I So 



"base of the hill five feet high, and was common to half- 

 -way up this hill, where N. ,^imdnm mingled with it; 

 " higher up Omnium was common, and dilatatuin absent. 

 " My brother and myself being surprised at this change, 

 ^' we determined to test it, and from many thousand plants 

 " of Omnium we removed five hundred to Highfield House. 

 '* In a couple of years several changed to dilatatnm ; the 

 "next year an increased number, until at length Omnium 

 ^' was the exception to the rule. At the same time we had 

 •" a score in pots, but none of these changed." 



Having come from such a source as it does, and being 

 so very particular and circumstantial, it is worth considera- 

 tion. Bacon writes in his Natural History, i 525 : "The 

 "transmutation of species is, in the vulgar philosophy, 

 " pronounced impossible ; and certainly it is a thing of 

 ' difficulty, and requireth deep search into nature." But 

 Mr. Lowe's experiment fails to prove what he believed 

 about the transmutation of Aimnla into dilatata. 



If the experiment were worth anything, the same con- 

 ditions should have been observed with both the score and 

 the five hundred, but he grew the latter in the open, and 

 the former under glass. Were Mr. Lowe's supposed 

 experience of any force we would never find dilatata and 

 ^tnula growing together, as he acknowledges he found 

 them half-way up the hill. My own experience is that they 

 are often found mixed in localities in Kerry and Mayo, 

 from sea level up to five hundred feet. I wonder whether 

 Bacon believed in this transmutation, at any rate he 

 acknowledges the " difficulty " and necessity for " deep 

 search" in arriving at a conclusion as to the transmutation 

 of species. 



Evidently Mr. Lowe held that dilatata and .^mula are 

 two forms of the same species, the former being the low- 

 land and the latter the highland form. If this were so, 

 would it be possible to have .Emulas growing in the low- 

 lands ? Mr. Lowe's potted yUmul as seemed to have grown all 

 right when brought down from their native habitat, and 



