1S97] ORIGIN OF SPECIES AMONG PLANTS 177 



but little variations to select from. Of common vegetables, parsnips, 

 carrots, radishes, Brassica oleracea, &c, have supplied numerous 

 varieties which come true by seed ; though each may still furnish 

 an improved " race." 



Similarly, if a useless character be acquired among cultivated 

 plants, not only may it occur in every individual but it may become 

 hereditary and relatively fixed ; just as in the examples of wild 

 plants already mentioned. Thus, there is no special advantage in 

 the mere variety of colouring of flowers as of pansies, nor in double 

 flowers, nor in excess of neuter flowers of composites, nor in the 

 abortive pedicels of the feather hyacinth, &c. 



With regard to the fixation of characters, therefore, there is no 

 absolute rule whatever, nor can we say why one plant is so plastic 

 and another refractory. 



Nature recognises no "must" in her processes. 1 



Darwinism, an Unverified and Unverifiable Deduc- 

 tion. — It is a common statement that Darwin placed the Doctrine 

 of Evolution on a scientific basis when he pronounced the theory of 

 " The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection." It is against 

 this statement. that I would venture to protest most strongly. To 

 take the latest example, Ludwig von Graff says : — " The selection 

 theory of the celebrated Englishman, Darwin, first based the idea 

 upon a scientific foundation. The obvious phenomena of heredity 

 and of variability are the foundations of his bold system, the axles 

 of life's mechanism ; and the motive power of this mechanism is the 

 struggle of all living things for the preservation and procreation of 

 life." 2 



Darwin's theory, however, as stated in the title of his book, 

 ;< The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection," is a pure 

 deduction; and deductions (i.e., a priori reasoning), though useful 

 as working hypotheses are not scientific or useless, until they 

 have been verified by induction and experiments. 



The theory was based on two primary deductions ; out of these 

 secondary ones followed. They were, first, that " Individual Differ- 

 ences " could supply materials for natural selection to act upon; 

 secondly, that when offspring of any species varied under the action 

 of new conditions of life, they generally varied indefinitely, so afford- 

 ing fresh material for natural selection. It has been shown that 

 both of these fundamental assumptions are groundless. 



As an illustration of his deductive method of reasoning, let us 

 take the following typical passage which states Darwin's theory 

 clearly and concisely : — 



1 Dr Weismann says : — " Doubt is the parent of progress ;" yet in about a page and a 

 half of Nature (June 11, 1896), in an epitome of his theory, he uses the word " Must" 

 fourteen times ! 



2 Natural Science, vol. ix., p. 193. 



N 



