PREFACE. XI 



while Mr. Darwin seems at last to have tacitly accepted 

 Lamarck's ideas, at least to a considerable extent, we 

 have here a return in 1887 to the views of the author of 

 the " Vestiges " of 1884. 



1888. I have attempted in the present work to return 

 to 1795, and to revive the " Monde ambiant " of Geoffroy 

 Saint Hilaire, as the primal cause of change. My object 

 is to endeavour to refer every part of the structures of 

 flowers to some one or more definite causes arising from 

 the environment taken in its widest sense. To some 

 extent the attempt must be regarded as speculative ; 

 and, therefore, any deductive or db priori reasonings met 

 with must be considered by the reader as being suggestive 

 only. 



