298 
TOPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
saved, many a disappointment might he averted, and many an error in the 
profit and loss account of science on ground of double entry might be 
remedied. 
FLOWERS.* 
TN Botany, as in Zoology, since the publication of Mr. Darwin’s “ Origin of 
-L Species ” an entirely new start has been made. The influence exerted 
by this and the other works of that distinguished naturalist does not depend 
in the very least upon the acceptance or non-acceptance of his peculiar 
theory, or indeed of the doctrine of evolution in any form; it is founded 
upon the fact that the mere raising of the question by a voice so powerful,, 
opened up perfectly new lines of investigation for the naturalist, and drove 
him perforce to the consideration of those interpretations of organic beings as 
living things, which there was great danger might be lost sight of under the 
teachings of the purely anatomical and analytical school of naturalists that 
was rapidly gaining the upper hand. Mr. Darwin’s works, whatever might 
be their intrinsic merits or demerits, certainly had this beneficial effect — they 
drove naturalists to the study of organisms in nature, of their mutual relations 
and influence on each other ; they gave a new and striking significance to 
the facts of geographical distribution, and invested the facts of palaeontology 
with an interest which they never before possessed. Naturally also the old 
teleological view, according to which, as a general rule, natural objects 
were looked at chiefly as they affected ourselves, speedily fell into disrepute, 
and a grander and far more healthy philosophy of nature was insinuated 
into the minds of men. We began to realize that animals and plants might,, 
perhaps, exist for themselves and for each other without reference to the 
convenience or enjoyment of the “ Lords of the Creation,” and as this notion 
gained ground, a multitude of harmonies, before unsuspected, were rapidly 
brought to light. 
Nowhere have the consequences of the new methods of study been more 
striking than in the domain of flowers. A multitude of flowers which 
seemed to ordinary observers mere meaningless bizai'reries, and puzzled the 
botanist by their peculiarities of structure, were found, as in the 6ase of 
the orchids, to have a very serious significance, and their interpretation led 
indirectly to a comprehension of an immense number of other instances of 
apparent anomalies in floral structure, which were now seen to have a deep 
meaning and to be in accordance with a very general law. All these ob- 
servations, by guiding to an appreciation of the influence exercised by insects 
upon the fertilization of flowers, opened a fresh field of research as to the 
purpose in nature of the bright colours and the odours of flowers, and led to 
the investigation of a host of phenomena which had previously attracted 
little attention. 
It is not our purpose, nor is it within our power in the space at our com- 
mand, to attempt giving even a rough sketch of the infinity of points of 
interest connected with flowers and flowering plants of which the new 
* “ Flowers; their Origin, Shapes, Perfumes, and Colour.” By J. E. Taylor* 
Ph.D., F.L.S., F.G.S. Small 8vo. London : Hardwicke & Bogue. 1878. 
