575.4 166 [September 



II 



Does Natural Selection play any part in the Origin 

 of Species among Plants ? 



INTRODUCTION. — The objects of the present paper are to 

 answer this question in the negative, and to prove that natural 

 selection is a superfluous factor as an aid in the origination of new 

 varietal characters ; though it has much to do with the " survival 

 of the fittest " in " the struggle for existence " among beings in any 

 particular locality. It is, of course, the Darwinian conception that 

 these factors are somehow concerned in the origin of species ; but I 

 would maintain that they must be kept totally distinct from it. 

 Darwin, in truth, insisted upon this fact himself ; that whatever the 

 causes or origins of variations might be, such were questions with 

 which natural selection had nothing whatever to do. His words 

 are : — " The direct action of the conditions of life ... is a totally 

 distinct consideration from the effects of natural selection . . . [it] 

 has no relation whatever to the primary cause of any modification 

 of structure." 1 What I wish to show is that sufficient variations 

 to constitute a variety are always the result of a direct or indirect 

 response to the " definite action " of a new environment ; indeed 

 many, if not all the organisms, of whatever kind they may be, which 

 are subjected to it, often vary more or less in a like manner. 2 It 

 will then be seen at once that not only are there no " indefinite 

 variations " for natural selection to deal with, but as a consequence 

 its raison 'd'etre, as an aid in the origin of species is gone ; and it 

 can take no part in the origination of varieties. 



I wish also to point out that Darwin's theory of natural 

 selection rests entirely upon a series of a 'priori assumptions or 

 deductions, which have never been verified ; nor, indeed, do they 

 seem capable of verification. 



Definition of a Species. — In order to be clear, it is desirable 

 to state precisely what one understands by the term " Species." 

 According to the method pursued by systematic botanists in 

 describing plants, a species may be defined as follows : — " Any 

 particular species of a genus is known by a collection of characters 

 taken from any or all parts of the plant. These characters are, or 



1 "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii., p. 272. 



2 Hence, arises the fades characteristic of aquatic, desert, alpine, and other plants : 

 as I have described in my work — " The Origin of Plant Structures." 



