

 Preface by Darwin. London, 1882, vol. ii., " On the Mechanical 

 Conception of Nature," p. 716. 



