Page - 256 - in The Origin of Species

256 ORIGIN OF SPECIES like those of the domestic di'cks—and then into lamellae, as perfect as those of the shoveller-duck,—and finally into the gigantic plates of baleen, as in the mouth of the Greenland whale. In the family of the ducks, the lamellse are first used as teeth, then partly as teeth and partly as a sifting ap- paratus, and at last almost exclusively for this latter purpose. With such structures as the above lamellae ofhorn or whale- bone, habit or use can have done little or nothing, as far as we can judge, towards their development. On the other hand, the transportal of the lower eye of a flat-fish to the upper side of the head, and the formation of a prehensile tail, may be attributed almost wholly to continued use, together with inheritance. With respect to the mammae of the higher animals, the most probable conjecture is that primordially the cutaneous glands over the whole surface of a marsupial sack secreted a nutritious fluid ; and that these glands were improved in function through natural selection, and concen- trated into a confined area, in which case they would have formed a mamma. There is no more difficulty in under- standing how the branched spines of some ancient Echino- derm, which served as a defence, became developed through natural selection into tridactyle pedicellariae, than in under- standing the development of the pincers of crustaceans, through slight, serviceable modifications in the ultimate and penultimate segments of a limb, which was at first used solely for locomotion. In the avicularia and vibracula of the Polyzoa we have organs widely different in appearance de- veloped from the same source ; and with the virbracula we can understand how the successive gradations might have been of service. With the pollinia of orchids, the threads which originally served to tie together the pollen-grains, can be traced cohering into caudicles; and the steps can likewise be followed by which viscid matter, such as that secreted by the stigmas of ordinary flowers, and still subserving nearly but not quite the same purpose, became attached to the free ends of the caudicles;—all these gradations being of mani- fest benefit to the plants in question. With respect to climb- ing plants, I need not repeat what has been so lately said. It has often been asked, if natural selection be so potent, why has not this or that structure been gained by certain