Cleavers. i 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 than 

 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-r 

 Hums, which are the most advanced (or 

 degraded) species of all, have the tube Flower of Field- 

 very short or hardly perceptible, and 

 the more so in proportion as they are most widely 

 divergent from the primitive type. 



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 insects, such as bees and butterflies and hum- 

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



