Method of Origin of New Species and Structures 425 



is a voluntary offering of material, so to speak, for selection to 

 choose from. 



Such is the present state of uncertainty in our knowledge of 

 some of the most fundamental matters in evolution. The truth 

 we shall learn later through intensive study and experiment. At 

 many places the world over, — at the Desert Botanical Laboratory 

 in Arizona, at the Station for Experimental Evolution on Long 

 Island, at many Government and University Stations in Ger- 

 many, England, and this country, — trained experts, under the 

 best of conditions, are subjecting these problems to the test of 

 rigid experiment. The results are sure to be important and may 

 be revelational. It is one of the great privileges of living in this 

 age that we may witness these advances, and may even have 

 part in them. There is in store for us all, who are students of 

 biological science, many a thrill of purest delight as we open the 

 pages of our weekly scientific newspaper, — our Nature or our 

 Science, — and find the first announcement of discoveries which 

 will later illuminate one by one the dark problems of nature. 

 Science has indeed good reason for her distinctive optimism. 



