Bees could hardly be misled by such deviations. The
carpels of buttercups and columbines, the cells in the capsules of
cotton and many other plants are variable in number. The number of seeds
is thereby regulated in accordance with the available nourishment, but
whether any other useful purpose is served, remains an open question.
Variations in the honey-guides or in the pattern of color-designs might
easily become injurious by deceiving insects, and such instances as the
great variability of the spots on the corolla of some cultivated species
of monkey-flowers, for instance, the _Mimulus quinquevulnerus_, could
hardly be expected to occur in wild plants. For here the dark brown
spots vary between nearly complete deficiency up to such predominancy as
almost to hide the pale yellow ground-color.
After this hasty survey of the causes of fluctuating variability, we now
come to a discussion of Quetelet's law. It asserts that the deviations
from the average obey the law of probability. They behave as if they
were dependent on chance only.
Everyone knows that the law of Quetelet can [726] be demonstrated the
most readily by placing a sufficient number of adult men in a row,
arranging them according to their size. The line passing over their
heads proves to be identical with that given by the law of probability.
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