1 88 1 -82.] EdinburgJi Naturalists Field Club. 37 



may have for partner Cocos flexuosa, in its juvenile stage. This form 

 the Palm preserves for about the first three years of its growth, 

 when the more mature leaf assumes a pinnate character. The two 

 plants are so identical, that one may readily be led astray re- 

 garding them. These illustrations may suffice as evidence in proof 

 of the statement, that there are to be found amongst plants, as 

 well as in the Animal Kingdom, similarities of outward appearance 

 between groups naturally far removed in many instances from one 

 another. Such abnormal departures fi-om the ordinary type ought 

 to be kept in view by geologists when naming fragmentary speci- 

 mens of fossil plants. 



What, then, we may now ask, is the reason for one plant thus 

 assuming the appearance of another ? — and how is the resemblance 

 brought about? It cannot all happen by mere chance, for n9,ture 

 never works in that haphazard fashion. As a partial answer to the 

 latter question, such resemblances among quadrupeds, birds, and 

 insects — whether to other living creatures or to inanimate objects — 

 have been accounted for by the theory of natural selection and 

 the " survival of the fittest." But, of course, a deeper cause must 

 exist in some occult law of their being, which we may never be 

 able to comprehend. Then as to wliy such resemblances exist, — 

 by a large induction the conclusion has been arrived at, that in 

 the Animal Kingdom, at all events, such mimetism, whether of 

 form or colour, or both, seems to afibrd protection from enemies, 

 either where the habits of the " mimic " expose it to special 

 danger, or where it is not sufficiently endowed with more effective 

 means of escape. We hesitate before applying a similar reason for 

 the existence of mimicry in plants. For what, it may naturally 

 be asked, does the plant gain in the way of protection ? — or what 

 does it require protection from? The only instance where this 

 reason for the phenomenon has been hazarded is in the case of 

 the Menziesia ceerulea already mentioned — a plant as yet found in 

 Scotland only on the Sow of Athole, in Perthshire, and but sparingly 

 there. As the Crowberry grows very abundantly beside it, the 

 remark has been made that the rare plant is thus protected " from 

 the rapacity of botanists " ! Passing over the problem, then, as to 

 why these resemblances exist in the Vegetable Kingdom, by simply 

 saying that these forms are the best suited for the requirements of 

 the plant, and asking next liow they have come about, the following 

 theories have been advanced. As one explanation, we have the 

 law of consanguinity or heredity put forward, — though, remembering 

 the widely separated families in which the resemblances have been 

 found, this plainly cannot meet all the requirements of the case. 

 Again, similarity of conditions has met with some favour as an operat- 

 ing cause. Resemblances in habit are, no doubt, often due to similar 



