282 THE STRUCTURE OF FLOWERS. 



througli compensation and atrophy, tlie ovules being appa- 

 rently particularly sensitive. To meet this difficulty nature 

 seems, to speak metaphorically, to have tried two methods, 

 either to make an immense number of seeds, so that at least 

 a few might be perfect, or else to attempt no more than four 

 or even one, so that at least they should be vigorous, and 

 survive in the struggle for life during the critical periods of 

 germination and seedling existence. To judge by results, 

 this latter method turns out to be the best. 



The interpretation, then, I would offer of inconspicuous- 

 ness and all kinds of degradations is the exact opposite to 

 that of conspicuousness and great differentiations ; namely, 

 that species with minute flowers, rarely or never visited by 

 insects, and habitually self-fertilised, have primarily arisen 

 through the neglect of insects, and have in consequence 

 assumed their present floral structures. The external 

 stimulus or irritations derived from the weights, pressures, 

 and punctures of insects being no longer applied, the 

 secretion of honey has failed, the corolla ceasing to be 

 subject to hypertrophy has atrophied. A like procedure has 

 obtained with the stamens, while a large proportion of pollen 

 has become effete, the anthers being partly contabescent, as 

 it is called. What remains, though often altered in cha- 

 racter, is amply sufficient to set an abundance of seed. 



With regard to the pistil, however, the reverse of this 

 has in some respects taken place. The corolla and androecium 

 no longer putting a check upon the rapid development of 

 the gyncecium, the latter has a strong tendency to gain the 

 ascendancy ; so that the result is homogamy or protogyny, 

 with an extraordinary fertility of all plants which' have 

 inconspicuous and regularly self-fertilising flowers. 



If the seed be not always in great quantity in one and 

 the same capsule, an ample progeny is secured by the 



