initial commit of ebook 29739HEADmain

27 files changed, 15544 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/29739-8.txt b/29739-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb2f41f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4528 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Masterpieces of Science:, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Little Masterpieces of Science:
+       The Naturalist as Interpreter and Seer
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: George Iles
+
+Release Date: August 20, 2009 [EBook #29739]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE: ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sigal Alon, Marcia Brooks, Fox in the Stars
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE
+
+[Illustration: Charles R. Darwin.]
+
+
+
+
+Little Masterpieces
+of Science
+
+
+Edited by George Iles
+
+
+
+
+THE NATURALIST AS INTERPRETER AND SEER
+
+
+_By_
+
+
+  Charles Darwin
+  Alfred R. Wallace
+  Thomas H. Huxley
+  Leland O. Howard
+  George Iles
+
+
+NEW YORK
+
+DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+1902
+
+
+Copyright, 1902, by Doubleday, Page & Co.
+
+Copyright, 1877, by D. Appleton & Co.
+
+Copyright, 1901, by John Wanamaker
+
+Copyright, 1895, by G. H. Buek & Co.
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: Obvious printer's errors have been silently
+corrected. Hyphenated and accented words have been standardized. See
+the end of this file for more information.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+To gather stones and fallen boughs is soon to ask, what may be done with
+them, can they be piled and fastened together for shelter? So begins
+architecture, with the hut as its first step, with the Alhambra, St.
+Peter's, the capitol at Washington, as its last. In like fashion the
+amassing of fact suggests the ordering of fact: when observation is
+sufficiently full and varied it comes to the reasons for what it sees.
+The geologist delves from layer to layer of the earth beneath his tread,
+he finds as he compares their fossils that the more recent forms of life
+stand highest in the scale of being, that in the main the animals and
+plants of one era are more allied to those immediately next than to
+those of remoter times. He thus divines that he is but exploring the
+proofs of lineal descent, and with this thought in his mind he finds
+that the collections not only of his own district, but of every other,
+take on a new meaning. The great seers of science do not await every jot
+and tittle of evidence in such a case as this. They discern the drift of
+a fact here, a disclosure there, and with both wisdom and boldness
+assume that what they see is but a promise of what shall duly be
+revealed. Thus it was that Darwin early in his studies became convinced
+of the truth of organic evolution: the labours of a lifetime of all but
+superhuman effort, a judicial faculty never exceeded among men, served
+only to confirm his confidence that all the varied forms of life upon
+earth have come to be what they are through an intelligible process,
+mainly by "natural selection."
+
+The present volume offers from the classic pages of Darwin his summary
+of the argument of "The Origin of Species," his account of how that book
+came to be written, and his recapitulation of "The Descent of Man." All
+this affords a supreme lesson as to the value of observation with a
+purpose. When Darwin was confronted with an organ or trait which puzzled
+him, he was wont to ask, What use can it have had? And always the answer
+was that every new peculiarity of plant, or beast, is seized upon and
+held whenever it confers advantage in the unceasing conflict for place
+and food. No hue of scale or plume, no curve of beak or note of song,
+but has served a purpose in the plot of life, or advanced the action in
+a drama where the penalty for failure is extinction.
+
+As Charles Darwin stood first among the naturalists of the nineteenth
+century, his advocacy of evolution soon wrought conviction among the
+thinkers competent to follow his evidence and weigh his arguments. The
+opposition to his theories though short was sharp, and here he found a
+lieutenant of unflinching courage, of the highest expository power, in
+Professor Huxley. This great teacher came to America in 1876, and
+discoursed on the ancestry of the horse, as disclosed in fossils then
+recently discovered in the Far West, maintaining that they afforded
+unimpeachable proof of organic evolution. His principal lecture is here
+given.
+
+In a remarkable field of "natural selection" Bates, Wallace and Poulton
+have explained the value of "mimicry" as an aid to beasts, birds,
+insects, as they elude their enemies or lie unsuspected on the watch for
+prey. The resemblances thus worked out through successive generations
+attest the astonishing plasticity of bodily forms, a plasticity which
+would be incredible were not its evidence under our eyes in every
+quarter of the globe. Insects have high economic importance as agents of
+destruction: we are learning how to pit one of them against another, so
+as to leave a clear field to the farmer and the fruit grower. In this
+department a leader is Professor Howard, who contributes a noteworthy
+chapter on the successful fight against the pest which threatened with
+ruin the orange groves of California.
+
+To the every-day observer the most enticing field of natural history is
+that in which common flowers and common insects work out their unending
+co-partnery. A blossom by its scent, its beauty of tint, allures a moth
+or bee and thus, in effect, is able to take flight and find a mate
+across a county so as to perpetuate its race a hundred miles from home.
+Our volume closes with a sketch of the singular ties which thus bind
+together the fortunes of blossom and insect, so that at last the very
+form of a flower may be cast in the mould of its winged ally. A word is
+also spoken regarding the singular relations of late detected between
+the world of vegetation and minute forms once deemed parasitic. The pea
+and its kindred harbor on their rootlets certain tiny lodgers; the
+tenants pay a liberal rent in the form of nitrogen compounds, a striking
+interlacement of interests!
+
+GEORGE ILES.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+DARWIN, CHARLES
+
+THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES IN SUMMARY
+
+     Varieties merge gradually into species. Animals tend to
+     increase in geometrical ratio. Varieties diverge in consonance
+     with diversity of opportunity for life. In the struggle
+     for existence those which best accord with their surroundings
+     will survive and propagate their kind. Sexual selection
+     has put a premium on beauty. The causes which in brief
+     periods produce varieties, in long periods give rise to
+     species. Instincts, as of the hive bee, are slowly developed.
+     Geology supports the theory of Evolution: the changes in time
+     in the fossil record are gradual. Geographical distribution
+     lends its corroboration: in each region most of the inhabitants
+     in every great class are plainly related. A common ancestor
+     is suggested when we see the similarity of hand, wing and
+     fin. Embryos of birds, reptiles and fish are closely similar
+     and unlike adult forms. Slight changes in the course of
+     millions of years produce wide divergences.                         3
+
+
+DARWIN, CHARLES
+
+HOW "THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES" CAME TO BE WRITTEN
+
+     During his voyage on the _Beagle_ Darwin saw fossil
+     armadillos like existing species, and on the islands of the
+     Galapagos group a gradually increased diversity of species of
+     every kind. All this suggested that species gradually become
+     modified. Notes gathered of facts bearing on the question.
+     Observes that it is the variation between one animal and
+     another which gives the breeder his opportunity. Reads
+     Malthus on Population, a work which points out the keen
+     struggle for existence and that favourable variations tend to
+     be preserved. In 1842 draws up a brief abstract of the theory
+     of "natural selection." In 1856 begins an elaborate work on
+     the same theme, but in 1858, hearing that Wallace has written
+     an essay advancing an independent theory of natural selection,
+     offers a summary of his argument to the Linnean Society
+     of London. Writes "The Origin of Species," which is published
+     most successfully, November, 1859.                                  35
+
+
+DARWIN, CHARLES
+
+THE DESCENT OF MAN: THE ARGUMENT IN BRIEF
+
+     Since evolution is probable for all other animals, it is
+     probable for man. The human form has so much in common with
+     the forms of other animals that community of descent is
+     strongly suggested. Man, like other creatures, is subject to
+     the struggle for existence. Evidence shows that it is likely
+     that man is descended from a tailed and hairy quadruped that
+     dwelt in trees. Man's mental power has been the chief factor
+     in his advance, especially in his development of language.
+     Conscience is due to social instincts, love of approbation,
+     memory, imagination and religious feeling. Sexual selection
+     in its effects upon human advancement.                              45
+
+
+WALLACE, ALFRED R.
+
+MIMICRY AND OTHER PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS
+
+     The colours of animals are useful for concealment from their
+     prey, from the creatures upon which they prey. The lion is
+     scarcely visible as he crouches on the sand or among desert
+     rocks and stones. Larks, quails and many other birds are so
+     tinted and mottled that their detection is difficult. The
+     polar bear, living amid ice and snow, is white. Reptiles and
+     fish are so coloured as to be almost invisible in the grass
+     or gravel where they rest. Many beetles and other insects
+     are so like the leaves or bark on which they feed that
+     when motionless they cannot be discerned. Some butterflies
+     resemble dead, dry or decaying leaves so closely as to elude
+     discovery. Every individual better protected by colour than
+     others, has a better chance for life, and of transmitting his
+     hues. Harmless beetles and flies are so like wasps and bees
+     as to be left alone.                                                71
+
+
+HUXLEY, THOMAS H.
+
+EVOLUTION OF THE HORSE
+
+     The hoof of the horse is simply a greatly enlarged and
+     thickened nail: four of his five toes are reduced to mere
+     vestiges. His teeth are built of substances of varying
+     hardness: they wear away at different rates presenting uneven
+     grinding surfaces. Probable descent of the horse, link by
+     link, especially as traced in the fossils of North America.
+     Evolution has taken a long time: how long the physicist and
+     the astronomer must decide.                                        101
+
+
+HOWARD, LELAND O.
+
+FIGHTING PESTS WITH INSECT ALLIES
+
+     A scale insect threatened with ruin the orchards of California.
+     Professor C. V. Riley decided that the pest was a native
+     of Australia. Mr. A. Hoebele observes in Australia that
+     the pest is kept down by ladybirds. These are accordingly
+     sent to California where they destroy the scale insect and
+     restore prosperity among the fruit-growers. Another pest,
+     of olive trees, is devoured by an imported ladybird of
+     another species. This plan extended to Portugal and Egypt
+     with success. Grasshoppers killed by a fungus cultivated
+     for the purpose. Introduction into the United States of
+     the insect which fertilizes the Smyrna fig.                        123
+
+
+ILES, GEORGE
+
+THE STRANGE STORY OF THE FLOWERS: A CHAPTER IN MODERN BOTANY
+
+     Dress is important, whether natural or artificial. Because
+     they catch dust on their clothes, bees, moths and butterflies
+     have brought about myriad espousals of flower with flower.
+     Colours and scents of blossoms attract insects. A flower
+     which in form, scent or hue varies gainfully is likely to
+     survive while others perish. All the parts of a flower are
+     leaves in disguise. Floral modes of repulsion and defence.
+     Plants which devour insects, a habit gradually acquired. The
+     mesquit tree tells of water. Plants believed to indicate
+     mineral veins. Seeds as emigrants equipped with wings or
+     hooks. Parasitic plants and their degradation. Tenants that
+     pay a liberal rent. The gardener as a creator of new flowers.
+     The modern sugar beet due to Mons. Vilmorin.                       139
+
+
+
+
+THE NATURALIST AS
+INTERPRETER AND
+SEER
+
+
+
+
+THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES: THE ARGUMENT IN SUMMARY
+
+CHARLES DARWIN
+
+     [Charles Darwin, one of the greatest men of all time, did
+     more to advance and prove the theory of evolution than
+     anybody else who ever lived. This he accomplished by virtue
+     of the highest gifts of observation, experiment, and
+     generalization. His truthfulness, patience, and calmness of
+     judgment have never been exceeded by mortal. His works are
+     published by D. Appleton & Co., New York, together with his
+     "Life and Letters," edited by his son Francis. From "The
+     Origin of Species" the argument in summary is here given.]
+
+
+On the view that species are only strongly marked and permanent
+varieties, and that each species first existed as a variety, we can see
+why it is that no line of demarcation can be drawn between species,
+commonly supposed to have been produced by special acts of creation, and
+varieties which are acknowledged to have been produced by secondary
+laws. On this same view we can understand how it is that in a region
+where many species of a genus have been produced, and where they now
+flourish, these same species should present many varieties; for where
+the manufactory of species has been active, we might expect, as a
+general rule, to find it still in action; and this is the case if
+varieties be incipient species. Moreover, the species of the larger
+genera, which afford the greater number of varieties or incipient
+species, retain to a certain degree the character of varieties; for they
+differ from each other by a less amount of difference than do the
+species of smaller genera. The closely allied species also of a larger
+genera apparently have restricted ranges, and in their affinities they
+are clustered in little groups round other species--in both respects
+resembling varieties. These are strange relations on the view that each
+species was independently created, but are intelligible if each existed
+first as a variety.
+
+As each species tends by its geometrical rate of reproduction to
+increase inordinately in number; and as the modified descendants of each
+species will be enabled to increase by as much as they become more
+diversified in habits and structure, so as to be able to seize on many
+and widely different places in the economy of nature, there will be a
+constant tendency in natural selection to preserve the most divergent
+offspring of any one species. Hence, during a long-continued course of
+modification, the slight differences of characteristic of varieties of
+the same species, tend to be augmented into the greater differences
+characteristic of the species of the same genus. New and improved
+varieties will inevitably supplant and exterminate the older, less
+improved, and intermediate varieties; and thus species are rendered to a
+large extent defined and distinct objects. Dominant species belonging
+to the larger groups within each class tend to give birth to new and
+dominant forms; so that each large group tends to become still larger,
+and at the same time more divergent in character. But as all groups
+cannot thus go on increasing in size, for the world would not hold them,
+the more dominant groups beat the less dominant. This tendency in the
+large groups to go on increasing in size and diverging in character,
+together with the inevitable contingency of much extinction, explains
+the arrangement of all the forms of life in groups subordinate to
+groups, all within a few great classes, which has prevailed throughout
+all time. This grand fact of the grouping of all organic beings under
+what is called the Natural System, is utterly inexplicable on the theory
+of creation.
+
+As natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight, successive,
+favourable variations, it can produce no great or sudden modifications;
+it can act only by short and slow steps. Hence, the canon of "Nature
+makes no leaps," which every fresh addition to our knowledge tends to
+confirm, is on this theory intelligible. We can see why throughout
+nature the same general end is gained by an almost infinite diversity of
+means, for every peculiarity when once acquired is long inherited, and
+structures already modified in many different ways have to be adapted
+for the same general purpose. We can, in short, see why nature is
+prodigal in variety, though niggard in innovation. But why this should
+be a law of nature if each species has been independently created no man
+can explain.
+
+Many other facts are, as it seems to me, explicable on this theory. How
+strange it is that a bird, under the form of a woodpecker, should prey
+on insects on the ground; that upland geese which rarely or never swim,
+would possess webbed feet; that a thrush-like bird should dive and feed
+on sub-aquatic insects; and that a petrel should have the habits and
+structure fitting it for the life of an auk! and so in endless other
+cases. But on the view of each species constantly trying to increase in
+number, with natural selection always ready to adapt the slowly varying
+descendants of each to any unoccupied or ill-occupied place in nature,
+these facts cease to be strange, or might even have been anticipated.
+
+We can to a certain extent understand how it is that there is so much
+beauty throughout nature; for this may be largely attributed to the
+agency of selection. That beauty, according to our sense of it, is not
+universal, must be admitted by every one who will look at some venomous
+snakes, at some fishes, and at certain hideous bats with a distorted
+resemblance to the human face. Sexual selection has given the most
+brilliant colours, elegant patterns, and other ornaments to the males,
+and sometimes to both sexes of many birds, butterflies and other
+animals. With birds it has often rendered the voice of the male musical
+to the female, as well as to our ears. Flowers and fruit have been
+rendered conspicuous by brilliant colours in contrast with the green
+foliage, in order that the flowers may be easily seen, visited and
+fertilized by insects, and the seeds disseminated by birds. How it comes
+that certain colours, sounds and forms should give pleasure to man and
+the lower animals, that is, how the sense of beauty in its simplest form
+was first acquired, we do not know any more than how certain odours and
+flavours were first rendered agreeable.
+
+As natural selection acts by competition, it adopts and improves the
+inhabitants of each country only in relation to their co-inhabitants; so
+that we need feel no surprise at the species of any one country,
+although on the ordinary view supposed to have been created and
+specially adapted for that country, being beaten and supplanted by the
+naturalized productions from another land. Nor ought we marvel if all
+the contrivances in nature be not, as far as we can judge, absolutely
+perfect, as in the case even of the human eye; or if some of them be
+abhorrent to our ideas of fitness. We need not marvel at the sting of
+the bee, when used against an enemy, causing the bee's own death; at
+drones being produced in such great numbers for one single act, and
+being then slaughtered by their sterile sisters; at the astonishing
+waste of pollen by our fir trees; at the instinctive hatred of the queen
+bee for her own fertile daughters; at ichneumonidę feeding within the
+living bodies of caterpillars; or at other such cases. The wonder
+indeed, is, on the theory of natural selection, that more cases of the
+want of absolute perfection have not been detected.
+
+The complex and little known laws governing production of varieties are
+the same, as far as we can judge, with the laws which have governed the
+production of distinct species. In both cases physical conditions seem
+to have produced some direct and definite effect, but how much we cannot
+say. Thus, when varieties enter any new station, they occasionally
+assume some of the characters proper to the species of that station.
+With both varieties and species, use and disuse seem to have produced a
+considerable effect; for it is impossible to resist this conclusion when
+we look, for instance, at the logger-headed duck, which has wings
+incapable of flight, in nearly the same condition as in the domestic
+duck; or when we look at the burrowing tucu-tucu, which is occasionally
+blind, and then at certain moles, which are habitually blind and have
+their eyes covered with skin; or when we look at the blind animals
+inhabiting the dark caves of America and Europe. With varieties and
+species, correlated variation seems to have played an important part, so
+that when one part has been modified other parts have been necessarily
+modified. With both varieties and species, reversions to long-lost
+characters occasionally occur. How inexplicable on the theory of
+creation is the occasional appearance of stripes on the shoulders and
+legs of the several species of the horse-genus and of their hybrids! How
+simply is this fact explained if we believe that these species are all
+descended from a striped progenitor, in the same manner as the several
+domestic breeds of the pigeon are descended from the blue and barred
+rock pigeon!
+
+On the ordinary view of each species having been independently created,
+why should specific characters, or those by which the species of the
+same genus differ from each other, be more variable than generic
+characters in which they all agree? Why, for instance, should the colour
+of a flower be more likely to vary in any one species of genus, if the
+other species possess differently coloured flowers, than if all
+possessed the same coloured flowers? If species are only well-marked
+varieties, of which the characters have become in a high degree
+permanent, we can understand this fact; for they have already varied
+since they branched off from a common progenitor in certain characters,
+by which they have come to be specifically different from each other;
+therefore these same characters would be more likely again to vary than
+the generic characters which have been inherited without change for an
+immense period. It is inexplicable on the theory of creation why a part
+developed in a very unusual manner in one species alone of a genus, and
+therefore, as we may naturally infer, of great importance to that
+species, should be eminently liable to variation; but, on our view,
+this part has undergone, since the several species branched off from a
+common progenitor, an unusual amount of variability and modification,
+and therefore we might expect the part generally to be still variable.
+But a part may be developed in the most unusual manner, like the wing of
+a bat, and yet not be more variable than any other structure, if the
+part be common to many subordinate forms, that is, if it has been
+inherited for a very long period; for in this case it will have been
+rendered constant by long-continued natural selection.
+
+Glancing at instincts, marvellous as some are, they offer no greater
+difficulty than do corporeal structures on the theory of the natural
+selection of successive, slight, but profitable modifications. We can
+thus understand why nature moves by graduated steps in endowing certain
+animals of the same class with their several instincts. I have attempted
+to show how much light the principle of gradation throws on the
+admirable architectural powers of the hive-bee. Habit no doubt often
+comes into play in modifying instincts; but it certainly is not
+indispensable, as we see in the case of neuter insects, which leave no
+progeny to inherit the effects of long-continued habit. On the view of
+all the species of the same genus having descended from a common parent,
+and having inherited much in common, we can understand how it is that
+allied species, when placed under widely different conditions of life,
+yet follow nearly the same instincts; why the thrushes of temperate and
+tropical South America, for instance, line their nests with mud like our
+British species. On the view of instincts having been slowly acquired
+through natural selection, we need not marvel at some instincts being
+not perfect and liable to mistakes, and at many instincts causing other
+animals to suffer.
+
+If species be only well-marked and permanent varieties, we can see at
+once why their crossed offspring should follow the same complex laws in
+their degrees and kinds of resemblance to their parents--in being
+absorbed into each other by successive crosses, and in other such
+points--as do the crossed offspring of acknowledged varieties. This
+similarity would be a strange fact, if species had been independently
+created and varieties had been produced through secondary laws.
+
+If we admit that the geological record is imperfect to an extreme
+degree, then the facts, which the record does give, strongly support the
+theory of descent with modification. New species have come on the stage
+slowly and at successive intervals; and the amount of change after equal
+intervals of time, is widely different in different groups. The
+extinction of species and of whole groups of species, which has played
+so conspicuous a part in the history of the organic world, almost
+inevitably follows from the principle of natural selection; for old
+forms are supplanted by new and improved forms. Neither single species
+nor groups of species reappear when the chain of ordinary generation is
+once broken. The gradual diffusion of dominant forms, with the slow
+modification of their descendants, causes the forms of life, after long
+intervals of time, to appear as if they had changed simultaneously
+throughout the world. The fact of the fossil remains of each formation
+being in some degree intermediate in character between the fossils in
+the formations above and below, is simply explained by their
+intermediate position in the chain of descent. The grand fact that all
+extinct beings can be classed with all recent beings, naturally follows
+from the living and the extinct being the offspring of common parents.
+As species have generally diverged in character during their long course
+of descent and modification, we can understand why it is that the more
+ancient forms, or early progenitors of each group, so often occupy a
+position in some degree intermediate between existing groups. Recent
+forms are generally looked upon as being, on the whole, higher in the
+scale of organization than ancient forms; and they must be higher, in so
+far as the later and more improved forms have conquered the older and
+less improved forms in the struggle for life; they have also generally
+had their organs more specialized for different functions. This fact is
+perfectly compatible with numerous beings still retaining simple but
+little improved structures, fitted for simple conditions of life; it is
+likewise compatible with some forms having retrograded in organization,
+by having become at each stage of descent better fitted for new and
+degraded habits of life. Lastly, the wonderful law of the long endurance
+of allied forms on the same continent--of marsupials [as kangaroos] in
+Australia, of edentata [as armadillos, sloths, and anteaters] in
+America, and other such cases--is intelligible, for within the same
+country the existing and the extinct will be closely allied by descent.
+
+Looking to geographical distribution, if we admit that there has been
+during the long course of ages much migration from one part of the world
+to another, owing to former climatical and geographical changes and to
+the many occasional and unknown means of dispersal, then we can
+understand, on the theory of descent with modification, most of the
+great leading facts in distribution. We can see why there should be so
+striking a parallelism in the distribution of organic beings throughout
+space, and in their geological succession throughout time; for in both
+cases the beings have been connected by the bond of ordinary generation,
+and the means of modification have been the same. We see the full
+meaning of the wonderful fact, which has struck every traveller, namely,
+that on the same continent, under the most diverse conditions, under
+heat and cold, on mountain and lowland, on deserts and marshes, most of
+the inhabitants within each great class are plainly related; for they
+are the descendants of the same progenitors and early colonists. On this
+same principle of former migration, combined in most cases with
+modification, we can understand by the aid of the Glacial period, the
+identity of some few plants and the close alliance of many others, on
+the most distant mountains, and in the northern and southern temperate
+zones; and likewise the close alliance of some of the inhabitants of the
+sea in the northern and southern temperate latitudes, though separated
+by the whole inter-tropical ocean. Although two countries may present
+physical conditions as closely similar as the same species ever acquire,
+we need feel no surprise at their inhabitants being widely different, if
+they have been for a long period completely sundered from each other;
+for as the relation of organism to organism is the most important of all
+relations, and as the two countries will have received colonists at
+various periods and in different proportions, from some other country or
+from each other, the course of modification in the two areas will
+inevitably have been different.
+
+On this view of migration, with subsequent modification, we see why
+oceanic islands are inhabited by only few species, but of these, why
+many are peculiar or endemic forms. We clearly see why species belonging
+to those groups of animals which cannot cross wide spaces of the ocean,
+as frogs and terrestrial mammals, do not inhabit oceanic islands; and
+why, on the other hand, new and peculiar species of bats, animals which
+can traverse the ocean, are often found on islands far distant from any
+continent. Such cases as the presence of peculiar species of bats on
+oceanic islands and the absence of all other terrestrial mammals, are
+facts utterly inexplicable on the theory of independent acts of
+creation.
+
+The existence of closely allied representative species in any two areas,
+implies on the theory of descent with modification, that the same
+parent-forms formerly inhabited both areas: and we almost invariably
+find that wherever many closely allied species inhabit two areas, some
+identical species are still common to both. Wherever many closely allied
+yet distant species occur, doubtful forms and varieties belonging to the
+same groups likewise occur. It is a rule of high generality that the
+inhabitants of each area are related to the inhabitants of the nearest
+source whence immigrants might have been derived. We see this in the
+striking relation of nearly all the plants and animals of the Galapagos
+Archipelago, of Juan Fernandez, and of the other American islands, to
+the plants and animals of the neighbouring American mainland; and of
+those of the Cape Verde Archipelago, and of the other African islands to
+the African mainland. It must be admitted that these facts receive no
+explanation on the theory of creation.
+
+The fact, as we have seen, that all past and present organic beings can
+be arranged within a few great classes, in groups subordinate to groups,
+and with the extinct groups often falling in between the recent groups,
+is intelligible on the theory of natural selection with its
+contingencies of extinction and divergence of character. On these same
+principles we see how it is that the mutual affinities of the forms
+within each class are so complex and circuitous. We see why certain
+characters are far more serviceable than others for classification; why
+adaptive characters derived from rudimentary parts, though of no service
+to the beings, are often of high classificatory value; and why
+embryological characters are often the most valuable of all. The real
+affinities of all organic beings, in contradistinction to their adaptive
+resemblances, are due to inheritance or community of descent. The
+Natural System is a genealogical arrangement, with the acquired grades
+of difference, marked by the terms, varieties, species, genera,
+families, etc.; and we have to discover the lines of descent by the most
+permanent characters, whatever they may be, and of however slight vital
+importance.
+
+The similar framework of bones in the hand of a man, wing of a bat, fin
+of the porpoise, and leg of the horse--the same number of vertebrę
+forming the neck of the giraffe and of the elephant--and innumerable
+other such facts, at once explain themselves on the theory of descent
+with slow and slight successive modifications. The similarity of pattern
+in the wing and in the leg of a bat, though used for such different
+purpose--in the jaws and legs of a crab--in the petals, stamens, and
+pistils of a flower, is likewise, to a large extent, intelligible on
+the view of the gradual modification of parts or organs, which were
+aboriginally alike in an early progenitor in each of these classes. On
+the principle of successive variations not always supervening at an
+early age, and being inherited at a corresponding not early period of
+life, we clearly see why the embryos of mammals, birds, reptiles, and
+fishes should be so closely similar, and so unlike the adult forms. We
+may cease marvelling at the embryo of an air-breathing mammal or bird
+having branchial slits and arteries running in loops, like those of a
+fish which has to breathe the air dissolved in water by the aid of
+well-developed branchię [gills].
+
+Disuse, aided sometimes by natural selection, will often have reduced
+organs when rendered useless under changed habits or conditions of life;
+and we can understand on this view the meaning of rudimentary organs.
+But disuse and selection will generally act on each creature, when it
+has come to maturity and has to play its full part in the struggle for
+existence, and will thus have little power in an organ during early
+life; hence the organ will not be reduced or rendered rudimentary at
+this early age. The calf, for instance, has inherited teeth, which never
+cut through the gums of the upper jaw, from an early progenitor having
+well-developed teeth; and we may believe, that the teeth in the mature
+animal were formerly reduced by disuse, owing to the tongue and palate,
+or lips, having become excellently fitted through natural selection to
+browse without their aid; whereas in the calf, the teeth have been left
+unaffected, and on the principle of inheritance at corresponding ages
+have been inherited from a remote period to the present day. On the view
+of each organism with all its separate parts having been specially
+created, how utterly inexplicable is it that organs bearing the plain
+stamp of inutility, such as the teeth in the embryonic calf or the
+shrivelled wings under the soldered wing covers of many beetles, should
+so frequently occur. Nature may be said to have taken pains to reveal
+her scheme of modification, by means of rudimentary organs, of
+embryological and homologous [corresponding] structures, but we are too
+blind to understand her meaning.
+
+I have now recapitulated the facts and considerations which have
+thoroughly convinced me that species have been modified, during a long
+course of descent. This has been effected chiefly through the natural
+selection of numerous successive, slight, favourable variations; aided
+in an important manner by the inherited effects of the use and disuse of
+parts; and in an unimportant manner, that is, in relation to adaptive
+structures, whether past or present, by the direct action of external
+conditions, and by variations which seem to us in our ignorance to arise
+spontaneously. It appears that I formerly underrated the frequency and
+value of these latter forms of variation, as leading to permanent
+modifications of structure independently of natural selection. But as
+my conclusions have lately been much misrepresented, and it has been
+stated that I attribute the modification of species exclusively to
+natural selection, I may be permitted to remark that in the first
+edition of this work, and subsequently, I placed in a most conspicuous,
+position--namely, at the close of the Introduction--the following words:
+"I am convinced that natural selection has been the main but not the
+exclusive means of modification." This has been of no avail. Great is
+the power of steady misrepresentation; but the history of science shows
+that fortunately this power does not long endure.
+
+It can hardly be supposed that a false theory would explain, in so
+satisfactory a manner as does the theory of natural selection, the
+several large classes of facts above specified. It has recently been
+objected that this is an unsafe method of arguing; but it is a method
+used in judging the common events of life, and has often been used by
+the greatest natural philosophers. The undulatory theory of light has
+thus been arrived at; and the belief in the revolution of the earth on
+its own axis was until lately supported by hardly any direct evidence.
+It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far
+higher problems of the essence of the origin of life. Who can explain
+what is the essence of the attraction of gravity? No one now objects to
+following out the results consequent on this unknown element of
+attraction; notwithstanding that Leibnitz formerly accused Newton of
+introducing "occult qualities and miracles into philosophy."
+
+I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock
+the religious feelings of any one. It is satisfactory, as showing how
+transient such impressions are, to remember that the greatest discovery
+ever made by man, namely, the law of the attraction of gravity, was also
+attacked by Leibnitz, "as subversive of natural, and inferentially of
+revealed religion." A celebrated author and divine has written to me
+that "he has gradually learned to see that it is just as noble a
+conception of the Deity to believe that He created a few original forms
+capable of self-development into other and needful forms, as to believe
+that He required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by
+the action of His laws."
+
+Why, it may be asked, until recently did nearly all the most eminent
+living naturalists and geologists disbelieve in the mutability of
+species? It cannot be asserted that organic beings in a state of nature
+are subject to no variation; it cannot be proved that the amount of
+variation in the course of long ages is a limited quantity; no clear
+distinction has been, or can be, drawn between species and well-marked
+varieties. It cannot be maintained that species when intercrossed are
+invariably sterile and varieties invariably fertile; or that sterility
+is a special endowment and sign of creation. The belief that species
+were immutable productions was almost unavoidable as long as the
+history of the world was thought to be of short duration; and now that
+we have acquired some idea of the lapse of time, we are too apt to
+assume, without proof, that the geological record is so perfect that it
+would have afforded us plain evidence of the mutation of species, if
+they had undergone mutation.
+
+But the chief cause of our natural unwillingness to admit that one
+species has given birth to other and distinct species, is that we are
+always slow in admitting great changes of which we do not see the steps.
+The difficulty is the same as that felt by so many geologists, when
+Lyell first insisted that long lines of inland cliffs had been formed,
+and great valleys excavated, by the agencies which we still see at work.
+The mind cannot possibly grasp the full meaning of the term of even a
+million years; it cannot add up and perceive the full effects of many
+slight variations, accumulated during an almost infinite number of
+generations.
+
+Although I am fully convinced of the truth of the views given in this
+volume under the form of an abstract, I by no means expect to convince
+experienced naturalists whose minds are stocked with a multitude of
+facts all viewed, during a long course of years, from a point of view
+directly opposite to mine. It is so easy to hide our ignorance under
+such expressions as the "plan of creation," "unity of design," etc., and
+to think that we give an explanation when we only restate a fact. Any
+one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained
+difficulties than to the explanation of a certain number of facts will
+certainly reject the theory. A few naturalists, endowed with much
+flexibility of mind, and who have already begun to doubt the
+immutability of species, may be influenced by this volume; but I look
+with confidence to the future, to young and rising naturalists, who will
+be able to view both sides of the question with impartiality. Whoever is
+led to believe that species are mutable will do good service by
+conscientiously expressing his conviction; for thus only can the load of
+prejudice by which this subject is overwhelmed be removed.
+
+Several eminent naturalists have of late published their belief that a
+multitude of reputed species in each genus are not real species; but
+that other species are real, that is, have been independently created.
+This seems to me a strange conclusion to arrive at. They admit that a
+multitude of forms, which till lately they themselves thought were
+special creations, and which are still thus looked at by the majority of
+naturalists, and which consequently have all the external characteristic
+features of true species--they admit that these have been produced by
+variation, but they refuse to extend the same view to other and slightly
+different forms. Nevertheless, they do not pretend that they can define,
+or even conjecture, which are the created forms of life, and which are
+those produced by secondary laws. They admit variation as a true cause
+in one case, they arbitrarily reject it in another, without assigning
+any distinction in the two cases. The day will come when this will be
+given as a curious illustration of the blindness of preconceived
+opinion. These authors seem no more startled at a miraculous act of
+creation than at an ordinary birth. But do they really believe that at
+innumerable periods in the earth's history certain elemental atoms have
+been commanded suddenly to flash into living tissues? Do they believe
+that at each supposed act of creation one individual or many were
+produced? Were all the infinite numerous kinds of animals and plants
+created as eggs or seed, or as full grown? and in the case of mammals,
+were they created bearing the false marks of nourishment from the
+mother's womb? Undoubtedly some of these same questions cannot be
+answered by those who believe in the appearance or creation of only a
+few forms of life, or of some one form alone. It has been maintained by
+several authors that it is as easy to believe in the creation of a
+million beings as of one; but Maupertuis's philosophical axiom "of least
+action" leads the mind more willingly to admit the smaller number; and
+certainly we ought not to believe that innumerable beings within each
+great class have been created with plain, but deceptive, marks of
+descent from a single parent.
+
+As a record of a former state of things, I have retained in the
+foregoing paragraphs, and elsewhere, several sentences which imply that
+naturalists believe in the separate creation of each species; and I have
+been much censured for having thus expressed myself. But undoubtedly
+this was the general belief when the first edition of the present work
+appeared. I formerly spoke to very many naturalists on the subject of
+evolution, and never once met with any sympathetic agreement. It is
+probable that some did then believe in evolution, but they were either
+silent or expressed themselves so ambiguously that it was not easy to
+understand their meaning. Now, things are wholly changed, and almost
+every naturalist admits the great principle of evolution. There are,
+however, some who still think that species have suddenly given birth,
+through quite unexplained means, to new and totally different forms.
+But, as I have attempted to show, weighty evidence can be opposed to the
+admission of great and abrupt modifications. Under a scientific point of
+view, and as leading to further investigation, but little advantage is
+gained by believing that new forms are suddenly developed in an
+inexplicable manner from old and widely different forms, over the old
+belief in the creation of species from the dust of the earth.
+
+It may be asked how far I extend the doctrine of the modification of
+species. The question is difficult to answer, because the more distinct
+the forms are which we consider, by so much the arguments in favour of
+community of descent become fewer in number and less in force. But some
+arguments of the greatest weight extend very far. All the members of
+whole classes are connected together by a chain of affinities, and all
+can be classed on the same principle, in groups subordinate to groups.
+Fossil remains sometimes tend to fill up very wide intervals between
+existing orders.
+
+Organs in a rudimentary condition plainly show that an early progenitor
+had the organ in a fully developed condition, and this in some cases
+implies an enormous amount of modification in the descendants.
+Throughout whole classes various structures are formed on the same
+pattern, and at a very early age the embryos closely resemble each
+other. Therefore I cannot doubt that the theory of descent with
+modification embraces all the members of the same great class or
+kingdom. I believe that animals are descended from at most only four or
+five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number.
+
+Analogy would lead me one step further, namely, to the belief that all
+animals and plants are descended from some one prototype. But analogy
+may be a deceitful guide. Nevertheless all living things have much in
+common, in their chemical composition, their cellular structure, their
+laws of growth, and their liability to injurious influences. We see this
+even in so trifling a fact as that the same poison often similarly
+affects plants and animals; or that the poison secreted by the gall-fly
+produces monstrous growths on the wild rose or oak tree. With all
+organic beings, excepting perhaps some of the very lowest, sexual
+reproduction seems to be essentially similar. With all, as far as is at
+present known, the germinal vesicle is the same; so that all organisms
+start from a common origin. If we look even to the two main
+divisions--namely, to the animal and vegetable kingdoms--certain low
+forms are so far intermediate in character that naturalists have
+disputed to which kingdom they should be referred. As Professor Asa Gray
+has remarked, "the spores and other reproductive bodies of many of the
+lower algę may claim to have first a characteristically animal, and then
+an unequivocally vegetable existence." Therefore, on the principle of
+natural selection with divergence of character, it does not seem
+incredible that, from some such low and intermediate form, both animals
+and plants may have been developed; and, if we admit this, we must
+likewise admit that all the organic beings which have ever lived on this
+earth may be descended from some one primordial form. But this inference
+is chiefly grounded on analogy, and it is immaterial whether or not it
+is accepted. No doubt it is possible, as Mr. G. H. Lewes has urged, that
+at the first commencement of life many different forms were evolved; but
+if so, we may conclude that only a very few have left modified
+descendants. For, as I have recently remarked in regard to the members
+of each great kingdom, such as the Vertebrata, Articulata, etc., we
+have distinct evidence in their embryological, homologous, and
+rudimentary structures, that within each kingdom all the members are
+descended from a single progenitor.
+
+When the views advanced by me in this volume, and by Mr. Wallace, or
+when analogous views on the origin of species are generally admitted, we
+can dimly foresee that there will be a considerable revolution in
+natural history. Systematists will be able to pursue their labours as at
+present; but they will not be incessantly haunted by the shadowy doubt
+whether this or that form be a true species. This, I feel sure and I
+speak after experience, will be no slight relief. The endless disputes
+whether or not some fifty species of British brambles are good species
+will cease. Systematists will have only to decide (not that this will be
+easy) whether any form be sufficiently constant and distinct from other
+forms, to be capable of definition; and if definable, whether the
+differences be sufficiently important to deserve a specific name. This
+latter point will become a far more essential consideration than it is
+at present; for differences, however slight, between any two forms, if
+not blended by intermediate gradations, are looked at by most
+naturalists as sufficient to raise both forms to the rank of species.
+
+Hereafter we shall be compelled to acknowledge that the only distinction
+between species and well-marked varieties is, that the latter are known,
+or believed to be connected at the present day by intermediate
+gradations, whereas species were formerly thus connected. Hence, without
+rejecting the considerations of the present existence of intermediate
+gradations between any two forms, we shall be led to weigh more
+carefully and to value higher the actual amount of difference between
+them. It is quite possible that forms now generally acknowledged to be
+merely varieties may hereafter be thought worthy of specific names; and
+in this case scientific and common language will come into accordance.
+In short, we shall have to treat species in the same manner as those
+naturalists treat genera, who admit that genera are merely artificial
+combinations made for convenience. This may not be a cheering prospect;
+but we shall at least be freed from the vain search for the undiscovered
+and undiscoverable essence of the term species.
+
+The other and more general departments of natural history will rise
+greatly in interest. The terms used by naturalists, of affinity,
+relationship, community of type, paternity, morphology [the science of
+organic form], adaptive characters, rudimentary and aborted organs,
+etc., will cease to be metaphorical and will have a plain signification.
+When we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship,
+as something wholly beyond his comprehension; when we regard every
+production of nature as one which has had a long history; when we
+contemplate every complex structure and instinct as the summing up of
+many contrivances, each useful to the possessor, in the same way as any
+great mechanical invention is the summing up of the labour, the
+experience, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen; when
+we thus view each organic being, how far more interesting--I speak from
+experience--does the study of natural history become!
+
+A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will be opened, on the
+causes and laws of variation, on correlation, on the effects of use and
+disuse, on the direct action of external conditions, and so forth. The
+study of domestic productions will rise immensely in value. A new
+variety raised by man will be a more important and interesting subject
+for study than one more species added to the infinitude of already
+recorded species. Our classifications will come to be, as far as they
+can be so made, genealogies; and will then truly give what may be called
+the plan of creation. The rules for classifying will no doubt become
+simpler when we have a definite object in view. We possess no pedigree
+or armorial bearings; and we have to discover and trace the many
+diverging lines of descent in our natural genealogies, by characters of
+any kind which have long been inherited. Rudimentary[1] organs will
+speak infallibly with respect to the nature of long-lost structures.
+Species and groups of species which are called aberrant, and which may
+fancifully be called living fossils, will aid us in forming a picture of
+the ancient forms of life. Embryology will often reveal to us the
+structure, in some degree obscured, of the prototypes of each great
+class.
+
+When we can feel assured that all the individuals of the same species,
+and all the closely allied species of most genera, have, within a not
+very remote period descended from one parent, and have migrated from
+some one birth-place; and when we better know the many means of
+migration, then, by the light which geology now throws, and will
+continue to throw, on former changes of climate and of the level of the
+land, we shall surely be enabled to trace in an admirable manner the
+former migrations of the inhabitants of the whole world. Even at
+present, by comparing the differences between the inhabitants of the sea
+on the opposite sides of a continent, and the nature of the various
+inhabitants on that continent in relation to their apparent means of
+immigration, some light can be thrown on ancient geography.
+
+The noble science of geology loses glory from the extreme imperfection
+of the record. The crust of the earth, with its imbedded remains, must
+not be looked at as a well-filled museum, but as a poor collection made
+at hazard and at rare intervals. The accumulation of each great
+fossiliferous formation will be recognized as having depended on an
+unusual occurrence of favourable circumstances, and the blank intervals
+between the successive stages as having been of vast duration. But we
+shall be able to gauge with some security the duration of these
+intervals by a comparison of the preceding and succeeding organic forms.
+We must be cautious in attempting to correlate as strictly
+contemporaneous two formations, which do not include many identical
+species, by the general succession of the forms of life.
+
+As species are produced and exterminated by slowly acting and still
+existing causes, and not by miraculous acts of creation; and as the most
+important of all causes of organic change is one which is almost
+independent of altered and perhaps suddenly altered physical conditions,
+namely, the mutual relation of organism to organism--the improvement of
+one organism entailing the improvement or the extermination of others;
+it follows, that the amount of organic change in the fossils of
+consecutive formations probably serves as a fair measure of the
+relative, though not actual lapse of time. A number of species, however,
+keeping in a body might remain for a long period unchanged, while within
+the same period, several of these species, by migrating into new
+countries and coming into competition with foreign associates, might
+become modified; so that we must not overrate the accuracy of organic
+change as a measure of time.
+
+In the future I see open fields for far more important researches.
+Psychology will be securely based on the foundation already well laid by
+Mr. Herbert Spencer, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental
+power and capacity by gradation. Much light will be thrown on the
+origin of man and his history.
+
+Authors of the highest eminence seem to be fully satisfied with the view
+that each species has been independently created. To my mind it accords
+better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator,
+that the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants
+of the world should have been due to secondary causes, like those
+determining the birth and death of the individual. When I view all
+beings as not special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some
+few beings which lived long before the first bed of the Cambrian system
+was deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled. Judging from the
+past, we may safely infer that not one living species will transmit its
+unaltered likeness to a distant futurity. And of the species now living
+very few will transmit progeny of any kind to a far distant futurity;
+for the manner in which all organic beings are grouped, shows that the
+greater number of species in each genus, and all the species in many
+genera, have left no descendants, but have become utterly extinct. We
+can so far take a prophetic glance into futurity as to foretell that it
+will be the common and widely spread species, belonging to the larger
+and dominant groups within each class, which will ultimately prevail and
+procreate new and dominant species. As all the living forms of life are
+the lineal descendants of those which lived long before the Cambrian
+epoch, we may feel certain that the ordinary succession by generation
+has never once been broken, and that no cataclysm has desolated the
+whole world. Hence, we may look with some confidence to a secure future
+of great length. And as natural selection works solely by and for the
+good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to
+progress toward perfection.
+
+It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many
+plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various
+insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth,
+and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different
+from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner,
+have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws taken in the
+largest sense, being growth with reproduction; Inheritance which is
+almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct
+action of the conditions of life, and from use and disuse: a Ratio of
+Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence
+to Natural Selection, entailing divergence of Character and the
+Extinction of less improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from
+famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of
+conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly
+follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several
+powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms
+or into one; and that, while this planet has gone circling on according
+to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms
+most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] _Vestigial_ is now preferred to _rudimentary_ as a term.--Ed.
+
+
+
+
+HOW "THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES" CAME TO BE WRITTEN.
+
+     [An extract from the autobiography of Charles Darwin, in "The
+     Life and Letters of Charles Darwin," New York, D. Appleton &
+     Co.]
+
+
+From September, 1854, I devoted my whole time to arranging my huge pile
+of notes, to observing and to experimenting in relation to the
+transmutation of species. During the voyage of the _Beagle_ I had been
+deeply impressed by discovering in the Pampean formation great fossil
+animals covered with armour like that on the existing armadillos;
+secondly, by the manner in which closely allied animals replace one
+another in proceeding southwards over the continent; and, thirdly, by
+the South American character of most of the productions of the Galapagos
+Archipelago, and more especially by the manner in which these differ
+slightly on each island of the group, none of these islands appearing to
+be very ancient in a geological sense.
+
+It was evident that such facts as these, as well as many others, could
+only be explained on the supposition that species gradually become
+modified; and the subject haunted me. But it was equally evident that
+neither the action of the surrounding conditions, nor the will of the
+organisms (especially in the case of plants) could account for the
+innumerable cases in which organisms of every kind are beautifully
+adapted to their habits of life--for instance, a woodpecker or a
+tree-frog to climb trees, or a seed for dispersal by hooks or plumes. I
+had always been much struck by such adaptations, and until these could
+be explained it seemed to me almost useless to endeavour to prove by
+indirect evidence that species have been modified.
+
+After my return to England it appeared to me that by following the
+example of Lyell in geology,[2] and by collecting all facts that bore in
+any way on the variation of animals and plants under domestication and
+nature, some light might perhaps be thrown on the whole subject. My
+first note-book was opened in July, 1837. I worked on true Baconian
+principles, and without any theory collected facts on a wholesale scale,
+more especially with respect to domesticated productions, by printed
+enquiries, by conversation with skilful breeders and gardeners and by
+extensive reading. When I see the list of books of all kinds which I
+read and abstracted, including whole series of journals and
+translations, I am surprised at my industry. I soon perceived that
+selection was the keystone of man's success in making useful races of
+animals and plants. But how selection could be applied to organisms
+living in a state of nature remained for some time a mystery to me.
+
+In October, 1838, that is fifteen months after I had begun my systematic
+enquiry, I happened to read for amusement "Malthus on Population," and
+being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which
+everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of
+animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances
+favourable variations would tend to be preserved and unfavourable ones
+to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of a new
+species. Here then I had at last got a theory by which to work; but I
+was so anxious to avoid prejudice that I determined not for some time to
+write even the briefest sketch of it. In June, 1842, I first allowed
+myself the satisfaction of writing a very brief abstract of my theory in
+pencil in 35 pages; and this was enlarged during the summer of 1844 into
+one of 230 pages, which I had fairly copied out and still possess.
+
+But at that time I overlooked one problem of great importance; and it is
+astonishing to me, except on the principle of Columbus and his egg, how
+I could have overlooked it and its solution. This problem is the
+tendency in organic beings descended from the same stock to diverge in
+character as they become, modified. That they have diverged greatly is
+obvious from the manner in which species of all kinds can be classed
+under genera, genera under families, families under sub-orders and so
+forth; and I can remember the very spot on the road, whilst in my
+carriage, when to my joy the solution occurred to me; and this was long
+after I had come to Down. This solution, as I believe, is that the
+modified offspring of all dominant and increasing forms tend to become
+adapted to many and highly diversified places in the economy of nature.
+
+Early in 1856 Lyell advised me to write out my views pretty fully, and I
+began at once to do so on a scale three or four times as extensive as
+that which was afterwards followed in my "Origin of Species;" yet it was
+only an abstract of the materials which I had collected and I got
+through about half the work on this scale. But my plans were overthrown,
+for early in the summer of 1858 Mr. Wallace, who was then in the Malay
+Archipelago, sent me an essay "On the tendency of varieties to depart
+indefinitely from the original type;" and this essay contained exactly
+the same theory as mine.[3] Mr. Wallace expressed the wish that if I
+thought well of his essay I should send it to Lyell for perusal.
+
+The circumstances under which I consented at the request of Lyell and
+Hooker to allow of an abstract from my MS., together with a letter to
+Asa Gray, dated September 5, 1857, to be published at the same time
+with Wallace's essay, are given in the "Journal of the Proceedings of
+the Linnean Society," 1858, p. 45. I was at first very unwilling to
+consent, as I thought Mr. Wallace might consider my doing so
+unjustifiable, for I did not then know how generous and noble was his
+disposition. The extract from my MS. and the letter to Asa Gray had
+neither been intended for publication, and were badly written. Mr.
+Wallace's essay, on the other hand, was admirably expressed and quite
+clear. Nevertheless, our joint productions excited very little
+attention, and the only published notice of them which I can remember
+was by Professor Haughton of Dublin, whose verdict was that all that was
+new in them was false, and what was true was old. This shows how
+necessary it is that any new idea should be explained at considerable
+length in order to arouse public attention.
+
+In September, 1858, I set to work by the strong advice of Lyell and
+Hooker to prepare a volume on the transmutation of species, but was
+often interrupted by ill health and short visits to Dr. Lane's
+delightful hydropathic establishment at Moor Park. I abstracted the MS.
+begun on a much larger scale in 1856, and completed the volume on the
+same reduced scale. It cost me thirteen months and ten days' hard labor.
+It was published under the title of the "Origin of Species," in
+November, 1859. Though considerably added to and corrected in the later
+editions, it has remained substantially the same book.
+
+It is no doubt the chief work of my life. It was from the first highly
+successful. The first small edition of 1,250 copies was sold on the day
+of publication, and a second edition of 3,000 copies soon afterwards.
+Sixteen thousand copies have now (1876) been sold in England; and
+considering how stiff a book it is, this is a large sale. It has been
+translated into almost every European tongue, even into such languages
+as Spanish, Bohemian, Polish and Russian. Even an essay in Hebrew has
+appeared on it, showing that the theory is contained in the Old
+Testament! The reviews were very numerous; for some time all that
+appeared on the "Origin" and on my related books, and these amount
+(excluding newspaper reviews) to 265; but after a time I gave up the
+attempt in despair. Many separate essays and books on the subject have
+appeared; and in Germany a catalogue or bibliography on "Darwinismus"
+has appeared every year or two.
+
+The success of the "Origin" may, I think, be attributed in large part to
+my having long before written two condensed sketches and to my having
+abstracted a much larger manuscript, which was itself an abstract. By
+this means I was enabled to select the more striking facts and
+conclusions. I had also, during many years followed a golden rule,
+namely, that whenever a published fact, a new observation or thought
+came across me, which was opposed to my general results, to make a
+memorandum of it without fail and at once; for I had found by experience
+that such facts and thoughts were far more apt to escape from the memory
+than favourable ones. Owing to this habit very few objections were
+raised against my views which I had not at least noticed and attempted
+to answer.
+
+It has sometimes been said that the success of the "Origin" proved "that
+the subject was in the air," or "that men's minds were prepared for it."
+I do not think that this is strictly true, for I occasionally sounded
+not a few naturalists, and never happened to come across a single one
+who seemed to doubt about the permanence of species. Even Lyell and
+Hooker, though they listened with interest to me, never seemed to agree.
+I tried once or twice to explain to able men what I meant by Natural
+Selection, but signally failed. What I believe was strictly true is that
+innumerable well-observed facts were stored in the minds of naturalists
+ready to take their proper places as soon as any theory which would
+receive them was sufficiently explained. Another element in the success
+of the book was its moderate size; and this I owe to the appearance of
+Mr. Wallace's essay; had I published on the scale on which I began to
+write in 1856, the book would have been four or five times as large as
+the "Origin," and very few would have had the patience to read it.
+
+I gained much by my delay an publishing from about, 1839, when the
+theory was clearly conceived, to 1859; and I lost nothing by it, for I
+cared very little whether men attributed most originality to me or
+Wallace; and his essay no doubt aided in the reception of the theory. I
+was forestalled in only one important point, which my vanity has always
+made me regret, namely, the explanation by means of the Glacial period
+of the presence of the same species of plants and of some few animals on
+distant mountain summits and in the arctic regions. This view pleased me
+so much that I wrote it out _in extenso_, and I believe that it was read
+by Hooker some years before E. Forbes published in 1846 his celebrated
+memoir on the subject. In the very few points in which we differed, I
+still think that I was in the right. I have never, of course, alluded in
+print to my having independently worked out this view.
+
+Hardly any point gave me so much satisfaction when I was at work on the
+"Origin," as the explanation of the wide difference in many classes
+between the embryo and the adult animal, and of the close resemblance of
+the embryos within the same class. No notice of this point was taken, as
+far as I remember, in the early reviews of the "Origin," and I recollect
+expressing my surprise on this head in a letter to Asa Gray. Within late
+years several reviewers have given the whole credit to Fritz Muller and
+Haeckel, who undoubtedly have worked it out much more fully and in some
+respects more correctly than I did. I had materials for a whole chapter
+on the subject, and I ought to have made the discussion longer; for it
+is clear that I failed to impress my readers; and he who succeeds in
+doing so deserves, in my opinion, all the credit.
+
+This leads me to remark that I have almost always been treated honestly
+by my reviewers, passing over those without scientific knowledge as not
+worthy of notice. My views have been grossly misrepresented, bitterly
+opposed and ridiculed, but this has been generally done as, I believe,
+in good faith. On the whole, I do not doubt that my works have been over
+and over again greatly overpraised. I rejoice that I have avoided
+controversies, and this I owe to Lyell, who many years ago, in reference
+to my geological works, strongly advised me never to get entangled in a
+controversy, as it rarely did any good and caused a miserable loss of
+time and temper.
+
+Whenever I have found out that I have blundered, or that my work has
+been imperfect, and when I have been contemptuously criticised, and even
+when I have been overpraised, so that I have felt mortified, it has been
+my greatest comfort to say hundreds of times to myself that "I have
+worked as hard and as well as I could, and no man can do more than
+this." I remember when in Good Success Bay, in Tierra del Fuego,
+thinking (and, I believe, that I wrote home to the effect) that I could
+not employ my life better than in adding a little to Natural Science.
+This I have done to the best of my abilities, and critics may say what
+they like, but they can not destroy this conviction.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[2] See Masterpieces of Science, Vol. I, "Earth and Sky," Sir Charles
+Lyell on Uniformity in geological change.
+
+[3] The essay appears in "Natural Selection," London, 1870.
+
+
+
+
+THE DESCENT OF MAN
+
+CHARLES DARWIN
+
+     [Concluding chapter of "The Descent of Man," New York, D.
+     Appleton & Co.]
+
+
+A brief summary will be sufficient to recall to the reader's mind the
+more salient points in this work. Many of the views which have been
+advanced are highly speculative, and some, no doubt, will prove
+erroneous; but I have in every case given the reasons which have led me
+to one view rather than to another. It seemed worth while to try how far
+the principle of evolution would throw light on some of the more complex
+problems in the natural history of man. False facts are highly injurious
+to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views,
+if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a
+salutary pleasure in proving their falseness; and, when this is done,
+one path toward error is closed and the road to truth is often at the
+same time opened.
+
+The main conclusion arrived at in this work, and now held by many
+naturalists who are well competent to form a sound judgment, is that man
+is descended from some less highly organized form. The grounds upon
+which this conclusion rests will never be shaken, for the close
+similarity between man and the lower animals in embryonic development,
+as well as in innumerable points of structure and constitution, both of
+high and of the most trifling importance--the rudiments which he
+retains, and the abnormal reversions to which he is occasionally
+liable--are facts which cannot be disputed. They have long been known,
+but, until recently, they told us nothing with respect to the origin of
+man. Now, when viewed by the light of our knowledge of the whole organic
+world, their meaning is unmistakable. The great principle of evolution
+stands up clear and firm when these groups of facts are considered in
+connection with others, such as the mutual affinities of the members of
+the same group, their geographical distribution in past and present
+times, and their geological succession. It is incredible that all these
+facts should speak falsely. He who is not content to look, like a
+savage, at the phenomena of Nature as disconnected, cannot any longer
+believe that man is the work of a separate act of creation. He will be
+forced to admit that the close resemblance of the embryo of man to that,
+for instance, of a dog--the construction of his skull, limbs and whole
+frame on the same plan with that of other mammals--the occasional
+appearance of various structures, for instance, of several distinct
+muscles, which man does not normally possess, but which are common to
+the Quadrumana--and a crowd of analogous facts--all point in the
+plainest manner to the conclusion that man is the co-descendant of other
+mammals of a common progenitor.
+
+We have seen that man incessantly presents individual differences in all
+parts of his body and in his mental faculties. These differences or
+variations seem to be induced by the same general causes, and to obey
+the same laws as with the lower animals. In both cases similar laws of
+inheritance prevail. Man tends to increase at a greater rate than his
+means of subsistence; consequently he is occasionally subjected to a
+severe struggle for existence, and natural selection will have effected
+whatever lies within its scope. A succession of strongly marked
+variations of a similar nature is by no means requisite; slight
+fluctuating differences in the individual suffice in the work of natural
+selection. We may feel assured that the inherited effects of the
+long-continued use or disuse of parts will have done much in the same
+direction with natural selection. Modifications formerly of importance,
+though no longer of any special use, are long-inherited. When one part
+is modified other parts change through the principle of correlation, of
+which we have instances in many curious cases of correlated
+monstrosities. Something may be attributed to the direct and definite
+action of the surrounding conditions of life, such as abundant food,
+heat or moisture; and, lastly, many characters of slight physiological
+importance, some indeed of considerable importance, have been gained
+through sexual selection.
+
+No doubt man, as well as every other animal, presents structures, which,
+as far as we can judge with our little knowledge, are not now of any
+service to him, nor to have been so during any former period of his
+existence, either in relation to his general conditions of life, or of
+one sex to the other. Such structures cannot be accounted for by any
+form of selection, or by the inherited effects of the use and disuse of
+parts. We know, however, that many strange and strongly marked
+peculiarities of structure occasionally appear in our domesticated
+productions, and if the unknown causes which produce them were to act
+more uniformly, they would probably become common to all the individuals
+of the species. We may hope hereafter to understand something about the
+causes of such occasional modifications, especially through the study of
+monstrosities; hence, the labours of experimentalists, such as those of
+M. Camille Dareste, are full of promise for the future. In general we
+can only say that the cause of each slight variation and of each
+monstrosity lies much more in the constitution of the organism than in
+the nature of the surrounding conditions; though new and changed
+conditions certainly play an important part in exciting organic changes
+of many kinds.
+
+Through the means just specified, aided perhaps by others as yet
+undiscovered, man has been raised to his present state. But since he
+attained to the rank of manhood, he has diverged into distinct races,
+or, as they may be more fitly called, subspecies. Some of these, such as
+the negro and European, are so distinct that, if specimens had been
+brought to a naturalist without any further information, they would
+undoubtedly have been considered by him as good and true species.
+Nevertheless, all the races agree in so many unimportant details of
+structure and in so many mental peculiarities, that these can be
+accounted for only by inheritance from a common progenitor; and a
+progenitor thus characterized would probably deserve to rank as man.
+
+It must not be supposed that the divergence of each race from the other
+races, and of all from a common stock, can be traced back to any one
+pair of progenitors. On the contrary, at every stage in the process of
+modification, all the individuals which were in any way best fitted for
+their conditions of life, though in different degrees, would have
+survived in greater numbers than the less well-fitted. The process would
+have been like that followed by man, when he does not intentionally
+select particular individuals, but breeds from all the superior
+individuals and neglects all the inferior individuals. He thus slowly
+but surely modifies his stock and unconsciously forms a new strain. So
+with respect to modifications acquired independently of selection, and
+due to variations arising from the nature of the organism and the
+action of the surrounding conditions, or from changed habits of life, no
+single pair will have been modified in a much greater degree than the
+other pairs which inhabit the same country, for all will have been
+continually blended through free intercrossing.
+
+By considering the embryological structure of man--the homologies
+[parallels] which he presents with the lower animals--the rudiments
+which he retains--and the reversions to which he is liable, we can
+partly recall in imagination the former condition of our early
+progenitors; and can approximately place them in their proper place in
+the zoological series. We thus learn that man is descended from a hairy,
+tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits [living on or among
+trees] and an inhabitant of the Old World. This creature, if its whole
+structure had been examined by a naturalist, would have been classed
+among the Quadrumana, as surely as the still more ancient progenitor of
+the Old and New World monkeys. The Quadrumana and all the higher mammals
+are probably derived from an ancient marsupial animal [usually provided
+with a pouch for the reception and nourishment of the young, as in the
+case of the kangaroo] and this through a long line of diversified forms,
+from some reptile-like or some amphibian-like creature, and this again
+from some fish-like animal. In the dim obscurity of the past we can see
+that the early progenitor of all the Vertebrata must have been an
+aquatic animal, provided with branchię [gills], with the two sexes
+united in the same individual, and with the most important organs of the
+body (such as the brain and heart) imperfectly or not at all developed.
+This animal seems to have been more like the larvę of the existing
+marine Ascidians than any other known form.
+
+The greatest difficulty which presents itself when we are driven to the
+above conclusion on the origin of man is the high standard of
+intellectual power and of moral disposition which he has attained. But
+every one who admits the principle of evolution must see that the mental
+powers of the higher animals, which are the same in kind with those of
+man, though so different in degree, are capable of advancement. Thus the
+interval between the mental powers of one of the higher apes and of a
+fish, or between those of an ant and scale-insect, is immense; yet their
+development does not offer any special difficulty; for with our
+domesticated animals the mental faculties are certainly variable, and
+the variations are inherited. No one doubts that they are of the utmost
+importance to animals in a state of nature. Therefore, the conditions
+are favourable for their development through natural selection.
+
+The same conclusion may be extended to man; the intellect must have been
+all-important to him, even at a very remote period, as enabling him to
+invent and use language, to make weapons, tools, traps, etc., whereby
+with the aid of his social habits he long ago became the most dominant
+of all living creatures.
+
+A great stride in the development of the intellect will have followed,
+as soon as the half-art and half-instinct of language came into use; for
+the continued use of language will have reacted on the brain and
+produced an inherited effect; and this again will have reacted on the
+improvement of language. As Mr. Chauncey Wright has well remarked, the
+largeness of the brain in man relatively to his body, compared with the
+lower animals, may be attributed in chief part to the early use of some
+simple form of language--that wonderful engine which affixes signs to
+all sorts of objects and qualities, and excites trains of thought which
+would never arise from the mere impression of the senses, or if they did
+arise could not be followed out. The higher intellectual powers of man,
+such as those of ratiocination, abstraction, self-consciousness, etc.,
+will have followed from the continued improvement of other mental
+faculties; but without considerable culture of the mind, both in the
+race and in the individual, it is doubtful whether these high powers
+would be exercised and thus fully attained.
+
+The development of the moral qualities is a more interesting problem.
+The foundation lies in the social instincts, including under this term
+the family ties. These instincts are highly complex, and in the case of
+the lower animals give special tendencies toward certain definite
+actions; but the more important elements are love and the distinct
+emotion of sympathy. Animals endowed with the social instincts take
+pleasure in one another's company, warn one another of danger, defend
+and aid one another in many ways. These instincts do not extend to all
+the individuals of the species, but only to those of the same community.
+As they are highly beneficial to the species they have in all
+probability been acquired through natural selection.
+
+A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions
+and their motives--of approving of some and disapproving of others; and
+the fact that man is the one being who certainly deserves this
+designation is the greatest of all distinctions between him and the
+lower animals. But in the fourth chapter I have endeavoured to show that
+the moral sense follows, firstly, from the enduring and ever-present
+nature of the social instincts; secondly, from man's appreciation of the
+approbation and disapprobation of his fellows; and, thirdly, from the
+high activity of his mental faculties, with past impressions extremely
+vivid; and in these latter respects he differs from the lower animals.
+Owing to this condition of mind, man cannot avoid looking both backward
+and forward and comparing past impressions. Hence, after some temporary
+desire or passion has mastered his social instincts, he reflects and
+compares the now weakened impression of such past impulses with the
+ever-present social instincts; and he then feels that sense of
+dissatisfaction which all unsatisfied instincts leave behind them, he
+therefore resolves to act differently for the future--and this is
+conscience. Any instinct permanently stronger or more enduring than
+another gives rise to a feeling which we express by saying that it ought
+to be obeyed. A pointer dog if able to reflect on his past conduct would
+say to himself, I ought (as indeed we say of him) to have pointed at
+that hare and not have yielded to the passing temptation of hunting it.
+
+Social animals are impelled partly by a wish to aid the members of their
+community in a general manner, but more commonly to perform certain
+definite actions. Man is impelled by the same general wish to aid his
+fellows; but has few or no special instincts. He differs also from the
+lower animals in the power of expressing his desires by words, which
+thus become a guide to the aid required and bestowed. The motive to give
+aid is likewise much modified in man; it no longer consists solely of a
+blind instinctive impulse, but is much influenced by the praise or blame
+of his fellows. The appreciation and bestowal of praise and blame both
+rest on sympathy; and this emotion, as we have seen, is one of the most
+important elements of the social instincts. Sympathy, though gained as
+an instinct, is also much strengthened by exercise or habit. As all men
+desire their own happiness, praise or blame is bestowed on actions or
+motives according as they lead to this end; and as happiness is an
+essential part of the general good the greatest-happiness principle
+indirectly serves as a nearly safe standard of right and wrong. As the
+reasoning powers advance and experience is gained the remoter effects of
+certain lines of conduct on the character of the individual and on the
+general good are perceived; and then the self-regarding virtues come
+within the scope of public opinion and receive praise and their
+opposites blame. But with the less civilized nations reason often errs,
+and many bad customs and base superstitions come within the same scope
+and are then esteemed as high virtues and their breach as heavy crimes.
+
+The moral faculties are generally and justly esteemed as of higher value
+than the intellectual powers. But we should bear in mind that the
+activity of the mind in vividly recalling past impressions is one of the
+fundamental though secondary bases of conscience. This affords the
+strongest argument for educating and stimulating in all possible ways
+the intellectual faculties of every human being. No doubt, a man with a
+torpid mind, if his social affections and sympathies are well developed,
+will be led to good actions and may have a fairly sensitive conscience.
+But whatever renders the imagination more vivid and strengthens the
+habit of recalling and comparing past impressions will make the
+conscience more sensitive, and may even somewhat compensate for weak
+social affections and sympathies.
+
+The moral nature of man has reached its present standard partly through
+the advancement of his reasoning powers and consequently of a just
+public opinion, but especially from his sympathies having been rendered
+more tender and widely diffused through the effects of habit, example,
+instruction and reflection. It is not improbable that after long
+practice virtuous tendencies may be inherited. With the more civilized
+races the conviction of the existence of an all-seeing Deity has had a
+potent influence on the advance of morality. Ultimately man does not
+accept the praise or blame of his fellows as his sole guide, though few
+escape this influence, but his habitual convictions, controlled by
+reason, afford him the safest rule. His conscience then becomes the
+supreme judge and monitor. Nevertheless, the first foundation or origin
+of the moral sense lies in the social instincts, including sympathy; and
+these instincts, no doubt, were primarily gained, as in the case of the
+lower animals, through natural selection.
+
+The belief in God has often been advanced as not only the greatest but
+the most complete of all the distinctions between man and the lower
+animals. It is, however, impossible, as we have seen, to maintain that
+this belief is innate or instinctive in man. On the other hand, a
+belief in all-pervading spiritual agencies seems to be universal, and
+apparently follows from a considerable advance in man's reason and from
+a still greater advance in his faculties of imagination, curiosity and
+wonder. I am aware that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been
+used by many persons as an argument for His existence. But this is a
+rash judgment, as we should thus be compelled to believe in the
+existence of many cruel and malignant spirits, only a little more
+powerful than man; for the belief in them is far more general than in a
+beneficent Deity. The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator does
+not seem to arise in the mind of man until he has been elevated by
+long-continued culture.
+
+He who believes in the advancement of man from some low organized form
+will naturally ask, How does this bear on the belief in the immortality
+of the soul? The barbarous races of man, as Sir J. Lubbock has shown,
+possess no clear belief of this kind; but arguments derived from the
+primeval beliefs of savages are, as we have just seen, of little or no
+avail. Few persons feel any anxiety from the impossibility of
+determining at what precise period in the development of the individual,
+from the first trace of a minute germinal vesicle, man becomes an
+immortal being; and there is no greater cause for anxiety because the
+period in the gradually ascending organic scale cannot possibly be
+determined.
+
+I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be
+denounced by some as highly irreligious; but he who denounces them is
+bound to show why it is more irreligious to explain the origin of man as
+a distinct species by descent from some lower form, through the laws of
+variation and natural selection, than to explain the birth of the
+individual through the laws of ordinary reproduction. The birth both of
+the species and of the individual are equally parts of that grand
+sequence of events, which our minds refuse to accept as the result of
+blind chance. The understanding revolts at such a conclusion, whether or
+not we are able to believe that every slight variation of structure, the
+union of each pair in marriage, the dissemination of each seed, and
+other such events have all been ordained for some special purpose.
+
+Sexual selection has been treated at great length in this work; for, as
+I have attempted to show, it has played an important part in the history
+of the organic world. I am aware that much remains doubtful, but I have
+endeavoured to give a fair view of the whole case. In the lower
+divisions of the animal kingdom sexual selection seems to have done
+nothing; such animals are often affixed for life to the same spot, or
+have the sexes combined in the same individual, or, what is still more
+important, their perceptive and intellectual faculties are not
+sufficiently advanced to allow of the feelings of love and jealousy, or
+of the exertion of choice. When, however, we come to the Arthropoda and
+Vertebrata, even to the lowest classes in these two great sub-kingdoms,
+sexual selection has effected much; and it deserves notice that we here
+find the intellectual faculties developed, but in two very distinct
+lines, to the highest standard, namely in the Hymenoptera [ants, bees,
+etc.], among the Arthropoda [many insects, spiders, etc.], and in the
+Mammalia, including man, among the Vertebrata.
+
+In the most distinct classes of the animal kingdom--in mammals, birds,
+fishes, insects and even crustaceans--the differences between the sexes
+follow almost exactly the same rules. The males are almost always the
+wooers; and they alone are armed with special weapons for fighting with
+their rivals. They are generally stronger and larger than the females,
+and are endowed with the requisite qualities of courage and pugnacity.
+They are provided, either exclusively or in a much higher degree than
+the females, with organs for vocal or instrumental music, and with
+odoriferous glands. They are ornamented with infinitely diversified
+appendages and with the most brilliant or conspicuous colors, often
+arranged in elegant patterns, while the females are unadorned. When the
+sexes differ in more important structures it is the male which is
+provided with special sense-organs for discovering the female, with
+locomotive organs for reaching her, and often with prehensile organs
+for holding her. These various structures for charming or securing the
+female are often developed in the male during only part of the year;
+namely, the breeding season. They have in many cases been transferred in
+a greater or less degree to the females; and in the latter case they
+often appear in her as mere rudiments. They are lost or never gained by
+the males after emasculation. Generally they are not developed in the
+male during early youth, but appear a short time before the age for
+reproduction. Hence, in most cases the young of both sexes resemble each
+other; and the female somewhat resembles her young offspring throughout
+life. In almost every great class a few anomalous cases occur, where
+there has been an almost complete transposition of the characters proper
+to the two sexes; the females assuming characters which properly belong
+to the males. This surprisingly uniformity in the laws regulating the
+differences between the sexes in so many and such widely separated
+classes is intelligible if we admit the action throughout all the higher
+divisions of the animal kingdom of one common cause; namely, sexual
+selection.
+
+Sexual selection depends on the success of certain individuals over
+others of the same sex, in relation to the propagation of the species;
+while natural selection depends on the success of both sexes, at all
+ages, in relation to the general conditions of life. The sexual
+struggle is of two kinds; in the one it is between the individuals of
+the same sex, generally the males, in order to drive away or kill their
+rivals, the females remaining passive; while in the other, the struggle
+is likewise between the individuals of the same sex, in order to excite
+or charm those of the opposite sex, generally the females, which no
+longer remain passive, but select the more agreeable partners. This
+latter kind of selection is closely analogous to that which man
+unintentionally, yet effectually, brings to bear on his domesticated
+productions, when he preserves during a long period the most pleasing or
+useful individuals, without any wish to modify the breed.
+
+The laws of inheritance determine whether characters gained through
+sexual selection by either sex shall be transmitted to the same sex, or
+to both; as well as the age at which they shall be developed. It appears
+that variations arising late in life are commonly transmitted to one and
+the same sex. Variability is the necessary basis for the action of
+selection and is wholly independent of it. It follows from this that
+variations of the same general nature have often been taken advantage of
+and accumulated through sexual selection in relation to the propagation
+of the species, as well as through natural selection in relation to the
+general purposes of life. Hence secondary sexual characters, when
+equally transmitted to both sexes, can be distinguished from ordinary
+specific characters only by the light of analogy. The modifications
+acquired through sexual selection are often so strongly pronounced that
+the two sexes have frequently been ranked as distinct species, or even
+as distinct genera. Such strongly marked differences must be in some
+manner highly important; and we know that they have been acquired in
+some instances at the cost not only of inconvenience, but of exposure to
+actual danger.
+
+The belief in the power of sexual selection rests chiefly on the
+following considerations: The characters which we have the best reasons
+for supposing to have been thus acquired are confined to one sex; and
+this alone renders it probable that in most cases they are connected
+with the act of reproduction. These characters in innumerable instances
+are fully developed only at maturity; and often during only a part of
+the year, which is always the breeding season. The males (passing over a
+few exceptional cases) are the more active in courtship; they are the
+best armed, and are rendered the most attractive in various ways. It is
+to be especially observed that the males display their attractions with
+elaborate care in the presence of the females; and that they rarely or
+never display them excepting during the season of love. It is incredible
+that all this should be purposeless. Lastly, we have distinct evidence
+with some quadrupeds and birds that the individuals of one sex are
+capable of feeling a strong antipathy or preference for certain
+individuals of the other sex.
+
+Bearing in mind these facts and not forgetting the marked results of
+man's unconscious selection, it seems to me almost certain that if the
+individuals of one sex were during a long series of generations to
+prefer pairing with certain individuals of the other sex, characterized
+in some peculiar manner, the offspring would slowly but surely become
+modified in this same manner. I have not attempted to conceal that,
+excepting when the males are more numerous than the females, or when
+polygamy prevails, it is doubtful how the more attractive males succeed
+in leaving a larger number of offspring to inherit their superiority in
+ornaments or other charms than the less attractive males; but I have
+shown that this would probably follow from the females--especially the
+more vigorous ones, which would be the first to breed--preferring not
+only the more attractive but at the same time the more vigorous and
+victorious males.
+
+Although we have some positive evidence that birds appreciate bright and
+beautiful objects, as with the bower-birds of Australia, and although
+they certainly appreciate the power of song, yet I fully admit that it
+is astonishing that the females of many birds and some mammals should be
+endowed with sufficient taste to appreciate ornaments, which we have
+reason to attribute to sexual selection; and this is even more
+astonishing in the case of reptiles, fish and insects. But we really
+know little about the minds of the lower animals. It cannot be supposed,
+for instance, that male birds of paradise or peacocks should take such
+pains in erecting, spreading and vibrating their beautiful plumes before
+the males for no purpose. We should remember the fact given on excellent
+authority in a former chapter that several peahens, when debarred from
+an admired male, remained widows during a whole season rather than pair
+with another bird.
+
+Nevertheless, I know of no fact in natural history more wonderful than
+that the female Argus pheasant should appreciate the exquisite shading
+of the ball-and-socket ornaments and the elegant patterns on the wing
+feathers of the male. He who thinks that the male was created as he now
+exists must admit that the great plumes, which prevent the wings from
+being used for flight and which, as well as the primary feathers, are
+displayed in a manner quite peculiar to this one species during the act
+of courtship, and at no other time, were given to him as an ornament. If
+so, he must likewise admit that the female was created and endowed with
+the capacity of appreciating such ornaments. I differ only in the
+conviction that the male Argus pheasant acquired his beauty gradually,
+through the females having preferred during many generations the more
+highly ornamented males; the esthetic capacity of the females having
+been advanced through exercise or habit just as our own taste is
+gradually improved. In the male, through the fortunate chance of a few
+feathers not having been modified, we can distinctly see how simple
+spots with a little fulvous [tawny] shading on one side may have been
+developed by small steps into the wonderful ball-and-socket ornaments;
+and it is probable that they were actually thus developed.
+
+Every one who admits the principle of evolution, and yet feels great
+difficulty in admitting that female mammals, birds, reptiles and fish,
+could have acquired the high taste implied by the beauty of the males,
+and which generally coincides with our own standard, should reflect that
+the nerve-cells of the brain in the highest as well as in the lowest
+members of the Vertebrate series, are derived from those of the common
+progenitor of the whole group. It thus becomes intelligible that the
+brain and mental faculties should be capable under similar conditions of
+nearly the same course of development, and consequently of performing
+nearly the same functions.
+
+The reader who has taken the trouble to go through the several chapters
+devoted to sexual selection will be able to judge how far the
+conclusions at which I have arrived are supported by sufficient
+evidence. If he accepts these conclusions he may, I think, safely extend
+them to mankind; but it would be superfluous here to repeat what I have
+so lately said on the manner in which sexual selection apparently has
+acted on man, both on the male and female side, causing the two sexes of
+man to differ in body and mind, and the several races to differ from
+each other in various characters, as well as from their ancient and
+lowly organized progenitors.
+
+He who admits the principle of sexual selection will be led to the
+remarkable conclusion that the cerebral system not only regulates most
+of the existing functions of the body, but has indirectly influenced the
+progressive development of various bodily structures and of certain
+mental qualities. Courage, pugnacity, perseverance, strength and size of
+body, weapons of all kinds, musical organs, both vocal and instrumental,
+bright colours, stripes and marks, and ornamental appendages, have all
+been indirectly gained by the one sex or the other, through the
+influence of love and jealousy, through the appreciation of the
+beautiful in sound, colour or form, and through the exertion of a
+choice; and those powers of the mind manifestly depend on the
+development of the cerebral system.
+
+Man scans with scrupulous care the character and pedigree of his horses,
+cattle and dogs before he matches them; but when he comes to his own
+marriage he rarely, or never takes any such care. He is impelled by
+nearly the same motives as the lower animals when left to their own free
+choice, though he is in so far superior to them that he highly values
+mental charms and virtues. On the other hand he is strongly attracted
+by mere wealth or rank. Yet he might by selection do something not only
+for the bodily constitution and frame of his offspring, but for their
+intellectual and moral qualities. Both sexes ought to refrain from
+marriage if they are in any marked degree inferior in body or mind; but
+such hopes are Utopian and will never be even partially realized until
+the laws of inheritance are thoroughly known. All do good service who
+aid toward this end. When the principles of breeding and inheritance are
+better understood, we shall not hear ignorant members of our legislature
+rejecting with scorn a plan for ascertaining whether or not
+consanguineous marriages are injurious to man.
+
+The advancement of the welfare of mankind is a most intricate problem;
+all ought to refrain from marriage who cannot avoid abject poverty for
+their children; for poverty is not only a great evil, but tends to its
+own increase by leading to recklessness in marriage. On the other hand,
+as Mr. Galton has remarked, if the prudent avoid marriage, while the
+reckless marry, the inferior members tend to supplant the better members
+of society. Man, like every other animal, has no doubt advanced to his
+present high condition through a struggle for existence consequent on
+his rapid multiplication; and if he is to advance still higher, he must
+remain subject to a severe struggle. Otherwise he would sink into
+indolence, and the more gifted men would not be more successful in the
+battle of life than the less gifted. Hence our natural rate of
+increase, though leading to many and obvious evils, must not be greatly
+diminished by any means. There should be open competition for all men;
+and the most able should not be prevented by laws or customs from
+succeeding best and rearing the largest number of offspring. Important
+as the struggle for existence has been and even still is, yet as far as
+the highest part of man's nature is concerned there are other agencies
+more important. For the moral qualities are advanced, either directly or
+indirectly, much more through the effects of habit, the reasoning
+powers, instruction, religion, etc., than through natural selection;
+though to this latter agency the social instincts, which afforded the
+basis for the development of the moral sense, may be safely attributed.
+
+The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely, that man is
+descended from some lowly organized form, will, I regret to think, be
+highly distasteful to many. But there can hardly be a doubt that we are
+descended from barbarians. The astonishment I felt on first seeing a
+party of Fuegians on a wild and broken shore will never be forgotten by
+me, for the reflection at once rushed into my mind--such were our
+ancestors. These men were absolutely naked and bedaubed with paint,
+their long hair was tangled, their mouths frothed with excitement, and
+their expression was wild, startled and distrustful. They possessed
+hardly any arts, and like wild animals lived on what they could catch;
+they had no government, and were merciless to every one not of their
+own small tribe. He who has seen a savage in his native land will not
+feel much shame, if forced to acknowledge that the blood of some more
+humble creature flows in his veins. For my own part I would as soon be
+descended from that heroic little monkey who braved his dreaded enemy in
+order to save the life of his keeper; or from that old baboon, who,
+descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his young comrade
+from a crowd of astonished dogs--as from a savage who delights to
+torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practises infanticide
+without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is
+haunted by the grossest superstitions.
+
+Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not
+through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and
+the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally
+placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the
+distant future. But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only
+with the truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it. I have
+given the evidence to the best of my ability, and we must acknowledge,
+as it seems to me, that man, with all his noble qualities, with sympathy
+which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not
+only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his godlike
+intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of
+the solar system--with all these exalted powers--Man still bears in his
+bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
+
+
+
+
+MIMICRY AND OTHER PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS
+
+ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE
+
+     [Mr. Wallace, one of the greatest naturalists of the age,
+     discovered the law of natural selection independently of
+     Darwin, and about the same time. Among his works are "The
+     Malay Archipelago," "Island Life," and "Darwinism." From
+     "Natural Selection," which was published by Macmillan & Co.,
+     1871, the following extracts are taken. The theme has
+     received important development at the hands of Professor E.
+     B. Poulton, in his "The Colours of Animals," International
+     Scientific Series, 1890: and in F. E. Beddard's "Animal
+     Colouration"; London, Swan Sonnenschein; N. Y., Macmillan,
+     1892.]
+
+
+There is no more convincing proof of the truth of a comprehensive
+theory, than its power of absorbing and finding a place for new facts,
+and its capability of interpreting phenomena which had been previously
+looked upon as unaccountable anomalies. It is thus that the law of
+universal gravitation and the undulatory theory of light have become
+established and universally accepted by men of science. Fact after fact
+has been brought forward as being apparently inconsistent with them, and
+one after another these very facts have been shown to be the
+consequences of the laws they were at first supposed to disprove. A
+false theory will never stand this test. Advancing knowledge brings to
+light whole groups of facts which it cannot deal with, and its advocates
+steadily decrease in numbers, notwithstanding the ability and
+scientific skill with which it has been supported. The course of a true
+theory is very different, as may be well seen by the progress of opinion
+on the subject of natural selection. In less than eight years "The
+Origin of Species" has produced conviction in the minds of a majority of
+the most eminent living men of science. New facts, new problems, new
+difficulties as they arise are accepted, solved or removed by this
+theory; and its principles are illustrated by the progress and
+conclusions of every well established branch of human knowledge. It is
+the object of the present essay to show how it has recently been applied
+to connect together and explain a variety of curious facts which had
+long been considered as inexplicable anomalies.
+
+Perhaps no principle has ever been announced so fertile in results as
+that which Mr. Darwin so earnestly impresses upon us, and which is
+indeed a necessary deduction from the theory of natural selection,
+namely--that none of the definite facts of organic nature, no special
+organ, no characteristic form or marking, no peculiarities of instinct
+or of habit, no relations between species or between groups of
+species--can exist, but which must now be or once have been _useful_ to
+the individuals or races which possess them. This great principle gives
+us a clue which we can follow out in the study of many recondite
+phenomena, and leads us to seek a meaning and a purpose of some definite
+character in minutię which we should be otherwise almost sure to pass
+over as insignificant or unimportant.
+
+The adaptation of the external colouring of animals to their conditions
+of life has long been recognized, and has been imputed either to an
+originally created specific peculiarity, or to the direct action of
+climate, soil, or food. Where the former explanation has been accepted,
+it has completely checked inquiry, since we could never get any further
+than the fact of the adaptation. There was nothing more to be known
+about the matter. The second explanation was soon found to be quite
+inadequate to deal with all the varied phases of the phenomena, and to
+be contradicted by many well-known facts. For example, wild rabbits are
+always of gray or brown tints well suited for concealment among grass
+and fern. But when these rabbits are domesticated, without any change of
+climate or food, they vary into white or black, and these varieties may
+be multiplied to any extent, forming white or black races. Exactly the
+same thing has occurred with pigeons; and in the case of rats and mice,
+the white variety has not been shown to be at all dependent on
+alteration of climate, food or other external conditions. In many cases
+the wings of an insect not only assume the exact tint of the bark or
+leaf it is accustomed to rest on, but the form and veining of the leaf
+or the exact rugosity of the bark is imitated; and these detailed
+modifications cannot be reasonably imputed to climate or food, since in
+many cases the species does not feed on the substance it resembles, and
+when it does, no reasonable connection can be shown to exist between the
+supposed cause and the effect produced. It was reserved for the theory
+of natural selection to solve all these problems, and many others which
+were not at first supposed to be directly connected with them. To make
+these latter intelligible, it will be necessary to give a sketch of the
+whole series of phenomena which may be classed under the head of useful
+or protective resemblances.
+
+Concealment, more or less complete, is useful to many animals, and
+absolutely essential to some. Those which have numerous enemies from
+which they cannot escape by rapidity of motion, find safety in
+concealment. Those which prey upon others must also be so constituted as
+not to alarm them by their presence or their approach, or they would
+soon die of hunger. Now, it is remarkable in how many cases nature gives
+this boon to the animal, by colouring it with such tints as may best
+serve to enable it to escape from its enemies or to entrap its prey.
+Desert animals as a rule are desert-coloured. The lion is a typical
+example of this, and must be almost invisible when crouched upon the
+sand or among desert rocks and stones. Antelopes are all more or less
+sandy-coloured. The camel is pre-eminently so. The Egyptian cat and the
+Pampas cat are sandy or earth-coloured. The Australian kangaroos are of
+the same tints, and the original colour of the wild horse is supposed
+to have been a sandy or clay-colour.
+
+The desert birds are still more remarkably protected by their
+assimilative hues. The stone-chats, the larks, the quails, the
+goatsuckers and the grouse, which abound in the North African and
+Asiatic deserts, are all tinted and mottled so as to resemble with
+wonderful accuracy the average colour and aspect of the soil in the
+district they inhabit. The Rev. H. Tristram, in his account of the
+ornithology of North Africa in the first volume of the "Ibis," says: "In
+the desert, where neither trees, brushwood, nor even undulation of the
+surface afford the slightest protection to its foes, a modification of
+colour which shall be assimilated to that of the surrounding country is
+absolutely necessary. Hence _without exception_ the upper plumage of
+_every bird_, whether lark, chat, sylvain, or sand-grouse, and also the
+fur of _all the smaller mammals_, and the skin of _all the snakes and
+lizards_, is of one uniform isabelline or sand colour." After the
+testimony of so able an observer it is unnecessary to adduce further
+examples of the protective colours of desert animals.
+
+Almost equally striking are the cases of arctic animals possessing the
+white colour that best conceals them upon snowfields and icebergs. The
+polar bear is the only bear that is white, and it lives constantly among
+snow and ice. The arctic fox, the ermine and the alpine hare change to
+white in winter only, because in summer white would be more conspicuous
+than any other colour, and therefore a danger rather than a protection;
+but the American polar hare, inhabiting regions of almost perpetual
+snow, is white all the year round. Other animals inhabiting the same
+northern regions do not, however, change colour. The sable is a good
+example, for throughout the severity of a Siberian winter it retains its
+rich brown fur. But its habits are such that it does not need the
+protection of colour, for it is said to be able to subsist on fruits and
+berries in winter, and to be so active upon the trees as to catch small
+birds among the branches. So also the woodchuck of Canada has a
+dark-brown fur; but then it lives in burrows and frequents river banks,
+catching fish and small animals that live in or near the water.
+
+Among birds, the ptarmigan is a fine example of protective colouring.
+Its summer plumage so exactly harmonizes with the lichen-coloured stones
+among which it delights to sit, that a person may walk through a flock
+of them without seeing a single bird; while in winter its white plumage
+is an almost equal protection. The snow-bunting, the jerfalcon, and the
+snowy owl are also white-coloured birds inhabiting the arctic regions,
+and there can be little doubt but that their colouring is to some extent
+protective.
+
+Nocturnal animals supply us with equally good illustrations. Mice, rats,
+bats, and moles possess the least conspicuous of hues, and must be quite
+invisible at times when any light colour would be instantly seen. Owls
+and goatsuckers are of those dark mottled tints that will assimilate
+with bark and lichen, and thus protect them during the day, and at the
+same time be inconspicuous in the dusk.
+
+It is only in the tropics, among forests which never lose their foliage,
+that we find whole groups of birds whose chief colour is green. The
+parrots are the most striking example, but we have also a group of green
+pigeons in the East; and the barbets, leaf-thrushes, bee-eaters,
+white-eyes, turacos, and several smaller groups, have so much green in
+their plumage as to tend greatly to conceal them among the foliage.
+
+The conformity of tint which has been so far shown to exist between
+animals and their habitations is of somewhat general character; we will
+now consider the cases of more special adaptation. If the lion is
+enabled by his sandy colour readily to conceal himself by merely
+crouching down in the desert, how, it may be asked, do the elegant
+markings of the tiger, the jaguar, and the other large cats agree with
+this theory? We reply that these are generally cases of more or less
+special adaptation. The tiger is a jungle animal, and hides himself
+among tufts of grass or of bamboos, and in these positions the vertical
+stripes with which his body is adorned must so assimilate with the
+vertical stems of the bamboo, as to assist greatly in concealing him
+from his approaching prey. How remarkable it is that besides the lion
+and tiger, almost all the other large cats are arboreal in their
+habits, and almost all have ocellated or spotted skins, which must
+certainly tend to blend them with the background of foliage; while the
+one exception, the puma, has an ashy-brown uniform fur, and has the
+habit of clinging so closely to a limb of a tree while waiting for his
+prey to pass beneath as to be hardly distinguishable from the bark.
+
+Among birds, the ptarmigan, already mentioned, must be considered a
+remarkable case of special adaptation. Another is a South American
+goatsucker (Caprimulgus rupestris) which rests in the bright sunshine on
+little bare rocky islets in the upper Rio Negro, where its unusually
+light colours so closely resemble those of the rock and sand, that it
+can scarcely be detected until trodden upon.
+
+The Duke of Argyll, in his "Reign of Law," has pointed out the admirable
+adaptation of the colours of the woodcock to its protection. The various
+browns and yellows and pale ash-colour that occur on fallen leaves are
+all reproduced in its plumage, so that when according to its habit it
+rests upon the ground under trees, it is almost impossible to detect it.
+In snipes the colours are modified so as to be equally in harmony with
+the prevalent forms and colours of marshy vegetation. Mr. J. M. Lester,
+in a paper read before the Rugby School Natural History Society
+observes:--"The wood-dove, when perched amongst the branches of its
+favourite _fir_, is scarcely discernible; whereas, were it among some
+lighter foliage the blue and purple tints in its plumage would far
+sooner betray it. The robin redbreast, too, although it might be thought
+that the red on its breast made it much easier to be seen, is in reality
+not at all endangered by it, since it generally contrives to get among
+some russet or yellow fading leaves, where the red matches very well
+with the autumn tints, and the brown of the rest of the body with the
+bare branches."
+
+Reptiles offer us many similar examples. The most arboreal lizards, the
+iguanas, are as green as the leaves they feed upon, and the slender
+whip-snakes are rendered almost invisible as they glide among the
+foliage by a similar colouration. How difficult it is sometimes to catch
+sight of the little green tree-frogs sitting on the leaves of a small
+plant enclosed in a glass case in the Zoological Gardens; yet how much
+better concealed they must be among the fresh green damp foliage of a
+marshy forest. There is a North American frog found on lichen-covered
+rocks and walls, which is so coloured as exactly to resemble them, and
+as long as it remains quiet would certainly escape detection. Some of
+the geckos which cling motionless on the trunks of trees in the tropics,
+are of such curiously marbled colours as to match exactly with the bark
+they rest upon.
+
+In every part of the tropics there are tree snakes that twist among
+boughs and shrubs, or lie coiled up in the dense masses of foliage.
+These are of many distinct groups, and comprise both venomous and
+harmless genera; but almost all of them are of a beautiful green colour,
+sometimes more or less adorned with white or dusky bands and spots.
+There can be little doubt that this colour is doubly useful to them,
+since it will tend to conceal them from their enemies, and will lead
+their prey to approach them unconscious of danger. Dr. Gunthner informs
+me that there is only one genus of true arboreal snakes (Dipsas) whose
+colours are rarely green, but are of various shades of black, brown, and
+olive, and these are all nocturnal reptiles, and there can be little
+doubt conceal themselves during the day in holes, so that the green
+protective tint would be useless to them, and they accordingly retain
+the more usual reptilian hues.
+
+Fishes present similar instances. Many flat fish, as, for example, the
+flounder and the skate, are exactly the colour of the gravel or sand on
+which they habitually rest. Among the marine flower gardens of an
+Eastern coral reef the fishes present every variety of gorgeous colour,
+while the river fish even of the tropics rarely if ever have gay or
+conspicuous markings. A very curious case of this kind of adaptation
+occurs in the sea-horse (Hippocampus) of Australia, some of which bear
+long foliaceous appendages resembling seaweed, and are of a brilliant
+red colour; and they are known to live among seaweed of the same hue, so
+that when at rest they must be quite invisible. There are now in the
+aquarium of the Zoological Society some slender green pipe-fish which
+fasten themselves to any object at the bottom by their prehensile tails,
+and float about with the current, looking exactly like some cylindrical
+algę.
+
+It is, however, in the insect world that this principle of the
+adaptation of animals to their environment is most fully and strikingly
+developed. In order to understand how general this is, it is necessary
+to enter somewhat into details, as we shall thereby be better able to
+appreciate the significance of the still more remarkable phenomena we
+shall presently have to discuss. It seems to be in proportion to their
+sluggish motions or the absence of other means of defence, that insects
+possess the protective colouring. In the tropics there are thousands of
+species of insects which rest during the day clinging to the bark of
+dead or fallen trees; and the greater portion of these are delicately
+mottled with gray and brown tints, which though symmetrically disposed
+and infinitely varied, yet blend so completely with the usual colours of
+the bark that at two or three feet distance they are quite
+undistinguishable. In some cases a species is known to frequent only one
+species of tree. This is the case with the common South American
+long-horned beetle (Onychocerus scorpio) which, Mr. Bates informed me,
+is found only on a rough-barked tree, called Tapiriba, on the Amazon. It
+is very abundant, but so exactly does it resemble the bark in colour and
+rugosity, and so closely does it cling to the branches, that until it
+moves it is absolutely invisible! An allied species (O. concentricus) is
+found only at Para, on a distinct species of tree, the bark of which it
+resembles with equal accuracy. Both these insects are abundant, and we
+may fairly conclude that the protection they derive from this strange
+concealment is at least one of the causes that enable the race to
+flourish.
+
+Many of the species of Cicindela, or tiger beetle, will illustrate this
+mode of protection. Our common Cicindela campestris frequents grassy
+banks and is of a beautiful green colour, while C. maritima, which is
+found only on sandy sea-shores, is of a pale bronzy yellow, so as to be
+almost invisible. A great number of the species found by myself in the
+Malay islands are similarly protected. The beautiful Cicindela gloriosa,
+of a very deep velvety green colour, was only taken upon wet mossy
+stones in the bed of a mountain stream, where it was with the greatest
+difficulty detected. A large brown species (C. heros) was found chiefly
+on dead leaves in forest paths; and one which was never seen except on
+the wet mud of salt marshes was of a glossy olive so exactly the colour
+of the mud as only to be distinguished when the sun shone, by its
+shadow! Where the sandy beach was coralline and nearly white, I found a
+very pale Cicindela; wherever it was volcanic and black, a dark species
+of the same genus was sure to be met with.
+
+There are in the East small beetles of the family Buprestidę which
+generally rest on the midrib of a leaf, and the naturalist often
+hesitates before picking them off, so closely do they resemble pieces of
+bird's dung. Kirby and Spence mention the small beetle Onthophilus
+sulcatus as being like the seed of an umbelliferous plant; and another
+small weevil, which is much persecuted by predatory beetles of the genus
+Harpalus, is of the exact colour of loamy soil, and was found to be
+particularly abundant in loam pits. Mr. Bates mentions a small beetle
+(Chlamys pilula) which was undistinguishable by the eye from the dung of
+caterpillars, while some of the Cassidę, from their hemispherical forms
+and pearly gold-colour, resemble glittering dew-drops upon the leaves.
+
+A number of our small brown and speckled weevils at the approach of any
+object roll off the leaf they are sitting on, at the same time drawing
+in their legs and antennę, which fit so perfectly into cavities for
+their reception that the insect becomes a mere oval brownish lump, which
+it is hopeless to look for among the similarly coloured little stones
+and earth pellets among which it lies motionless.
+
+The distribution of colour in butterflies and moths respectively is very
+instructive from this point of view. The former have all their brilliant
+colouring on the upper surface of all four wings, while the under
+surface is almost always soberly coloured, and often very dark and
+obscure. The moths on the contrary have generally their chief colour on
+the hind wings only, the upper wings being of dull, sombre, and often
+imitative tints, and these generally conceal the hind wings when the
+insects are in repose. This arrangement of the colours is therefore
+eminently protective, because the butterfly always rests with his wings
+raised so as to conceal the dangerous brilliancy of his upper surface.
+It is probable that if we watched their habits sufficiently we should
+find the under surface of the wings of butterflies very frequently
+imitative and protective. Mr. T. W. Wood has pointed out that the little
+orange-tip butterfly often rests in the evening on the green and white
+flower heads of an umbelliferous plant, and that when observed in this
+position the beautiful green and white mottling of the under surface
+completely assimilates with the flower heads and renders the creature
+very difficult to be seen. It is probable that the rich dark colouring
+of the under side of our peacock, tortoiseshell, and red-admiral
+butterflies answers a similar purpose.
+
+Two curious South American butterflies that always settle on the trunks
+of trees (Gynecia dirce and Callizona acesta) have the under surface
+curiously striped and mottled, and when viewed obliquely must closely
+assimilate with the appearance of the furrowed bark of many kinds of
+trees. But the most wonderful and undoubted case of protective
+resemblance in a butterfly which I have ever seen, is that of the
+common Indian Kallima inachis, and its Malayan ally, Kallima paralekta.
+The upper surface of these insects is very striking and showy, as they
+are of a large size, and are adorned with a broad band of rich orange on
+a deep bluish ground. The under side is very variable in colour, so that
+out of fifty specimens no two can be found exactly alike, but every one
+of them will be of some shade of ash or brown or ochre, such as are
+found among dead, dry or decaying leaves. The apex of the upper wings is
+produced into an acute point, a very common form in the leaves of
+tropical shrubs and trees, and the lower wings are also produced into a
+short, narrow tail. Between these two points runs a dark curved line
+exactly representing the midrib of a leaf, and from this radiate on each
+side a few oblique lines, which serve to indicate the lateral veins of a
+leaf. These marks are more clearly seen on the outer portion of the base
+of the wings, and on the inner side towards the middle and apex, and it
+is very curious to observe how the usual marginal and transverse strię
+of the group are here modified and strengthened so as to become adapted
+for an imitation of the venation of a leaf. We come now to a still more
+extraordinary part of the imitation, for we find representations of
+leaves in every stage of decay, variously blotched and mildewed and
+pierced with powdery black dots gathered into patches and spots, so
+closely resembling the various kinds of minute fungi that grow on dead
+leaves that is it impossible to avoid thinking at first sight that the
+butterflies themselves have been attacked by real fungi.
+
+But this resemblance, close as it is, would be little use if the habits
+of the insect did not accord with it. If the butterfly sat upon leaves
+or upon flowers, or opened its wings so as to expose the upper surface,
+or exposed and moved its head and antennę as many other butterflies do,
+its disguise would be of little avail. We might be sure, however, from
+the analogy of many other cases, that the habits of the insect are such
+as still further to aid its deceptive garb; but we are not obliged to
+make any such supposition, since I myself had the good fortune to
+observe scores of Kallima paralekta, in Sumatra, and to capture many of
+them, and can vouch for the accuracy of the following details: These
+butterflies frequent dry forests and fly very swiftly. They were never
+seen to settle on a flower or a green leaf, but were many times lost
+sight of in a bush or tree of dead leaves. On such occasions they were
+generally searched for in vain, for while gazing intently at the very
+spot where one had disappeared, it would often suddenly dart out and
+again vanish twenty or fifty yards further on. On one or two occasions
+the insect was detected reposing, and it could then be seen how
+completely it assimilates itself to the surrounding leaves. It sits on
+a nearly upright twig, the wings fitting closely back to back,
+concealing the antennę and head, which are drawn up between their bases.
+The little tails of the hind wings touch the branch and form a perfect
+stalk to the leaf, which is supported in its place by the claws of the
+middle pair of feet, which are slender and inconspicuous. The irregular
+outline of the wings gives exactly the perspective effect of a
+shrivelled leaf. We thus have size, colour, form, markings, and habits,
+all combining together to produce a disguise which may be said to be
+absolutely perfect; and the protection which it affords is sufficiently
+indicated by the abundance of the individuals that possess it....
+
+We will now endeavour to show how these wonderful resemblances have most
+probably been brought about. Returning to the higher animals, let us
+consider the remarkable fact of the rarity of white colouring in the
+mammalia or birds of the temperate or tropical zones in a state of
+nature. There is not a single white land-bird or quadruped in Europe,
+except the few arctic or alpine species to which white is a protective
+colour. Yet in many of these creatures there seems to be no inherent
+tendency to avoid white, for directly they are domesticated white
+varieties arise, and appear to thrive as well as others. We have white
+mice and rats, white cats, horses, dogs, and cattle, white poultry,
+pigeons, turkeys, and ducks, and white rabbits. Some of these animals
+have been domesticated for a long period, others only for a few
+centuries; but in almost every case in which an animal has been
+thoroughly domesticated, parti-coloured and white varieties are produced
+and become permanent.
+
+It is also well known that animals in a state of nature produce white
+varieties occasionally. Blackbirds, starlings, and crows are
+occasionally seen white, as well as elephants, deer, tigers, hares,
+moles, and many other animals; but in no case is a permanent white race
+produced. Now there are no statistics to show that the normal-coloured
+parents produce white offspring oftener under domestication than in a
+state of nature, and we have no right to make such an assumption if the
+facts can be accounted for without it. But if the colours of animals do
+really, in the various instances already adduced, serve for their
+concealment and preservation, then white or any other conspicuous colour
+must be hurtful, and must in most cases shorten an animal's life. A
+white rabbit would be more surely the prey of hawk or buzzard, and the
+white mole, or field mouse, could not long escape from the vigilant owl.
+So, also, any deviation from those tints best adapted to conceal a
+carnivorous animal would render the pursuit of its prey much more
+difficult, would place it at a disadvantage among its fellows and in a
+time of scarcity would probably cause it to starve to death. On the
+other hand, if an animal spreads from a temperate into an arctic
+district, the conditions are changed. During a large portion of the
+year, and just when the struggle for existence is most severe, white is
+the prevailing tint of nature, and dark colours will be the most
+conspicuous. The white varieties will now have an advantage; they will
+escape from their enemies or will secure food, while their brown
+companions will be devoured or will starve; and "as like produces like"
+is the established rule in nature, the white race will become
+permanently established, and dark varieties, when they occasionally
+appear, will soon die out from their want of adaptation to their
+environment. In each case the fittest will survive, and a race will be
+eventually produced adapted to the conditions in which it lives.
+
+We have here an illustration of the simple and effectual means by which
+animals are brought into harmony with the rest of nature. That slight
+amount of variability in every species, which we often look upon as
+something accidental or abnormal, or so insignificant as to be hardly
+worthy of notice, is yet the foundation of all those wonderful and
+harmonious resemblances which play such an important part in the economy
+of nature. Variation is generally very small in amount, but it is all
+that is required, because the change in the external conditions to which
+an animal is subject is generally very slow and intermittent. When
+these changes have taken place too rapidly, the result has often been
+the extinction of species; but the general rule is, that climatal and
+geological changes go on slowly, and the slight but continual variations
+in the colour, form and structure of all animals, has furnished
+individuals adapted to these changes, and who have become the
+progenitors of modified races. Rapid multiplication, incessant slight
+variation, and survival of the fittest--these are the laws which ever
+keep the organic world in harmony with the inorganic and with itself.
+These are the laws which we believe have produced all the cases of
+protective resemblance already adduced, as well as those still more
+curious examples we have yet to bring before our readers.
+
+It must always be borne in mind that the more wonderful examples, in
+which there is not only a general but a special resemblance as in the
+walking leaf, the mossy phasma, and the leaf-winged butterfly--represent
+those few instances in which the process of modification has been going
+on during an immense series of generations. They all occur in the
+tropics, where the conditions of existence are the most favourable, and
+where climatic changes have for long periods been hardly perceptible. In
+most of them favourable variations both of colour, form, structure, and
+instinct or habit, must have occurred to produce the perfect adaptation
+we now behold. All these are known to vary, and favourable variations
+when not accompanied by others that are unfavourable, would certainly
+survive. At one time a little step might be made in this direction, at
+another time in that--a change of conditions might sometimes render
+useless that which it had taken ages to produce--great and sudden
+physical modifications might often produce the extinction of a race just
+as it was approaching perfection, and a hundred checks of which we can
+know nothing may have retarded the progress towards perfect adaptation;
+so that we can hardly wonder at there being so few cases in which a
+completely successful result has been attained as shown by the abundance
+and wide diffusion of the creatures so protected.
+
+[Here are given many detailed examples of insects which gainfully mimic
+one another.]
+
+We will now adduce a few cases in which beetles imitate other insects,
+and insects of other orders imitate beetles.
+
+Charis melipona, a South American Longicorn of the family Necydalidę,
+has been so named from its resemblance to a small bee of the genus
+Melipona. It is one of the most remarkable cases of mimicry, since the
+beetle has the thorax and body densely hairy like the bee, and the legs
+are tufted in a manner most unusual in the order Coleoptera. Another
+Longicorn, Odontocera odyneroides, has the abdomen banded with yellow,
+and constricted at the base, and is altogether so exactly like a small
+common wasp of the genus Odynerus, that Mr. Bates informs us he was
+afraid to take it out of his net with his fingers for fear of being
+stung. Had Mr. Bates's taste for insects been less omnivorous than it
+was, the beetle's disguise might have saved it from his pin, as it had
+no doubt often done from the beak of hungry birds. A larger insect,
+Sphecomorpha chalybea, is exactly like one of the large metallic blue
+wasps, and like them has the abdomen connected with the thorax by a
+pedicle, rendering the deception most complete and striking. Many
+Eastern species of Longicorns of the genus Oberea, when on the wing
+exactly resemble Tenthredinidę, and many of the small species of
+Hesthesis run about on timber, and cannot be distinguished from ants.
+There is one genus of South American Longicorns that appears to mimic
+the shielded bugs of the genus Scutellera. The Gymnocerous capucinus is
+one of these, and is very like Pachyotris fabricii, one of the
+Scutelleridę. The beautiful Gymnocerous dulcissimus is also very like
+the same group of insects, though there is no known species that exactly
+corresponds to it; but this is not to be wondered at, as the tropical
+Hemiptera have been comparatively so little cared for by collectors.
+
+The most remarkable case of an insect of another order mimicking a
+beetle is that of the Condylodera tricondyloides, one of the cricket
+family from the Philippine Islands, which is so exactly like a
+Tricondyla (one of the tiger beetles), that such an experienced
+entomologist as Professor Westwood placed it among them in his cabinet,
+and retained it there a long time before he discovered his mistake! Both
+insects run along the trunks of trees, and whereas Tricondylas are very
+plentiful, the insect that mimics it is, as in all other cases, very
+rare. Mr. Bates also informs us that he found at Santarem on the Amazon,
+a species of locust which mimicked one of the tiger beetles of the genus
+Odontocheila, and was found on the same trees which they frequented.
+
+There are a considerable number of Diptera, or two-winged flies, that
+closely resemble wasps and bees, and no doubt derive much benefit from
+the wholesome dread which those insects excite. The Midas dives, and
+other species of large Brazilian flies, have dark wings and metallic
+blue elongate bodies, resembling the large stinging Sphegidę of the same
+country; and a very large fly of the genus Asilus has black-banded wings
+and the abdomen tipped with rich orange, so as exactly to resemble the
+fine bee Euglossa dimidiata, and both are found in the same parts of
+South America. We have also in our own country species of Bombylius
+which are almost exactly like bees. In these cases the end gained by the
+mimicry is no doubt freedom from attack, but it has sometimes an
+altogether different purpose. There are a number of parasitic flies
+whose larvę feed upon the larvę of bees, such as the British genus
+Volucella and many of the tropical Bombylii, and most of these are
+exactly like the particular species of bee they prey upon, so that they
+can enter their nests unsuspected to deposit their eggs. There are also
+bees that mimic bees. The cuckoo bees of the genus Nomada are parasitic
+on the Andrenidę, and they resemble either wasps or species of Andrena;
+and the parasitic humble-bees of the genus Apathus almost exactly
+resemble the species of humble-bees in whose nests they are reared. Mr.
+Bates informs us that he found numbers of these "cuckoo" bees and flies
+on the Amazon, which all wore the livery of working bees peculiar to the
+same country.
+
+There is a genus of small spiders in the tropics which feed on ants, and
+they are exactly like ants themselves, which no doubt gives them more
+opportunity of seizing their prey; and Mr. Bates found on the Amazon a
+species of Mantis which exactly resembled the white ants which it fed
+upon, as well as several species of crickets (Saphura), which resembled
+in a wonderful manner different sand-wasps of large size, which are
+constantly on the search for crickets with which to provision their
+nests.
+
+Perhaps the most wonderful case of all is the large caterpillar
+mentioned by Mr. Bates, which startled him by its close resemblance to a
+small snake. The first three segments behind the head were dilatable at
+the will of the insect, and had on each side a large black pupillated
+spot, which resembled the eye of the reptile. Moreover, it resembled a
+poisonous viper, not a harmless species of snake, as was proved by the
+imitation of keeled scales on the crown produced by the recumbent feet,
+as the caterpillar threw itself backward!
+
+The attitudes of many of the tropical spiders are most extraordinary and
+deceptive, but little attention has been paid to them. They often mimic
+other insects, and some, Mr. Bates assures us, are exactly like flower
+buds, and take their station in the axils of leaves, where they remain
+motionless waiting for their prey.
+
+I have now completed a brief, and necessarily very imperfect, survey of
+the various ways in which the external form and colouring of animals is
+adapted to be useful to them, either by concealing them from their
+enemies or from the creatures they prey upon. It has, I hope, been shown
+that the subject is one of much interest, both as regard a true
+comprehension of the place each animal fills in the economy of nature,
+and the means by which it is enabled to maintain that place; and also as
+teaching us how important a part is played by the minutest details in
+the structure of animals, and how complicated and delicate is the
+equilibrium of the organic world.
+
+My exposition of the subject having been necessarily somewhat lengthy
+and full of details, it will be as well to recapitulate its main
+points.
+
+There is a general harmony in nature between the colours of an animal
+and those of its habitation. Arctic animals are white, desert animals
+are sand-coloured; dwellers among leaves and grass are green; nocturnal
+animals are dusky. These colours are not universal, but are very
+general, and are seldom reversed. Going on a little further, we find
+birds, reptiles and insects, so tinted and mottled as exactly to match
+the rock, or bark, or leaf, or flower they are accustomed to rest
+upon--and thereby effectually concealed. Another step in advance, and we
+have insects which are formed as well as coloured so as exactly to
+resemble particular leaves, or sticks, or mossy twigs, or flowers; and
+in these cases very peculiar habits and instincts come into play to aid
+in the deception and render the concealment more complete. We now enter
+upon a new phase of the phenomena, and come to creatures whose colours
+neither conceal them nor make them like vegetable or mineral substances;
+on the contrary, they are conspicuous enough, but they completely
+resemble some other creature of a quite different group, while they
+differ much in outward appearance from those with which all essential
+parts of their organization show them to be really closely allied. They
+appear like actors or masqueraders dressed up and painted for amusement,
+or like swindlers endeavouring to pass themselves off for well-known and
+respectable members of society. What is the meaning of this strange
+travesty? Does nature descend to imposture or masquerade? We answer, she
+does not. Her principles are too severe. There is a use in every detail
+of her handiwork. The resemblance of one animal to another is of exactly
+the same essential nature as the resemblance to a leaf, or to bark, or
+to desert sand, and answers exactly the same purpose. In the one case
+the enemy will not attack the leaf or the bark, and so the disguise is a
+safeguard; in the other case it is found that for various reasons the
+creature resembled is passed over, and not attacked by the usual enemies
+of its order, and thus the creature that resembles it has an equally
+effectual safeguard. We are plainly shown that the disguise is of the
+same nature in the two cases, by the occurrence in the same group of one
+species resembling a vegetable substance, while another resembles a
+living animal of another group; and we know that the creatures resembled
+possess an immunity from attack, by their being always very abundant, by
+their being conspicuous and not concealing themselves, and by their
+having generally no visible means of escape from their enemies; while,
+at the same time, the particular quality that makes them disliked is
+often very clear, such as a nasty taste or an indigestible hardness.
+Further examination reveals the fact that, in several cases of both
+kinds of disguise, it is the female only that is thus disguised; and as
+it can be shown that the female needs protection much more than the
+male, and that her preservation for a much longer period is absolutely
+necessary for the continuance of the race, we have an additional
+indication that the resemblance is in all cases subservient to a great
+purpose--the preservation of the species.
+
+In endeavouring to explain these phenomena as having been brought about
+by variation and natural selection, we start with the fact that white
+varieties frequently occur, and when protected from enemies show no
+incapacity for continued existence and increase. We know, further, that
+varieties of many other tints occasionally occur; and as "the survival
+of the fittest" must inevitably weed out those whose colours are
+prejudicial and preserve those whose colours are a safeguard, we require
+no other mode of accounting for the protective tints of arctic and
+desert animals. But this being granted, there is such a perfectly
+continuous and graduated series of examples of every kind of protective
+imitation, up to the most wonderful cases of what is termed "mimicry,"
+that we can find no place at which to draw the line and say,--so far
+variation and natural selection will account for the phenomena, but for
+all the rest we require a more potent cause. The counter theories that
+have been proposed, that of the "special creation" of each imitative
+form, that of the action of similar "conditions of existence" for some
+of the cases, and of the laws of "hereditary descent and the reversion
+to ancestral forms" for others,--have all been shown to be beset with
+difficulties, and the two latter to be directly contradicted by some of
+the most constant and most remarkable of the facts to be accounted for.
+
+The important part that protective "resemblance" has played in
+determining the colours and markings of many groups of animals will
+enable us to understand the meaning of one of the most striking facts in
+nature, the uniformity in the colours of the vegetable as compared with
+the wonderful diversity of the animal world. There appears no good
+reason why trees and shrubs should not have been adorned with as many
+varied hues and as strikingly designed patterns as birds and
+butterflies, since the gay colours of flowers show that there is no
+incapacity in vegetable tissues to exhibit them. But even flowers
+themselves present us with none of those wonderful designs, those
+complicated arrangements of stripes and dots and patches of colour, that
+harmonious blending of hues in lines and bands and shaded spots, which
+are so general a feature in insects. It is the opinion of Mr. Darwin
+that we owe much of the beauty of flowers to the necessity of attracting
+insects to aid in their fertilization, and that much of the development
+of colour in the animal world is due to "sexual selection," colour being
+universally attractive, and thus leading to its propagation and
+increase; but while fully admitting this, it will be evident from the
+facts and arguments here brought forward, that very much of the
+_variety_ both of colour and markings among animals is due to the
+supreme importance of concealment, and thus the various tints of
+minerals and vegetables have been directly reproduced in the animal
+kingdom, and again and again modified as more special protection became
+necessary. We shall thus have two causes for the development of colour
+in the animal world and shall be better enabled to understand how, by
+their combined and separate action, the immense variety we now behold
+has been produced. Both causes, however, will come under the general law
+of "Utility," the advocacy of which, in its broadest sense, we owe
+almost entirely to Mr. Darwin. A more accurate knowledge of the varied
+phenomena connected with this subject may not improbably give us some
+information both as to the senses and the mental faculties of the lower
+animals. For it is evident that if colours which please us also attract
+them, and if the various disguises which have been here enumerated are
+equally deceptive to them as to ourselves, then both their powers of
+vision and their faculties of perception and emotion, must be
+essentially of the same nature as our own--a fact of high philosophical
+importance in the study of our own nature and our true relations to the
+lower animals.[4]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] The author continues this study in Chapter ix of "Darwinism": New
+York, Macmillan Co., 1889.--Ed.
+
+
+
+
+THE EVOLUTION OF THE HORSE
+
+THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
+
+     [Professor Huxley as a naturalist, educator, and
+     controversialist was one of the commanding figures of the
+     nineteenth century. To physiology and morphology his
+     researches added much of importance: as an expositor he stood
+     unapproached. As the bold and witty champion of Darwinism he
+     gave natural selection an acceptance much more early and wide
+     than it would otherwise have enjoyed. In 1876 he delivered in
+     America three lectures on Evolution: the third of the series
+     is here given. All three are copyrighted and published by D.
+     Appleton & Co., New York, in a volume which also contains a
+     lecture on the study of biology. Since 1876 the arguments of
+     Professor Huxley have been reinforced by the discovery of
+     many fossils connecting not only the horse, but other
+     quadrupeds, with species widely different and now extinct.
+     The most comprehensive collection illustrating the descent of
+     the horse is to be seen at the American Museum of Natural
+     History, New York, where also the evolution of tapirs,
+     camels, llamas, rhinoceroses, dinosaurs, great ground sloths
+     and other animals are clearly to be traced--in most cases by
+     remains discovered in America. A capital book on the theme
+     broached by Professor Huxley is "Animals of the Past," by
+     Frederic A. Lucas, Curator of the Division of Comparative
+     Anatomy, United States National Museum, Washington, D. C.,
+     published by McClure, Phillips & Co., New York.
+
+     "The Life and Letters of Professor Huxley," edited by his
+     son, Leonard Huxley, is a work of rare interest: it is
+     published by D. Appleton & Co., New York.]
+
+
+The occurrence of historical facts is said to be demonstrated, when the
+evidence that they happened is of such a character as to render the
+assumption that they did not happen in the highest degree improbable;
+and the question I now have to deal with is, whether evidence in favour
+of the evolution of animals of this degree of cogency is, or is not,
+obtainable from the record of the succession of living forms which is
+presented to us by fossil remains.
+
+Those who have attended to the progress of palęontology are aware that
+evidence of the character which I have defined has been produced in
+considerable and continually-increasing quantity during the last few
+years. Indeed, the amount and the satisfactory nature of that evidence
+are somewhat surprising, when we consider the conditions under which
+alone we can hope to obtain it.
+
+It is obviously useless to seek for such evidence, except in localities
+in which the physical conditions have been such as to permit of the
+deposit of an unbroken, or but rarely interrupted, series of strata
+through a long period of time; in which the group of animals to be
+investigated has existed in such abundance as to furnish the requisite
+supply of remains; and in which, finally, the materials composing the
+strata are such as to insure the preservation of these remains in a
+tolerably perfect and undisturbed state.
+
+It so happens that the case which, at present, most nearly fulfils all
+these conditions is that of the series of extinct animals which
+culminates in the horses; by which term I mean to denote not merely the
+domestic animals with which we are all so well acquainted, but their
+allies, the ass, zebra, quagga, and the like. In short, I use "horses"
+as the equivalent of the technical name _Equidę_, which is applied to
+the whole group of existing equine animals.
+
+The horse is in many ways a remarkable animal; not least so in the fact
+that it presents us with an example of one of the most perfect pieces of
+machinery in the living world. In truth, among the works of human
+ingenuity it cannot be said that there is any locomotive so perfectly
+adapted to its purposes, doing so much work with so small a quantity of
+fuel, as this machine of nature's manufacture--the horse. And, as a
+necessary consequence of any sort of perfection, of mechanical
+perfection as of others, you find that the horse is a beautiful
+creature, one of the most beautiful of all land animals. Look at the
+perfect balance of its form, and the rhythm and force of its action. The
+locomotive machinery is, as you are aware, resident in its slender fore
+and hind limbs; they are flexible and elastic levers, capable of being
+moved by very powerful muscles; and, in order to supply the engines
+which work these levers with the force which they expend, the horse is
+provided with a very perfect apparatus for grinding its food and
+extracting therefrom the requisite fuel.
+
+Without attempting to take you very far into the region of osteological
+detail, I must nevertheless trouble you with some statements respecting
+the anatomical structure of the horse; and, more especially, will it be
+needful to obtain a general conception of the structure of its fore and
+hind limbs, and of its teeth. But I shall only touch upon these points
+which are absolutely essential to our inquiry.
+
+Let us turn in the first place to the fore-limb. In most quadrupeds, as
+in ourselves, the fore-arms contains distinct bones called the radius
+and the ulna. The corresponding region in the horse seem at first to
+possess but one bone. Careful observation, however, enables us to
+distinguish in this bone a part which clearly answers to the upper end
+of the ulna. This is closely united with the chief mass of the bone
+which represents the radius, and runs out into a slender shaft which may
+be traced for some distance downwards upon the back of the radius, and
+then in most cases thins out and vanishes. It takes still more trouble
+to make sure of what is nevertheless the fact, that a small part of the
+lower end of the bone of the horse's fore-arm, which is only distinct in
+a very young foal, is really the lower extremity of the ulna.
+
+What is commonly called the knee of a horse is its wrist. The "cannon
+bone" answers to the middle bone of the five metacarpal bones, which
+support the palm of the hand in ourselves. The "pastern," "coronary,"
+and "coffin" bones of veterinarians answer to the joints of our middle
+fingers, while the hoof is simply a greatly enlarged and thickened nail.
+But if what lies below the horse's "knee" thus corresponds to the middle
+finger in ourselves, what has become of the four other fingers or
+digits? We find in the places of the second and fourth digits only two
+slender splint-like bones, about two-thirds as long as the cannon bone,
+which gradually taper to their lower ends and bear no finger joints, or,
+as they are termed, phalanges. Sometimes, small bony or gristly nodules
+are to be found at the bases of these two metacarpal splints, and it is
+probable that these represent rudiments of the first and fifth toes.
+Thus, the part of the horse's skeleton, which corresponds with that of
+the human hand, contains one overgrown middle digit, and at least two
+imperfect lateral digits; and these answer, respectively, to the third,
+the second and the fourth fingers in man.
+
+Corresponding modifications are found in the hind limb. In ourselves,
+and in most quadrupeds, the leg contains two distinct bones, a large
+bone, the tibia, and a smaller and more slender bone, the fibula. But,
+in the horse, the fibula seems, at first, to be reduced to its upper
+end; a short slender bone united with the tibia and ending in a point
+below, occupying its place. Examination of the lower end of a young
+foal's shin-bone, however, shows a distinct portion of osseous matter,
+which is the lower end of the fibula; so that the, apparently single,
+lower end of the shin-bone is really made up of the coalesced ends of
+the tibia and fibula, just as the, apparently single, lower end of the
+fore-arm bone is composed of the coalesced radius and ulna.
+
+The heel of the horse is the part commonly known as the hock. The hinder
+cannon bone answers to the middle metatarsal bone of the human foot, the
+pastern, coronary, and coffin bones, to the middle toe bones; the hind
+hoof to the nail; as in the fore-foot. And, as in the fore-foot, there
+are merely two splints to represent the second and the fourth toes.
+Sometimes a rudiment of a fifth toe appears to be traceable.
+
+The teeth of a horse are not less peculiar than its limbs. The living
+engine, like all others, must be well stoked if it is to do its work;
+and the horse, if it is to make good its wear and tear, and to exert the
+enormous amount of force required for its propulsion, must be well and
+rapidly fed. To this end good cutting instruments and powerful and
+lasting crushers are needful. Accordingly, the twelve cutting teeth of a
+horse are close-set and concentrated in the fore-part of its mouth, like
+so many adzes or chisels. The grinders or molars are large, and have an
+extremely complicated structure, being composed of a number of different
+substances of unequal hardness. The consequence of this is that they
+wear away at different rates; and, hence, the surface of each grinder
+is always as uneven as that of a good millstone.
+
+I have said that the structure of the grinding teeth is very
+complicated, the harder and the softer parts being, as it were,
+interlaced with one another. The result of this is that, as the tooth
+wears, the crown presents a peculiar pattern, the nature of which is not
+very easily deciphered at first, but which it is important we should
+understand clearly. Each grinding tooth of the upper jaw has an _outer
+wall_ so shaped that, on the worn crown, it exhibits the form of two
+crescents, one in front and one behind, with their concave sides turned
+outwards. From the inner side of the front crescent, a crescentic _front
+ridge_ passes inwards and backwards, and its inner face enlarges into a
+strong longitudinal fold or _pillar_. From the front part of the hinder
+crescent, a _back ridge_ takes a like direction, and also has its
+_pillar_.
+
+The deep interspaces or _valleys_ between these ridges and the outer
+wall are filled by bony substance, which is called _cement_, and coats
+the whole tooth.
+
+The pattern of the worn face of each grinding tooth of the lower jaw is
+quite different. It appears to be formed of two crescent-shaped ridges,
+the convexities of which are turned outwards. The free extremity of each
+crescent has a _pillar_, and there is a large double _pillar_ where the
+two crescents meet. The whole structure is, as it were, imbedded in
+cement, which fills up the valleys, as in the upper grinders.
+
+If the grinding faces of an upper and of a lower molar of the same side
+are applied together, it will be seen that the opposed ridges are
+nowhere parallel, but that they frequently cross; and that thus, in the
+act of mastication, a hard surface in the one is constantly applied to a
+soft surface in the other, and _vice versa_. They thus constitute a
+grinding apparatus of great efficiency, and one which is repaired as
+fast as it wears, owing to the long-continued growth of the teeth.
+
+Some other peculiarities of the dentition of the horse must be noticed,
+as they bear upon what I shall have to say by and by. Thus the crowns of
+the cutting teeth have a peculiar deep pit, which gives rise to the
+well-known "mark" of the horse. There is a large space between the outer
+incisors and the front grinders. In this space the adult male horse
+presents, near the incisors on each side, above and below, a canine or
+"tush," which is commonly absent in mares. In a young horse, moreover,
+there is not unfrequently to be seen, in front of the first grinder, a
+very small tooth, which soon falls out. If this small tooth be counted
+as one, it will be found that there are seven teeth behind the canine on
+each side; namely, the small tooth in question, and the six great
+grinders, among which, by an unusual peculiarity, the foremost tooth is
+rather larger than those which follow it.
+
+I have now enumerated those characteristic structures of the horse which
+are of most importance for the purpose we have in view.
+
+To any one who is acquainted with the morphology [comparative forms] of
+vertebrated animals, they show that the horse deviates widely from the
+general structure of mammals; and that the horse type is, in many
+respects, an extreme modification of the general mammalian plan. The
+least modified mammals, in fact, have the radius and ulna, the tibia and
+fibula, distinct and separate. They have five distinct and complete
+digits on each foot, and no one of these digits is very much larger than
+the rest. Moreover, in the least modified mammals the total number of
+the teeth is very generally forty-four, while in horses the usual number
+is forty, and in the absence of the canines it may be reduced to
+thirty-six; the incisor teeth are devoid of the fold seen in those of
+the horse: the grinders regularly diminish in size from the middle of
+the series to its front end; while their crowns are short, early attain
+their full length, and exhibit simple ridges or tubercles, in place of
+the complex foldings of the horse's grinders.
+
+Hence the general principles of the hypothesis of evolution lead to the
+conclusion that the horse must have been derived from some quadruped
+which possessed five complete digits on each foot; which had the bones
+of the fore-arm and of the leg complete and separate; and which
+possessed forty-four teeth, among which the crowns of the incisors and
+grinders had a simple structure; while the latter gradually increased in
+size from before backwards, at any rate in the anterior part of the
+series, and had short crowns.
+
+And if the horse has been thus evolved, and the remains of the different
+stages of its evolution have been preserved, they ought to present us
+with a series of forms in which the number of the digits becomes
+reduced; the bones of the fore-arm and leg gradually take on the equine
+condition; and the form and arrangement of the teeth successively
+approximate to those which obtain in existing horses.
+
+Let us turn to the facts, and see how far they fulfil these requirements
+of the doctrine of evolution.
+
+In Europe abundant remains of horses are found in the Quaternary and
+later Tertiary strata as far as the Pliocene formation. But these
+horses, which are so common in the cave-deposits and in the gravels of
+Europe, are in all essential respects like existing horses. And that is
+true of all the horses of the latter part of the Pliocene epoch. But in
+deposits which belong to the earlier Pliocene and later Miocene epochs,
+and which occur in Britain, in France, in Germany, in Greece, in India,
+we find animals which are extremely like horses--which, in fact, are so
+similar to horses that you may follow descriptions given in works upon
+the anatomy of the horse upon the skeletons of these animals--but which
+differ in some important particulars. For example, the structure of
+their fore and hind limbs is somewhat different. The bones which, in the
+horse, are represented by two splints, imperfect below, are as long as
+the middle metacarpal and metatarsal bones; and attached to the
+extremity of each is a digit with three joints of the same general
+character as those of the middle digit, only very much smaller. These
+small digits are so disposed that they could have had but very little
+functional importance, and they must have been rather of the nature of
+the dew-claws, such as are to be found in many ruminant animals. The
+_Hipparion_, as the extinct European three-toed horse is called, in
+fact, presents a foot similar to that of the American _Protohippus_
+(Fig. 9), except that in the _Hipparion_ the smaller digits are situated
+farther back and are of smaller proportional size than in the
+_Protohippus_.
+
+The ulna is slightly more distinct than in the horse; and the whole
+length of it, as a very slender shaft intimately united with the radius,
+is completely traceable. The fibula appears to be in the same condition
+as in the horse. The teeth of the _Hipparion_ are essentially similar to
+those of the horse, but the pattern of the grinders is in some respects
+a little more complex, and there is a depression on the face of the
+skull in front of the orbit, which is not seen in existing horses.
+
+In the earlier Miocene, and perhaps the later Eocene deposits of some
+parts of Europe, another extinct animal has been discovered, which
+Cuvier, who first described some fragments of it, considered to be a
+_Palęotherium_. But as further discoveries threw new light on its
+structure, it was recognized as a distinct genus under the name of
+_Anchitherium_.
+
+In its general characters, the skeleton of _Anchitherium_ is very
+similar to that of the horse. In fact, Lartet and De Blainville called
+it _Palęotherium equinum_ or _hippoides_; and De Christol, in 1847, said
+that it differed from _Hipparion_ in little more than the characters of
+its teeth, and gave it the name of _Hipparitherium_. Each foot possesses
+three complete toes; while the lateral toes are much larger in
+proportion to the middle toe than in _Hipparion_, and doubtless rested
+on the ground in ordinary locomotion.
+
+The ulna is complete and quite distinct from that radius, though firmly
+united with the latter. The fibula seems also to have been complete. Its
+lower end, though intimately united with that of the tibia, is clearly
+marked off from the latter bone.
+
+There are forty-four teeth. The incisors have no strong pit. The canines
+seem to have been well developed in both sexes. The first of the seven
+grinders, which, as I have said, is frequently absent, and when it does
+exist, is small in the horse, is a good-sized and permanent tooth,
+while the grinder which follows it is but little larger than the hinder
+ones. The crowns of the grinders are short, and though the fundamental
+pattern of the horse-tooth is discernible, the front and back ridges are
+less curved, the accessory pillars, are wanting, and the valleys, much
+shallower, are not filled up with cement.
+
+Seven years ago, when I happened to be looking critically into the
+bearing of palęontological facts upon the doctrine of evolution, it
+appeared to me that the _Anchitherium_, the _Hipparion_, and the modern
+horses, constitute a series in which the modifications of structure
+coincide with the order of chronological occurrence, in the manner in
+which they must coincide, if the modern horses really are the result of
+the gradual metamorphosis, in the course of the Tertiary epoch, of a
+less specialized ancestral form. And I found by correspondence with the
+late eminent French anatomist and palęontologist, M. Lartet, that he had
+arrived at the same conclusion from the same data.
+
+That the _Anchitherium_ type had become metamorphosed into the
+_Hipparion_ type, and the latter into the _Equine_ type,[5] in the
+course of that period of time which is represented by the latter half
+of the Tertiary deposits, seemed to me to be the only explanation of the
+facts for which there was even a shadow of probability.
+
+And, hence, I have ever since held that these facts afford evidence of
+the occurrence of evolution, which, in the sense already defined, may be
+termed demonstrative.
+
+All who have occupied themselves with the structure of _Anchitherium_,
+from Cuvier onwards, have acknowledged its many points of likeness to a
+well-known genus of extinct Eocene mammals, _Palęotherium_. Indeed, as
+we have seen, Cuvier regarded his remains of _Anchitherium_ as those of
+a species of _Palęotherium_. Hence, in attempting to trace the pedigree
+of the horse beyond the Miocene epoch and the Anchitheroid form, I
+naturally sought among the various species of Palęotheroid animals for
+its nearest ally, and I was led to the conclusion that the _Palęotherium
+minus_ (_Plagiolophus_) represented the next step more nearly than any
+form then known.
+
+I think that this opinion was fully justifiable; but the progress of
+investigation has thrown an unexpected light on the question, and has
+brought us much nearer than could have been anticipated to a knowledge
+of the true series of the progenitors of the horse.
+
+You are all aware that, when your country was first discovered by
+Europeans, there were no traces of the existence of the horse on any
+part of the American Continent. The accounts of the conquest of Mexico
+dwell upon the astonishment of the natives of that country when they
+first became acquainted with that astounding phenomenon--a man seated
+upon a horse. Nevertheless, the investigations of American geologists
+have proved that the remains of horses occur in the most superficial
+deposits of both North and South America, just as they do in Europe.
+Therefore, for some reason or other--no feasible suggestion on that
+subject, so far as I know, has been made--the horse must have died out
+on this continent at some period preceding the discovery of America. Of
+late years there has been discovered in your Western Territories that
+marvellous accumulation of deposits, admirably adapted for the
+preservation of organic remains, to which I referred the other evening,
+and which furnishes us with a consecutive series of records of the fauna
+of the older half of the Tertiary epoch, for which we have no parallel
+in Europe. They have yielded fossils in an excellent state of
+conservation and in unexampled numbers and variety. The researches of
+Leidy and others have shown that forms allied to the _Hipparion_ and the
+_Anchitherium_ are to be found among these remains. But it is only
+recently that the admirably conceived and most thoroughly and patiently
+worked-out investigations of Professor Marsh have given us a just idea
+of the vast fossil wealth, and of the scientific importance, of these
+deposits. I have had the advantage of glancing over the collections in
+Yale Museum; and I can truly say, that so far as my knowledge extends,
+there is no collection from any one region and series of strata
+comparable, for extent, or for the care with which the remains have been
+got together, or for their scientific importance, to the series of
+fossils which he has deposited there. This vast collection has yielded
+evidence bearing upon the question of the pedigree of the horse of the
+most striking character. It tends to show that we must look to America,
+rather than to Europe, for the original seat of the equine series; and
+that the archaic forms and successive modifications of the horse's
+ancestry are far better preserved here than in Europe.
+
+Professor Marsh's kindness has enabled me to put before you a diagram,
+every figure of which is an actual representation of some specimen which
+is to be seen at Yale at this present time (Fig. 9).
+
+The succession of forms which he has brought together carries us from
+the top to the bottom of the Tertiaries. Firstly, there is the true
+horse. Next we have the American Pliocene form of the horse
+(_Pliohippus_); in the conformation of its limbs it presents some very
+slight deviations from the ordinary horse, and the crowns of the
+grinding teeth are shorter. Then comes the _Protohippus_, which
+represents the European _Hipparion_, having one large digit and two
+small ones on each foot, and the general characters of the fore-arm and
+leg to which I have referred. But it is more valuable than the European
+_Hipparion_ for the reason that it is devoid of some of the
+peculiarities of that form--peculiarities which tend to show that the
+European _Hipparion_ is rather a member of a collateral branch, than a
+form in the direct line of succession. Next, in the backward order in
+time, is the _Miohippus_, which corresponds pretty nearly with the
+_Anchitherium_ of Europe. It presents three complete toes--one large
+median and two smaller lateral ones; and there is a rudiment of that
+digit, which answers to the little finger of the human hand.
+
+The European record of the pedigree of the horse stops here; in the
+American Tertiaries, on the contrary, the series of ancestral equine
+forms is continued into the Eocene formations. An older Miocene form,
+termed _Mesohippus_, has three toes in front, with a large splint-like
+rudiment representing the little finger; and three toes behind. The
+radius and ulna, the tibia and the fibula, are distinct, and the short
+crowned molar teeth are anchitheroid in pattern.
+
+But the most important discovery of all is the _Orohippus_, which comes
+from the Eocene formation, and which is the oldest member of the equine
+series, as yet known. Here we find four complete toes on the front-limb,
+three toes on the hind-limb, a well-developed ulna, a well-developed
+fibula, and short-crowned grinders of simple pattern.
+
+Thus, thanks to these important researches, it has become evident that,
+so far as our present knowledge extends, the history of the horse-type
+is exactly and precisely that which could have been predicted from a
+knowledge of the principles of evolution. And the knowledge we now
+possess justifies us completely in the anticipation, that when the still
+lower Eocene deposits, and those which belong to the Cretaceous epoch,
+have yielded up their remains of ancestral equine animals, we shall
+find, first, a form with four complete toes and a rudiment of the
+innermost or first digit in front, with probably, a rudiment of the
+fifth digit in the hind foot;[6] while, in still older forms, the series
+of the digits will be more and more complete, until we come to the
+five-toed animals, in which, if the doctrine of evolution is well
+founded, the whole series must have taken its origin.
+
+That is what I mean by demonstrative evidence of evolution. An inductive
+hypothesis is said to be demonstrated when the facts are shown to be in
+entire accordance with it. If that is not scientific proof, there are no
+merely inductive conclusions which can be said to be proved. And the
+doctrine of evolution, at the present time, rests upon exactly as secure
+a foundation as the Copernican theory of the motions of the heavenly
+bodies did at the time of its promulgation. Its logical basis is
+precisely of the same character--the coincidence of the observed facts
+with theoretical requirements.
+
+The only way of escape, if it be a way of escape, from the conclusions
+which I have just indicated, is the supposition that all these different
+equine forms have been created separately at separate epochs of time;
+and, I repeat, that of such an hypothesis as this there neither is, nor
+can be, any scientific evidence; and, assuredly, so far as I know, there
+is none which is supported, or pretends to be supported, by evidence or
+authority of any other kind. I can but think that the time will come
+when such suggestions as these, such obvious attempts to escape the
+force of demonstration, will be put upon the same footing as the
+supposition made by some writers, who are, I believe, not completely
+extinct at present, that fossils are mere simulacra [images], are no
+indications of the former existence of the animals to which they seem to
+belong; but that they are either sports of Nature, or special creations,
+intended--as I heard suggested the other day--to test our faith.
+
+In fact, the whole evidence is in favour of evolution, and there is none
+against it. And I say this, although perfectly well aware of the seeming
+difficulties which have been built up upon what appears to the
+uninformed to be a solid foundation. I meet constantly with the argument
+that the doctrine of evolution cannot be well founded because it
+requires the lapse of a very vast period of time; while the duration of
+life upon the earth, thus implied, is inconsistent with the conclusions
+arrived at by the astronomer and the physicist. I may venture to say
+that I am familiar with those conclusions, inasmuch as some years ago,
+when president of the Geological Society of London, I took the liberty
+of criticising them, and of showing in what respects, as it appeared to
+me, they lacked complete and thorough demonstration. But, putting that
+point aside, suppose that, as the astronomers, or some of them, and some
+physical philosophers tell us, it is impossible that life could have
+endured upon the earth for so long a period as is required by the
+doctrine of evolution--supposing that to be proved--I desire to be
+informed, what is the foundation for the statement that evolution does
+require so great a time? The biologist knows nothing whatever of the
+amount of time which may be required for the process of evolution. It is
+a matter of fact that the equine forms, which I have described to you,
+occur, in the order stated, in the Tertiary formations. But I have not
+the slightest means of guessing whether it took a million of years, or
+ten millions, or a hundred millions, or a thousand millions of years, to
+give rise to that series of changes. A biologist has no means of
+arriving at any conclusions as to the amount of time which may be needed
+for a certain quantity of organic change. He takes his time from the
+geologist. The geologist, considering the rate at which deposits are
+formed and the rate at which denudation goes on upon the surface of the
+earth, arrives at more or less justifiable conclusions as to the time
+which is required for the deposit of a certain thickness of rocks; and
+if he tells me that the Tertiary formations required 500,000,000 years
+for their deposit, I suppose he has good ground for what he says, and I
+take that as a measure of the duration of the evolution of the horse
+from the _Orohippus_ up to its present condition. And, if he is right,
+undoubtedly evolution is a very slow process, and requires a great deal
+of time. But suppose now, that an astronomer or a physicist--for
+instance, my friend Sir William Thomson--tells me that my geological
+authority is quite wrong; and that he has weighty evidence to show that
+life could not possibly have existed upon the surface of the earth
+500,000,000 years ago, because the earth would have then been too hot to
+allow of life, my reply is: "That is not my affair; settle that with the
+geologist, and when you have come to an agreement among yourselves I
+will adopt your conclusions." We take our time from the geologists and
+physicists, and it is monstrous that, having taken our time from the
+physical philosopher's clock, the physical philosopher should turn round
+upon us, and say we are too fast or too slow. What we desire to know is,
+is it a fact that evolution took place? As to the amount of time which
+evolution may have occupied, we are in the hands of the physicist and
+the astronomer, whose business it is to deal with those questions.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 9]
+
+Fore Foot. Hind Foot. Fore-arm. Leg. Upper Molar. Lower Molar.
+
+RECENT.
+EQUUS.
+
+PLIOCENE.
+PLIOHIPPUS.
+
+PROTOHIPPUS
+(_Hipparion_).
+
+MIOCENE.
+MIOHIPPUS
+(_Anchitherium_).
+
+MESOHIPPUS.
+
+EOCENE.
+OROHIPPUS.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] I use the word "type" because it is highly probable that many of the
+forms of _Anchitherium_-like and _Hipparion_-like animals existed in the
+Miocene and Pliocene epochs, just as many species of the horse tribe
+exist now; and it is highly improbable that the particular species of
+_Anchitherium_ or _Hipparion_, which happen to have been discovered,
+should be precisely those which have formed part of the direct line of
+the horse's pedigree.
+
+[6] Since this lecture was delivered, Professor Marsh has discovered a
+new genus of equine mammals (_Eohippus_) from the lowest Eocene
+deposits of the West, which corresponds very nearly to this
+description.--_American Journal of Science_, November, 1876.
+
+
+
+
+FIGHTING PESTS WITH INSECT ALLIES
+
+LELAND O. HOWARD
+
+     [Dr. Howard is Chief of the Division of Entomology in the
+     United States Department of Agriculture at Washington. He is
+     a lecturer at Swarthmore College and at Georgetown
+     University. He has written "The Insect Book," published by
+     Doubleday, Page & Co., New York; and a work on Mosquitoes,
+     issued by McClure, Phillips & Co., New York. Both are books
+     of interest from the hand of a master: they are fully
+     illustrated. The narrative which follows appeared in
+     _Everybody's Magazine_, June, 1901.]
+
+
+Some twenty-five years ago there appeared suddenly upon certain acacia
+trees at Menlo Park, California, a very destructive scale bug. It
+rapidly increased and spread from tree to tree, attacking apples, figs,
+pomegranates, quinces, and roses, and many other trees and plants, but
+seeming to prefer to all other food the beautiful orange and lemon trees
+which grow so luxuriantly on the Pacific Coast, and from which a large
+share of the income of so many fruit-growers is gained. This insect,
+which came to be known as the _white scale_ or _fluted scale_ or the
+_Icerya_ (from its scientific name), was an insignificant creature in
+itself, resembling a small bit of fluted wax a little more than a
+quarter of an inch long. But when the scales had once taken possession
+of a tree, they swarmed over it until the bark was hidden; they sucked
+its sap through their minute beaks until the plant became so feeble that
+the leaves and young fruit dropped off, a hideous black smut-fungus
+crept over the young twigs, and the weakened tree gradually died.
+
+In this way orchard after orchard of oranges, worth a thousand dollars
+or more an acre, was utterly destroyed; the best fruit-growing sections
+of the State were invaded, and ruin stared many a fruit-grower in the
+face. This spread of the pest was gradual, extending through a series of
+years, and not until 1886 did it become so serious a matter as to
+attract national attention.
+
+In this year an investigation was begun by the late Professor C. V.
+Riley, the Government entomologist then connected with the Department of
+Agriculture at Washington. He sent two agents to California, both of
+whom immediately began to study the problem of remedies. In 1887 he
+visited California himself, and during that year published an elaborate
+report giving the results of the work up to that point. The complete
+life-history of the insect had been worked out, and a number of washes
+had been discovered which could be applied to the trees in the form of a
+spray, and which would kill a large proportion of the pests at a
+comparatively small expense. But it was soon found that the average
+fruit-grower would not take the trouble to spray his trees, largely from
+the fact that he had experimented for some years with inferior washes
+and quack nostrums, and from lack of success had become disgusted with
+the whole idea of using liquid compounds. Something easier, something
+more radical was necessary in his disheartened condition.
+
+Meantime, after much sifting of evidence and much correspondence with
+naturalists in many parts of the world, Professor Riley had decided that
+the white scale was a native of Australia, and had been first brought
+over to California accidentally upon Australian plants. In the same way
+it was found to have reached South Africa and New Zealand, in both of
+which colonies it had greatly increased, and had become just such a pest
+as it is in California. In Australia, however, its native home, it did
+not seem to be abundant, and was not known as a pest--a somewhat
+surprising state of affairs, which put the entomologist on the track of
+the results which proved of such great value to California. He reasoned
+that, in his native home, with the same food plants upon which it
+flourished abroad in such great abundance, it would undoubtedly do the
+same damage that it does in South Africa, New Zealand, and California,
+if there were not in Australia some natural enemy, probable some insect
+parasite or predatory beetle, which killed it off. It became therefore
+important to send a trained man to Australia to investigate this
+promising line.
+
+After many difficulties in arranging preliminaries relating to the
+payment of expenses (in which finally the Department of State kindly
+assisted), one of Professor Riley's assistants, a young German named
+Albert Koebele, who had been with him for a number of years, sailed for
+Australia in August, 1888. Koebele was a skilled collector and an
+admirable man for the purpose. He at once found that Professor Riley's
+supposition was correct: there existed in Australia small flies which
+laid their eggs in the white scales, and these eggs hatched into grubs
+which devoured the pests. He also found a remarkable little ladybird, a
+small, reddish-brown convex beetle, which breeds with marvellous
+rapidity and which, with voracious appetite, and at the same time with
+discriminating taste, devours scale after scale, but eats fluted scales
+only--does not attack other insects. This beneficial creature, now known
+as the Australian ladybird, or the Vedalia, Mr. Koebele at once began to
+collect in large numbers, together with several other insects found
+doing the same work. He packed many hundreds of living specimens of the
+ladybird, with plenty of food, in tin boxes, and had them placed on ice
+in the ice-box of the steamer at Sydney; they were carried carefully to
+California, where they were liberated upon orange trees at Los Angeles.
+
+[Illustration: Vedalia, or Australian Ladybird]
+
+These sendings were repeated for several months, and Mr. Koebele, on his
+return in April, 1889, brought with him many more living specimens which
+he had collected on his way home in New Zealand, where the same Vedalia
+had been accidentally introduced a year or so before.
+
+[Illustration: Larvę of Vedalia eating White Scale]
+
+The result more than justified the most sanguine expectations. The
+ladybirds reached Los Angeles alive, and, with appetites sharpened by
+their long ocean voyage, immediately fell upon the devoted scales and
+devoured them one after another almost without rest. Their hunger
+temporarily satisfied, they began to lay eggs. These eggs hatched in a
+few days into active grub-like creatures--the larvę of the beetles--and
+these grubs proved as voracious as their parents. They devoured the
+scales right and left, and in less than a month transformed once more to
+beetles.
+
+And so the work of extermination went on. Each female beetle laid on an
+average 300 eggs, and each of these eggs hatched into a hungry larva.
+Supposing that one-half of these larvę produced female beetles, a simple
+calculation will show that in six months a single ladybird became the
+ancestor of 75,000,000,000 of other ladybirds, each capable of
+destroying very many scale insects.
+
+[Illustration: Twig of olive infected with Black Scale]
+
+Is it any wonder, then, that the fluted scales soon began to disappear?
+Is it any wonder that orchard after orchard was entirely freed from the
+pest, until now over a large section of the State hardly an Icerya is to
+be found? And could a more striking illustration of the value of the
+study of insects possibly be instanced? In less than a year from the
+time when the first of these hungry Australians was liberated from his
+box in Los Angeles the orange trees were once more in bloom and were
+resuming their old-time verdure--the Icerya had become practically a
+thing of the past.
+
+[Illustration: Rhizobius, the imported enemy of the Black Scale of the
+Olive.]
+
+This wonderful success encouraged other efforts in the same direction.
+The State of California some years later sent the same entomologist,
+Koebele, to Australia to search for some insect enemy of the black
+scale, an insect which threatened the destruction of the extensive olive
+orchards of California. He found and successfully introduced another
+ladybird beetle, known as _Rhizobius ventralis_, a little dark-coloured
+creature which has thrived in the California climate, especially near
+the seacoast, and in the damp air of those regions has successfully held
+the black scale in check. It was found, however, that back from the
+seacoast this insect did not seem to thrive with the same vigor, and the
+black scale held its own. Then a spirited controversy sprung up among
+the olive-growers, those near the seacoast contending that the
+_Rhizobius_ was a perfect remedy for the scale, while those inland
+insisted that it was worthless. A few years later it was discovered that
+this olive enemy in South Europe is killed by a little caterpillar,
+which burrows through scale after scale eating out their contents, and
+an effort was made to introduce the caterpillar into California, but
+these efforts failed. Within the past two years it has been found that a
+small parasitic fly exists in South Africa which lays its eggs in the
+same black scale, and its grub-like larvę eat out the bodies of the
+scales and destroy them. The climate of the region in which this
+parasite exists is dry through a large part of the year, and therefore
+this little parasitic fly, known as _Scutellista_, was thought to be
+the needed insect for the dry California regions. With the help of Mr.
+C. P. Lounsbury, the Government entomologist of Cape Colony, living
+specimens of this fly were brought to this country, and were colonized
+in the Santa Clara Valley, near San José, California, where they have
+perpetuated themselves and destroyed many of the black scales, and
+promise to be most successful in their warfare against the injurious
+insect.
+
+This same _Scutellista_ parasite had, curiously enough, been previously
+introduced in an accidental manner into Italy, probably from India, and
+probably in scale-insects living on ornamental plants brought from
+India. But in Italy it lives commonly in another scale insect, and with
+the assistance of the learned Italian, Professor Antonio Berlese, the
+writer made an unsuccessful attempt to introduce and establish it a year
+earlier in some of our Southern States, where it was hoped it would
+destroy certain injurious insects known as "wax scales."
+
+In the meantime the United States, not content with keeping all the good
+things to herself, has spread the first ladybird imported--the
+_Vedalia_--to other countries. Four years ago the white scale was
+present in enormous numbers in orange groves on the left bank of the
+river Tagus, in Portugal, and threatened to wipe out the orange-growing
+industry in that country. The California people, in pursuance of a
+far-sighted policy, had with great difficulty, owing to lack of food,
+kept alive some colonies of the beneficial beetle, and specimens were
+sent to Portugal which reached there alive and flourishing. They were
+tended for a short time, and then liberated in the orange groves, with
+precisely the same result as in California. In a few months the scale
+insects were almost entirely destroyed, and the Portuguese
+orange-growers saved from enormous loss.
+
+This good result in Portugal was not accomplished without opposition. It
+was tried experimentally at the advice of the writer, and in the face of
+great incredulity on the part of certain Portuguese newspapers and of
+some officials. By many prominent persons the account published of the
+work of the insect in the United States was considered as untrustworthy,
+and simply another instance of American boasting. But the opposition was
+overruled, and the triumphant result silenced all opposition. It is safe
+to say that the general opinion among Portuguese orange-growers to-day
+is very favourable to American enterprise and practical scientific
+acumen.
+
+The _Vedalia_ was earlier sent to the people in Alexandria and Cairo,
+Egypt, where a similar scale was damaging the fig trees and other
+valuable plants, and the result was again the same, the injurious
+insects were destroyed. This was achieved only after extensive
+correspondence and several failures. The active agent in Alexandria was
+Rear Admiral Blomfield, of the British Royal Navy, a man apparently of
+wide information, good judgment, and great energy.
+
+The same thing occurred when the California people sent this saviour of
+horticulture to South Africa, where the white scale had also made its
+appearance.
+
+It is not only beneficial insects, however, which are being imported,
+but diseases of injurious insects. In South Africa the colonists suffer
+severely from swarms of migratory grasshoppers, which fly from the north
+and destroy their crops. They have discovered out there a fungus
+disease, which under favorable conditions kills off the grasshoppers in
+enormous numbers. At the Bacteriological Institute in Grahamstown,
+Natal, they have cultivated this fungus in culture tubes, and have
+carried it successfully throughout the whole year; and they have used it
+practically by distributing these culture tubes wherever swarms of
+grasshoppers settle and lay their eggs. The disease, once started in an
+army of young grasshoppers, soon reduces them to harmless numbers. The
+United States Government last year secured culture tubes of this
+disease, and experiments carried on in Colorado and in Mississippi show
+that the vitality of the fungus had not been destroyed by its long ocean
+voyage, and many grasshoppers were killed by its spread. During the past
+winter other cultures were brought over from Cape Colony, and the fungus
+is being propagated in the Department of Agriculture for distribution
+during the coming summer in parts of the country where grasshoppers may
+prove to be destructively abundant.
+
+[Illustration: Grasshopper dying from Fungus Disease]
+
+Although we practically no longer have those tremendous swarms of
+migratory grasshoppers which used to come down like devastating armies
+in certain of our Western States and in a night devour everything green,
+still, almost every year, and especially in the West and South, there
+is somewhere a multiplication of grasshoppers to a very injurious
+degree, and it is hoped that the introduced fungus can be used in such
+cases.
+
+Persons officially engaged in searching for remedies for injurious
+insects all over the world have banded themselves together in a society
+known as the Association of Economic Entomologists. They are constantly
+interchanging ideas regarding the destruction of insects, and at present
+active movements are on foot in this direction of interchanging
+beneficial insects. Entomologists in Europe will try the coming summer
+to send to the United States living specimens of a tree-inhabiting
+beetle which eats the caterpillar of the gipsy moth, and which will
+undoubtedly also eat the caterpillar so common upon the shade-trees of
+our principal Eastern cities, which is known as the Tussock moth
+caterpillar. An entomologist from the United States, Mr. C. L. Marlatt,
+has started for Japan, China, and Java, for the purpose of trying to
+find the original home of the famous San José scale--an insect which has
+been doing enormous damage in the apple, pear, peach, and plum orchards
+of the United States--and if he finds the original home of this scale,
+it is hoped that some natural enemy or parasite will be discovered which
+can be introduced into the United States to the advantage of our
+fruit-growers. Professor Berlese of Italy, and Dr. Reh, of Germany,
+will attempt the introduction into Europe of some of the parasites of
+injurious insects which occur in the United States, and particularly
+those of the woolly root-louse of the apple, known in Europe as the
+"American blight"--one of the few injurious insects which probably went
+to Europe from this country, and which in the United States is not so
+injurious as it is in Europe.
+
+It is a curious fact, by the way, that while we have had most of our
+very injurious insects from Europe, American insects, when accidentally
+introduced into Europe, do not seem to thrive. The insect just
+mentioned, and the famous grape-vine _Phylloxera_, a creature which
+caused France a greater economic loss than the enormous indemnity which
+she had to pay to Germany after the Franco-Prussian War, are practically
+the only American insects with which we have been able to repay Europe
+for the insects which she has sent us. Climatic differences, no doubt,
+account for this strange fact, and our longer and warmer summers are the
+principal factor.
+
+It is not alone the parasitic and predaceous insects which are
+beneficial. A new industry has been brought into the United States
+during the past two years by the introduction and acclimatization of the
+little insect which fertilizes the Smyrna fig in Mediterranean
+countries. The dried-fig industry in this country has never amounted to
+anything. The Smyrna fig has controlled the dried-fig markets of the
+world, but in California the Smyrna fig has never held its fruit, the
+young figs dropping from the trees without ripening. It was found that
+in Mediterranean regions a little insect, known as the _Blastophaga_,
+fertilizes the flowers of the Smyrna fig with pollen from the wild fig
+which it inhabits. The United States Department of Agriculture in the
+spring of 1899 imported successfully some of these insects through one
+of its travelling agents, Mr. W. T. Swingle, and the insect was
+successfully established at Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley. A
+far-sighted fruit-grower, Mr. George C. Roeding, of Fresno, had planted
+some years previously an orchard of 5,000 Smyrna fig trees and wild fig
+trees, and his place was the one chosen for the successful experiment.
+The little insect multiplied with astonishing rapidity, was carried
+successfully through the winter of 1899-1900, and in the summer of 1900
+was present in such great numbers that it fertilized thousands of figs,
+and fifteen tons of them ripened. When these figs were dried and packed
+it was discovered that they were superior to the best imported figs.
+They contained more sugar and were of a finer flavor than those brought
+from Smyrna and Algeria. The _Blastophaga_ has come to stay, and the
+prospects for a new and important industry are assured.
+
+With all these experiments the criticism is constantly made that
+unwittingly new and serious enemies to agriculture may be introduced.
+The unfortunate introduction of the English sparrow into this country is
+mentioned, and the equally unfortunate introduction of the East Indian
+mongoose into the West Indies as well. The fear is expressed that the
+beneficial parasitic insects, after they have destroyed the injurious
+insects, will either themselves attack valuable crops or do something
+else of an equally harmful nature. But there is no reason for such
+alarm. The English sparrow feeds on all sorts of things, and the East
+Indian mongoose, while it was introduced into Jamaica to kill snakes,
+was found, too late, to be also a very general feeder. As a matter of
+fact, after the snakes were destroyed, and even before, it attacked
+young pigs, kids, lambs, calves, puppies, and kittens, and also
+destroyed bananas, pineapples, corn, sweet potatoes, cocoanuts, peas,
+sugar corn, meat, and salt provisions and fish. But with the parasitic
+and predatory insects the food habits are definite and fixed. They can
+live on nothing but their natural food, and in its absence they die. The
+Australian ladybird originally imported, for example, will feed upon
+nothing but scale insects of a particular genus, and, as a matter of
+fact, as soon as the fluted scales became scarce the California
+officials had the greatest difficulty in keeping the little beetles
+alive, and were actually obliged to cultivate for food the very insects
+which they were formerly so anxious to wipe out of existence! With the
+_Scutellista_ parasite the same fact holds. The fly itself does not
+feed, and its young feed only upon certain scale insects, and so with
+all the rest.
+
+All of these experiments are being carried on by men learned in the ways
+of insects, and only beneficial results, or at the very least negative
+ones, can follow. And even where only one such experiment out of a
+hundred is successful, what a saving it will mean!
+
+We do not expect the time to come when the farmer, finding Hessian fly
+in his wheat, will have only to telegraph the nearest experiment
+station, "Send at once two dozen first-class parasites;" but in many
+cases, and with a number of different kinds of injurious insects,
+especially those introduced from foreign countries, it is probable that
+we can gain much relief by the introduction of their natural enemies
+from their original home.
+
+
+
+
+THE STRANGE STORY OF THE FLOWERS
+
+GEORGE ILES
+
+     [From "The Wild Flowers of America," copyright by G. H. Buek
+     & Co., New York, 1894, by their kind permission. The American
+     edition is out of print: the Canadian edition, "Wild Flowers
+     of Canada," is published by Graham & Co., Montreal, Canada.
+     The work describes and illustrates in their natural tints
+     nearly three hundred beautiful flowers.]
+
+
+Imagine a Venetian doge, a French crusader, a courtier of the time of
+the second Charles, an Ojibway chief, a Justice of the Supreme Court, in
+the formal black of evening dress, and how much each of them would lose!
+Where there is beauty, strength or dignity, dress can heighten it; where
+all these are lacking, their absence is kept out of mind by raiment in
+itself worthy to be admired. If dress artificial has told for much in
+the history of human-kind, dress natural has told for yet more in the
+lesser world of plant and insect life. In some degree the tiny folk that
+reign in the air, like ourselves, are drawn by grace of form, by charm
+of colour; of elaborate display of their attractions moths, butterflies
+and beetles are just as fond as any belles of the ball-room. Now let us
+bear in mind that of all the creatures that share the earth with man,
+the one that stands next to him in intelligence is neither a biped nor
+a quadruped, but that king of the insect tribe, the ant, which can be a
+herdsman and warehouse-keeper, an engineer and builder, an explorer and
+a general. With all his varied powers the ant lacks a peculiarity in his
+costume which has denied him enlistment in a task of revolution in which
+creatures far his inferiors have been able to change the face of the
+earth. And the marvel of this peculiarity of garb which has meant so
+much, is that it consists in no detail of graceful outline, or beauty of
+tint, but solely in the minor matter of texture. The ant, warrior that
+he is, wears smooth and shining armour; the bee, the moth and the
+butterfly are clad in downy vesture, and simply because thus enabled to
+catch dust on their clothes these insects, as weavers of the web of
+life, have counted for immensely more than the ant with all his brains
+and character. To understand the mighty train of consequences set in
+motion by this mere shagginess of coat, let us remember that, like a
+human babe, every flowering plant has two parents. These two parents,
+though a county's breadth divide them, are wedded the instant that
+pollen from the anther of one of them meets the stigma of the other.
+Many flowers find their mates upon their own stem; but, as in the races
+of animals, too close intermarriage is hurtful, and union with a distant
+stock promotes both health and vigor. Hence the great gain which has
+come to plants by engaging the wind as their matchmaker--as every
+summer shows us in its pollen-laden air, the oaks, the pines, the
+cottonwoods, and a host of other plants commit to the breeze the winged
+atoms charged with the continuance of their kind. Nevertheless, long as
+the wind has been employed at this work, it has not yet learned to do it
+well; nearly all the pollen entrusted to it is wasted, and this while
+its production draws severely upon the strength of a plant. As good
+fortune will have it, a great many flowers close to their pollen yield
+an ample supply of nectar: a food esteemed delicious by the whole round
+of insects, winged and wingless. While ants might sip this nectar of
+ages without plants being any the better or the worse; a very different
+result has followed upon the visits of bees, wasps, and other
+hairy-coated callers. These, as they devour nectar, dust themselves with
+the pollen near by. Yellowed or whitened with this freightage, moth and
+butterfly, as they sail through the air, know not that they are
+publishing the banns of marriage between two blossoms acres or, it may
+be, miles apart. Yet so it is. Alighting on a new flower the insect rubs
+a pollen grain on a stigma ready to receive it, and lo! the rites of
+matrimony are solemnized then and there. Unwittingly the little visitor
+has wrought a task bigger with fate than many an act loudly trumpeted
+among the mightiest deeds of men! On the threshold of a Lady's Slipper a
+bee may often be detected in the act of entrance. In the Sage-flower he
+finds an anther of the stamen which, pivoted on its spring, dusts him
+even more effectually.
+
+[Illustration: Sage-flower and Bee]
+
+Bountifully to spread a table is much, but not enough, for without
+invitation how can hospitality be dispensed? To the feast of nectar the
+blossoms join their bidding; and those most conspicuously borne and
+massed, gayest of hue, richest in odor, secure most guests, and are
+therefore most likely to transmit to their kind their own excellences as
+hosts and entertainers. Thus all the glories of the blossoms have arisen
+in doing useful work; their beauty is not mere ornament, but the sign
+and token of duty well performed. Our opportunity to admire the radiancy
+and perfume of a jessamine or a pond-lily is due to the previous
+admiration of uncounted winged attendants. If a winsome maid adorns
+herself with a wreath from the garden, and carries a posy gathered at
+the brookside, it is for the second time that their charms are impressed
+into service; for the flowers' own ends of attraction all their scent
+and loveliness were called into being long before.
+
+Let us put flowers of the blue flag beside those of the maple, and we
+shall have a fair contrast between the brilliancy of blossoms whose
+marrier has been an insect, and the dinginess of flowers indebted to the
+services of the wind. Can it be that both kinds of flowers are descended
+from forms resembling each other in want of grace and colour? Such,
+indeed, is the truth. But how, as the generations of the flowers
+succeeded one another, did differences so striking come about? In our
+rambles afield let us seek a clue to the mystery. It is late in
+springtime, and near the border of a bit of swamp we notice a clump of
+violets: they are pale of hue, and every stalk of them rises to an
+almost weedy height.
+
+[Illustration: Wild Rose, Single]
+
+Twenty paces away, on a knoll of dry ground, we find more violets, but
+these are in much deeper tints of azure and yellow, while their stalks
+are scarcely more than half as tall as their brethren near the swamp.
+Six weeks pass by. This time we walk to a wood-lot close to a brimming
+pond. At its edge are more than a score wild-rose bushes. On the very
+first of them we see that some of the blossoms are a light pink, others
+a pink so deep as to seem dashed with vivid red. And while a flower here
+and there is decidedly larger and more vigorous than its fellows, a few
+of the blossoms are undersized and puny: the tide of life flows high and
+merrily in a fortunate rose or two, it seems to ebb and falter by the
+time it reaches one or two of their unhappy mates. As we search bush
+after bush we are at last repaid for sundry scratches from their thorns
+by securing a double rose, a "sport," as the gardener would call it. And
+in the broad meadow between us and home we well know that for the quest
+we can have not only four-leaved clovers, but perchance a handful of
+five and six-leaved prizes. The secret is out. Flowers and leaves are
+not cast like bullets in rigid moulds, but differ from their parents
+much as children do. Usually the difference is slight, at times it is as
+marked as in our double rose. Whenever the change in a flower is for the
+worse, as in the sickly violets and roses we have observed, that
+particular change ends there--with death. But when the change makes a
+healthy flower a little more attractive to its insect ministers, it will
+naturally be chosen by them for service, and these choosings, kept up
+year after year, and century upon century, have at last accomplished
+much the same result as if the moth, the bee, and the rest of them had
+been given power to create blossoms of the most welcome forms, the most
+alluring tints, the most bewitching perfumes.
+
+In farther jaunts afield we shall discover yet more. It is May, and a
+heavy rainstorm has caused the petals of a trillium to forget
+themselves and return to their primitive hue of leafy green. A month
+later we come upon a buttercup, one of whose sepals has grown out as a
+small but perfect leaf. Later still in summer we find a rose in the same
+surprising case, while not far off is a columbine bearing pollen on its
+spurs instead of its anthers. What family tie is betrayed in all this?
+No other than that sepals, petals, anthers and pistils are but leaves in
+disguise, and that we have detected nature returning to the form from
+which ages ago she began to transmute the parts of flowers in all their
+teeming diversity. The leaf is the parent not only of all these but of
+delicate tendrils, which save a vine the cost of building a stem stout
+enough to lift it to open air and sunshine. However thoroughly, or
+however long, a habit may be impressed upon a part of a plant, it may on
+occasion relapse into a habit older still, resume a shape all but
+forgotten, and thus tell a story of its past that otherwise might remain
+forever unsuspected. Thus it is with the somewhat rare "sport" that
+gives us a morning glory or a harebell in its primitive form of unjoined
+petals. The bell form of these and similar flowers has established
+itself by being much more effective than the original shape in dusting
+insect servitors with pollen. Not only the forms of flowers but their
+massing has been determined by insect preferences; a wide profusion of
+blossoms grow in spikes, umbels, racemes and other clusters, all
+economizing the time of winged allies, and attracting their attention
+from afar as scattered blossoms would fail to do. Besides this massing,
+we have union more intimate still as in the dandelion, the sun-flower
+and the marigold. These and their fellow composites each seem an
+individual; a penknife discloses each of them to be an aggregate of
+blossoms. So gainful has this kind of co-operation proved that
+composites are now dominant among plants in every quarter of the globe.
+As to how composites grew before they learned that union is strength, a
+hint is dropped in the "sport" of the daisy known as "the hen and
+chickens," where perhaps as many as a dozen florets, each on a stalk of
+its own, ray out from a mother flower.
+
+While for the most part insects have been mere choosers from among
+various styles of architecture set before them by plants, they have
+sometimes risen to the dignity of builders on their own account, and
+without ever knowing it. The buttress of the larkspur has sprung forth
+in response to the pressure of one bee's weight after another, and many
+a like structure has had the very same origin,--or shall we say,
+provocation? In these and in other examples unnumbered, culminating in
+the marvellous orchids and their ministers, there has come about the
+closest adaptation of flower-shape to insect-form, the one now clearly
+the counterpart of the other.
+
+We must not forget that the hospitality of a flower is after all the
+hospitality of an inn-keeper who earns and requires payment. Vexed as
+flowers are apt to be by intruders that consume their stores without
+requital, no wonder that they present so ample an array of repulsion and
+defence. Best of all is such a resource as that of the red clover, which
+hides its honey at the bottom of a tube so deep that only a friendly
+bumblebee can sip it. Less effective, but well worth a moment's
+examination, are the methods by which leaves are opposed as fences for
+the discouragement of thieves. Here, in a Bellwort, is a perfoliate leaf
+that encircles the stem upon which it grows; and there in a Honeysuckle
+is a connate leaf on much the same plan, formed of two leaves, stiff and
+strong, soldered at their bases. Sometimes the pillager meets prickles
+that sting him, as in the roses and briers; and if he is a little fellow
+he is sure to regard him with intense disgust, a bristly guard of wiry
+hair--hence the commonness of that kind of fortification. Against
+enemies of larger growth a tree or shrub will often aim sharp
+thorns--another piece of masquerade, for thorns are but branches checked
+in growth, and frowning with a barb in token of disappointment at not
+being able to smile in a blossom. In every jot and tittle of barb and
+prickle, of the glossiness which disheartens or the gumminess which
+ensnares, we may be sure that equally with all the lures of hue, form
+and scent, nothing, however trifling it may seem, is as we find it,
+except through usefulness long tested and approved. In flowers, much
+that at first glance looks like idle decoration, on closer scrutiny
+reveals itself as service in disguise. In penetrating these disguises
+and many more of other phases, the student of flowers delights to busy
+himself. He loves, too, to detect the cousinship of plants through all
+the change of dress and habit due to their rearing under widely
+different skies and nurture, to their being surrounded by strangely
+contrasted foes and friends. Often he can link two plants together only
+by going into partnership with a student of the rocks, by turning back
+the records of the earth until he comes upon a flower long extinct, a
+plant which ages ago found the struggle for life too severe for it. He
+ever takes care to observe his flowers accurately and fully, but chiefly
+that he may rise from observation to explanation, from bare facts to
+their causes, from declaring What, to understanding, Whence and How.
+
+One of the stock resources of novelists, now somewhat out of date, was
+the inn-keeper who beamed in welcome of his guest, grasped his hand in
+gladness, and loaded a table for him in tempting array, and all with
+intent that later in the day (or night) he might the more securely
+plunge a dagger into his victim's heart--if, indeed, he had not already
+improved an opportunity to offer to that victim's lips a poisoned cup.
+This imagined treachery might well have been suggested by the behaviour
+of certain alluring plants that so far from repelling thieves, or
+discouraging pillagers, open their arms to all comers--with purpose of
+the deadliest. Of these betrayers the chief is the round-leaved sun-dew,
+which plies its nefarious vocation all the way from Labrador to Florida.
+Its favourite site is a peat-bog or a bit of swampy lowland, where in
+July and August we can see its pretty little white blossoms beckoning to
+wayfaring flies and moths their token of good cheer! Circling the
+flower-stalk, in rosette fashion, are a dozen or more round leaves, each
+of them wearing scores of glands, very like little pins, a drop of gum
+glistening on each and every pin by way of head. This appetizing gum is
+no other than a fatal stick-fast, the raying pins closing in its aid the
+more certainly to secure a hapless prisoner. Soon his prison-house
+becomes a stomach for his absorption. Its duty of digestion done, the
+leaf in all seeming guilessness once more expands itself for the
+enticement of a dupe. To see how much the sun-dew must depend upon its
+meal of insects we have only to pull it up from the ground. A touch
+suffices--it has just root enough to drink by; the soil in which it
+makes, and perhaps has been obliged to make, its home has nothing else
+but drink to give it.
+
+Less accomplished in its task of assassination is the common butterwort
+to be found on wet rocks in scattered districts of Canada and the States
+adjoining Canada. Surrounding its pretty violet flowers, of funnel
+shape, are gummy leaves which close upon their all too trusting guests,
+but with less expertness than the sun-dew's. The butterwort is but a
+'prentice hand in the art of murder, and its intended victims often
+manage to get away from it. Built on a very different model is the
+bladderwort, busy in stagnant ponds near the sea coast from Nova Scotia
+to Texas. Its little white spongy bladders, about a tenth of an inch
+across, encircle the flowering stem by scores. From each bladder a bunch
+of twelve or fifteen hairy prongs protrude, giving the structure no
+slight resemblance to an insect form. These prongs hide a valve which,
+as many an unhappy little swimmer can attest, opens inward easily
+enough, but opens outward never. As in the case of its cousinry a-land,
+the bladderwort at its leisure dines upon its prey.
+
+[Illustration: Venus' Fly Trap--Open with a Welcome]
+
+In marshy places near the mouth of the Cape Fear River, in the vicinity
+of Wilmington, North Carolina, grows the Venus' fly-trap, most wonderful
+of all the death-dealers of vegetation. Like much else in nature's
+handiwork this plant might well have given inventors a hint worth
+taking. The hairy fringes of its leaves are as responsive to a touch
+from moth or fly as the sensitive plant itself. And he must be either a
+very small or a particularly sturdy little captive that can escape
+through the sharp opposed teeth of its formidable snare. It is one of
+the unexplained puzzles of plant life that the Venus' fly-trap, so
+marvellous in its ingenuity, should not only be confined to a single
+district, but should seem to be losing its hold of even that small
+kingdom. Of still another type is the pitcher plant, or side-saddle
+flower, which flaunts its deep purple petals in June in many a peat-bog
+from Canada southward to Louisiana and Florida. Its leaves develop
+themselves into lidded cups, half-filled with sweetish juice, which
+first lures a fly or ant, then makes him tipsy, and then despatches him.
+The broth resulting is both meat and drink to the plant, serving as a
+store and reservoir against times of drought and scarcity.
+
+[Illustration: Shut for Slaughter]
+
+Now the question is, How came about this strange and somewhat horrid
+means of livelihood? How did plants of so diverse families turn the
+tables on the insect world, and learn to eat instead of being themselves
+devoured? A beginner in the builder's art finds it much more gainful to
+examine the masonry of foundations, the rearing of walls, the placing of
+girders and joists, the springing of arches and buttresses, than to look
+at a cathedral, a courthouse, or a bank, finished and in service. In
+like manner a student of insect-eating plants tries to find their leaves
+in the making, in all the various stages which bridge their common forms
+with the shapes they assume when fully armed and busy. Availing himself
+of the relapses into old habits which plants occasionally exhibit under
+cultivation, Mr. Dickson has taught us much regarding the way the
+pitcher plant of Australia, the _Cephalotus_, has come to be what it is.
+He has arranged in a connected series all the forms of its leaf from
+that of a normal leaf with a mere dimple in it, to the deeply pouched
+and lidded pitcher ready for deceitful hospitalities. And similar
+transformations have without doubt taken place in the pitcher plants of
+America. Observers in the Cape of Good Hope have noted two plants
+_Roridula dentata_ and _Biblys gigantea_, which are evidently following
+in the footsteps of the sundews, and may be expected in the fulness of
+years to be their equal partners in crime. But why need we wander so far
+as South Africa to find the germs of this strange rapacity when we can
+see at home a full dozen species of catch-fly, sedums, primulas, and
+geraniums pouring out glutinous juices in which insects are entangled?
+Let stress of hunger, long continued, force any of these to turn its
+attention to the dietary thus proffered, and how soon might not the
+plant find in felony the sustenance refused to honest toil?
+
+But after all the plants that have meat for dinner are only a few. The
+greater part of the vegetable kingdom draws its supplies from the air
+and the soil. Those plants, and they are many, that derive their chief
+nourishment from the atmosphere have a decidedly thin diet. Which of us
+would thrive on milk at the rate of a pint to five hogsheads of water?
+Such is the proportion in which air contains carbonic acid gas, the main
+source of strength for many thousands of trees, shrubs, and other
+plants. No wonder that they array themselves in so broad an expanse of
+leafage. An elm with a spread of seventy feet is swaying in the summer
+breeze at least five acres of foliage as its lungs and stomach. Beyond
+the shade of elms and maples let us stroll past yonder stretch of
+pasture and we shall notice how the grass in patches here and there
+deepens into green of the richest--a plain token of moisture in the
+hollows--a blessing indeed in this dry weather. In the far West and
+Northwest the buffalo grass has often to contend with drought for months
+together, so that it has learned to strike deep in quest of water to
+quench its thirst. It is a by-word among the ranchmen that the roots go
+clear through the earth and are clinched as they sprout from the ground
+in China. Joking apart, they have been found sixty-eight feet below the
+surface of the prairie, and often in especially dry seasons cattle would
+perish were not these faithful little well-diggers and pumpers
+constantly at work for them. In the river valleys of Arizona although
+the air is dry the subsoil water is near the surface of the ground. Here
+flourishes the mesquit tree, _Prosopis juliflora_, with a tale to tell
+well worth knowing. When a mesquit seems stunted, it is because its
+strength is withdrawn for the task of delving to find water; where a
+tree grows tall with goodly branches, it betokens success in reaching
+moisture close at hand. Thus in shrewdly reading the landscape a
+prospector can choose the spot where with least trouble he can sink his
+well. And plants discover provender in the soil as well as drink. Nearer
+home than Arizona we have only to dislodge a beach pea from the ground
+to see how far in search of food its roots have dug amid barren stones
+and pebbles. Often one finds a plant hardly a foot high with roots
+extending eight feet from its stem.
+
+And beyond the beaches where the beach peas dig so diligently are the
+seaweeds--with a talent for picking and choosing all their own. Dr.
+Julius Sachs, a leading German botanist, believes that the parts of
+plants owe their form, as crystals do, to their peculiarities of
+substance; that just as salt crystallizes in one shape and sugar in
+another, so a seaweed or a tulip is moulded by the character of its
+juices. Something certainly of the crystal's faculty for picking out
+particles akin to itself, and building with them, is shown by the kelp
+which attracts from the ocean both iodine and bromine--often dissolved
+though they are in a million times their bulk of sea water. This trait
+of choosing this or that dish from the feast afforded by sea or soil or
+air is not peculiar to the seaweeds; every plant displays it. Beech
+trees love to grow on limestone and thus declare to the explorer the
+limestone ridge he seeks. In the Horn silver mine, of Utah, the zinc
+mingled with the silver ore is betrayed by the abundance of the zinc
+violet, a delicate and beautiful cousin of the pansy. In Germany this
+little flower is admittedly a signal of zinc in the earth, and zinc is
+found in its juices. The late Mr. William Dorn, of South Carolina, had
+faith in a bush, of unrecorded name, as betokening gold-bearing veins
+beneath it. That his faith was not without foundation is proved by the
+large fortune he won as a gold miner in the Blue Ridge country--his
+guide the bush aforesaid. Mr. Rossiter W. Raymond, the eminent mining
+engineer of New York, has given some attention to this matter of
+"indicative plants." He is of the opinion that its unwritten lore among
+practical miners, prospectors, hunters, and Indians is well worth
+sifting. Their observations, often faulty, may occasionally be sound and
+valuable enough richly to repay the trouble of separating truth from
+error. When we see how important as signs of water many plants can be,
+why may we not find other plants denoting the minerals which they
+especially relish as food or condiment?
+
+Of more account than gold or silver are the harvests of wheat and corn
+that ripen in our fields. There the special appetites of plants have
+much more than merely curious interest for the farmer. He knows full
+well that his land is but a larder which serves him best when not part
+but all its stores are in demand. Hence his crop "rotation," his
+succession of wheat to clover, of grass to both. Were he to grow barley
+every year he would soon find his soil bared of all the food that barley
+asks, while fare for peas or clover stood scarcely broached. If he
+insists on planting barley always, then he must perforce restore to the
+land the food for barley constantly withdrawn.
+
+[Illustration: Maple Seed, with pair of wings]
+
+A plant may diligently find food and drink, pour forth delicious nectar,
+array itself with flowers as gayly as it can, and still behold its work
+unfinished. Its seed may be produced in plenty, and although as far as
+that goes it is well, it is not enough. Of what avail is all this seed
+if it falls as it ripens upon soil already overcrowded with its kind?
+Hence the vigorous emigration policy to be observed in plants of every
+name. Hence the fluffy sails set to catch the passing breeze by the
+dandelion, the thistle and by many more, including the southern plant of
+snowy wealth whose wings are cotton. With the same intent of seeking new
+fields are the hooks of the burdock, the unicorn plant, and the
+bur-parsley which impress as carriers the sheep and cattle upon a
+thousand hills. The Touch-me-not and the herb Robert adopt a different
+plan, and convert their seed-cases into pistols for the firing of seeds
+at as wide range as twenty feet or more. The maple, the ash, the
+hornbeam, the elm and the birch have yet another method of escape from
+the home acre. Their seeds are winged, and torn off in a gale are
+frequently borne two hundred yards away. And stronger wings than these
+are plied in the cherry tree's service. The birds bide the time when a
+blush upon the fruit betrays its ripeness. Then the cherries are
+greedily devoured, and their seed, preserved from digestion in their
+stony cases are borne over hill, dale, and river to some islet or
+brookside where a sprouting cherry plant will be free from the stifling
+rivalries suffered by its parent. Yoked in harness with sheep, ox, and
+bird as planter is yonder nimble squirrel. We need not begrudge him the
+store of nuts he hides. He will forget some of them, he will be
+prevented by fright or frost from nibbling yet more, and so without
+intending it he will ensure for others and himself a sure succession of
+acorns and butternuts.
+
+Very singular are the seeds that have come to resemble beetles; among
+these may be mentioned the seeds of the castor-oil plant and of the
+_Iatropha_. The pod of the _Biserrula_ looks like a worm, and a worm
+half-coiled might well have served as a model for the mimicry of the
+_Scorpiurus vermiculata_. All these are much more likely to enlist the
+services of birds than if their resemblances to insects were less
+striking.
+
+Nature elsewhere rich in hints to the gardener and the farmer is not
+silent here. A lesson plainly taught in all this apparatus for the
+dispersal of seeds is that the more various the planting the fuller the
+harvest. Now that from the wheat fields comes a cry of disappearing
+gains, it is time to heed the story told in the unbroken prairie that
+diversity in sowing means wealth in reaping.
+
+In a field of growing flax we can find--somewhat oftener than the farmer
+likes--a curious tribe of plants, the dodders. Their stems are thin and
+wiry, and their small white flowers, globular in shape, make the azure
+blossoms of the flax all the lovelier by contrast. As their cousins the
+morning glories are to this day, the dodders in their first estate were
+true climbers. Even now they begin life in an honest kind of way with
+roots of their own that go forth as roots should, seeking food where it
+is to be found in the soil. But if we pull up one of these little
+club-shaped roots we shall see that it has gone to work feebly and
+doubtfully; it seems to have a skulking expectation of dinner without
+having to dig and delve for it in the rough dirty ground. Nor is this
+expectation unfounded. Watch the stem of a sister dodder as it rises
+from the earth day by day, and it will be observed to clasp a stalk of
+flax very tightly; so tightly that its suckers will absorb the juices of
+its unhappy host. When, so very easily, it can regale itself with food
+ready to hand why should it take the trouble to drudge for a living?
+
+Like many another pauper demoralized by being fed in idleness, the plant
+now abandons honest toil, its roots from lack of exercise wither away,
+and for good and all it ceases to claim any independence whatever.
+Indeed, so deep is the dodder's degradation that if it cannot find a
+stem of flax, or hop, or other plant whereon to climb and thrive, it
+will simply shrivel and die rather than resume habits of industry so
+long renounced as to be at last forgotten.
+
+Like the lowly dodder the mistletoe is a climber that has discovered
+large opportunities of theft in ascending the stem of a supporting
+plant. On this continent the mistletoe scales a wide variety of trees
+and shrubs, preferring poplars and apple trees, where these are to be
+had. Its extremely slender stem, its meagre leaves, its small flowers,
+greenish and leathery, are all eloquent as to the loss of strength and
+beauty inevitable to a parasite. Rising as this singular plant does out
+of the branches of another with a distinct life all its own, it is no
+other than a natural graft, and it is very probable that from the hint
+it so unmistakably gives the first gardeners were not slow to adopt
+grafts artificial--among the resources which have most enriched and
+diversified both flowers and fruits. The dodders and mistletoes rob
+juices from the stem and branches of their unfortunate hosts; more
+numerous still are the unbidden guests that fasten themselves upon the
+roots of their prey. The broom-rape, a comparatively recent immigrant
+from Europe, lays hold of the roots of thyme in preference to other
+place of entertainment; the Yellow Rattle, the Lousewort, and many more
+attach themselves to the roots of grasses--frequently with a serious
+curtailment of crop.
+
+Yet in this very department of hers Nature has for ages hidden away what
+has been disclosed within twenty years as one of her least suspected
+marvels. It is no other than that certain parasites of field and meadow
+so far from being hurtful, are well worth cultivating for the good they
+do. For a long time the men who devoted themselves to the study of peas,
+beans, clovers, and other plants of the pulse family, were confronted
+with a riddle they could not solve. These plants all manage to enrich
+themselves with compounds of nitrogen, which make them particularly
+valuable as food, and these compounds often exist in a degree far
+exceeding the rate at which their nitrogen comes out of the soil. And
+this while they have no direct means of seizing upon the nitrogen
+contained in its great reservoir--the atmosphere. Upon certain roots of
+beans and peas it was noted that there were little round excrescences
+about the size of a small pin's head. These excrescences on examination
+with a microscope proved to be swarming with bacteria of minute
+dimensions. Further investigation abundantly showed that these little
+guests paid a handsome price for their board and lodging--while they
+subsisted in part on the juices of their host they passed into the bean
+or pea certain valuable compounds of nitrogen which they built from
+common air. At the Columbian Exposition, of 1893, one of the striking
+exhibits in the Agricultural Building set this forth in detail. Vials
+were shown containing these tiny subterranean aids to the farmer, and
+large photographs showed in natural size the vast increase of crop due
+to the farmer's taking bacteria into partnership. To-day these little
+organisms are cultivated of set purpose, and quest is being made for
+similar bacteria suitable to be harnessed in producing wheat, corn, and
+other harvests.
+
+These are times when men of science are discontented with mere
+observation. They wish to pass from watching things as nature presents
+them to putting them into relations wholly new. In 1866 DeBary, a close
+observer of lichens, felt confident that a lichen was not the simple
+growth it seems, but a combination of fungus and algę. This opinion, so
+much opposed to honoured tradition, was scouted, but not for long.
+Before many months had passed Stahl took known algę, and upon them sowed
+a known fungus, the result was a known lichen! The fungus turns out to
+be no other than a slave-driver that captures algę in colonies and makes
+them work for him. He is, however, a slave-driver of an intelligent
+sort; his captives thrive under his mastery, and increase more rapidly
+for the healthy exercise he insists that they shall take.
+
+It is an afternoon in August and the sultry air compels us to take
+shelter in a grove of swaying maples. Beneath their shade every square
+yard of ground bears a score of infant trees, very few of them as much
+as a foot in stature. How vain their expectation of one day enjoying an
+ample spread of branch and root, of rising to the free sunshine of upper
+air! The scene, with its quivering rounds of sunlight, seems peace
+itself, but the seeming is only a mask for war as unrelenting as that
+of weaponed armies. For every ray of the sunbeam, for every atom of
+food, for every inch of standing room, there is deadly rivalry. To begin
+the fight is vastly easier than to maintain it, and not one in a hundred
+of these bantlings will ever know maturity. We have only to do what
+Darwin did--count the plants that throng a foot of sod in spring, count
+them again in summer, and at the summer's end, to find how great the
+inexorable carnage in this unseen combat, how few its survivors. So hard
+here is the fight for a foothold, for daily bread, that the playfulness
+inborn in every healthy plant can peep out but timidly and seldom. But
+when strife is exchanged for peace, when a plant is once safely
+sheltered behind a garden fence, then the struggles of the battlefield
+give place to the diversions of the garrison--diversions not
+infrequently hilarious enough. Now food abounds and superabounds;
+henceforth neither drought nor deluge can work their evil will; insect
+foes, as well as may be, are kept at bay; there is room in plenty
+instead of dismal overcrowding. The grateful plant repays the care
+bestowed upon it by bursting into a sportiveness unsuspected, and indeed
+impossible, amidst the alarms and frays incessant in the wilderness. It
+departs from parental habits in most astonishing fashion, puts forth
+blossoms of fresh grace of form, of new dyes, of doubled magnitude. The
+gardener's opportunity has come. He can seize upon such of these
+"sports" as he chooses and make them the confirmed habits of his wards.
+Take a stroll through his parterres and greenhouses, where side by side
+he shows you pansies of myriad tints and the modest little wild violets
+of kindred to the pansies' ancestral stock. Let him contrast for you
+roses, asters, tuberous begonias, hollyhocks, dahlias, pelargoniums,
+before cultivation and since. Were wild flowers clay, were the gardener
+both painter and sculptor, he could not have wrought marvels more
+glorious than these. In a few years the brethren of his guild have
+brought about a revolution for which, if possible at all to her, nature
+in the open fields would ask long centuries. And the gardener's
+experiments with these strange children of his have all the charm of
+surprise. No passive chooser is he of "sports" of promise, but an active
+matchmaker between flowers often brought together from realms as far
+apart as France and China. Sometimes his experiment is an instant
+success. Mr. William Paul, a famous creator of splendid flowers, tells
+us that at a time when climbing roses were either white or yellow, he
+thought he would like to produce one of bright dark colour. Accordingly
+he mated the Rose Athelin, of vivid crimson, with Russelliana, a hardy
+climber, and lo, the flower he had imagined and longed for stood
+revealed! But this hitting the mark at the first shot is uncommon good
+fortune with the gardener. No experience with primrose or chrysanthemum
+is long and varied enough to tell him how the crossing of two different
+stocks will issue. A rose which season after season opposes only
+indifference to all his pains may be secretly gathering strength for a
+bound beyond its ancestral paths which will carry it much farther than
+his hopes, or, perhaps, his wishes.
+
+Most flowers are admired for their own sweet sake, but who thinks less
+of an apple or cherry blossom because it bears in its beauty the promise
+of delicious fruit? Put a red Astrachan beside a sorry crab, a Bartlett
+pear next a tough, diminutive wild pear such as it is descended from, an
+ear of milky corn in contrast with an ear one-fourth its size, each
+grain of which, small and dry, is wrapped in a sheath by itself; and
+rejoice that fruits and grains as well as flowers can learn new lessons
+and remember them. At Concord, Massachusetts, in an honoured old age,
+dwells Mr. Ephraim W. Bull. In his garden he delights to show the mother
+vine of the Concord grape which he developed from a native wild grape
+planted as long ago as 1843. Another "sport" of great value was the
+nectarine, which was seized upon as it made its appearance on a peach
+bough. Throughout America are scattered experiment stations, part of
+whose business it is to provoke fresh varieties of wheat, or corn, or
+other useful plant, and make permanent such of them as show special
+richness of yield; earliness in ripening; stoutness of resistance to
+Jack Frost, or blight, or insect pests. Suppose that dire disaster
+swept from off the earth every cereal used as food. Professor Goodale,
+Professor Asa Gray's successor at Harvard University, has so much
+confidence in the experiment stations of America that he deems them well
+able to repair the loss we have imagined; within fifty years, he thinks,
+from plants now uncultivated the task could be accomplished. Among the
+men who have best served the world by hastening nature's steps in the
+improvement of flowers and fruits, stands Mr. Vilmorin, of Paris. He it
+was who in creating the sugar beet laid the foundation for one of the
+chief industries of our time. One of his rules is to select at first not
+the plant which varies most in the direction he wishes, but the plant
+that varies most in any direction whatever. From it, from the
+instability of its very fibres, its utter forgetfulness of ancestral
+traditions, he finds it easiest in the long run to obtain and to
+establish the character he seeks of sweetness, or size, or colour.
+
+Of flowering plants there are about 110,000, of these the farmer and the
+gardener between them have scarcely tamed and trained 1,000. What new
+riches, therefore, may we not expect from the culture of the future?
+Already in certain northern flower-pots the trillium, the bloodroot, the
+dog's-tooth violet, and the celandine are abloom in May; as June
+advances, the wild violet, the milkweed, the wild lily-of-the-valley,
+unfold their petals; later in summer the dog-rose displays its charms
+and breathes its perfume. All respond kindly to care, and were there
+more of this hospitality, were the wild roses which the botanist calls
+_blanda_ and _lucida_, were the cardinal flowers, the May flowers, and
+many more of the treasures of glen and meadow, made welcome with
+thoughtful study of their wants and habits, much would be done to extend
+the wealth of our gardens. Let a hepatica be plucked from its home in a
+rocky crevice where one marvels how it ever contrived to root itself and
+find subsistence. Transplant it to good soil, give it a little care--it
+asks none--and it will thrive as it never throve before; proving once
+again that plants do not grow where they like, but where they can. The
+Russian columbine rewards its cultivator with a wealth of blossoms that
+plainly say how much it rejoices in his nurture of it, in its escape
+from the frost and tempest that have assailed it for so many
+generations.
+
+But here we must be content to take a leaf out of nature's book, and
+look for small results unless our experiments are broadly planned. It is
+in great nurseries and gardens, not in little door-yards that "sports"
+are likely to arise, and to meet the skill which can confirm them as new
+varieties.
+
+Japan has much to teach us with regard to flowers: nowhere else on earth
+are they so sedulously cultivated, or so faithfully studied in all their
+changeful beauty. Perhaps the most striking revelation of the Japanese
+gardener is his treatment of flowering shrubs and flowering trees
+disposed in masses. Happy the visitors to Tokio who sees in springtime
+the cherry blossoms ready to lend their witchery to the Empress's
+reception! Much is done to extend the reign of beauty in a garden when
+it is fitly bordered with berry-bearers. Rows of mountain ash,
+snow-berry, and hawthorn trees give colour just when colour is most
+effective, at the time when most flowers are past and gone.
+
+In the practical bit of ground where the kitchen garden meets the
+flowers, Japan has long since enlarged its bill of fare with the tuber
+of a cousin of our common hedge nettle, with the roots of the large
+burdock, commoner still. In Florida, the calla lily has use as well as
+beauty; it is cultivated for its potato-like tubers.
+
+Much as the study of flowers heightens our interest in them, their
+first, their chief enduring charm consists in their simple beauty--their
+infinitely varied grace of form, their exhaustless wealth of changeful
+tints. Off we go with delight from desk and book to a breezy field, a
+wimpling brook, a quiet pond in woodland shade. A dozen rambles from May
+to October will show us all the floral procession, which, beginning with
+the trilliums and the violets, ends at the approach of frost with the
+golden-rod and aster. But who ever formed an engaging acquaintance
+without wishing it might become a close friendship? Never yet did the
+observant culler of bloodroot and columbine rest satisfied with merely
+knowing their names, and how can more be known unless flowers are set
+up in a portrait gallery of their own for the leisurely study of their
+lineaments and lineage?
+
+A word then as to the best way to gather wild flowers. A case for them
+in the form of a round tube, closed at the ends, with a hinged cover,
+can be made by a tinsmith at small cost. Its dimensions should be about
+thirty inches in length by five inches in diameter, with a strap
+attached to carry it by. At still less expense a frame can be made, or
+bought, formed of two boards, one-eighth of an inch thick, twenty-four
+inches long and eighteen inches broad, with two thin battens fastened
+across them to prevent warping. A quire of soft brown paper, newspaper
+will do, and a strap to hold all together, complete the outfit.
+
+Our gathered treasures at home, we may wish to deck a table or a mantel
+with a few of them. The lives of impressed blossoms can be, much
+prolonged by exercising a little care. Punch holes in a round of
+cardboard and put the stalks through these holes before placing the
+flowers in a vase. This prevents the stalks touching each other, and so
+decaying before their time. A little charcoal in the water tends to keep
+it pure; the water should be changed daily.
+
+A flower will fade at last be it tended ever so carefully. If we wish to
+preserve it dried we can best do so as soon as we bring it home, by
+placing it between sheets of absorbent paper (newspaper will do) well
+weighted down, the paper to be renewed if the plants are succulent and
+if there is any risk of mildew. But a dried plant after all is only a
+mummy. Its colours are gone; its form bruised and crumpled, gives only a
+faint suggestion of it as it lived and breathed. Other and more pleasant
+reminders of our summer rambles can be ours. With a camera of fair size
+it is easy to take pictures of flowers at their best; these pictures can
+be coloured in their natural tints with happy effect. In this art Mrs.
+Cornelius Van Brunt, of New York, has attained extraordinary success.
+Or, instead of the camera, why not at first invoke the brush and
+colour-box? Only a little skill in handling them is enough for a
+beginning. Practice soon increases deftness in this art as in every
+other, and in a few short weeks floral portraits are painted with a
+truth to nature denied the unaided pencil. For what flower, however meek
+and lowly, could ever tell its story in plain black and white?
+
+The amateur painter of flowers learns a good many things by the way; at
+the very outset, that drawing accurate and clear must be the groundwork
+of any painting worthy the name. Both in the use of pencil and brush
+there must be a degree of painstaking observation, wholesome as a
+discipline and delightful in its harvests. How many of us, unused to the
+task of careful observation, can tell the number of the musk-mallow's
+petals, or mark on paper the depth of fringe on a gentian, or match from
+a series of dyed silks the hues of a common buttercup? Drawing and
+painting sharpen the eye, and make the fingers its trained and ready
+servants. From the very beginning of one's task in limning bud and
+blossom, we see them richer in grace and loveliness than ever before.
+When wild flowers are sketched as they grow it is often easy to give
+them a new interest by adding the portraits of their insect servitors.
+Amateurs who are so fortunate as to visit the West Indies have an
+opportunity to paint the wonderful blossoms of the Marcgravia, whose
+minister, a humming bird, quivers above it like a bit of rainbow
+loosened from the sky.
+
+Early in the history of art the wild flowers lent their aid to
+decoration. The acanthus which gave its leaves to crest the capital of
+the Corinthian column, the roses conventionalized in the rich fabrics of
+ancient Persia, until they have been thought sheer inventions of the
+weaver, are among the first items of an indebtedness which has steadily
+grown in volume until to-day, when the designers who find their
+inspiration in the flowers are a vast and increasing host. In a modern
+mansion of the best type the outer walls are enriched with the leonine
+beauty of the sun-flower; within, the mosaic floors, the silk, and paper
+hangings, repeat themes suggested by the vine, the wild clematis and the
+Mayflower. The stained glass windows from New York, where their
+manufacture excels that of any other city in the world, are exquisite
+with boldly treated lilies, poppies, and columbines. In the
+drawing-room are embroideries designed by two young women of Salem,
+Massachusetts, who have established a thriving industry in transferring
+the glow of wild flowers to the adornment of noble houses such as this.
+As one goes from studio to studio, it is cheering to find so many men
+and women busy at work which is more joyful than play,--which in many
+cases first taken up as a recreation disclosed a vein of genuine talent
+and so pointed to a career more delightful than any other,--because it
+chimes in with the love of beauty and the power of giving it worthy
+expression.
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Unable to verify "partnery" nor "tucu-tucu", but
+they have been left as in the original.
+
+The word "sylvain" has been verified as a valid word, and therefore
+it has been left as in the original.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Little Masterpieces of Science:, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE: ***
+
+***** This file should be named 29739-8.txt or 29739-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/7/3/29739/
+
+Produced by Sigal Alon, Marcia Brooks, Fox in the Stars
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/29739-8.zip b/29739-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..821373a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-8.zip
diff --git a/29739-h.zip b/29739-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..20aa907
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h.zip
diff --git a/29739-h/29739-h.htm b/29739-h/29739-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fe158f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/29739-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,6472 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Little Masterpieces Of Science,
+      The Naturalist as Interpreter and Seer, Edited by George Iles.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+
+    p {  margin-top: .75em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         text-indent: 1.25em;
+         margin-bottom: .75em;
+       }
+
+    p.hang {text-indent: -2em; margin-left: 2em;}
+
+    h1,h4,h5 {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         clear: both;
+         }
+
+    h1 {page-break-before: always; }
+
+    h2  {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         margin-top: 3em;
+         margin-bottom: 2em;
+         clear: both;
+         }
+
+    h3  {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         margin-top: 2em;
+         margin-bottom: 2em;
+         clear: both;
+         }
+
+    hr { width: 33%;
+	 margin-top: 2em;
+	 margin-bottom: 2em;
+         margin-left: auto;
+         margin-right: auto;
+         clear: both;
+       }
+
+div.trans-note {border-style: solid; border-width: 1px;
+                margin: 3em 15%; padding: 1em; text-align: center;
+                background: #def;
+               }
+
+    table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}
+
+    .tdh  {text-align: left; font-size: 120%;}
+
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+
+    .pagenum  { position: absolute;
+                left: 2%;
+                font-size: 65%;
+                text-align: right;
+              } /* page numbers */
+
+    .noteb     {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;
+               font-size: smaller; font-weight: bold;
+               text-align: left;}
+
+    .bbox     {border: solid 2px; width: 80%; margin: auto;}
+
+    .center   {text-align: center;}
+
+    .smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+    .totoc    {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 75%; text-align: right;}
+
+
+    .caption  {font-weight: bold; font-size: 90%;}
+
+    .figcenter   {margin: auto; text-align: center;}
+
+    .figleft     {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top:
+                 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center; width: auto;}
+
+    .figright    {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;
+                 margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;
+                 width: auto;}
+
+    .footnotes        {border: dashed 1px; background-color: #fed}
+    .footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+    .footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+    .fnanchor         {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;}
+
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Masterpieces of Science:, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Little Masterpieces of Science:
+       The Naturalist as Interpreter and Seer
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: George Iles
+
+Release Date: August 20, 2009 [EBook #29739]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE: ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sigal Alon, Marcia Brooks, Fox in the Stars
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE</h1>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 304px;">
+<img src="images/il004.png" width="304" height="500" alt="Charles R. Darwin." title="Charles R. Darwin." />
+<span class="caption">Charles R. Darwin.</span>
+</div>
+<br /><br />
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<h1>Little Masterpieces<br />
+of Science</h1>
+
+<h2>Edited by George Iles</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<br />
+<br />
+<h1>THE NATURALIST AS<br /> INTERPRETER
+AND SEER</h1>
+<br />
+<h3><i>By</i></h3>
+
+
+<div style="margin-left: 15em;">Charles Darwin<br />
+Alfred R. Wallace<br />
+Thomas H. Huxley<br />
+Leland O. Howard<br />
+George Iles<br /></div>
+
+<br />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 125px;">
+<img src="images/il005.png" width="125" height="116" alt="Decoration" title="Decoration" />
+</div>
+
+</div>
+<div class="bbox">
+<h5>NEW YORK</h5>
+<h4>DOUBLEDAY, PAGE &amp; COMPANY</h4>
+<h5>1902</h5>
+</div>
+<br /><br />
+<div class="center">
+Copyright, 1902, by Doubleday, Page &amp; Co.<br />
+Copyright, 1877, by D. Appleton &amp; Co.<br />
+Copyright, 1901, by John Wanamaker<br />
+Copyright, 1895, by G. H. Buek &amp; Co.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="trans-note"><span class="smcap">Transcriber's Notes:</span>
+<p>Obvious printer's errors have been silently corrected. Hyphenated and
+accented words have been standardized.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+
+
+<p>To gather stones and fallen boughs is soon to
+ask, what may be done with them, can they
+be piled and fastened together for shelter? So begins
+architecture, with the hut as its first step,
+with the Alhambra, St. Peter's, the capitol at
+Washington, as its last. In like fashion the amassing
+of fact suggests the ordering of fact: when observation
+is sufficiently full and varied it comes
+to the reasons for what it sees. The geologist
+delves from layer to layer of the earth beneath
+his tread, he finds as he compares their fossils
+that the more recent forms of life stand highest
+in the scale of being, that in the main the animals
+and plants of one era are more allied to those
+immediately next than to those of remoter times.
+He thus divines that he is but exploring the
+proofs of lineal descent, and with this thought in
+his mind he finds that the collections not only
+of his own district, but of every other, take on a
+new meaning. The great seers of science do not
+await every jot and tittle of evidence in such a
+case as this. They discern the drift of a fact
+here, a disclosure there, and with both wisdom
+and boldness assume that what they see is but
+a promise of what shall duly be revealed. Thus
+it was that Darwin early in his studies became
+convinced of the truth of organic evolution:
+the labours of a lifetime of all but superhuman
+effort, a judicial faculty never exceeded among
+men, served only to confirm his confidence that
+all the varied forms of life upon earth have come
+to be what they are through an intelligible process,
+mainly by &ldquo;natural selection.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The present volume offers from the classic
+pages of Darwin his summary of the argument
+of &ldquo;The Origin of Species,&rdquo; his account of how
+that book came to be written, and his recapitulation
+of &ldquo;The Descent of Man.&rdquo; All this affords
+a supreme lesson as to the value of observation
+with a purpose. When Darwin was confronted
+with an organ or trait which puzzled him, he was
+wont to ask, What use can it have had? And
+always the answer was that every new peculiarity
+of plant, or beast, is seized upon and held whenever
+it confers advantage in the unceasing conflict
+for place and food. No hue of scale or
+plume, no curve of beak or note of song, but has
+served a purpose in the plot of life, or advanced
+the action in a drama where the penalty for failure
+is extinction.</p>
+
+<p>As Charles Darwin stood first among the
+naturalists of the nineteenth century, his advocacy
+of evolution soon wrought conviction
+among the thinkers competent to follow his
+evidence and weigh his arguments. The opposition
+to his theories though short was sharp, and
+here he found a lieutenant of unflinching courage,
+of the highest expository power, in Professor
+Huxley. This great teacher came to America
+in 1876, and discoursed on the ancestry of the
+horse, as disclosed in fossils then recently discovered
+in the Far West, maintaining that they
+afforded unimpeachable proof of organic evolution.
+His principal lecture is here given.</p>
+
+<p>In a remarkable field of &ldquo;natural selection&rdquo;
+Bates, Wallace and Poulton have explained the
+value of &ldquo;mimicry&rdquo; as an aid to beasts, birds,
+insects, as they elude their enemies or lie unsuspected
+on the watch for prey. The resemblances
+thus worked out through successive
+generations attest the astonishing plasticity of
+bodily forms, a plasticity which would be incredible
+were not its evidence under our eyes
+in every quarter of the globe. Insects have
+high economic importance as agents of destruction:
+we are learning how to pit one of them
+against another, so as to leave a clear field to the
+farmer and the fruit grower. In this department
+a leader is Professor Howard, who contributes
+a noteworthy chapter on the successful
+fight against the pest which threatened with ruin
+the orange groves of California.</p>
+
+<p>To the every-day observer the most enticing
+field of natural history is that in which common
+flowers and common insects work out their unending
+co-partnery. A blossom by its scent, its
+beauty of tint, allures a moth or bee and thus, in
+effect, is able to take flight and find a mate
+across a county so as to perpetuate its race a
+hundred miles from home. Our volume closes
+with a sketch of the singular ties which thus bind
+together the fortunes of blossom and insect, so
+that at last the very form of a flower may be
+cast in the mould of its winged ally. A word is
+also spoken regarding the singular relations of
+late detected between the world of vegetation
+and minute forms once deemed parasitic. The
+pea and its kindred harbor on their rootlets certain
+tiny lodgers; the tenants pay a liberal rent
+in the form of nitrogen compounds, a striking
+interlacement of interests!</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: right;"><span class="smcap">George Iles</span>.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<a name="toc" id="toc"></a>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents" width="80%">
+<colgroup>
+   <col width="90%" />
+   <col width="10%" />
+</colgroup>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdh">DARWIN, CHARLES</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='center'><a href="#THE_ORIGIN_OF_SPECIES"><b><span class="smcap">The Origin of Species in Summary</span></b></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p class="hang">Varieties merge gradually into species. Animals tend to
+increase in geometrical ratio. Varieties diverge in consonance
+with diversity of opportunity for life. In the struggle
+for existence those which best accord with their surroundings
+will survive and propagate their kind. Sexual selection
+has put a premium on beauty. The causes which in brief
+periods produce varieties, in long periods give rise to
+species. Instincts, as of the hive bee, are slowly developed.
+Geology supports the theory of Evolution: the changes in time
+in the fossil record are gradual. Geographical distribution
+lends its corroboration: in each region most of the inhabitants
+in every great class are plainly related. A common ancestor
+is suggested when we see the similarity of hand, wing and
+fin. Embryos of birds, reptiles and fish are closely similar
+and unlike adult forms. Slight changes in the course of
+millions of years produce wide divergences.</p></td>
+  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdh">DARWIN, CHARLES</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='center'><a href="#HOW_THE_ORIGIN_OF_SPECIES_CAME"><b><span class="smcap">How &ldquo;The Origin of Species&rdquo; Came to be Written</span></b></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p class="hang">During his voyage on the <i>Beagle</i> Darwin saw fossil
+armadillos like existing species, and on the islands of the
+Galapagos group a gradually increased diversity of species of
+every kind. All this suggested that species gradually become
+modified. Notes gathered of facts bearing on the question.
+Observes that it is the variation between one animal and
+another which gives the breeder his opportunity. Reads
+Malthus on Population, a work which points out the keen
+struggle for existence and that favourable variations tend to
+be preserved. In 1842 draws up a brief abstract of the theory
+of &ldquo;natural selection.&rdquo; In 1856 begins an elaborate work on
+the same theme, but in 1858, hearing that Wallace has written
+an essay advancing an independent theory of natural selection,
+offers a summary of his argument to the Linnean Society
+of London. Writes &ldquo;The Origin of Species,&rdquo; which is published
+most successfully, November, 1859.</p></td>
+  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdh">DARWIN, CHARLES</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='center'><a href="#THE_DESCENT_OF_MAN"><b><span class="smcap">The Descent of Man: the Argument in Brief</span></b></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p class="hang">Since evolution is probable for all other animals, it is
+probable for man. The human form has so much in common with
+the forms of other animals that community of descent is
+strongly suggested. Man, like other creatures, is subject to
+the struggle for existence. Evidence shows that it is likely
+that man is descended from a tailed and hairy quadruped that
+dwelt in trees. Man's mental power has been the chief factor
+in his advance, especially in his development of language.
+Conscience is due to social instincts, love of approbation,
+memory, imagination and religious feeling. Sexual selection
+in its effects upon human advancement.</p></td>
+  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdh">WALLACE, ALFRED R.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='center'><a href="#MIMICRY_AND_OTHER_PROTECTIVE_RESEMBLANCES"><b><span class="smcap">Mimicry and Other Protective Resemblances Among Animals</span></b></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p class="hang">The colours of animals are useful for concealment from their
+prey, from the creatures upon which they prey. The lion is
+scarcely visible as he crouches on the sand or among desert
+rocks and stones. Larks, quails and many other birds are so
+tinted and mottled that their detection is difficult. The
+polar bear, living amid ice and snow, is white. Reptiles and
+fish are so coloured as to be almost invisible in the grass
+or gravel where they rest. Many beetles and other insects
+are so like the leaves or bark on which they feed that
+when motionless they cannot be discerned. Some butterflies
+resemble dead, dry or decaying leaves so closely as to elude
+discovery. Every individual better protected by colour than
+others, has a better chance for life, and of transmitting his
+hues. Harmless beetles and flies are so like wasps and bees
+as to be left alone.</p></td>
+  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdh">HUXLEY, THOMAS H.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='center'><a href="#THE_EVOLUTION_OF_THE_HORSE"><b><span class="smcap">Evolution of the Horse</span></b></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p class="hang">The hoof of the horse is simply a greatly enlarged and
+thickened nail: four of his five toes are reduced to mere
+vestiges. His teeth are built of substances of varying
+hardness: they wear away at different rates presenting uneven
+grinding surfaces. Probable descent of the horse, link by
+link, especially as traced in the fossils of North America.
+Evolution has taken a long time: how long the physicist and
+the astronomer must decide.</p></td>
+  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdh">HOWARD, LELAND O.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='center'><a href="#FIGHTING_PESTS_WITH_INSECT_ALLIES"><b><span class="smcap">Fighting Pests with Insect Allies</span></b></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p class="hang">A scale insect threatened with ruin the orchards of California.
+Professor C. V. Riley decided that the pest was a native
+of Australia. Mr. A. Hoebele observes in Australia that
+the pest is kept down by ladybirds. These are accordingly
+sent to California where they destroy the scale insect and
+restore prosperity among the fruit-growers. Another pest,
+of olive trees, is devoured by an imported ladybird of
+another species. This plan extended to Portugal and Egypt
+with success. Grasshoppers killed by a fungus cultivated
+for the purpose. Introduction into the United States of
+the insect which fertilizes the Smyrna fig.</p></td>
+  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdh">ILES, GEORGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align='center'><a href="#THE_STRANGE_STORY_OF_THE"><b><span class="smcap">The Strange Story of the Flowers: a Chapter in Modern Botany</span></b></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p class="hang">Dress is important, whether natural or artificial. Because
+they catch dust on their clothes, bees, moths and butterflies
+have brought about myriad espousals of flower with flower.
+Colours and scents of blossoms attract insects. A flower
+which in form, scent or hue varies gainfully is likely to
+survive while others perish. All the parts of a flower are
+leaves in disguise. Floral modes of repulsion and defence.
+Plants which devour insects, a habit gradually acquired. The
+mesquit tree tells of water. Plants believed to indicate
+mineral veins. Seeds as emigrants equipped with wings or
+hooks. Parasitic plants and their degradation. Tenants that
+pay a liberal rent. The gardener as a creator of new flowers.
+The modern sugar beet due to Mons. Vilmorin.</p></td>
+  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h1>THE NATURALIST AS<br />
+INTERPRETER AND<br />
+SEER</h1>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2><a name="THE_ORIGIN_OF_SPECIES" id="THE_ORIGIN_OF_SPECIES"></a>THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES:<br />
+THE ARGUMENT IN SUMMARY</h2>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h3><span class="smcap">Charles Darwin</span></h3>
+
+<div class="noteb"><p>[Charles Darwin, one of the greatest men of all time, did
+more to advance and prove the theory of evolution than
+anybody else who ever lived. This he accomplished by
+virtue of the highest gifts of observation, experiment, and
+generalization. His truthfulness, patience, and calmness
+of judgment have never been exceeded by mortal. His
+works are published by D. Appleton &amp; Co., New York,
+together with his &ldquo;Life and Letters,&rdquo; edited by his son
+Francis. From &ldquo;The Origin of Species&rdquo; the argument in
+summary is here given.]</p></div>
+
+
+<p>On the view that species are only strongly
+marked and permanent varieties, and that each
+species first existed as a variety, we can see why
+it is that no line of demarcation can be drawn
+between species, commonly supposed to have
+been produced by special acts of creation, and
+varieties which are acknowledged to have been
+produced by secondary laws. On this same
+view we can understand how it is that in a region
+where many species of a genus have been produced,
+and where they now flourish, these same
+species should present many varieties; for where
+the manufactory of species has been active, we
+might expect, as a general rule, to find it still in
+action; and this is the case if varieties be incipient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
+species. Moreover, the species of the larger
+genera, which afford the greater number of
+varieties or incipient species, retain to a certain
+degree the character of varieties; for they differ
+from each other by a less amount of difference
+than do the species of smaller genera. The
+closely allied species also of a larger genera apparently
+have restricted ranges, and in their
+affinities they are clustered in little groups round
+other species&mdash;in both respects resembling
+varieties. These are strange relations on the view
+that each species was independently created, but
+are intelligible if each existed first as a
+variety.</p>
+
+<p>As each species tends by its geometrical rate
+of reproduction to increase inordinately in number;
+and as the modified descendants of each
+species will be enabled to increase by as much as
+they become more diversified in habits and structure,
+so as to be able to seize on many and widely
+different places in the economy of nature, there
+will be a constant tendency in natural selection
+to preserve the most divergent offspring of any
+one species. Hence, during a long-continued
+course of modification, the slight differences of
+characteristic of varieties of the same species,
+tend to be augmented into the greater differences
+characteristic of the species of the same genus.
+New and improved varieties will inevitably supplant
+and exterminate the older, less improved,
+and intermediate varieties; and thus species are
+rendered to a large extent defined and distinct<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
+objects. Dominant species belonging to the
+larger groups within each class tend to give birth
+to new and dominant forms; so that each large
+group tends to become still larger, and at the
+same time more divergent in character. But as
+all groups cannot thus go on increasing in size,
+for the world would not hold them, the more
+dominant groups beat the less dominant. This
+tendency in the large groups to go on increasing
+in size and diverging in character, together with
+the inevitable contingency of much extinction,
+explains the arrangement of all the forms of life
+in groups subordinate to groups, all within a few
+great classes, which has prevailed throughout all
+time. This grand fact of the grouping of all
+organic beings under what is called the Natural
+System, is utterly inexplicable on the theory of
+creation.</p>
+
+<p>As natural selection acts solely by accumulating
+slight, successive, favourable variations, it
+can produce no great or sudden modifications;
+it can act only by short and slow steps. Hence,
+the canon of &ldquo;Nature makes no leaps,&rdquo; which
+every fresh addition to our knowledge tends to
+confirm, is on this theory intelligible. We can
+see why throughout nature the same general end
+is gained by an almost infinite diversity of means,
+for every peculiarity when once acquired is long
+inherited, and structures already modified in
+many different ways have to be adapted for the
+same general purpose. We can, in short, see why
+nature is prodigal in variety, though niggard in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
+innovation. But why this should be a law of
+nature if each species has been independently
+created no man can explain.</p>
+
+<p>Many other facts are, as it seems to me, explicable
+on this theory. How strange it is that a
+bird, under the form of a woodpecker, should
+prey on insects on the ground; that upland geese
+which rarely or never swim, would possess webbed
+feet; that a thrush-like bird should dive and feed
+on sub-aquatic insects; and that a petrel should
+have the habits and structure fitting it for the
+life of an auk! and so in endless other cases. But
+on the view of each species constantly trying to
+increase in number, with natural selection always
+ready to adapt the slowly varying descendants
+of each to any unoccupied or ill-occupied place
+in nature, these facts cease to be strange, or
+might even have been anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>We can to a certain extent understand how it
+is that there is so much beauty throughout
+nature; for this may be largely attributed to the
+agency of selection. That beauty, according to
+our sense of it, is not universal, must be admitted
+by every one who will look at some venomous
+snakes, at some fishes, and at certain hideous bats
+with a distorted resemblance to the human face.
+Sexual selection has given the most brilliant
+colours, elegant patterns, and other ornaments
+to the males, and sometimes to both sexes of
+many birds, butterflies and other animals. With
+birds it has often rendered the voice of the male
+musical to the female, as well as to our ears.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+Flowers and fruit have been rendered conspicuous
+by brilliant colours in contrast with the green
+foliage, in order that the flowers may be easily
+seen, visited and fertilized by insects, and the
+seeds disseminated by birds. How it comes that
+certain colours, sounds and forms should give
+pleasure to man and the lower animals, that is,
+how the sense of beauty in its simplest form was
+first acquired, we do not know any more than how
+certain odours and flavours were first rendered
+agreeable.</p>
+
+<p>As natural selection acts by competition, it
+adopts and improves the inhabitants of each
+country only in relation to their co-inhabitants;
+so that we need feel no surprise at the species of
+any one country, although on the ordinary view
+supposed to have been created and specially
+adapted for that country, being beaten and supplanted
+by the naturalized productions from
+another land. Nor ought we marvel if all the
+contrivances in nature be not, as far as we can
+judge, absolutely perfect, as in the case even of
+the human eye; or if some of them be abhorrent
+to our ideas of fitness. We need not marvel at
+the sting of the bee, when used against an
+enemy, causing the bee's own death; at drones
+being produced in such great numbers for one
+single act, and being then slaughtered by their
+sterile sisters; at the astonishing waste of pollen
+by our fir trees; at the instinctive hatred of the
+queen bee for her own fertile daughters; at
+ichneumonid&aelig; feeding within the living bodies of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>
+caterpillars; or at other such cases. The wonder
+indeed, is, on the theory of natural selection, that
+more cases of the want of absolute perfection
+have not been detected.</p>
+
+<p>The complex and little known laws governing
+production of varieties are the same, as far as we
+can judge, with the laws which have governed
+the production of distinct species. In both
+cases physical conditions seem to have produced
+some direct and definite effect, but how much we
+cannot say. Thus, when varieties enter any new
+station, they occasionally assume some of the
+characters proper to the species of that station.
+With both varieties and species, use and disuse
+seem to have produced a considerable effect;
+for it is impossible to resist this conclusion when
+we look, for instance, at the logger-headed duck,
+which has wings incapable of flight, in nearly
+the same condition as in the domestic duck; or
+when we look at the burrowing tucu-tucu, which
+is occasionally blind, and then at certain moles,
+which are habitually blind and have their eyes
+covered with skin; or when we look at the blind
+animals inhabiting the dark caves of America
+and Europe. With varieties and species, correlated
+variation seems to have played an important
+part, so that when one part has been
+modified other parts have been necessarily modified.
+With both varieties and species, reversions
+to long-lost characters occasionally occur. How
+inexplicable on the theory of creation is the
+occasional appearance of stripes on the shoulders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+and legs of the several species of the horse-genus
+and of their hybrids! How simply is this fact
+explained if we believe that these species are all
+descended from a striped progenitor, in the same
+manner as the several domestic breeds of the
+pigeon are descended from the blue and barred
+rock pigeon!</p>
+
+<p>On the ordinary view of each species having
+been independently created, why should specific
+characters, or those by which the species of the
+same genus differ from each other, be more
+variable than generic characters in which they
+all agree? Why, for instance, should the colour
+of a flower be more likely to vary in any one
+species of genus, if the other species possess differently
+coloured flowers, than if all possessed
+the same coloured flowers? If species are only
+well-marked varieties, of which the characters
+have become in a high degree permanent, we can
+understand this fact; for they have already varied
+since they branched off from a common progenitor
+in certain characters, by which they have
+come to be specifically different from each other;
+therefore these same characters would be more
+likely again to vary than the generic characters
+which have been inherited without change for
+an immense period. It is inexplicable on the
+theory of creation why a part developed in a
+very unusual manner in one species alone of a
+genus, and therefore, as we may naturally infer,
+of great importance to that species, should be
+eminently liable to variation; but, on our view,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+this part has undergone, since the several species
+branched off from a common progenitor, an unusual
+amount of variability and modification,
+and therefore we might expect the part generally
+to be still variable. But a part may be developed
+in the most unusual manner, like the wing of a
+bat, and yet not be more variable than any other
+structure, if the part be common to many subordinate
+forms, that is, if it has been inherited
+for a very long period; for in this case it will have
+been rendered constant by long-continued natural
+selection.</p>
+
+<p>Glancing at instincts, marvellous as some are,
+they offer no greater difficulty than do corporeal
+structures on the theory of the natural selection
+of successive, slight, but profitable modifications.
+We can thus understand why nature moves by
+graduated steps in endowing certain animals of
+the same class with their several instincts. I
+have attempted to show how much light the
+principle of gradation throws on the admirable
+architectural powers of the hive-bee. Habit no
+doubt often comes into play in modifying instincts;
+but it certainly is not indispensable, as
+we see in the case of neuter insects, which leave
+no progeny to inherit the effects of long-continued
+habit. On the view of all the species of the same
+genus having descended from a common parent,
+and having inherited much in common, we can
+understand how it is that allied species, when
+placed under widely different conditions of life,
+yet follow nearly the same instincts; why the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
+thrushes of temperate and tropical South America,
+for instance, line their nests with mud like
+our British species. On the view of instincts
+having been slowly acquired through natural
+selection, we need not marvel at some instincts
+being not perfect and liable to mistakes, and at
+many instincts causing other animals to suffer.</p>
+
+<p>If species be only well-marked and permanent
+varieties, we can see at once why their crossed
+offspring should follow the same complex laws
+in their degrees and kinds of resemblance to
+their parents&mdash;in being absorbed into each other
+by successive crosses, and in other such points&mdash;as
+do the crossed offspring of acknowledged
+varieties. This similarity would be a strange
+fact, if species had been independently created
+and varieties had been produced through secondary
+laws.</p>
+
+<p>If we admit that the geological record is imperfect
+to an extreme degree, then the facts,
+which the record does give, strongly support the
+theory of descent with modification. New species
+have come on the stage slowly and at successive
+intervals; and the amount of change after equal
+intervals of time, is widely different in different
+groups. The extinction of species and of whole
+groups of species, which has played so conspicuous
+a part in the history of the organic world,
+almost inevitably follows from the principle of
+natural selection; for old forms are supplanted by
+new and improved forms. Neither single species
+nor groups of species reappear when the chain of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+ordinary generation is once broken. The gradual
+diffusion of dominant forms, with the slow modification
+of their descendants, causes the forms of
+life, after long intervals of time, to appear as if
+they had changed simultaneously throughout
+the world. The fact of the fossil remains of each
+formation being in some degree intermediate in
+character between the fossils in the formations
+above and below, is simply explained by their
+intermediate position in the chain of descent.
+The grand fact that all extinct beings can be
+classed with all recent beings, naturally follows
+from the living and the extinct being the offspring
+of common parents. As species have
+generally diverged in character during their long
+course of descent and modification, we can understand
+why it is that the more ancient forms, or
+early progenitors of each group, so often occupy
+a position in some degree intermediate between
+existing groups. Recent forms are generally
+looked upon as being, on the whole, higher in the
+scale of organization than ancient forms; and
+they must be higher, in so far as the later and
+more improved forms have conquered the older
+and less improved forms in the struggle for life;
+they have also generally had their organs more
+specialized for different functions. This fact is
+perfectly compatible with numerous beings still
+retaining simple but little improved structures,
+fitted for simple conditions of life; it is likewise
+compatible with some forms having retrograded
+in organization, by having become at each stage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
+of descent better fitted for new and degraded
+habits of life. Lastly, the wonderful law of the
+long endurance of allied forms on the same continent&mdash;of
+marsupials [as kangaroos] in Australia,
+of edentata [as armadillos, sloths, and anteaters]
+in America, and other such cases&mdash;is
+intelligible, for within the same country the existing
+and the extinct will be closely allied by
+descent.</p>
+
+<p>Looking to geographical distribution, if we
+admit that there has been during the long course
+of ages much migration from one part of the world
+to another, owing to former climatical and
+geographical changes and to the many occasional
+and unknown means of dispersal, then we can
+understand, on the theory of descent with modification,
+most of the great leading facts in distribution.
+We can see why there should be so
+striking a parallelism in the distribution of organic
+beings throughout space, and in their
+geological succession throughout time; for in both
+cases the beings have been connected by the bond
+of ordinary generation, and the means of modification
+have been the same. We see the full
+meaning of the wonderful fact, which has struck
+every traveller, namely, that on the same continent,
+under the most diverse conditions, under
+heat and cold, on mountain and lowland, on
+deserts and marshes, most of the inhabitants
+within each great class are plainly related; for
+they are the descendants of the same progenitors
+and early colonists. On this same principle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+of former migration, combined in most cases with
+modification, we can understand by the aid of
+the Glacial period, the identity of some few plants
+and the close alliance of many others, on the
+most distant mountains, and in the northern
+and southern temperate zones; and likewise the
+close alliance of some of the inhabitants of the
+sea in the northern and southern temperate
+latitudes, though separated by the whole inter-tropical
+ocean. Although two countries may
+present physical conditions as closely similar
+as the same species ever acquire, we need feel
+no surprise at their inhabitants being widely
+different, if they have been for a long period
+completely sundered from each other; for as the
+relation of organism to organism is the most
+important of all relations, and as the two countries
+will have received colonists at various
+periods and in different proportions, from some
+other country or from each other, the course of
+modification in the two areas will inevitably have
+been different.</p>
+
+<p>On this view of migration, with subsequent
+modification, we see why oceanic islands are
+inhabited by only few species, but of these, why
+many are peculiar or endemic forms. We
+clearly see why species belonging to those groups
+of animals which cannot cross wide spaces of the
+ocean, as frogs and terrestrial mammals, do not
+inhabit oceanic islands; and why, on the other
+hand, new and peculiar species of bats, animals
+which can traverse the ocean, are often found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+on islands far distant from any continent. Such
+cases as the presence of peculiar species of bats
+on oceanic islands and the absence of all other
+terrestrial mammals, are facts utterly inexplicable
+on the theory of independent acts of creation.</p>
+
+<p>The existence of closely allied representative
+species in any two areas, implies on the theory of
+descent with modification, that the same parent-forms
+formerly inhabited both areas: and we
+almost invariably find that wherever many
+closely allied species inhabit two areas, some
+identical species are still common to both.
+Wherever many closely allied yet distant species
+occur, doubtful forms and varieties belonging
+to the same groups likewise occur. It is a rule of
+high generality that the inhabitants of each area
+are related to the inhabitants of the nearest
+source whence immigrants might have been
+derived. We see this in the striking relation
+of nearly all the plants and animals of the Galapagos
+Archipelago, of Juan Fernandez, and of
+the other American islands, to the plants and
+animals of the neighbouring American mainland;
+and of those of the Cape Verde Archipelago, and
+of the other African islands to the African mainland.
+It must be admitted that these facts receive
+no explanation on the theory of creation.</p>
+
+<p>The fact, as we have seen, that all past and
+present organic beings can be arranged within a
+few great classes, in groups subordinate to groups,
+and with the extinct groups often falling in between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+the recent groups, is intelligible on the
+theory of natural selection with its contingencies
+of extinction and divergence of character. On
+these same principles we see how it is that the
+mutual affinities of the forms within each class
+are so complex and circuitous. We see why
+certain characters are far more serviceable than
+others for classification; why adaptive characters
+derived from rudimentary parts, though of no
+service to the beings, are often of high classificatory
+value; and why embryological characters
+are often the most valuable of all. The real
+affinities of all organic beings, in contradistinction
+to their adaptive resemblances, are due to inheritance
+or community of descent. The Natural
+System is a genealogical arrangement, with the
+acquired grades of difference, marked by the
+terms, varieties, species, genera, families, etc.;
+and we have to discover the lines of descent by
+the most permanent characters, whatever they
+may be, and of however slight vital importance.</p>
+
+<p>The similar framework of bones in the hand of
+a man, wing of a bat, fin of the porpoise, and leg
+of the horse&mdash;the same number of vertebr&aelig; forming
+the neck of the giraffe and of the elephant&mdash;and
+innumerable other such facts, at once explain
+themselves on the theory of descent with
+slow and slight successive modifications. The
+similarity of pattern in the wing and in the leg
+of a bat, though used for such different purpose&mdash;in
+the jaws and legs of a crab&mdash;in the petals,
+stamens, and pistils of a flower, is likewise, to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+large extent, intelligible on the view of the
+gradual modification of parts or organs, which
+were aboriginally alike in an early progenitor in
+each of these classes. On the principle of successive
+variations not always supervening at an
+early age, and being inherited at a corresponding
+not early period of life, we clearly see why the
+embryos of mammals, birds, reptiles, and fishes
+should be so closely similar, and so unlike the
+adult forms. We may cease marvelling at the
+embryo of an air-breathing mammal or bird
+having branchial slits and arteries running in
+loops, like those of a fish which has to breathe the
+air dissolved in water by the aid of well-developed
+branchi&aelig; [gills].</p>
+
+<p>Disuse, aided sometimes by natural selection,
+will often have reduced organs when rendered
+useless under changed habits or conditions of
+life; and we can understand on this view the
+meaning of rudimentary organs. But disuse
+and selection will generally act on each creature,
+when it has come to maturity and has to play its
+full part in the struggle for existence, and will
+thus have little power in an organ during early
+life; hence the organ will not be reduced or rendered
+rudimentary at this early age. The calf,
+for instance, has inherited teeth, which never cut
+through the gums of the upper jaw, from an early
+progenitor having well-developed teeth; and we
+may believe, that the teeth in the mature animal
+were formerly reduced by disuse, owing to the
+tongue and palate, or lips, having become excellently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
+fitted through natural selection to
+browse without their aid; whereas in the calf, the
+teeth have been left unaffected, and on the principle
+of inheritance at corresponding ages have
+been inherited from a remote period to the present
+day. On the view of each organism with all its
+separate parts having been specially created,
+how utterly inexplicable is it that organs bearing
+the plain stamp of inutility, such as the teeth in
+the embryonic calf or the shrivelled wings under
+the soldered wing covers of many beetles, should
+so frequently occur. Nature may be said to have
+taken pains to reveal her scheme of modification,
+by means of rudimentary organs, of embryological
+and homologous [corresponding] structures,
+but we are too blind to understand her
+meaning.</p>
+
+<p>I have now recapitulated the facts and considerations
+which have thoroughly convinced me
+that species have been modified, during a long
+course of descent. This has been effected chiefly
+through the natural selection of numerous successive,
+slight, favourable variations; aided in an
+important manner by the inherited effects of the
+use and disuse of parts; and in an unimportant
+manner, that is, in relation to adaptive structures,
+whether past or present, by the direct action of
+external conditions, and by variations which
+seem to us in our ignorance to arise spontaneously.
+It appears that I formerly underrated the frequency
+and value of these latter forms of variation,
+as leading to permanent modifications of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
+structure independently of natural selection.
+But as my conclusions have lately been much
+misrepresented, and it has been stated that I
+attribute the modification of species exclusively
+to natural selection, I may be permitted to remark
+that in the first edition of this work, and
+subsequently, I placed in a most conspicuous,
+position&mdash;namely, at the close of the Introduction&mdash;the
+following words: &ldquo;I am convinced
+that natural selection has been the main but not
+the exclusive means of modification.&rdquo; This has
+been of no avail. Great is the power of steady
+misrepresentation; but the history of science
+shows that fortunately this power does not long
+endure.</p>
+
+<p>It can hardly be supposed that a false theory
+would explain, in so satisfactory a manner as does
+the theory of natural selection, the several large
+classes of facts above specified. It has recently
+been objected that this is an unsafe method of
+arguing; but it is a method used in judging the
+common events of life, and has often been used
+by the greatest natural philosophers. The undulatory
+theory of light has thus been arrived at;
+and the belief in the revolution of the earth on its
+own axis was until lately supported by hardly any
+direct evidence. It is no valid objection that
+science as yet throws no light on the far higher
+problems of the essence of the origin of life. Who
+can explain what is the essence of the attraction
+of gravity? No one now objects to following out
+the results consequent on this unknown element<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+of attraction; notwithstanding that Leibnitz
+formerly accused Newton of introducing &ldquo;occult
+qualities and miracles into philosophy.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I see no good reasons why the views given in
+this volume should shock the religious feelings
+of any one. It is satisfactory, as showing how
+transient such impressions are, to remember that
+the greatest discovery ever made by man, namely,
+the law of the attraction of gravity, was also
+attacked by Leibnitz, &ldquo;as subversive of natural,
+and inferentially of revealed religion.&rdquo; A
+celebrated author and divine has written to me
+that &ldquo;he has gradually learned to see that it is
+just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe
+that He created a few original forms capable of
+self-development into other and needful forms, as
+to believe that He required a fresh act of creation
+to supply the voids caused by the action of His
+laws.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Why, it may be asked, until recently did nearly
+all the most eminent living naturalists and geologists
+disbelieve in the mutability of species?
+It cannot be asserted that organic beings in a
+state of nature are subject to no variation; it cannot
+be proved that the amount of variation in the
+course of long ages is a limited quantity; no clear
+distinction has been, or can be, drawn between
+species and well-marked varieties. It cannot be
+maintained that species when intercrossed are
+invariably sterile and varieties invariably fertile;
+or that sterility is a special endowment and sign
+of creation. The belief that species were immutable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+productions was almost unavoidable as
+long as the history of the world was thought to
+be of short duration; and now that we have
+acquired some idea of the lapse of time, we are
+too apt to assume, without proof, that the geological
+record is so perfect that it would have
+afforded us plain evidence of the mutation of
+species, if they had undergone mutation.</p>
+
+<p>But the chief cause of our natural unwillingness
+to admit that one species has given birth to
+other and distinct species, is that we are always
+slow in admitting great changes of which we do
+not see the steps. The difficulty is the same as
+that felt by so many geologists, when Lyell first
+insisted that long lines of inland cliffs had been
+formed, and great valleys excavated, by the
+agencies which we still see at work. The mind
+cannot possibly grasp the full meaning of the
+term of even a million years; it cannot add up
+and perceive the full effects of many slight variations,
+accumulated during an almost infinite number
+of generations.</p>
+
+<p>Although I am fully convinced of the truth of
+the views given in this volume under the form of
+an abstract, I by no means expect to convince
+experienced naturalists whose minds are stocked
+with a multitude of facts all viewed, during a long
+course of years, from a point of view directly
+opposite to mine. It is so easy to hide our ignorance
+under such expressions as the &ldquo;plan of
+creation,&rdquo; &ldquo;unity of design,&rdquo; etc., and to think
+that we give an explanation when we only restate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+a fact. Any one whose disposition leads
+him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties
+than to the explanation of a certain number
+of facts will certainly reject the theory. A
+few naturalists, endowed with much flexibility of
+mind, and who have already begun to doubt the
+immutability of species, may be influenced by
+this volume; but I look with confidence to the
+future, to young and rising naturalists, who will
+be able to view both sides of the question with
+impartiality. Whoever is led to believe that
+species are mutable will do good service by conscientiously
+expressing his conviction; for thus
+only can the load of prejudice by which this subject
+is overwhelmed be removed.</p>
+
+<p>Several eminent naturalists have of late published
+their belief that a multitude of reputed
+species in each genus are not real species; but
+that other species are real, that is, have been
+independently created. This seems to me a
+strange conclusion to arrive at. They admit that
+a multitude of forms, which till lately they themselves
+thought were special creations, and which
+are still thus looked at by the majority of naturalists,
+and which consequently have all the external
+characteristic features of true species&mdash;they
+admit that these have been produced by
+variation, but they refuse to extend the same
+view to other and slightly different forms.
+Nevertheless, they do not pretend that they can
+define, or even conjecture, which are the created
+forms of life, and which are those produced by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
+secondary laws. They admit variation as a true
+cause in one case, they arbitrarily reject it in
+another, without assigning any distinction in the
+two cases. The day will come when this will be
+given as a curious illustration of the blindness of
+preconceived opinion. These authors seem no
+more startled at a miraculous act of creation than
+at an ordinary birth. But do they really believe
+that at innumerable periods in the earth's history
+certain elemental atoms have been commanded
+suddenly to flash into living tissues? Do they
+believe that at each supposed act of creation one
+individual or many were produced? Were all
+the infinite numerous kinds of animals and plants
+created as eggs or seed, or as full grown? and in
+the case of mammals, were they created bearing
+the false marks of nourishment from the mother's
+womb? Undoubtedly some of these same questions
+cannot be answered by those who believe
+in the appearance or creation of only a few forms
+of life, or of some one form alone. It has been
+maintained by several authors that it is as easy to
+believe in the creation of a million beings as of
+one; but Maupertuis's philosophical axiom &ldquo;of
+least action&rdquo; leads the mind more willingly to
+admit the smaller number; and certainly we
+ought not to believe that innumerable beings
+within each great class have been created with
+plain, but deceptive, marks of descent from a
+single parent.</p>
+
+<p>As a record of a former state of things, I have
+retained in the foregoing paragraphs, and elsewhere,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+several sentences which imply that naturalists
+believe in the separate creation of each
+species; and I have been much censured for having
+thus expressed myself. But undoubtedly
+this was the general belief when the first edition
+of the present work appeared. I formerly spoke
+to very many naturalists on the subject of evolution,
+and never once met with any sympathetic
+agreement. It is probable that some did then
+believe in evolution, but they were either silent
+or expressed themselves so ambiguously that it
+was not easy to understand their meaning.
+Now, things are wholly changed, and almost
+every naturalist admits the great principle of
+evolution. There are, however, some who still
+think that species have suddenly given birth,
+through quite unexplained means, to new and
+totally different forms. But, as I have attempted
+to show, weighty evidence can be opposed to
+the admission of great and abrupt modifications.
+Under a scientific point of view, and as leading
+to further investigation, but little advantage is
+gained by believing that new forms are suddenly
+developed in an inexplicable manner from old
+and widely different forms, over the old belief
+in the creation of species from the dust of the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>It may be asked how far I extend the doctrine
+of the modification of species. The question is
+difficult to answer, because the more distinct the
+forms are which we consider, by so much the
+arguments in favour of community of descent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+become fewer in number and less in force. But
+some arguments of the greatest weight extend
+very far. All the members of whole classes are
+connected together by a chain of affinities, and
+all can be classed on the same principle, in groups
+subordinate to groups. Fossil remains sometimes
+tend to fill up very wide intervals between
+existing orders.</p>
+
+<p>Organs in a rudimentary condition plainly
+show that an early progenitor had the organ in a
+fully developed condition, and this in some cases
+implies an enormous amount of modification in
+the descendants. Throughout whole classes
+various structures are formed on the same pattern,
+and at a very early age the embryos closely
+resemble each other. Therefore I cannot doubt
+that the theory of descent with modification
+embraces all the members of the same great class
+or kingdom. I believe that animals are descended
+from at most only four or five progenitors,
+and plants from an equal or lesser number.</p>
+
+<p>Analogy would lead me one step further,
+namely, to the belief that all animals and plants
+are descended from some one prototype. But
+analogy may be a deceitful guide. Nevertheless
+all living things have much in common, in their
+chemical composition, their cellular structure,
+their laws of growth, and their liability to injurious
+influences. We see this even in so trifling
+a fact as that the same poison often similarly
+affects plants and animals; or that the poison
+secreted by the gall-fly produces monstrous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+growths on the wild rose or oak tree. With all
+organic beings, excepting perhaps some of the
+very lowest, sexual reproduction seems to be
+essentially similar. With all, as far as is at
+present known, the germinal vesicle is the same;
+so that all organisms start from a common origin.
+If we look even to the two main divisions&mdash;namely,
+to the animal and vegetable kingdoms&mdash;certain
+low forms are so far intermediate in
+character that naturalists have disputed to which
+kingdom they should be referred. As Professor
+Asa Gray has remarked, &ldquo;the spores and other
+reproductive bodies of many of the lower alg&aelig;
+may claim to have first a characteristically
+animal, and then an unequivocally vegetable
+existence.&rdquo; Therefore, on the principle of natural
+selection with divergence of character, it
+does not seem incredible that, from some such
+low and intermediate form, both animals and
+plants may have been developed; and, if we admit
+this, we must likewise admit that all the organic
+beings which have ever lived on this earth may be
+descended from some one primordial form. But
+this inference is chiefly grounded on analogy, and
+it is immaterial whether or not it is accepted.
+No doubt it is possible, as Mr. G. H. Lewes has
+urged, that at the first commencement of life
+many different forms were evolved; but if so, we
+may conclude that only a very few have left
+modified descendants. For, as I have recently
+remarked in regard to the members of each great
+kingdom, such as the Vertebrata, Articulata, etc.,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+we have distinct evidence in their embryological,
+homologous, and rudimentary structures, that
+within each kingdom all the members are descended
+from a single progenitor.</p>
+
+<p>When the views advanced by me in this volume,
+and by Mr. Wallace, or when analogous views on
+the origin of species are generally admitted, we
+can dimly foresee that there will be a considerable
+revolution in natural history. Systematists will
+be able to pursue their labours as at present; but
+they will not be incessantly haunted by the
+shadowy doubt whether this or that form be a
+true species. This, I feel sure and I speak after
+experience, will be no slight relief. The endless
+disputes whether or not some fifty species of
+British brambles are good species will cease.
+Systematists will have only to decide (not that
+this will be easy) whether any form be sufficiently
+constant and distinct from other forms, to be
+capable of definition; and if definable, whether
+the differences be sufficiently important to
+deserve a specific name. This latter point will
+become a far more essential consideration than it
+is at present; for differences, however slight,
+between any two forms, if not blended by intermediate
+gradations, are looked at by most naturalists
+as sufficient to raise both forms to the rank
+of species.</p>
+
+<p>Hereafter we shall be compelled to acknowledge
+that the only distinction between species
+and well-marked varieties is, that the latter are
+known, or believed to be connected at the present<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
+day by intermediate gradations, whereas species
+were formerly thus connected. Hence, without
+rejecting the considerations of the present existence
+of intermediate gradations between any
+two forms, we shall be led to weigh more carefully
+and to value higher the actual amount of difference
+between them. It is quite possible that
+forms now generally acknowledged to be merely
+varieties may hereafter be thought worthy of
+specific names; and in this case scientific and common
+language will come into accordance. In
+short, we shall have to treat species in the same
+manner as those naturalists treat genera, who
+admit that genera are merely artificial combinations
+made for convenience. This may not be a
+cheering prospect; but we shall at least be freed
+from the vain search for the undiscovered and
+undiscoverable essence of the term species.</p>
+
+<p>The other and more general departments of
+natural history will rise greatly in interest. The
+terms used by naturalists, of affinity, relationship,
+community of type, paternity, morphology
+[the science of organic form], adaptive characters,
+rudimentary and aborted organs, etc., will cease
+to be metaphorical and will have a plain signification.
+When we no longer look at an organic
+being as a savage looks at a ship, as something
+wholly beyond his comprehension; when we
+regard every production of nature as one which
+has had a long history; when we contemplate
+every complex structure and instinct as the summing
+up of many contrivances, each useful to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+possessor, in the same way as any great mechanical
+invention is the summing up of the labour,
+the experience, the reason, and even the blunders
+of numerous workmen; when we thus view each
+organic being, how far more interesting&mdash;I speak
+from experience&mdash;does the study of natural history
+become!</p>
+
+<p>A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry
+will be opened, on the causes and laws of variation,
+on correlation, on the effects of use and disuse,
+on the direct action of external conditions,
+and so forth. The study of domestic productions
+will rise immensely in value. A new variety
+raised by man will be a more important and
+interesting subject for study than one more
+species added to the infinitude of already recorded
+species. Our classifications will come to be, as
+far as they can be so made, genealogies; and will
+then truly give what may be called the plan of
+creation. The rules for classifying will no doubt
+become simpler when we have a definite object
+in view. We possess no pedigree or armorial
+bearings; and we have to discover and trace the
+many diverging lines of descent in our natural
+genealogies, by characters of any kind which have
+long been inherited. Rudimentary<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> organs will
+speak infallibly with respect to the nature of long-lost
+structures. Species and groups of species
+which are called aberrant, and which may fancifully
+be called living fossils, will aid us in forming
+a picture of the ancient forms of life. Embryology<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+will often reveal to us the structure, in
+some degree obscured, of the prototypes of each
+great class.</p>
+
+<p>When we can feel assured that all the individuals
+of the same species, and all the closely
+allied species of most genera, have, within a not
+very remote period descended from one parent,
+and have migrated from some one birth-place;
+and when we better know the many means of
+migration, then, by the light which geology now
+throws, and will continue to throw, on former
+changes of climate and of the level of the land,
+we shall surely be enabled to trace in an admirable
+manner the former migrations of the inhabitants
+of the whole world. Even at present, by
+comparing the differences between the inhabitants
+of the sea on the opposite sides of a continent,
+and the nature of the various inhabitants
+on that continent in relation to their apparent
+means of immigration, some light can be thrown
+on ancient geography.</p>
+
+<p>The noble science of geology loses glory from
+the extreme imperfection of the record. The
+crust of the earth, with its imbedded remains,
+must not be looked at as a well-filled museum,
+but as a poor collection made at hazard and at
+rare intervals. The accumulation of each great
+fossiliferous formation will be recognized as having
+depended on an unusual occurrence of favourable
+circumstances, and the blank intervals between
+the successive stages as having been of
+vast duration. But we shall be able to gauge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+with some security the duration of these intervals
+by a comparison of the preceding and succeeding
+organic forms. We must be cautious in attempting
+to correlate as strictly contemporaneous two
+formations, which do not include many identical
+species, by the general succession of the forms of
+life.</p>
+
+<p>As species are produced and exterminated by
+slowly acting and still existing causes, and not by
+miraculous acts of creation; and as the most important
+of all causes of organic change is one which
+is almost independent of altered and perhaps
+suddenly altered physical conditions, namely,
+the mutual relation of organism to organism&mdash;the
+improvement of one organism entailing the
+improvement or the extermination of others; it
+follows, that the amount of organic change in
+the fossils of consecutive formations probably
+serves as a fair measure of the relative, though
+not actual lapse of time. A number of species,
+however, keeping in a body might remain for a
+long period unchanged, while within the same
+period, several of these species, by migrating into
+new countries and coming into competition with
+foreign associates, might become modified; so
+that we must not overrate the accuracy of organic
+change as a measure of time.</p>
+
+<p>In the future I see open fields for far more
+important researches. Psychology will be securely
+based on the foundation already well laid
+by Mr. Herbert Spencer, that of the necessary
+acquirement of each mental power and capacity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+by gradation. Much light will be thrown on the
+origin of man and his history.</p>
+
+<p>Authors of the highest eminence seem to be
+fully satisfied with the view that each species
+has been independently created. To my mind
+it accords better with what we know of the laws
+impressed on matter by the Creator, that the
+production and extinction of the past and present
+inhabitants of the world should have been due
+to secondary causes, like those determining the
+birth and death of the individual. When I view
+all beings as not special creations, but as the
+lineal descendants of some few beings which
+lived long before the first bed of the Cambrian
+system was deposited, they seem to me to become
+ennobled. Judging from the past, we may
+safely infer that not one living species will transmit
+its unaltered likeness to a distant futurity.
+And of the species now living very few will transmit
+progeny of any kind to a far distant futurity;
+for the manner in which all organic beings are
+grouped, shows that the greater number of
+species in each genus, and all the species in many
+genera, have left no descendants, but have become
+utterly extinct. We can so far take a prophetic
+glance into futurity as to foretell that it
+will be the common and widely spread species,
+belonging to the larger and dominant groups
+within each class, which will ultimately prevail
+and procreate new and dominant species. As all
+the living forms of life are the lineal descendants
+of those which lived long before the Cambrian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
+epoch, we may feel certain that the ordinary succession
+by generation has never once been broken,
+and that no cataclysm has desolated the whole
+world. Hence, we may look with some confidence
+to a secure future of great length. And
+as natural selection works solely by and for the
+good of each being, all corporeal and mental
+endowments will tend to progress toward perfection.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to contemplate a tangled
+bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds,
+with birds singing on the bushes, with various
+insects flitting about, and with worms crawling
+through the damp earth, and to reflect that
+these elaborately constructed forms, so different
+from each other, and dependent upon each
+other in so complex a manner, have all been
+produced by laws acting around us. These
+laws taken in the largest sense, being growth
+with reproduction; Inheritance which is almost
+implied by reproduction; Variability from the
+indirect and direct action of the conditions of
+life, and from use and disuse: a Ratio of Increase
+so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life,
+and as a consequence to Natural Selection,
+entailing divergence of Character and the
+Extinction of less improved forms. Thus, from
+the war of nature, from famine and death, the
+most exalted object which we are capable of
+conceiving, namely, the production of the higher
+animals, directly follows. There is grandeur
+in this view of life, with its several powers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+having been originally breathed by the Creator
+into a few forms or into one; and that, while
+this planet has gone circling on according to
+the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning
+endless forms most beautiful and most
+wonderful have been, and are being evolved.</p>
+
+<br />
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Vestigial</i> is now preferred to <i>rudimentary</i> as a term.&mdash;Ed.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h2><a name="HOW_THE_ORIGIN_OF_SPECIES_CAME" id="HOW_THE_ORIGIN_OF_SPECIES_CAME"></a>HOW &ldquo;THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES&rdquo; CAME<br />
+TO BE WRITTEN.</h2>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+
+<div class="noteb"><p>[An extract from the autobiography of Charles Darwin,
+in &ldquo;The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin,&rdquo; New York,
+D. Appleton &amp; Co.]</p></div>
+
+
+<p>From September, 1854, I devoted my whole
+time to arranging my huge pile of notes, to observing
+and to experimenting in relation to the
+transmutation of species. During the voyage
+of the <i>Beagle</i> I had been deeply impressed by
+discovering in the Pampean formation great
+fossil animals covered with armour like that on
+the existing armadillos; secondly, by the
+manner in which closely allied animals replace
+one another in proceeding southwards over
+the continent; and, thirdly, by the South
+American character of most of the productions
+of the Galapagos Archipelago, and more especially
+by the manner in which these differ slightly
+on each island of the group, none of these islands
+appearing to be very ancient in a geological
+sense.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident that such facts as these, as
+well as many others, could only be explained
+on the supposition that species gradually
+become modified; and the subject haunted me.
+But it was equally evident that neither the
+action of the surrounding conditions, nor the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
+will of the organisms (especially in the case of
+plants) could account for the innumerable
+cases in which organisms of every kind are
+beautifully adapted to their habits of life&mdash;for
+instance, a woodpecker or a tree-frog to climb
+trees, or a seed for dispersal by hooks or plumes.
+I had always been much struck by such adaptations,
+and until these could be explained it
+seemed to me almost useless to endeavour to
+prove by indirect evidence that species have
+been modified.</p>
+
+<p>After my return to England it appeared to
+me that by following the example of Lyell in
+geology,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> and by collecting all facts that bore
+in any way on the variation of animals and
+plants under domestication and nature, some
+light might perhaps be thrown on the whole
+subject. My first note-book was opened in
+July, 1837. I worked on true Baconian principles,
+and without any theory collected facts
+on a wholesale scale, more especially with
+respect to domesticated productions, by printed
+enquiries, by conversation with skilful breeders
+and gardeners and by extensive reading. When
+I see the list of books of all kinds which I read
+and abstracted, including whole series of
+journals and translations, I am surprised at
+my industry. I soon perceived that selection
+was the keystone of man's success in making
+useful races of animals and plants. But how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+selection could be applied to organisms living
+in a state of nature remained for some time a
+mystery to me.</p>
+
+<p>In October, 1838, that is fifteen months after
+I had begun my systematic enquiry, I happened
+to read for amusement &ldquo;Malthus on
+Population,&rdquo; and being well prepared to appreciate
+the struggle for existence which everywhere
+goes on from long-continued observation
+of the habits of animals and plants, it at once
+struck me that under these circumstances
+favourable variations would tend to be preserved
+and unfavourable ones to be destroyed.
+The result of this would be the formation of
+a new species. Here then I had at last got a
+theory by which to work; but I was so anxious
+to avoid prejudice that I determined not for
+some time to write even the briefest sketch of
+it. In June, 1842, I first allowed myself the
+satisfaction of writing a very brief abstract of
+my theory in pencil in 35 pages; and this was
+enlarged during the summer of 1844 into one
+of 230 pages, which I had fairly copied out
+and still possess.</p>
+
+<p>But at that time I overlooked one problem
+of great importance; and it is astonishing to
+me, except on the principle of Columbus and
+his egg, how I could have overlooked it and
+its solution. This problem is the tendency in
+organic beings descended from the same stock
+to diverge in character as they become, modified.
+That they have diverged greatly is obvious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+from the manner in which species of all kinds
+can be classed under genera, genera under
+families, families under sub-orders and so forth;
+and I can remember the very spot on the road,
+whilst in my carriage, when to my joy the
+solution occurred to me; and this was long after
+I had come to Down. This solution, as I believe,
+is that the modified offspring of all dominant
+and increasing forms tend to become adapted
+to many and highly diversified places in the
+economy of nature.</p>
+
+<p>Early in 1856 Lyell advised me to write
+out my views pretty fully, and I began at once
+to do so on a scale three or four times as extensive
+as that which was afterwards followed
+in my &ldquo;Origin of Species;&rdquo; yet it was only an
+abstract of the materials which I had collected
+and I got through about half the work on
+this scale. But my plans were overthrown,
+for early in the summer of 1858 Mr. Wallace,
+who was then in the Malay Archipelago, sent
+me an essay &ldquo;On the tendency of varieties
+to depart indefinitely from the original type;&rdquo;
+and this essay contained exactly the same
+theory as mine.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Mr. Wallace expressed the
+wish that if I thought well of his essay I should
+send it to Lyell for perusal.</p>
+
+<p>The circumstances under which I consented
+at the request of Lyell and Hooker to allow
+of an abstract from my MS., together with
+a letter to Asa Gray, dated September 5,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+1857, to be published at the same time with
+Wallace's essay, are given in the &ldquo;Journal of
+the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,&rdquo; 1858,
+p. 45. I was at first very unwilling to consent,
+as I thought Mr. Wallace might consider my
+doing so unjustifiable, for I did not then know
+how generous and noble was his disposition.
+The extract from my MS. and the letter to
+Asa Gray had neither been intended for publication,
+and were badly written. Mr. Wallace's
+essay, on the other hand, was admirably expressed
+and quite clear. Nevertheless, our joint
+productions excited very little attention, and
+the only published notice of them which I can
+remember was by Professor Haughton of Dublin,
+whose verdict was that all that was new in them
+was false, and what was true was old. This
+shows how necessary it is that any new idea
+should be explained at considerable length
+in order to arouse public attention.</p>
+
+<p>In September, 1858, I set to work by the
+strong advice of Lyell and Hooker to prepare
+a volume on the transmutation of species,
+but was often interrupted by ill health and
+short visits to Dr. Lane's delightful hydropathic
+establishment at Moor Park. I abstracted
+the MS. begun on a much larger scale in 1856,
+and completed the volume on the same reduced
+scale. It cost me thirteen months and ten
+days' hard labor. It was published under the
+title of the &ldquo;Origin of Species,&rdquo; in November,
+1859. Though considerably added to and corrected<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+in the later editions, it has remained
+substantially the same book.</p>
+
+<p>It is no doubt the chief work of my life. It
+was from the first highly successful. The first
+small edition of 1,250 copies was sold on the
+day of publication, and a second edition of
+3,000 copies soon afterwards. Sixteen thousand
+copies have now (1876) been sold in England;
+and considering how stiff a book it is, this is
+a large sale. It has been translated into almost
+every European tongue, even into such languages
+as Spanish, Bohemian, Polish and Russian.
+Even an essay in Hebrew has appeared
+on it, showing that the theory is contained
+in the Old Testament! The reviews were very
+numerous; for some time all that appeared on
+the &ldquo;Origin&rdquo; and on my related books, and
+these amount (excluding newspaper reviews)
+to 265; but after a time I gave up the attempt
+in despair. Many separate essays and books
+on the subject have appeared; and in Germany
+a catalogue or bibliography on &ldquo;Darwinismus&rdquo;
+has appeared every year or two.</p>
+
+<p>The success of the &ldquo;Origin&rdquo; may, I think,
+be attributed in large part to my having long
+before written two condensed sketches and to
+my having abstracted a much larger manuscript,
+which was itself an abstract. By this
+means I was enabled to select the more striking
+facts and conclusions. I had also, during many
+years followed a golden rule, namely, that
+whenever a published fact, a new observation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+or thought came across me, which was opposed
+to my general results, to make a memorandum
+of it without fail and at once; for I had found
+by experience that such facts and thoughts
+were far more apt to escape from the memory
+than favourable ones. Owing to this habit
+very few objections were raised against my
+views which I had not at least noticed and
+attempted to answer.</p>
+
+<p>It has sometimes been said that the success
+of the &ldquo;Origin&rdquo; proved &ldquo;that the subject
+was in the air,&rdquo; or &ldquo;that men's minds
+were prepared for it.&rdquo; I do not think that this
+is strictly true, for I occasionally sounded not
+a few naturalists, and never happened to come
+across a single one who seemed to doubt about
+the permanence of species. Even Lyell and
+Hooker, though they listened with interest to
+me, never seemed to agree. I tried once or
+twice to explain to able men what I meant
+by Natural Selection, but signally failed. What
+I believe was strictly true is that innumerable
+well-observed facts were stored in the minds
+of naturalists ready to take their proper
+places as soon as any theory which would
+receive them was sufficiently explained. Another
+element in the success of the book
+was its moderate size; and this I owe to the
+appearance of Mr. Wallace's essay; had
+I published on the scale on which I began
+to write in 1856, the book would have been
+four or five times as large as the &ldquo;Origin,&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
+and very few would have had the patience
+to read it.</p>
+
+<p>I gained much by my delay an publishing
+from about, 1839, when the theory was clearly
+conceived, to 1859; and I lost nothing by it,
+for I cared very little whether men attributed
+most originality to me or Wallace; and his
+essay no doubt aided in the reception of the
+theory. I was forestalled in only one important
+point, which my vanity has always made me
+regret, namely, the explanation by means
+of the Glacial period of the presence of the
+same species of plants and of some few animals
+on distant mountain summits and in the arctic
+regions. This view pleased me so much that I
+wrote it out <i>in extenso</i>, and I believe that it
+was read by Hooker some years before E.
+Forbes published in 1846 his celebrated memoir
+on the subject. In the very few points in which
+we differed, I still think that I was in the right.
+I have never, of course, alluded in print to my
+having independently worked out this view.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly any point gave me so much satisfaction
+when I was at work on the &ldquo;Origin,&rdquo; as the
+explanation of the wide difference in many
+classes between the embryo and the adult animal,
+and of the close resemblance of the embryos
+within the same class. No notice of this
+point was taken, as far as I remember, in the
+early reviews of the &ldquo;Origin,&rdquo; and I recollect
+expressing my surprise on this head in a letter
+to Asa Gray. Within late years several reviewers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+have given the whole credit to Fritz
+Muller and Haeckel, who undoubtedly have
+worked it out much more fully and in some
+respects more correctly than I did. I had
+materials for a whole chapter on the subject,
+and I ought to have made the discussion longer;
+for it is clear that I failed to impress my readers;
+and he who succeeds in doing so deserves, in
+my opinion, all the credit.</p>
+
+<p>This leads me to remark that I have almost
+always been treated honestly by my reviewers,
+passing over those without scientific knowledge
+as not worthy of notice. My views have been
+grossly misrepresented, bitterly opposed and
+ridiculed, but this has been generally done as,
+I believe, in good faith. On the whole, I do not
+doubt that my works have been over and
+over again greatly overpraised. I rejoice that
+I have avoided controversies, and this I owe
+to Lyell, who many years ago, in reference to
+my geological works, strongly advised me
+never to get entangled in a controversy, as it
+rarely did any good and caused a miserable
+loss of time and temper.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever I have found out that I have
+blundered, or that my work has been imperfect,
+and when I have been contemptuously criticised,
+and even when I have been overpraised,
+so that I have felt mortified, it has been my
+greatest comfort to say hundreds of times to myself
+that &ldquo;I have worked as hard and as well
+as I could, and no man can do more than this.&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+I remember when in Good Success Bay, in
+Tierra del Fuego, thinking (and, I believe,
+that I wrote home to the effect) that I could
+not employ my life better than in adding a
+little to Natural Science. This I have done to
+the best of my abilities, and critics may say
+what they like, but they can not destroy this
+conviction.</p>
+
+<br />
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See Masterpieces of Science, Vol. I, &ldquo;Earth and Sky,&rdquo;
+Sir Charles Lyell on Uniformity in geological change.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The essay appears in &ldquo;Natural Selection,&rdquo; London, 1870.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h2><a name="THE_DESCENT_OF_MAN" id="THE_DESCENT_OF_MAN"></a>THE DESCENT OF MAN</h2>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h3><span class="smcap">Charles Darwin</span></h3>
+
+<div class="noteb"><p>[Concluding chapter of &ldquo;The Descent of Man,&rdquo; New
+York, D. Appleton &amp; Co.]</p></div>
+
+
+<p>A brief summary will be sufficient to recall
+to the reader's mind the more salient points
+in this work. Many of the views which have
+been advanced are highly speculative, and
+some, no doubt, will prove erroneous; but I
+have in every case given the reasons which
+have led me to one view rather than to another.
+It seemed worth while to try how far the principle
+of evolution would throw light on some
+of the more complex problems in the natural
+history of man. False facts are highly injurious
+to the progress of science, for they often endure
+long; but false views, if supported by some
+evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a
+salutary pleasure in proving their falseness;
+and, when this is done, one path toward error
+is closed and the road to truth is often at the
+same time opened.</p>
+
+<p>The main conclusion arrived at in this work,
+and now held by many naturalists who are
+well competent to form a sound judgment, is
+that man is descended from some less highly
+organized form. The grounds upon which this
+conclusion rests will never be shaken, for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+close similarity between man and the lower
+animals in embryonic development, as well
+as in innumerable points of structure and constitution,
+both of high and of the most trifling
+importance&mdash;the rudiments which he retains,
+and the abnormal reversions to which he is
+occasionally liable&mdash;are facts which cannot be
+disputed. They have long been known, but,
+until recently, they told us nothing with respect
+to the origin of man. Now, when viewed by the
+light of our knowledge of the whole organic
+world, their meaning is unmistakable. The
+great principle of evolution stands up clear and
+firm when these groups of facts are considered
+in connection with others, such as the mutual
+affinities of the members of the same group,
+their geographical distribution in past and
+present times, and their geological succession.
+It is incredible that all these facts should speak
+falsely. He who is not content to look, like a savage,
+at the phenomena of Nature as disconnected,
+cannot any longer believe that man
+is the work of a separate act of creation. He
+will be forced to admit that the close resemblance
+of the embryo of man to that, for instance,
+of a dog&mdash;the construction of his skull, limbs
+and whole frame on the same plan with that of
+other mammals&mdash;the occasional appearance of
+various structures, for instance, of several
+distinct muscles, which man does not normally
+possess, but which are common to the Quadrumana&mdash;and
+a crowd of analogous facts&mdash;all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+point in the plainest manner to the conclusion
+that man is the co-descendant of other mammals
+of a common progenitor.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen that man incessantly presents
+individual differences in all parts of his body
+and in his mental faculties. These differences
+or variations seem to be induced by the same
+general causes, and to obey the same laws as
+with the lower animals. In both cases similar
+laws of inheritance prevail. Man tends to increase
+at a greater rate than his means of subsistence;
+consequently he is occasionally subjected
+to a severe struggle for existence, and
+natural selection will have effected whatever
+lies within its scope. A succession of strongly
+marked variations of a similar nature is by no
+means requisite; slight fluctuating differences
+in the individual suffice in the work of natural
+selection. We may feel assured that the inherited
+effects of the long-continued use or disuse of
+parts will have done much in the same direction
+with natural selection. Modifications formerly
+of importance, though no longer of any special
+use, are long-inherited. When one part is modified
+other parts change through the principle
+of correlation, of which we have instances in
+many curious cases of correlated monstrosities.
+Something may be attributed to the direct and
+definite action of the surrounding conditions
+of life, such as abundant food, heat or moisture;
+and, lastly, many characters of slight physiological
+importance, some indeed of considerable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
+importance, have been gained through sexual
+selection.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt man, as well as every other animal,
+presents structures, which, as far as we can judge
+with our little knowledge, are not now of any
+service to him, nor to have been so during any
+former period of his existence, either in relation
+to his general conditions of life, or of one sex
+to the other. Such structures cannot be accounted
+for by any form of selection, or by the inherited
+effects of the use and disuse of parts. We know,
+however, that many strange and strongly
+marked peculiarities of structure occasionally
+appear in our domesticated productions, and
+if the unknown causes which produce them
+were to act more uniformly, they would probably
+become common to all the individuals of
+the species. We may hope hereafter to understand
+something about the causes of such
+occasional modifications, especially through the
+study of monstrosities; hence, the labours of
+experimentalists, such as those of M. Camille
+Dareste, are full of promise for the future. In
+general we can only say that the cause of each
+slight variation and of each monstrosity lies
+much more in the constitution of the organism
+than in the nature of the surrounding conditions;
+though new and changed conditions certainly
+play an important part in exciting organic
+changes of many kinds.</p>
+
+<p>Through the means just specified, aided perhaps
+by others as yet undiscovered, man has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>
+been raised to his present state. But since he
+attained to the rank of manhood, he has diverged
+into distinct races, or, as they may be
+more fitly called, subspecies. Some of these,
+such as the negro and European, are so distinct
+that, if specimens had been brought to a naturalist
+without any further information, they
+would undoubtedly have been considered by
+him as good and true species. Nevertheless,
+all the races agree in so many unimportant
+details of structure and in so many mental
+peculiarities, that these can be accounted for
+only by inheritance from a common progenitor;
+and a progenitor thus characterized would
+probably deserve to rank as man.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be supposed that the divergence
+of each race from the other races, and of all
+from a common stock, can be traced back to
+any one pair of progenitors. On the contrary,
+at every stage in the process of modification,
+all the individuals which were in any way best
+fitted for their conditions of life, though in different
+degrees, would have survived in greater
+numbers than the less well-fitted. The process
+would have been like that followed by man, when
+he does not intentionally select particular individuals,
+but breeds from all the superior individuals
+and neglects all the inferior individuals.
+He thus slowly but surely modifies his stock and
+unconsciously forms a new strain. So with
+respect to modifications acquired independently
+of selection, and due to variations arising from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
+the nature of the organism and the action of the
+surrounding conditions, or from changed habits
+of life, no single pair will have been modified in
+a much greater degree than the other pairs which
+inhabit the same country, for all will have been
+continually blended through free intercrossing.</p>
+
+<p>By considering the embryological structure of
+man&mdash;the homologies [parallels] which he presents
+with the lower animals&mdash;the rudiments
+which he retains&mdash;and the reversions to which
+he is liable, we can partly recall in imagination
+the former condition of our early progenitors;
+and can approximately place them in their proper
+place in the zoological series. We thus
+learn that man is descended from a hairy, tailed
+quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits [living
+on or among trees] and an inhabitant of the Old
+World. This creature, if its whole structure had
+been examined by a naturalist, would have been
+classed among the Quadrumana, as surely as the
+still more ancient progenitor of the Old and New
+World monkeys. The Quadrumana and all the
+higher mammals are probably derived from an
+ancient marsupial animal [usually provided with
+a pouch for the reception and nourishment of
+the young, as in the case of the kangaroo] and
+this through a long line of diversified forms,
+from some reptile-like or some amphibian-like
+creature, and this again from some fish-like
+animal. In the dim obscurity of the past we
+can see that the early progenitor of all the Vertebrata
+must have been an aquatic animal, provided<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+with branchi&aelig; [gills], with the two sexes
+united in the same individual, and with the most
+important organs of the body (such as the brain
+and heart) imperfectly or not at all developed.
+This animal seems to have been more like the
+larv&aelig; of the existing marine Ascidians than any
+other known form.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest difficulty which presents itself
+when we are driven to the above conclusion on
+the origin of man is the high standard of intellectual
+power and of moral disposition which he
+has attained. But every one who admits the
+principle of evolution must see that the mental
+powers of the higher animals, which are the same
+in kind with those of man, though so different in
+degree, are capable of advancement. Thus
+the interval between the mental powers of one
+of the higher apes and of a fish, or between those
+of an ant and scale-insect, is immense; yet their
+development does not offer any special difficulty;
+for with our domesticated animals the mental
+faculties are certainly variable, and the variations
+are inherited. No one doubts that they
+are of the utmost importance to animals in a
+state of nature. Therefore, the conditions are
+favourable for their development through natural
+selection.</p>
+
+<p>The same conclusion may be extended to
+man; the intellect must have been all-important
+to him, even at a very remote period,
+as enabling him to invent and use language, to
+make weapons, tools, traps, etc., whereby with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+the aid of his social habits he long ago became
+the most dominant of all living creatures.</p>
+
+<p>A great stride in the development of the
+intellect will have followed, as soon as the half-art
+and half-instinct of language came into
+use; for the continued use of language will have
+reacted on the brain and produced an inherited
+effect; and this again will have reacted on the
+improvement of language. As Mr. Chauncey
+Wright has well remarked, the largeness of the
+brain in man relatively to his body, compared
+with the lower animals, may be attributed in
+chief part to the early use of some simple form
+of language&mdash;that wonderful engine which
+affixes signs to all sorts of objects and qualities,
+and excites trains of thought which would never
+arise from the mere impression of the senses,
+or if they did arise could not be followed out.
+The higher intellectual powers of man, such
+as those of ratiocination, abstraction, self-consciousness,
+etc., will have followed from
+the continued improvement of other mental
+faculties; but without considerable culture of
+the mind, both in the race and in the individual,
+it is doubtful whether these high powers would
+be exercised and thus fully attained.</p>
+
+<p>The development of the moral qualities is a
+more interesting problem. The foundation lies
+in the social instincts, including under this
+term the family ties. These instincts are highly
+complex, and in the case of the lower animals
+give special tendencies toward certain definite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>
+actions; but the more important elements are
+love and the distinct emotion of sympathy.
+Animals endowed with the social instincts take
+pleasure in one another's company, warn one
+another of danger, defend and aid one another
+in many ways. These instincts do not extend
+to all the individuals of the species, but only
+to those of the same community. As they
+are highly beneficial to the species they have
+in all probability been acquired through natural
+selection.</p>
+
+<p>A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting
+on his past actions and their motives&mdash;of
+approving of some and disapproving of
+others; and the fact that man is the one being
+who certainly deserves this designation is the
+greatest of all distinctions between him and the
+lower animals. But in the fourth chapter I
+have endeavoured to show that the moral sense
+follows, firstly, from the enduring and ever-present
+nature of the social instincts; secondly,
+from man's appreciation of the approbation
+and disapprobation of his fellows; and, thirdly,
+from the high activity of his mental faculties,
+with past impressions extremely vivid; and in
+these latter respects he differs from the lower
+animals. Owing to this condition of mind,
+man cannot avoid looking both backward and
+forward and comparing past impressions.
+Hence, after some temporary desire or passion
+has mastered his social instincts, he reflects
+and compares the now weakened impression of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+such past impulses with the ever-present social
+instincts; and he then feels that sense of dissatisfaction
+which all unsatisfied instincts leave
+behind them, he therefore resolves to act differently
+for the future&mdash;and this is conscience.
+Any instinct permanently stronger or more
+enduring than another gives rise to a feeling
+which we express by saying that it ought to be
+obeyed. A pointer dog if able to reflect on his
+past conduct would say to himself, I ought (as
+indeed we say of him) to have pointed at that
+hare and not have yielded to the passing temptation
+of hunting it.</p>
+
+<p>Social animals are impelled partly by a wish
+to aid the members of their community in a
+general manner, but more commonly to perform
+certain definite actions. Man is impelled
+by the same general wish to aid his fellows;
+but has few or no special instincts. He differs
+also from the lower animals in the power of
+expressing his desires by words, which thus
+become a guide to the aid required and bestowed.
+The motive to give aid is likewise
+much modified in man; it no longer consists
+solely of a blind instinctive impulse, but is
+much influenced by the praise or blame of his
+fellows. The appreciation and bestowal of
+praise and blame both rest on sympathy; and
+this emotion, as we have seen, is one of the
+most important elements of the social instincts.
+Sympathy, though gained as an instinct, is
+also much strengthened by exercise or habit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+As all men desire their own happiness, praise
+or blame is bestowed on actions or motives
+according as they lead to this end; and as
+happiness is an essential part of the general
+good the greatest-happiness principle indirectly
+serves as a nearly safe standard of right and
+wrong. As the reasoning powers advance and
+experience is gained the remoter effects of certain
+lines of conduct on the character of the
+individual and on the general good are perceived;
+and then the self-regarding virtues come
+within the scope of public opinion and receive
+praise and their opposites blame. But with the
+less civilized nations reason often errs, and
+many bad customs and base superstitions come
+within the same scope and are then esteemed as
+high virtues and their breach as heavy crimes.</p>
+
+<p>The moral faculties are generally and justly
+esteemed as of higher value than the intellectual
+powers. But we should bear in mind that the
+activity of the mind in vividly recalling past
+impressions is one of the fundamental though
+secondary bases of conscience. This affords
+the strongest argument for educating and stimulating
+in all possible ways the intellectual
+faculties of every human being. No doubt, a
+man with a torpid mind, if his social affections
+and sympathies are well developed, will be led
+to good actions and may have a fairly sensitive
+conscience. But whatever renders the imagination
+more vivid and strengthens the habit
+of recalling and comparing past impressions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+will make the conscience more sensitive, and
+may even somewhat compensate for weak
+social affections and sympathies.</p>
+
+<p>The moral nature of man has reached its
+present standard partly through the advancement
+of his reasoning powers and consequently
+of a just public opinion, but especially from
+his sympathies having been rendered more
+tender and widely diffused through the effects
+of habit, example, instruction and reflection.
+It is not improbable that after long
+practice virtuous tendencies may be inherited.
+With the more civilized races the conviction
+of the existence of an all-seeing Deity has had
+a potent influence on the advance of morality.
+Ultimately man does not accept the praise or
+blame of his fellows as his sole guide, though
+few escape this influence, but his habitual convictions,
+controlled by reason, afford him the
+safest rule. His conscience then becomes the
+supreme judge and monitor. Nevertheless, the
+first foundation or origin of the moral sense lies
+in the social instincts, including sympathy;
+and these instincts, no doubt, were primarily
+gained, as in the case of the lower animals,
+through natural selection.</p>
+
+<p>The belief in God has often been advanced
+as not only the greatest but the most complete
+of all the distinctions between man and the
+lower animals. It is, however, impossible, as
+we have seen, to maintain that this belief is
+innate or instinctive in man. On the other hand,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+a belief in all-pervading spiritual agencies seems
+to be universal, and apparently follows from
+a considerable advance in man's reason and
+from a still greater advance in his faculties of
+imagination, curiosity and wonder. I am
+aware that the assumed instinctive belief in
+God has been used by many persons as an argument
+for His existence. But this is a rash judgment,
+as we should thus be compelled to believe
+in the existence of many cruel and malignant
+spirits, only a little more powerful than man;
+for the belief in them is far more general than
+in a beneficent Deity. The idea of a universal
+and beneficent Creator does not seem to arise
+in the mind of man until he has been elevated
+by long-continued culture.</p>
+
+<p>He who believes in the advancement of man
+from some low organized form will naturally
+ask, How does this bear on the belief in the
+immortality of the soul? The barbarous races
+of man, as Sir J. Lubbock has shown, possess
+no clear belief of this kind; but arguments
+derived from the primeval beliefs of savages
+are, as we have just seen, of little or no avail.
+Few persons feel any anxiety from the impossibility
+of determining at what precise period
+in the development of the individual, from the
+first trace of a minute germinal vesicle, man
+becomes an immortal being; and there is no
+greater cause for anxiety because the period
+in the gradually ascending organic scale cannot
+possibly be determined.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I am aware that the conclusions arrived at
+in this work will be denounced by some as
+highly irreligious; but he who denounces them
+is bound to show why it is more irreligious
+to explain the origin of man as a distinct species
+by descent from some lower form, through the
+laws of variation and natural selection, than
+to explain the birth of the individual through
+the laws of ordinary reproduction. The birth
+both of the species and of the individual are
+equally parts of that grand sequence of events,
+which our minds refuse to accept as the result
+of blind chance. The understanding revolts at
+such a conclusion, whether or not we are able
+to believe that every slight variation of structure,
+the union of each pair in marriage, the dissemination
+of each seed, and other such events
+have all been ordained for some special purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Sexual selection has been treated at great
+length in this work; for, as I have attempted
+to show, it has played an important part in
+the history of the organic world. I am aware
+that much remains doubtful, but I have endeavoured
+to give a fair view of the whole
+case. In the lower divisions of the animal
+kingdom sexual selection seems to have done
+nothing; such animals are often affixed for life
+to the same spot, or have the sexes combined
+in the same individual, or, what is still more
+important, their perceptive and intellectual
+faculties are not sufficiently advanced to allow
+of the feelings of love and jealousy, or of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+exertion of choice. When, however, we come
+to the Arthropoda and Vertebrata, even to the
+lowest classes in these two great sub-kingdoms,
+sexual selection has effected much; and it deserves
+notice that we here find the intellectual
+faculties developed, but in two very distinct
+lines, to the highest standard, namely in the
+Hymenoptera [ants, bees, etc.], among the
+Arthropoda [many insects, spiders, etc.], and
+in the Mammalia, including man, among the
+Vertebrata.</p>
+
+<p>In the most distinct classes of the animal
+kingdom&mdash;in mammals, birds, fishes, insects
+and even crustaceans&mdash;the differences between
+the sexes follow almost exactly the same rules.
+The males are almost always the wooers; and
+they alone are armed with special weapons for
+fighting with their rivals. They are generally
+stronger and larger than the females, and are
+endowed with the requisite qualities of courage
+and pugnacity. They are provided, either
+exclusively or in a much higher degree than the
+females, with organs for vocal or instrumental
+music, and with odoriferous glands. They are
+ornamented with infinitely diversified appendages
+and with the most brilliant or conspicuous
+colors, often arranged in elegant patterns,
+while the females are unadorned. When the
+sexes differ in more important structures it is
+the male which is provided with special sense-organs
+for discovering the female, with locomotive
+organs for reaching her, and often with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+prehensile organs for holding her. These various
+structures for charming or securing the female
+are often developed in the male during only
+part of the year; namely, the breeding season.
+They have in many cases been transferred in a
+greater or less degree to the females; and in
+the latter case they often appear in her as mere
+rudiments. They are lost or never gained by
+the males after emasculation. Generally they
+are not developed in the male during early
+youth, but appear a short time before the age
+for reproduction. Hence, in most cases the
+young of both sexes resemble each other; and
+the female somewhat resembles her young offspring
+throughout life. In almost every great
+class a few anomalous cases occur, where there
+has been an almost complete transposition of
+the characters proper to the two sexes; the females
+assuming characters which properly belong
+to the males. This surprisingly uniformity
+in the laws regulating the differences between
+the sexes in so many and such widely separated
+classes is intelligible if we admit the action
+throughout all the higher divisions of the animal
+kingdom of one common cause; namely, sexual
+selection.</p>
+
+<p>Sexual selection depends on the success of
+certain individuals over others of the same sex,
+in relation to the propagation of the species;
+while natural selection depends on the success
+of both sexes, at all ages, in relation to the
+general conditions of life. The sexual struggle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
+is of two kinds; in the one it is between the
+individuals of the same sex, generally the males,
+in order to drive away or kill their rivals, the
+females remaining passive; while in the other,
+the struggle is likewise between the individuals
+of the same sex, in order to excite or charm
+those of the opposite sex, generally the females,
+which no longer remain passive, but select the
+more agreeable partners. This latter kind of
+selection is closely analogous to that which
+man unintentionally, yet effectually, brings to
+bear on his domesticated productions, when
+he preserves during a long period the most
+pleasing or useful individuals, without any wish
+to modify the breed.</p>
+
+<p>The laws of inheritance determine whether
+characters gained through sexual selection by
+either sex shall be transmitted to the same sex,
+or to both; as well as the age at which they
+shall be developed. It appears that variations
+arising late in life are commonly transmitted
+to one and the same sex. Variability is the
+necessary basis for the action of selection and
+is wholly independent of it. It follows from
+this that variations of the same general nature
+have often been taken advantage of and accumulated
+through sexual selection in relation to the
+propagation of the species, as well as through
+natural selection in relation to the general purposes
+of life. Hence secondary sexual characters,
+when equally transmitted to both sexes, can
+be distinguished from ordinary specific characters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
+only by the light of analogy. The modifications
+acquired through sexual selection are often
+so strongly pronounced that the two sexes
+have frequently been ranked as distinct species,
+or even as distinct genera. Such strongly marked
+differences must be in some manner highly
+important; and we know that they have been
+acquired in some instances at the cost not only
+of inconvenience, but of exposure to actual
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>The belief in the power of sexual selection rests
+chiefly on the following considerations: The
+characters which we have the best reasons for
+supposing to have been thus acquired are confined
+to one sex; and this alone renders it probable
+that in most cases they are connected
+with the act of reproduction. These characters
+in innumerable instances are fully developed
+only at maturity; and often during only a part
+of the year, which is always the breeding season.
+The males (passing over a few exceptional
+cases) are the more active in courtship; they
+are the best armed, and are rendered the most
+attractive in various ways. It is to be especially
+observed that the males display their attractions
+with elaborate care in the presence of the females;
+and that they rarely or never display
+them excepting during the season of love. It
+is incredible that all this should be purposeless.
+Lastly, we have distinct evidence with some
+quadrupeds and birds that the individuals of
+one sex are capable of feeling a strong antipathy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+or preference for certain individuals of the
+other sex.</p>
+
+<p>Bearing in mind these facts and not forgetting
+the marked results of man's unconscious
+selection, it seems to me almost certain that
+if the individuals of one sex were during a long
+series of generations to prefer pairing with certain
+individuals of the other sex, characterized
+in some peculiar manner, the offspring would
+slowly but surely become modified in this same
+manner. I have not attempted to conceal that,
+excepting when the males are more numerous
+than the females, or when polygamy prevails,
+it is doubtful how the more attractive males
+succeed in leaving a larger number of offspring
+to inherit their superiority in ornaments or
+other charms than the less attractive males;
+but I have shown that this would probably
+follow from the females&mdash;especially the more
+vigorous ones, which would be the first to
+breed&mdash;preferring not only the more attractive
+but at the same time the more vigorous and
+victorious males.</p>
+
+<p>Although we have some positive evidence
+that birds appreciate bright and beautiful
+objects, as with the bower-birds of Australia,
+and although they certainly appreciate the
+power of song, yet I fully admit that it is astonishing
+that the females of many birds and some
+mammals should be endowed with sufficient
+taste to appreciate ornaments, which we have
+reason to attribute to sexual selection; and this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+is even more astonishing in the case of reptiles,
+fish and insects. But we really know little
+about the minds of the lower animals. It cannot
+be supposed, for instance, that male birds
+of paradise or peacocks should take such pains
+in erecting, spreading and vibrating their
+beautiful plumes before the males for no purpose.
+We should remember the fact given on
+excellent authority in a former chapter that
+several peahens, when debarred from an admired
+male, remained widows during a whole
+season rather than pair with another bird.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, I know of no fact in natural
+history more wonderful than that the female
+Argus pheasant should appreciate the exquisite
+shading of the ball-and-socket ornaments and
+the elegant patterns on the wing feathers of
+the male. He who thinks that the male was
+created as he now exists must admit that the
+great plumes, which prevent the wings from
+being used for flight and which, as well as the
+primary feathers, are displayed in a manner
+quite peculiar to this one species during the act
+of courtship, and at no other time, were given
+to him as an ornament. If so, he must likewise
+admit that the female was created and endowed
+with the capacity of appreciating such ornaments.
+I differ only in the conviction that the
+male Argus pheasant acquired his beauty
+gradually, through the females having preferred
+during many generations the more highly
+ornamented males; the esthetic capacity of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+females having been advanced through exercise
+or habit just as our own taste is gradually
+improved. In the male, through the fortunate
+chance of a few feathers not having been modified,
+we can distinctly see how simple spots with
+a little fulvous [tawny] shading on one side may
+have been developed by small steps into the
+wonderful ball-and-socket ornaments; and it is
+probable that they were actually thus developed.</p>
+
+<p>Every one who admits the principle of evolution,
+and yet feels great difficulty in admitting
+that female mammals, birds, reptiles and fish,
+could have acquired the high taste implied by
+the beauty of the males, and which generally
+coincides with our own standard, should reflect
+that the nerve-cells of the brain in the highest as
+well as in the lowest members of the Vertebrate
+series, are derived from those of the common progenitor
+of the whole group. It thus becomes
+intelligible that the brain and mental faculties
+should be capable under similar conditions of
+nearly the same course of development, and consequently
+of performing nearly the same functions.</p>
+
+<p>The reader who has taken the trouble to go
+through the several chapters devoted to sexual
+selection will be able to judge how far the conclusions
+at which I have arrived are supported
+by sufficient evidence. If he accepts these conclusions
+he may, I think, safely extend them to
+mankind; but it would be superfluous here to repeat
+what I have so lately said on the manner in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+which sexual selection apparently has acted on
+man, both on the male and female side, causing
+the two sexes of man to differ in body and mind,
+and the several races to differ from each other in
+various characters, as well as from their ancient
+and lowly organized progenitors.</p>
+
+<p>He who admits the principle of sexual selection
+will be led to the remarkable conclusion that the
+cerebral system not only regulates most of the
+existing functions of the body, but has indirectly
+influenced the progressive development of various
+bodily structures and of certain mental qualities.
+Courage, pugnacity, perseverance, strength and
+size of body, weapons of all kinds, musical organs,
+both vocal and instrumental, bright colours,
+stripes and marks, and ornamental appendages,
+have all been indirectly gained by the one sex
+or the other, through the influence of love and
+jealousy, through the appreciation of the beautiful
+in sound, colour or form, and through the
+exertion of a choice; and those powers of the mind
+manifestly depend on the development of the
+cerebral system.</p>
+
+<p>Man scans with scrupulous care the character
+and pedigree of his horses, cattle and dogs before
+he matches them; but when he comes to his own
+marriage he rarely, or never takes any such care.
+He is impelled by nearly the same motives as
+the lower animals when left to their own free
+choice, though he is in so far superior to them
+that he highly values mental charms and virtues.
+On the other hand he is strongly attracted by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+mere wealth or rank. Yet he might by selection
+do something not only for the bodily constitution
+and frame of his offspring, but for their intellectual
+and moral qualities. Both sexes ought
+to refrain from marriage if they are in any marked
+degree inferior in body or mind; but such hopes
+are Utopian and will never be even partially
+realized until the laws of inheritance are thoroughly
+known. All do good service who aid
+toward this end. When the principles of breeding
+and inheritance are better understood, we
+shall not hear ignorant members of our legislature
+rejecting with scorn a plan for ascertaining
+whether or not consanguineous marriages are
+injurious to man.</p>
+
+<p>The advancement of the welfare of mankind
+is a most intricate problem; all ought to refrain
+from marriage who cannot avoid abject poverty
+for their children; for poverty is not only a great
+evil, but tends to its own increase by leading
+to recklessness in marriage. On the other hand,
+as Mr. Galton has remarked, if the prudent avoid
+marriage, while the reckless marry, the inferior
+members tend to supplant the better members
+of society. Man, like every other animal, has
+no doubt advanced to his present high condition
+through a struggle for existence consequent on
+his rapid multiplication; and if he is to advance
+still higher, he must remain subject to a severe
+struggle. Otherwise he would sink into indolence,
+and the more gifted men would not be more
+successful in the battle of life than the less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+gifted. Hence our natural rate of increase,
+though leading to many and obvious evils, must
+not be greatly diminished by any means. There
+should be open competition for all men; and the
+most able should not be prevented by laws or
+customs from succeeding best and rearing the
+largest number of offspring. Important as the
+struggle for existence has been and even still is,
+yet as far as the highest part of man's nature is
+concerned there are other agencies more important.
+For the moral qualities are advanced,
+either directly or indirectly, much more through
+the effects of habit, the reasoning powers, instruction,
+religion, etc., than through natural
+selection; though to this latter agency the social
+instincts, which afforded the basis for the development
+of the moral sense, may be safely attributed.</p>
+
+<p>The main conclusion arrived at in this work,
+namely, that man is descended from some lowly
+organized form, will, I regret to think, be highly
+distasteful to many. But there can hardly be a
+doubt that we are descended from barbarians.
+The astonishment I felt on first seeing a party of
+Fuegians on a wild and broken shore will never
+be forgotten by me, for the reflection at once
+rushed into my mind&mdash;such were our ancestors.
+These men were absolutely naked and bedaubed
+with paint, their long hair was tangled, their
+mouths frothed with excitement, and their expression
+was wild, startled and distrustful.
+They possessed hardly any arts, and like wild
+animals lived on what they could catch; they had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+no government, and were merciless to every one
+not of their own small tribe. He who has seen
+a savage in his native land will not feel much
+shame, if forced to acknowledge that the blood of
+some more humble creature flows in his veins. For
+my own part I would as soon be descended from
+that heroic little monkey who braved his dreaded
+enemy in order to save the life of his keeper; or
+from that old baboon, who, descending from the
+mountains, carried away in triumph his young
+comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs&mdash;as
+from a savage who delights to torture his enemies,
+offers up bloody sacrifices, practises infanticide
+without remorse, treats his wives like
+slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the
+grossest superstitions.</p>
+
+<p>Man may be excused for feeling some pride at
+having risen, though not through his own exertions,
+to the very summit of the organic scale;
+and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of
+having been aboriginally placed there, may give
+him hope for a still higher destiny in the distant
+future. But we are not here concerned with
+hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as our
+reason permits us to discover it. I have given
+the evidence to the best of my ability, and we
+must acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man,
+with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which
+feels for the most debased, with benevolence
+which extends not only to other men but to the
+humblest living creature, with his godlike intellect
+which has penetrated into the movements<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
+and constitution of the solar system&mdash;with all
+these exalted powers&mdash;Man still bears in his
+bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly
+origin.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="MIMICRY_AND_OTHER_PROTECTIVE_RESEMBLANCES" id="MIMICRY_AND_OTHER_PROTECTIVE_RESEMBLANCES"></a>MIMICRY AND OTHER PROTECTIVE<br /> RESEMBLANCES
+AMONG ANIMALS</h2>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h3><span class="smcap">Alfred Russel Wallace</span></h3>
+
+<div class="noteb"><p>[Mr. Wallace, one of the greatest naturalists of the age,
+discovered the law of natural selection independently of
+Darwin, and about the same time. Among his works are
+&ldquo;The Malay Archipelago,&rdquo; &ldquo;Island Life,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Darwinism.&rdquo;
+From &ldquo;Natural Selection,&rdquo; which was published by Macmillan
+&amp; Co., 1871, the following extracts are taken. The
+theme has received important development at the hands of
+Professor E. B. Poulton, in his &ldquo;The Colours of Animals,&rdquo;
+International Scientific Series, 1890: and in F. E. Beddard's
+&ldquo;Animal Colouration&rdquo;; London, Swan Sonnenschein; N. Y.,
+Macmillan, 1892.]</p></div>
+
+
+<p>There is no more convincing proof of the truth
+of a comprehensive theory, than its power of
+absorbing and finding a place for new facts, and
+its capability of interpreting phenomena which
+had been previously looked upon as unaccountable
+anomalies. It is thus that the law of universal
+gravitation and the undulatory theory
+of light have become established and universally
+accepted by men of science. Fact after fact has
+been brought forward as being apparently inconsistent
+with them, and one after another these
+very facts have been shown to be the consequences
+of the laws they were at first supposed
+to disprove. A false theory will never stand
+this test. Advancing knowledge brings to light
+whole groups of facts which it cannot deal with,
+and its advocates steadily decrease in numbers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+notwithstanding the ability and scientific skill
+with which it has been supported. The course of
+a true theory is very different, as may be well
+seen by the progress of opinion on the subject of
+natural selection. In less than eight years &ldquo;The
+Origin of Species&rdquo; has produced conviction in the
+minds of a majority of the most eminent living
+men of science. New facts, new problems, new
+difficulties as they arise are accepted, solved or
+removed by this theory; and its principles are
+illustrated by the progress and conclusions of
+every well established branch of human knowledge.
+It is the object of the present essay to
+show how it has recently been applied to connect
+together and explain a variety of curious facts
+which had long been considered as inexplicable
+anomalies.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps no principle has ever been announced
+so fertile in results as that which Mr. Darwin
+so earnestly impresses upon us, and which is
+indeed a necessary deduction from the theory
+of natural selection, namely&mdash;that none of the
+definite facts of organic nature, no special organ,
+no characteristic form or marking, no peculiarities
+of instinct or of habit, no relations between
+species or between groups of species&mdash;can exist,
+but which must now be or once have been <i>useful</i>
+to the individuals or races which possess them.
+This great principle gives us a clue which we can
+follow out in the study of many recondite phenomena,
+and leads us to seek a meaning and a
+purpose of some definite character in minuti&aelig;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+which we should be otherwise almost sure to pass
+over as insignificant or unimportant.</p>
+
+<p>The adaptation of the external colouring of
+animals to their conditions of life has long been
+recognized, and has been imputed either to an
+originally created specific peculiarity, or to the
+direct action of climate, soil, or food. Where
+the former explanation has been accepted, it has
+completely checked inquiry, since we could never
+get any further than the fact of the adaptation.
+There was nothing more to be known about the
+matter. The second explanation was soon found
+to be quite inadequate to deal with all the varied
+phases of the phenomena, and to be contradicted
+by many well-known facts. For example, wild
+rabbits are always of gray or brown tints well
+suited for concealment among grass and fern.
+But when these rabbits are domesticated, without
+any change of climate or food, they vary
+into white or black, and these varieties may be
+multiplied to any extent, forming white or black
+races. Exactly the same thing has occurred
+with pigeons; and in the case of rats and mice,
+the white variety has not been shown to be at all
+dependent on alteration of climate, food or other
+external conditions. In many cases the wings
+of an insect not only assume the exact tint of the
+bark or leaf it is accustomed to rest on, but the
+form and veining of the leaf or the exact rugosity
+of the bark is imitated; and these detailed modifications
+cannot be reasonably imputed to climate
+or food, since in many cases the species does not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+feed on the substance it resembles, and when it
+does, no reasonable connection can be shown
+to exist between the supposed cause and the
+effect produced. It was reserved for the
+theory of natural selection to solve all these
+problems, and many others which were not
+at first supposed to be directly connected with
+them. To make these latter intelligible, it will
+be necessary to give a sketch of the whole series of
+phenomena which may be classed under the head
+of useful or protective resemblances.</p>
+
+<p>Concealment, more or less complete, is useful
+to many animals, and absolutely essential to
+some. Those which have numerous enemies
+from which they cannot escape by rapidity of
+motion, find safety in concealment. Those
+which prey upon others must also be so constituted
+as not to alarm them by their presence
+or their approach, or they would soon die of
+hunger. Now, it is remarkable in how many
+cases nature gives this boon to the animal, by
+colouring it with such tints as may best serve to
+enable it to escape from its enemies or to entrap
+its prey. Desert animals as a rule are desert-coloured.
+The lion is a typical example of this,
+and must be almost invisible when crouched upon
+the sand or among desert rocks and stones.
+Antelopes are all more or less sandy-coloured.
+The camel is pre-eminently so. The Egyptian
+cat and the Pampas cat are sandy or earth-coloured.
+The Australian kangaroos are of the
+same tints, and the original colour of the wild<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+horse is supposed to have been a sandy or clay-colour.</p>
+
+<p>The desert birds are still more remarkably
+protected by their assimilative hues. The stone-chats,
+the larks, the quails, the goatsuckers and
+the grouse, which abound in the North African
+and Asiatic deserts, are all tinted and mottled
+so as to resemble with wonderful accuracy the
+average colour and aspect of the soil in the district
+they inhabit. The Rev. H. Tristram, in his
+account of the ornithology of North Africa in the
+first volume of the &ldquo;Ibis,&rdquo; says: &ldquo;In the
+desert, where neither trees, brushwood, nor even
+undulation of the surface afford the slightest
+protection to its foes, a modification of colour
+which shall be assimilated to that of the surrounding
+country is absolutely necessary. Hence
+<i>without exception</i> the upper plumage of <i>every bird</i>,
+whether lark, chat, sylvain, or sand-grouse, and
+also the fur of <i>all the smaller mammals</i>, and the
+skin of <i>all the snakes and lizards</i>, is of one uniform
+isabelline or sand colour.&rdquo; After the testimony
+of so able an observer it is unnecessary to adduce
+further examples of the protective colours of
+desert animals.</p>
+
+<p>Almost equally striking are the cases of arctic
+animals possessing the white colour that best conceals
+them upon snowfields and icebergs. The
+polar bear is the only bear that is white, and it
+lives constantly among snow and ice. The
+arctic fox, the ermine and the alpine hare change
+to white in winter only, because in summer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+white would be more conspicuous than any other
+colour, and therefore a danger rather than a protection;
+but the American polar hare, inhabiting
+regions of almost perpetual snow, is white all
+the year round. Other animals inhabiting the
+same northern regions do not, however, change
+colour. The sable is a good example, for
+throughout the severity of a Siberian winter it
+retains its rich brown fur. But its habits are
+such that it does not need the protection of
+colour, for it is said to be able to subsist on fruits
+and berries in winter, and to be so active upon
+the trees as to catch small birds among the
+branches. So also the woodchuck of Canada has
+a dark-brown fur; but then it lives in burrows
+and frequents river banks, catching fish and
+small animals that live in or near the water.</p>
+
+<p>Among birds, the ptarmigan is a fine example
+of protective colouring. Its summer plumage
+so exactly harmonizes with the lichen-coloured
+stones among which it delights to sit, that a person
+may walk through a flock of them without
+seeing a single bird; while in winter its white
+plumage is an almost equal protection. The
+snow-bunting, the jerfalcon, and the snowy owl
+are also white-coloured birds inhabiting the
+arctic regions, and there can be little doubt but
+that their colouring is to some extent protective.</p>
+
+<p>Nocturnal animals supply us with equally
+good illustrations. Mice, rats, bats, and moles
+possess the least conspicuous of hues, and must
+be quite invisible at times when any light colour<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
+would be instantly seen. Owls and goatsuckers
+are of those dark mottled tints that will assimilate
+with bark and lichen, and thus protect them
+during the day, and at the same time be inconspicuous
+in the dusk.</p>
+
+<p>It is only in the tropics, among forests which
+never lose their foliage, that we find whole groups
+of birds whose chief colour is green. The parrots
+are the most striking example, but we have
+also a group of green pigeons in the East; and
+the barbets, leaf-thrushes, bee-eaters, white-eyes,
+turacos, and several smaller groups, have
+so much green in their plumage as to tend greatly
+to conceal them among the foliage.</p>
+
+<p>The conformity of tint which has been so far
+shown to exist between animals and their habitations
+is of somewhat general character; we will
+now consider the cases of more special adaptation.
+If the lion is enabled by his sandy colour
+readily to conceal himself by merely crouching
+down in the desert, how, it may be asked, do
+the elegant markings of the tiger, the jaguar,
+and the other large cats agree with this theory?
+We reply that these are generally cases of more
+or less special adaptation. The tiger is a jungle
+animal, and hides himself among tufts of grass
+or of bamboos, and in these positions the vertical
+stripes with which his body is adorned must so
+assimilate with the vertical stems of the bamboo,
+as to assist greatly in concealing him from his
+approaching prey. How remarkable it is that
+besides the lion and tiger, almost all the other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+large cats are arboreal in their habits, and almost
+all have ocellated or spotted skins, which must
+certainly tend to blend them with the background
+of foliage; while the one exception, the
+puma, has an ashy-brown uniform fur, and has
+the habit of clinging so closely to a limb of a
+tree while waiting for his prey to pass beneath
+as to be hardly distinguishable from the bark.</p>
+
+<p>Among birds, the ptarmigan, already mentioned,
+must be considered a remarkable case of
+special adaptation. Another is a South American
+goatsucker (Caprimulgus rupestris) which
+rests in the bright sunshine on little bare rocky
+islets in the upper Rio Negro, where its unusually
+light colours so closely resemble those of the rock
+and sand, that it can scarcely be detected until
+trodden upon.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Argyll, in his &ldquo;Reign of Law,&rdquo;
+has pointed out the admirable adaptation of
+the colours of the woodcock to its protection.
+The various browns and yellows and pale ash-colour
+that occur on fallen leaves are all reproduced
+in its plumage, so that when according to
+its habit it rests upon the ground under trees,
+it is almost impossible to detect it. In snipes
+the colours are modified so as to be equally in
+harmony with the prevalent forms and colours
+of marshy vegetation. Mr. J. M. Lester, in a
+paper read before the Rugby School Natural
+History Society observes:&mdash;&ldquo;The wood-dove,
+when perched amongst the branches of its favourite
+<i>fir</i>, is scarcely discernible; whereas, were it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+among some lighter foliage the blue and purple
+tints in its plumage would far sooner betray it.
+The robin redbreast, too, although it might be
+thought that the red on its breast made it much
+easier to be seen, is in reality not at all endangered
+by it, since it generally contrives to get among
+some russet or yellow fading leaves, where the
+red matches very well with the autumn tints,
+and the brown of the rest of the body with the
+bare branches.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Reptiles offer us many similar examples. The
+most arboreal lizards, the iguanas, are as green
+as the leaves they feed upon, and the slender
+whip-snakes are rendered almost invisible as
+they glide among the foliage by a similar colouration.
+How difficult it is sometimes to catch
+sight of the little green tree-frogs sitting on the
+leaves of a small plant enclosed in a glass case
+in the Zoological Gardens; yet how much better
+concealed they must be among the fresh green
+damp foliage of a marshy forest. There is a
+North American frog found on lichen-covered
+rocks and walls, which is so coloured as exactly
+to resemble them, and as long as it remains quiet
+would certainly escape detection. Some of the
+geckos which cling motionless on the trunks of
+trees in the tropics, are of such curiously marbled
+colours as to match exactly with the bark they
+rest upon.</p>
+
+<p>In every part of the tropics there are tree
+snakes that twist among boughs and shrubs, or
+lie coiled up in the dense masses of foliage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>
+These are of many distinct groups, and comprise
+both venomous and harmless genera; but almost
+all of them are of a beautiful green colour, sometimes
+more or less adorned with white or dusky
+bands and spots. There can be little doubt that
+this colour is doubly useful to them, since it will
+tend to conceal them from their enemies, and
+will lead their prey to approach them unconscious
+of danger. Dr. Gunthner informs me that
+there is only one genus of true arboreal snakes
+(Dipsas) whose colours are rarely green, but
+are of various shades of black, brown, and olive,
+and these are all nocturnal reptiles, and there
+can be little doubt conceal themselves during the
+day in holes, so that the green protective tint
+would be useless to them, and they accordingly
+retain the more usual reptilian hues.</p>
+
+<p>Fishes present similar instances. Many flat
+fish, as, for example, the flounder and the skate,
+are exactly the colour of the gravel or sand on
+which they habitually rest. Among the marine
+flower gardens of an Eastern coral reef the fishes
+present every variety of gorgeous colour, while
+the river fish even of the tropics rarely if ever
+have gay or conspicuous markings. A very
+curious case of this kind of adaptation occurs
+in the sea-horse (Hippocampus) of Australia,
+some of which bear long foliaceous appendages
+resembling seaweed, and are of a brilliant red
+colour; and they are known to live among seaweed
+of the same hue, so that when at rest they
+must be quite invisible. There are now in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
+aquarium of the Zoological Society some slender
+green pipe-fish which fasten themselves to any
+object at the bottom by their prehensile tails,
+and float about with the current, looking exactly
+like some cylindrical alg&aelig;.</p>
+
+<p>It is, however, in the insect world that this
+principle of the adaptation of animals to their
+environment is most fully and strikingly developed.
+In order to understand how general this
+is, it is necessary to enter somewhat into details,
+as we shall thereby be better able to appreciate
+the significance of the still more remarkable
+phenomena we shall presently have to discuss.
+It seems to be in proportion to their sluggish
+motions or the absence of other means of defence,
+that insects possess the protective colouring.
+In the tropics there are thousands of species of
+insects which rest during the day clinging to the
+bark of dead or fallen trees; and the greater portion
+of these are delicately mottled with gray and
+brown tints, which though symmetrically disposed
+and infinitely varied, yet blend so completely
+with the usual colours of the bark that
+at two or three feet distance they are quite undistinguishable.
+In some cases a species is
+known to frequent only one species of tree. This
+is the case with the common South American
+long-horned beetle (Onychocerus scorpio) which,
+Mr. Bates informed me, is found only on a rough-barked
+tree, called Tapiriba, on the Amazon.
+It is very abundant, but so exactly does it resemble
+the bark in colour and rugosity, and so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+closely does it cling to the branches, that until
+it moves it is absolutely invisible! An allied
+species (O. concentricus) is found only at Para,
+on a distinct species of tree, the bark of which
+it resembles with equal accuracy. Both these
+insects are abundant, and we may fairly conclude
+that the protection they derive from this strange
+concealment is at least one of the causes that
+enable the race to flourish.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the species of Cicindela, or tiger
+beetle, will illustrate this mode of protection.
+Our common Cicindela campestris frequents
+grassy banks and is of a beautiful green colour,
+while C. maritima, which is found only on sandy
+sea-shores, is of a pale bronzy yellow, so as to
+be almost invisible. A great number of the
+species found by myself in the Malay islands
+are similarly protected. The beautiful Cicindela
+gloriosa, of a very deep velvety green colour,
+was only taken upon wet mossy stones in the
+bed of a mountain stream, where it was with
+the greatest difficulty detected. A large brown
+species (C. heros) was found chiefly on dead
+leaves in forest paths; and one which was never
+seen except on the wet mud of salt marshes
+was of a glossy olive so exactly the colour of
+the mud as only to be distinguished when the
+sun shone, by its shadow! Where the sandy
+beach was coralline and nearly white, I found a
+very pale Cicindela; wherever it was volcanic
+and black, a dark species of the same genus
+was sure to be met with.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There are in the East small beetles of the
+family Buprestid&aelig; which generally rest on the
+midrib of a leaf, and the naturalist often hesitates
+before picking them off, so closely do they
+resemble pieces of bird's dung. Kirby and
+Spence mention the small beetle Onthophilus
+sulcatus as being like the seed of an umbelliferous
+plant; and another small weevil, which is
+much persecuted by predatory beetles of the
+genus Harpalus, is of the exact colour of loamy
+soil, and was found to be particularly abundant
+in loam pits. Mr. Bates mentions a small beetle
+(Chlamys pilula) which was undistinguishable
+by the eye from the dung of caterpillars, while
+some of the Cassid&aelig;, from their hemispherical
+forms and pearly gold-colour, resemble glittering
+dew-drops upon the leaves.</p>
+
+<p>A number of our small brown and speckled
+weevils at the approach of any object roll off
+the leaf they are sitting on, at the same time
+drawing in their legs and antenn&aelig;, which fit
+so perfectly into cavities for their reception
+that the insect becomes a mere oval brownish
+lump, which it is hopeless to look for among
+the similarly coloured little stones and earth
+pellets among which it lies motionless.</p>
+
+<p>The distribution of colour in butterflies and
+moths respectively is very instructive from this
+point of view. The former have all their brilliant
+colouring on the upper surface of all four
+wings, while the under surface is almost always
+soberly coloured, and often very dark and obscure.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
+The moths on the contrary have generally
+their chief colour on the hind wings
+only, the upper wings being of dull, sombre,
+and often imitative tints, and these generally
+conceal the hind wings when the insects are
+in repose. This arrangement of the colours is
+therefore eminently protective, because the
+butterfly always rests with his wings raised
+so as to conceal the dangerous brilliancy of his
+upper surface. It is probable that if we watched
+their habits sufficiently we should find the under
+surface of the wings of butterflies very frequently
+imitative and protective. Mr. T. W.
+Wood has pointed out that the little orange-tip
+butterfly often rests in the evening on the green
+and white flower heads of an umbelliferous
+plant, and that when observed in this position
+the beautiful green and white mottling of the
+under surface completely assimilates with the
+flower heads and renders the creature very
+difficult to be seen. It is probable that the rich
+dark colouring of the under side of our peacock,
+tortoiseshell, and red-admiral butterflies answers
+a similar purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Two curious South American butterflies that
+always settle on the trunks of trees (Gynecia
+dirce and Callizona acesta) have the under
+surface curiously striped and mottled, and
+when viewed obliquely must closely assimilate
+with the appearance of the furrowed bark of
+many kinds of trees. But the most wonderful
+and undoubted case of protective resemblance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+in a butterfly which I have ever seen, is that of
+the common Indian Kallima inachis, and its
+Malayan ally, Kallima paralekta. The upper
+surface of these insects is very striking and
+showy, as they are of a large size, and are adorned
+with a broad band of rich orange on a deep
+bluish ground. The under side is very variable
+in colour, so that out of fifty specimens no two
+can be found exactly alike, but every one of
+them will be of some shade of ash or brown or
+ochre, such as are found among dead, dry or
+decaying leaves. The apex of the upper wings
+is produced into an acute point, a very common
+form in the leaves of tropical shrubs and trees,
+and the lower wings are also produced into a
+short, narrow tail. Between these two points
+runs a dark curved line exactly representing
+the midrib of a leaf, and from this radiate on
+each side a few oblique lines, which serve to
+indicate the lateral veins of a leaf. These marks
+are more clearly seen on the outer portion of
+the base of the wings, and on the inner side
+towards the middle and apex, and it is very
+curious to observe how the usual marginal and
+transverse stri&aelig; of the group are here modified
+and strengthened so as to become adapted
+for an imitation of the venation of a leaf. We
+come now to a still more extraordinary part of
+the imitation, for we find representations of leaves
+in every stage of decay, variously blotched
+and mildewed and pierced with powdery black
+dots gathered into patches and spots, so closely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
+resembling the various kinds of minute fungi
+that grow on dead leaves that is it impossible
+to avoid thinking at first sight that the butterflies
+themselves have been attacked by real
+fungi.</p>
+
+<p>But this resemblance, close as it is, would be
+little use if the habits of the insect did not
+accord with it. If the butterfly sat upon leaves
+or upon flowers, or opened its wings so as to
+expose the upper surface, or exposed and moved
+its head and antenn&aelig; as many other butterflies
+do, its disguise would be of little avail.
+We might be sure, however, from the analogy
+of many other cases, that the habits of the
+insect are such as still further to aid its deceptive
+garb; but we are not obliged to make
+any such supposition, since I myself had the
+good fortune to observe scores of Kallima paralekta,
+in Sumatra, and to capture many of
+them, and can vouch for the accuracy of the
+following details: These butterflies frequent
+dry forests and fly very swiftly. They were
+never seen to settle on a flower or a green leaf,
+but were many times lost sight of in a bush or
+tree of dead leaves. On such occasions they
+were generally searched for in vain, for while
+gazing intently at the very spot where one
+had disappeared, it would often suddenly dart
+out and again vanish twenty or fifty yards
+further on. On one or two occasions the insect
+was detected reposing, and it could then be seen
+how completely it assimilates itself to the surrounding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+leaves. It sits on a nearly upright
+twig, the wings fitting closely back to back,
+concealing the antenn&aelig; and head, which are
+drawn up between their bases. The little tails
+of the hind wings touch the branch and form
+a perfect stalk to the leaf, which is supported
+in its place by the claws of the middle pair of
+feet, which are slender and inconspicuous.
+The irregular outline of the wings gives exactly
+the perspective effect of a shrivelled leaf. We
+thus have size, colour, form, markings, and
+habits, all combining together to produce a
+disguise which may be said to be absolutely
+perfect; and the protection which it affords is
+sufficiently indicated by the abundance of the
+individuals that possess it....</p>
+
+<p>We will now endeavour to show how these
+wonderful resemblances have most probably
+been brought about. Returning to the higher
+animals, let us consider the remarkable fact
+of the rarity of white colouring in the mammalia
+or birds of the temperate or tropical zones in
+a state of nature. There is not a single white
+land-bird or quadruped in Europe, except the
+few arctic or alpine species to which white is a
+protective colour. Yet in many of these creatures
+there seems to be no inherent tendency
+to avoid white, for directly they are domesticated
+white varieties arise, and appear to thrive
+as well as others. We have white mice and
+rats, white cats, horses, dogs, and cattle, white
+poultry, pigeons, turkeys, and ducks, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
+white rabbits. Some of these animals have
+been domesticated for a long period, others
+only for a few centuries; but in almost every
+case in which an animal has been thoroughly
+domesticated, parti-coloured and white varieties
+are produced and become permanent.</p>
+
+<p>It is also well known that animals in a state
+of nature produce white varieties occasionally.
+Blackbirds, starlings, and crows are occasionally
+seen white, as well as elephants, deer, tigers,
+hares, moles, and many other animals; but in
+no case is a permanent white race produced.
+Now there are no statistics to show that the
+normal-coloured parents produce white offspring
+oftener under domestication than in a
+state of nature, and we have no right to make
+such an assumption if the facts can be accounted
+for without it. But if the colours of animals
+do really, in the various instances already
+adduced, serve for their concealment and preservation,
+then white or any other conspicuous
+colour must be hurtful, and must in most
+cases shorten an animal's life. A white rabbit
+would be more surely the prey of hawk or
+buzzard, and the white mole, or field mouse,
+could not long escape from the vigilant owl.
+So, also, any deviation from those tints best
+adapted to conceal a carnivorous animal would
+render the pursuit of its prey much more difficult,
+would place it at a disadvantage among
+its fellows and in a time of scarcity would
+probably cause it to starve to death. On the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+other hand, if an animal spreads from a temperate
+into an arctic district, the conditions
+are changed. During a large portion of the
+year, and just when the struggle for existence
+is most severe, white is the prevailing tint of
+nature, and dark colours will be the most conspicuous.
+The white varieties will now have
+an advantage; they will escape from their enemies
+or will secure food, while their brown companions
+will be devoured or will starve; and
+&ldquo;as like produces like&rdquo; is the established rule
+in nature, the white race will become permanently
+established, and dark varieties, when they
+occasionally appear, will soon die out from their
+want of adaptation to their environment. In
+each case the fittest will survive, and a race
+will be eventually produced adapted to the
+conditions in which it lives.</p>
+
+<p>We have here an illustration of the simple
+and effectual means by which animals are
+brought into harmony with the rest of nature.
+That slight amount of variability in every
+species, which we often look upon as something
+accidental or abnormal, or so insignificant as
+to be hardly worthy of notice, is yet the foundation
+of all those wonderful and harmonious
+resemblances which play such an important
+part in the economy of nature. Variation is
+generally very small in amount, but it is all
+that is required, because the change in the
+external conditions to which an animal is subject
+is generally very slow and intermittent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>
+When these changes have taken place too
+rapidly, the result has often been the extinction
+of species; but the general rule is, that climatal
+and geological changes go on slowly, and the
+slight but continual variations in the colour,
+form and structure of all animals, has furnished
+individuals adapted to these changes, and who
+have become the progenitors of modified races.
+Rapid multiplication, incessant slight variation,
+and survival of the fittest&mdash;these are the laws
+which ever keep the organic world in harmony
+with the inorganic and with itself. These are
+the laws which we believe have produced all
+the cases of protective resemblance already
+adduced, as well as those still more curious
+examples we have yet to bring before our
+readers.</p>
+
+<p>It must always be borne in mind that the
+more wonderful examples, in which there is
+not only a general but a special resemblance
+as in the walking leaf, the mossy phasma, and
+the leaf-winged butterfly&mdash;represent those few
+instances in which the process of modification
+has been going on during an immense series of
+generations. They all occur in the tropics,
+where the conditions of existence are the most
+favourable, and where climatic changes have
+for long periods been hardly perceptible. In
+most of them favourable variations both of
+colour, form, structure, and instinct or habit,
+must have occurred to produce the perfect
+adaptation we now behold. All these are known<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+to vary, and favourable variations when not
+accompanied by others that are unfavourable,
+would certainly survive. At one time a little
+step might be made in this direction, at another
+time in that&mdash;a change of conditions might sometimes
+render useless that which it had taken
+ages to produce&mdash;great and sudden physical
+modifications might often produce the extinction
+of a race just as it was approaching
+perfection, and a hundred checks of which we
+can know nothing may have retarded the progress
+towards perfect adaptation; so that we
+can hardly wonder at there being so few cases
+in which a completely successful result has been
+attained as shown by the abundance and wide
+diffusion of the creatures so protected.</p>
+
+<p>[Here are given many detailed examples of
+insects which gainfully mimic one another.]</p>
+
+<p>We will now adduce a few cases in which
+beetles imitate other insects, and insects of
+other orders imitate beetles.</p>
+
+<p>Charis melipona, a South American Longicorn
+of the family Necydalid&aelig;, has been so
+named from its resemblance to a small bee of
+the genus Melipona. It is one of the most remarkable
+cases of mimicry, since the beetle
+has the thorax and body densely hairy like
+the bee, and the legs are tufted in a manner
+most unusual in the order Coleoptera. Another
+Longicorn, Odontocera odyneroides, has the
+abdomen banded with yellow, and constricted
+at the base, and is altogether so exactly like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+a small common wasp of the genus Odynerus,
+that Mr. Bates informs us he was afraid to take
+it out of his net with his fingers for fear of
+being stung. Had Mr. Bates's taste for insects
+been less omnivorous than it was, the beetle's
+disguise might have saved it from his pin, as
+it had no doubt often done from the beak of
+hungry birds. A larger insect, Sphecomorpha
+chalybea, is exactly like one of the large metallic
+blue wasps, and like them has the abdomen
+connected with the thorax by a pedicle, rendering
+the deception most complete and striking.
+Many Eastern species of Longicorns of the
+genus Oberea, when on the wing exactly resemble
+Tenthredinid&aelig;, and many of the small
+species of Hesthesis run about on timber, and
+cannot be distinguished from ants. There is
+one genus of South American Longicorns that
+appears to mimic the shielded bugs of the genus
+Scutellera. The Gymnocerous capucinus is one
+of these, and is very like Pachyotris fabricii,
+one of the Scutellerid&aelig;. The beautiful Gymnocerous
+dulcissimus is also very like the same
+group of insects, though there is no known
+species that exactly corresponds to it; but this
+is not to be wondered at, as the tropical Hemiptera
+have been comparatively so little cared
+for by collectors.</p>
+
+<p>The most remarkable case of an insect of
+another order mimicking a beetle is that of the
+Condylodera tricondyloides, one of the cricket
+family from the Philippine Islands, which is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+so exactly like a Tricondyla (one of the tiger
+beetles), that such an experienced entomologist
+as Professor Westwood placed it among them
+in his cabinet, and retained it there a long time
+before he discovered his mistake! Both insects
+run along the trunks of trees, and whereas
+Tricondylas are very plentiful, the insect that
+mimics it is, as in all other cases, very rare.
+Mr. Bates also informs us that he found at
+Santarem on the Amazon, a species of locust
+which mimicked one of the tiger beetles of the
+genus Odontocheila, and was found on the
+same trees which they frequented.</p>
+
+<p>There are a considerable number of Diptera,
+or two-winged flies, that closely resemble wasps
+and bees, and no doubt derive much benefit
+from the wholesome dread which those insects
+excite. The Midas dives, and other species of
+large Brazilian flies, have dark wings and
+metallic blue elongate bodies, resembling the
+large stinging Sphegid&aelig; of the same country;
+and a very large fly of the genus Asilus has
+black-banded wings and the abdomen tipped
+with rich orange, so as exactly to resemble
+the fine bee Euglossa dimidiata, and both are
+found in the same parts of South America. We
+have also in our own country species of Bombylius
+which are almost exactly like bees. In
+these cases the end gained by the mimicry is no
+doubt freedom from attack, but it has sometimes
+an altogether different purpose. There are a
+number of parasitic flies whose larv&aelig; feed upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
+the larv&aelig; of bees, such as the British genus
+Volucella and many of the tropical Bombylii,
+and most of these are exactly like the particular
+species of bee they prey upon, so that they can
+enter their nests unsuspected to deposit their
+eggs. There are also bees that mimic bees.
+The cuckoo bees of the genus Nomada are parasitic
+on the Andrenid&aelig;, and they resemble
+either wasps or species of Andrena; and the
+parasitic humble-bees of the genus Apathus
+almost exactly resemble the species of humble-bees
+in whose nests they are reared. Mr. Bates
+informs us that he found numbers of these
+&ldquo;cuckoo&rdquo; bees and flies on the Amazon, which
+all wore the livery of working bees peculiar to
+the same country.</p>
+
+<p>There is a genus of small spiders in the tropics
+which feed on ants, and they are exactly like
+ants themselves, which no doubt gives them
+more opportunity of seizing their prey; and
+Mr. Bates found on the Amazon a species of
+Mantis which exactly resembled the white ants
+which it fed upon, as well as several species of
+crickets (Saphura), which resembled in a wonderful
+manner different sand-wasps of large size,
+which are constantly on the search for crickets
+with which to provision their nests.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the most wonderful case of all is the
+large caterpillar mentioned by Mr. Bates,
+which startled him by its close resemblance to
+a small snake. The first three segments behind
+the head were dilatable at the will of the insect,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+and had on each side a large black pupillated
+spot, which resembled the eye of the reptile.
+Moreover, it resembled a poisonous viper, not a
+harmless species of snake, as was proved by
+the imitation of keeled scales on the crown
+produced by the recumbent feet, as the caterpillar
+threw itself backward!</p>
+
+<p>The attitudes of many of the tropical spiders
+are most extraordinary and deceptive, but little
+attention has been paid to them. They often
+mimic other insects, and some, Mr. Bates assures
+us, are exactly like flower buds, and take their
+station in the axils of leaves, where they remain
+motionless waiting for their prey.</p>
+
+<p>I have now completed a brief, and necessarily
+very imperfect, survey of the various ways in
+which the external form and colouring of animals
+is adapted to be useful to them, either
+by concealing them from their enemies or from
+the creatures they prey upon. It has, I hope,
+been shown that the subject is one of much
+interest, both as regard a true comprehension
+of the place each animal fills in the economy
+of nature, and the means by which it is enabled
+to maintain that place; and also as teaching us
+how important a part is played by the minutest
+details in the structure of animals, and how
+complicated and delicate is the equilibrium of
+the organic world.</p>
+
+<p>My exposition of the subject having been
+necessarily somewhat lengthy and full of details,
+it will be as well to recapitulate its main points.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There is a general harmony in nature between
+the colours of an animal and those of its habitation.
+Arctic animals are white, desert animals
+are sand-coloured; dwellers among leaves and
+grass are green; nocturnal animals are dusky.
+These colours are not universal, but are very
+general, and are seldom reversed. Going on a
+little further, we find birds, reptiles and insects,
+so tinted and mottled as exactly to match
+the rock, or bark, or leaf, or flower they are
+accustomed to rest upon&mdash;and thereby effectually
+concealed. Another step in advance, and we
+have insects which are formed as well as coloured
+so as exactly to resemble particular leaves, or
+sticks, or mossy twigs, or flowers; and in these
+cases very peculiar habits and instincts come
+into play to aid in the deception and render
+the concealment more complete. We now enter
+upon a new phase of the phenomena, and come
+to creatures whose colours neither conceal
+them nor make them like vegetable or mineral
+substances; on the contrary, they are conspicuous
+enough, but they completely resemble
+some other creature of a quite different group,
+while they differ much in outward appearance
+from those with which all essential parts of
+their organization show them to be really
+closely allied. They appear like actors or masqueraders
+dressed up and painted for amusement,
+or like swindlers endeavouring to pass
+themselves off for well-known and respectable
+members of society. What is the meaning of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
+this strange travesty? Does nature descend
+to imposture or masquerade? We answer, she
+does not. Her principles are too severe. There
+is a use in every detail of her handiwork. The
+resemblance of one animal to another is of
+exactly the same essential nature as the resemblance
+to a leaf, or to bark, or to desert sand,
+and answers exactly the same purpose. In the
+one case the enemy will not attack the leaf or
+the bark, and so the disguise is a safeguard;
+in the other case it is found that for various
+reasons the creature resembled is passed over,
+and not attacked by the usual enemies of its
+order, and thus the creature that resembles it
+has an equally effectual safeguard. We are
+plainly shown that the disguise is of the same
+nature in the two cases, by the occurrence in
+the same group of one species resembling a
+vegetable substance, while another resembles
+a living animal of another group; and we know
+that the creatures resembled possess an immunity
+from attack, by their being always very
+abundant, by their being conspicuous and not
+concealing themselves, and by their having
+generally no visible means of escape from their
+enemies; while, at the same time, the particular
+quality that makes them disliked is often very
+clear, such as a nasty taste or an indigestible
+hardness. Further examination reveals the fact
+that, in several cases of both kinds of disguise,
+it is the female only that is thus disguised;
+and as it can be shown that the female needs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+protection much more than the male, and that
+her preservation for a much longer period is
+absolutely necessary for the continuance of the
+race, we have an additional indication that the
+resemblance is in all cases subservient to a great
+purpose&mdash;the preservation of the species.</p>
+
+<p>In endeavouring to explain these phenomena
+as having been brought about by variation and
+natural selection, we start with the fact that
+white varieties frequently occur, and when protected
+from enemies show no incapacity for
+continued existence and increase. We know,
+further, that varieties of many other tints
+occasionally occur; and as &ldquo;the survival of the
+fittest&rdquo; must inevitably weed out those whose
+colours are prejudicial and preserve those whose
+colours are a safeguard, we require no other
+mode of accounting for the protective tints of
+arctic and desert animals. But this being granted,
+there is such a perfectly continuous and graduated
+series of examples of every kind of protective
+imitation, up to the most wonderful
+cases of what is termed &ldquo;mimicry,&rdquo; that we
+can find no place at which to draw the line
+and say,&mdash;so far variation and natural selection
+will account for the phenomena, but for all the
+rest we require a more potent cause. The
+counter theories that have been proposed, that
+of the &ldquo;special creation&rdquo; of each imitative
+form, that of the action of similar &ldquo;conditions
+of existence&rdquo; for some of the cases, and of the
+laws of &ldquo;hereditary descent and the reversion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>
+to ancestral forms&rdquo; for others,&mdash;have all been
+shown to be beset with difficulties, and the two
+latter to be directly contradicted by some of
+the most constant and most remarkable of
+the facts to be accounted for.</p>
+
+<p>The important part that protective &ldquo;resemblance&rdquo;
+has played in determining the
+colours and markings of many groups of animals
+will enable us to understand the meaning of
+one of the most striking facts in nature, the
+uniformity in the colours of the vegetable as
+compared with the wonderful diversity of the
+animal world. There appears no good reason
+why trees and shrubs should not have been
+adorned with as many varied hues and as
+strikingly designed patterns as birds and butterflies,
+since the gay colours of flowers show that
+there is no incapacity in vegetable tissues to
+exhibit them. But even flowers themselves
+present us with none of those wonderful designs,
+those complicated arrangements of stripes and
+dots and patches of colour, that harmonious
+blending of hues in lines and bands and shaded
+spots, which are so general a feature in insects.
+It is the opinion of Mr. Darwin that we owe
+much of the beauty of flowers to the necessity
+of attracting insects to aid in their fertilization,
+and that much of the development of colour
+in the animal world is due to &ldquo;sexual selection,&rdquo;
+colour being universally attractive, and thus
+leading to its propagation and increase; but
+while fully admitting this, it will be evident<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+from the facts and arguments here brought
+forward, that very much of the <i>variety</i> both of
+colour and markings among animals is due to
+the supreme importance of concealment, and
+thus the various tints of minerals and vegetables
+have been directly reproduced in the animal
+kingdom, and again and again modified as
+more special protection became necessary. We
+shall thus have two causes for the development
+of colour in the animal world and shall be better
+enabled to understand how, by their combined
+and separate action, the immense variety we
+now behold has been produced. Both causes,
+however, will come under the general law of
+&ldquo;Utility,&rdquo; the advocacy of which, in its broadest
+sense, we owe almost entirely to Mr. Darwin.
+A more accurate knowledge of the varied
+phenomena connected with this subject may
+not improbably give us some information both
+as to the senses and the mental faculties of the
+lower animals. For it is evident that if colours
+which please us also attract them, and if the
+various disguises which have been here enumerated
+are equally deceptive to them as to ourselves,
+then both their powers of vision and their
+faculties of perception and emotion, must be
+essentially of the same nature as our own&mdash;a
+fact of high philosophical importance in the
+study of our own nature and our true relations
+to the lower animals.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<br />
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The author continues this study in Chapter ix of
+&ldquo;Darwinism&rdquo;: New York, Macmillan Co., 1889.&mdash;Ed.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h2><a name="THE_EVOLUTION_OF_THE_HORSE" id="THE_EVOLUTION_OF_THE_HORSE"></a>THE EVOLUTION OF THE HORSE</h2>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h3><span class="smcap">Thomas Henry Huxley</span></h3>
+
+<div class="noteb"><p>[Professor Huxley as a naturalist, educator, and controversialist
+was one of the commanding figures of the nineteenth
+century. To physiology and morphology his researches
+added much of importance: as an expositor he stood
+unapproached. As the bold and witty champion of Darwinism
+he gave natural selection an acceptance much more
+early and wide than it would otherwise have enjoyed. In
+1876 he delivered in America three lectures on Evolution:
+the third of the series is here given. All three are copyrighted
+and published by D. Appleton &amp; Co., New York, in
+a volume which also contains a lecture on the study of
+biology. Since 1876 the arguments of Professor Huxley
+have been reinforced by the discovery of many fossils connecting
+not only the horse, but other quadrupeds, with
+species widely different and now extinct. The most comprehensive
+collection illustrating the descent of the horse
+is to be seen at the American Museum of Natural History,
+New York, where also the evolution of tapirs, camels, llamas,
+rhinoceroses, dinosaurs, great ground sloths and other animals
+are clearly to be traced&mdash;in most cases by remains discovered
+in America. A capital book on the theme broached by
+Professor Huxley is &ldquo;Animals of the Past,&rdquo; by Frederic
+A. Lucas, Curator of the Division of Comparative Anatomy,
+United States National Museum, Washington, D. C., published
+by McClure, Phillips &amp; Co., New York.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The Life and Letters of Professor Huxley,&rdquo; edited by
+his son, Leonard Huxley, is a work of rare interest: it is
+published by D. Appleton &amp; Co., New York.]</p></div>
+
+
+<p>The occurrence of historical facts is said to
+be demonstrated, when the evidence that they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
+happened is of such a character as to render
+the assumption that they did not happen in
+the highest degree improbable; and the question
+I now have to deal with is, whether evidence
+in favour of the evolution of animals of this
+degree of cogency is, or is not, obtainable from
+the record of the succession of living forms
+which is presented to us by fossil remains.</p>
+
+<p>Those who have attended to the progress of
+pal&aelig;ontology are aware that evidence of the
+character which I have defined has been produced
+in considerable and continually-increasing
+quantity during the last few years. Indeed,
+the amount and the satisfactory nature of that
+evidence are somewhat surprising, when we
+consider the conditions under which alone we
+can hope to obtain it.</p>
+
+<p>It is obviously useless to seek for such evidence,
+except in localities in which the physical
+conditions have been such as to permit of the
+deposit of an unbroken, or but rarely interrupted,
+series of strata through a long period of time;
+in which the group of animals to be investigated
+has existed in such abundance as to furnish
+the requisite supply of remains; and in which,
+finally, the materials composing the strata are
+such as to insure the preservation of these remains
+in a tolerably perfect and undisturbed
+state.</p>
+
+<p>It so happens that the case which, at present,
+most nearly fulfils all these conditions is that
+of the series of extinct animals which culminates<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
+in the horses; by which term I mean to denote
+not merely the domestic animals with which
+we are all so well acquainted, but their allies,
+the ass, zebra, quagga, and the like. In short,
+I use &ldquo;horses&rdquo; as the equivalent of the technical
+name <i>Equid&aelig;</i>, which is applied to the whole
+group of existing equine animals.</p>
+
+<p>The horse is in many ways a remarkable animal;
+not least so in the fact that it presents
+us with an example of one of the most perfect
+pieces of machinery in the living world. In
+truth, among the works of human ingenuity
+it cannot be said that there is any locomotive
+so perfectly adapted to its purposes, doing so
+much work with so small a quantity of fuel,
+as this machine of nature's manufacture&mdash;the
+horse. And, as a necessary consequence of any
+sort of perfection, of mechanical perfection as
+of others, you find that the horse is a beautiful
+creature, one of the most beautiful of all land
+animals. Look at the perfect balance of its
+form, and the rhythm and force of its action.
+The locomotive machinery is, as you are aware,
+resident in its slender fore and hind limbs;
+they are flexible and elastic levers, capable of
+being moved by very powerful muscles; and,
+in order to supply the engines which work these
+levers with the force which they expend, the
+horse is provided with a very perfect apparatus
+for grinding its food and extracting therefrom
+the requisite fuel.</p>
+
+<p>Without attempting to take you very far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+into the region of osteological detail, I must
+nevertheless trouble you with some statements
+respecting the anatomical structure of the
+horse; and, more especially, will it be needful
+to obtain a general conception of the structure
+of its fore and hind limbs, and of its teeth.
+But I shall only touch upon these points which
+are absolutely essential to our inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>Let us turn in the first place to the fore-limb.
+In most quadrupeds, as in ourselves,
+the fore-arms contains distinct bones called the
+radius and the ulna. The corresponding region
+in the horse seem at first to possess but one
+bone. Careful observation, however, enables
+us to distinguish in this bone a part which
+clearly answers to the upper end of the ulna.
+This is closely united with the chief mass of the
+bone which represents the radius, and runs out
+into a slender shaft which may be traced for
+some distance downwards upon the back of
+the radius, and then in most cases thins out
+and vanishes. It takes still more trouble to
+make sure of what is nevertheless the fact,
+that a small part of the lower end of the bone
+of the horse's fore-arm, which is only distinct
+in a very young foal, is really the lower extremity
+of the ulna.</p>
+
+<p>What is commonly called the knee of a horse
+is its wrist. The &ldquo;cannon bone&rdquo; answers to the
+middle bone of the five metacarpal bones,
+which support the palm of the hand in ourselves.
+The &ldquo;pastern,&rdquo; &ldquo;coronary,&rdquo; and &ldquo;coffin&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+bones of veterinarians answer to the joints of
+our middle fingers, while the hoof is simply a
+greatly enlarged and thickened nail. But if
+what lies below the horse's &ldquo;knee&rdquo; thus corresponds
+to the middle finger in ourselves,
+what has become of the four other fingers or
+digits? We find in the places of the second
+and fourth digits only two slender splint-like
+bones, about two-thirds as long as the cannon
+bone, which gradually taper to their lower ends
+and bear no finger joints, or, as they are termed,
+phalanges. Sometimes, small bony or gristly
+nodules are to be found at the bases of these
+two metacarpal splints, and it is probable
+that these represent rudiments of the first
+and fifth toes. Thus, the part of the horse's
+skeleton, which corresponds with that of the
+human hand, contains one overgrown middle
+digit, and at least two imperfect lateral digits;
+and these answer, respectively, to the third,
+the second and the fourth fingers in man.</p>
+
+<p>Corresponding modifications are found in
+the hind limb. In ourselves, and in most quadrupeds,
+the leg contains two distinct bones,
+a large bone, the tibia, and a smaller and more
+slender bone, the fibula. But, in the horse,
+the fibula seems, at first, to be reduced to its
+upper end; a short slender bone united with
+the tibia and ending in a point below, occupying
+its place. Examination of the lower end of a
+young foal's shin-bone, however, shows a distinct
+portion of osseous matter, which is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>
+lower end of the fibula; so that the, apparently
+single, lower end of the shin-bone is really
+made up of the coalesced ends of the tibia
+and fibula, just as the, apparently single, lower
+end of the fore-arm bone is composed of the
+coalesced radius and ulna.</p>
+
+<p>The heel of the horse is the part commonly
+known as the hock. The hinder cannon bone
+answers to the middle metatarsal bone of the
+human foot, the pastern, coronary, and coffin
+bones, to the middle toe bones; the hind hoof
+to the nail; as in the fore-foot. And, as in the
+fore-foot, there are merely two splints to represent
+the second and the fourth toes. Sometimes
+a rudiment of a fifth toe appears to be traceable.</p>
+
+<p>The teeth of a horse are not less peculiar
+than its limbs. The living engine, like all others,
+must be well stoked if it is to do its work; and
+the horse, if it is to make good its wear and tear,
+and to exert the enormous amount of force
+required for its propulsion, must be well and
+rapidly fed. To this end good cutting instruments
+and powerful and lasting crushers are
+needful. Accordingly, the twelve cutting teeth
+of a horse are close-set and concentrated in the
+fore-part of its mouth, like so many adzes or
+chisels. The grinders or molars are large, and
+have an extremely complicated structure,
+being composed of a number of different
+substances of unequal hardness. The consequence
+of this is that they wear away at
+different rates; and, hence, the surface of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>
+each grinder is always as uneven as that of a
+good millstone.</p>
+
+<p>I have said that the structure of the grinding
+teeth is very complicated, the harder and the
+softer parts being, as it were, interlaced with
+one another. The result of this is that, as the
+tooth wears, the crown presents a peculiar
+pattern, the nature of which is not very easily
+deciphered at first, but which it is important
+we should understand clearly. Each grinding
+tooth of the upper jaw has an <i>outer wall</i> so
+shaped that, on the worn crown, it exhibits
+the form of two crescents, one in front and one
+behind, with their concave sides turned outwards.
+From the inner side of the front crescent,
+a crescentic <i>front ridge</i> passes inwards and
+backwards, and its inner face enlarges into a
+strong longitudinal fold or <i>pillar</i>. From the
+front part of the hinder crescent, a <i>back ridge</i>
+takes a like direction, and also has its <i>pillar</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The deep interspaces or <i>valleys</i> between these
+ridges and the outer wall are filled by bony
+substance, which is called <i>cement</i>, and coats the
+whole tooth.</p>
+
+<p>The pattern of the worn face of each grinding
+tooth of the lower jaw is quite different. It
+appears to be formed of two crescent-shaped
+ridges, the convexities of which are turned
+outwards. The free extremity of each crescent
+has a <i>pillar</i>, and there is a large double <i>pillar</i>
+where the two crescents meet. The whole
+structure is, as it were, imbedded in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+cement, which fills up the valleys, as in the
+upper grinders.</p>
+
+<p>If the grinding faces of an upper and of a
+lower molar of the same side are applied together,
+it will be seen that the opposed ridges
+are nowhere parallel, but that they frequently
+cross; and that thus, in the act of mastication,
+a hard surface in the one is constantly applied
+to a soft surface in the other, and <i>vice versa</i>.
+They thus constitute a grinding apparatus of
+great efficiency, and one which is repaired as
+fast as it wears, owing to the long-continued
+growth of the teeth.</p>
+
+<p>Some other peculiarities of the dentition of
+the horse must be noticed, as they bear upon
+what I shall have to say by and by. Thus the
+crowns of the cutting teeth have a peculiar
+deep pit, which gives rise to the well-known
+&ldquo;mark&rdquo; of the horse. There is a large space
+between the outer incisors and the front grinders.
+In this space the adult male horse
+presents, near the incisors on each side, above
+and below, a canine or &ldquo;tush,&rdquo; which is
+commonly absent in mares. In a young
+horse, moreover, there is not unfrequently
+to be seen, in front of the first grinder, a
+very small tooth, which soon falls out. If this
+small tooth be counted as one, it will be found
+that there are seven teeth behind the canine
+on each side; namely, the small tooth in
+question, and the six great grinders, among
+which, by an unusual peculiarity, the foremost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
+tooth is rather larger than those which
+follow it.</p>
+
+<p>I have now enumerated those characteristic
+structures of the horse which are of most importance
+for the purpose we have in view.</p>
+
+<p>To any one who is acquainted with the morphology
+[comparative forms] of vertebrated
+animals, they show that the horse deviates
+widely from the general structure of mammals;
+and that the horse type is, in many respects,
+an extreme modification of the general mammalian
+plan. The least modified mammals,
+in fact, have the radius and ulna, the tibia
+and fibula, distinct and separate. They have
+five distinct and complete digits on each foot,
+and no one of these digits is very much larger
+than the rest. Moreover, in the least modified
+mammals the total number of the teeth is very
+generally forty-four, while in horses the usual
+number is forty, and in the absence of the
+canines it may be reduced to thirty-six; the
+incisor teeth are devoid of the fold seen in those
+of the horse: the grinders regularly diminish
+in size from the middle of the series to its front
+end; while their crowns are short, early attain
+their full length, and exhibit simple ridges or
+tubercles, in place of the complex foldings of
+the horse's grinders.</p>
+
+<p>Hence the general principles of the hypothesis
+of evolution lead to the conclusion that the
+horse must have been derived from some quadruped
+which possessed five complete digits on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+each foot; which had the bones of the fore-arm
+and of the leg complete and separate; and
+which possessed forty-four teeth, among which
+the crowns of the incisors and grinders had a
+simple structure; while the latter gradually
+increased in size from before backwards, at any
+rate in the anterior part of the series, and had
+short crowns.</p>
+
+<p>And if the horse has been thus evolved, and
+the remains of the different stages of its evolution
+have been preserved, they ought to present
+us with a series of forms in which the number
+of the digits becomes reduced; the bones of the
+fore-arm and leg gradually take on the equine
+condition; and the form and arrangement of
+the teeth successively approximate to those
+which obtain in existing horses.</p>
+
+<p>Let us turn to the facts, and see how far they
+fulfil these requirements of the doctrine of evolution.</p>
+
+<p>In Europe abundant remains of horses are
+found in the Quaternary and later Tertiary
+strata as far as the Pliocene formation. But
+these horses, which are so common in the cave-deposits
+and in the gravels of Europe, are in
+all essential respects like existing horses. And
+that is true of all the horses of the latter part
+of the Pliocene epoch. But in deposits which
+belong to the earlier Pliocene and later Miocene
+epochs, and which occur in Britain, in France,
+in Germany, in Greece, in India, we find animals
+which are extremely like horses&mdash;which, in fact,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
+are so similar to horses that you may follow
+descriptions given in works upon the anatomy
+of the horse upon the skeletons of these animals&mdash;but
+which differ in some important particulars.
+For example, the structure of their fore
+and hind limbs is somewhat different. The
+bones which, in the horse, are represented by
+two splints, imperfect below, are as long as the
+middle metacarpal and metatarsal bones; and
+attached to the extremity of each is a digit
+with three joints of the same general character
+as those of the middle digit, only very much
+smaller. These small digits are so disposed
+that they could have had but very little functional
+importance, and they must have been
+rather of the nature of the dew-claws, such as
+are to be found in many ruminant animals.
+The <i>Hipparion</i>, as the extinct European three-toed
+horse is called, in fact, presents a foot similar
+to that of the American <i>Protohippus</i> (<a href="#Fig_9">Fig. 9</a>),
+except that in the <i>Hipparion</i> the smaller digits
+are situated farther back and are of smaller
+proportional size than in the <i>Protohippus</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The ulna is slightly more distinct than in the
+horse; and the whole length of it, as a very
+slender shaft intimately united with the radius,
+is completely traceable. The fibula appears to
+be in the same condition as in the horse. The
+teeth of the <i>Hipparion</i> are essentially similar
+to those of the horse, but the pattern of the
+grinders is in some respects a little more complex,
+and there is a depression on the face of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+the skull in front of the orbit, which is not seen
+in existing horses.</p>
+
+<p>In the earlier Miocene, and perhaps the later
+Eocene deposits of some parts of Europe, another
+extinct animal has been discovered, which Cuvier,
+who first described some fragments of it, considered
+to be a <i>Pal&aelig;otherium</i>. But as further
+discoveries threw new light on its structure, it
+was recognized as a distinct genus under the
+name of <i>Anchitherium</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In its general characters, the skeleton of <i>Anchitherium</i>
+is very similar to that of the horse. In
+fact, Lartet and De Blainville called it <i>Pal&aelig;otherium
+equinum</i> or <i>hippoides</i>; and De Christol,
+in 1847, said that it differed from <i>Hipparion</i> in
+little more than the characters of its teeth, and
+gave it the name of <i>Hipparitherium</i>. Each foot
+possesses three complete toes; while the lateral
+toes are much larger in proportion to the middle
+toe than in <i>Hipparion</i>, and doubtless rested on
+the ground in ordinary locomotion.</p>
+
+<p>The ulna is complete and quite distinct from
+that radius, though firmly united with the latter.
+The fibula seems also to have been complete.
+Its lower end, though intimately united with that
+of the tibia, is clearly marked off from the latter
+bone.</p>
+
+<p>There are forty-four teeth. The incisors have
+no strong pit. The canines seem to have been
+well developed in both sexes. The first of the
+seven grinders, which, as I have said, is frequently
+absent, and when it does exist, is small in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>
+horse, is a good-sized and permanent tooth, while
+the grinder which follows it is but little larger
+than the hinder ones. The crowns of the grinders
+are short, and though the fundamental pattern
+of the horse-tooth is discernible, the front and
+back ridges are less curved, the accessory pillars,
+are wanting, and the valleys, much shallower,
+are not filled up with cement.</p>
+
+<p>Seven years ago, when I happened to be looking
+critically into the bearing of pal&aelig;ontological
+facts upon the doctrine of evolution, it appeared
+to me that the <i>Anchitherium</i>, the <i>Hipparion</i>, and
+the modern horses, constitute a series in which
+the modifications of structure coincide with the
+order of chronological occurrence, in the manner
+in which they must coincide, if the modern horses
+really are the result of the gradual metamorphosis,
+in the course of the Tertiary epoch, of a less
+specialized ancestral form. And I found by correspondence
+with the late eminent French anatomist
+and pal&aelig;ontologist, M. Lartet, that he had arrived
+at the same conclusion from the same data.</p>
+
+<p>That the <i>Anchitherium</i> type had become metamorphosed
+into the <i>Hipparion</i> type, and the
+latter into the <i>Equine</i> type,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> in the course of that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>
+period of time which is represented by the latter
+half of the Tertiary deposits, seemed to me to be
+the only explanation of the facts for which there
+was even a shadow of probability.</p>
+
+<p>And, hence, I have ever since held that these
+facts afford evidence of the occurrence of evolution,
+which, in the sense already defined, may be
+termed demonstrative.</p>
+
+<p>All who have occupied themselves with the
+structure of <i>Anchitherium</i>, from Cuvier onwards,
+have acknowledged its many points of likeness to
+a well-known genus of extinct Eocene mammals,
+<i>Pal&aelig;otherium</i>. Indeed, as we have seen, Cuvier
+regarded his remains of <i>Anchitherium</i> as those
+of a species of <i>Pal&aelig;otherium</i>. Hence, in attempting
+to trace the pedigree of the horse beyond the
+Miocene epoch and the Anchitheroid form, I
+naturally sought among the various species of
+Pal&aelig;otheroid animals for its nearest ally, and I
+was led to the conclusion that the <i>Pal&aelig;otherium
+minus</i> (<i>Plagiolophus</i>) represented the next step
+more nearly than any form then known.</p>
+
+<p>I think that this opinion was fully justifiable;
+but the progress of investigation has thrown an
+unexpected light on the question, and has brought
+us much nearer than could have been anticipated
+to a knowledge of the true series of the progenitors
+of the horse.</p>
+
+<p>You are all aware that, when your country was
+first discovered by Europeans, there were no
+traces of the existence of the horse on any part of
+the American Continent. The accounts of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+conquest of Mexico dwell upon the astonishment
+of the natives of that country when they first
+became acquainted with that astounding phenomenon&mdash;a
+man seated upon a horse. Nevertheless,
+the investigations of American geologists
+have proved that the remains of horses occur in
+the most superficial deposits of both North and
+South America, just as they do in Europe.
+Therefore, for some reason or other&mdash;no feasible
+suggestion on that subject, so far as I know, has
+been made&mdash;the horse must have died out on
+this continent at some period preceding the discovery
+of America. Of late years there has been
+discovered in your Western Territories that marvellous
+accumulation of deposits, admirably
+adapted for the preservation of organic remains,
+to which I referred the other evening, and which
+furnishes us with a consecutive series of records
+of the fauna of the older half of the Tertiary
+epoch, for which we have no parallel in Europe.
+They have yielded fossils in an excellent state of
+conservation and in unexampled numbers and
+variety. The researches of Leidy and others
+have shown that forms allied to the <i>Hipparion</i>
+and the <i>Anchitherium</i> are to be found among these
+remains. But it is only recently that the admirably
+conceived and most thoroughly and
+patiently worked-out investigations of Professor
+Marsh have given us a just idea of the vast fossil
+wealth, and of the scientific importance, of these
+deposits. I have had the advantage of glancing
+over the collections in Yale Museum; and I can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+truly say, that so far as my knowledge extends,
+there is no collection from any one region and
+series of strata comparable, for extent, or for the
+care with which the remains have been got together,
+or for their scientific importance, to the
+series of fossils which he has deposited there.
+This vast collection has yielded evidence bearing
+upon the question of the pedigree of the horse of
+the most striking character. It tends to show
+that we must look to America, rather than to
+Europe, for the original seat of the equine series;
+and that the archaic forms and successive modifications
+of the horse's ancestry are far better preserved
+here than in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Marsh's kindness has enabled me
+to put before you a diagram, every figure of
+which is an actual representation of some specimen
+which is to be seen at Yale at this present
+time (<a href="#Fig_9">Fig. 9</a>).</p>
+
+<p>The succession of forms which he has brought
+together carries us from the top to the bottom
+of the Tertiaries. Firstly, there is the true horse.
+Next we have the American Pliocene form of
+the horse (<i>Pliohippus</i>); in the conformation of
+its limbs it presents some very slight deviations
+from the ordinary horse, and the crowns of the
+grinding teeth are shorter. Then comes the
+<i>Protohippus</i>, which represents the European
+<i>Hipparion</i>, having one large digit and two small
+ones on each foot, and the general characters of
+the fore-arm and leg to which I have referred.
+But it is more valuable than the European <i>Hipparion</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
+for the reason that it is devoid of some of
+the peculiarities of that form&mdash;peculiarities which
+tend to show that the European <i>Hipparion</i> is
+rather a member of a collateral branch, than a
+form in the direct line of succession. Next, in
+the backward order in time, is the <i>Miohippus</i>,
+which corresponds pretty nearly with the <i>Anchitherium</i>
+of Europe. It presents three complete
+toes&mdash;one large median and two smaller
+lateral ones; and there is a rudiment of that
+digit, which answers to the little finger of the
+human hand.</p>
+
+<p>The European record of the pedigree of the
+horse stops here; in the American Tertiaries, on
+the contrary, the series of ancestral equine forms
+is continued into the Eocene formations. An
+older Miocene form, termed <i>Mesohippus</i>, has
+three toes in front, with a large splint-like rudiment
+representing the little finger; and three toes
+behind. The radius and ulna, the tibia and the
+fibula, are distinct, and the short crowned molar
+teeth are anchitheroid in pattern.</p>
+
+<p>But the most important discovery of all is
+the <i>Orohippus</i>, which comes from the Eocene formation,
+and which is the oldest member of the
+equine series, as yet known. Here we find four
+complete toes on the front-limb, three toes on
+the hind-limb, a well-developed ulna, a well-developed
+fibula, and short-crowned grinders of
+simple pattern.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, thanks to these important researches, it
+has become evident that, so far as our present<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>
+knowledge extends, the history of the horse-type
+is exactly and precisely that which could have
+been predicted from a knowledge of the principles
+of evolution. And the knowledge we now possess
+justifies us completely in the anticipation,
+that when the still lower Eocene deposits, and
+those which belong to the Cretaceous epoch, have
+yielded up their remains of ancestral equine
+animals, we shall find, first, a form with four complete
+toes and a rudiment of the innermost or
+first digit in front, with probably, a rudiment of
+the fifth digit in the hind foot;<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> while, in still
+older forms, the series of the digits will be more
+and more complete, until we come to the five-toed
+animals, in which, if the doctrine of evolution
+is well founded, the whole series must have
+taken its origin.</p>
+
+<p>That is what I mean by demonstrative evidence
+of evolution. An inductive hypothesis is
+said to be demonstrated when the facts are shown
+to be in entire accordance with it. If that is not
+scientific proof, there are no merely inductive
+conclusions which can be said to be proved. And
+the doctrine of evolution, at the present time,
+rests upon exactly as secure a foundation as the
+Copernican theory of the motions of the heavenly
+bodies did at the time of its promulgation. Its
+logical basis is precisely of the same character&mdash;the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
+coincidence of the observed facts with theoretical
+requirements.</p>
+
+<p>The only way of escape, if it be a way of escape,
+from the conclusions which I have just indicated,
+is the supposition that all these different equine
+forms have been created separately at separate
+epochs of time; and, I repeat, that of such an
+hypothesis as this there neither is, nor can be,
+any scientific evidence; and, assuredly, so far as
+I know, there is none which is supported, or pretends
+to be supported, by evidence or authority
+of any other kind. I can but think that the time
+will come when such suggestions as these, such
+obvious attempts to escape the force of demonstration,
+will be put upon the same footing as
+the supposition made by some writers, who are, I
+believe, not completely extinct at present, that
+fossils are mere simulacra [images], are no indications
+of the former existence of the animals to
+which they seem to belong; but that they are
+either sports of Nature, or special creations, intended&mdash;as
+I heard suggested the other day&mdash;to
+test our faith.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, the whole evidence is in favour of evolution,
+and there is none against it. And I say
+this, although perfectly well aware of the seeming
+difficulties which have been built up upon what
+appears to the uninformed to be a solid foundation.
+I meet constantly with the argument that
+the doctrine of evolution cannot be well founded
+because it requires the lapse of a very vast period
+of time; while the duration of life upon the earth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+thus implied, is inconsistent with the conclusions
+arrived at by the astronomer and the physicist.
+I may venture to say that I am familiar with
+those conclusions, inasmuch as some years ago,
+when president of the Geological Society of London,
+I took the liberty of criticising them, and of
+showing in what respects, as it appeared to me,
+they lacked complete and thorough demonstration.
+But, putting that point aside, suppose
+that, as the astronomers, or some of them, and
+some physical philosophers tell us, it is impossible
+that life could have endured upon the earth for
+so long a period as is required by the doctrine of
+evolution&mdash;supposing that to be proved&mdash;I desire
+to be informed, what is the foundation for the
+statement that evolution does require so great a
+time? The biologist knows nothing whatever of
+the amount of time which may be required for
+the process of evolution. It is a matter of fact
+that the equine forms, which I have described to
+you, occur, in the order stated, in the Tertiary
+formations. But I have not the slightest means
+of guessing whether it took a million of years, or
+ten millions, or a hundred millions, or a thousand
+millions of years, to give rise to that series of
+changes. A biologist has no means of arriving
+at any conclusions as to the amount of time which
+may be needed for a certain quantity of organic
+change. He takes his time from the geologist.
+The geologist, considering the rate at which
+deposits are formed and the rate at which denudation
+goes on upon the surface of the earth, arrives<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+at more or less justifiable conclusions as to
+the time which is required for the deposit of a
+certain thickness of rocks; and if he tells me that
+the Tertiary formations required 500,000,000
+years for their deposit, I suppose he has good
+ground for what he says, and I take that as a
+measure of the duration of the evolution of the
+horse from the <i>Orohippus</i> up to its present condition.
+And, if he is right, undoubtedly evolution
+is a very slow process, and requires a great
+deal of time. But suppose now, that an astronomer
+or a physicist&mdash;for instance, my friend Sir
+William Thomson&mdash;tells me that my geological
+authority is quite wrong; and that he has weighty
+evidence to show that life could not possibly have
+existed upon the surface of the earth 500,000,000
+years ago, because the earth would have then been
+too hot to allow of life, my reply is: &ldquo;That is not
+my affair; settle that with the geologist, and when
+you have come to an agreement among yourselves
+I will adopt your conclusions.&rdquo; We take
+our time from the geologists and physicists, and
+it is monstrous that, having taken our time
+from the physical philosopher's clock, the physical
+philosopher should turn round upon us, and
+say we are too fast or too slow. What we desire
+to know is, is it a fact that evolution took place?
+As to the amount of time which evolution may
+have occupied, we are in the hands of the physicist
+and the astronomer, whose business it is
+to deal with those questions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+
+<a name="Fig_9" id="Fig_9"></a>
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Figure 9">
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td>Fore Foot.&nbsp;&nbsp;Hind Foot.&nbsp;&nbsp;Fore-arm.&nbsp;&nbsp;Leg.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Upper Molar.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Lower Molar.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>RECENT.<br /><small>EQUUS.</small></td>
+<td><img src="images/il136a.png" width="500" height="168" alt="Fore Foot" title="" /></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>PLIOCENE.<br /><small>PLIOHIPPUS.</small></td>
+<td><img src="images/il136b.png" width="500" height="175" alt="Fore Foot" title="" /></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>PROTOHIPPUS<br /><small>(<i>Hipparion</i>).</small></td>
+<td><img src="images/il136c.png" width="500" height="162" alt="Fore Foot" title="" /></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>MIOCENE.<br /><small>MIOHIPPUS</small><br /><small>(<i>Anchitherium</i>).</small></td>
+<td><img src="images/il136d.png" width="500" height="162" alt="Fore Foot" title="" /></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>MESOHIPPUS.</td>
+<td><img src="images/il136e.png" width="500" height="152" alt="Fore Foot" title="" /></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>EOCENE.<br /><small>OROHIPPUS.</small></td>
+<td><img src="images/il136f.png" width="500" height="162" alt="Fore Foot" title="" /></td>
+</tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<br />
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> I use the word &ldquo;type&rdquo; because it is highly probable
+that many of the forms of <i>Anchitherium</i>-like and <i>Hipparion</i>-like
+animals existed in the Miocene and Pliocene epochs,
+just as many species of the horse tribe exist now; and it is
+highly improbable that the particular species of <i>Anchitherium</i>
+or <i>Hipparion</i>, which happen to have been discovered, should
+be precisely those which have formed part of the direct line
+of the horse's pedigree.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Since this lecture was delivered, Professor Marsh has
+discovered a new genus of equine mammals (<i>Eohippus</i>)
+from the lowest Eocene deposits of the West, which corresponds
+very nearly to this description.&mdash;<i>American Journal
+of Science</i>, November, 1876.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h2><a name="FIGHTING_PESTS_WITH_INSECT_ALLIES" id="FIGHTING_PESTS_WITH_INSECT_ALLIES"></a>FIGHTING PESTS WITH INSECT ALLIES</h2>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h3><span class="smcap">Leland O. Howard</span></h3>
+
+<div class="noteb"><p>[Dr. Howard is Chief of the Division of Entomology in
+the United States Department of Agriculture at Washington.
+He is a lecturer at Swarthmore College and at Georgetown
+University. He has written &ldquo;The Insect Book,&rdquo; published
+by Doubleday, Page &amp; Co., New York; and a work on Mosquitoes,
+issued by McClure, Phillips &amp; Co., New York. Both
+are books of interest from the hand of a master: they are
+fully illustrated. The narrative which follows appeared
+in <i>Everybody's Magazine</i>, June, 1901.]</p></div>
+
+
+<p>Some twenty-five years ago there appeared
+suddenly upon certain acacia trees at Menlo
+Park, California, a very destructive scale bug.
+It rapidly increased and spread from tree to
+tree, attacking apples, figs, pomegranates,
+quinces, and roses, and many other trees and
+plants, but seeming to prefer to all other food
+the beautiful orange and lemon trees which
+grow so luxuriantly on the Pacific Coast, and
+from which a large share of the income of so
+many fruit-growers is gained. This insect,
+which came to be known as the <i>white scale</i> or
+<i>fluted scale</i> or the <i>Icerya</i> (from its scientific
+name), was an insignificant creature in itself,
+resembling a small bit of fluted wax a little
+more than a quarter of an inch long. But when
+the scales had once taken possession of a tree,
+they swarmed over it until the bark was hidden;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+they sucked its sap through their minute beaks
+until the plant became so feeble that the
+leaves and young fruit dropped off, a hideous
+black smut-fungus crept over the young twigs,
+and the weakened tree gradually died.</p>
+
+<p>In this way orchard after orchard of oranges,
+worth a thousand dollars or more an acre, was
+utterly destroyed; the best fruit-growing sections
+of the State were invaded, and ruin stared
+many a fruit-grower in the face. This spread
+of the pest was gradual, extending through a
+series of years, and not until 1886 did it become
+so serious a matter as to attract national attention.</p>
+
+<p>In this year an investigation was begun by
+the late Professor C. V. Riley, the Government
+entomologist then connected with the Department
+of Agriculture at Washington. He sent
+two agents to California, both of whom immediately
+began to study the problem of remedies.
+In 1887 he visited California himself,
+and during that year published an elaborate
+report giving the results of the work up to that
+point. The complete life-history of the insect
+had been worked out, and a number of washes
+had been discovered which could be applied
+to the trees in the form of a spray, and which
+would kill a large proportion of the pests at a
+comparatively small expense. But it was soon
+found that the average fruit-grower would not
+take the trouble to spray his trees, largely from
+the fact that he had experimented for some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>
+years with inferior washes and quack nostrums,
+and from lack of success had become disgusted
+with the whole idea of using liquid compounds.
+Something easier, something more radical was
+necessary in his disheartened condition.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, after much sifting of evidence and
+much correspondence with naturalists in many
+parts of the world, Professor Riley had decided
+that the white scale was a native of Australia,
+and had been first brought over to California
+accidentally upon Australian plants. In the
+same way it was found to have reached South
+Africa and New Zealand, in both of which
+colonies it had greatly increased, and had
+become just such a pest as it is in California.
+In Australia, however, its native home, it did
+not seem to be abundant, and was not known
+as a pest&mdash;a somewhat surprising state of affairs,
+which put the entomologist on the track of
+the results which proved of such great value
+to California. He reasoned that, in his native
+home, with the same food plants upon which
+it flourished abroad in such great abundance,
+it would undoubtedly do the same damage
+that it does in South Africa, New Zealand,
+and California, if there were not in Australia
+some natural enemy, probable some insect
+parasite or predatory beetle, which killed it off.
+It became therefore important to send a trained
+man to Australia to investigate this promising
+line.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 255px;">
+<img src="images/il140.png" width="255" height="300" alt="Vedalia, or Australian Ladybird" title="Vedalia, or Australian Ladybird" />
+<span class="caption">Vedalia, or<br />Australian<br />Ladybird</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>After many difficulties in arranging preliminaries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+relating to the payment of expenses (in
+which finally the Department of State kindly
+assisted), one of Professor Riley's assistants,
+a young German named Albert Koebele, who
+had been with him for a number of years,
+sailed for Australia in August, 1888. Koebele
+was a skilled collector and an admirable
+man for the purpose. He at once found that
+Professor Riley's supposition was correct:
+there existed in Australia small flies which laid
+their eggs in the white scales,
+and these eggs hatched into
+grubs which devoured the pests.
+He also found a remarkable little
+ladybird, a small, reddish-brown
+convex beetle, which breeds
+with marvellous rapidity and
+which, with voracious appetite,
+and at the same time with discriminating
+taste, devours scale
+after scale, but eats fluted scales only&mdash;does not
+attack other insects. This beneficial creature,
+now known as the Australian ladybird, or the
+Vedalia, Mr. Koebele at once began to collect
+in large numbers, together with several other
+insects found doing the same work. He packed
+many hundreds of living specimens of the ladybird,
+with plenty of food, in tin boxes, and had
+them placed on ice in the ice-box of the steamer
+at Sydney; they were carried carefully to California,
+where they were liberated upon orange
+trees at Los Angeles.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>These sendings were repeated for several
+months, and Mr. Koebele, on his return in April,
+1889, brought with him many more living
+specimens which he had collected on his way
+home in New Zealand, where the same Vedalia
+had been accidentally introduced a year or so
+before.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 228px;">
+<img src="images/il141.png" width="228" height="300" alt="Larv&aelig; of Vedalia
+eating White Scale" title="Larv&aelig; of Vedalia eating White Scale" />
+<span class="caption">Larv&aelig; of Vedalia<br /> eating White Scale</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The result more than justified the most sanguine
+expectations. The ladybirds reached
+Los Angeles alive, and,
+with appetites sharpened
+by their long ocean voyage,
+immediately fell upon
+the devoted scales and devoured
+them one after another
+almost without rest.
+Their hunger temporarily
+satisfied, they began to lay
+eggs. These eggs hatched
+in a few days into active
+grub-like creatures&mdash;the
+larv&aelig; of the beetles&mdash;and
+these grubs proved as
+voracious as their parents. They devoured
+the scales right and left, and in less than a
+month transformed once more to beetles.</p>
+
+<p>And so the work of extermination went on.
+Each female beetle laid on an average 300
+eggs, and each of these eggs hatched into a
+hungry larva. Supposing that one-half of these
+larv&aelig; produced female beetles, a simple calculation
+will show that in six months a single<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
+ladybird became the ancestor of 75,000,000,000
+of other ladybirds, each capable of destroying
+very many scale insects.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 83px;">
+<img src="images/il142.png" width="63" height="300" alt="Twig of olive
+infected with Black Scale" title="Twig of olive infected with Black Scale" />
+<span class="caption">Twig of olive<br />
+infected with<br />
+Black Scale</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Is it any wonder, then, that the fluted scales
+soon began to disappear? Is it any wonder
+that orchard after orchard was
+entirely freed from the pest, until
+now over a large section of the
+State hardly an Icerya is to be
+found? And could a more striking
+illustration of the value of the
+study of insects possibly be instanced?
+In less than a year
+from the time when the first of
+these hungry Australians was
+liberated from his box in Los
+Angeles the orange trees were once
+more in bloom and were resuming
+their old-time verdure&mdash;the Icerya
+had become practically a thing of
+the past.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 257px;">
+<img src="images/il143.png" width="257" height="300" alt="Rhizobius, the imported enemy of the Black Scale
+of the Olive." title="Rhizobius, the imported enemy of the Black Scale of the Olive." />
+<span class="caption">Rhizobius, the imported<br />
+enemy of the Black Scale<br />
+of the Olive.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>This wonderful success encouraged
+other efforts in the same
+direction. The State of California
+some years later sent the same
+entomologist, Koebele, to Australia
+to search for some insect
+enemy of the black scale, an insect
+which threatened the destruction of the extensive
+olive orchards of California. He found
+and successfully introduced another ladybird
+beetle, known as <i>Rhizobius ventralis</i>, a little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>
+dark-coloured creature which has thrived in the
+California climate, especially near the seacoast,
+and in the damp air of those regions has successfully
+held the black scale in check. It was
+found, however, that back from the seacoast
+this insect did not seem to thrive with the
+same vigor, and the black scale held its own.
+Then a spirited controversy sprung up among the
+olive-growers, those near
+the seacoast contending
+that the <i>Rhizobius</i> was
+a perfect remedy for the
+scale, while those inland
+insisted that it was
+worthless. A few years
+later it was discovered
+that this olive enemy
+in South Europe is killed
+by a little caterpillar,
+which burrows through
+scale after scale eating
+out their contents, and
+an effort was made to introduce the caterpillar
+into California, but these efforts failed.
+Within the past two years it has been found
+that a small parasitic fly exists in South
+Africa which lays its eggs in the same black
+scale, and its grub-like larv&aelig; eat out the bodies
+of the scales and destroy them. The climate of
+the region in which this parasite exists is dry
+through a large part of the year, and therefore
+this little parasitic fly, known as <i>Scutellista</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>
+was thought to be the needed insect for the
+dry California regions. With the help of Mr.
+C. P. Lounsbury, the Government entomologist
+of Cape Colony, living specimens of this fly
+were brought to this country, and were colonized
+in the Santa Clara Valley, near San Jos&eacute;, California,
+where they have perpetuated themselves
+and destroyed many of the black scales,
+and promise to be most successful in their
+warfare against the injurious insect.</p>
+
+<p>This same <i>Scutellista</i> parasite had, curiously
+enough, been previously introduced in an accidental
+manner into Italy, probably from India,
+and probably in scale-insects living on ornamental
+plants brought from India. But in
+Italy it lives commonly in another scale insect,
+and with the assistance of the learned Italian,
+Professor Antonio Berlese, the writer made an unsuccessful
+attempt to introduce and establish it a
+year earlier in some of our Southern States, where
+it was hoped it would destroy certain injurious
+insects known as &ldquo;wax scales.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the United States, not content
+with keeping all the good things to herself,
+has spread the first ladybird imported&mdash;the
+<i>Vedalia</i>&mdash;to other countries. Four years ago
+the white scale was present in enormous numbers
+in orange groves on the left bank of the
+river Tagus, in Portugal, and threatened to wipe
+out the orange-growing industry in that country.
+The California people, in pursuance of a far-sighted
+policy, had with great difficulty, owing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+to lack of food, kept alive some colonies of the
+beneficial beetle, and specimens were sent to
+Portugal which reached there alive and flourishing.
+They were tended for a short time,
+and then liberated in the orange groves, with
+precisely the same result as in California. In
+a few months the scale insects were almost
+entirely destroyed, and the Portuguese orange-growers
+saved from enormous loss.</p>
+
+<p>This good result in Portugal was not accomplished
+without opposition. It was tried
+experimentally at the advice of the writer,
+and in the face of great incredulity on the part
+of certain Portuguese newspapers and of some
+officials. By many prominent persons the
+account published of the work of the insect
+in the United States was considered as untrustworthy,
+and simply another instance of
+American boasting. But the opposition
+was overruled, and the triumphant result
+silenced all opposition. It is safe to say that
+the general opinion among Portuguese orange-growers
+to-day is very favourable to American
+enterprise and practical scientific acumen.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Vedalia</i> was earlier sent to the people
+in Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt, where a similar
+scale was damaging the fig trees and other
+valuable plants, and the result was again the
+same, the injurious insects were destroyed.
+This was achieved only after extensive correspondence
+and several failures. The active
+agent in Alexandria was Rear Admiral Blomfield,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+of the British Royal Navy, a man apparently
+of wide information, good judgment, and
+great energy.</p>
+
+<p>The same thing occurred when the California
+people sent this saviour of horticulture to South
+Africa, where the white scale had also made
+its appearance.</p>
+
+<p>It is not only beneficial insects, however,
+which are being imported, but diseases of injurious
+insects. In South Africa the colonists
+suffer severely from swarms of migratory grasshoppers,
+which fly from the north and destroy
+their crops. They have discovered out there a
+fungus disease, which under favorable conditions
+kills off the grasshoppers in enormous
+numbers. At the Bacteriological Institute in
+Grahamstown, Natal, they have cultivated this
+fungus in culture tubes, and have carried it
+successfully throughout the whole year; and they
+have used it practically by distributing these
+culture tubes wherever swarms of grasshoppers
+settle and lay their eggs. The disease, once
+started in an army of young grasshoppers,
+soon reduces them to harmless numbers. The
+United States Government last year secured
+culture tubes of this disease, and experiments
+carried on in Colorado and in Mississippi show
+that the vitality of the fungus had not been
+destroyed by its long ocean voyage, and many
+grasshoppers were killed by its spread. During
+the past winter other cultures were brought over
+from Cape Colony, and the fungus is being propagated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
+in the Department of Agriculture for
+distribution during the coming summer in parts
+of the country where grasshoppers may prove
+to be destructively abundant.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 320px;">
+<img src="images/il147.png" width="320" height="500" alt="Grasshopper dying from Fungus Disease" title="Grasshopper dying from Fungus Disease" />
+<span class="caption">Grasshopper dying from Fungus Disease</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Although we practically no longer have those
+tremendous swarms of migratory grasshoppers
+which used to come down like devastating
+armies in certain of our Western States and in
+a night devour everything green, still, almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>
+every year, and especially in the West and
+South, there is somewhere a multiplication of
+grasshoppers to a very injurious degree, and
+it is hoped that the introduced fungus can be
+used in such cases.</p>
+
+<p>Persons officially engaged in searching for
+remedies for injurious insects all over the world
+have banded themselves together in a society
+known as the Association of Economic Entomologists.
+They are constantly interchanging
+ideas regarding the destruction of insects, and
+at present active movements are on foot in this
+direction of interchanging beneficial insects.
+Entomologists in Europe will try the coming
+summer to send to the United States living
+specimens of a tree-inhabiting beetle which
+eats the caterpillar of the gipsy moth, and
+which will undoubtedly also eat the caterpillar
+so common upon the shade-trees of our principal
+Eastern cities, which is known as the
+Tussock moth caterpillar. An entomologist
+from the United States, Mr. C. L. Marlatt, has
+started for Japan, China, and Java, for the
+purpose of trying to find the original home of
+the famous San Jos&eacute; scale&mdash;an insect which has
+been doing enormous damage in the apple,
+pear, peach, and plum orchards of the United
+States&mdash;and if he finds the original home of
+this scale, it is hoped that some natural enemy
+or parasite will be discovered which can be
+introduced into the United States to the advantage
+of our fruit-growers. Professor Berlese<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>
+of Italy, and Dr. Reh, of Germany, will attempt
+the introduction into Europe of some of the
+parasites of injurious insects which occur in
+the United States, and particularly those of
+the woolly root-louse of the apple, known in
+Europe as the &ldquo;American blight&rdquo;&mdash;one of the
+few injurious insects which probably went to
+Europe from this country, and which in the
+United States is not so injurious as it is in
+Europe.</p>
+
+<p>It is a curious fact, by the way, that while
+we have had most of our very injurious insects
+from Europe, American insects, when accidentally
+introduced into Europe, do not seem to
+thrive. The insect just mentioned, and the
+famous grape-vine <i>Phylloxera</i>, a creature which
+caused France a greater economic loss than the
+enormous indemnity which she had to pay to
+Germany after the Franco-Prussian War, are
+practically the only American insects with
+which we have been able to repay Europe for
+the insects which she has sent us. Climatic
+differences, no doubt, account for this strange
+fact, and our longer and warmer summers are
+the principal factor.</p>
+
+<p>It is not alone the parasitic and predaceous
+insects which are beneficial. A new industry
+has been brought into the United States during
+the past two years by the introduction and
+acclimatization of the little insect which fertilizes
+the Smyrna fig in Mediterranean countries.
+The dried-fig industry in this country has never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
+amounted to anything. The Smyrna fig has
+controlled the dried-fig markets of the world,
+but in California the Smyrna fig has never held
+its fruit, the young figs dropping from the trees
+without ripening. It was found that in Mediterranean
+regions a little insect, known as the
+<i>Blastophaga</i>, fertilizes the flowers of the Smyrna
+fig with pollen from the wild fig which it inhabits.
+The United States Department of
+Agriculture in the spring of 1899 imported
+successfully some of these insects through one
+of its travelling agents, Mr. W. T. Swingle, and
+the insect was successfully established at
+Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley. A far-sighted
+fruit-grower, Mr. George C. Roeding,
+of Fresno, had planted some years previously
+an orchard of 5,000 Smyrna fig trees and wild
+fig trees, and his place was the one chosen for
+the successful experiment. The little insect
+multiplied with astonishing rapidity, was carried
+successfully through the winter of 1899-1900,
+and in the summer of 1900 was present in such
+great numbers that it fertilized thousands of
+figs, and fifteen tons of them ripened. When
+these figs were dried and packed it was discovered
+that they were superior to the best imported figs.
+They contained more sugar and were of a finer
+flavor than those brought from Smyrna and
+Algeria. The <i>Blastophaga</i> has come to stay,
+and the prospects for a new and important
+industry are assured.</p>
+
+<p>With all these experiments the criticism is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
+constantly made that unwittingly new and serious
+enemies to agriculture may be introduced.
+The unfortunate introduction of the English
+sparrow into this country is mentioned, and
+the equally unfortunate introduction of the
+East Indian mongoose into the West Indies as
+well. The fear is expressed that the beneficial
+parasitic insects, after they have destroyed the
+injurious insects, will either themselves attack
+valuable crops or do something else of an equally
+harmful nature. But there is no reason for such
+alarm. The English sparrow feeds on all sorts
+of things, and the East Indian mongoose, while
+it was introduced into Jamaica to kill snakes,
+was found, too late, to be also a very general
+feeder. As a matter of fact, after the snakes
+were destroyed, and even before, it attacked
+young pigs, kids, lambs, calves, puppies, and
+kittens, and also destroyed bananas, pineapples,
+corn, sweet potatoes, cocoanuts, peas,
+sugar corn, meat, and salt provisions and fish.
+But with the parasitic and predatory insects
+the food habits are definite and fixed. They
+can live on nothing but their natural food,
+and in its absence they die. The Australian
+ladybird originally imported, for example, will
+feed upon nothing but scale insects of a particular
+genus, and, as a matter of fact, as soon
+as the fluted scales became scarce the California
+officials had the greatest difficulty in keeping
+the little beetles alive, and were actually
+obliged to cultivate for food the very insects<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>
+which they were formerly so anxious to wipe
+out of existence! With the <i>Scutellista</i> parasite
+the same fact holds. The fly itself does not feed,
+and its young feed only upon certain scale
+insects, and so with all the rest.</p>
+
+<p>All of these experiments are being carried
+on by men learned in the ways of insects, and
+only beneficial results, or at the very least
+negative ones, can follow. And even where only
+one such experiment out of a hundred is
+successful, what a saving it will mean!</p>
+
+<p>We do not expect the time to come when
+the farmer, finding Hessian fly in his wheat,
+will have only to telegraph the nearest experiment
+station, &ldquo;Send at once two dozen first-class
+parasites;&rdquo; but in many cases, and with a
+number of different kinds of injurious insects,
+especially those introduced from foreign countries,
+it is probable that we can gain much relief by the
+introduction of their natural enemies from their
+original home.</p>
+
+
+<h2><a name="THE_STRANGE_STORY_OF_THE" id="THE_STRANGE_STORY_OF_THE"></a>THE STRANGE STORY OF THE<br />
+FLOWERS</h2>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h3><span class="smcap">George Iles</span></h3>
+
+<div class="noteb"><p>[From &ldquo;The Wild Flowers of America,&rdquo; copyright by
+G. H. Buek &amp; Co., New York, 1894, by their kind permission.
+The American edition is out of print: the Canadian edition,
+&ldquo;Wild Flowers of Canada,&rdquo; is published by Graham &amp; Co.,
+Montreal, Canada. The work describes and illustrates in
+their natural tints nearly three hundred beautiful flowers.]</p></div>
+
+
+<p>Imagine a Venetian doge, a French crusader,
+a courtier of the time of the second Charles,
+an Ojibway chief, a Justice of the Supreme
+Court, in the formal black of evening dress,
+and how much each of them would lose! Where
+there is beauty, strength or dignity, dress can
+heighten it; where all these are lacking, their
+absence is kept out of mind by raiment in itself
+worthy to be admired. If dress artificial has
+told for much in the history of human-kind,
+dress natural has told for yet more in the lesser
+world of plant and insect life. In some degree
+the tiny folk that reign in the air, like ourselves,
+are drawn by grace of form, by charm of colour;
+of elaborate display of their attractions moths,
+butterflies and beetles are just as fond as any
+belles of the ball-room. Now let us bear in
+mind that of all the creatures that share the
+earth with man, the one that stands next to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
+him in intelligence is neither a biped nor a
+quadruped, but that king of the insect tribe,
+the ant, which can be a herdsman and warehouse-keeper,
+an engineer and builder, an
+explorer and a general. With all his varied
+powers the ant lacks a peculiarity in his costume
+which has denied him enlistment in a task of
+revolution in which creatures far his inferiors
+have been able to change the face of the earth.
+And the marvel of this peculiarity of garb
+which has meant so much, is that it consists
+in no detail of graceful outline, or beauty of
+tint, but solely in the minor matter of texture.
+The ant, warrior that he is, wears smooth and
+shining armour; the bee, the moth and the
+butterfly are clad in downy vesture, and simply
+because thus enabled to catch dust on their
+clothes these insects, as weavers of the web of
+life, have counted for immensely more than
+the ant with all his brains and character. To
+understand the mighty train of consequences
+set in motion by this mere shagginess of coat,
+let us remember that, like a human babe, every
+flowering plant has two parents. These two
+parents, though a county's breadth divide
+them, are wedded the instant that pollen from
+the anther of one of them meets the stigma of
+the other. Many flowers find their mates upon
+their own stem; but, as in the races of animals,
+too close intermarriage is hurtful, and union
+with a distant stock promotes both health and
+vigor. Hence the great gain which has come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>
+to plants by engaging the wind as their matchmaker&mdash;as
+every summer shows us in its pollen-laden
+air, the oaks, the pines, the cottonwoods,
+and a host of other plants commit to the breeze
+the winged atoms charged with the continuance
+of their kind. Nevertheless, long as the wind
+has been employed at this work, it has not yet
+learned to do it well; nearly all the pollen entrusted
+to it is wasted, and this while its production
+draws severely upon the strength of a
+plant. As good fortune will have it, a great
+many flowers close to their pollen yield an ample
+supply of nectar: a food esteemed delicious by
+the whole round of insects, winged and wingless.
+While ants might sip this nectar of ages
+without plants being any the better or the worse;
+a very different result has followed upon the visits
+of bees, wasps, and other hairy-coated callers.
+These, as they devour nectar, dust themselves
+with the pollen near by. Yellowed or whitened
+with this freightage, moth and butterfly, as
+they sail through the air, know not that they
+are publishing the banns of marriage between
+two blossoms acres or, it may be, miles apart.
+Yet so it is. Alighting on a new flower the
+insect rubs a pollen grain on a stigma ready
+to receive it, and lo! the rites of matrimony
+are solemnized then and there. Unwittingly
+the little visitor has wrought a task bigger
+with fate than many an act loudly trumpeted
+among the mightiest deeds of men! On the
+threshold of a Lady's Slipper a bee may often be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
+detected in the act of entrance. In the Sage-flower
+he finds an anther of the stamen which,
+pivoted on its spring, dusts him even more
+effectually.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/il156.png" width="500" height="293" alt="Sage-flower and Bee" title="Sage-flower and Bee" />
+<span class="caption">Sage-flower and Bee</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Bountifully to spread a table is much, but
+not enough, for without invitation how can
+hospitality be dispensed? To the feast of nectar
+the blossoms join their bidding; and those most
+conspicuously borne and massed, gayest of
+hue, richest in odor, secure most guests, and
+are therefore most likely to transmit to their
+kind their own excellences as hosts and entertainers.
+Thus all the glories of the blossoms
+have arisen in doing useful work; their beauty
+is not mere ornament, but the sign and token
+of duty well performed. Our opportunity to
+admire the radiancy and perfume of a jessamine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
+or a pond-lily is due to the previous admiration
+of uncounted winged attendants. If a winsome
+maid adorns herself with a wreath from the
+garden, and carries a posy gathered at the
+brookside, it is for the second time that their
+charms are impressed into service; for the
+flowers' own ends of attraction all their scent
+and loveliness were called into being long before.</p>
+
+<p>Let us put flowers of the blue flag beside those
+of the maple, and we shall have a fair contrast
+between the brilliancy of blossoms whose marrier
+has been an insect, and the dinginess of
+flowers indebted to the services of the wind.
+Can it be that both kinds of flowers are descended
+from forms resembling each other in want of
+grace and colour? Such, indeed, is the truth.
+But how, as the generations of the flowers
+succeeded one another, did differences so striking
+come about? In our rambles afield let us
+seek a clue to the mystery. It is late in springtime,
+and near the border of a bit of swamp
+we notice a clump of violets: they are pale of
+hue, and every stalk of them rises to an almost
+weedy height.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 313px;">
+<img src="images/il158.png" width="313" height="500" alt="Wild Rose, Single" title="Wild Rose, Single" />
+<span class="caption">Wild Rose, Single</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Twenty paces away, on a knoll of dry ground,
+we find more violets, but these are in much
+deeper tints of azure and yellow, while their
+stalks are scarcely more than half as tall as
+their brethren near the swamp. Six weeks pass
+by. This time we walk to a wood-lot close to a
+brimming pond. At its edge are more than a
+score wild-rose bushes. On the very first of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+them we see that some of the blossoms are a
+light pink, others a pink so deep as to seem
+dashed with vivid red. And while a flower here
+and there is decidedly larger and more vigorous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
+than its fellows, a few of the blossoms are
+undersized and puny: the tide of life flows high
+and merrily in a fortunate rose or two, it seems
+to ebb and falter by the time it reaches one or
+two of their unhappy mates. As we search
+bush after bush we are at last repaid for sundry
+scratches from their thorns by securing a double
+rose, a &ldquo;sport,&rdquo; as the gardener would call it.
+And in the broad meadow between us and home
+we well know that for the quest we can have
+not only four-leaved clovers, but perchance a
+handful of five and six-leaved prizes. The secret
+is out. Flowers and leaves are not cast like
+bullets in rigid moulds, but differ from their
+parents much as children do. Usually the difference
+is slight, at times it is as marked as in our
+double rose. Whenever the change in a flower
+is for the worse, as in the sickly violets and
+roses we have observed, that particular change
+ends there&mdash;with death. But when the change
+makes a healthy flower a little more attractive
+to its insect ministers, it will naturally be chosen
+by them for service, and these choosings, kept
+up year after year, and century upon century,
+have at last accomplished much the same result
+as if the moth, the bee, and the rest of them
+had been given power to create blossoms of
+the most welcome forms, the most alluring
+tints, the most bewitching perfumes.</p>
+
+<p>In farther jaunts afield we shall discover yet
+more. It is May, and a heavy rainstorm has
+caused the petals of a trillium to forget themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>
+and return to their primitive hue of leafy
+green. A month later we come upon a buttercup,
+one of whose sepals has grown out as a
+small but perfect leaf. Later still in summer
+we find a rose in the same surprising case,
+while not far off is a columbine bearing pollen
+on its spurs instead of its anthers. What family
+tie is betrayed in all this? No other than that
+sepals, petals, anthers and pistils are but leaves
+in disguise, and that we have detected nature
+returning to the form from which ages ago she
+began to transmute the parts of flowers in all
+their teeming diversity. The leaf is the parent
+not only of all these but of delicate tendrils,
+which save a vine the cost of building a stem
+stout enough to lift it to open air and sunshine.
+However thoroughly, or however long, a habit
+may be impressed upon a part of a plant, it may
+on occasion relapse into a habit older still,
+resume a shape all but forgotten, and thus tell
+a story of its past that otherwise might remain
+forever unsuspected. Thus it is with the somewhat
+rare &ldquo;sport&rdquo; that gives us a morning
+glory or a harebell in its primitive form of
+unjoined petals. The bell form of these and
+similar flowers has established itself by being
+much more effective than the original shape
+in dusting insect servitors with pollen. Not only
+the forms of flowers but their massing has been
+determined by insect preferences; a wide profusion
+of blossoms grow in spikes, umbels,
+racemes and other clusters, all economizing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>
+the time of winged allies, and attracting their
+attention from afar as scattered blossoms would
+fail to do. Besides this massing, we have union
+more intimate still as in the dandelion, the sun-flower
+and the marigold. These and their fellow
+composites each seem an individual; a penknife
+discloses each of them to be an aggregate of
+blossoms. So gainful has this kind of co-operation
+proved that composites are now dominant
+among plants in every quarter of the globe.
+As to how composites grew before they learned
+that union is strength, a hint is dropped in the
+&ldquo;sport&rdquo; of the daisy known as &ldquo;the hen and
+chickens,&rdquo; where perhaps as many as a dozen
+florets, each on a stalk of its own, ray out from
+a mother flower.</p>
+
+<p>While for the most part insects have been
+mere choosers from among various styles of
+architecture set before them by plants, they
+have sometimes risen to the dignity of builders
+on their own account, and without ever knowing
+it. The buttress of the larkspur has sprung forth
+in response to the pressure of one bee's weight
+after another, and many a like structure has
+had the very same origin,&mdash;or shall we say,
+provocation? In these and in other examples
+unnumbered, culminating in the marvellous
+orchids and their ministers, there has come
+about the closest adaptation of flower-shape
+to insect-form, the one now clearly the counterpart
+of the other.</p>
+
+<p>We must not forget that the hospitality of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>
+flower is after all the hospitality of an inn-keeper
+who earns and requires payment. Vexed
+as flowers are apt to be by intruders that consume
+their stores without requital, no wonder
+that they present so ample an array of repulsion
+and defence. Best of all is such a resource as
+that of the red clover, which hides its honey
+at the bottom of a tube so deep that only a
+friendly bumblebee can sip it. Less effective,
+but well worth a moment's examination, are
+the methods by which leaves are opposed as
+fences for the discouragement of thieves. Here,
+in a Bellwort, is a perfoliate leaf that encircles
+the stem upon which it grows; and there in a
+Honeysuckle is a connate leaf on much the
+same plan, formed of two leaves, stiff and strong,
+soldered at their bases. Sometimes the pillager
+meets prickles that sting him, as in the roses
+and briers; and if he is a little fellow he is sure
+to regard him with intense disgust, a bristly
+guard of wiry hair&mdash;hence the commonness of
+that kind of fortification. Against enemies of
+larger growth a tree or shrub will often aim
+sharp thorns&mdash;another piece of masquerade,
+for thorns are but branches checked in growth,
+and frowning with a barb in token of disappointment
+at not being able to smile in a blossom.
+In every jot and tittle of barb and prickle, of
+the glossiness which disheartens or the gumminess
+which ensnares, we may be sure that equally
+with all the lures of hue, form and scent, nothing,
+however trifling it may seem, is as we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>
+find it, except through usefulness long tested
+and approved. In flowers, much that at first
+glance looks like idle decoration, on closer
+scrutiny reveals itself as service in disguise. In
+penetrating these disguises and many more of
+other phases, the student of flowers delights to
+busy himself. He loves, too, to detect the cousinship
+of plants through all the change of dress
+and habit due to their rearing under widely
+different skies and nurture, to their being surrounded
+by strangely contrasted foes and friends.
+Often he can link two plants together only by
+going into partnership with a student of the
+rocks, by turning back the records of the earth
+until he comes upon a flower long extinct, a
+plant which ages ago found the struggle for
+life too severe for it. He ever takes care to observe
+his flowers accurately and fully, but chiefly
+that he may rise from observation to explanation,
+from bare facts to their causes, from declaring
+What, to understanding, Whence and
+How.</p>
+
+<p>One of the stock resources of novelists, now
+somewhat out of date, was the inn-keeper who
+beamed in welcome of his guest, grasped his
+hand in gladness, and loaded a table for him
+in tempting array, and all with intent that
+later in the day (or night) he might the more
+securely plunge a dagger into his victim's heart&mdash;if,
+indeed, he had not already improved an
+opportunity to offer to that victim's lips a
+poisoned cup. This imagined treachery might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>
+well have been suggested by the behaviour of
+certain alluring plants that so far from repelling
+thieves, or discouraging pillagers, open their
+arms to all comers&mdash;with purpose of the deadliest.
+Of these betrayers the chief is the round-leaved
+sun-dew, which plies its nefarious vocation
+all the way from Labrador to Florida.
+Its favourite site is a peat-bog or a bit of swampy
+lowland, where in July and August we can
+see its pretty little white blossoms beckoning
+to wayfaring flies and moths their token of
+good cheer! Circling the flower-stalk, in rosette
+fashion, are a dozen or more round leaves, each
+of them wearing scores of glands, very like little
+pins, a drop of gum glistening on each and every
+pin by way of head. This appetizing gum is no
+other than a fatal stick-fast, the raying pins
+closing in its aid the more certainly to secure a
+hapless prisoner. Soon his prison-house becomes
+a stomach for his absorption. Its duty of digestion
+done, the leaf in all seeming guilessness once
+more expands itself for the enticement of a dupe.
+To see how much the sun-dew must depend upon
+its meal of insects we have only to pull it up from
+the ground. A touch suffices&mdash;it has just root
+enough to drink by; the soil in which it makes,
+and perhaps has been obliged to make, its home
+has nothing else but drink to give it.</p>
+
+<p>Less accomplished in its task of assassination
+is the common butterwort to be found on wet
+rocks in scattered districts of Canada and the
+States adjoining Canada. Surrounding its pretty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>
+violet flowers, of funnel shape, are gummy leaves
+which close upon their all too trusting guests,
+but with less expertness than the sun-dew's.
+The butterwort is but a 'prentice hand in the
+art of murder, and its intended victims often
+manage to get away from it. Built on a very
+different model is the bladderwort, busy in stagnant
+ponds near the sea coast from Nova Scotia
+to Texas. Its little white spongy bladders,
+about a tenth of an inch across, encircle the
+flowering stem by scores. From each bladder a
+bunch of twelve or fifteen hairy prongs protrude,
+giving the structure no slight resemblance to an
+insect form. These prongs hide a valve which,
+as many an unhappy little swimmer can attest,
+opens inward easily enough, but opens outward
+never. As in the case of its cousinry a-land, the
+bladderwort at its leisure dines upon its prey.</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Venus Fly Trap">
+<tr>
+<td><img src="images/il166a.png" width="194" height="500" alt="Venus&#39; Fly Trap&mdash;Open
+with a Welcome" title="Venus&#39; Fly Trap&mdash;Open with a Welcome" /></td>
+<td><img src="images/il166b.png" width="235" height="450" alt="Shut for Slaughter" title="Shut for Slaughter" /></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="caption">Venus&#39; Fly Trap&mdash;Open<br /> with a Welcome</span></td>
+<td><span class="caption">Shut for Slaughter</span></td>
+</tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>In marshy places near the mouth of the Cape
+Fear River, in the vicinity of Wilmington, North
+Carolina, grows the Venus' fly-trap, most wonderful
+of all the death-dealers of vegetation. Like
+much else in nature's handiwork this plant might
+well have given inventors a hint worth taking.
+The hairy fringes of its leaves are as responsive to
+a touch from moth or fly as the sensitive plant
+itself. And he must be either a very small or a
+particularly sturdy little captive that can escape
+through the sharp opposed teeth of its formidable
+snare. It is one of the unexplained puzzles of
+plant life that the Venus' fly-trap, so marvellous
+in its ingenuity, should not only be confined to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
+single district, but should seem to be losing its
+hold of even that small kingdom. Of still
+another type is the pitcher plant, or side-saddle
+flower, which flaunts its deep purple petals in
+June in many a peat-bog from Canada southward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>
+to Louisiana and Florida. Its leaves
+develop themselves into lidded cups, half-filled
+with sweetish juice, which first lures a fly or ant,
+then makes him tipsy, and then despatches him.
+The broth resulting is both meat and drink to the
+plant, serving as a store and reservoir against
+times of drought and scarcity.</p>
+
+<p>Now the question is, How came about this
+strange and somewhat horrid means of livelihood?
+How did plants of so diverse families
+turn the tables on the insect world, and learn to
+eat instead of being themselves devoured? A
+beginner in the builder's art finds it much more
+gainful to examine the masonry of foundations,
+the rearing of walls, the placing of girders and
+joists, the springing of arches and buttresses, than
+to look at a cathedral, a courthouse, or a bank,
+finished and in service. In like manner a student
+of insect-eating plants tries to find their leaves
+in the making, in all the various stages which
+bridge their common forms with the shapes they
+assume when fully armed and busy. Availing
+himself of the relapses into old habits which
+plants occasionally exhibit under cultivation,
+Mr. Dickson has taught us much regarding the
+way the pitcher plant of Australia, the <i>Cephalotus</i>,
+has come to be what it is. He has arranged in a
+connected series all the forms of its leaf from that
+of a normal leaf with a mere dimple in it, to the
+deeply pouched and lidded pitcher ready for
+deceitful hospitalities. And similar transformations
+have without doubt taken place in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
+pitcher plants of America. Observers in the
+Cape of Good Hope have noted two plants <i>Roridula
+dentata</i> and <i>Biblys gigantea</i>, which are
+evidently following in the footsteps of the sundews,
+and may be expected in the fulness of years
+to be their equal partners in crime. But why
+need we wander so far as South Africa to find
+the germs of this strange rapacity when we can
+see at home a full dozen species of catch-fly,
+sedums, primulas, and geraniums pouring out
+glutinous juices in which insects are entangled?
+Let stress of hunger, long continued, force any
+of these to turn its attention to the dietary thus
+proffered, and how soon might not the plant
+find in felony the sustenance refused to honest
+toil?</p>
+
+<p>But after all the plants that have meat for
+dinner are only a few. The greater part of the
+vegetable kingdom draws its supplies from the
+air and the soil. Those plants, and they are
+many, that derive their chief nourishment from
+the atmosphere have a decidedly thin diet.
+Which of us would thrive on milk at the rate of
+a pint to five hogsheads of water? Such is the
+proportion in which air contains carbonic acid
+gas, the main source of strength for many thousands
+of trees, shrubs, and other plants. No
+wonder that they array themselves in so broad an
+expanse of leafage. An elm with a spread of
+seventy feet is swaying in the summer breeze
+at least five acres of foliage as its lungs and
+stomach. Beyond the shade of elms and maples<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>
+let us stroll past yonder stretch of pasture and
+we shall notice how the grass in patches here and
+there deepens into green of the richest&mdash;a plain
+token of moisture in the hollows&mdash;a blessing indeed
+in this dry weather. In the far West and
+Northwest the buffalo grass has often to contend
+with drought for months together, so that it
+has learned to strike deep in quest of water to
+quench its thirst. It is a by-word among the
+ranchmen that the roots go clear through the
+earth and are clinched as they sprout from the
+ground in China. Joking apart, they have been
+found sixty-eight feet below the surface of the
+prairie, and often in especially dry seasons cattle
+would perish were not these faithful little well-diggers
+and pumpers constantly at work for
+them. In the river valleys of Arizona although
+the air is dry the subsoil water is near the surface
+of the ground. Here flourishes the mesquit tree,
+<i>Prosopis juliflora</i>, with a tale to tell well worth
+knowing. When a mesquit seems stunted, it is
+because its strength is withdrawn for the task
+of delving to find water; where a tree grows tall
+with goodly branches, it betokens success in
+reaching moisture close at hand. Thus in
+shrewdly reading the landscape a prospector can
+choose the spot where with least trouble he can
+sink his well. And plants discover provender in
+the soil as well as drink. Nearer home than
+Arizona we have only to dislodge a beach pea
+from the ground to see how far in search of food
+its roots have dug amid barren stones and pebbles.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>
+Often one finds a plant hardly a foot high with
+roots extending eight feet from its stem.</p>
+
+<p>And beyond the beaches where the beach peas
+dig so diligently are the seaweeds&mdash;with a talent
+for picking and choosing all their own. Dr.
+Julius Sachs, a leading German botanist, believes
+that the parts of plants owe their form, as crystals
+do, to their peculiarities of substance; that
+just as salt crystallizes in one shape and sugar
+in another, so a seaweed or a tulip is moulded by
+the character of its juices. Something certainly
+of the crystal's faculty for picking out particles
+akin to itself, and building with them, is shown
+by the kelp which attracts from the ocean both
+iodine and bromine&mdash;often dissolved though they
+are in a million times their bulk of sea water.
+This trait of choosing this or that dish from the
+feast afforded by sea or soil or air is not peculiar
+to the seaweeds; every plant displays it. Beech
+trees love to grow on limestone and thus declare
+to the explorer the limestone ridge he seeks. In
+the Horn silver mine, of Utah, the zinc mingled
+with the silver ore is betrayed by the abundance
+of the zinc violet, a delicate and beautiful cousin
+of the pansy. In Germany this little flower is
+admittedly a signal of zinc in the earth, and zinc
+is found in its juices. The late Mr. William
+Dorn, of South Carolina, had faith in a bush, of
+unrecorded name, as betokening gold-bearing
+veins beneath it. That his faith was not without
+foundation is proved by the large fortune he won
+as a gold miner in the Blue Ridge country&mdash;his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>
+guide the bush aforesaid. Mr. Rossiter W. Raymond,
+the eminent mining engineer of New York,
+has given some attention to this matter of &ldquo;indicative
+plants.&rdquo; He is of the opinion that its
+unwritten lore among practical miners, prospectors,
+hunters, and Indians is well worth sifting.
+Their observations, often faulty, may
+occasionally be sound and valuable enough richly
+to repay the trouble of separating truth from
+error. When we see how important as signs of
+water many plants can be, why may we not
+find other plants denoting the minerals which
+they especially relish as food or condiment?</p>
+
+<p>Of more account than gold or silver are the
+harvests of wheat and corn that ripen in our
+fields. There the special appetites of plants have
+much more than merely curious interest for the
+farmer. He knows full well that his land is but
+a larder which serves him best when not part but
+all its stores are in demand. Hence his crop
+&ldquo;rotation,&rdquo; his succession of wheat to clover, of
+grass to both. Were he to grow barley every
+year he would soon find his soil bared of all the
+food that barley asks, while fare for peas or clover
+stood scarcely broached. If he insists on planting
+barley always, then he must perforce restore
+to the land the food for barley constantly withdrawn.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 286px;">
+<img src="images/il172.png" width="286" height="400" alt="Maple Seed, with pair of wings" title="Maple Seed, with pair of wings" />
+<span class="caption">Maple Seed, with pair of wings</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>A plant may diligently find food and
+drink, pour forth delicious nectar, array itself
+with flowers as gayly as it can, and still behold
+its work unfinished. Its seed may be produced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>
+in plenty, and although as far as that goes it is
+well, it is not enough. Of what avail is all this
+seed if it falls as it ripens upon soil already overcrowded
+with its kind? Hence the vigorous
+emigration policy to be observed in plants of
+every name. Hence the fluffy sails set to catch
+the passing breeze by
+the dandelion, the
+thistle and by many
+more, including the
+southern plant of
+snowy wealth whose
+wings are cotton.
+With the same intent
+of seeking new fields
+are the hooks of the
+burdock, the unicorn
+plant, and the bur-parsley
+which impress
+as carriers the
+sheep and cattle upon
+a thousand hills.
+The Touch-me-not
+and the herb Robert adopt a different plan,
+and convert their seed-cases into pistols for the
+firing of seeds at as wide range as twenty feet or
+more. The maple, the ash, the hornbeam, the
+elm and the birch have yet another method of
+escape from the home acre. Their seeds are
+winged, and torn off in a gale are frequently
+borne two hundred yards away. And stronger
+wings than these are plied in the cherry tree's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>
+service. The birds bide the time when a blush
+upon the fruit betrays its ripeness. Then the
+cherries are greedily devoured, and their seed,
+preserved from digestion in their stony cases
+are borne over hill, dale, and river to some islet
+or brookside where a sprouting cherry plant will
+be free from the stifling rivalries suffered by its
+parent. Yoked in harness with sheep, ox, and
+bird as planter is yonder nimble squirrel. We
+need not begrudge him the store of nuts he hides.
+He will forget some of them, he will be prevented
+by fright or frost from nibbling yet more, and so
+without intending it he will ensure for others and
+himself a sure succession of acorns and butternuts.</p>
+
+<p>Very singular are the seeds that have come to
+resemble beetles; among these may be mentioned
+the seeds of the castor-oil plant and of the <i>Iatropha</i>.
+The pod of the <i>Biserrula</i> looks like a
+worm, and a worm half-coiled might well have
+served as a model for the mimicry of the <i>Scorpiurus
+vermiculata</i>. All these are much more
+likely to enlist the services of birds than if their
+resemblances to insects were less striking.</p>
+
+<p>Nature elsewhere rich in hints to the gardener
+and the farmer is not silent here. A
+lesson plainly taught in all this apparatus
+for the dispersal of seeds is that the more
+various the planting the fuller the harvest.
+Now that from the wheat fields comes a cry
+of disappearing gains, it is time to heed the
+story told in the unbroken prairie that diversity
+in sowing means wealth in reaping.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In a field of growing flax we can find&mdash;somewhat
+oftener than the farmer likes&mdash;a curious
+tribe of plants, the dodders. Their stems are
+thin and wiry, and their small white flowers,
+globular in shape, make the azure blossoms of the
+flax all the lovelier by contrast. As their cousins
+the morning glories are to this day, the dodders
+in their first estate were true climbers. Even
+now they begin life in an honest kind of way
+with roots of their own that go forth as roots
+should, seeking food where it is to be found in the
+soil. But if we pull up one of these little club-shaped
+roots we shall see that it has gone to
+work feebly and doubtfully; it seems to have a
+skulking expectation of dinner without having
+to dig and delve for it in the rough dirty ground.
+Nor is this expectation unfounded. Watch the
+stem of a sister dodder as it rises from the earth
+day by day, and it will be observed to clasp a
+stalk of flax very tightly; so tightly that its
+suckers will absorb the juices of its unhappy host.
+When, so very easily, it can regale itself with food
+ready to hand why should it take the trouble to
+drudge for a living?</p>
+
+<p>Like many another pauper demoralized by
+being fed in idleness, the plant now abandons
+honest toil, its roots from lack of exercise wither
+away, and for good and all it ceases to claim any
+independence whatever. Indeed, so deep is the
+dodder's degradation that if it cannot find a stem
+of flax, or hop, or other plant whereon to climb
+and thrive, it will simply shrivel and die rather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>
+than resume habits of industry so long renounced
+as to be at last forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Like the lowly dodder the mistletoe is a climber
+that has discovered large opportunities of theft
+in ascending the stem of a supporting plant.
+On this continent the mistletoe scales a wide
+variety of trees and shrubs, preferring poplars
+and apple trees, where these are to be had. Its
+extremely slender stem, its meagre leaves, its
+small flowers, greenish and leathery, are all
+eloquent as to the loss of strength and beauty
+inevitable to a parasite. Rising as this singular
+plant does out of the branches of another with
+a distinct life all its own, it is no other than a
+natural graft, and it is very probable that from
+the hint it so unmistakably gives the first gardeners
+were not slow to adopt grafts artificial&mdash;among
+the resources which have most enriched
+and diversified both flowers and fruits. The
+dodders and mistletoes rob juices from the stem
+and branches of their unfortunate hosts; more
+numerous still are the unbidden guests that
+fasten themselves upon the roots of their prey.
+The broom-rape, a comparatively recent immigrant
+from Europe, lays hold of the roots of
+thyme in preference to other place of entertainment;
+the Yellow Rattle, the Lousewort, and
+many more attach themselves to the roots of
+grasses&mdash;frequently with a serious curtailment of
+crop.</p>
+
+<p>Yet in this very department of hers Nature
+has for ages hidden away what has been disclosed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>
+within twenty years as one of her least suspected
+marvels. It is no other than that certain parasites
+of field and meadow so far from being hurtful,
+are well worth cultivating for the good they
+do. For a long time the men who devoted themselves
+to the study of peas, beans, clovers, and
+other plants of the pulse family, were confronted
+with a riddle they could not solve. These plants
+all manage to enrich themselves with compounds
+of nitrogen, which make them particularly valuable
+as food, and these compounds often exist in
+a degree far exceeding the rate at which their
+nitrogen comes out of the soil. And this while
+they have no direct means of seizing upon the
+nitrogen contained in its great reservoir&mdash;the
+atmosphere. Upon certain roots of beans and
+peas it was noted that there were little round
+excrescences about the size of a small pin's head.
+These excrescences on examination with a microscope
+proved to be swarming with bacteria of
+minute dimensions. Further investigation abundantly
+showed that these little guests paid a handsome
+price for their board and lodging&mdash;while
+they subsisted in part on the juices of their host
+they passed into the bean or pea certain valuable
+compounds of nitrogen which they built from
+common air. At the Columbian Exposition, of
+1893, one of the striking exhibits in the Agricultural
+Building set this forth in detail. Vials
+were shown containing these tiny subterranean
+aids to the farmer, and large photographs showed
+in natural size the vast increase of crop due to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>
+the farmer's taking bacteria into partnership.
+To-day these little organisms are cultivated of
+set purpose, and quest is being made for similar
+bacteria suitable to be harnessed in producing
+wheat, corn, and other harvests.</p>
+
+<p>These are times when men of science are discontented
+with mere observation. They wish
+to pass from watching things as nature presents
+them to putting them into relations wholly new.
+In 1866 DeBary, a close observer of lichens, felt
+confident that a lichen was not the simple growth
+it seems, but a combination of fungus and alg&aelig;.
+This opinion, so much opposed to honoured
+tradition, was scouted, but not for long. Before
+many months had passed Stahl took known alg&aelig;,
+and upon them sowed a known fungus, the result
+was a known lichen! The fungus turns out to
+be no other than a slave-driver that captures
+alg&aelig; in colonies and makes them work for him.
+He is, however, a slave-driver of an intelligent
+sort; his captives thrive under his mastery, and
+increase more rapidly for the healthy exercise
+he insists that they shall take.</p>
+
+<p>It is an afternoon in August and the sultry
+air compels us to take shelter in a grove of swaying
+maples. Beneath their shade every square
+yard of ground bears a score of infant trees, very
+few of them as much as a foot in stature. How
+vain their expectation of one day enjoying an
+ample spread of branch and root, of rising to the
+free sunshine of upper air! The scene, with its
+quivering rounds of sunlight, seems peace itself,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>
+but the seeming is only a mask for war as unrelenting
+as that of weaponed armies. For every
+ray of the sunbeam, for every atom of food, for
+every inch of standing room, there is deadly
+rivalry. To begin the fight is vastly easier than
+to maintain it, and not one in a hundred of these
+bantlings will ever know maturity. We have
+only to do what Darwin did&mdash;count the plants
+that throng a foot of sod in spring, count them
+again in summer, and at the summer's end, to
+find how great the inexorable carnage in this
+unseen combat, how few its survivors. So hard
+here is the fight for a foothold, for daily bread,
+that the playfulness inborn in every healthy
+plant can peep out but timidly and seldom. But
+when strife is exchanged for peace, when a plant
+is once safely sheltered behind a garden fence,
+then the struggles of the battlefield give place
+to the diversions of the garrison&mdash;diversions not
+infrequently hilarious enough. Now food
+abounds and superabounds; henceforth neither
+drought nor deluge can work their evil will;
+insect foes, as well as may be, are kept at bay;
+there is room in plenty instead of dismal overcrowding.
+The grateful plant repays the care
+bestowed upon it by bursting into a sportiveness
+unsuspected, and indeed impossible, amidst the
+alarms and frays incessant in the wilderness.
+It departs from parental habits in most astonishing
+fashion, puts forth blossoms of fresh grace of
+form, of new dyes, of doubled magnitude. The
+gardener's opportunity has come. He can seize<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>
+upon such of these &ldquo;sports&rdquo; as he chooses and
+make them the confirmed habits of his wards.
+Take a stroll through his parterres and greenhouses,
+where side by side he shows you pansies
+of myriad tints and the modest little wild violets
+of kindred to the pansies' ancestral stock. Let
+him contrast for you roses, asters, tuberous
+begonias, hollyhocks, dahlias, pelargoniums,
+before cultivation and since. Were wild flowers
+clay, were the gardener both painter and sculptor,
+he could not have wrought marvels more glorious
+than these. In a few years the brethren of his
+guild have brought about a revolution for which,
+if possible at all to her, nature in the open fields
+would ask long centuries. And the gardener's
+experiments with these strange children of his
+have all the charm of surprise. No passive
+chooser is he of &ldquo;sports&rdquo; of promise, but an
+active matchmaker between flowers often brought
+together from realms as far apart as France and
+China. Sometimes his experiment is an instant
+success. Mr. William Paul, a famous creator of
+splendid flowers, tells us that at a time when
+climbing roses were either white or yellow, he
+thought he would like to produce one of bright
+dark colour. Accordingly he mated the Rose
+Athelin, of vivid crimson, with Russelliana, a
+hardy climber, and lo, the flower he had imagined
+and longed for stood revealed! But this hitting
+the mark at the first shot is uncommon good
+fortune with the gardener. No experience with
+primrose or chrysanthemum is long and varied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>
+enough to tell him how the crossing of two different
+stocks will issue. A rose which season
+after season opposes only indifference to all his
+pains may be secretly gathering strength for a
+bound beyond its ancestral paths which will
+carry it much farther than his hopes, or, perhaps,
+his wishes.</p>
+
+<p>Most flowers are admired for their own sweet
+sake, but who thinks less of an apple or cherry
+blossom because it bears in its beauty the promise
+of delicious fruit? Put a red Astrachan beside
+a sorry crab, a Bartlett pear next a tough, diminutive
+wild pear such as it is descended from, an
+ear of milky corn in contrast with an ear one-fourth
+its size, each grain of which, small and
+dry, is wrapped in a sheath by itself; and rejoice
+that fruits and grains as well as flowers can learn
+new lessons and remember them. At Concord,
+Massachusetts, in an honoured old age, dwells Mr.
+Ephraim W. Bull. In his garden he delights to
+show the mother vine of the Concord grape which
+he developed from a native wild grape planted as
+long ago as 1843. Another &ldquo;sport&rdquo; of great
+value was the nectarine, which was seized upon
+as it made its appearance on a peach bough.
+Throughout America are scattered experiment
+stations, part of whose business it is to provoke
+fresh varieties of wheat, or corn, or other useful
+plant, and make permanent such of them as
+show special richness of yield; earliness in ripening;
+stoutness of resistance to Jack Frost, or
+blight, or insect pests. Suppose that dire disaster<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>
+swept from off the earth every cereal used as
+food. Professor Goodale, Professor Asa Gray's
+successor at Harvard University, has so much
+confidence in the experiment stations of America
+that he deems them well able to repair the loss
+we have imagined; within fifty years, he thinks,
+from plants now uncultivated the task could be
+accomplished. Among the men who have best
+served the world by hastening nature's steps in
+the improvement of flowers and fruits, stands
+Mr. Vilmorin, of Paris. He it was who in creating
+the sugar beet laid the foundation for one of
+the chief industries of our time. One of his
+rules is to select at first not the plant which
+varies most in the direction he wishes, but the
+plant that varies most in any direction whatever.
+From it, from the instability of its very fibres,
+its utter forgetfulness of ancestral traditions,
+he finds it easiest in the long run to obtain and
+to establish the character he seeks of sweetness,
+or size, or colour.</p>
+
+<p>Of flowering plants there are about 110,000,
+of these the farmer and the gardener between
+them have scarcely tamed and trained 1,000.
+What new riches, therefore, may we not expect
+from the culture of the future? Already in certain
+northern flower-pots the trillium, the bloodroot,
+the dog's-tooth violet, and the celandine
+are abloom in May; as June advances, the wild
+violet, the milkweed, the wild lily-of-the-valley,
+unfold their petals; later in summer the dog-rose
+displays its charms and breathes its perfume.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>
+All respond kindly to care, and were there more
+of this hospitality, were the wild roses which
+the botanist calls <i>blanda</i> and <i>lucida</i>, were the
+cardinal flowers, the May flowers, and many more
+of the treasures of glen and meadow, made welcome
+with thoughtful study of their wants and
+habits, much would be done to extend the wealth
+of our gardens. Let a hepatica be plucked from
+its home in a rocky crevice where one marvels
+how it ever contrived to root itself and find subsistence.
+Transplant it to good soil, give it a
+little care&mdash;it asks none&mdash;and it will thrive as it
+never throve before; proving once again that
+plants do not grow where they like, but where
+they can. The Russian columbine rewards its
+cultivator with a wealth of blossoms that plainly
+say how much it rejoices in his nurture of it, in
+its escape from the frost and tempest that have
+assailed it for so many generations.</p>
+
+<p>But here we must be content to take a leaf
+out of nature's book, and look for small results
+unless our experiments are broadly planned.
+It is in great nurseries and gardens, not in little
+door-yards that &ldquo;sports&rdquo; are likely to arise,
+and to meet the skill which can confirm them as
+new varieties.</p>
+
+<p>Japan has much to teach us with regard to
+flowers: nowhere else on earth are they so sedulously
+cultivated, or so faithfully studied in all
+their changeful beauty. Perhaps the most
+striking revelation of the Japanese gardener is
+his treatment of flowering shrubs and flowering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>
+trees disposed in masses. Happy the visitors to
+Tokio who sees in springtime the cherry blossoms
+ready to lend their witchery to the Empress's
+reception! Much is done to extend the reign
+of beauty in a garden when it is fitly bordered
+with berry-bearers. Rows of mountain ash,
+snow-berry, and hawthorn trees give colour just
+when colour is most effective, at the time when
+most flowers are past and gone.</p>
+
+<p>In the practical bit of ground where the kitchen
+garden meets the flowers, Japan has long since
+enlarged its bill of fare with the tuber of a cousin
+of our common hedge nettle, with the roots of
+the large burdock, commoner still. In Florida,
+the calla lily has use as well as beauty; it is cultivated
+for its potato-like tubers.</p>
+
+<p>Much as the study of flowers heightens our
+interest in them, their first, their chief enduring
+charm consists in their simple beauty&mdash;their
+infinitely varied grace of form, their exhaustless
+wealth of changeful tints. Off we go with
+delight from desk and book to a breezy field,
+a wimpling brook, a quiet pond in woodland
+shade. A dozen rambles from May to October
+will show us all the floral procession, which, beginning
+with the trilliums and the violets, ends
+at the approach of frost with the golden-rod and
+aster. But who ever formed an engaging acquaintance
+without wishing it might become a
+close friendship? Never yet did the observant
+culler of bloodroot and columbine rest satisfied
+with merely knowing their names, and how can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
+more be known unless flowers are set up in a portrait
+gallery of their own for the leisurely study
+of their lineaments and lineage?</p>
+
+<p>A word then as to the best way to gather wild
+flowers. A case for them in the form of a round
+tube, closed at the ends, with a hinged cover,
+can be made by a tinsmith at small cost. Its
+dimensions should be about thirty inches in
+length by five inches in diameter, with a strap
+attached to carry it by. At still less expense a
+frame can be made, or bought, formed of two
+boards, one-eighth of an inch thick, twenty-four
+inches long and eighteen inches broad, with two
+thin battens fastened across them to prevent
+warping. A quire of soft brown paper, newspaper
+will do, and a strap to hold all together,
+complete the outfit.</p>
+
+<p>Our gathered treasures at home, we may wish
+to deck a table or a mantel with a few of them.
+The lives of impressed blossoms can be, much
+prolonged by exercising a little care. Punch
+holes in a round of cardboard and put the stalks
+through these holes before placing the flowers
+in a vase. This prevents the stalks touching
+each other, and so decaying before their time.
+A little charcoal in the water tends to keep
+it pure; the water should be changed daily.</p>
+
+<p>A flower will fade at last be it tended ever so
+carefully. If we wish to preserve it dried we can
+best do so as soon as we bring it home, by placing
+it between sheets of absorbent paper (newspaper
+will do) well weighted down, the paper to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>
+renewed if the plants are succulent and if there
+is any risk of mildew. But a dried plant after
+all is only a mummy. Its colours are gone; its
+form bruised and crumpled, gives only a faint
+suggestion of it as it lived and breathed. Other
+and more pleasant reminders of our summer
+rambles can be ours. With a camera of fair size
+it is easy to take pictures of flowers at their best;
+these pictures can be coloured in their natural tints
+with happy effect. In this art Mrs. Cornelius
+Van Brunt, of New York, has attained extraordinary
+success. Or, instead of the camera,
+why not at first invoke the brush and colour-box?
+Only a little skill in handling them is enough for
+a beginning. Practice soon increases deftness
+in this art as in every other, and in a few short
+weeks floral portraits are painted with a truth to
+nature denied the unaided pencil. For what
+flower, however meek and lowly, could ever tell
+its story in plain black and white?</p>
+
+<p>The amateur painter of flowers learns a good
+many things by the way; at the very outset, that
+drawing accurate and clear must be the groundwork
+of any painting worthy the name. Both
+in the use of pencil and brush there must be a
+degree of painstaking observation, wholesome as
+a discipline and delightful in its harvests. How
+many of us, unused to the task of careful observation,
+can tell the number of the musk-mallow's
+petals, or mark on paper the depth of fringe on a
+gentian, or match from a series of dyed silks the
+hues of a common buttercup? Drawing and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>
+painting sharpen the eye, and make the fingers
+its trained and ready servants. From the very
+beginning of one's task in limning bud and blossom,
+we see them richer in grace and loveliness
+than ever before. When wild flowers are sketched
+as they grow it is often easy to give them a
+new interest by adding the portraits of their
+insect servitors. Amateurs who are so fortunate
+as to visit the West Indies have an opportunity
+to paint the wonderful blossoms of the Marcgravia,
+whose minister, a humming bird, quivers
+above it like a bit of rainbow loosened from the
+sky.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the history of art the wild flowers
+lent their aid to decoration. The acanthus
+which gave its leaves to crest the capital of the
+Corinthian column, the roses conventionalized
+in the rich fabrics of ancient Persia, until they
+have been thought sheer inventions of the
+weaver, are among the first items of an indebtedness
+which has steadily grown in volume until
+to-day, when the designers who find their inspiration
+in the flowers are a vast and increasing host.
+In a modern mansion of the best type the outer
+walls are enriched with the leonine beauty of
+the sun-flower; within, the mosaic floors, the silk,
+and paper hangings, repeat themes suggested
+by the vine, the wild clematis and the Mayflower.
+The stained glass windows from New
+York, where their manufacture excels that of
+any other city in the world, are exquisite with
+boldly treated lilies, poppies, and columbines.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>
+In the drawing-room are embroideries designed
+by two young women of Salem, Massachusetts,
+who have established a thriving industry in
+transferring the glow of wild flowers to the adornment
+of noble houses such as this. As one goes
+from studio to studio, it is cheering to find so
+many men and women busy at work which is
+more joyful than play,&mdash;which in many cases
+first taken up as a recreation disclosed a vein of
+genuine talent and so pointed to a career more
+delightful than any other,&mdash;because it chimes in
+with the love of beauty and the power of giving
+it worthy expression.</p>
+
+
+<div class="trans-note">
+<h4><span class="smcap">Transcriber's Note:</span></h4>
+
+<p>Unable to locate &ldquo;partnery&rdquo; nor &ldquo;tucu-tucu&rdquo;, but
+they have been left as in the original.</p>
+
+<p>The word &ldquo;sylvain&rdquo; has been verified as a valid word, and therefore
+it has been left as in the original.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Little Masterpieces of Science:, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE: ***
+
+***** This file should be named 29739-h.htm or 29739-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/7/3/29739/
+
+Produced by Sigal Alon, Marcia Brooks, Fox in the Stars
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il004.png b/29739-h/images/il004.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..57635af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il004.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il005.png b/29739-h/images/il005.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..19647fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il005.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il136a.png b/29739-h/images/il136a.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bd97340
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il136a.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il136b.png b/29739-h/images/il136b.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08c4d3f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il136b.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il136c.png b/29739-h/images/il136c.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9002140
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il136c.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il136d.png b/29739-h/images/il136d.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..10b80d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il136d.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il136e.png b/29739-h/images/il136e.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b48398b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il136e.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il136f.png b/29739-h/images/il136f.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b73302a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il136f.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il140.png b/29739-h/images/il140.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..687c625
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il140.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il141.png b/29739-h/images/il141.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7dadc5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il141.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il142.png b/29739-h/images/il142.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3ed669a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il142.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il143.png b/29739-h/images/il143.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f47e98e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il143.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il147.png b/29739-h/images/il147.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb18bfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il147.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il156.png b/29739-h/images/il156.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..455e45c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il156.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il158.png b/29739-h/images/il158.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..665f0b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il158.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il166a.png b/29739-h/images/il166a.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..10dea63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il166a.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il166b.png b/29739-h/images/il166b.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3ef4d6c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il166b.png
diff --git a/29739-h/images/il172.png b/29739-h/images/il172.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aeac203
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739-h/images/il172.png
diff --git a/29739.txt b/29739.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..07137f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4528 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Masterpieces of Science:, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Little Masterpieces of Science:
+       The Naturalist as Interpreter and Seer
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: George Iles
+
+Release Date: August 20, 2009 [EBook #29739]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE: ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sigal Alon, Marcia Brooks, Fox in the Stars
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE
+
+[Illustration: Charles R. Darwin.]
+
+
+
+
+Little Masterpieces
+of Science
+
+
+Edited by George Iles
+
+
+
+
+THE NATURALIST AS INTERPRETER AND SEER
+
+
+_By_
+
+
+  Charles Darwin
+  Alfred R. Wallace
+  Thomas H. Huxley
+  Leland O. Howard
+  George Iles
+
+
+NEW YORK
+
+DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+1902
+
+
+Copyright, 1902, by Doubleday, Page & Co.
+
+Copyright, 1877, by D. Appleton & Co.
+
+Copyright, 1901, by John Wanamaker
+
+Copyright, 1895, by G. H. Buek & Co.
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: Obvious printer's errors have been silently
+corrected. Hyphenated and accented words have been standardized. See
+the end of this file for more information.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+To gather stones and fallen boughs is soon to ask, what may be done with
+them, can they be piled and fastened together for shelter? So begins
+architecture, with the hut as its first step, with the Alhambra, St.
+Peter's, the capitol at Washington, as its last. In like fashion the
+amassing of fact suggests the ordering of fact: when observation is
+sufficiently full and varied it comes to the reasons for what it sees.
+The geologist delves from layer to layer of the earth beneath his tread,
+he finds as he compares their fossils that the more recent forms of life
+stand highest in the scale of being, that in the main the animals and
+plants of one era are more allied to those immediately next than to
+those of remoter times. He thus divines that he is but exploring the
+proofs of lineal descent, and with this thought in his mind he finds
+that the collections not only of his own district, but of every other,
+take on a new meaning. The great seers of science do not await every jot
+and tittle of evidence in such a case as this. They discern the drift of
+a fact here, a disclosure there, and with both wisdom and boldness
+assume that what they see is but a promise of what shall duly be
+revealed. Thus it was that Darwin early in his studies became convinced
+of the truth of organic evolution: the labours of a lifetime of all but
+superhuman effort, a judicial faculty never exceeded among men, served
+only to confirm his confidence that all the varied forms of life upon
+earth have come to be what they are through an intelligible process,
+mainly by "natural selection."
+
+The present volume offers from the classic pages of Darwin his summary
+of the argument of "The Origin of Species," his account of how that book
+came to be written, and his recapitulation of "The Descent of Man." All
+this affords a supreme lesson as to the value of observation with a
+purpose. When Darwin was confronted with an organ or trait which puzzled
+him, he was wont to ask, What use can it have had? And always the answer
+was that every new peculiarity of plant, or beast, is seized upon and
+held whenever it confers advantage in the unceasing conflict for place
+and food. No hue of scale or plume, no curve of beak or note of song,
+but has served a purpose in the plot of life, or advanced the action in
+a drama where the penalty for failure is extinction.
+
+As Charles Darwin stood first among the naturalists of the nineteenth
+century, his advocacy of evolution soon wrought conviction among the
+thinkers competent to follow his evidence and weigh his arguments. The
+opposition to his theories though short was sharp, and here he found a
+lieutenant of unflinching courage, of the highest expository power, in
+Professor Huxley. This great teacher came to America in 1876, and
+discoursed on the ancestry of the horse, as disclosed in fossils then
+recently discovered in the Far West, maintaining that they afforded
+unimpeachable proof of organic evolution. His principal lecture is here
+given.
+
+In a remarkable field of "natural selection" Bates, Wallace and Poulton
+have explained the value of "mimicry" as an aid to beasts, birds,
+insects, as they elude their enemies or lie unsuspected on the watch for
+prey. The resemblances thus worked out through successive generations
+attest the astonishing plasticity of bodily forms, a plasticity which
+would be incredible were not its evidence under our eyes in every
+quarter of the globe. Insects have high economic importance as agents of
+destruction: we are learning how to pit one of them against another, so
+as to leave a clear field to the farmer and the fruit grower. In this
+department a leader is Professor Howard, who contributes a noteworthy
+chapter on the successful fight against the pest which threatened with
+ruin the orange groves of California.
+
+To the every-day observer the most enticing field of natural history is
+that in which common flowers and common insects work out their unending
+co-partnery. A blossom by its scent, its beauty of tint, allures a moth
+or bee and thus, in effect, is able to take flight and find a mate
+across a county so as to perpetuate its race a hundred miles from home.
+Our volume closes with a sketch of the singular ties which thus bind
+together the fortunes of blossom and insect, so that at last the very
+form of a flower may be cast in the mould of its winged ally. A word is
+also spoken regarding the singular relations of late detected between
+the world of vegetation and minute forms once deemed parasitic. The pea
+and its kindred harbor on their rootlets certain tiny lodgers; the
+tenants pay a liberal rent in the form of nitrogen compounds, a striking
+interlacement of interests!
+
+GEORGE ILES.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+DARWIN, CHARLES
+
+THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES IN SUMMARY
+
+     Varieties merge gradually into species. Animals tend to
+     increase in geometrical ratio. Varieties diverge in consonance
+     with diversity of opportunity for life. In the struggle
+     for existence those which best accord with their surroundings
+     will survive and propagate their kind. Sexual selection
+     has put a premium on beauty. The causes which in brief
+     periods produce varieties, in long periods give rise to
+     species. Instincts, as of the hive bee, are slowly developed.
+     Geology supports the theory of Evolution: the changes in time
+     in the fossil record are gradual. Geographical distribution
+     lends its corroboration: in each region most of the inhabitants
+     in every great class are plainly related. A common ancestor
+     is suggested when we see the similarity of hand, wing and
+     fin. Embryos of birds, reptiles and fish are closely similar
+     and unlike adult forms. Slight changes in the course of
+     millions of years produce wide divergences.                         3
+
+
+DARWIN, CHARLES
+
+HOW "THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES" CAME TO BE WRITTEN
+
+     During his voyage on the _Beagle_ Darwin saw fossil
+     armadillos like existing species, and on the islands of the
+     Galapagos group a gradually increased diversity of species of
+     every kind. All this suggested that species gradually become
+     modified. Notes gathered of facts bearing on the question.
+     Observes that it is the variation between one animal and
+     another which gives the breeder his opportunity. Reads
+     Malthus on Population, a work which points out the keen
+     struggle for existence and that favourable variations tend to
+     be preserved. In 1842 draws up a brief abstract of the theory
+     of "natural selection." In 1856 begins an elaborate work on
+     the same theme, but in 1858, hearing that Wallace has written
+     an essay advancing an independent theory of natural selection,
+     offers a summary of his argument to the Linnean Society
+     of London. Writes "The Origin of Species," which is published
+     most successfully, November, 1859.                                  35
+
+
+DARWIN, CHARLES
+
+THE DESCENT OF MAN: THE ARGUMENT IN BRIEF
+
+     Since evolution is probable for all other animals, it is
+     probable for man. The human form has so much in common with
+     the forms of other animals that community of descent is
+     strongly suggested. Man, like other creatures, is subject to
+     the struggle for existence. Evidence shows that it is likely
+     that man is descended from a tailed and hairy quadruped that
+     dwelt in trees. Man's mental power has been the chief factor
+     in his advance, especially in his development of language.
+     Conscience is due to social instincts, love of approbation,
+     memory, imagination and religious feeling. Sexual selection
+     in its effects upon human advancement.                              45
+
+
+WALLACE, ALFRED R.
+
+MIMICRY AND OTHER PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS
+
+     The colours of animals are useful for concealment from their
+     prey, from the creatures upon which they prey. The lion is
+     scarcely visible as he crouches on the sand or among desert
+     rocks and stones. Larks, quails and many other birds are so
+     tinted and mottled that their detection is difficult. The
+     polar bear, living amid ice and snow, is white. Reptiles and
+     fish are so coloured as to be almost invisible in the grass
+     or gravel where they rest. Many beetles and other insects
+     are so like the leaves or bark on which they feed that
+     when motionless they cannot be discerned. Some butterflies
+     resemble dead, dry or decaying leaves so closely as to elude
+     discovery. Every individual better protected by colour than
+     others, has a better chance for life, and of transmitting his
+     hues. Harmless beetles and flies are so like wasps and bees
+     as to be left alone.                                                71
+
+
+HUXLEY, THOMAS H.
+
+EVOLUTION OF THE HORSE
+
+     The hoof of the horse is simply a greatly enlarged and
+     thickened nail: four of his five toes are reduced to mere
+     vestiges. His teeth are built of substances of varying
+     hardness: they wear away at different rates presenting uneven
+     grinding surfaces. Probable descent of the horse, link by
+     link, especially as traced in the fossils of North America.
+     Evolution has taken a long time: how long the physicist and
+     the astronomer must decide.                                        101
+
+
+HOWARD, LELAND O.
+
+FIGHTING PESTS WITH INSECT ALLIES
+
+     A scale insect threatened with ruin the orchards of California.
+     Professor C. V. Riley decided that the pest was a native
+     of Australia. Mr. A. Hoebele observes in Australia that
+     the pest is kept down by ladybirds. These are accordingly
+     sent to California where they destroy the scale insect and
+     restore prosperity among the fruit-growers. Another pest,
+     of olive trees, is devoured by an imported ladybird of
+     another species. This plan extended to Portugal and Egypt
+     with success. Grasshoppers killed by a fungus cultivated
+     for the purpose. Introduction into the United States of
+     the insect which fertilizes the Smyrna fig.                        123
+
+
+ILES, GEORGE
+
+THE STRANGE STORY OF THE FLOWERS: A CHAPTER IN MODERN BOTANY
+
+     Dress is important, whether natural or artificial. Because
+     they catch dust on their clothes, bees, moths and butterflies
+     have brought about myriad espousals of flower with flower.
+     Colours and scents of blossoms attract insects. A flower
+     which in form, scent or hue varies gainfully is likely to
+     survive while others perish. All the parts of a flower are
+     leaves in disguise. Floral modes of repulsion and defence.
+     Plants which devour insects, a habit gradually acquired. The
+     mesquit tree tells of water. Plants believed to indicate
+     mineral veins. Seeds as emigrants equipped with wings or
+     hooks. Parasitic plants and their degradation. Tenants that
+     pay a liberal rent. The gardener as a creator of new flowers.
+     The modern sugar beet due to Mons. Vilmorin.                       139
+
+
+
+
+THE NATURALIST AS
+INTERPRETER AND
+SEER
+
+
+
+
+THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES: THE ARGUMENT IN SUMMARY
+
+CHARLES DARWIN
+
+     [Charles Darwin, one of the greatest men of all time, did
+     more to advance and prove the theory of evolution than
+     anybody else who ever lived. This he accomplished by virtue
+     of the highest gifts of observation, experiment, and
+     generalization. His truthfulness, patience, and calmness of
+     judgment have never been exceeded by mortal. His works are
+     published by D. Appleton & Co., New York, together with his
+     "Life and Letters," edited by his son Francis. From "The
+     Origin of Species" the argument in summary is here given.]
+
+
+On the view that species are only strongly marked and permanent
+varieties, and that each species first existed as a variety, we can see
+why it is that no line of demarcation can be drawn between species,
+commonly supposed to have been produced by special acts of creation, and
+varieties which are acknowledged to have been produced by secondary
+laws. On this same view we can understand how it is that in a region
+where many species of a genus have been produced, and where they now
+flourish, these same species should present many varieties; for where
+the manufactory of species has been active, we might expect, as a
+general rule, to find it still in action; and this is the case if
+varieties be incipient species. Moreover, the species of the larger
+genera, which afford the greater number of varieties or incipient
+species, retain to a certain degree the character of varieties; for they
+differ from each other by a less amount of difference than do the
+species of smaller genera. The closely allied species also of a larger
+genera apparently have restricted ranges, and in their affinities they
+are clustered in little groups round other species--in both respects
+resembling varieties. These are strange relations on the view that each
+species was independently created, but are intelligible if each existed
+first as a variety.
+
+As each species tends by its geometrical rate of reproduction to
+increase inordinately in number; and as the modified descendants of each
+species will be enabled to increase by as much as they become more
+diversified in habits and structure, so as to be able to seize on many
+and widely different places in the economy of nature, there will be a
+constant tendency in natural selection to preserve the most divergent
+offspring of any one species. Hence, during a long-continued course of
+modification, the slight differences of characteristic of varieties of
+the same species, tend to be augmented into the greater differences
+characteristic of the species of the same genus. New and improved
+varieties will inevitably supplant and exterminate the older, less
+improved, and intermediate varieties; and thus species are rendered to a
+large extent defined and distinct objects. Dominant species belonging
+to the larger groups within each class tend to give birth to new and
+dominant forms; so that each large group tends to become still larger,
+and at the same time more divergent in character. But as all groups
+cannot thus go on increasing in size, for the world would not hold them,
+the more dominant groups beat the less dominant. This tendency in the
+large groups to go on increasing in size and diverging in character,
+together with the inevitable contingency of much extinction, explains
+the arrangement of all the forms of life in groups subordinate to
+groups, all within a few great classes, which has prevailed throughout
+all time. This grand fact of the grouping of all organic beings under
+what is called the Natural System, is utterly inexplicable on the theory
+of creation.
+
+As natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight, successive,
+favourable variations, it can produce no great or sudden modifications;
+it can act only by short and slow steps. Hence, the canon of "Nature
+makes no leaps," which every fresh addition to our knowledge tends to
+confirm, is on this theory intelligible. We can see why throughout
+nature the same general end is gained by an almost infinite diversity of
+means, for every peculiarity when once acquired is long inherited, and
+structures already modified in many different ways have to be adapted
+for the same general purpose. We can, in short, see why nature is
+prodigal in variety, though niggard in innovation. But why this should
+be a law of nature if each species has been independently created no man
+can explain.
+
+Many other facts are, as it seems to me, explicable on this theory. How
+strange it is that a bird, under the form of a woodpecker, should prey
+on insects on the ground; that upland geese which rarely or never swim,
+would possess webbed feet; that a thrush-like bird should dive and feed
+on sub-aquatic insects; and that a petrel should have the habits and
+structure fitting it for the life of an auk! and so in endless other
+cases. But on the view of each species constantly trying to increase in
+number, with natural selection always ready to adapt the slowly varying
+descendants of each to any unoccupied or ill-occupied place in nature,
+these facts cease to be strange, or might even have been anticipated.
+
+We can to a certain extent understand how it is that there is so much
+beauty throughout nature; for this may be largely attributed to the
+agency of selection. That beauty, according to our sense of it, is not
+universal, must be admitted by every one who will look at some venomous
+snakes, at some fishes, and at certain hideous bats with a distorted
+resemblance to the human face. Sexual selection has given the most
+brilliant colours, elegant patterns, and other ornaments to the males,
+and sometimes to both sexes of many birds, butterflies and other
+animals. With birds it has often rendered the voice of the male musical
+to the female, as well as to our ears. Flowers and fruit have been
+rendered conspicuous by brilliant colours in contrast with the green
+foliage, in order that the flowers may be easily seen, visited and
+fertilized by insects, and the seeds disseminated by birds. How it comes
+that certain colours, sounds and forms should give pleasure to man and
+the lower animals, that is, how the sense of beauty in its simplest form
+was first acquired, we do not know any more than how certain odours and
+flavours were first rendered agreeable.
+
+As natural selection acts by competition, it adopts and improves the
+inhabitants of each country only in relation to their co-inhabitants; so
+that we need feel no surprise at the species of any one country,
+although on the ordinary view supposed to have been created and
+specially adapted for that country, being beaten and supplanted by the
+naturalized productions from another land. Nor ought we marvel if all
+the contrivances in nature be not, as far as we can judge, absolutely
+perfect, as in the case even of the human eye; or if some of them be
+abhorrent to our ideas of fitness. We need not marvel at the sting of
+the bee, when used against an enemy, causing the bee's own death; at
+drones being produced in such great numbers for one single act, and
+being then slaughtered by their sterile sisters; at the astonishing
+waste of pollen by our fir trees; at the instinctive hatred of the queen
+bee for her own fertile daughters; at ichneumonidae feeding within the
+living bodies of caterpillars; or at other such cases. The wonder
+indeed, is, on the theory of natural selection, that more cases of the
+want of absolute perfection have not been detected.
+
+The complex and little known laws governing production of varieties are
+the same, as far as we can judge, with the laws which have governed the
+production of distinct species. In both cases physical conditions seem
+to have produced some direct and definite effect, but how much we cannot
+say. Thus, when varieties enter any new station, they occasionally
+assume some of the characters proper to the species of that station.
+With both varieties and species, use and disuse seem to have produced a
+considerable effect; for it is impossible to resist this conclusion when
+we look, for instance, at the logger-headed duck, which has wings
+incapable of flight, in nearly the same condition as in the domestic
+duck; or when we look at the burrowing tucu-tucu, which is occasionally
+blind, and then at certain moles, which are habitually blind and have
+their eyes covered with skin; or when we look at the blind animals
+inhabiting the dark caves of America and Europe. With varieties and
+species, correlated variation seems to have played an important part, so
+that when one part has been modified other parts have been necessarily
+modified. With both varieties and species, reversions to long-lost
+characters occasionally occur. How inexplicable on the theory of
+creation is the occasional appearance of stripes on the shoulders and
+legs of the several species of the horse-genus and of their hybrids! How
+simply is this fact explained if we believe that these species are all
+descended from a striped progenitor, in the same manner as the several
+domestic breeds of the pigeon are descended from the blue and barred
+rock pigeon!
+
+On the ordinary view of each species having been independently created,
+why should specific characters, or those by which the species of the
+same genus differ from each other, be more variable than generic
+characters in which they all agree? Why, for instance, should the colour
+of a flower be more likely to vary in any one species of genus, if the
+other species possess differently coloured flowers, than if all
+possessed the same coloured flowers? If species are only well-marked
+varieties, of which the characters have become in a high degree
+permanent, we can understand this fact; for they have already varied
+since they branched off from a common progenitor in certain characters,
+by which they have come to be specifically different from each other;
+therefore these same characters would be more likely again to vary than
+the generic characters which have been inherited without change for an
+immense period. It is inexplicable on the theory of creation why a part
+developed in a very unusual manner in one species alone of a genus, and
+therefore, as we may naturally infer, of great importance to that
+species, should be eminently liable to variation; but, on our view,
+this part has undergone, since the several species branched off from a
+common progenitor, an unusual amount of variability and modification,
+and therefore we might expect the part generally to be still variable.
+But a part may be developed in the most unusual manner, like the wing of
+a bat, and yet not be more variable than any other structure, if the
+part be common to many subordinate forms, that is, if it has been
+inherited for a very long period; for in this case it will have been
+rendered constant by long-continued natural selection.
+
+Glancing at instincts, marvellous as some are, they offer no greater
+difficulty than do corporeal structures on the theory of the natural
+selection of successive, slight, but profitable modifications. We can
+thus understand why nature moves by graduated steps in endowing certain
+animals of the same class with their several instincts. I have attempted
+to show how much light the principle of gradation throws on the
+admirable architectural powers of the hive-bee. Habit no doubt often
+comes into play in modifying instincts; but it certainly is not
+indispensable, as we see in the case of neuter insects, which leave no
+progeny to inherit the effects of long-continued habit. On the view of
+all the species of the same genus having descended from a common parent,
+and having inherited much in common, we can understand how it is that
+allied species, when placed under widely different conditions of life,
+yet follow nearly the same instincts; why the thrushes of temperate and
+tropical South America, for instance, line their nests with mud like our
+British species. On the view of instincts having been slowly acquired
+through natural selection, we need not marvel at some instincts being
+not perfect and liable to mistakes, and at many instincts causing other
+animals to suffer.
+
+If species be only well-marked and permanent varieties, we can see at
+once why their crossed offspring should follow the same complex laws in
+their degrees and kinds of resemblance to their parents--in being
+absorbed into each other by successive crosses, and in other such
+points--as do the crossed offspring of acknowledged varieties. This
+similarity would be a strange fact, if species had been independently
+created and varieties had been produced through secondary laws.
+
+If we admit that the geological record is imperfect to an extreme
+degree, then the facts, which the record does give, strongly support the
+theory of descent with modification. New species have come on the stage
+slowly and at successive intervals; and the amount of change after equal
+intervals of time, is widely different in different groups. The
+extinction of species and of whole groups of species, which has played
+so conspicuous a part in the history of the organic world, almost
+inevitably follows from the principle of natural selection; for old
+forms are supplanted by new and improved forms. Neither single species
+nor groups of species reappear when the chain of ordinary generation is
+once broken. The gradual diffusion of dominant forms, with the slow
+modification of their descendants, causes the forms of life, after long
+intervals of time, to appear as if they had changed simultaneously
+throughout the world. The fact of the fossil remains of each formation
+being in some degree intermediate in character between the fossils in
+the formations above and below, is simply explained by their
+intermediate position in the chain of descent. The grand fact that all
+extinct beings can be classed with all recent beings, naturally follows
+from the living and the extinct being the offspring of common parents.
+As species have generally diverged in character during their long course
+of descent and modification, we can understand why it is that the more
+ancient forms, or early progenitors of each group, so often occupy a
+position in some degree intermediate between existing groups. Recent
+forms are generally looked upon as being, on the whole, higher in the
+scale of organization than ancient forms; and they must be higher, in so
+far as the later and more improved forms have conquered the older and
+less improved forms in the struggle for life; they have also generally
+had their organs more specialized for different functions. This fact is
+perfectly compatible with numerous beings still retaining simple but
+little improved structures, fitted for simple conditions of life; it is
+likewise compatible with some forms having retrograded in organization,
+by having become at each stage of descent better fitted for new and
+degraded habits of life. Lastly, the wonderful law of the long endurance
+of allied forms on the same continent--of marsupials [as kangaroos] in
+Australia, of edentata [as armadillos, sloths, and anteaters] in
+America, and other such cases--is intelligible, for within the same
+country the existing and the extinct will be closely allied by descent.
+
+Looking to geographical distribution, if we admit that there has been
+during the long course of ages much migration from one part of the world
+to another, owing to former climatical and geographical changes and to
+the many occasional and unknown means of dispersal, then we can
+understand, on the theory of descent with modification, most of the
+great leading facts in distribution. We can see why there should be so
+striking a parallelism in the distribution of organic beings throughout
+space, and in their geological succession throughout time; for in both
+cases the beings have been connected by the bond of ordinary generation,
+and the means of modification have been the same. We see the full
+meaning of the wonderful fact, which has struck every traveller, namely,
+that on the same continent, under the most diverse conditions, under
+heat and cold, on mountain and lowland, on deserts and marshes, most of
+the inhabitants within each great class are plainly related; for they
+are the descendants of the same progenitors and early colonists. On this
+same principle of former migration, combined in most cases with
+modification, we can understand by the aid of the Glacial period, the
+identity of some few plants and the close alliance of many others, on
+the most distant mountains, and in the northern and southern temperate
+zones; and likewise the close alliance of some of the inhabitants of the
+sea in the northern and southern temperate latitudes, though separated
+by the whole inter-tropical ocean. Although two countries may present
+physical conditions as closely similar as the same species ever acquire,
+we need feel no surprise at their inhabitants being widely different, if
+they have been for a long period completely sundered from each other;
+for as the relation of organism to organism is the most important of all
+relations, and as the two countries will have received colonists at
+various periods and in different proportions, from some other country or
+from each other, the course of modification in the two areas will
+inevitably have been different.
+
+On this view of migration, with subsequent modification, we see why
+oceanic islands are inhabited by only few species, but of these, why
+many are peculiar or endemic forms. We clearly see why species belonging
+to those groups of animals which cannot cross wide spaces of the ocean,
+as frogs and terrestrial mammals, do not inhabit oceanic islands; and
+why, on the other hand, new and peculiar species of bats, animals which
+can traverse the ocean, are often found on islands far distant from any
+continent. Such cases as the presence of peculiar species of bats on
+oceanic islands and the absence of all other terrestrial mammals, are
+facts utterly inexplicable on the theory of independent acts of
+creation.
+
+The existence of closely allied representative species in any two areas,
+implies on the theory of descent with modification, that the same
+parent-forms formerly inhabited both areas: and we almost invariably
+find that wherever many closely allied species inhabit two areas, some
+identical species are still common to both. Wherever many closely allied
+yet distant species occur, doubtful forms and varieties belonging to the
+same groups likewise occur. It is a rule of high generality that the
+inhabitants of each area are related to the inhabitants of the nearest
+source whence immigrants might have been derived. We see this in the
+striking relation of nearly all the plants and animals of the Galapagos
+Archipelago, of Juan Fernandez, and of the other American islands, to
+the plants and animals of the neighbouring American mainland; and of
+those of the Cape Verde Archipelago, and of the other African islands to
+the African mainland. It must be admitted that these facts receive no
+explanation on the theory of creation.
+
+The fact, as we have seen, that all past and present organic beings can
+be arranged within a few great classes, in groups subordinate to groups,
+and with the extinct groups often falling in between the recent groups,
+is intelligible on the theory of natural selection with its
+contingencies of extinction and divergence of character. On these same
+principles we see how it is that the mutual affinities of the forms
+within each class are so complex and circuitous. We see why certain
+characters are far more serviceable than others for classification; why
+adaptive characters derived from rudimentary parts, though of no service
+to the beings, are often of high classificatory value; and why
+embryological characters are often the most valuable of all. The real
+affinities of all organic beings, in contradistinction to their adaptive
+resemblances, are due to inheritance or community of descent. The
+Natural System is a genealogical arrangement, with the acquired grades
+of difference, marked by the terms, varieties, species, genera,
+families, etc.; and we have to discover the lines of descent by the most
+permanent characters, whatever they may be, and of however slight vital
+importance.
+
+The similar framework of bones in the hand of a man, wing of a bat, fin
+of the porpoise, and leg of the horse--the same number of vertebrae
+forming the neck of the giraffe and of the elephant--and innumerable
+other such facts, at once explain themselves on the theory of descent
+with slow and slight successive modifications. The similarity of pattern
+in the wing and in the leg of a bat, though used for such different
+purpose--in the jaws and legs of a crab--in the petals, stamens, and
+pistils of a flower, is likewise, to a large extent, intelligible on
+the view of the gradual modification of parts or organs, which were
+aboriginally alike in an early progenitor in each of these classes. On
+the principle of successive variations not always supervening at an
+early age, and being inherited at a corresponding not early period of
+life, we clearly see why the embryos of mammals, birds, reptiles, and
+fishes should be so closely similar, and so unlike the adult forms. We
+may cease marvelling at the embryo of an air-breathing mammal or bird
+having branchial slits and arteries running in loops, like those of a
+fish which has to breathe the air dissolved in water by the aid of
+well-developed branchiae [gills].
+
+Disuse, aided sometimes by natural selection, will often have reduced
+organs when rendered useless under changed habits or conditions of life;
+and we can understand on this view the meaning of rudimentary organs.
+But disuse and selection will generally act on each creature, when it
+has come to maturity and has to play its full part in the struggle for
+existence, and will thus have little power in an organ during early
+life; hence the organ will not be reduced or rendered rudimentary at
+this early age. The calf, for instance, has inherited teeth, which never
+cut through the gums of the upper jaw, from an early progenitor having
+well-developed teeth; and we may believe, that the teeth in the mature
+animal were formerly reduced by disuse, owing to the tongue and palate,
+or lips, having become excellently fitted through natural selection to
+browse without their aid; whereas in the calf, the teeth have been left
+unaffected, and on the principle of inheritance at corresponding ages
+have been inherited from a remote period to the present day. On the view
+of each organism with all its separate parts having been specially
+created, how utterly inexplicable is it that organs bearing the plain
+stamp of inutility, such as the teeth in the embryonic calf or the
+shrivelled wings under the soldered wing covers of many beetles, should
+so frequently occur. Nature may be said to have taken pains to reveal
+her scheme of modification, by means of rudimentary organs, of
+embryological and homologous [corresponding] structures, but we are too
+blind to understand her meaning.
+
+I have now recapitulated the facts and considerations which have
+thoroughly convinced me that species have been modified, during a long
+course of descent. This has been effected chiefly through the natural
+selection of numerous successive, slight, favourable variations; aided
+in an important manner by the inherited effects of the use and disuse of
+parts; and in an unimportant manner, that is, in relation to adaptive
+structures, whether past or present, by the direct action of external
+conditions, and by variations which seem to us in our ignorance to arise
+spontaneously. It appears that I formerly underrated the frequency and
+value of these latter forms of variation, as leading to permanent
+modifications of structure independently of natural selection. But as
+my conclusions have lately been much misrepresented, and it has been
+stated that I attribute the modification of species exclusively to
+natural selection, I may be permitted to remark that in the first
+edition of this work, and subsequently, I placed in a most conspicuous,
+position--namely, at the close of the Introduction--the following words:
+"I am convinced that natural selection has been the main but not the
+exclusive means of modification." This has been of no avail. Great is
+the power of steady misrepresentation; but the history of science shows
+that fortunately this power does not long endure.
+
+It can hardly be supposed that a false theory would explain, in so
+satisfactory a manner as does the theory of natural selection, the
+several large classes of facts above specified. It has recently been
+objected that this is an unsafe method of arguing; but it is a method
+used in judging the common events of life, and has often been used by
+the greatest natural philosophers. The undulatory theory of light has
+thus been arrived at; and the belief in the revolution of the earth on
+its own axis was until lately supported by hardly any direct evidence.
+It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far
+higher problems of the essence of the origin of life. Who can explain
+what is the essence of the attraction of gravity? No one now objects to
+following out the results consequent on this unknown element of
+attraction; notwithstanding that Leibnitz formerly accused Newton of
+introducing "occult qualities and miracles into philosophy."
+
+I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock
+the religious feelings of any one. It is satisfactory, as showing how
+transient such impressions are, to remember that the greatest discovery
+ever made by man, namely, the law of the attraction of gravity, was also
+attacked by Leibnitz, "as subversive of natural, and inferentially of
+revealed religion." A celebrated author and divine has written to me
+that "he has gradually learned to see that it is just as noble a
+conception of the Deity to believe that He created a few original forms
+capable of self-development into other and needful forms, as to believe
+that He required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by
+the action of His laws."
+
+Why, it may be asked, until recently did nearly all the most eminent
+living naturalists and geologists disbelieve in the mutability of
+species? It cannot be asserted that organic beings in a state of nature
+are subject to no variation; it cannot be proved that the amount of
+variation in the course of long ages is a limited quantity; no clear
+distinction has been, or can be, drawn between species and well-marked
+varieties. It cannot be maintained that species when intercrossed are
+invariably sterile and varieties invariably fertile; or that sterility
+is a special endowment and sign of creation. The belief that species
+were immutable productions was almost unavoidable as long as the
+history of the world was thought to be of short duration; and now that
+we have acquired some idea of the lapse of time, we are too apt to
+assume, without proof, that the geological record is so perfect that it
+would have afforded us plain evidence of the mutation of species, if
+they had undergone mutation.
+
+But the chief cause of our natural unwillingness to admit that one
+species has given birth to other and distinct species, is that we are
+always slow in admitting great changes of which we do not see the steps.
+The difficulty is the same as that felt by so many geologists, when
+Lyell first insisted that long lines of inland cliffs had been formed,
+and great valleys excavated, by the agencies which we still see at work.
+The mind cannot possibly grasp the full meaning of the term of even a
+million years; it cannot add up and perceive the full effects of many
+slight variations, accumulated during an almost infinite number of
+generations.
+
+Although I am fully convinced of the truth of the views given in this
+volume under the form of an abstract, I by no means expect to convince
+experienced naturalists whose minds are stocked with a multitude of
+facts all viewed, during a long course of years, from a point of view
+directly opposite to mine. It is so easy to hide our ignorance under
+such expressions as the "plan of creation," "unity of design," etc., and
+to think that we give an explanation when we only restate a fact. Any
+one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained
+difficulties than to the explanation of a certain number of facts will
+certainly reject the theory. A few naturalists, endowed with much
+flexibility of mind, and who have already begun to doubt the
+immutability of species, may be influenced by this volume; but I look
+with confidence to the future, to young and rising naturalists, who will
+be able to view both sides of the question with impartiality. Whoever is
+led to believe that species are mutable will do good service by
+conscientiously expressing his conviction; for thus only can the load of
+prejudice by which this subject is overwhelmed be removed.
+
+Several eminent naturalists have of late published their belief that a
+multitude of reputed species in each genus are not real species; but
+that other species are real, that is, have been independently created.
+This seems to me a strange conclusion to arrive at. They admit that a
+multitude of forms, which till lately they themselves thought were
+special creations, and which are still thus looked at by the majority of
+naturalists, and which consequently have all the external characteristic
+features of true species--they admit that these have been produced by
+variation, but they refuse to extend the same view to other and slightly
+different forms. Nevertheless, they do not pretend that they can define,
+or even conjecture, which are the created forms of life, and which are
+those produced by secondary laws. They admit variation as a true cause
+in one case, they arbitrarily reject it in another, without assigning
+any distinction in the two cases. The day will come when this will be
+given as a curious illustration of the blindness of preconceived
+opinion. These authors seem no more startled at a miraculous act of
+creation than at an ordinary birth. But do they really believe that at
+innumerable periods in the earth's history certain elemental atoms have
+been commanded suddenly to flash into living tissues? Do they believe
+that at each supposed act of creation one individual or many were
+produced? Were all the infinite numerous kinds of animals and plants
+created as eggs or seed, or as full grown? and in the case of mammals,
+were they created bearing the false marks of nourishment from the
+mother's womb? Undoubtedly some of these same questions cannot be
+answered by those who believe in the appearance or creation of only a
+few forms of life, or of some one form alone. It has been maintained by
+several authors that it is as easy to believe in the creation of a
+million beings as of one; but Maupertuis's philosophical axiom "of least
+action" leads the mind more willingly to admit the smaller number; and
+certainly we ought not to believe that innumerable beings within each
+great class have been created with plain, but deceptive, marks of
+descent from a single parent.
+
+As a record of a former state of things, I have retained in the
+foregoing paragraphs, and elsewhere, several sentences which imply that
+naturalists believe in the separate creation of each species; and I have
+been much censured for having thus expressed myself. But undoubtedly
+this was the general belief when the first edition of the present work
+appeared. I formerly spoke to very many naturalists on the subject of
+evolution, and never once met with any sympathetic agreement. It is
+probable that some did then believe in evolution, but they were either
+silent or expressed themselves so ambiguously that it was not easy to
+understand their meaning. Now, things are wholly changed, and almost
+every naturalist admits the great principle of evolution. There are,
+however, some who still think that species have suddenly given birth,
+through quite unexplained means, to new and totally different forms.
+But, as I have attempted to show, weighty evidence can be opposed to the
+admission of great and abrupt modifications. Under a scientific point of
+view, and as leading to further investigation, but little advantage is
+gained by believing that new forms are suddenly developed in an
+inexplicable manner from old and widely different forms, over the old
+belief in the creation of species from the dust of the earth.
+
+It may be asked how far I extend the doctrine of the modification of
+species. The question is difficult to answer, because the more distinct
+the forms are which we consider, by so much the arguments in favour of
+community of descent become fewer in number and less in force. But some
+arguments of the greatest weight extend very far. All the members of
+whole classes are connected together by a chain of affinities, and all
+can be classed on the same principle, in groups subordinate to groups.
+Fossil remains sometimes tend to fill up very wide intervals between
+existing orders.
+
+Organs in a rudimentary condition plainly show that an early progenitor
+had the organ in a fully developed condition, and this in some cases
+implies an enormous amount of modification in the descendants.
+Throughout whole classes various structures are formed on the same
+pattern, and at a very early age the embryos closely resemble each
+other. Therefore I cannot doubt that the theory of descent with
+modification embraces all the members of the same great class or
+kingdom. I believe that animals are descended from at most only four or
+five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number.
+
+Analogy would lead me one step further, namely, to the belief that all
+animals and plants are descended from some one prototype. But analogy
+may be a deceitful guide. Nevertheless all living things have much in
+common, in their chemical composition, their cellular structure, their
+laws of growth, and their liability to injurious influences. We see this
+even in so trifling a fact as that the same poison often similarly
+affects plants and animals; or that the poison secreted by the gall-fly
+produces monstrous growths on the wild rose or oak tree. With all
+organic beings, excepting perhaps some of the very lowest, sexual
+reproduction seems to be essentially similar. With all, as far as is at
+present known, the germinal vesicle is the same; so that all organisms
+start from a common origin. If we look even to the two main
+divisions--namely, to the animal and vegetable kingdoms--certain low
+forms are so far intermediate in character that naturalists have
+disputed to which kingdom they should be referred. As Professor Asa Gray
+has remarked, "the spores and other reproductive bodies of many of the
+lower algae may claim to have first a characteristically animal, and then
+an unequivocally vegetable existence." Therefore, on the principle of
+natural selection with divergence of character, it does not seem
+incredible that, from some such low and intermediate form, both animals
+and plants may have been developed; and, if we admit this, we must
+likewise admit that all the organic beings which have ever lived on this
+earth may be descended from some one primordial form. But this inference
+is chiefly grounded on analogy, and it is immaterial whether or not it
+is accepted. No doubt it is possible, as Mr. G. H. Lewes has urged, that
+at the first commencement of life many different forms were evolved; but
+if so, we may conclude that only a very few have left modified
+descendants. For, as I have recently remarked in regard to the members
+of each great kingdom, such as the Vertebrata, Articulata, etc., we
+have distinct evidence in their embryological, homologous, and
+rudimentary structures, that within each kingdom all the members are
+descended from a single progenitor.
+
+When the views advanced by me in this volume, and by Mr. Wallace, or
+when analogous views on the origin of species are generally admitted, we
+can dimly foresee that there will be a considerable revolution in
+natural history. Systematists will be able to pursue their labours as at
+present; but they will not be incessantly haunted by the shadowy doubt
+whether this or that form be a true species. This, I feel sure and I
+speak after experience, will be no slight relief. The endless disputes
+whether or not some fifty species of British brambles are good species
+will cease. Systematists will have only to decide (not that this will be
+easy) whether any form be sufficiently constant and distinct from other
+forms, to be capable of definition; and if definable, whether the
+differences be sufficiently important to deserve a specific name. This
+latter point will become a far more essential consideration than it is
+at present; for differences, however slight, between any two forms, if
+not blended by intermediate gradations, are looked at by most
+naturalists as sufficient to raise both forms to the rank of species.
+
+Hereafter we shall be compelled to acknowledge that the only distinction
+between species and well-marked varieties is, that the latter are known,
+or believed to be connected at the present day by intermediate
+gradations, whereas species were formerly thus connected. Hence, without
+rejecting the considerations of the present existence of intermediate
+gradations between any two forms, we shall be led to weigh more
+carefully and to value higher the actual amount of difference between
+them. It is quite possible that forms now generally acknowledged to be
+merely varieties may hereafter be thought worthy of specific names; and
+in this case scientific and common language will come into accordance.
+In short, we shall have to treat species in the same manner as those
+naturalists treat genera, who admit that genera are merely artificial
+combinations made for convenience. This may not be a cheering prospect;
+but we shall at least be freed from the vain search for the undiscovered
+and undiscoverable essence of the term species.
+
+The other and more general departments of natural history will rise
+greatly in interest. The terms used by naturalists, of affinity,
+relationship, community of type, paternity, morphology [the science of
+organic form], adaptive characters, rudimentary and aborted organs,
+etc., will cease to be metaphorical and will have a plain signification.
+When we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship,
+as something wholly beyond his comprehension; when we regard every
+production of nature as one which has had a long history; when we
+contemplate every complex structure and instinct as the summing up of
+many contrivances, each useful to the possessor, in the same way as any
+great mechanical invention is the summing up of the labour, the
+experience, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen; when
+we thus view each organic being, how far more interesting--I speak from
+experience--does the study of natural history become!
+
+A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will be opened, on the
+causes and laws of variation, on correlation, on the effects of use and
+disuse, on the direct action of external conditions, and so forth. The
+study of domestic productions will rise immensely in value. A new
+variety raised by man will be a more important and interesting subject
+for study than one more species added to the infinitude of already
+recorded species. Our classifications will come to be, as far as they
+can be so made, genealogies; and will then truly give what may be called
+the plan of creation. The rules for classifying will no doubt become
+simpler when we have a definite object in view. We possess no pedigree
+or armorial bearings; and we have to discover and trace the many
+diverging lines of descent in our natural genealogies, by characters of
+any kind which have long been inherited. Rudimentary[1] organs will
+speak infallibly with respect to the nature of long-lost structures.
+Species and groups of species which are called aberrant, and which may
+fancifully be called living fossils, will aid us in forming a picture of
+the ancient forms of life. Embryology will often reveal to us the
+structure, in some degree obscured, of the prototypes of each great
+class.
+
+When we can feel assured that all the individuals of the same species,
+and all the closely allied species of most genera, have, within a not
+very remote period descended from one parent, and have migrated from
+some one birth-place; and when we better know the many means of
+migration, then, by the light which geology now throws, and will
+continue to throw, on former changes of climate and of the level of the
+land, we shall surely be enabled to trace in an admirable manner the
+former migrations of the inhabitants of the whole world. Even at
+present, by comparing the differences between the inhabitants of the sea
+on the opposite sides of a continent, and the nature of the various
+inhabitants on that continent in relation to their apparent means of
+immigration, some light can be thrown on ancient geography.
+
+The noble science of geology loses glory from the extreme imperfection
+of the record. The crust of the earth, with its imbedded remains, must
+not be looked at as a well-filled museum, but as a poor collection made
+at hazard and at rare intervals. The accumulation of each great
+fossiliferous formation will be recognized as having depended on an
+unusual occurrence of favourable circumstances, and the blank intervals
+between the successive stages as having been of vast duration. But we
+shall be able to gauge with some security the duration of these
+intervals by a comparison of the preceding and succeeding organic forms.
+We must be cautious in attempting to correlate as strictly
+contemporaneous two formations, which do not include many identical
+species, by the general succession of the forms of life.
+
+As species are produced and exterminated by slowly acting and still
+existing causes, and not by miraculous acts of creation; and as the most
+important of all causes of organic change is one which is almost
+independent of altered and perhaps suddenly altered physical conditions,
+namely, the mutual relation of organism to organism--the improvement of
+one organism entailing the improvement or the extermination of others;
+it follows, that the amount of organic change in the fossils of
+consecutive formations probably serves as a fair measure of the
+relative, though not actual lapse of time. A number of species, however,
+keeping in a body might remain for a long period unchanged, while within
+the same period, several of these species, by migrating into new
+countries and coming into competition with foreign associates, might
+become modified; so that we must not overrate the accuracy of organic
+change as a measure of time.
+
+In the future I see open fields for far more important researches.
+Psychology will be securely based on the foundation already well laid by
+Mr. Herbert Spencer, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental
+power and capacity by gradation. Much light will be thrown on the
+origin of man and his history.
+
+Authors of the highest eminence seem to be fully satisfied with the view
+that each species has been independently created. To my mind it accords
+better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator,
+that the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants
+of the world should have been due to secondary causes, like those
+determining the birth and death of the individual. When I view all
+beings as not special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some
+few beings which lived long before the first bed of the Cambrian system
+was deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled. Judging from the
+past, we may safely infer that not one living species will transmit its
+unaltered likeness to a distant futurity. And of the species now living
+very few will transmit progeny of any kind to a far distant futurity;
+for the manner in which all organic beings are grouped, shows that the
+greater number of species in each genus, and all the species in many
+genera, have left no descendants, but have become utterly extinct. We
+can so far take a prophetic glance into futurity as to foretell that it
+will be the common and widely spread species, belonging to the larger
+and dominant groups within each class, which will ultimately prevail and
+procreate new and dominant species. As all the living forms of life are
+the lineal descendants of those which lived long before the Cambrian
+epoch, we may feel certain that the ordinary succession by generation
+has never once been broken, and that no cataclysm has desolated the
+whole world. Hence, we may look with some confidence to a secure future
+of great length. And as natural selection works solely by and for the
+good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to
+progress toward perfection.
+
+It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many
+plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various
+insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth,
+and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different
+from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner,
+have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws taken in the
+largest sense, being growth with reproduction; Inheritance which is
+almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct
+action of the conditions of life, and from use and disuse: a Ratio of
+Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence
+to Natural Selection, entailing divergence of Character and the
+Extinction of less improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from
+famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of
+conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly
+follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several
+powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms
+or into one; and that, while this planet has gone circling on according
+to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms
+most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] _Vestigial_ is now preferred to _rudimentary_ as a term.--Ed.
+
+
+
+
+HOW "THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES" CAME TO BE WRITTEN.
+
+     [An extract from the autobiography of Charles Darwin, in "The
+     Life and Letters of Charles Darwin," New York, D. Appleton &
+     Co.]
+
+
+From September, 1854, I devoted my whole time to arranging my huge pile
+of notes, to observing and to experimenting in relation to the
+transmutation of species. During the voyage of the _Beagle_ I had been
+deeply impressed by discovering in the Pampean formation great fossil
+animals covered with armour like that on the existing armadillos;
+secondly, by the manner in which closely allied animals replace one
+another in proceeding southwards over the continent; and, thirdly, by
+the South American character of most of the productions of the Galapagos
+Archipelago, and more especially by the manner in which these differ
+slightly on each island of the group, none of these islands appearing to
+be very ancient in a geological sense.
+
+It was evident that such facts as these, as well as many others, could
+only be explained on the supposition that species gradually become
+modified; and the subject haunted me. But it was equally evident that
+neither the action of the surrounding conditions, nor the will of the
+organisms (especially in the case of plants) could account for the
+innumerable cases in which organisms of every kind are beautifully
+adapted to their habits of life--for instance, a woodpecker or a
+tree-frog to climb trees, or a seed for dispersal by hooks or plumes. I
+had always been much struck by such adaptations, and until these could
+be explained it seemed to me almost useless to endeavour to prove by
+indirect evidence that species have been modified.
+
+After my return to England it appeared to me that by following the
+example of Lyell in geology,[2] and by collecting all facts that bore in
+any way on the variation of animals and plants under domestication and
+nature, some light might perhaps be thrown on the whole subject. My
+first note-book was opened in July, 1837. I worked on true Baconian
+principles, and without any theory collected facts on a wholesale scale,
+more especially with respect to domesticated productions, by printed
+enquiries, by conversation with skilful breeders and gardeners and by
+extensive reading. When I see the list of books of all kinds which I
+read and abstracted, including whole series of journals and
+translations, I am surprised at my industry. I soon perceived that
+selection was the keystone of man's success in making useful races of
+animals and plants. But how selection could be applied to organisms
+living in a state of nature remained for some time a mystery to me.
+
+In October, 1838, that is fifteen months after I had begun my systematic
+enquiry, I happened to read for amusement "Malthus on Population," and
+being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which
+everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of
+animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances
+favourable variations would tend to be preserved and unfavourable ones
+to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of a new
+species. Here then I had at last got a theory by which to work; but I
+was so anxious to avoid prejudice that I determined not for some time to
+write even the briefest sketch of it. In June, 1842, I first allowed
+myself the satisfaction of writing a very brief abstract of my theory in
+pencil in 35 pages; and this was enlarged during the summer of 1844 into
+one of 230 pages, which I had fairly copied out and still possess.
+
+But at that time I overlooked one problem of great importance; and it is
+astonishing to me, except on the principle of Columbus and his egg, how
+I could have overlooked it and its solution. This problem is the
+tendency in organic beings descended from the same stock to diverge in
+character as they become, modified. That they have diverged greatly is
+obvious from the manner in which species of all kinds can be classed
+under genera, genera under families, families under sub-orders and so
+forth; and I can remember the very spot on the road, whilst in my
+carriage, when to my joy the solution occurred to me; and this was long
+after I had come to Down. This solution, as I believe, is that the
+modified offspring of all dominant and increasing forms tend to become
+adapted to many and highly diversified places in the economy of nature.
+
+Early in 1856 Lyell advised me to write out my views pretty fully, and I
+began at once to do so on a scale three or four times as extensive as
+that which was afterwards followed in my "Origin of Species;" yet it was
+only an abstract of the materials which I had collected and I got
+through about half the work on this scale. But my plans were overthrown,
+for early in the summer of 1858 Mr. Wallace, who was then in the Malay
+Archipelago, sent me an essay "On the tendency of varieties to depart
+indefinitely from the original type;" and this essay contained exactly
+the same theory as mine.[3] Mr. Wallace expressed the wish that if I
+thought well of his essay I should send it to Lyell for perusal.
+
+The circumstances under which I consented at the request of Lyell and
+Hooker to allow of an abstract from my MS., together with a letter to
+Asa Gray, dated September 5, 1857, to be published at the same time
+with Wallace's essay, are given in the "Journal of the Proceedings of
+the Linnean Society," 1858, p. 45. I was at first very unwilling to
+consent, as I thought Mr. Wallace might consider my doing so
+unjustifiable, for I did not then know how generous and noble was his
+disposition. The extract from my MS. and the letter to Asa Gray had
+neither been intended for publication, and were badly written. Mr.
+Wallace's essay, on the other hand, was admirably expressed and quite
+clear. Nevertheless, our joint productions excited very little
+attention, and the only published notice of them which I can remember
+was by Professor Haughton of Dublin, whose verdict was that all that was
+new in them was false, and what was true was old. This shows how
+necessary it is that any new idea should be explained at considerable
+length in order to arouse public attention.
+
+In September, 1858, I set to work by the strong advice of Lyell and
+Hooker to prepare a volume on the transmutation of species, but was
+often interrupted by ill health and short visits to Dr. Lane's
+delightful hydropathic establishment at Moor Park. I abstracted the MS.
+begun on a much larger scale in 1856, and completed the volume on the
+same reduced scale. It cost me thirteen months and ten days' hard labor.
+It was published under the title of the "Origin of Species," in
+November, 1859. Though considerably added to and corrected in the later
+editions, it has remained substantially the same book.
+
+It is no doubt the chief work of my life. It was from the first highly
+successful. The first small edition of 1,250 copies was sold on the day
+of publication, and a second edition of 3,000 copies soon afterwards.
+Sixteen thousand copies have now (1876) been sold in England; and
+considering how stiff a book it is, this is a large sale. It has been
+translated into almost every European tongue, even into such languages
+as Spanish, Bohemian, Polish and Russian. Even an essay in Hebrew has
+appeared on it, showing that the theory is contained in the Old
+Testament! The reviews were very numerous; for some time all that
+appeared on the "Origin" and on my related books, and these amount
+(excluding newspaper reviews) to 265; but after a time I gave up the
+attempt in despair. Many separate essays and books on the subject have
+appeared; and in Germany a catalogue or bibliography on "Darwinismus"
+has appeared every year or two.
+
+The success of the "Origin" may, I think, be attributed in large part to
+my having long before written two condensed sketches and to my having
+abstracted a much larger manuscript, which was itself an abstract. By
+this means I was enabled to select the more striking facts and
+conclusions. I had also, during many years followed a golden rule,
+namely, that whenever a published fact, a new observation or thought
+came across me, which was opposed to my general results, to make a
+memorandum of it without fail and at once; for I had found by experience
+that such facts and thoughts were far more apt to escape from the memory
+than favourable ones. Owing to this habit very few objections were
+raised against my views which I had not at least noticed and attempted
+to answer.
+
+It has sometimes been said that the success of the "Origin" proved "that
+the subject was in the air," or "that men's minds were prepared for it."
+I do not think that this is strictly true, for I occasionally sounded
+not a few naturalists, and never happened to come across a single one
+who seemed to doubt about the permanence of species. Even Lyell and
+Hooker, though they listened with interest to me, never seemed to agree.
+I tried once or twice to explain to able men what I meant by Natural
+Selection, but signally failed. What I believe was strictly true is that
+innumerable well-observed facts were stored in the minds of naturalists
+ready to take their proper places as soon as any theory which would
+receive them was sufficiently explained. Another element in the success
+of the book was its moderate size; and this I owe to the appearance of
+Mr. Wallace's essay; had I published on the scale on which I began to
+write in 1856, the book would have been four or five times as large as
+the "Origin," and very few would have had the patience to read it.
+
+I gained much by my delay an publishing from about, 1839, when the
+theory was clearly conceived, to 1859; and I lost nothing by it, for I
+cared very little whether men attributed most originality to me or
+Wallace; and his essay no doubt aided in the reception of the theory. I
+was forestalled in only one important point, which my vanity has always
+made me regret, namely, the explanation by means of the Glacial period
+of the presence of the same species of plants and of some few animals on
+distant mountain summits and in the arctic regions. This view pleased me
+so much that I wrote it out _in extenso_, and I believe that it was read
+by Hooker some years before E. Forbes published in 1846 his celebrated
+memoir on the subject. In the very few points in which we differed, I
+still think that I was in the right. I have never, of course, alluded in
+print to my having independently worked out this view.
+
+Hardly any point gave me so much satisfaction when I was at work on the
+"Origin," as the explanation of the wide difference in many classes
+between the embryo and the adult animal, and of the close resemblance of
+the embryos within the same class. No notice of this point was taken, as
+far as I remember, in the early reviews of the "Origin," and I recollect
+expressing my surprise on this head in a letter to Asa Gray. Within late
+years several reviewers have given the whole credit to Fritz Muller and
+Haeckel, who undoubtedly have worked it out much more fully and in some
+respects more correctly than I did. I had materials for a whole chapter
+on the subject, and I ought to have made the discussion longer; for it
+is clear that I failed to impress my readers; and he who succeeds in
+doing so deserves, in my opinion, all the credit.
+
+This leads me to remark that I have almost always been treated honestly
+by my reviewers, passing over those without scientific knowledge as not
+worthy of notice. My views have been grossly misrepresented, bitterly
+opposed and ridiculed, but this has been generally done as, I believe,
+in good faith. On the whole, I do not doubt that my works have been over
+and over again greatly overpraised. I rejoice that I have avoided
+controversies, and this I owe to Lyell, who many years ago, in reference
+to my geological works, strongly advised me never to get entangled in a
+controversy, as it rarely did any good and caused a miserable loss of
+time and temper.
+
+Whenever I have found out that I have blundered, or that my work has
+been imperfect, and when I have been contemptuously criticised, and even
+when I have been overpraised, so that I have felt mortified, it has been
+my greatest comfort to say hundreds of times to myself that "I have
+worked as hard and as well as I could, and no man can do more than
+this." I remember when in Good Success Bay, in Tierra del Fuego,
+thinking (and, I believe, that I wrote home to the effect) that I could
+not employ my life better than in adding a little to Natural Science.
+This I have done to the best of my abilities, and critics may say what
+they like, but they can not destroy this conviction.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[2] See Masterpieces of Science, Vol. I, "Earth and Sky," Sir Charles
+Lyell on Uniformity in geological change.
+
+[3] The essay appears in "Natural Selection," London, 1870.
+
+
+
+
+THE DESCENT OF MAN
+
+CHARLES DARWIN
+
+     [Concluding chapter of "The Descent of Man," New York, D.
+     Appleton & Co.]
+
+
+A brief summary will be sufficient to recall to the reader's mind the
+more salient points in this work. Many of the views which have been
+advanced are highly speculative, and some, no doubt, will prove
+erroneous; but I have in every case given the reasons which have led me
+to one view rather than to another. It seemed worth while to try how far
+the principle of evolution would throw light on some of the more complex
+problems in the natural history of man. False facts are highly injurious
+to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views,
+if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a
+salutary pleasure in proving their falseness; and, when this is done,
+one path toward error is closed and the road to truth is often at the
+same time opened.
+
+The main conclusion arrived at in this work, and now held by many
+naturalists who are well competent to form a sound judgment, is that man
+is descended from some less highly organized form. The grounds upon
+which this conclusion rests will never be shaken, for the close
+similarity between man and the lower animals in embryonic development,
+as well as in innumerable points of structure and constitution, both of
+high and of the most trifling importance--the rudiments which he
+retains, and the abnormal reversions to which he is occasionally
+liable--are facts which cannot be disputed. They have long been known,
+but, until recently, they told us nothing with respect to the origin of
+man. Now, when viewed by the light of our knowledge of the whole organic
+world, their meaning is unmistakable. The great principle of evolution
+stands up clear and firm when these groups of facts are considered in
+connection with others, such as the mutual affinities of the members of
+the same group, their geographical distribution in past and present
+times, and their geological succession. It is incredible that all these
+facts should speak falsely. He who is not content to look, like a
+savage, at the phenomena of Nature as disconnected, cannot any longer
+believe that man is the work of a separate act of creation. He will be
+forced to admit that the close resemblance of the embryo of man to that,
+for instance, of a dog--the construction of his skull, limbs and whole
+frame on the same plan with that of other mammals--the occasional
+appearance of various structures, for instance, of several distinct
+muscles, which man does not normally possess, but which are common to
+the Quadrumana--and a crowd of analogous facts--all point in the
+plainest manner to the conclusion that man is the co-descendant of other
+mammals of a common progenitor.
+
+We have seen that man incessantly presents individual differences in all
+parts of his body and in his mental faculties. These differences or
+variations seem to be induced by the same general causes, and to obey
+the same laws as with the lower animals. In both cases similar laws of
+inheritance prevail. Man tends to increase at a greater rate than his
+means of subsistence; consequently he is occasionally subjected to a
+severe struggle for existence, and natural selection will have effected
+whatever lies within its scope. A succession of strongly marked
+variations of a similar nature is by no means requisite; slight
+fluctuating differences in the individual suffice in the work of natural
+selection. We may feel assured that the inherited effects of the
+long-continued use or disuse of parts will have done much in the same
+direction with natural selection. Modifications formerly of importance,
+though no longer of any special use, are long-inherited. When one part
+is modified other parts change through the principle of correlation, of
+which we have instances in many curious cases of correlated
+monstrosities. Something may be attributed to the direct and definite
+action of the surrounding conditions of life, such as abundant food,
+heat or moisture; and, lastly, many characters of slight physiological
+importance, some indeed of considerable importance, have been gained
+through sexual selection.
+
+No doubt man, as well as every other animal, presents structures, which,
+as far as we can judge with our little knowledge, are not now of any
+service to him, nor to have been so during any former period of his
+existence, either in relation to his general conditions of life, or of
+one sex to the other. Such structures cannot be accounted for by any
+form of selection, or by the inherited effects of the use and disuse of
+parts. We know, however, that many strange and strongly marked
+peculiarities of structure occasionally appear in our domesticated
+productions, and if the unknown causes which produce them were to act
+more uniformly, they would probably become common to all the individuals
+of the species. We may hope hereafter to understand something about the
+causes of such occasional modifications, especially through the study of
+monstrosities; hence, the labours of experimentalists, such as those of
+M. Camille Dareste, are full of promise for the future. In general we
+can only say that the cause of each slight variation and of each
+monstrosity lies much more in the constitution of the organism than in
+the nature of the surrounding conditions; though new and changed
+conditions certainly play an important part in exciting organic changes
+of many kinds.
+
+Through the means just specified, aided perhaps by others as yet
+undiscovered, man has been raised to his present state. But since he
+attained to the rank of manhood, he has diverged into distinct races,
+or, as they may be more fitly called, subspecies. Some of these, such as
+the negro and European, are so distinct that, if specimens had been
+brought to a naturalist without any further information, they would
+undoubtedly have been considered by him as good and true species.
+Nevertheless, all the races agree in so many unimportant details of
+structure and in so many mental peculiarities, that these can be
+accounted for only by inheritance from a common progenitor; and a
+progenitor thus characterized would probably deserve to rank as man.
+
+It must not be supposed that the divergence of each race from the other
+races, and of all from a common stock, can be traced back to any one
+pair of progenitors. On the contrary, at every stage in the process of
+modification, all the individuals which were in any way best fitted for
+their conditions of life, though in different degrees, would have
+survived in greater numbers than the less well-fitted. The process would
+have been like that followed by man, when he does not intentionally
+select particular individuals, but breeds from all the superior
+individuals and neglects all the inferior individuals. He thus slowly
+but surely modifies his stock and unconsciously forms a new strain. So
+with respect to modifications acquired independently of selection, and
+due to variations arising from the nature of the organism and the
+action of the surrounding conditions, or from changed habits of life, no
+single pair will have been modified in a much greater degree than the
+other pairs which inhabit the same country, for all will have been
+continually blended through free intercrossing.
+
+By considering the embryological structure of man--the homologies
+[parallels] which he presents with the lower animals--the rudiments
+which he retains--and the reversions to which he is liable, we can
+partly recall in imagination the former condition of our early
+progenitors; and can approximately place them in their proper place in
+the zoological series. We thus learn that man is descended from a hairy,
+tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits [living on or among
+trees] and an inhabitant of the Old World. This creature, if its whole
+structure had been examined by a naturalist, would have been classed
+among the Quadrumana, as surely as the still more ancient progenitor of
+the Old and New World monkeys. The Quadrumana and all the higher mammals
+are probably derived from an ancient marsupial animal [usually provided
+with a pouch for the reception and nourishment of the young, as in the
+case of the kangaroo] and this through a long line of diversified forms,
+from some reptile-like or some amphibian-like creature, and this again
+from some fish-like animal. In the dim obscurity of the past we can see
+that the early progenitor of all the Vertebrata must have been an
+aquatic animal, provided with branchiae [gills], with the two sexes
+united in the same individual, and with the most important organs of the
+body (such as the brain and heart) imperfectly or not at all developed.
+This animal seems to have been more like the larvae of the existing
+marine Ascidians than any other known form.
+
+The greatest difficulty which presents itself when we are driven to the
+above conclusion on the origin of man is the high standard of
+intellectual power and of moral disposition which he has attained. But
+every one who admits the principle of evolution must see that the mental
+powers of the higher animals, which are the same in kind with those of
+man, though so different in degree, are capable of advancement. Thus the
+interval between the mental powers of one of the higher apes and of a
+fish, or between those of an ant and scale-insect, is immense; yet their
+development does not offer any special difficulty; for with our
+domesticated animals the mental faculties are certainly variable, and
+the variations are inherited. No one doubts that they are of the utmost
+importance to animals in a state of nature. Therefore, the conditions
+are favourable for their development through natural selection.
+
+The same conclusion may be extended to man; the intellect must have been
+all-important to him, even at a very remote period, as enabling him to
+invent and use language, to make weapons, tools, traps, etc., whereby
+with the aid of his social habits he long ago became the most dominant
+of all living creatures.
+
+A great stride in the development of the intellect will have followed,
+as soon as the half-art and half-instinct of language came into use; for
+the continued use of language will have reacted on the brain and
+produced an inherited effect; and this again will have reacted on the
+improvement of language. As Mr. Chauncey Wright has well remarked, the
+largeness of the brain in man relatively to his body, compared with the
+lower animals, may be attributed in chief part to the early use of some
+simple form of language--that wonderful engine which affixes signs to
+all sorts of objects and qualities, and excites trains of thought which
+would never arise from the mere impression of the senses, or if they did
+arise could not be followed out. The higher intellectual powers of man,
+such as those of ratiocination, abstraction, self-consciousness, etc.,
+will have followed from the continued improvement of other mental
+faculties; but without considerable culture of the mind, both in the
+race and in the individual, it is doubtful whether these high powers
+would be exercised and thus fully attained.
+
+The development of the moral qualities is a more interesting problem.
+The foundation lies in the social instincts, including under this term
+the family ties. These instincts are highly complex, and in the case of
+the lower animals give special tendencies toward certain definite
+actions; but the more important elements are love and the distinct
+emotion of sympathy. Animals endowed with the social instincts take
+pleasure in one another's company, warn one another of danger, defend
+and aid one another in many ways. These instincts do not extend to all
+the individuals of the species, but only to those of the same community.
+As they are highly beneficial to the species they have in all
+probability been acquired through natural selection.
+
+A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions
+and their motives--of approving of some and disapproving of others; and
+the fact that man is the one being who certainly deserves this
+designation is the greatest of all distinctions between him and the
+lower animals. But in the fourth chapter I have endeavoured to show that
+the moral sense follows, firstly, from the enduring and ever-present
+nature of the social instincts; secondly, from man's appreciation of the
+approbation and disapprobation of his fellows; and, thirdly, from the
+high activity of his mental faculties, with past impressions extremely
+vivid; and in these latter respects he differs from the lower animals.
+Owing to this condition of mind, man cannot avoid looking both backward
+and forward and comparing past impressions. Hence, after some temporary
+desire or passion has mastered his social instincts, he reflects and
+compares the now weakened impression of such past impulses with the
+ever-present social instincts; and he then feels that sense of
+dissatisfaction which all unsatisfied instincts leave behind them, he
+therefore resolves to act differently for the future--and this is
+conscience. Any instinct permanently stronger or more enduring than
+another gives rise to a feeling which we express by saying that it ought
+to be obeyed. A pointer dog if able to reflect on his past conduct would
+say to himself, I ought (as indeed we say of him) to have pointed at
+that hare and not have yielded to the passing temptation of hunting it.
+
+Social animals are impelled partly by a wish to aid the members of their
+community in a general manner, but more commonly to perform certain
+definite actions. Man is impelled by the same general wish to aid his
+fellows; but has few or no special instincts. He differs also from the
+lower animals in the power of expressing his desires by words, which
+thus become a guide to the aid required and bestowed. The motive to give
+aid is likewise much modified in man; it no longer consists solely of a
+blind instinctive impulse, but is much influenced by the praise or blame
+of his fellows. The appreciation and bestowal of praise and blame both
+rest on sympathy; and this emotion, as we have seen, is one of the most
+important elements of the social instincts. Sympathy, though gained as
+an instinct, is also much strengthened by exercise or habit. As all men
+desire their own happiness, praise or blame is bestowed on actions or
+motives according as they lead to this end; and as happiness is an
+essential part of the general good the greatest-happiness principle
+indirectly serves as a nearly safe standard of right and wrong. As the
+reasoning powers advance and experience is gained the remoter effects of
+certain lines of conduct on the character of the individual and on the
+general good are perceived; and then the self-regarding virtues come
+within the scope of public opinion and receive praise and their
+opposites blame. But with the less civilized nations reason often errs,
+and many bad customs and base superstitions come within the same scope
+and are then esteemed as high virtues and their breach as heavy crimes.
+
+The moral faculties are generally and justly esteemed as of higher value
+than the intellectual powers. But we should bear in mind that the
+activity of the mind in vividly recalling past impressions is one of the
+fundamental though secondary bases of conscience. This affords the
+strongest argument for educating and stimulating in all possible ways
+the intellectual faculties of every human being. No doubt, a man with a
+torpid mind, if his social affections and sympathies are well developed,
+will be led to good actions and may have a fairly sensitive conscience.
+But whatever renders the imagination more vivid and strengthens the
+habit of recalling and comparing past impressions will make the
+conscience more sensitive, and may even somewhat compensate for weak
+social affections and sympathies.
+
+The moral nature of man has reached its present standard partly through
+the advancement of his reasoning powers and consequently of a just
+public opinion, but especially from his sympathies having been rendered
+more tender and widely diffused through the effects of habit, example,
+instruction and reflection. It is not improbable that after long
+practice virtuous tendencies may be inherited. With the more civilized
+races the conviction of the existence of an all-seeing Deity has had a
+potent influence on the advance of morality. Ultimately man does not
+accept the praise or blame of his fellows as his sole guide, though few
+escape this influence, but his habitual convictions, controlled by
+reason, afford him the safest rule. His conscience then becomes the
+supreme judge and monitor. Nevertheless, the first foundation or origin
+of the moral sense lies in the social instincts, including sympathy; and
+these instincts, no doubt, were primarily gained, as in the case of the
+lower animals, through natural selection.
+
+The belief in God has often been advanced as not only the greatest but
+the most complete of all the distinctions between man and the lower
+animals. It is, however, impossible, as we have seen, to maintain that
+this belief is innate or instinctive in man. On the other hand, a
+belief in all-pervading spiritual agencies seems to be universal, and
+apparently follows from a considerable advance in man's reason and from
+a still greater advance in his faculties of imagination, curiosity and
+wonder. I am aware that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been
+used by many persons as an argument for His existence. But this is a
+rash judgment, as we should thus be compelled to believe in the
+existence of many cruel and malignant spirits, only a little more
+powerful than man; for the belief in them is far more general than in a
+beneficent Deity. The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator does
+not seem to arise in the mind of man until he has been elevated by
+long-continued culture.
+
+He who believes in the advancement of man from some low organized form
+will naturally ask, How does this bear on the belief in the immortality
+of the soul? The barbarous races of man, as Sir J. Lubbock has shown,
+possess no clear belief of this kind; but arguments derived from the
+primeval beliefs of savages are, as we have just seen, of little or no
+avail. Few persons feel any anxiety from the impossibility of
+determining at what precise period in the development of the individual,
+from the first trace of a minute germinal vesicle, man becomes an
+immortal being; and there is no greater cause for anxiety because the
+period in the gradually ascending organic scale cannot possibly be
+determined.
+
+I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be
+denounced by some as highly irreligious; but he who denounces them is
+bound to show why it is more irreligious to explain the origin of man as
+a distinct species by descent from some lower form, through the laws of
+variation and natural selection, than to explain the birth of the
+individual through the laws of ordinary reproduction. The birth both of
+the species and of the individual are equally parts of that grand
+sequence of events, which our minds refuse to accept as the result of
+blind chance. The understanding revolts at such a conclusion, whether or
+not we are able to believe that every slight variation of structure, the
+union of each pair in marriage, the dissemination of each seed, and
+other such events have all been ordained for some special purpose.
+
+Sexual selection has been treated at great length in this work; for, as
+I have attempted to show, it has played an important part in the history
+of the organic world. I am aware that much remains doubtful, but I have
+endeavoured to give a fair view of the whole case. In the lower
+divisions of the animal kingdom sexual selection seems to have done
+nothing; such animals are often affixed for life to the same spot, or
+have the sexes combined in the same individual, or, what is still more
+important, their perceptive and intellectual faculties are not
+sufficiently advanced to allow of the feelings of love and jealousy, or
+of the exertion of choice. When, however, we come to the Arthropoda and
+Vertebrata, even to the lowest classes in these two great sub-kingdoms,
+sexual selection has effected much; and it deserves notice that we here
+find the intellectual faculties developed, but in two very distinct
+lines, to the highest standard, namely in the Hymenoptera [ants, bees,
+etc.], among the Arthropoda [many insects, spiders, etc.], and in the
+Mammalia, including man, among the Vertebrata.
+
+In the most distinct classes of the animal kingdom--in mammals, birds,
+fishes, insects and even crustaceans--the differences between the sexes
+follow almost exactly the same rules. The males are almost always the
+wooers; and they alone are armed with special weapons for fighting with
+their rivals. They are generally stronger and larger than the females,
+and are endowed with the requisite qualities of courage and pugnacity.
+They are provided, either exclusively or in a much higher degree than
+the females, with organs for vocal or instrumental music, and with
+odoriferous glands. They are ornamented with infinitely diversified
+appendages and with the most brilliant or conspicuous colors, often
+arranged in elegant patterns, while the females are unadorned. When the
+sexes differ in more important structures it is the male which is
+provided with special sense-organs for discovering the female, with
+locomotive organs for reaching her, and often with prehensile organs
+for holding her. These various structures for charming or securing the
+female are often developed in the male during only part of the year;
+namely, the breeding season. They have in many cases been transferred in
+a greater or less degree to the females; and in the latter case they
+often appear in her as mere rudiments. They are lost or never gained by
+the males after emasculation. Generally they are not developed in the
+male during early youth, but appear a short time before the age for
+reproduction. Hence, in most cases the young of both sexes resemble each
+other; and the female somewhat resembles her young offspring throughout
+life. In almost every great class a few anomalous cases occur, where
+there has been an almost complete transposition of the characters proper
+to the two sexes; the females assuming characters which properly belong
+to the males. This surprisingly uniformity in the laws regulating the
+differences between the sexes in so many and such widely separated
+classes is intelligible if we admit the action throughout all the higher
+divisions of the animal kingdom of one common cause; namely, sexual
+selection.
+
+Sexual selection depends on the success of certain individuals over
+others of the same sex, in relation to the propagation of the species;
+while natural selection depends on the success of both sexes, at all
+ages, in relation to the general conditions of life. The sexual
+struggle is of two kinds; in the one it is between the individuals of
+the same sex, generally the males, in order to drive away or kill their
+rivals, the females remaining passive; while in the other, the struggle
+is likewise between the individuals of the same sex, in order to excite
+or charm those of the opposite sex, generally the females, which no
+longer remain passive, but select the more agreeable partners. This
+latter kind of selection is closely analogous to that which man
+unintentionally, yet effectually, brings to bear on his domesticated
+productions, when he preserves during a long period the most pleasing or
+useful individuals, without any wish to modify the breed.
+
+The laws of inheritance determine whether characters gained through
+sexual selection by either sex shall be transmitted to the same sex, or
+to both; as well as the age at which they shall be developed. It appears
+that variations arising late in life are commonly transmitted to one and
+the same sex. Variability is the necessary basis for the action of
+selection and is wholly independent of it. It follows from this that
+variations of the same general nature have often been taken advantage of
+and accumulated through sexual selection in relation to the propagation
+of the species, as well as through natural selection in relation to the
+general purposes of life. Hence secondary sexual characters, when
+equally transmitted to both sexes, can be distinguished from ordinary
+specific characters only by the light of analogy. The modifications
+acquired through sexual selection are often so strongly pronounced that
+the two sexes have frequently been ranked as distinct species, or even
+as distinct genera. Such strongly marked differences must be in some
+manner highly important; and we know that they have been acquired in
+some instances at the cost not only of inconvenience, but of exposure to
+actual danger.
+
+The belief in the power of sexual selection rests chiefly on the
+following considerations: The characters which we have the best reasons
+for supposing to have been thus acquired are confined to one sex; and
+this alone renders it probable that in most cases they are connected
+with the act of reproduction. These characters in innumerable instances
+are fully developed only at maturity; and often during only a part of
+the year, which is always the breeding season. The males (passing over a
+few exceptional cases) are the more active in courtship; they are the
+best armed, and are rendered the most attractive in various ways. It is
+to be especially observed that the males display their attractions with
+elaborate care in the presence of the females; and that they rarely or
+never display them excepting during the season of love. It is incredible
+that all this should be purposeless. Lastly, we have distinct evidence
+with some quadrupeds and birds that the individuals of one sex are
+capable of feeling a strong antipathy or preference for certain
+individuals of the other sex.
+
+Bearing in mind these facts and not forgetting the marked results of
+man's unconscious selection, it seems to me almost certain that if the
+individuals of one sex were during a long series of generations to
+prefer pairing with certain individuals of the other sex, characterized
+in some peculiar manner, the offspring would slowly but surely become
+modified in this same manner. I have not attempted to conceal that,
+excepting when the males are more numerous than the females, or when
+polygamy prevails, it is doubtful how the more attractive males succeed
+in leaving a larger number of offspring to inherit their superiority in
+ornaments or other charms than the less attractive males; but I have
+shown that this would probably follow from the females--especially the
+more vigorous ones, which would be the first to breed--preferring not
+only the more attractive but at the same time the more vigorous and
+victorious males.
+
+Although we have some positive evidence that birds appreciate bright and
+beautiful objects, as with the bower-birds of Australia, and although
+they certainly appreciate the power of song, yet I fully admit that it
+is astonishing that the females of many birds and some mammals should be
+endowed with sufficient taste to appreciate ornaments, which we have
+reason to attribute to sexual selection; and this is even more
+astonishing in the case of reptiles, fish and insects. But we really
+know little about the minds of the lower animals. It cannot be supposed,
+for instance, that male birds of paradise or peacocks should take such
+pains in erecting, spreading and vibrating their beautiful plumes before
+the males for no purpose. We should remember the fact given on excellent
+authority in a former chapter that several peahens, when debarred from
+an admired male, remained widows during a whole season rather than pair
+with another bird.
+
+Nevertheless, I know of no fact in natural history more wonderful than
+that the female Argus pheasant should appreciate the exquisite shading
+of the ball-and-socket ornaments and the elegant patterns on the wing
+feathers of the male. He who thinks that the male was created as he now
+exists must admit that the great plumes, which prevent the wings from
+being used for flight and which, as well as the primary feathers, are
+displayed in a manner quite peculiar to this one species during the act
+of courtship, and at no other time, were given to him as an ornament. If
+so, he must likewise admit that the female was created and endowed with
+the capacity of appreciating such ornaments. I differ only in the
+conviction that the male Argus pheasant acquired his beauty gradually,
+through the females having preferred during many generations the more
+highly ornamented males; the esthetic capacity of the females having
+been advanced through exercise or habit just as our own taste is
+gradually improved. In the male, through the fortunate chance of a few
+feathers not having been modified, we can distinctly see how simple
+spots with a little fulvous [tawny] shading on one side may have been
+developed by small steps into the wonderful ball-and-socket ornaments;
+and it is probable that they were actually thus developed.
+
+Every one who admits the principle of evolution, and yet feels great
+difficulty in admitting that female mammals, birds, reptiles and fish,
+could have acquired the high taste implied by the beauty of the males,
+and which generally coincides with our own standard, should reflect that
+the nerve-cells of the brain in the highest as well as in the lowest
+members of the Vertebrate series, are derived from those of the common
+progenitor of the whole group. It thus becomes intelligible that the
+brain and mental faculties should be capable under similar conditions of
+nearly the same course of development, and consequently of performing
+nearly the same functions.
+
+The reader who has taken the trouble to go through the several chapters
+devoted to sexual selection will be able to judge how far the
+conclusions at which I have arrived are supported by sufficient
+evidence. If he accepts these conclusions he may, I think, safely extend
+them to mankind; but it would be superfluous here to repeat what I have
+so lately said on the manner in which sexual selection apparently has
+acted on man, both on the male and female side, causing the two sexes of
+man to differ in body and mind, and the several races to differ from
+each other in various characters, as well as from their ancient and
+lowly organized progenitors.
+
+He who admits the principle of sexual selection will be led to the
+remarkable conclusion that the cerebral system not only regulates most
+of the existing functions of the body, but has indirectly influenced the
+progressive development of various bodily structures and of certain
+mental qualities. Courage, pugnacity, perseverance, strength and size of
+body, weapons of all kinds, musical organs, both vocal and instrumental,
+bright colours, stripes and marks, and ornamental appendages, have all
+been indirectly gained by the one sex or the other, through the
+influence of love and jealousy, through the appreciation of the
+beautiful in sound, colour or form, and through the exertion of a
+choice; and those powers of the mind manifestly depend on the
+development of the cerebral system.
+
+Man scans with scrupulous care the character and pedigree of his horses,
+cattle and dogs before he matches them; but when he comes to his own
+marriage he rarely, or never takes any such care. He is impelled by
+nearly the same motives as the lower animals when left to their own free
+choice, though he is in so far superior to them that he highly values
+mental charms and virtues. On the other hand he is strongly attracted
+by mere wealth or rank. Yet he might by selection do something not only
+for the bodily constitution and frame of his offspring, but for their
+intellectual and moral qualities. Both sexes ought to refrain from
+marriage if they are in any marked degree inferior in body or mind; but
+such hopes are Utopian and will never be even partially realized until
+the laws of inheritance are thoroughly known. All do good service who
+aid toward this end. When the principles of breeding and inheritance are
+better understood, we shall not hear ignorant members of our legislature
+rejecting with scorn a plan for ascertaining whether or not
+consanguineous marriages are injurious to man.
+
+The advancement of the welfare of mankind is a most intricate problem;
+all ought to refrain from marriage who cannot avoid abject poverty for
+their children; for poverty is not only a great evil, but tends to its
+own increase by leading to recklessness in marriage. On the other hand,
+as Mr. Galton has remarked, if the prudent avoid marriage, while the
+reckless marry, the inferior members tend to supplant the better members
+of society. Man, like every other animal, has no doubt advanced to his
+present high condition through a struggle for existence consequent on
+his rapid multiplication; and if he is to advance still higher, he must
+remain subject to a severe struggle. Otherwise he would sink into
+indolence, and the more gifted men would not be more successful in the
+battle of life than the less gifted. Hence our natural rate of
+increase, though leading to many and obvious evils, must not be greatly
+diminished by any means. There should be open competition for all men;
+and the most able should not be prevented by laws or customs from
+succeeding best and rearing the largest number of offspring. Important
+as the struggle for existence has been and even still is, yet as far as
+the highest part of man's nature is concerned there are other agencies
+more important. For the moral qualities are advanced, either directly or
+indirectly, much more through the effects of habit, the reasoning
+powers, instruction, religion, etc., than through natural selection;
+though to this latter agency the social instincts, which afforded the
+basis for the development of the moral sense, may be safely attributed.
+
+The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely, that man is
+descended from some lowly organized form, will, I regret to think, be
+highly distasteful to many. But there can hardly be a doubt that we are
+descended from barbarians. The astonishment I felt on first seeing a
+party of Fuegians on a wild and broken shore will never be forgotten by
+me, for the reflection at once rushed into my mind--such were our
+ancestors. These men were absolutely naked and bedaubed with paint,
+their long hair was tangled, their mouths frothed with excitement, and
+their expression was wild, startled and distrustful. They possessed
+hardly any arts, and like wild animals lived on what they could catch;
+they had no government, and were merciless to every one not of their
+own small tribe. He who has seen a savage in his native land will not
+feel much shame, if forced to acknowledge that the blood of some more
+humble creature flows in his veins. For my own part I would as soon be
+descended from that heroic little monkey who braved his dreaded enemy in
+order to save the life of his keeper; or from that old baboon, who,
+descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his young comrade
+from a crowd of astonished dogs--as from a savage who delights to
+torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practises infanticide
+without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is
+haunted by the grossest superstitions.
+
+Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not
+through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and
+the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally
+placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the
+distant future. But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only
+with the truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it. I have
+given the evidence to the best of my ability, and we must acknowledge,
+as it seems to me, that man, with all his noble qualities, with sympathy
+which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not
+only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his godlike
+intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of
+the solar system--with all these exalted powers--Man still bears in his
+bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
+
+
+
+
+MIMICRY AND OTHER PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS
+
+ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE
+
+     [Mr. Wallace, one of the greatest naturalists of the age,
+     discovered the law of natural selection independently of
+     Darwin, and about the same time. Among his works are "The
+     Malay Archipelago," "Island Life," and "Darwinism." From
+     "Natural Selection," which was published by Macmillan & Co.,
+     1871, the following extracts are taken. The theme has
+     received important development at the hands of Professor E.
+     B. Poulton, in his "The Colours of Animals," International
+     Scientific Series, 1890: and in F. E. Beddard's "Animal
+     Colouration"; London, Swan Sonnenschein; N. Y., Macmillan,
+     1892.]
+
+
+There is no more convincing proof of the truth of a comprehensive
+theory, than its power of absorbing and finding a place for new facts,
+and its capability of interpreting phenomena which had been previously
+looked upon as unaccountable anomalies. It is thus that the law of
+universal gravitation and the undulatory theory of light have become
+established and universally accepted by men of science. Fact after fact
+has been brought forward as being apparently inconsistent with them, and
+one after another these very facts have been shown to be the
+consequences of the laws they were at first supposed to disprove. A
+false theory will never stand this test. Advancing knowledge brings to
+light whole groups of facts which it cannot deal with, and its advocates
+steadily decrease in numbers, notwithstanding the ability and
+scientific skill with which it has been supported. The course of a true
+theory is very different, as may be well seen by the progress of opinion
+on the subject of natural selection. In less than eight years "The
+Origin of Species" has produced conviction in the minds of a majority of
+the most eminent living men of science. New facts, new problems, new
+difficulties as they arise are accepted, solved or removed by this
+theory; and its principles are illustrated by the progress and
+conclusions of every well established branch of human knowledge. It is
+the object of the present essay to show how it has recently been applied
+to connect together and explain a variety of curious facts which had
+long been considered as inexplicable anomalies.
+
+Perhaps no principle has ever been announced so fertile in results as
+that which Mr. Darwin so earnestly impresses upon us, and which is
+indeed a necessary deduction from the theory of natural selection,
+namely--that none of the definite facts of organic nature, no special
+organ, no characteristic form or marking, no peculiarities of instinct
+or of habit, no relations between species or between groups of
+species--can exist, but which must now be or once have been _useful_ to
+the individuals or races which possess them. This great principle gives
+us a clue which we can follow out in the study of many recondite
+phenomena, and leads us to seek a meaning and a purpose of some definite
+character in minutiae which we should be otherwise almost sure to pass
+over as insignificant or unimportant.
+
+The adaptation of the external colouring of animals to their conditions
+of life has long been recognized, and has been imputed either to an
+originally created specific peculiarity, or to the direct action of
+climate, soil, or food. Where the former explanation has been accepted,
+it has completely checked inquiry, since we could never get any further
+than the fact of the adaptation. There was nothing more to be known
+about the matter. The second explanation was soon found to be quite
+inadequate to deal with all the varied phases of the phenomena, and to
+be contradicted by many well-known facts. For example, wild rabbits are
+always of gray or brown tints well suited for concealment among grass
+and fern. But when these rabbits are domesticated, without any change of
+climate or food, they vary into white or black, and these varieties may
+be multiplied to any extent, forming white or black races. Exactly the
+same thing has occurred with pigeons; and in the case of rats and mice,
+the white variety has not been shown to be at all dependent on
+alteration of climate, food or other external conditions. In many cases
+the wings of an insect not only assume the exact tint of the bark or
+leaf it is accustomed to rest on, but the form and veining of the leaf
+or the exact rugosity of the bark is imitated; and these detailed
+modifications cannot be reasonably imputed to climate or food, since in
+many cases the species does not feed on the substance it resembles, and
+when it does, no reasonable connection can be shown to exist between the
+supposed cause and the effect produced. It was reserved for the theory
+of natural selection to solve all these problems, and many others which
+were not at first supposed to be directly connected with them. To make
+these latter intelligible, it will be necessary to give a sketch of the
+whole series of phenomena which may be classed under the head of useful
+or protective resemblances.
+
+Concealment, more or less complete, is useful to many animals, and
+absolutely essential to some. Those which have numerous enemies from
+which they cannot escape by rapidity of motion, find safety in
+concealment. Those which prey upon others must also be so constituted as
+not to alarm them by their presence or their approach, or they would
+soon die of hunger. Now, it is remarkable in how many cases nature gives
+this boon to the animal, by colouring it with such tints as may best
+serve to enable it to escape from its enemies or to entrap its prey.
+Desert animals as a rule are desert-coloured. The lion is a typical
+example of this, and must be almost invisible when crouched upon the
+sand or among desert rocks and stones. Antelopes are all more or less
+sandy-coloured. The camel is pre-eminently so. The Egyptian cat and the
+Pampas cat are sandy or earth-coloured. The Australian kangaroos are of
+the same tints, and the original colour of the wild horse is supposed
+to have been a sandy or clay-colour.
+
+The desert birds are still more remarkably protected by their
+assimilative hues. The stone-chats, the larks, the quails, the
+goatsuckers and the grouse, which abound in the North African and
+Asiatic deserts, are all tinted and mottled so as to resemble with
+wonderful accuracy the average colour and aspect of the soil in the
+district they inhabit. The Rev. H. Tristram, in his account of the
+ornithology of North Africa in the first volume of the "Ibis," says: "In
+the desert, where neither trees, brushwood, nor even undulation of the
+surface afford the slightest protection to its foes, a modification of
+colour which shall be assimilated to that of the surrounding country is
+absolutely necessary. Hence _without exception_ the upper plumage of
+_every bird_, whether lark, chat, sylvain, or sand-grouse, and also the
+fur of _all the smaller mammals_, and the skin of _all the snakes and
+lizards_, is of one uniform isabelline or sand colour." After the
+testimony of so able an observer it is unnecessary to adduce further
+examples of the protective colours of desert animals.
+
+Almost equally striking are the cases of arctic animals possessing the
+white colour that best conceals them upon snowfields and icebergs. The
+polar bear is the only bear that is white, and it lives constantly among
+snow and ice. The arctic fox, the ermine and the alpine hare change to
+white in winter only, because in summer white would be more conspicuous
+than any other colour, and therefore a danger rather than a protection;
+but the American polar hare, inhabiting regions of almost perpetual
+snow, is white all the year round. Other animals inhabiting the same
+northern regions do not, however, change colour. The sable is a good
+example, for throughout the severity of a Siberian winter it retains its
+rich brown fur. But its habits are such that it does not need the
+protection of colour, for it is said to be able to subsist on fruits and
+berries in winter, and to be so active upon the trees as to catch small
+birds among the branches. So also the woodchuck of Canada has a
+dark-brown fur; but then it lives in burrows and frequents river banks,
+catching fish and small animals that live in or near the water.
+
+Among birds, the ptarmigan is a fine example of protective colouring.
+Its summer plumage so exactly harmonizes with the lichen-coloured stones
+among which it delights to sit, that a person may walk through a flock
+of them without seeing a single bird; while in winter its white plumage
+is an almost equal protection. The snow-bunting, the jerfalcon, and the
+snowy owl are also white-coloured birds inhabiting the arctic regions,
+and there can be little doubt but that their colouring is to some extent
+protective.
+
+Nocturnal animals supply us with equally good illustrations. Mice, rats,
+bats, and moles possess the least conspicuous of hues, and must be quite
+invisible at times when any light colour would be instantly seen. Owls
+and goatsuckers are of those dark mottled tints that will assimilate
+with bark and lichen, and thus protect them during the day, and at the
+same time be inconspicuous in the dusk.
+
+It is only in the tropics, among forests which never lose their foliage,
+that we find whole groups of birds whose chief colour is green. The
+parrots are the most striking example, but we have also a group of green
+pigeons in the East; and the barbets, leaf-thrushes, bee-eaters,
+white-eyes, turacos, and several smaller groups, have so much green in
+their plumage as to tend greatly to conceal them among the foliage.
+
+The conformity of tint which has been so far shown to exist between
+animals and their habitations is of somewhat general character; we will
+now consider the cases of more special adaptation. If the lion is
+enabled by his sandy colour readily to conceal himself by merely
+crouching down in the desert, how, it may be asked, do the elegant
+markings of the tiger, the jaguar, and the other large cats agree with
+this theory? We reply that these are generally cases of more or less
+special adaptation. The tiger is a jungle animal, and hides himself
+among tufts of grass or of bamboos, and in these positions the vertical
+stripes with which his body is adorned must so assimilate with the
+vertical stems of the bamboo, as to assist greatly in concealing him
+from his approaching prey. How remarkable it is that besides the lion
+and tiger, almost all the other large cats are arboreal in their
+habits, and almost all have ocellated or spotted skins, which must
+certainly tend to blend them with the background of foliage; while the
+one exception, the puma, has an ashy-brown uniform fur, and has the
+habit of clinging so closely to a limb of a tree while waiting for his
+prey to pass beneath as to be hardly distinguishable from the bark.
+
+Among birds, the ptarmigan, already mentioned, must be considered a
+remarkable case of special adaptation. Another is a South American
+goatsucker (Caprimulgus rupestris) which rests in the bright sunshine on
+little bare rocky islets in the upper Rio Negro, where its unusually
+light colours so closely resemble those of the rock and sand, that it
+can scarcely be detected until trodden upon.
+
+The Duke of Argyll, in his "Reign of Law," has pointed out the admirable
+adaptation of the colours of the woodcock to its protection. The various
+browns and yellows and pale ash-colour that occur on fallen leaves are
+all reproduced in its plumage, so that when according to its habit it
+rests upon the ground under trees, it is almost impossible to detect it.
+In snipes the colours are modified so as to be equally in harmony with
+the prevalent forms and colours of marshy vegetation. Mr. J. M. Lester,
+in a paper read before the Rugby School Natural History Society
+observes:--"The wood-dove, when perched amongst the branches of its
+favourite _fir_, is scarcely discernible; whereas, were it among some
+lighter foliage the blue and purple tints in its plumage would far
+sooner betray it. The robin redbreast, too, although it might be thought
+that the red on its breast made it much easier to be seen, is in reality
+not at all endangered by it, since it generally contrives to get among
+some russet or yellow fading leaves, where the red matches very well
+with the autumn tints, and the brown of the rest of the body with the
+bare branches."
+
+Reptiles offer us many similar examples. The most arboreal lizards, the
+iguanas, are as green as the leaves they feed upon, and the slender
+whip-snakes are rendered almost invisible as they glide among the
+foliage by a similar colouration. How difficult it is sometimes to catch
+sight of the little green tree-frogs sitting on the leaves of a small
+plant enclosed in a glass case in the Zoological Gardens; yet how much
+better concealed they must be among the fresh green damp foliage of a
+marshy forest. There is a North American frog found on lichen-covered
+rocks and walls, which is so coloured as exactly to resemble them, and
+as long as it remains quiet would certainly escape detection. Some of
+the geckos which cling motionless on the trunks of trees in the tropics,
+are of such curiously marbled colours as to match exactly with the bark
+they rest upon.
+
+In every part of the tropics there are tree snakes that twist among
+boughs and shrubs, or lie coiled up in the dense masses of foliage.
+These are of many distinct groups, and comprise both venomous and
+harmless genera; but almost all of them are of a beautiful green colour,
+sometimes more or less adorned with white or dusky bands and spots.
+There can be little doubt that this colour is doubly useful to them,
+since it will tend to conceal them from their enemies, and will lead
+their prey to approach them unconscious of danger. Dr. Gunthner informs
+me that there is only one genus of true arboreal snakes (Dipsas) whose
+colours are rarely green, but are of various shades of black, brown, and
+olive, and these are all nocturnal reptiles, and there can be little
+doubt conceal themselves during the day in holes, so that the green
+protective tint would be useless to them, and they accordingly retain
+the more usual reptilian hues.
+
+Fishes present similar instances. Many flat fish, as, for example, the
+flounder and the skate, are exactly the colour of the gravel or sand on
+which they habitually rest. Among the marine flower gardens of an
+Eastern coral reef the fishes present every variety of gorgeous colour,
+while the river fish even of the tropics rarely if ever have gay or
+conspicuous markings. A very curious case of this kind of adaptation
+occurs in the sea-horse (Hippocampus) of Australia, some of which bear
+long foliaceous appendages resembling seaweed, and are of a brilliant
+red colour; and they are known to live among seaweed of the same hue, so
+that when at rest they must be quite invisible. There are now in the
+aquarium of the Zoological Society some slender green pipe-fish which
+fasten themselves to any object at the bottom by their prehensile tails,
+and float about with the current, looking exactly like some cylindrical
+algae.
+
+It is, however, in the insect world that this principle of the
+adaptation of animals to their environment is most fully and strikingly
+developed. In order to understand how general this is, it is necessary
+to enter somewhat into details, as we shall thereby be better able to
+appreciate the significance of the still more remarkable phenomena we
+shall presently have to discuss. It seems to be in proportion to their
+sluggish motions or the absence of other means of defence, that insects
+possess the protective colouring. In the tropics there are thousands of
+species of insects which rest during the day clinging to the bark of
+dead or fallen trees; and the greater portion of these are delicately
+mottled with gray and brown tints, which though symmetrically disposed
+and infinitely varied, yet blend so completely with the usual colours of
+the bark that at two or three feet distance they are quite
+undistinguishable. In some cases a species is known to frequent only one
+species of tree. This is the case with the common South American
+long-horned beetle (Onychocerus scorpio) which, Mr. Bates informed me,
+is found only on a rough-barked tree, called Tapiriba, on the Amazon. It
+is very abundant, but so exactly does it resemble the bark in colour and
+rugosity, and so closely does it cling to the branches, that until it
+moves it is absolutely invisible! An allied species (O. concentricus) is
+found only at Para, on a distinct species of tree, the bark of which it
+resembles with equal accuracy. Both these insects are abundant, and we
+may fairly conclude that the protection they derive from this strange
+concealment is at least one of the causes that enable the race to
+flourish.
+
+Many of the species of Cicindela, or tiger beetle, will illustrate this
+mode of protection. Our common Cicindela campestris frequents grassy
+banks and is of a beautiful green colour, while C. maritima, which is
+found only on sandy sea-shores, is of a pale bronzy yellow, so as to be
+almost invisible. A great number of the species found by myself in the
+Malay islands are similarly protected. The beautiful Cicindela gloriosa,
+of a very deep velvety green colour, was only taken upon wet mossy
+stones in the bed of a mountain stream, where it was with the greatest
+difficulty detected. A large brown species (C. heros) was found chiefly
+on dead leaves in forest paths; and one which was never seen except on
+the wet mud of salt marshes was of a glossy olive so exactly the colour
+of the mud as only to be distinguished when the sun shone, by its
+shadow! Where the sandy beach was coralline and nearly white, I found a
+very pale Cicindela; wherever it was volcanic and black, a dark species
+of the same genus was sure to be met with.
+
+There are in the East small beetles of the family Buprestidae which
+generally rest on the midrib of a leaf, and the naturalist often
+hesitates before picking them off, so closely do they resemble pieces of
+bird's dung. Kirby and Spence mention the small beetle Onthophilus
+sulcatus as being like the seed of an umbelliferous plant; and another
+small weevil, which is much persecuted by predatory beetles of the genus
+Harpalus, is of the exact colour of loamy soil, and was found to be
+particularly abundant in loam pits. Mr. Bates mentions a small beetle
+(Chlamys pilula) which was undistinguishable by the eye from the dung of
+caterpillars, while some of the Cassidae, from their hemispherical forms
+and pearly gold-colour, resemble glittering dew-drops upon the leaves.
+
+A number of our small brown and speckled weevils at the approach of any
+object roll off the leaf they are sitting on, at the same time drawing
+in their legs and antennae, which fit so perfectly into cavities for
+their reception that the insect becomes a mere oval brownish lump, which
+it is hopeless to look for among the similarly coloured little stones
+and earth pellets among which it lies motionless.
+
+The distribution of colour in butterflies and moths respectively is very
+instructive from this point of view. The former have all their brilliant
+colouring on the upper surface of all four wings, while the under
+surface is almost always soberly coloured, and often very dark and
+obscure. The moths on the contrary have generally their chief colour on
+the hind wings only, the upper wings being of dull, sombre, and often
+imitative tints, and these generally conceal the hind wings when the
+insects are in repose. This arrangement of the colours is therefore
+eminently protective, because the butterfly always rests with his wings
+raised so as to conceal the dangerous brilliancy of his upper surface.
+It is probable that if we watched their habits sufficiently we should
+find the under surface of the wings of butterflies very frequently
+imitative and protective. Mr. T. W. Wood has pointed out that the little
+orange-tip butterfly often rests in the evening on the green and white
+flower heads of an umbelliferous plant, and that when observed in this
+position the beautiful green and white mottling of the under surface
+completely assimilates with the flower heads and renders the creature
+very difficult to be seen. It is probable that the rich dark colouring
+of the under side of our peacock, tortoiseshell, and red-admiral
+butterflies answers a similar purpose.
+
+Two curious South American butterflies that always settle on the trunks
+of trees (Gynecia dirce and Callizona acesta) have the under surface
+curiously striped and mottled, and when viewed obliquely must closely
+assimilate with the appearance of the furrowed bark of many kinds of
+trees. But the most wonderful and undoubted case of protective
+resemblance in a butterfly which I have ever seen, is that of the
+common Indian Kallima inachis, and its Malayan ally, Kallima paralekta.
+The upper surface of these insects is very striking and showy, as they
+are of a large size, and are adorned with a broad band of rich orange on
+a deep bluish ground. The under side is very variable in colour, so that
+out of fifty specimens no two can be found exactly alike, but every one
+of them will be of some shade of ash or brown or ochre, such as are
+found among dead, dry or decaying leaves. The apex of the upper wings is
+produced into an acute point, a very common form in the leaves of
+tropical shrubs and trees, and the lower wings are also produced into a
+short, narrow tail. Between these two points runs a dark curved line
+exactly representing the midrib of a leaf, and from this radiate on each
+side a few oblique lines, which serve to indicate the lateral veins of a
+leaf. These marks are more clearly seen on the outer portion of the base
+of the wings, and on the inner side towards the middle and apex, and it
+is very curious to observe how the usual marginal and transverse striae
+of the group are here modified and strengthened so as to become adapted
+for an imitation of the venation of a leaf. We come now to a still more
+extraordinary part of the imitation, for we find representations of
+leaves in every stage of decay, variously blotched and mildewed and
+pierced with powdery black dots gathered into patches and spots, so
+closely resembling the various kinds of minute fungi that grow on dead
+leaves that is it impossible to avoid thinking at first sight that the
+butterflies themselves have been attacked by real fungi.
+
+But this resemblance, close as it is, would be little use if the habits
+of the insect did not accord with it. If the butterfly sat upon leaves
+or upon flowers, or opened its wings so as to expose the upper surface,
+or exposed and moved its head and antennae as many other butterflies do,
+its disguise would be of little avail. We might be sure, however, from
+the analogy of many other cases, that the habits of the insect are such
+as still further to aid its deceptive garb; but we are not obliged to
+make any such supposition, since I myself had the good fortune to
+observe scores of Kallima paralekta, in Sumatra, and to capture many of
+them, and can vouch for the accuracy of the following details: These
+butterflies frequent dry forests and fly very swiftly. They were never
+seen to settle on a flower or a green leaf, but were many times lost
+sight of in a bush or tree of dead leaves. On such occasions they were
+generally searched for in vain, for while gazing intently at the very
+spot where one had disappeared, it would often suddenly dart out and
+again vanish twenty or fifty yards further on. On one or two occasions
+the insect was detected reposing, and it could then be seen how
+completely it assimilates itself to the surrounding leaves. It sits on
+a nearly upright twig, the wings fitting closely back to back,
+concealing the antennae and head, which are drawn up between their bases.
+The little tails of the hind wings touch the branch and form a perfect
+stalk to the leaf, which is supported in its place by the claws of the
+middle pair of feet, which are slender and inconspicuous. The irregular
+outline of the wings gives exactly the perspective effect of a
+shrivelled leaf. We thus have size, colour, form, markings, and habits,
+all combining together to produce a disguise which may be said to be
+absolutely perfect; and the protection which it affords is sufficiently
+indicated by the abundance of the individuals that possess it....
+
+We will now endeavour to show how these wonderful resemblances have most
+probably been brought about. Returning to the higher animals, let us
+consider the remarkable fact of the rarity of white colouring in the
+mammalia or birds of the temperate or tropical zones in a state of
+nature. There is not a single white land-bird or quadruped in Europe,
+except the few arctic or alpine species to which white is a protective
+colour. Yet in many of these creatures there seems to be no inherent
+tendency to avoid white, for directly they are domesticated white
+varieties arise, and appear to thrive as well as others. We have white
+mice and rats, white cats, horses, dogs, and cattle, white poultry,
+pigeons, turkeys, and ducks, and white rabbits. Some of these animals
+have been domesticated for a long period, others only for a few
+centuries; but in almost every case in which an animal has been
+thoroughly domesticated, parti-coloured and white varieties are produced
+and become permanent.
+
+It is also well known that animals in a state of nature produce white
+varieties occasionally. Blackbirds, starlings, and crows are
+occasionally seen white, as well as elephants, deer, tigers, hares,
+moles, and many other animals; but in no case is a permanent white race
+produced. Now there are no statistics to show that the normal-coloured
+parents produce white offspring oftener under domestication than in a
+state of nature, and we have no right to make such an assumption if the
+facts can be accounted for without it. But if the colours of animals do
+really, in the various instances already adduced, serve for their
+concealment and preservation, then white or any other conspicuous colour
+must be hurtful, and must in most cases shorten an animal's life. A
+white rabbit would be more surely the prey of hawk or buzzard, and the
+white mole, or field mouse, could not long escape from the vigilant owl.
+So, also, any deviation from those tints best adapted to conceal a
+carnivorous animal would render the pursuit of its prey much more
+difficult, would place it at a disadvantage among its fellows and in a
+time of scarcity would probably cause it to starve to death. On the
+other hand, if an animal spreads from a temperate into an arctic
+district, the conditions are changed. During a large portion of the
+year, and just when the struggle for existence is most severe, white is
+the prevailing tint of nature, and dark colours will be the most
+conspicuous. The white varieties will now have an advantage; they will
+escape from their enemies or will secure food, while their brown
+companions will be devoured or will starve; and "as like produces like"
+is the established rule in nature, the white race will become
+permanently established, and dark varieties, when they occasionally
+appear, will soon die out from their want of adaptation to their
+environment. In each case the fittest will survive, and a race will be
+eventually produced adapted to the conditions in which it lives.
+
+We have here an illustration of the simple and effectual means by which
+animals are brought into harmony with the rest of nature. That slight
+amount of variability in every species, which we often look upon as
+something accidental or abnormal, or so insignificant as to be hardly
+worthy of notice, is yet the foundation of all those wonderful and
+harmonious resemblances which play such an important part in the economy
+of nature. Variation is generally very small in amount, but it is all
+that is required, because the change in the external conditions to which
+an animal is subject is generally very slow and intermittent. When
+these changes have taken place too rapidly, the result has often been
+the extinction of species; but the general rule is, that climatal and
+geological changes go on slowly, and the slight but continual variations
+in the colour, form and structure of all animals, has furnished
+individuals adapted to these changes, and who have become the
+progenitors of modified races. Rapid multiplication, incessant slight
+variation, and survival of the fittest--these are the laws which ever
+keep the organic world in harmony with the inorganic and with itself.
+These are the laws which we believe have produced all the cases of
+protective resemblance already adduced, as well as those still more
+curious examples we have yet to bring before our readers.
+
+It must always be borne in mind that the more wonderful examples, in
+which there is not only a general but a special resemblance as in the
+walking leaf, the mossy phasma, and the leaf-winged butterfly--represent
+those few instances in which the process of modification has been going
+on during an immense series of generations. They all occur in the
+tropics, where the conditions of existence are the most favourable, and
+where climatic changes have for long periods been hardly perceptible. In
+most of them favourable variations both of colour, form, structure, and
+instinct or habit, must have occurred to produce the perfect adaptation
+we now behold. All these are known to vary, and favourable variations
+when not accompanied by others that are unfavourable, would certainly
+survive. At one time a little step might be made in this direction, at
+another time in that--a change of conditions might sometimes render
+useless that which it had taken ages to produce--great and sudden
+physical modifications might often produce the extinction of a race just
+as it was approaching perfection, and a hundred checks of which we can
+know nothing may have retarded the progress towards perfect adaptation;
+so that we can hardly wonder at there being so few cases in which a
+completely successful result has been attained as shown by the abundance
+and wide diffusion of the creatures so protected.
+
+[Here are given many detailed examples of insects which gainfully mimic
+one another.]
+
+We will now adduce a few cases in which beetles imitate other insects,
+and insects of other orders imitate beetles.
+
+Charis melipona, a South American Longicorn of the family Necydalidae,
+has been so named from its resemblance to a small bee of the genus
+Melipona. It is one of the most remarkable cases of mimicry, since the
+beetle has the thorax and body densely hairy like the bee, and the legs
+are tufted in a manner most unusual in the order Coleoptera. Another
+Longicorn, Odontocera odyneroides, has the abdomen banded with yellow,
+and constricted at the base, and is altogether so exactly like a small
+common wasp of the genus Odynerus, that Mr. Bates informs us he was
+afraid to take it out of his net with his fingers for fear of being
+stung. Had Mr. Bates's taste for insects been less omnivorous than it
+was, the beetle's disguise might have saved it from his pin, as it had
+no doubt often done from the beak of hungry birds. A larger insect,
+Sphecomorpha chalybea, is exactly like one of the large metallic blue
+wasps, and like them has the abdomen connected with the thorax by a
+pedicle, rendering the deception most complete and striking. Many
+Eastern species of Longicorns of the genus Oberea, when on the wing
+exactly resemble Tenthredinidae, and many of the small species of
+Hesthesis run about on timber, and cannot be distinguished from ants.
+There is one genus of South American Longicorns that appears to mimic
+the shielded bugs of the genus Scutellera. The Gymnocerous capucinus is
+one of these, and is very like Pachyotris fabricii, one of the
+Scutelleridae. The beautiful Gymnocerous dulcissimus is also very like
+the same group of insects, though there is no known species that exactly
+corresponds to it; but this is not to be wondered at, as the tropical
+Hemiptera have been comparatively so little cared for by collectors.
+
+The most remarkable case of an insect of another order mimicking a
+beetle is that of the Condylodera tricondyloides, one of the cricket
+family from the Philippine Islands, which is so exactly like a
+Tricondyla (one of the tiger beetles), that such an experienced
+entomologist as Professor Westwood placed it among them in his cabinet,
+and retained it there a long time before he discovered his mistake! Both
+insects run along the trunks of trees, and whereas Tricondylas are very
+plentiful, the insect that mimics it is, as in all other cases, very
+rare. Mr. Bates also informs us that he found at Santarem on the Amazon,
+a species of locust which mimicked one of the tiger beetles of the genus
+Odontocheila, and was found on the same trees which they frequented.
+
+There are a considerable number of Diptera, or two-winged flies, that
+closely resemble wasps and bees, and no doubt derive much benefit from
+the wholesome dread which those insects excite. The Midas dives, and
+other species of large Brazilian flies, have dark wings and metallic
+blue elongate bodies, resembling the large stinging Sphegidae of the same
+country; and a very large fly of the genus Asilus has black-banded wings
+and the abdomen tipped with rich orange, so as exactly to resemble the
+fine bee Euglossa dimidiata, and both are found in the same parts of
+South America. We have also in our own country species of Bombylius
+which are almost exactly like bees. In these cases the end gained by the
+mimicry is no doubt freedom from attack, but it has sometimes an
+altogether different purpose. There are a number of parasitic flies
+whose larvae feed upon the larvae of bees, such as the British genus
+Volucella and many of the tropical Bombylii, and most of these are
+exactly like the particular species of bee they prey upon, so that they
+can enter their nests unsuspected to deposit their eggs. There are also
+bees that mimic bees. The cuckoo bees of the genus Nomada are parasitic
+on the Andrenidae, and they resemble either wasps or species of Andrena;
+and the parasitic humble-bees of the genus Apathus almost exactly
+resemble the species of humble-bees in whose nests they are reared. Mr.
+Bates informs us that he found numbers of these "cuckoo" bees and flies
+on the Amazon, which all wore the livery of working bees peculiar to the
+same country.
+
+There is a genus of small spiders in the tropics which feed on ants, and
+they are exactly like ants themselves, which no doubt gives them more
+opportunity of seizing their prey; and Mr. Bates found on the Amazon a
+species of Mantis which exactly resembled the white ants which it fed
+upon, as well as several species of crickets (Saphura), which resembled
+in a wonderful manner different sand-wasps of large size, which are
+constantly on the search for crickets with which to provision their
+nests.
+
+Perhaps the most wonderful case of all is the large caterpillar
+mentioned by Mr. Bates, which startled him by its close resemblance to a
+small snake. The first three segments behind the head were dilatable at
+the will of the insect, and had on each side a large black pupillated
+spot, which resembled the eye of the reptile. Moreover, it resembled a
+poisonous viper, not a harmless species of snake, as was proved by the
+imitation of keeled scales on the crown produced by the recumbent feet,
+as the caterpillar threw itself backward!
+
+The attitudes of many of the tropical spiders are most extraordinary and
+deceptive, but little attention has been paid to them. They often mimic
+other insects, and some, Mr. Bates assures us, are exactly like flower
+buds, and take their station in the axils of leaves, where they remain
+motionless waiting for their prey.
+
+I have now completed a brief, and necessarily very imperfect, survey of
+the various ways in which the external form and colouring of animals is
+adapted to be useful to them, either by concealing them from their
+enemies or from the creatures they prey upon. It has, I hope, been shown
+that the subject is one of much interest, both as regard a true
+comprehension of the place each animal fills in the economy of nature,
+and the means by which it is enabled to maintain that place; and also as
+teaching us how important a part is played by the minutest details in
+the structure of animals, and how complicated and delicate is the
+equilibrium of the organic world.
+
+My exposition of the subject having been necessarily somewhat lengthy
+and full of details, it will be as well to recapitulate its main
+points.
+
+There is a general harmony in nature between the colours of an animal
+and those of its habitation. Arctic animals are white, desert animals
+are sand-coloured; dwellers among leaves and grass are green; nocturnal
+animals are dusky. These colours are not universal, but are very
+general, and are seldom reversed. Going on a little further, we find
+birds, reptiles and insects, so tinted and mottled as exactly to match
+the rock, or bark, or leaf, or flower they are accustomed to rest
+upon--and thereby effectually concealed. Another step in advance, and we
+have insects which are formed as well as coloured so as exactly to
+resemble particular leaves, or sticks, or mossy twigs, or flowers; and
+in these cases very peculiar habits and instincts come into play to aid
+in the deception and render the concealment more complete. We now enter
+upon a new phase of the phenomena, and come to creatures whose colours
+neither conceal them nor make them like vegetable or mineral substances;
+on the contrary, they are conspicuous enough, but they completely
+resemble some other creature of a quite different group, while they
+differ much in outward appearance from those with which all essential
+parts of their organization show them to be really closely allied. They
+appear like actors or masqueraders dressed up and painted for amusement,
+or like swindlers endeavouring to pass themselves off for well-known and
+respectable members of society. What is the meaning of this strange
+travesty? Does nature descend to imposture or masquerade? We answer, she
+does not. Her principles are too severe. There is a use in every detail
+of her handiwork. The resemblance of one animal to another is of exactly
+the same essential nature as the resemblance to a leaf, or to bark, or
+to desert sand, and answers exactly the same purpose. In the one case
+the enemy will not attack the leaf or the bark, and so the disguise is a
+safeguard; in the other case it is found that for various reasons the
+creature resembled is passed over, and not attacked by the usual enemies
+of its order, and thus the creature that resembles it has an equally
+effectual safeguard. We are plainly shown that the disguise is of the
+same nature in the two cases, by the occurrence in the same group of one
+species resembling a vegetable substance, while another resembles a
+living animal of another group; and we know that the creatures resembled
+possess an immunity from attack, by their being always very abundant, by
+their being conspicuous and not concealing themselves, and by their
+having generally no visible means of escape from their enemies; while,
+at the same time, the particular quality that makes them disliked is
+often very clear, such as a nasty taste or an indigestible hardness.
+Further examination reveals the fact that, in several cases of both
+kinds of disguise, it is the female only that is thus disguised; and as
+it can be shown that the female needs protection much more than the
+male, and that her preservation for a much longer period is absolutely
+necessary for the continuance of the race, we have an additional
+indication that the resemblance is in all cases subservient to a great
+purpose--the preservation of the species.
+
+In endeavouring to explain these phenomena as having been brought about
+by variation and natural selection, we start with the fact that white
+varieties frequently occur, and when protected from enemies show no
+incapacity for continued existence and increase. We know, further, that
+varieties of many other tints occasionally occur; and as "the survival
+of the fittest" must inevitably weed out those whose colours are
+prejudicial and preserve those whose colours are a safeguard, we require
+no other mode of accounting for the protective tints of arctic and
+desert animals. But this being granted, there is such a perfectly
+continuous and graduated series of examples of every kind of protective
+imitation, up to the most wonderful cases of what is termed "mimicry,"
+that we can find no place at which to draw the line and say,--so far
+variation and natural selection will account for the phenomena, but for
+all the rest we require a more potent cause. The counter theories that
+have been proposed, that of the "special creation" of each imitative
+form, that of the action of similar "conditions of existence" for some
+of the cases, and of the laws of "hereditary descent and the reversion
+to ancestral forms" for others,--have all been shown to be beset with
+difficulties, and the two latter to be directly contradicted by some of
+the most constant and most remarkable of the facts to be accounted for.
+
+The important part that protective "resemblance" has played in
+determining the colours and markings of many groups of animals will
+enable us to understand the meaning of one of the most striking facts in
+nature, the uniformity in the colours of the vegetable as compared with
+the wonderful diversity of the animal world. There appears no good
+reason why trees and shrubs should not have been adorned with as many
+varied hues and as strikingly designed patterns as birds and
+butterflies, since the gay colours of flowers show that there is no
+incapacity in vegetable tissues to exhibit them. But even flowers
+themselves present us with none of those wonderful designs, those
+complicated arrangements of stripes and dots and patches of colour, that
+harmonious blending of hues in lines and bands and shaded spots, which
+are so general a feature in insects. It is the opinion of Mr. Darwin
+that we owe much of the beauty of flowers to the necessity of attracting
+insects to aid in their fertilization, and that much of the development
+of colour in the animal world is due to "sexual selection," colour being
+universally attractive, and thus leading to its propagation and
+increase; but while fully admitting this, it will be evident from the
+facts and arguments here brought forward, that very much of the
+_variety_ both of colour and markings among animals is due to the
+supreme importance of concealment, and thus the various tints of
+minerals and vegetables have been directly reproduced in the animal
+kingdom, and again and again modified as more special protection became
+necessary. We shall thus have two causes for the development of colour
+in the animal world and shall be better enabled to understand how, by
+their combined and separate action, the immense variety we now behold
+has been produced. Both causes, however, will come under the general law
+of "Utility," the advocacy of which, in its broadest sense, we owe
+almost entirely to Mr. Darwin. A more accurate knowledge of the varied
+phenomena connected with this subject may not improbably give us some
+information both as to the senses and the mental faculties of the lower
+animals. For it is evident that if colours which please us also attract
+them, and if the various disguises which have been here enumerated are
+equally deceptive to them as to ourselves, then both their powers of
+vision and their faculties of perception and emotion, must be
+essentially of the same nature as our own--a fact of high philosophical
+importance in the study of our own nature and our true relations to the
+lower animals.[4]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] The author continues this study in Chapter ix of "Darwinism": New
+York, Macmillan Co., 1889.--Ed.
+
+
+
+
+THE EVOLUTION OF THE HORSE
+
+THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
+
+     [Professor Huxley as a naturalist, educator, and
+     controversialist was one of the commanding figures of the
+     nineteenth century. To physiology and morphology his
+     researches added much of importance: as an expositor he stood
+     unapproached. As the bold and witty champion of Darwinism he
+     gave natural selection an acceptance much more early and wide
+     than it would otherwise have enjoyed. In 1876 he delivered in
+     America three lectures on Evolution: the third of the series
+     is here given. All three are copyrighted and published by D.
+     Appleton & Co., New York, in a volume which also contains a
+     lecture on the study of biology. Since 1876 the arguments of
+     Professor Huxley have been reinforced by the discovery of
+     many fossils connecting not only the horse, but other
+     quadrupeds, with species widely different and now extinct.
+     The most comprehensive collection illustrating the descent of
+     the horse is to be seen at the American Museum of Natural
+     History, New York, where also the evolution of tapirs,
+     camels, llamas, rhinoceroses, dinosaurs, great ground sloths
+     and other animals are clearly to be traced--in most cases by
+     remains discovered in America. A capital book on the theme
+     broached by Professor Huxley is "Animals of the Past," by
+     Frederic A. Lucas, Curator of the Division of Comparative
+     Anatomy, United States National Museum, Washington, D. C.,
+     published by McClure, Phillips & Co., New York.
+
+     "The Life and Letters of Professor Huxley," edited by his
+     son, Leonard Huxley, is a work of rare interest: it is
+     published by D. Appleton & Co., New York.]
+
+
+The occurrence of historical facts is said to be demonstrated, when the
+evidence that they happened is of such a character as to render the
+assumption that they did not happen in the highest degree improbable;
+and the question I now have to deal with is, whether evidence in favour
+of the evolution of animals of this degree of cogency is, or is not,
+obtainable from the record of the succession of living forms which is
+presented to us by fossil remains.
+
+Those who have attended to the progress of palaeontology are aware that
+evidence of the character which I have defined has been produced in
+considerable and continually-increasing quantity during the last few
+years. Indeed, the amount and the satisfactory nature of that evidence
+are somewhat surprising, when we consider the conditions under which
+alone we can hope to obtain it.
+
+It is obviously useless to seek for such evidence, except in localities
+in which the physical conditions have been such as to permit of the
+deposit of an unbroken, or but rarely interrupted, series of strata
+through a long period of time; in which the group of animals to be
+investigated has existed in such abundance as to furnish the requisite
+supply of remains; and in which, finally, the materials composing the
+strata are such as to insure the preservation of these remains in a
+tolerably perfect and undisturbed state.
+
+It so happens that the case which, at present, most nearly fulfils all
+these conditions is that of the series of extinct animals which
+culminates in the horses; by which term I mean to denote not merely the
+domestic animals with which we are all so well acquainted, but their
+allies, the ass, zebra, quagga, and the like. In short, I use "horses"
+as the equivalent of the technical name _Equidae_, which is applied to
+the whole group of existing equine animals.
+
+The horse is in many ways a remarkable animal; not least so in the fact
+that it presents us with an example of one of the most perfect pieces of
+machinery in the living world. In truth, among the works of human
+ingenuity it cannot be said that there is any locomotive so perfectly
+adapted to its purposes, doing so much work with so small a quantity of
+fuel, as this machine of nature's manufacture--the horse. And, as a
+necessary consequence of any sort of perfection, of mechanical
+perfection as of others, you find that the horse is a beautiful
+creature, one of the most beautiful of all land animals. Look at the
+perfect balance of its form, and the rhythm and force of its action. The
+locomotive machinery is, as you are aware, resident in its slender fore
+and hind limbs; they are flexible and elastic levers, capable of being
+moved by very powerful muscles; and, in order to supply the engines
+which work these levers with the force which they expend, the horse is
+provided with a very perfect apparatus for grinding its food and
+extracting therefrom the requisite fuel.
+
+Without attempting to take you very far into the region of osteological
+detail, I must nevertheless trouble you with some statements respecting
+the anatomical structure of the horse; and, more especially, will it be
+needful to obtain a general conception of the structure of its fore and
+hind limbs, and of its teeth. But I shall only touch upon these points
+which are absolutely essential to our inquiry.
+
+Let us turn in the first place to the fore-limb. In most quadrupeds, as
+in ourselves, the fore-arms contains distinct bones called the radius
+and the ulna. The corresponding region in the horse seem at first to
+possess but one bone. Careful observation, however, enables us to
+distinguish in this bone a part which clearly answers to the upper end
+of the ulna. This is closely united with the chief mass of the bone
+which represents the radius, and runs out into a slender shaft which may
+be traced for some distance downwards upon the back of the radius, and
+then in most cases thins out and vanishes. It takes still more trouble
+to make sure of what is nevertheless the fact, that a small part of the
+lower end of the bone of the horse's fore-arm, which is only distinct in
+a very young foal, is really the lower extremity of the ulna.
+
+What is commonly called the knee of a horse is its wrist. The "cannon
+bone" answers to the middle bone of the five metacarpal bones, which
+support the palm of the hand in ourselves. The "pastern," "coronary,"
+and "coffin" bones of veterinarians answer to the joints of our middle
+fingers, while the hoof is simply a greatly enlarged and thickened nail.
+But if what lies below the horse's "knee" thus corresponds to the middle
+finger in ourselves, what has become of the four other fingers or
+digits? We find in the places of the second and fourth digits only two
+slender splint-like bones, about two-thirds as long as the cannon bone,
+which gradually taper to their lower ends and bear no finger joints, or,
+as they are termed, phalanges. Sometimes, small bony or gristly nodules
+are to be found at the bases of these two metacarpal splints, and it is
+probable that these represent rudiments of the first and fifth toes.
+Thus, the part of the horse's skeleton, which corresponds with that of
+the human hand, contains one overgrown middle digit, and at least two
+imperfect lateral digits; and these answer, respectively, to the third,
+the second and the fourth fingers in man.
+
+Corresponding modifications are found in the hind limb. In ourselves,
+and in most quadrupeds, the leg contains two distinct bones, a large
+bone, the tibia, and a smaller and more slender bone, the fibula. But,
+in the horse, the fibula seems, at first, to be reduced to its upper
+end; a short slender bone united with the tibia and ending in a point
+below, occupying its place. Examination of the lower end of a young
+foal's shin-bone, however, shows a distinct portion of osseous matter,
+which is the lower end of the fibula; so that the, apparently single,
+lower end of the shin-bone is really made up of the coalesced ends of
+the tibia and fibula, just as the, apparently single, lower end of the
+fore-arm bone is composed of the coalesced radius and ulna.
+
+The heel of the horse is the part commonly known as the hock. The hinder
+cannon bone answers to the middle metatarsal bone of the human foot, the
+pastern, coronary, and coffin bones, to the middle toe bones; the hind
+hoof to the nail; as in the fore-foot. And, as in the fore-foot, there
+are merely two splints to represent the second and the fourth toes.
+Sometimes a rudiment of a fifth toe appears to be traceable.
+
+The teeth of a horse are not less peculiar than its limbs. The living
+engine, like all others, must be well stoked if it is to do its work;
+and the horse, if it is to make good its wear and tear, and to exert the
+enormous amount of force required for its propulsion, must be well and
+rapidly fed. To this end good cutting instruments and powerful and
+lasting crushers are needful. Accordingly, the twelve cutting teeth of a
+horse are close-set and concentrated in the fore-part of its mouth, like
+so many adzes or chisels. The grinders or molars are large, and have an
+extremely complicated structure, being composed of a number of different
+substances of unequal hardness. The consequence of this is that they
+wear away at different rates; and, hence, the surface of each grinder
+is always as uneven as that of a good millstone.
+
+I have said that the structure of the grinding teeth is very
+complicated, the harder and the softer parts being, as it were,
+interlaced with one another. The result of this is that, as the tooth
+wears, the crown presents a peculiar pattern, the nature of which is not
+very easily deciphered at first, but which it is important we should
+understand clearly. Each grinding tooth of the upper jaw has an _outer
+wall_ so shaped that, on the worn crown, it exhibits the form of two
+crescents, one in front and one behind, with their concave sides turned
+outwards. From the inner side of the front crescent, a crescentic _front
+ridge_ passes inwards and backwards, and its inner face enlarges into a
+strong longitudinal fold or _pillar_. From the front part of the hinder
+crescent, a _back ridge_ takes a like direction, and also has its
+_pillar_.
+
+The deep interspaces or _valleys_ between these ridges and the outer
+wall are filled by bony substance, which is called _cement_, and coats
+the whole tooth.
+
+The pattern of the worn face of each grinding tooth of the lower jaw is
+quite different. It appears to be formed of two crescent-shaped ridges,
+the convexities of which are turned outwards. The free extremity of each
+crescent has a _pillar_, and there is a large double _pillar_ where the
+two crescents meet. The whole structure is, as it were, imbedded in
+cement, which fills up the valleys, as in the upper grinders.
+
+If the grinding faces of an upper and of a lower molar of the same side
+are applied together, it will be seen that the opposed ridges are
+nowhere parallel, but that they frequently cross; and that thus, in the
+act of mastication, a hard surface in the one is constantly applied to a
+soft surface in the other, and _vice versa_. They thus constitute a
+grinding apparatus of great efficiency, and one which is repaired as
+fast as it wears, owing to the long-continued growth of the teeth.
+
+Some other peculiarities of the dentition of the horse must be noticed,
+as they bear upon what I shall have to say by and by. Thus the crowns of
+the cutting teeth have a peculiar deep pit, which gives rise to the
+well-known "mark" of the horse. There is a large space between the outer
+incisors and the front grinders. In this space the adult male horse
+presents, near the incisors on each side, above and below, a canine or
+"tush," which is commonly absent in mares. In a young horse, moreover,
+there is not unfrequently to be seen, in front of the first grinder, a
+very small tooth, which soon falls out. If this small tooth be counted
+as one, it will be found that there are seven teeth behind the canine on
+each side; namely, the small tooth in question, and the six great
+grinders, among which, by an unusual peculiarity, the foremost tooth is
+rather larger than those which follow it.
+
+I have now enumerated those characteristic structures of the horse which
+are of most importance for the purpose we have in view.
+
+To any one who is acquainted with the morphology [comparative forms] of
+vertebrated animals, they show that the horse deviates widely from the
+general structure of mammals; and that the horse type is, in many
+respects, an extreme modification of the general mammalian plan. The
+least modified mammals, in fact, have the radius and ulna, the tibia and
+fibula, distinct and separate. They have five distinct and complete
+digits on each foot, and no one of these digits is very much larger than
+the rest. Moreover, in the least modified mammals the total number of
+the teeth is very generally forty-four, while in horses the usual number
+is forty, and in the absence of the canines it may be reduced to
+thirty-six; the incisor teeth are devoid of the fold seen in those of
+the horse: the grinders regularly diminish in size from the middle of
+the series to its front end; while their crowns are short, early attain
+their full length, and exhibit simple ridges or tubercles, in place of
+the complex foldings of the horse's grinders.
+
+Hence the general principles of the hypothesis of evolution lead to the
+conclusion that the horse must have been derived from some quadruped
+which possessed five complete digits on each foot; which had the bones
+of the fore-arm and of the leg complete and separate; and which
+possessed forty-four teeth, among which the crowns of the incisors and
+grinders had a simple structure; while the latter gradually increased in
+size from before backwards, at any rate in the anterior part of the
+series, and had short crowns.
+
+And if the horse has been thus evolved, and the remains of the different
+stages of its evolution have been preserved, they ought to present us
+with a series of forms in which the number of the digits becomes
+reduced; the bones of the fore-arm and leg gradually take on the equine
+condition; and the form and arrangement of the teeth successively
+approximate to those which obtain in existing horses.
+
+Let us turn to the facts, and see how far they fulfil these requirements
+of the doctrine of evolution.
+
+In Europe abundant remains of horses are found in the Quaternary and
+later Tertiary strata as far as the Pliocene formation. But these
+horses, which are so common in the cave-deposits and in the gravels of
+Europe, are in all essential respects like existing horses. And that is
+true of all the horses of the latter part of the Pliocene epoch. But in
+deposits which belong to the earlier Pliocene and later Miocene epochs,
+and which occur in Britain, in France, in Germany, in Greece, in India,
+we find animals which are extremely like horses--which, in fact, are so
+similar to horses that you may follow descriptions given in works upon
+the anatomy of the horse upon the skeletons of these animals--but which
+differ in some important particulars. For example, the structure of
+their fore and hind limbs is somewhat different. The bones which, in the
+horse, are represented by two splints, imperfect below, are as long as
+the middle metacarpal and metatarsal bones; and attached to the
+extremity of each is a digit with three joints of the same general
+character as those of the middle digit, only very much smaller. These
+small digits are so disposed that they could have had but very little
+functional importance, and they must have been rather of the nature of
+the dew-claws, such as are to be found in many ruminant animals. The
+_Hipparion_, as the extinct European three-toed horse is called, in
+fact, presents a foot similar to that of the American _Protohippus_
+(Fig. 9), except that in the _Hipparion_ the smaller digits are situated
+farther back and are of smaller proportional size than in the
+_Protohippus_.
+
+The ulna is slightly more distinct than in the horse; and the whole
+length of it, as a very slender shaft intimately united with the radius,
+is completely traceable. The fibula appears to be in the same condition
+as in the horse. The teeth of the _Hipparion_ are essentially similar to
+those of the horse, but the pattern of the grinders is in some respects
+a little more complex, and there is a depression on the face of the
+skull in front of the orbit, which is not seen in existing horses.
+
+In the earlier Miocene, and perhaps the later Eocene deposits of some
+parts of Europe, another extinct animal has been discovered, which
+Cuvier, who first described some fragments of it, considered to be a
+_Palaeotherium_. But as further discoveries threw new light on its
+structure, it was recognized as a distinct genus under the name of
+_Anchitherium_.
+
+In its general characters, the skeleton of _Anchitherium_ is very
+similar to that of the horse. In fact, Lartet and De Blainville called
+it _Palaeotherium equinum_ or _hippoides_; and De Christol, in 1847, said
+that it differed from _Hipparion_ in little more than the characters of
+its teeth, and gave it the name of _Hipparitherium_. Each foot possesses
+three complete toes; while the lateral toes are much larger in
+proportion to the middle toe than in _Hipparion_, and doubtless rested
+on the ground in ordinary locomotion.
+
+The ulna is complete and quite distinct from that radius, though firmly
+united with the latter. The fibula seems also to have been complete. Its
+lower end, though intimately united with that of the tibia, is clearly
+marked off from the latter bone.
+
+There are forty-four teeth. The incisors have no strong pit. The canines
+seem to have been well developed in both sexes. The first of the seven
+grinders, which, as I have said, is frequently absent, and when it does
+exist, is small in the horse, is a good-sized and permanent tooth,
+while the grinder which follows it is but little larger than the hinder
+ones. The crowns of the grinders are short, and though the fundamental
+pattern of the horse-tooth is discernible, the front and back ridges are
+less curved, the accessory pillars, are wanting, and the valleys, much
+shallower, are not filled up with cement.
+
+Seven years ago, when I happened to be looking critically into the
+bearing of palaeontological facts upon the doctrine of evolution, it
+appeared to me that the _Anchitherium_, the _Hipparion_, and the modern
+horses, constitute a series in which the modifications of structure
+coincide with the order of chronological occurrence, in the manner in
+which they must coincide, if the modern horses really are the result of
+the gradual metamorphosis, in the course of the Tertiary epoch, of a
+less specialized ancestral form. And I found by correspondence with the
+late eminent French anatomist and palaeontologist, M. Lartet, that he had
+arrived at the same conclusion from the same data.
+
+That the _Anchitherium_ type had become metamorphosed into the
+_Hipparion_ type, and the latter into the _Equine_ type,[5] in the
+course of that period of time which is represented by the latter half
+of the Tertiary deposits, seemed to me to be the only explanation of the
+facts for which there was even a shadow of probability.
+
+And, hence, I have ever since held that these facts afford evidence of
+the occurrence of evolution, which, in the sense already defined, may be
+termed demonstrative.
+
+All who have occupied themselves with the structure of _Anchitherium_,
+from Cuvier onwards, have acknowledged its many points of likeness to a
+well-known genus of extinct Eocene mammals, _Palaeotherium_. Indeed, as
+we have seen, Cuvier regarded his remains of _Anchitherium_ as those of
+a species of _Palaeotherium_. Hence, in attempting to trace the pedigree
+of the horse beyond the Miocene epoch and the Anchitheroid form, I
+naturally sought among the various species of Palaeotheroid animals for
+its nearest ally, and I was led to the conclusion that the _Palaeotherium
+minus_ (_Plagiolophus_) represented the next step more nearly than any
+form then known.
+
+I think that this opinion was fully justifiable; but the progress of
+investigation has thrown an unexpected light on the question, and has
+brought us much nearer than could have been anticipated to a knowledge
+of the true series of the progenitors of the horse.
+
+You are all aware that, when your country was first discovered by
+Europeans, there were no traces of the existence of the horse on any
+part of the American Continent. The accounts of the conquest of Mexico
+dwell upon the astonishment of the natives of that country when they
+first became acquainted with that astounding phenomenon--a man seated
+upon a horse. Nevertheless, the investigations of American geologists
+have proved that the remains of horses occur in the most superficial
+deposits of both North and South America, just as they do in Europe.
+Therefore, for some reason or other--no feasible suggestion on that
+subject, so far as I know, has been made--the horse must have died out
+on this continent at some period preceding the discovery of America. Of
+late years there has been discovered in your Western Territories that
+marvellous accumulation of deposits, admirably adapted for the
+preservation of organic remains, to which I referred the other evening,
+and which furnishes us with a consecutive series of records of the fauna
+of the older half of the Tertiary epoch, for which we have no parallel
+in Europe. They have yielded fossils in an excellent state of
+conservation and in unexampled numbers and variety. The researches of
+Leidy and others have shown that forms allied to the _Hipparion_ and the
+_Anchitherium_ are to be found among these remains. But it is only
+recently that the admirably conceived and most thoroughly and patiently
+worked-out investigations of Professor Marsh have given us a just idea
+of the vast fossil wealth, and of the scientific importance, of these
+deposits. I have had the advantage of glancing over the collections in
+Yale Museum; and I can truly say, that so far as my knowledge extends,
+there is no collection from any one region and series of strata
+comparable, for extent, or for the care with which the remains have been
+got together, or for their scientific importance, to the series of
+fossils which he has deposited there. This vast collection has yielded
+evidence bearing upon the question of the pedigree of the horse of the
+most striking character. It tends to show that we must look to America,
+rather than to Europe, for the original seat of the equine series; and
+that the archaic forms and successive modifications of the horse's
+ancestry are far better preserved here than in Europe.
+
+Professor Marsh's kindness has enabled me to put before you a diagram,
+every figure of which is an actual representation of some specimen which
+is to be seen at Yale at this present time (Fig. 9).
+
+The succession of forms which he has brought together carries us from
+the top to the bottom of the Tertiaries. Firstly, there is the true
+horse. Next we have the American Pliocene form of the horse
+(_Pliohippus_); in the conformation of its limbs it presents some very
+slight deviations from the ordinary horse, and the crowns of the
+grinding teeth are shorter. Then comes the _Protohippus_, which
+represents the European _Hipparion_, having one large digit and two
+small ones on each foot, and the general characters of the fore-arm and
+leg to which I have referred. But it is more valuable than the European
+_Hipparion_ for the reason that it is devoid of some of the
+peculiarities of that form--peculiarities which tend to show that the
+European _Hipparion_ is rather a member of a collateral branch, than a
+form in the direct line of succession. Next, in the backward order in
+time, is the _Miohippus_, which corresponds pretty nearly with the
+_Anchitherium_ of Europe. It presents three complete toes--one large
+median and two smaller lateral ones; and there is a rudiment of that
+digit, which answers to the little finger of the human hand.
+
+The European record of the pedigree of the horse stops here; in the
+American Tertiaries, on the contrary, the series of ancestral equine
+forms is continued into the Eocene formations. An older Miocene form,
+termed _Mesohippus_, has three toes in front, with a large splint-like
+rudiment representing the little finger; and three toes behind. The
+radius and ulna, the tibia and the fibula, are distinct, and the short
+crowned molar teeth are anchitheroid in pattern.
+
+But the most important discovery of all is the _Orohippus_, which comes
+from the Eocene formation, and which is the oldest member of the equine
+series, as yet known. Here we find four complete toes on the front-limb,
+three toes on the hind-limb, a well-developed ulna, a well-developed
+fibula, and short-crowned grinders of simple pattern.
+
+Thus, thanks to these important researches, it has become evident that,
+so far as our present knowledge extends, the history of the horse-type
+is exactly and precisely that which could have been predicted from a
+knowledge of the principles of evolution. And the knowledge we now
+possess justifies us completely in the anticipation, that when the still
+lower Eocene deposits, and those which belong to the Cretaceous epoch,
+have yielded up their remains of ancestral equine animals, we shall
+find, first, a form with four complete toes and a rudiment of the
+innermost or first digit in front, with probably, a rudiment of the
+fifth digit in the hind foot;[6] while, in still older forms, the series
+of the digits will be more and more complete, until we come to the
+five-toed animals, in which, if the doctrine of evolution is well
+founded, the whole series must have taken its origin.
+
+That is what I mean by demonstrative evidence of evolution. An inductive
+hypothesis is said to be demonstrated when the facts are shown to be in
+entire accordance with it. If that is not scientific proof, there are no
+merely inductive conclusions which can be said to be proved. And the
+doctrine of evolution, at the present time, rests upon exactly as secure
+a foundation as the Copernican theory of the motions of the heavenly
+bodies did at the time of its promulgation. Its logical basis is
+precisely of the same character--the coincidence of the observed facts
+with theoretical requirements.
+
+The only way of escape, if it be a way of escape, from the conclusions
+which I have just indicated, is the supposition that all these different
+equine forms have been created separately at separate epochs of time;
+and, I repeat, that of such an hypothesis as this there neither is, nor
+can be, any scientific evidence; and, assuredly, so far as I know, there
+is none which is supported, or pretends to be supported, by evidence or
+authority of any other kind. I can but think that the time will come
+when such suggestions as these, such obvious attempts to escape the
+force of demonstration, will be put upon the same footing as the
+supposition made by some writers, who are, I believe, not completely
+extinct at present, that fossils are mere simulacra [images], are no
+indications of the former existence of the animals to which they seem to
+belong; but that they are either sports of Nature, or special creations,
+intended--as I heard suggested the other day--to test our faith.
+
+In fact, the whole evidence is in favour of evolution, and there is none
+against it. And I say this, although perfectly well aware of the seeming
+difficulties which have been built up upon what appears to the
+uninformed to be a solid foundation. I meet constantly with the argument
+that the doctrine of evolution cannot be well founded because it
+requires the lapse of a very vast period of time; while the duration of
+life upon the earth, thus implied, is inconsistent with the conclusions
+arrived at by the astronomer and the physicist. I may venture to say
+that I am familiar with those conclusions, inasmuch as some years ago,
+when president of the Geological Society of London, I took the liberty
+of criticising them, and of showing in what respects, as it appeared to
+me, they lacked complete and thorough demonstration. But, putting that
+point aside, suppose that, as the astronomers, or some of them, and some
+physical philosophers tell us, it is impossible that life could have
+endured upon the earth for so long a period as is required by the
+doctrine of evolution--supposing that to be proved--I desire to be
+informed, what is the foundation for the statement that evolution does
+require so great a time? The biologist knows nothing whatever of the
+amount of time which may be required for the process of evolution. It is
+a matter of fact that the equine forms, which I have described to you,
+occur, in the order stated, in the Tertiary formations. But I have not
+the slightest means of guessing whether it took a million of years, or
+ten millions, or a hundred millions, or a thousand millions of years, to
+give rise to that series of changes. A biologist has no means of
+arriving at any conclusions as to the amount of time which may be needed
+for a certain quantity of organic change. He takes his time from the
+geologist. The geologist, considering the rate at which deposits are
+formed and the rate at which denudation goes on upon the surface of the
+earth, arrives at more or less justifiable conclusions as to the time
+which is required for the deposit of a certain thickness of rocks; and
+if he tells me that the Tertiary formations required 500,000,000 years
+for their deposit, I suppose he has good ground for what he says, and I
+take that as a measure of the duration of the evolution of the horse
+from the _Orohippus_ up to its present condition. And, if he is right,
+undoubtedly evolution is a very slow process, and requires a great deal
+of time. But suppose now, that an astronomer or a physicist--for
+instance, my friend Sir William Thomson--tells me that my geological
+authority is quite wrong; and that he has weighty evidence to show that
+life could not possibly have existed upon the surface of the earth
+500,000,000 years ago, because the earth would have then been too hot to
+allow of life, my reply is: "That is not my affair; settle that with the
+geologist, and when you have come to an agreement among yourselves I
+will adopt your conclusions." We take our time from the geologists and
+physicists, and it is monstrous that, having taken our time from the
+physical philosopher's clock, the physical philosopher should turn round
+upon us, and say we are too fast or too slow. What we desire to know is,
+is it a fact that evolution took place? As to the amount of time which
+evolution may have occupied, we are in the hands of the physicist and
+the astronomer, whose business it is to deal with those questions.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 9]
+
+Fore Foot. Hind Foot. Fore-arm. Leg. Upper Molar. Lower Molar.
+
+RECENT.
+EQUUS.
+
+PLIOCENE.
+PLIOHIPPUS.
+
+PROTOHIPPUS
+(_Hipparion_).
+
+MIOCENE.
+MIOHIPPUS
+(_Anchitherium_).
+
+MESOHIPPUS.
+
+EOCENE.
+OROHIPPUS.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] I use the word "type" because it is highly probable that many of the
+forms of _Anchitherium_-like and _Hipparion_-like animals existed in the
+Miocene and Pliocene epochs, just as many species of the horse tribe
+exist now; and it is highly improbable that the particular species of
+_Anchitherium_ or _Hipparion_, which happen to have been discovered,
+should be precisely those which have formed part of the direct line of
+the horse's pedigree.
+
+[6] Since this lecture was delivered, Professor Marsh has discovered a
+new genus of equine mammals (_Eohippus_) from the lowest Eocene
+deposits of the West, which corresponds very nearly to this
+description.--_American Journal of Science_, November, 1876.
+
+
+
+
+FIGHTING PESTS WITH INSECT ALLIES
+
+LELAND O. HOWARD
+
+     [Dr. Howard is Chief of the Division of Entomology in the
+     United States Department of Agriculture at Washington. He is
+     a lecturer at Swarthmore College and at Georgetown
+     University. He has written "The Insect Book," published by
+     Doubleday, Page & Co., New York; and a work on Mosquitoes,
+     issued by McClure, Phillips & Co., New York. Both are books
+     of interest from the hand of a master: they are fully
+     illustrated. The narrative which follows appeared in
+     _Everybody's Magazine_, June, 1901.]
+
+
+Some twenty-five years ago there appeared suddenly upon certain acacia
+trees at Menlo Park, California, a very destructive scale bug. It
+rapidly increased and spread from tree to tree, attacking apples, figs,
+pomegranates, quinces, and roses, and many other trees and plants, but
+seeming to prefer to all other food the beautiful orange and lemon trees
+which grow so luxuriantly on the Pacific Coast, and from which a large
+share of the income of so many fruit-growers is gained. This insect,
+which came to be known as the _white scale_ or _fluted scale_ or the
+_Icerya_ (from its scientific name), was an insignificant creature in
+itself, resembling a small bit of fluted wax a little more than a
+quarter of an inch long. But when the scales had once taken possession
+of a tree, they swarmed over it until the bark was hidden; they sucked
+its sap through their minute beaks until the plant became so feeble that
+the leaves and young fruit dropped off, a hideous black smut-fungus
+crept over the young twigs, and the weakened tree gradually died.
+
+In this way orchard after orchard of oranges, worth a thousand dollars
+or more an acre, was utterly destroyed; the best fruit-growing sections
+of the State were invaded, and ruin stared many a fruit-grower in the
+face. This spread of the pest was gradual, extending through a series of
+years, and not until 1886 did it become so serious a matter as to
+attract national attention.
+
+In this year an investigation was begun by the late Professor C. V.
+Riley, the Government entomologist then connected with the Department of
+Agriculture at Washington. He sent two agents to California, both of
+whom immediately began to study the problem of remedies. In 1887 he
+visited California himself, and during that year published an elaborate
+report giving the results of the work up to that point. The complete
+life-history of the insect had been worked out, and a number of washes
+had been discovered which could be applied to the trees in the form of a
+spray, and which would kill a large proportion of the pests at a
+comparatively small expense. But it was soon found that the average
+fruit-grower would not take the trouble to spray his trees, largely from
+the fact that he had experimented for some years with inferior washes
+and quack nostrums, and from lack of success had become disgusted with
+the whole idea of using liquid compounds. Something easier, something
+more radical was necessary in his disheartened condition.
+
+Meantime, after much sifting of evidence and much correspondence with
+naturalists in many parts of the world, Professor Riley had decided that
+the white scale was a native of Australia, and had been first brought
+over to California accidentally upon Australian plants. In the same way
+it was found to have reached South Africa and New Zealand, in both of
+which colonies it had greatly increased, and had become just such a pest
+as it is in California. In Australia, however, its native home, it did
+not seem to be abundant, and was not known as a pest--a somewhat
+surprising state of affairs, which put the entomologist on the track of
+the results which proved of such great value to California. He reasoned
+that, in his native home, with the same food plants upon which it
+flourished abroad in such great abundance, it would undoubtedly do the
+same damage that it does in South Africa, New Zealand, and California,
+if there were not in Australia some natural enemy, probable some insect
+parasite or predatory beetle, which killed it off. It became therefore
+important to send a trained man to Australia to investigate this
+promising line.
+
+After many difficulties in arranging preliminaries relating to the
+payment of expenses (in which finally the Department of State kindly
+assisted), one of Professor Riley's assistants, a young German named
+Albert Koebele, who had been with him for a number of years, sailed for
+Australia in August, 1888. Koebele was a skilled collector and an
+admirable man for the purpose. He at once found that Professor Riley's
+supposition was correct: there existed in Australia small flies which
+laid their eggs in the white scales, and these eggs hatched into grubs
+which devoured the pests. He also found a remarkable little ladybird, a
+small, reddish-brown convex beetle, which breeds with marvellous
+rapidity and which, with voracious appetite, and at the same time with
+discriminating taste, devours scale after scale, but eats fluted scales
+only--does not attack other insects. This beneficial creature, now known
+as the Australian ladybird, or the Vedalia, Mr. Koebele at once began to
+collect in large numbers, together with several other insects found
+doing the same work. He packed many hundreds of living specimens of the
+ladybird, with plenty of food, in tin boxes, and had them placed on ice
+in the ice-box of the steamer at Sydney; they were carried carefully to
+California, where they were liberated upon orange trees at Los Angeles.
+
+[Illustration: Vedalia, or Australian Ladybird]
+
+These sendings were repeated for several months, and Mr. Koebele, on his
+return in April, 1889, brought with him many more living specimens which
+he had collected on his way home in New Zealand, where the same Vedalia
+had been accidentally introduced a year or so before.
+
+[Illustration: Larvae of Vedalia eating White Scale]
+
+The result more than justified the most sanguine expectations. The
+ladybirds reached Los Angeles alive, and, with appetites sharpened by
+their long ocean voyage, immediately fell upon the devoted scales and
+devoured them one after another almost without rest. Their hunger
+temporarily satisfied, they began to lay eggs. These eggs hatched in a
+few days into active grub-like creatures--the larvae of the beetles--and
+these grubs proved as voracious as their parents. They devoured the
+scales right and left, and in less than a month transformed once more to
+beetles.
+
+And so the work of extermination went on. Each female beetle laid on an
+average 300 eggs, and each of these eggs hatched into a hungry larva.
+Supposing that one-half of these larvae produced female beetles, a simple
+calculation will show that in six months a single ladybird became the
+ancestor of 75,000,000,000 of other ladybirds, each capable of
+destroying very many scale insects.
+
+[Illustration: Twig of olive infected with Black Scale]
+
+Is it any wonder, then, that the fluted scales soon began to disappear?
+Is it any wonder that orchard after orchard was entirely freed from the
+pest, until now over a large section of the State hardly an Icerya is to
+be found? And could a more striking illustration of the value of the
+study of insects possibly be instanced? In less than a year from the
+time when the first of these hungry Australians was liberated from his
+box in Los Angeles the orange trees were once more in bloom and were
+resuming their old-time verdure--the Icerya had become practically a
+thing of the past.
+
+[Illustration: Rhizobius, the imported enemy of the Black Scale of the
+Olive.]
+
+This wonderful success encouraged other efforts in the same direction.
+The State of California some years later sent the same entomologist,
+Koebele, to Australia to search for some insect enemy of the black
+scale, an insect which threatened the destruction of the extensive olive
+orchards of California. He found and successfully introduced another
+ladybird beetle, known as _Rhizobius ventralis_, a little dark-coloured
+creature which has thrived in the California climate, especially near
+the seacoast, and in the damp air of those regions has successfully held
+the black scale in check. It was found, however, that back from the
+seacoast this insect did not seem to thrive with the same vigor, and the
+black scale held its own. Then a spirited controversy sprung up among
+the olive-growers, those near the seacoast contending that the
+_Rhizobius_ was a perfect remedy for the scale, while those inland
+insisted that it was worthless. A few years later it was discovered that
+this olive enemy in South Europe is killed by a little caterpillar,
+which burrows through scale after scale eating out their contents, and
+an effort was made to introduce the caterpillar into California, but
+these efforts failed. Within the past two years it has been found that a
+small parasitic fly exists in South Africa which lays its eggs in the
+same black scale, and its grub-like larvae eat out the bodies of the
+scales and destroy them. The climate of the region in which this
+parasite exists is dry through a large part of the year, and therefore
+this little parasitic fly, known as _Scutellista_, was thought to be
+the needed insect for the dry California regions. With the help of Mr.
+C. P. Lounsbury, the Government entomologist of Cape Colony, living
+specimens of this fly were brought to this country, and were colonized
+in the Santa Clara Valley, near San Jose, California, where they have
+perpetuated themselves and destroyed many of the black scales, and
+promise to be most successful in their warfare against the injurious
+insect.
+
+This same _Scutellista_ parasite had, curiously enough, been previously
+introduced in an accidental manner into Italy, probably from India, and
+probably in scale-insects living on ornamental plants brought from
+India. But in Italy it lives commonly in another scale insect, and with
+the assistance of the learned Italian, Professor Antonio Berlese, the
+writer made an unsuccessful attempt to introduce and establish it a year
+earlier in some of our Southern States, where it was hoped it would
+destroy certain injurious insects known as "wax scales."
+
+In the meantime the United States, not content with keeping all the good
+things to herself, has spread the first ladybird imported--the
+_Vedalia_--to other countries. Four years ago the white scale was
+present in enormous numbers in orange groves on the left bank of the
+river Tagus, in Portugal, and threatened to wipe out the orange-growing
+industry in that country. The California people, in pursuance of a
+far-sighted policy, had with great difficulty, owing to lack of food,
+kept alive some colonies of the beneficial beetle, and specimens were
+sent to Portugal which reached there alive and flourishing. They were
+tended for a short time, and then liberated in the orange groves, with
+precisely the same result as in California. In a few months the scale
+insects were almost entirely destroyed, and the Portuguese
+orange-growers saved from enormous loss.
+
+This good result in Portugal was not accomplished without opposition. It
+was tried experimentally at the advice of the writer, and in the face of
+great incredulity on the part of certain Portuguese newspapers and of
+some officials. By many prominent persons the account published of the
+work of the insect in the United States was considered as untrustworthy,
+and simply another instance of American boasting. But the opposition was
+overruled, and the triumphant result silenced all opposition. It is safe
+to say that the general opinion among Portuguese orange-growers to-day
+is very favourable to American enterprise and practical scientific
+acumen.
+
+The _Vedalia_ was earlier sent to the people in Alexandria and Cairo,
+Egypt, where a similar scale was damaging the fig trees and other
+valuable plants, and the result was again the same, the injurious
+insects were destroyed. This was achieved only after extensive
+correspondence and several failures. The active agent in Alexandria was
+Rear Admiral Blomfield, of the British Royal Navy, a man apparently of
+wide information, good judgment, and great energy.
+
+The same thing occurred when the California people sent this saviour of
+horticulture to South Africa, where the white scale had also made its
+appearance.
+
+It is not only beneficial insects, however, which are being imported,
+but diseases of injurious insects. In South Africa the colonists suffer
+severely from swarms of migratory grasshoppers, which fly from the north
+and destroy their crops. They have discovered out there a fungus
+disease, which under favorable conditions kills off the grasshoppers in
+enormous numbers. At the Bacteriological Institute in Grahamstown,
+Natal, they have cultivated this fungus in culture tubes, and have
+carried it successfully throughout the whole year; and they have used it
+practically by distributing these culture tubes wherever swarms of
+grasshoppers settle and lay their eggs. The disease, once started in an
+army of young grasshoppers, soon reduces them to harmless numbers. The
+United States Government last year secured culture tubes of this
+disease, and experiments carried on in Colorado and in Mississippi show
+that the vitality of the fungus had not been destroyed by its long ocean
+voyage, and many grasshoppers were killed by its spread. During the past
+winter other cultures were brought over from Cape Colony, and the fungus
+is being propagated in the Department of Agriculture for distribution
+during the coming summer in parts of the country where grasshoppers may
+prove to be destructively abundant.
+
+[Illustration: Grasshopper dying from Fungus Disease]
+
+Although we practically no longer have those tremendous swarms of
+migratory grasshoppers which used to come down like devastating armies
+in certain of our Western States and in a night devour everything green,
+still, almost every year, and especially in the West and South, there
+is somewhere a multiplication of grasshoppers to a very injurious
+degree, and it is hoped that the introduced fungus can be used in such
+cases.
+
+Persons officially engaged in searching for remedies for injurious
+insects all over the world have banded themselves together in a society
+known as the Association of Economic Entomologists. They are constantly
+interchanging ideas regarding the destruction of insects, and at present
+active movements are on foot in this direction of interchanging
+beneficial insects. Entomologists in Europe will try the coming summer
+to send to the United States living specimens of a tree-inhabiting
+beetle which eats the caterpillar of the gipsy moth, and which will
+undoubtedly also eat the caterpillar so common upon the shade-trees of
+our principal Eastern cities, which is known as the Tussock moth
+caterpillar. An entomologist from the United States, Mr. C. L. Marlatt,
+has started for Japan, China, and Java, for the purpose of trying to
+find the original home of the famous San Jose scale--an insect which has
+been doing enormous damage in the apple, pear, peach, and plum orchards
+of the United States--and if he finds the original home of this scale,
+it is hoped that some natural enemy or parasite will be discovered which
+can be introduced into the United States to the advantage of our
+fruit-growers. Professor Berlese of Italy, and Dr. Reh, of Germany,
+will attempt the introduction into Europe of some of the parasites of
+injurious insects which occur in the United States, and particularly
+those of the woolly root-louse of the apple, known in Europe as the
+"American blight"--one of the few injurious insects which probably went
+to Europe from this country, and which in the United States is not so
+injurious as it is in Europe.
+
+It is a curious fact, by the way, that while we have had most of our
+very injurious insects from Europe, American insects, when accidentally
+introduced into Europe, do not seem to thrive. The insect just
+mentioned, and the famous grape-vine _Phylloxera_, a creature which
+caused France a greater economic loss than the enormous indemnity which
+she had to pay to Germany after the Franco-Prussian War, are practically
+the only American insects with which we have been able to repay Europe
+for the insects which she has sent us. Climatic differences, no doubt,
+account for this strange fact, and our longer and warmer summers are the
+principal factor.
+
+It is not alone the parasitic and predaceous insects which are
+beneficial. A new industry has been brought into the United States
+during the past two years by the introduction and acclimatization of the
+little insect which fertilizes the Smyrna fig in Mediterranean
+countries. The dried-fig industry in this country has never amounted to
+anything. The Smyrna fig has controlled the dried-fig markets of the
+world, but in California the Smyrna fig has never held its fruit, the
+young figs dropping from the trees without ripening. It was found that
+in Mediterranean regions a little insect, known as the _Blastophaga_,
+fertilizes the flowers of the Smyrna fig with pollen from the wild fig
+which it inhabits. The United States Department of Agriculture in the
+spring of 1899 imported successfully some of these insects through one
+of its travelling agents, Mr. W. T. Swingle, and the insect was
+successfully established at Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley. A
+far-sighted fruit-grower, Mr. George C. Roeding, of Fresno, had planted
+some years previously an orchard of 5,000 Smyrna fig trees and wild fig
+trees, and his place was the one chosen for the successful experiment.
+The little insect multiplied with astonishing rapidity, was carried
+successfully through the winter of 1899-1900, and in the summer of 1900
+was present in such great numbers that it fertilized thousands of figs,
+and fifteen tons of them ripened. When these figs were dried and packed
+it was discovered that they were superior to the best imported figs.
+They contained more sugar and were of a finer flavor than those brought
+from Smyrna and Algeria. The _Blastophaga_ has come to stay, and the
+prospects for a new and important industry are assured.
+
+With all these experiments the criticism is constantly made that
+unwittingly new and serious enemies to agriculture may be introduced.
+The unfortunate introduction of the English sparrow into this country is
+mentioned, and the equally unfortunate introduction of the East Indian
+mongoose into the West Indies as well. The fear is expressed that the
+beneficial parasitic insects, after they have destroyed the injurious
+insects, will either themselves attack valuable crops or do something
+else of an equally harmful nature. But there is no reason for such
+alarm. The English sparrow feeds on all sorts of things, and the East
+Indian mongoose, while it was introduced into Jamaica to kill snakes,
+was found, too late, to be also a very general feeder. As a matter of
+fact, after the snakes were destroyed, and even before, it attacked
+young pigs, kids, lambs, calves, puppies, and kittens, and also
+destroyed bananas, pineapples, corn, sweet potatoes, cocoanuts, peas,
+sugar corn, meat, and salt provisions and fish. But with the parasitic
+and predatory insects the food habits are definite and fixed. They can
+live on nothing but their natural food, and in its absence they die. The
+Australian ladybird originally imported, for example, will feed upon
+nothing but scale insects of a particular genus, and, as a matter of
+fact, as soon as the fluted scales became scarce the California
+officials had the greatest difficulty in keeping the little beetles
+alive, and were actually obliged to cultivate for food the very insects
+which they were formerly so anxious to wipe out of existence! With the
+_Scutellista_ parasite the same fact holds. The fly itself does not
+feed, and its young feed only upon certain scale insects, and so with
+all the rest.
+
+All of these experiments are being carried on by men learned in the ways
+of insects, and only beneficial results, or at the very least negative
+ones, can follow. And even where only one such experiment out of a
+hundred is successful, what a saving it will mean!
+
+We do not expect the time to come when the farmer, finding Hessian fly
+in his wheat, will have only to telegraph the nearest experiment
+station, "Send at once two dozen first-class parasites;" but in many
+cases, and with a number of different kinds of injurious insects,
+especially those introduced from foreign countries, it is probable that
+we can gain much relief by the introduction of their natural enemies
+from their original home.
+
+
+
+
+THE STRANGE STORY OF THE FLOWERS
+
+GEORGE ILES
+
+     [From "The Wild Flowers of America," copyright by G. H. Buek
+     & Co., New York, 1894, by their kind permission. The American
+     edition is out of print: the Canadian edition, "Wild Flowers
+     of Canada," is published by Graham & Co., Montreal, Canada.
+     The work describes and illustrates in their natural tints
+     nearly three hundred beautiful flowers.]
+
+
+Imagine a Venetian doge, a French crusader, a courtier of the time of
+the second Charles, an Ojibway chief, a Justice of the Supreme Court, in
+the formal black of evening dress, and how much each of them would lose!
+Where there is beauty, strength or dignity, dress can heighten it; where
+all these are lacking, their absence is kept out of mind by raiment in
+itself worthy to be admired. If dress artificial has told for much in
+the history of human-kind, dress natural has told for yet more in the
+lesser world of plant and insect life. In some degree the tiny folk that
+reign in the air, like ourselves, are drawn by grace of form, by charm
+of colour; of elaborate display of their attractions moths, butterflies
+and beetles are just as fond as any belles of the ball-room. Now let us
+bear in mind that of all the creatures that share the earth with man,
+the one that stands next to him in intelligence is neither a biped nor
+a quadruped, but that king of the insect tribe, the ant, which can be a
+herdsman and warehouse-keeper, an engineer and builder, an explorer and
+a general. With all his varied powers the ant lacks a peculiarity in his
+costume which has denied him enlistment in a task of revolution in which
+creatures far his inferiors have been able to change the face of the
+earth. And the marvel of this peculiarity of garb which has meant so
+much, is that it consists in no detail of graceful outline, or beauty of
+tint, but solely in the minor matter of texture. The ant, warrior that
+he is, wears smooth and shining armour; the bee, the moth and the
+butterfly are clad in downy vesture, and simply because thus enabled to
+catch dust on their clothes these insects, as weavers of the web of
+life, have counted for immensely more than the ant with all his brains
+and character. To understand the mighty train of consequences set in
+motion by this mere shagginess of coat, let us remember that, like a
+human babe, every flowering plant has two parents. These two parents,
+though a county's breadth divide them, are wedded the instant that
+pollen from the anther of one of them meets the stigma of the other.
+Many flowers find their mates upon their own stem; but, as in the races
+of animals, too close intermarriage is hurtful, and union with a distant
+stock promotes both health and vigor. Hence the great gain which has
+come to plants by engaging the wind as their matchmaker--as every
+summer shows us in its pollen-laden air, the oaks, the pines, the
+cottonwoods, and a host of other plants commit to the breeze the winged
+atoms charged with the continuance of their kind. Nevertheless, long as
+the wind has been employed at this work, it has not yet learned to do it
+well; nearly all the pollen entrusted to it is wasted, and this while
+its production draws severely upon the strength of a plant. As good
+fortune will have it, a great many flowers close to their pollen yield
+an ample supply of nectar: a food esteemed delicious by the whole round
+of insects, winged and wingless. While ants might sip this nectar of
+ages without plants being any the better or the worse; a very different
+result has followed upon the visits of bees, wasps, and other
+hairy-coated callers. These, as they devour nectar, dust themselves with
+the pollen near by. Yellowed or whitened with this freightage, moth and
+butterfly, as they sail through the air, know not that they are
+publishing the banns of marriage between two blossoms acres or, it may
+be, miles apart. Yet so it is. Alighting on a new flower the insect rubs
+a pollen grain on a stigma ready to receive it, and lo! the rites of
+matrimony are solemnized then and there. Unwittingly the little visitor
+has wrought a task bigger with fate than many an act loudly trumpeted
+among the mightiest deeds of men! On the threshold of a Lady's Slipper a
+bee may often be detected in the act of entrance. In the Sage-flower he
+finds an anther of the stamen which, pivoted on its spring, dusts him
+even more effectually.
+
+[Illustration: Sage-flower and Bee]
+
+Bountifully to spread a table is much, but not enough, for without
+invitation how can hospitality be dispensed? To the feast of nectar the
+blossoms join their bidding; and those most conspicuously borne and
+massed, gayest of hue, richest in odor, secure most guests, and are
+therefore most likely to transmit to their kind their own excellences as
+hosts and entertainers. Thus all the glories of the blossoms have arisen
+in doing useful work; their beauty is not mere ornament, but the sign
+and token of duty well performed. Our opportunity to admire the radiancy
+and perfume of a jessamine or a pond-lily is due to the previous
+admiration of uncounted winged attendants. If a winsome maid adorns
+herself with a wreath from the garden, and carries a posy gathered at
+the brookside, it is for the second time that their charms are impressed
+into service; for the flowers' own ends of attraction all their scent
+and loveliness were called into being long before.
+
+Let us put flowers of the blue flag beside those of the maple, and we
+shall have a fair contrast between the brilliancy of blossoms whose
+marrier has been an insect, and the dinginess of flowers indebted to the
+services of the wind. Can it be that both kinds of flowers are descended
+from forms resembling each other in want of grace and colour? Such,
+indeed, is the truth. But how, as the generations of the flowers
+succeeded one another, did differences so striking come about? In our
+rambles afield let us seek a clue to the mystery. It is late in
+springtime, and near the border of a bit of swamp we notice a clump of
+violets: they are pale of hue, and every stalk of them rises to an
+almost weedy height.
+
+[Illustration: Wild Rose, Single]
+
+Twenty paces away, on a knoll of dry ground, we find more violets, but
+these are in much deeper tints of azure and yellow, while their stalks
+are scarcely more than half as tall as their brethren near the swamp.
+Six weeks pass by. This time we walk to a wood-lot close to a brimming
+pond. At its edge are more than a score wild-rose bushes. On the very
+first of them we see that some of the blossoms are a light pink, others
+a pink so deep as to seem dashed with vivid red. And while a flower here
+and there is decidedly larger and more vigorous than its fellows, a few
+of the blossoms are undersized and puny: the tide of life flows high and
+merrily in a fortunate rose or two, it seems to ebb and falter by the
+time it reaches one or two of their unhappy mates. As we search bush
+after bush we are at last repaid for sundry scratches from their thorns
+by securing a double rose, a "sport," as the gardener would call it. And
+in the broad meadow between us and home we well know that for the quest
+we can have not only four-leaved clovers, but perchance a handful of
+five and six-leaved prizes. The secret is out. Flowers and leaves are
+not cast like bullets in rigid moulds, but differ from their parents
+much as children do. Usually the difference is slight, at times it is as
+marked as in our double rose. Whenever the change in a flower is for the
+worse, as in the sickly violets and roses we have observed, that
+particular change ends there--with death. But when the change makes a
+healthy flower a little more attractive to its insect ministers, it will
+naturally be chosen by them for service, and these choosings, kept up
+year after year, and century upon century, have at last accomplished
+much the same result as if the moth, the bee, and the rest of them had
+been given power to create blossoms of the most welcome forms, the most
+alluring tints, the most bewitching perfumes.
+
+In farther jaunts afield we shall discover yet more. It is May, and a
+heavy rainstorm has caused the petals of a trillium to forget
+themselves and return to their primitive hue of leafy green. A month
+later we come upon a buttercup, one of whose sepals has grown out as a
+small but perfect leaf. Later still in summer we find a rose in the same
+surprising case, while not far off is a columbine bearing pollen on its
+spurs instead of its anthers. What family tie is betrayed in all this?
+No other than that sepals, petals, anthers and pistils are but leaves in
+disguise, and that we have detected nature returning to the form from
+which ages ago she began to transmute the parts of flowers in all their
+teeming diversity. The leaf is the parent not only of all these but of
+delicate tendrils, which save a vine the cost of building a stem stout
+enough to lift it to open air and sunshine. However thoroughly, or
+however long, a habit may be impressed upon a part of a plant, it may on
+occasion relapse into a habit older still, resume a shape all but
+forgotten, and thus tell a story of its past that otherwise might remain
+forever unsuspected. Thus it is with the somewhat rare "sport" that
+gives us a morning glory or a harebell in its primitive form of unjoined
+petals. The bell form of these and similar flowers has established
+itself by being much more effective than the original shape in dusting
+insect servitors with pollen. Not only the forms of flowers but their
+massing has been determined by insect preferences; a wide profusion of
+blossoms grow in spikes, umbels, racemes and other clusters, all
+economizing the time of winged allies, and attracting their attention
+from afar as scattered blossoms would fail to do. Besides this massing,
+we have union more intimate still as in the dandelion, the sun-flower
+and the marigold. These and their fellow composites each seem an
+individual; a penknife discloses each of them to be an aggregate of
+blossoms. So gainful has this kind of co-operation proved that
+composites are now dominant among plants in every quarter of the globe.
+As to how composites grew before they learned that union is strength, a
+hint is dropped in the "sport" of the daisy known as "the hen and
+chickens," where perhaps as many as a dozen florets, each on a stalk of
+its own, ray out from a mother flower.
+
+While for the most part insects have been mere choosers from among
+various styles of architecture set before them by plants, they have
+sometimes risen to the dignity of builders on their own account, and
+without ever knowing it. The buttress of the larkspur has sprung forth
+in response to the pressure of one bee's weight after another, and many
+a like structure has had the very same origin,--or shall we say,
+provocation? In these and in other examples unnumbered, culminating in
+the marvellous orchids and their ministers, there has come about the
+closest adaptation of flower-shape to insect-form, the one now clearly
+the counterpart of the other.
+
+We must not forget that the hospitality of a flower is after all the
+hospitality of an inn-keeper who earns and requires payment. Vexed as
+flowers are apt to be by intruders that consume their stores without
+requital, no wonder that they present so ample an array of repulsion and
+defence. Best of all is such a resource as that of the red clover, which
+hides its honey at the bottom of a tube so deep that only a friendly
+bumblebee can sip it. Less effective, but well worth a moment's
+examination, are the methods by which leaves are opposed as fences for
+the discouragement of thieves. Here, in a Bellwort, is a perfoliate leaf
+that encircles the stem upon which it grows; and there in a Honeysuckle
+is a connate leaf on much the same plan, formed of two leaves, stiff and
+strong, soldered at their bases. Sometimes the pillager meets prickles
+that sting him, as in the roses and briers; and if he is a little fellow
+he is sure to regard him with intense disgust, a bristly guard of wiry
+hair--hence the commonness of that kind of fortification. Against
+enemies of larger growth a tree or shrub will often aim sharp
+thorns--another piece of masquerade, for thorns are but branches checked
+in growth, and frowning with a barb in token of disappointment at not
+being able to smile in a blossom. In every jot and tittle of barb and
+prickle, of the glossiness which disheartens or the gumminess which
+ensnares, we may be sure that equally with all the lures of hue, form
+and scent, nothing, however trifling it may seem, is as we find it,
+except through usefulness long tested and approved. In flowers, much
+that at first glance looks like idle decoration, on closer scrutiny
+reveals itself as service in disguise. In penetrating these disguises
+and many more of other phases, the student of flowers delights to busy
+himself. He loves, too, to detect the cousinship of plants through all
+the change of dress and habit due to their rearing under widely
+different skies and nurture, to their being surrounded by strangely
+contrasted foes and friends. Often he can link two plants together only
+by going into partnership with a student of the rocks, by turning back
+the records of the earth until he comes upon a flower long extinct, a
+plant which ages ago found the struggle for life too severe for it. He
+ever takes care to observe his flowers accurately and fully, but chiefly
+that he may rise from observation to explanation, from bare facts to
+their causes, from declaring What, to understanding, Whence and How.
+
+One of the stock resources of novelists, now somewhat out of date, was
+the inn-keeper who beamed in welcome of his guest, grasped his hand in
+gladness, and loaded a table for him in tempting array, and all with
+intent that later in the day (or night) he might the more securely
+plunge a dagger into his victim's heart--if, indeed, he had not already
+improved an opportunity to offer to that victim's lips a poisoned cup.
+This imagined treachery might well have been suggested by the behaviour
+of certain alluring plants that so far from repelling thieves, or
+discouraging pillagers, open their arms to all comers--with purpose of
+the deadliest. Of these betrayers the chief is the round-leaved sun-dew,
+which plies its nefarious vocation all the way from Labrador to Florida.
+Its favourite site is a peat-bog or a bit of swampy lowland, where in
+July and August we can see its pretty little white blossoms beckoning to
+wayfaring flies and moths their token of good cheer! Circling the
+flower-stalk, in rosette fashion, are a dozen or more round leaves, each
+of them wearing scores of glands, very like little pins, a drop of gum
+glistening on each and every pin by way of head. This appetizing gum is
+no other than a fatal stick-fast, the raying pins closing in its aid the
+more certainly to secure a hapless prisoner. Soon his prison-house
+becomes a stomach for his absorption. Its duty of digestion done, the
+leaf in all seeming guilessness once more expands itself for the
+enticement of a dupe. To see how much the sun-dew must depend upon its
+meal of insects we have only to pull it up from the ground. A touch
+suffices--it has just root enough to drink by; the soil in which it
+makes, and perhaps has been obliged to make, its home has nothing else
+but drink to give it.
+
+Less accomplished in its task of assassination is the common butterwort
+to be found on wet rocks in scattered districts of Canada and the States
+adjoining Canada. Surrounding its pretty violet flowers, of funnel
+shape, are gummy leaves which close upon their all too trusting guests,
+but with less expertness than the sun-dew's. The butterwort is but a
+'prentice hand in the art of murder, and its intended victims often
+manage to get away from it. Built on a very different model is the
+bladderwort, busy in stagnant ponds near the sea coast from Nova Scotia
+to Texas. Its little white spongy bladders, about a tenth of an inch
+across, encircle the flowering stem by scores. From each bladder a bunch
+of twelve or fifteen hairy prongs protrude, giving the structure no
+slight resemblance to an insect form. These prongs hide a valve which,
+as many an unhappy little swimmer can attest, opens inward easily
+enough, but opens outward never. As in the case of its cousinry a-land,
+the bladderwort at its leisure dines upon its prey.
+
+[Illustration: Venus' Fly Trap--Open with a Welcome]
+
+In marshy places near the mouth of the Cape Fear River, in the vicinity
+of Wilmington, North Carolina, grows the Venus' fly-trap, most wonderful
+of all the death-dealers of vegetation. Like much else in nature's
+handiwork this plant might well have given inventors a hint worth
+taking. The hairy fringes of its leaves are as responsive to a touch
+from moth or fly as the sensitive plant itself. And he must be either a
+very small or a particularly sturdy little captive that can escape
+through the sharp opposed teeth of its formidable snare. It is one of
+the unexplained puzzles of plant life that the Venus' fly-trap, so
+marvellous in its ingenuity, should not only be confined to a single
+district, but should seem to be losing its hold of even that small
+kingdom. Of still another type is the pitcher plant, or side-saddle
+flower, which flaunts its deep purple petals in June in many a peat-bog
+from Canada southward to Louisiana and Florida. Its leaves develop
+themselves into lidded cups, half-filled with sweetish juice, which
+first lures a fly or ant, then makes him tipsy, and then despatches him.
+The broth resulting is both meat and drink to the plant, serving as a
+store and reservoir against times of drought and scarcity.
+
+[Illustration: Shut for Slaughter]
+
+Now the question is, How came about this strange and somewhat horrid
+means of livelihood? How did plants of so diverse families turn the
+tables on the insect world, and learn to eat instead of being themselves
+devoured? A beginner in the builder's art finds it much more gainful to
+examine the masonry of foundations, the rearing of walls, the placing of
+girders and joists, the springing of arches and buttresses, than to look
+at a cathedral, a courthouse, or a bank, finished and in service. In
+like manner a student of insect-eating plants tries to find their leaves
+in the making, in all the various stages which bridge their common forms
+with the shapes they assume when fully armed and busy. Availing himself
+of the relapses into old habits which plants occasionally exhibit under
+cultivation, Mr. Dickson has taught us much regarding the way the
+pitcher plant of Australia, the _Cephalotus_, has come to be what it is.
+He has arranged in a connected series all the forms of its leaf from
+that of a normal leaf with a mere dimple in it, to the deeply pouched
+and lidded pitcher ready for deceitful hospitalities. And similar
+transformations have without doubt taken place in the pitcher plants of
+America. Observers in the Cape of Good Hope have noted two plants
+_Roridula dentata_ and _Biblys gigantea_, which are evidently following
+in the footsteps of the sundews, and may be expected in the fulness of
+years to be their equal partners in crime. But why need we wander so far
+as South Africa to find the germs of this strange rapacity when we can
+see at home a full dozen species of catch-fly, sedums, primulas, and
+geraniums pouring out glutinous juices in which insects are entangled?
+Let stress of hunger, long continued, force any of these to turn its
+attention to the dietary thus proffered, and how soon might not the
+plant find in felony the sustenance refused to honest toil?
+
+But after all the plants that have meat for dinner are only a few. The
+greater part of the vegetable kingdom draws its supplies from the air
+and the soil. Those plants, and they are many, that derive their chief
+nourishment from the atmosphere have a decidedly thin diet. Which of us
+would thrive on milk at the rate of a pint to five hogsheads of water?
+Such is the proportion in which air contains carbonic acid gas, the main
+source of strength for many thousands of trees, shrubs, and other
+plants. No wonder that they array themselves in so broad an expanse of
+leafage. An elm with a spread of seventy feet is swaying in the summer
+breeze at least five acres of foliage as its lungs and stomach. Beyond
+the shade of elms and maples let us stroll past yonder stretch of
+pasture and we shall notice how the grass in patches here and there
+deepens into green of the richest--a plain token of moisture in the
+hollows--a blessing indeed in this dry weather. In the far West and
+Northwest the buffalo grass has often to contend with drought for months
+together, so that it has learned to strike deep in quest of water to
+quench its thirst. It is a by-word among the ranchmen that the roots go
+clear through the earth and are clinched as they sprout from the ground
+in China. Joking apart, they have been found sixty-eight feet below the
+surface of the prairie, and often in especially dry seasons cattle would
+perish were not these faithful little well-diggers and pumpers
+constantly at work for them. In the river valleys of Arizona although
+the air is dry the subsoil water is near the surface of the ground. Here
+flourishes the mesquit tree, _Prosopis juliflora_, with a tale to tell
+well worth knowing. When a mesquit seems stunted, it is because its
+strength is withdrawn for the task of delving to find water; where a
+tree grows tall with goodly branches, it betokens success in reaching
+moisture close at hand. Thus in shrewdly reading the landscape a
+prospector can choose the spot where with least trouble he can sink his
+well. And plants discover provender in the soil as well as drink. Nearer
+home than Arizona we have only to dislodge a beach pea from the ground
+to see how far in search of food its roots have dug amid barren stones
+and pebbles. Often one finds a plant hardly a foot high with roots
+extending eight feet from its stem.
+
+And beyond the beaches where the beach peas dig so diligently are the
+seaweeds--with a talent for picking and choosing all their own. Dr.
+Julius Sachs, a leading German botanist, believes that the parts of
+plants owe their form, as crystals do, to their peculiarities of
+substance; that just as salt crystallizes in one shape and sugar in
+another, so a seaweed or a tulip is moulded by the character of its
+juices. Something certainly of the crystal's faculty for picking out
+particles akin to itself, and building with them, is shown by the kelp
+which attracts from the ocean both iodine and bromine--often dissolved
+though they are in a million times their bulk of sea water. This trait
+of choosing this or that dish from the feast afforded by sea or soil or
+air is not peculiar to the seaweeds; every plant displays it. Beech
+trees love to grow on limestone and thus declare to the explorer the
+limestone ridge he seeks. In the Horn silver mine, of Utah, the zinc
+mingled with the silver ore is betrayed by the abundance of the zinc
+violet, a delicate and beautiful cousin of the pansy. In Germany this
+little flower is admittedly a signal of zinc in the earth, and zinc is
+found in its juices. The late Mr. William Dorn, of South Carolina, had
+faith in a bush, of unrecorded name, as betokening gold-bearing veins
+beneath it. That his faith was not without foundation is proved by the
+large fortune he won as a gold miner in the Blue Ridge country--his
+guide the bush aforesaid. Mr. Rossiter W. Raymond, the eminent mining
+engineer of New York, has given some attention to this matter of
+"indicative plants." He is of the opinion that its unwritten lore among
+practical miners, prospectors, hunters, and Indians is well worth
+sifting. Their observations, often faulty, may occasionally be sound and
+valuable enough richly to repay the trouble of separating truth from
+error. When we see how important as signs of water many plants can be,
+why may we not find other plants denoting the minerals which they
+especially relish as food or condiment?
+
+Of more account than gold or silver are the harvests of wheat and corn
+that ripen in our fields. There the special appetites of plants have
+much more than merely curious interest for the farmer. He knows full
+well that his land is but a larder which serves him best when not part
+but all its stores are in demand. Hence his crop "rotation," his
+succession of wheat to clover, of grass to both. Were he to grow barley
+every year he would soon find his soil bared of all the food that barley
+asks, while fare for peas or clover stood scarcely broached. If he
+insists on planting barley always, then he must perforce restore to the
+land the food for barley constantly withdrawn.
+
+[Illustration: Maple Seed, with pair of wings]
+
+A plant may diligently find food and drink, pour forth delicious nectar,
+array itself with flowers as gayly as it can, and still behold its work
+unfinished. Its seed may be produced in plenty, and although as far as
+that goes it is well, it is not enough. Of what avail is all this seed
+if it falls as it ripens upon soil already overcrowded with its kind?
+Hence the vigorous emigration policy to be observed in plants of every
+name. Hence the fluffy sails set to catch the passing breeze by the
+dandelion, the thistle and by many more, including the southern plant of
+snowy wealth whose wings are cotton. With the same intent of seeking new
+fields are the hooks of the burdock, the unicorn plant, and the
+bur-parsley which impress as carriers the sheep and cattle upon a
+thousand hills. The Touch-me-not and the herb Robert adopt a different
+plan, and convert their seed-cases into pistols for the firing of seeds
+at as wide range as twenty feet or more. The maple, the ash, the
+hornbeam, the elm and the birch have yet another method of escape from
+the home acre. Their seeds are winged, and torn off in a gale are
+frequently borne two hundred yards away. And stronger wings than these
+are plied in the cherry tree's service. The birds bide the time when a
+blush upon the fruit betrays its ripeness. Then the cherries are
+greedily devoured, and their seed, preserved from digestion in their
+stony cases are borne over hill, dale, and river to some islet or
+brookside where a sprouting cherry plant will be free from the stifling
+rivalries suffered by its parent. Yoked in harness with sheep, ox, and
+bird as planter is yonder nimble squirrel. We need not begrudge him the
+store of nuts he hides. He will forget some of them, he will be
+prevented by fright or frost from nibbling yet more, and so without
+intending it he will ensure for others and himself a sure succession of
+acorns and butternuts.
+
+Very singular are the seeds that have come to resemble beetles; among
+these may be mentioned the seeds of the castor-oil plant and of the
+_Iatropha_. The pod of the _Biserrula_ looks like a worm, and a worm
+half-coiled might well have served as a model for the mimicry of the
+_Scorpiurus vermiculata_. All these are much more likely to enlist the
+services of birds than if their resemblances to insects were less
+striking.
+
+Nature elsewhere rich in hints to the gardener and the farmer is not
+silent here. A lesson plainly taught in all this apparatus for the
+dispersal of seeds is that the more various the planting the fuller the
+harvest. Now that from the wheat fields comes a cry of disappearing
+gains, it is time to heed the story told in the unbroken prairie that
+diversity in sowing means wealth in reaping.
+
+In a field of growing flax we can find--somewhat oftener than the farmer
+likes--a curious tribe of plants, the dodders. Their stems are thin and
+wiry, and their small white flowers, globular in shape, make the azure
+blossoms of the flax all the lovelier by contrast. As their cousins the
+morning glories are to this day, the dodders in their first estate were
+true climbers. Even now they begin life in an honest kind of way with
+roots of their own that go forth as roots should, seeking food where it
+is to be found in the soil. But if we pull up one of these little
+club-shaped roots we shall see that it has gone to work feebly and
+doubtfully; it seems to have a skulking expectation of dinner without
+having to dig and delve for it in the rough dirty ground. Nor is this
+expectation unfounded. Watch the stem of a sister dodder as it rises
+from the earth day by day, and it will be observed to clasp a stalk of
+flax very tightly; so tightly that its suckers will absorb the juices of
+its unhappy host. When, so very easily, it can regale itself with food
+ready to hand why should it take the trouble to drudge for a living?
+
+Like many another pauper demoralized by being fed in idleness, the plant
+now abandons honest toil, its roots from lack of exercise wither away,
+and for good and all it ceases to claim any independence whatever.
+Indeed, so deep is the dodder's degradation that if it cannot find a
+stem of flax, or hop, or other plant whereon to climb and thrive, it
+will simply shrivel and die rather than resume habits of industry so
+long renounced as to be at last forgotten.
+
+Like the lowly dodder the mistletoe is a climber that has discovered
+large opportunities of theft in ascending the stem of a supporting
+plant. On this continent the mistletoe scales a wide variety of trees
+and shrubs, preferring poplars and apple trees, where these are to be
+had. Its extremely slender stem, its meagre leaves, its small flowers,
+greenish and leathery, are all eloquent as to the loss of strength and
+beauty inevitable to a parasite. Rising as this singular plant does out
+of the branches of another with a distinct life all its own, it is no
+other than a natural graft, and it is very probable that from the hint
+it so unmistakably gives the first gardeners were not slow to adopt
+grafts artificial--among the resources which have most enriched and
+diversified both flowers and fruits. The dodders and mistletoes rob
+juices from the stem and branches of their unfortunate hosts; more
+numerous still are the unbidden guests that fasten themselves upon the
+roots of their prey. The broom-rape, a comparatively recent immigrant
+from Europe, lays hold of the roots of thyme in preference to other
+place of entertainment; the Yellow Rattle, the Lousewort, and many more
+attach themselves to the roots of grasses--frequently with a serious
+curtailment of crop.
+
+Yet in this very department of hers Nature has for ages hidden away what
+has been disclosed within twenty years as one of her least suspected
+marvels. It is no other than that certain parasites of field and meadow
+so far from being hurtful, are well worth cultivating for the good they
+do. For a long time the men who devoted themselves to the study of peas,
+beans, clovers, and other plants of the pulse family, were confronted
+with a riddle they could not solve. These plants all manage to enrich
+themselves with compounds of nitrogen, which make them particularly
+valuable as food, and these compounds often exist in a degree far
+exceeding the rate at which their nitrogen comes out of the soil. And
+this while they have no direct means of seizing upon the nitrogen
+contained in its great reservoir--the atmosphere. Upon certain roots of
+beans and peas it was noted that there were little round excrescences
+about the size of a small pin's head. These excrescences on examination
+with a microscope proved to be swarming with bacteria of minute
+dimensions. Further investigation abundantly showed that these little
+guests paid a handsome price for their board and lodging--while they
+subsisted in part on the juices of their host they passed into the bean
+or pea certain valuable compounds of nitrogen which they built from
+common air. At the Columbian Exposition, of 1893, one of the striking
+exhibits in the Agricultural Building set this forth in detail. Vials
+were shown containing these tiny subterranean aids to the farmer, and
+large photographs showed in natural size the vast increase of crop due
+to the farmer's taking bacteria into partnership. To-day these little
+organisms are cultivated of set purpose, and quest is being made for
+similar bacteria suitable to be harnessed in producing wheat, corn, and
+other harvests.
+
+These are times when men of science are discontented with mere
+observation. They wish to pass from watching things as nature presents
+them to putting them into relations wholly new. In 1866 DeBary, a close
+observer of lichens, felt confident that a lichen was not the simple
+growth it seems, but a combination of fungus and algae. This opinion, so
+much opposed to honoured tradition, was scouted, but not for long.
+Before many months had passed Stahl took known algae, and upon them sowed
+a known fungus, the result was a known lichen! The fungus turns out to
+be no other than a slave-driver that captures algae in colonies and makes
+them work for him. He is, however, a slave-driver of an intelligent
+sort; his captives thrive under his mastery, and increase more rapidly
+for the healthy exercise he insists that they shall take.
+
+It is an afternoon in August and the sultry air compels us to take
+shelter in a grove of swaying maples. Beneath their shade every square
+yard of ground bears a score of infant trees, very few of them as much
+as a foot in stature. How vain their expectation of one day enjoying an
+ample spread of branch and root, of rising to the free sunshine of upper
+air! The scene, with its quivering rounds of sunlight, seems peace
+itself, but the seeming is only a mask for war as unrelenting as that
+of weaponed armies. For every ray of the sunbeam, for every atom of
+food, for every inch of standing room, there is deadly rivalry. To begin
+the fight is vastly easier than to maintain it, and not one in a hundred
+of these bantlings will ever know maturity. We have only to do what
+Darwin did--count the plants that throng a foot of sod in spring, count
+them again in summer, and at the summer's end, to find how great the
+inexorable carnage in this unseen combat, how few its survivors. So hard
+here is the fight for a foothold, for daily bread, that the playfulness
+inborn in every healthy plant can peep out but timidly and seldom. But
+when strife is exchanged for peace, when a plant is once safely
+sheltered behind a garden fence, then the struggles of the battlefield
+give place to the diversions of the garrison--diversions not
+infrequently hilarious enough. Now food abounds and superabounds;
+henceforth neither drought nor deluge can work their evil will; insect
+foes, as well as may be, are kept at bay; there is room in plenty
+instead of dismal overcrowding. The grateful plant repays the care
+bestowed upon it by bursting into a sportiveness unsuspected, and indeed
+impossible, amidst the alarms and frays incessant in the wilderness. It
+departs from parental habits in most astonishing fashion, puts forth
+blossoms of fresh grace of form, of new dyes, of doubled magnitude. The
+gardener's opportunity has come. He can seize upon such of these
+"sports" as he chooses and make them the confirmed habits of his wards.
+Take a stroll through his parterres and greenhouses, where side by side
+he shows you pansies of myriad tints and the modest little wild violets
+of kindred to the pansies' ancestral stock. Let him contrast for you
+roses, asters, tuberous begonias, hollyhocks, dahlias, pelargoniums,
+before cultivation and since. Were wild flowers clay, were the gardener
+both painter and sculptor, he could not have wrought marvels more
+glorious than these. In a few years the brethren of his guild have
+brought about a revolution for which, if possible at all to her, nature
+in the open fields would ask long centuries. And the gardener's
+experiments with these strange children of his have all the charm of
+surprise. No passive chooser is he of "sports" of promise, but an active
+matchmaker between flowers often brought together from realms as far
+apart as France and China. Sometimes his experiment is an instant
+success. Mr. William Paul, a famous creator of splendid flowers, tells
+us that at a time when climbing roses were either white or yellow, he
+thought he would like to produce one of bright dark colour. Accordingly
+he mated the Rose Athelin, of vivid crimson, with Russelliana, a hardy
+climber, and lo, the flower he had imagined and longed for stood
+revealed! But this hitting the mark at the first shot is uncommon good
+fortune with the gardener. No experience with primrose or chrysanthemum
+is long and varied enough to tell him how the crossing of two different
+stocks will issue. A rose which season after season opposes only
+indifference to all his pains may be secretly gathering strength for a
+bound beyond its ancestral paths which will carry it much farther than
+his hopes, or, perhaps, his wishes.
+
+Most flowers are admired for their own sweet sake, but who thinks less
+of an apple or cherry blossom because it bears in its beauty the promise
+of delicious fruit? Put a red Astrachan beside a sorry crab, a Bartlett
+pear next a tough, diminutive wild pear such as it is descended from, an
+ear of milky corn in contrast with an ear one-fourth its size, each
+grain of which, small and dry, is wrapped in a sheath by itself; and
+rejoice that fruits and grains as well as flowers can learn new lessons
+and remember them. At Concord, Massachusetts, in an honoured old age,
+dwells Mr. Ephraim W. Bull. In his garden he delights to show the mother
+vine of the Concord grape which he developed from a native wild grape
+planted as long ago as 1843. Another "sport" of great value was the
+nectarine, which was seized upon as it made its appearance on a peach
+bough. Throughout America are scattered experiment stations, part of
+whose business it is to provoke fresh varieties of wheat, or corn, or
+other useful plant, and make permanent such of them as show special
+richness of yield; earliness in ripening; stoutness of resistance to
+Jack Frost, or blight, or insect pests. Suppose that dire disaster
+swept from off the earth every cereal used as food. Professor Goodale,
+Professor Asa Gray's successor at Harvard University, has so much
+confidence in the experiment stations of America that he deems them well
+able to repair the loss we have imagined; within fifty years, he thinks,
+from plants now uncultivated the task could be accomplished. Among the
+men who have best served the world by hastening nature's steps in the
+improvement of flowers and fruits, stands Mr. Vilmorin, of Paris. He it
+was who in creating the sugar beet laid the foundation for one of the
+chief industries of our time. One of his rules is to select at first not
+the plant which varies most in the direction he wishes, but the plant
+that varies most in any direction whatever. From it, from the
+instability of its very fibres, its utter forgetfulness of ancestral
+traditions, he finds it easiest in the long run to obtain and to
+establish the character he seeks of sweetness, or size, or colour.
+
+Of flowering plants there are about 110,000, of these the farmer and the
+gardener between them have scarcely tamed and trained 1,000. What new
+riches, therefore, may we not expect from the culture of the future?
+Already in certain northern flower-pots the trillium, the bloodroot, the
+dog's-tooth violet, and the celandine are abloom in May; as June
+advances, the wild violet, the milkweed, the wild lily-of-the-valley,
+unfold their petals; later in summer the dog-rose displays its charms
+and breathes its perfume. All respond kindly to care, and were there
+more of this hospitality, were the wild roses which the botanist calls
+_blanda_ and _lucida_, were the cardinal flowers, the May flowers, and
+many more of the treasures of glen and meadow, made welcome with
+thoughtful study of their wants and habits, much would be done to extend
+the wealth of our gardens. Let a hepatica be plucked from its home in a
+rocky crevice where one marvels how it ever contrived to root itself and
+find subsistence. Transplant it to good soil, give it a little care--it
+asks none--and it will thrive as it never throve before; proving once
+again that plants do not grow where they like, but where they can. The
+Russian columbine rewards its cultivator with a wealth of blossoms that
+plainly say how much it rejoices in his nurture of it, in its escape
+from the frost and tempest that have assailed it for so many
+generations.
+
+But here we must be content to take a leaf out of nature's book, and
+look for small results unless our experiments are broadly planned. It is
+in great nurseries and gardens, not in little door-yards that "sports"
+are likely to arise, and to meet the skill which can confirm them as new
+varieties.
+
+Japan has much to teach us with regard to flowers: nowhere else on earth
+are they so sedulously cultivated, or so faithfully studied in all their
+changeful beauty. Perhaps the most striking revelation of the Japanese
+gardener is his treatment of flowering shrubs and flowering trees
+disposed in masses. Happy the visitors to Tokio who sees in springtime
+the cherry blossoms ready to lend their witchery to the Empress's
+reception! Much is done to extend the reign of beauty in a garden when
+it is fitly bordered with berry-bearers. Rows of mountain ash,
+snow-berry, and hawthorn trees give colour just when colour is most
+effective, at the time when most flowers are past and gone.
+
+In the practical bit of ground where the kitchen garden meets the
+flowers, Japan has long since enlarged its bill of fare with the tuber
+of a cousin of our common hedge nettle, with the roots of the large
+burdock, commoner still. In Florida, the calla lily has use as well as
+beauty; it is cultivated for its potato-like tubers.
+
+Much as the study of flowers heightens our interest in them, their
+first, their chief enduring charm consists in their simple beauty--their
+infinitely varied grace of form, their exhaustless wealth of changeful
+tints. Off we go with delight from desk and book to a breezy field, a
+wimpling brook, a quiet pond in woodland shade. A dozen rambles from May
+to October will show us all the floral procession, which, beginning with
+the trilliums and the violets, ends at the approach of frost with the
+golden-rod and aster. But who ever formed an engaging acquaintance
+without wishing it might become a close friendship? Never yet did the
+observant culler of bloodroot and columbine rest satisfied with merely
+knowing their names, and how can more be known unless flowers are set
+up in a portrait gallery of their own for the leisurely study of their
+lineaments and lineage?
+
+A word then as to the best way to gather wild flowers. A case for them
+in the form of a round tube, closed at the ends, with a hinged cover,
+can be made by a tinsmith at small cost. Its dimensions should be about
+thirty inches in length by five inches in diameter, with a strap
+attached to carry it by. At still less expense a frame can be made, or
+bought, formed of two boards, one-eighth of an inch thick, twenty-four
+inches long and eighteen inches broad, with two thin battens fastened
+across them to prevent warping. A quire of soft brown paper, newspaper
+will do, and a strap to hold all together, complete the outfit.
+
+Our gathered treasures at home, we may wish to deck a table or a mantel
+with a few of them. The lives of impressed blossoms can be, much
+prolonged by exercising a little care. Punch holes in a round of
+cardboard and put the stalks through these holes before placing the
+flowers in a vase. This prevents the stalks touching each other, and so
+decaying before their time. A little charcoal in the water tends to keep
+it pure; the water should be changed daily.
+
+A flower will fade at last be it tended ever so carefully. If we wish to
+preserve it dried we can best do so as soon as we bring it home, by
+placing it between sheets of absorbent paper (newspaper will do) well
+weighted down, the paper to be renewed if the plants are succulent and
+if there is any risk of mildew. But a dried plant after all is only a
+mummy. Its colours are gone; its form bruised and crumpled, gives only a
+faint suggestion of it as it lived and breathed. Other and more pleasant
+reminders of our summer rambles can be ours. With a camera of fair size
+it is easy to take pictures of flowers at their best; these pictures can
+be coloured in their natural tints with happy effect. In this art Mrs.
+Cornelius Van Brunt, of New York, has attained extraordinary success.
+Or, instead of the camera, why not at first invoke the brush and
+colour-box? Only a little skill in handling them is enough for a
+beginning. Practice soon increases deftness in this art as in every
+other, and in a few short weeks floral portraits are painted with a
+truth to nature denied the unaided pencil. For what flower, however meek
+and lowly, could ever tell its story in plain black and white?
+
+The amateur painter of flowers learns a good many things by the way; at
+the very outset, that drawing accurate and clear must be the groundwork
+of any painting worthy the name. Both in the use of pencil and brush
+there must be a degree of painstaking observation, wholesome as a
+discipline and delightful in its harvests. How many of us, unused to the
+task of careful observation, can tell the number of the musk-mallow's
+petals, or mark on paper the depth of fringe on a gentian, or match from
+a series of dyed silks the hues of a common buttercup? Drawing and
+painting sharpen the eye, and make the fingers its trained and ready
+servants. From the very beginning of one's task in limning bud and
+blossom, we see them richer in grace and loveliness than ever before.
+When wild flowers are sketched as they grow it is often easy to give
+them a new interest by adding the portraits of their insect servitors.
+Amateurs who are so fortunate as to visit the West Indies have an
+opportunity to paint the wonderful blossoms of the Marcgravia, whose
+minister, a humming bird, quivers above it like a bit of rainbow
+loosened from the sky.
+
+Early in the history of art the wild flowers lent their aid to
+decoration. The acanthus which gave its leaves to crest the capital of
+the Corinthian column, the roses conventionalized in the rich fabrics of
+ancient Persia, until they have been thought sheer inventions of the
+weaver, are among the first items of an indebtedness which has steadily
+grown in volume until to-day, when the designers who find their
+inspiration in the flowers are a vast and increasing host. In a modern
+mansion of the best type the outer walls are enriched with the leonine
+beauty of the sun-flower; within, the mosaic floors, the silk, and paper
+hangings, repeat themes suggested by the vine, the wild clematis and the
+Mayflower. The stained glass windows from New York, where their
+manufacture excels that of any other city in the world, are exquisite
+with boldly treated lilies, poppies, and columbines. In the
+drawing-room are embroideries designed by two young women of Salem,
+Massachusetts, who have established a thriving industry in transferring
+the glow of wild flowers to the adornment of noble houses such as this.
+As one goes from studio to studio, it is cheering to find so many men
+and women busy at work which is more joyful than play,--which in many
+cases first taken up as a recreation disclosed a vein of genuine talent
+and so pointed to a career more delightful than any other,--because it
+chimes in with the love of beauty and the power of giving it worthy
+expression.
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Unable to verify "partnery" nor "tucu-tucu", but
+they have been left as in the original.
+
+The word "sylvain" has been verified as a valid word, and therefore
+it has been left as in the original.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Little Masterpieces of Science:, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE: ***
+
+***** This file should be named 29739.txt or 29739.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/7/3/29739/
+
+Produced by Sigal Alon, Marcia Brooks, Fox in the Stars
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/29739.zip b/29739.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..edae6c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29739.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4717c62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #29739 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29739)