EVIDENCE FURNISHED BY SCIENCE OF LIKENESSES. 141 



the calyx (s) or outer and green part of the flower; or, according to 

 some botanists, by the calyx alone, whose green leaves become 

 thickened, red, and glistening as the summer passes into the autumn, 

 and come to enclose the true fruit (fr) in the form 

 of the little " carpels " similar in nature to those 

 on the outside of the Strawberry. So that the 

 difference, in one botanical theory at least, be- 

 tween the " hip " of the Rose and the Strawberry, 

 simply consists in the fact that the Rose flower- 

 stalk is hollow and has the fruits inside, whilst the 

 end of the Strawberry flower-stalk is solid, and 

 has its fruits outside. The Apple and Pear like- 

 wise exhibit much the same arrangement as the 

 Rose and Strawberry in respect of their fruits. 

 If we suppose the hip of the Rose to have its 

 walls extremely thickened and fleshy, we should FIG. 69. ROSE FRUIT. 

 convert it into a form of fruit resembling the Apple 

 or Pear. No less interesting is the nature of the Fig, which, to be 

 properly understood, should be examined as it grows in the hothouse. 

 Slice your fig longwise (Fig. 70 a), and you will see in its interior, not 

 seeds, but " flowers "; some with stamens (b) alone, others (c) with 

 pistils alone. The Fig appears before us as another example of the 

 hollowing of the flower-stalk, with this important difference, that not 

 merely the fruits but the flowers are contained in its interior. 



It only remains for us to sum up the results and general conclu- 

 sions to which our brief study of the science of likenesses may be 

 said legitimately to lead us. Turning 

 firstly to the features we have just 

 been discussing, we have noted, for 

 instance, that the leaf was the type 

 of the whole plant, and that as the 

 leaf became modified to form the 

 " flower," so that flower and its parts, 

 still representing leaves, became further 

 altered to form the "fruit" under all 

 its varied aspects and forms. From a 

 simple structure the leaf we thus 

 discover, by the aid of the science of likenesses, complex and 

 elaborate organs and parts to be developed. What lessons do such 

 examples teach us concerning the order of Nature at large ? Do 

 these lessons argue in favour of evolution or against that theory of 

 Nature ? The answer is not for a single moment doubtful. If, as 

 our inquiry shows, it is the way of Nature to produce many and 

 varied structures by the modification of one simple organ or part, 

 surely there is no greater wonder involved in the idea, that by the 

 same process of development she has woven from simple forms, the 



FIG. 70. SECTION OF FIG. 



