348 Miscellaneous. 



they stretch out their short stumps of wings in order to assist in 

 their attempts to escape. But all their efforts to acquire by such 

 means the additional power of flight have been unavailing, and the 

 type of the species remains as it was in this respect 3000 years ago. 

 And in the case of other analogous species of birds, such as the 

 Dinornis and the Dodo, we know that the actual destruction of the 

 species has taken place, whilst that of the Kivi of New Zealand is 

 equally certain in a very short time. I purposely avoid referring to 

 geological evidences, believing that 1st, if the permanence of a 

 species can be proved for such a length of time as 3000 years ; 2ndly, 

 if it be admitted that varieties exhibit a tendency to revert to the 

 original type ; and 3rdly, if cases can be shown in which modifications 

 beneficial to a species have not taken place in wild animals, even 

 when the creature has made efforts in that direction, we are in each 

 of these cases furnished with an answer to Mr. Darwin's theory. 

 As regards the second of these points, it seems inevitable that a 

 theory which supposes the principle of development to be inherent 

 in the works of the creation cannot be maintained if it be admitted 

 that the antagonistic principle of reversion be also inherent in indi- 

 viduals. Mr. Darwin builds his theory that species are only intensi- 

 fied varieties, and that generic groups are only intensified species, 

 mainly on the modifications which man has effected in domestic 

 animals. For his theory, however, to work, it is necessary to sup- 

 pose that the modified individuals possess such powers of discrimi- 

 nation as well as of exclusiveness as not to allow of their inter- 

 mingling with their less favoured brethren, whereby they would keep 

 their improvements to themselves. Thus, supposing the large and 

 small common white Cabbage-butterflies to be modifications of one 

 species, we must allow to them (as they never pair together, al- 

 though frequenting the same garden and feeding on the same cabbage) 

 a power of selection for breeding purposes which the improved breeds 

 of domestic animals do not possess. The terrier and spaniel, or the 

 pouter and tumbler pigeons will, under similar circumstances, breed 

 together, although they apparently differ much more from each other 

 than these two species of butterflies. It will at once be seen that 

 the idea of such a power of selection becomes more and more 

 untenable the nearer we ascend to the supposed origin of the modi- 

 fication. Gardeners' Chronicle, Feb. 11, 1860. 



Mr. Darwin on the Origin of Species. By W. H. HARVEY, M.D. 



IN a recent number of the ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' you figure a 

 monstrous many-headed Cauliflower ; and, in making some editorial 

 remarks upon it, you suggest that it possibly throws some light 

 upon the way in which species, according to Mr. Darwin's theory, 

 originate in Nature. I am not quite sure that, as respects this par- 

 ticular Cauliflower, Mr. Darwin would agree with you, for it hardly 

 comes within his principle, which denies to natural selection any 

 power to act, unless the variation acted on be " favourable to the 

 variety," in battling with its neighbours in " the struggle for life." 

 Now, though the many heads may be very advantageous to the cook 

 or the market gardener, it is doubtful whether, in a crowded society, 



