264 NATURAL SCIENCE. Oct., 1894. 



On the last page but one of his paper, Mr. Wallace alludes to the 

 case of the hard shells of nuts, and asks if the direct agency of birds, 

 monkeys, etc., has anything to do with them. He admits the question 

 is absurd. I do not therefore know why he asks it. I have not myself 

 written a line on this branch of the subject, but will suggest, from what 

 one knows of all other parts of plants having the capacity of varying, 

 that I see no reason for inferring that hard coats of fruits should be 

 subject to any different law. Soft fruits vary readily enough, as melons, 

 pea-pods, apples, as well as pears in their degrees of " stoniness." 

 Moreover, under cultivation, varieties of forms of nuts and walnuts 

 have arisen, as well as of olives, almonds, and dates, and other hard- 

 coated or hard-seeded fruits. The fact seems to be that cultivation 

 affects the whole organisation of the plant ; for the environment is not 

 always solely concerned with an isolated bit of a plant, as a nut or a 

 root. Many visible changes are due to secondary causes within the 

 individual ; but in all cases, as I believe with Dr. Weismann, they are 

 primarily attributable to the direct action of the environment, simply 

 because tliey never cccur unless the environment itself is changed. 



Finally, to return to my starting point. The whole question lies 

 within a very small compass. Thus, first, no one disputes the fact 

 that the environmental forces can act upon an organism. Secondly, 

 that the organism can respond to those forces. But now follow two 

 views. Darwinites say that the resulting variations are indefinite in 

 Nature, just as they so often are in cultivation ; and that the environ- 

 ment selects the best fitted to survive. I say that they are always 

 definite in Nature : and not only exceptionally so, as Darwin 

 thought ; and that the environment induces the best fitted to arise.^^ 

 Therefore, Natural Selection has nothing to do in aiding the Origin 

 of Species. 



For additional facts I would refer the reader to a paper entitled, 

 " A Theoretical Origin of Endogens from Exogens, through Self- 

 Adaptation to an Aquatic Habit " ^7 ; and to a companion volume to 

 the " Origin of Floral Structures," which I hope will be shortly 

 published in the " International Scientific Series," and entitled "The 

 Origin of Plant Structures by Self-Adaptation, in Response to the 

 direct Action of the Environment." In this, similar lines of argument, 

 with illustrations, will be applied to Desert, Aquatic, Maritime, 

 Alpine, and Arctic, as well as CHmbing Plants, and to the Origin of 

 Peculiarities of Roots, Stems, and Leaves. 



George Henslow. 



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

 ^"^ Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot., xxix., p. 4S5. 



