THE ORIGIN OF PETALS. 



have seen, they would gain an advantage in the 

 struggle for life over their less fortunate compeers, 

 and would hand down their own peculiarities to their 

 descendants after them. 



But as the stamens of almost all flowers, certainly 

 of all the oldest and simplest flowers, are yellow, it 

 would seem naturally to follow that the earliest petals 

 would be yellow too. When the stamens of the 

 outer row were flattened and broadened into petals, 

 there would be no particular reason why they should 

 change their colour ; and, in the absence of any good 

 reason, they doubtless retained it as before. Indeed, 

 we shall see, a little later on, that the earliest and 

 simplest types of existing flowers are almost always 

 yellow, seldom white, and never blue; and this in 

 itself would be a sufficient ground for believing that 

 yellow was the original colour of all petals. But as 

 it is somewhat heretical to believe, contrary to the 

 general run of existing scientific opinion, that petals 

 are derived from flattened stamens, instead of from 

 simplified and attenuated leaves, it may be well to 

 detail here the reasons for this belief, because it 

 seems of capital importance in connection with our 

 present subject ; for if the petals were originally a 

 row of altered stamens set apart for the special 

 function of attracting insects, it would be natural 

 and obvious why they should begin by being yellow ; 

 but if they were originally a set of leaves, which 

 became thinner and more brightly coloured for the 

 same purpose, it would be difficult to see why they 

 should first have assumed any one colour rather than 

 another. 



The accepted doctrine as to the nature of petals is 



