THE SUPERNATURAL. 45 



This would tend to their respective perpetuation, 

 and to the constant lengthening of nectaries and 

 of noses. But the passage is so curious and char- 

 acteristic, that it is well to give Mr Darwin's own 

 words : — 



" As certain Moths of Madagascar became larger, 

 through natural selection in relation to their gene- 

 ral conditions of life, either in the larval or mature 

 state, or as the proboscis alone was lengthened to 

 obtain honey from the Angraecum, those individual 

 plants of the Angraecum which had the longest 

 nectaries, (and the nectary varies much in length 

 in some Orchids,) and which, consequently, com- 

 pelled the Moths to insert their probosces up to 

 the very base, would be the best fertilised. These 

 plants would yield most seed, and the seedlings 

 would generally inherit longer nectaries ; and so 

 it would be in successive generations of the plant 

 and "Moth. Thus it would appear that there has 

 been a race in gaining length between the nectary 

 of the Angraecum and the proboscis of certain 

 Moths ; but the Angraecum has triumphed, for it 

 nourishes and abounds in the forests of Mada- 

 gascar, and still troubles each Moth to insert its 



