ATMOSPHERIC FACTOR IN EVOLUTION. 303 



(5) The weaklings prove often the most highlv developed in 

 certain directions. Look at the gardener watching this bed of 

 young seedlings and flowers. Anyone who knows anything about 

 flowers, knows that the strong rank-growing seedlings which if 

 left to Nature would choke the w^eaker ones, are likely to be 

 worthless. I once heard of someone consulting a Cape Town 

 nurseryman for some hints about growing seedlings. The main 

 hint he got was, " Nurse the wee ones." In his experience the 

 wes ones, the weaklings, were the ones likely to show some new 

 variations, such as a new shade of colour, or shape of flower. 

 And this is just what one w^ould expect from my theory. Just as 

 in man, we do not expect exceptional physical and mental de- 

 velopment, so in the plant we must not expect strong growth both 

 of the nutritive parts, such as the leaves or branches, and of the 

 reproductive parts, as the flowers. According to my theory, the 

 nurture regulating centre has a certain amount of nourishment at 

 its command, and it is the duty of this centre to distribute it 

 in the way that shall be best for the plant as a whole. Hence 

 if the plant is going to have specially double flowers it is only 

 natural that a greater share of nourishment be held in reserve for 

 this object, and thus less will be available for the grosser parts 

 of the plant. 



The same applies to animals. The small, weak Kerry cow 

 would have no chance with the Africander, yet the Kerry with 

 her milk supply large in proportion to the size of her body is 

 on this account the more highly developed animal. 



(6) According to Darwin's theory, only the few take part in 

 evolution. According to mine, every living organism down to 

 the lowest and the weakest is doing its little best to keep itself 

 in unison with its surroundings. Darwinism is the rule of a 

 despotic oligarchy ; the rule, according to my theory, is that of 

 democracy in its best form ; where every indivdual member of 

 the large community attends strictly to his own affairs, and makes 

 his little lot as perfectly attuned to its surroundings as possible. 



(7) The last objection is, to my mind, the strongest one. Ac- 

 cording to Darwin, evolution is not constantly acting. Now we 

 are looking for some general law according to which evolution 

 has been brought about. \\c would expect that this law, like 

 all the other general laws of Nature, besides operating (i) unl- 

 versally, that is in every living thing, would operate (2) con- 

 stantly ; in fact, we would expect this general law to be always 

 acting in all living things. Darwinism fails in both these points. 

 We have seen that it acts only in the few. Now, we will show- 

 that it does not always act. It acts by fits and starts. To return 

 once more to the Negro example : if the new land to which they 

 were brought had been a land of plent}' for all, then, while the 

 time of plenty lasted, there would be no evolution. Then a 

 fam.ine comes along, and a nev.- variation crops up and is fixed ; 

 later on comes a season of plenty, and again no progress. 

 Thus, according to Darwin, evolution proceeds by short jerks. 

 We are often told that 



"The mills of G jd Kfind slowly, but the\' grind exceeding small.'" 



