246 Flowci^s and their Pedigrees. 



though they are minute and green instead of being 

 brilliantly coloured ; and they are closely folded 

 over the central organs, instead of being bent back 

 and displayed ostentatiously to the eyes of passing 

 insects. There are six stamens too, one under each 

 petal, almost concealed by the scale-like covering ; 

 and in the centre there is an ovary which when cut 

 across proves to have sometimes two and sometimes 

 three seed-bearing cells, for the number here has be- 

 come a little indefinite : nature, as so often happens, 

 has begun to lose count. There can be no sort of 

 doubt, then, that acorus represents a very reduced 

 and degraded lily, still retaining all its primitive 

 structural arrangements, but with its flowers greatly 

 diminished in size, and with its original bright colour 

 almost entirely lost by disuse and degradation. 



The reason why this little acorus or sweet-sedge 

 has thus gone backward in the course of development 

 is not a very difficult one to understand. Brilliant 

 flowers like the lilies depend for fertilisation upon 

 large colour-loving insects, such as bees and butter- 

 flies, which are attracted by their flaunting hues and 

 their abundant store of rich honey, and so uncon- 

 sciously carry the impregnating pollen from head to 

 head. But many other plants find it suits their pur- 

 pose better to depend either upon the wind or upon 



