CHAPTER 11. 



ADVANTAGES WHICH ACCRUE TO THE PLANT 

 FROM BEARING FLOWERS, AND ESPECIALLY 

 FROM CERTAIN CONFORMATIONS OF PARTS 

 OF THE FLOWER. 



Attempts have been made to arrange the characters of 

 plants Tinder two heads ; those which give their bearers 

 some definite advantage, and those which give none. 

 The former are spoken of as physiological characters, 

 the latter as morphological. It was thought incon- 

 ceivable that any advantage could arise to a plant 

 through having, for example, its leaves decussated in- 

 stead of their being arranged quincuncially. This notion 

 does not appear to me to be justified. That unadvan- 

 tageous characters can appear in an individual, and in 

 fact do appear not rarely, nay that deviations of forma- 

 tion arise which are of direct disadvantage, is not 

 indeed to be disputed ; and this fact is of wide signifi- 

 cance in other qxiestions. But just as certain is it, 

 that the bearers of such unadvantageous characters 

 never form the starting-point of a new species, but 

 vanish, being driven from the scene by the bearers of 

 advantageous characters. As regards the special case 



