JULY, 1909.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 219 
had in the evolutionary process. The theory of evolution demanded the 
existence of variations, and in the search for these many kinds of 
abnormalities were collected, which in all probability had little to do with 
the main lines of differentiation. What we really wanted was some criterion 
which would enable us to separate the variations to which evolution is due 
from mere monstrosities which have nothing to do with evolution, and the 
only hope of obtaining such a criterion was to work on the lines laid down 
by Masters, to record and figure the structure of abnormalities, of whatever 
kind, and, what was equally important, find out whether the abnormality was 
repeated in the offspring. Such investigation had been made possible by the 
work of Masters, which enabled the enquirer to find out whether an 
abnormality of a similar kind had been recorded before, and to fit it into a 
scheme which, as Masters admitted, was only an approximation to a natural 
one. 
Teratology might often succeed in affording a clue to the primitive 
structure of organs when the investigation of the normal had failed. The 
study of monstrosities was also likely to throw a great deal of light on the 
question of the symmetry of distribution of organs in the plant body, and, 
lastly, we could not guess what problems might not ultimately be solved by 
a proper acquaintance with these curious phenomena. These were merely 
illustrations of the truth that the surest road to a knowledge of the normal 
was the investigation of the abnormal. 
The last remark seems particularly applicable to Orchids, in which 
deviations from normal structure have thrown a flood of light on the 
homology of the organs of this complex family of plants. 
EXCLUSIVE HABITS OF ORCHIDS. 
SOME very interesting remarks about the pollination of flowers were made 
by Mr. B. H. Bentley, of Sheffield University, in a lecture on ‘‘ Photo- 
graphic Studies in the Biology of Flowers,” which he delivered before a 
very well-attended meeting of the Literary and Philosophical Society. To 
a botanist, he said, a flower was a device to secure the production of fertile 
seeds. The seed must be preceded by pollination, which was the trans- 
ference of pollen from the anthers of the stamens to a part of the flower 
known as the stigma, usually that of a different flower. The transference 
in the earliest flowers was by the wind. Later flowers were pollinated by 
animals, mostly insects. The evolution of higher flowers and higher insects 
took place side by side. Mr. Bentley illustrated the different stages of 
evolution by a series of original photographs from Nature. Among examples 
of wind pollination were shown the flowers of native grasses, constructed 
30 that the stamens could be shaken by the slightest breath of wind, and 
