DEGENERATION. 95 



small caducous bulbs. Here, degeneration is the 

 only possible solution of the problem presented by 

 the facts. 



More frequently, however, reversion to wind-ferti; 

 lisation (probably the primitive habit of all flowering 

 plants) has produced green blossoms among angio- 

 sperms. This may result in two or three distinct 

 ways. Either the corolla may become dwarfed and 

 inconspicuous, or it may coalesce with the sepals or 

 calyx-tube, or it may cease to be produced alto- 

 gether. We may take the plaintains (Plant ago} as 

 a good example of the first-named case. Here we 

 have tubular florets with four corolla-lobes, apparently 

 descended from some form not unlike Veronica (though 

 with four cells to the ovary) but immensely degraded. 

 The corolla is thin and scarious,. and its lobes are 

 tucked away at the sides, so as not to interfere with 

 the stamens and style. These, again, as in most 

 wind-fertilised plants, hang out freely to the breeze ; 

 so that the whole spike when flowering shows no 

 signs of a corolla from without, but seems to consist 

 entirely of scales, stamens, and styles, just like a 

 sedge or grass-plant. The expensive display of 

 petals is no longer useful to the plant, which, there- 

 fore, economises the material that would otherwise 

 be employed to allure the insects. It is impossible, 

 however, to examine the functionless corolla without 

 coming to the conclusion that Plantago must be de- 

 scended from an entomophilous ancestor. Indeed, 

 P. media still to some extent lays itself out to attract 

 small flies, by which it is even now often visited and 

 fertilised. 



More degraded still is the allied Littorella, which 



