DEGENERACY OF FLOWERS. 283 



extremely rapid maturation of the fruits in succession ; as 

 may be remarkably well seen in Chickweed. 



The general result is that all these " weed-like " plants, 

 with which wind-fertilised herbs must be associated as equally 

 independent of insects, of all flowering plants are by far the 

 most widely dispersed, and are, in fact, cosmopolitan ; * and 

 although they be small and annuals, are yet best capable of 

 holding their own in the great struggle for life. 



Rudimentary Organs. — These are the ultimate result of 

 atrophy and degeneracy in flowers. They are so well known 

 as occurring in all parts of plants, vegetative and repro- 

 ductive, that I need not describe them now. The reader 

 will doubtless gather from all that has been said about 

 hypertrophy and atrophy as causes of development and 

 degeneration respectively, that they are just what one 

 would expect to find. Indeed, every organ can be met witli 

 in every stage of degeneration till it has completely vanished ; 

 and even when all visible trace is wanting, the vascular cord 

 belonging to it may in some cases still be detected. Last of 

 all, this vanishes as well. These differences, for instance, 

 can be witnessed in the presence or absence of the "trace" 

 of the fifth stamen of the Labiatie. 



It is thought by some that a rudimentary organ may 

 become a honey-secreting gland, as Robert Brown suggested 

 for some Cruciferous plants. Glands mostly consist of epider- 

 mal and sub-epidermal tissues only, and if they occupy the 

 place of an organ, the latter has the vessels arrested before 

 they reach into the gland, which therefore is still of the same 

 nature. In the male flower of Lychnis dioica the disk sur- 

 rounds the rudimentary pistil, which in no way contributes 



* In my essay referred to, I have given a lonji^ list of self-fertilising 

 plants which have been discovered in widely distant localities over the 

 northern and southern hemispheres. 



