t the style remains well developed, and is clothed with
hairs as in other compositae, for the purpose of brushing the pollen out
of the surrounding anthers. Again, an organ may become rudimentary for
its proper purpose, and be used for a distinct object: in certain fish
the swim-bladder seems to be rudimentary for its proper function of
giving buoyancy, but has become converted into a nascent breathing organ
or lung. Other similar instances could be given.

Rudimentary organs in the individuals of the same species are very
liable to vary in degree of development and in other respects. Moreover,
in closely allied species, the degree to which the same organ has been
rendered rudimentary occasionally differs much. This latter fact is well
exemplified in the state of the wings of the female moths in certain
groups. Rudimentary organs may be utterly aborted; and this implies,
that we find in an animal or plant no trace of an organ, which analogy
would lead us to expect to find, and which is occasionally found
in monstrous individuals of the species. Thus in the snapdragon
(antirrhinum) we generally do not find a rudiment of a fifth stamen; but
this may sometimes be seen. In tracing the homologies of the same
part in different members of a class, nothing is more common, or more
necessary, than the use and discovery of rudiments. This is well shown
in the drawings given by Owen of the bones of the leg of the horse, ox,
and rhinoceros.

It is an important fact that rudimentary organs, such as teeth in the
upper jaws of whales and ruminants, can often be detected in the embryo,
but afterwards wholly disappear. It is also, I believe, a universal
rule, that a rudimentary part or organ is of greater size relatively to
the adjoining parts in the embryo, than in the adult; so that the organ
at this early age is less rudimentary, or even cannot be said to be in
any degree rudimentary. Hence, also, a rudimentary organ in the adult,
is often said to have retained its embryonic condition.

I have now given the leading facts with respect to rudimentary organs.
In reflecting on them, every one must be struck with astonishment: for
the same reasoning power which tells us plainly that most parts and
organs are exquisitely adapted for certain purposes, tells us with equal
plainness that these rudimentary or atrophied organs, are imperfect and
useless. In works on natural history rudimentary organs are generally
said to have been created "fo