394 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



culty for years was to understand adaptation, and this made me, I 

 cannot but think, rightly, insist so much on Natural Selection. God 

 forgive me for writing at such length; but you cannot tell how much 

 your letter has interested me, and how important it is for me with 

 my present book in hand to try and get clear ideas. Do think a bit 

 about what is meant by direct action of physical conditions. I do 

 not mean whether they act; my facts will throw some light on this. 

 I am collecting all cases of bud-variations, in contradistinction to 

 seed- variations (do you like this term, for what some gardeners call 

 'sports'?); these eliminate all effects of crossing. Pray remember 

 how much I value your opinion as the clearest and most original I 

 ever get. 



I see plainly that Welwitschia will be a case of Barnacles. 



I have another plant to beg, but I write on separate paper as more 

 convenient for you to keep. I meant to have said before, as an excuse 

 for asking for so much from Kew, that I have now lost two seasons, 

 by accursed nurserymen not having right plants, and sending me the 

 wrong instead of saying that they did not possess. 



To J. D. Hookek. 



Freshwater, Isle of Wight, July 28th [1868]. 



I am glad to hear that you are going to touch on the statement 

 that the belief in Natural Selection is passing away. I do not sup- 

 pose that even the Athenceum would pretend that the belief in the 

 common descent of species is passing away, and this is the more im- 

 portant point. This now almost universal belief in the evolution 

 (somehow) of species, I think may be fairly attributed in large part 

 to the Origin. It would be well for you to look at the short Intro- 

 duction of Owen's Anat. of Invert eh rates, and see how fully he admits 

 the descent of species. 



Of the Origin, four English editions, one or two American, two 

 French, two German, one Dutch, one Italian, and several (as I was 

 told) Eussian editions. The translations of my book on Variation 

 under Domestication are the results of the Origin; and of these two 

 English, one American, one German, one French, one Italian, and 

 one Eussian have appeared, or will soon appear. Ernst Hackel wrote 

 to me a week or two ago, that new discussions and reviews of the 

 Origin are continually still coming out in Germany, where the interest 

 on the subject certainly does not diminish. I have seen some of these 

 discussions, and they are good ones. I apprehend that the interest 

 on the subject has not died out in North America, from observing in 

 Professor and Mrs. Agassiz's Book on Brazil how excessively anxious 

 he is to destroy me. In regard to this country, every one can judge 



