220 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS 



long nectary as slender as a knitting-needle and 

 eleven inches in length ? On your hypothesis 

 there must be a moth with a tongue eleven inch- 

 es long, or this nectary would never have been 

 elaborated." 



Darwin's reply was magnificent in its proof of 

 the sublime conviction of the truth of his belief: 

 " The existence of an orchid with a slender nec- 

 tary eleven inches in length, and with nectar se- 

 creted at its .tip, is a conclusive demonstration of 

 the existence of a moth with a tongue eleven 

 inches in length, even though no such moth is 

 knownr 



Many of us remember the ridicule which was 

 heaped upon him for this apparently blind ad- 

 herence to an untenable theory. But victory 

 complete and demoralizing to his opponents 

 awaited this oracular utterance when later a dis- 

 ciple of Darwin, led by the same spirit of faith 

 and conviction, visited Madagascar, and was soon 

 able to affirm that he had caught the moth, a 

 huge sphinx -moth, and that its tongue measured 

 eleven inches in length. 



Here we see the prophecy of the existence of 

 an unknown moth, founded on the form of a blos- 

 som. At that time the moth had not been actu- 

 ally seen at work on the orchid, but who shall 



