156 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[May, 



as many towers and gables as there are stars in 

 the skies, is at best but a lonesome, desolate- 

 looking place, without trees and shrubs and 

 clinging vines to make it look cheery and habit- 

 able. There has developed of late years, a pas- 

 sion for lawns; and a well kept lawn is a very 

 pretty thing, though getting a trifle monotonous 

 when duplicated a hundred or more times, even 

 to the inevitable and omnipresent bed of Gera- 

 niums, which some writer has wittily denomi- 

 nated the 'scarlet fever.'" 



Evolution and Creation. — By George C. 

 Swallow, Professor of Natural History in the 

 University of Missouri. 



Works of the character of this little pamphlet 

 seem to crowd our table. This, coming from a 

 distinguished Professor of Natural History, de- 

 mands attention from the Natural History de- 

 partment of a work like ours. With the latter 

 part of the title we have nothing to do. As was 

 stated in the review of Mr. O'Neill's "Refuta- 

 tion of Darwinism," science commences at the 

 very opposite end of the line from revelation, — 

 one coming down, the other going up, — and 

 have no relation with each other that we 

 can see until it may be that they some day 

 meet. At present science has not advanced 

 far. What we do not know of nature probably 

 far outweighs what we do know, and, instead 

 of science being a certainty, it is no uncommon 

 thing to find what was supposed to be " science " 

 yesterday, is not science to day. With this fact 

 before us it seems strange to find one of Prof. 

 Swallow's eminence talking of the conflict be- 

 tween science and revelation, however excused 

 may be those who, outside of science, choose to 

 consider there is fair ground for argument. 

 Revelation is understood to be a positive fact, 

 admitting of no question ; science admits that 

 its work is still going on, and that it is far — very 

 far — from having reached its end. And we 

 do not think Prof. Swallow states the ques- 

 tion as the evolutionist would himself put it. 

 " The real question at issue is * * whether 

 all plants * * have been produced * with- 

 out supernatural power? Whence came the 

 first plant?" 



So far as we know evolutionists ask no such 

 question, or if they do it is simply as one which 

 they may request their opponents to answer. 

 They content themselves with looking at exist- 

 ing facts. They show that new forms are con- 

 tinually coming into existence, and that the^e 

 new forms spring from parent forms as truly as 



that new substances proceed from old sub- 

 stances. They show for instance, that a great 

 number of plants exist with all the distinctive 

 characters of species, and which would be re- 

 garded as distinct species, only that it happens 

 to be within human knowledge that they had 

 other distinct forms for their parents. Whether 

 the laws which produce these new forms are 

 natural or supernatural may be a theological 

 question, and one which each person may want 

 to settle according to his own theological pro- 

 clivities ; but it seems scarcely fair to assume 

 that this is " the real question at issue" with 

 those who are trying to find a law in nature for 

 the succession of forms, as well as for a succes- 

 sion of individuals. 



As to the manner in which the succession of 

 forms arise there may be ground for a difference 

 of opinion. Mr. Darwin's idea of natural selec- 

 tion implies a slow modification, through long 

 ages, and a dropping out of weak forms •, and it 

 is chiefly to this that Prof. Swallow pays his re- 

 spects, but there are other evolutionists who be- 

 lieve in rhythmic waves of growth in individual 

 plants, and rhythmic waves of growth in the 

 evolution of form — periodic seasons of rest, and 

 periodic activities, — but Prof. Swallow does not 

 venture at all on this ground. In other words 

 his work is not quite up to the times. 



Natural, Science and Religion. — By 

 Prof. Asa Gray, New York: Charles Scrib- 

 ners' Sons. — These are two lectures recently 

 delivered before the Yale Theological School, 

 and now issued in book form. Our interest in 

 the Work from a horticultural point of view 

 is chiefly derived from a statement made in 

 a recent lecture by the Rev. Joseph Cook, 

 given in Boston on — so the authorized version 

 says: — "February 30th," — a day, which, by 

 the way, rarely occurs in other parts of the 

 world. Dr. Cook says: "There are essential 

 parts of Darwinism which are being silently 

 modified or abandoned. Virchow, of Berlin ; 

 Allman, of the British Association ; Dana, of 

 New Haven; Wallace, of England; and Gray, 

 of Harvard University, have all criticised Dar- 

 win in such a way that the right hand of that 

 system of thought, or the doctrine that natural 

 selection is an adequate cause of the origin of 

 species is now a very liiBp and lame, I had 

 almost said wholly severed member." As quo- 

 tations are made from these lectures of Dr. 

 Gray, we were anxious to see how Dr. Gray 

 was silently modifying or mutilating his well 



