III.] INDEPENDENT SIMILARITIES OF STRUCTURE. 79 



" Seeds are disseminated by their minuteness by their 

 capsule being converted into a light balloon-like envelope 

 by being embedded in pulp or flesh, formed of the most 

 diverse parts, and rendered nutritious, as well as conspicu- 

 ously colored, so as to attract and be devoured by birds 

 by having hooks and grapnels of many kinds and serrated 

 awns, so as to adhere to the fur of quadrupeds and by be- 

 ing furnished with wings and plumes, as different in shape 

 as elegant in structure, so as to be wafted by every breeze." 

 Again, if we consider the poisoning apparatus pos- 

 sessed by different animals, we find in serpents a perfo- 

 rated or, rather, very deeply-channelled tooth. In wasps 

 and bees the sting is formed of modified parts, accessory 

 in reproduction. In the scorpion, we have the median ter- 

 minal process of the body specially organized. In the 

 spider, we have a specially-constructed antenna ; and final- 

 ly in the centipede a pair of modified thoracic limbs. 



It would be easy to produce a multitude of such in- 

 stances of similar ends being attained by dissimilar means, 

 and it is here contended that by " the action of Natural 



