140 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



case of the sundew, seeing that its parent form was al- 

 most certainly a saxifrage like the common little London 

 pride ; and these saxifrages are all noticeable for their 

 very sticky glandular stems and dotted leaves. If any 

 such plant, growing in peaty spots, occasionally by mere 

 accident caught flies, which decayed on the surface of its 

 leaves and so supplied it with a little stock of manure, 

 it would benefit by the habit thus initiated ; and natural 

 selection would tend to increase and specialise that habit 

 in the future. So there would slowly be evolved the 

 long glandular tentacles, followed by the actual develop- 

 ment of a true digestive absorbent system, and at last of 

 something closely resembling a set of nerves, to enable 

 the arms to close in immediately upon the struggling 

 prey. 



Butterwort, on the other hand, began by being a sort 

 of distant cousin to the primroses ; but having been cast 

 into much the same sort of situation as sundew, it has 

 acquired in the end very similar habits ; while at the 

 same time it has also specialised itself in another direc- 

 tion for bee-fertilisation, till its irregular blue flowers 

 now show hardly any trace of their primrose origin save 

 in some small points of internal structure, noticeable 

 only to an anatomical eye. The two plants strikingly 

 exhibit the strange results natural selection will often 

 produce where very exceptional circumstances make the 

 necessaries of vegetable life much more difficult to pro- 

 cure than in normal cases. Under such conditions, 

 plants frequently acquire tricks of structure and move- 

 ment which make them resemble conscious and in- 

 telligent animate creatures to an almost incredible 

 degree. 



