68 VARIATION OF SPECIES 



in our liotlionscs ; as the huge succulent cactus-like Euphor- 

 bia of the Canary Islands ; as the gale-like Phyllanthus ; 

 the many-formed Crotons, wliich in the AVest Indies alone 

 comprise, according to Griesbach, at least twelve genera and 

 thirty species ; the hemp-like ]\Ianiocs, Physic-nuts, Castor 

 oils ; the scarlet Poinsettia which adorns dinner-tables in 

 -winter ; the pretty little pink and yellow Dalechampia, 

 now common in hothouses ; the Manchineel, with its glossy 

 poplar-like leaves ; and this very Hura, witli leaves still 

 more like a popl-ar, and a fruit which differs from most of 

 its family in having not three but many divisions, usually a 

 multiple of three, up to fifteen ; a fruit which it is difficult to 

 obtain, even where the tree is plentiful : for hanging at the 

 end of long branches, it bursts when ripe with a crack like a 

 pistol, scattering its seeds far and wide ; from whence its 

 name of Hura crepitans. 



But what if all these forms are the descendants of one 

 original form ? AYould that be one whit more wonderful, 

 more inexplicable, than the theory that they were each and 

 all, with their minute and often imas^inarv shades of dif- 

 ference, created separately and at once? But if it be 

 which I cannot allow what can the theoloc^aan sav, save 

 that God's works are even more wonderful ilian we always 

 believed them to be ? As for the theory being impossible : 

 who are we, that we should limit the power of God ? " Is 



