240 EVOLUTION 



to that mainly of retarding definite ones, 

 after their maximum utility has been in- 

 dependently reached! 



The same simple conception unlocks innu- 

 merable problems of floral morphology, large 

 and small alike, from the inevitable develop- 

 ment of angiosperm from gymnosperm (by 

 the continuous subordination in vegetative 

 development of the reproductive carpellary 

 leaf) to the origin of many of the refined 

 minor "adaptations" of the dominant school. 

 Adaptation to insects, to wind also, thus falls 

 from a primary to at most a very secondary 

 place as a factor in the evolution of fiowers; 

 for the characteristics usually ascribed to 

 the selective action of wind and insects 

 constantly appear at the extremes of the 

 relatively more vegetative and more floral 

 series which are discernible more or less in 

 every alliance, great and small. Witness 

 among the vast group of monocotyledons, 

 the extremes of the grasses and the orchids 

 respectively; or in a single genus, say 

 Senecio, its weedy groundsels and gorgeous 

 cinerarias. 



Justification of the Present Theory 

 IN Rustic Experience. — Now this whole 

 theoretic reinterpretation : whence is it.^ 

 Again from experience. With the resources 

 of a great garden, at any rate with a gardener 



