s of this admirable structure, have been brought about by vague,
aimless, and indefinite variations in all conceivable directions of an
organ, suitable to enable the rudest savage to minister to his necessities,
but no more?

Mr. Wallace[43] makes an analogous remark with regard to the organ of voice
in man--the human larynx. He says of singing: "The habits of savages give
no indication of how this faculty could have been developed by Natural
Selection, because it is never required or used by them. The singing of
savages is a more or less monotonous howling, and the females seldom sing
at all. Savages certainly never choose their wives for fine voices, but for
rude health, and strength, and physical beauty. Sexual selection could not
therefore have developed this wonderful power, which only comes into play
among civilized people."

Reverting once more to beauty of form and colour, there is one
manifestation of it for which no one can pretend that sexual selection can
possibly account. The instance referred to is that presented by bivalve
shell-fish.[44] Here we meet with charming tints and elegant forms and
markings of no direct use to their possessors[45] in the struggle for {55}
life, and of no indirect utility as regards sexual selection, for
fertilization takes place by the mere action of currents of water, and the
least beautiful individual has fully as good a chance of becoming a parent
as has the one which is the most favoured in beauty of form and colour.

Again, the peculiar outline and coloration of certain orchids--notably of
our own bee, fly, and spider orchids--seem hardly explicable by any action
of "Natural Selection." Mr. Darwin says very little on this singular
resemblance of flowers to insects, and what he does say seems hardly to be
what an advocate of "Natural Selection" would require. Surely, for minute
accidental indefinite variations to have built up such a striking
resemblance to insects, we ought to find that the preservation of the
plant, or the perpetuation of its race, depends almost constantly on
relations between bees, spiders, and flies respectively and the bee,
spider, and fly orchids.[46] This process must have continued for ages
constantly and perseveringly, and yet what is the fact? Mr. Darwin tells
us, in his work on the Fertilization of Orchids, that neither the spider
nor the fly orchids are much visited by insects, while, with regard to the
bee orchid, he says, "I have never seen