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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 & COMPANY</h4> +<h5>1902</h5> +</div> +<br /><br /> +<div class="center"> +Copyright, 1902, by Doubleday, Page & Co.<br /> +Copyright, 1877, by D. Appleton & Co.<br /> +Copyright, 1901, by John Wanamaker<br /> +Copyright, 1895, by G. H. Buek & 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 “natural selection.”</p> + +<p>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.</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 “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.</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 “The Origin of Species” 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 “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.</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 & 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.]</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—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 “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<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 +ichneumonidæ 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—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.</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—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.</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—the same number of vertebræ 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<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 +branchiæ [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—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.</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 “occult +qualities and miracles into philosophy.”</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, “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.”</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 “plan of +creation,” “unity of design,” 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—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 “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.</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—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 algæ +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.,<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—I speak +from experience—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—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.—Ed.</p></div> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="HOW_THE_ORIGIN_OF_SPECIES_CAME" id="HOW_THE_ORIGIN_OF_SPECIES_CAME"></a>HOW “THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES” 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 “The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin,” New York, +D. Appleton & 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—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 “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.</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 “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.<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 “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.</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 “Origin of Species,” 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 “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.</p> + +<p>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<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 “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,”<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 “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<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 “I have worked as hard and as well +as I could, and no man can do more than this.”<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, “Earth and Sky,” +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 “Natural Selection,” 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 “The Descent of Man,” New +York, D. Appleton & 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—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<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—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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +with branchiæ [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 +larvæ 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—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—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—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—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<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—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.</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—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—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—with all +these exalted powers—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 +“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.]</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 “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.</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—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 <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 minutiæ<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 “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 +<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.” 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 “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 +<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.”</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 algæ.</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 Buprestidæ 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 Cassidæ, 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 antennæ, 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 striæ 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 antennæ 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 antennæ 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 +“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.</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—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—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—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.</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 Necydalidæ, 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 +Tenthredinidæ, 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 Scutelleridæ. 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 Sphegidæ 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 larvæ feed upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +the larvæ 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 Andrenidæ, 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.</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—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—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 “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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<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 +“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.<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 +“Darwinism”: New York, Macmillan Co., 1889.—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 & 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.</p> + +<p>“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.]</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 +palæontology 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 “horses” as the equivalent of the technical +name <i>Equidæ</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—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 “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”<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 “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.</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 +“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<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—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—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>Palæotherium</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>Palæotherium +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 palæontological +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 palæontologist, 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>Palæotherium</i>. Indeed, as we have seen, Cuvier +regarded his remains of <i>Anchitherium</i> as those +of a species of <i>Palæotherium</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 +Palæotheroid animals for its nearest ally, and I +was led to the conclusion that the <i>Palæotherium +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—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 <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—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—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—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—as +I heard suggested the other day—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—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<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—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.<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. Hind Foot. Fore-arm. Leg. Upper Molar. 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 “type” 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.—<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 “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 <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—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—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="Larvæ of Vedalia +eating White Scale" title="Larvæ of Vedalia eating White Scale" /> +<span class="caption">Larvæ 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—the +larvæ 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.</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 +larvæ 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—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 larvæ 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 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.</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 “wax scales.”</p> + +<p>In the meantime the United States, not content +with keeping all the good things to herself, +has spread the first ladybird imported—the +<i>Vedalia</i>—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 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<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 “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.</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, “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.</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 “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.]</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—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 “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.</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 “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<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 +“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.</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,—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—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<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—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—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.</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' Fly Trap—Open +with a Welcome" title="Venus' Fly Trap—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' Fly Trap—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—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, +<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—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<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 “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?</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 +“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.</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—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?</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—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.</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—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<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 algæ. +This opinion, so much opposed to honoured +tradition, was scouted, but not for long. Before +many months had passed Stahl took known algæ, +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 +algæ 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—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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +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<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 “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<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—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.</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 “sports” 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—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,—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.</p> + + +<div class="trans-note"> +<h4><span class="smcap">Transcriber's Note:</span></h4> + +<p>Unable to locate “partnery” nor “tucu-tucu”, but +they have been left as in the original.</p> + +<p>The word “sylvain” 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. 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