572 



THE NATUEAL HISTORY REVIEW. 



all possibility of classification will vanish. Is this grand phenomenon 

 of analogies susceptible of explanation ? Yes, if we adopt the 

 system of common origin and of the evolution of forms ; No, if we 

 hold that of primordiality, and the independence of forms. There 

 are seven or eight hundred kinds of Solanum disseminated over an 

 immense extent of country in the Old and New "World ; all are 

 specifically distinct, but all resemble each other in a certain sum of 

 common characters, incomparably more important, in the eyes of the 

 Classifier, than the completely external, and, so to speak, superficial 

 differences by which they are distinguished, since these common 

 characters assign to all their places in the same class, the same 

 family, the same genus. I ask then, are these analogies a fact without 

 any cause in physical order ? Do they exist fortuitously or simply 

 because it has pleased Grod that they should exist ? If you hold to 

 the system of the independent origin of the species, you will have 

 to choose between chance, which is an absurdity, and a supernatural 

 fact, that is to say, a miracle, two elements which do not pass cur- 

 rent in science. Allow, on the contrary, a common ancestor to all 

 these species ; generalise in the vegetable kingdom this faculty, of 

 which the present forms preserve the last relics, of gradual sub- 

 division, according to the necessities of nature, into secondary forms 

 which diverge from the common point of origin, in order to be pre- 

 sently themselves sub -divided into new forms, and you will arrive 

 gradually, without any abruptness, and by the sole act of evolution, 

 at species, races, and at the slightest varieties. The superficial traits 

 will vary from one form to the other, but the common essential 

 foundation wiU always subsist ; you may have a thousand derivative 

 forms, but each of them wdll have the impress of its origin, the 

 sign of its relation to all the others, and it is this sign which will 

 guide you in uniting them into the same family and the same 

 genus. 



These ideas of the general relationship between beings of the same 

 genus, the same family, the same kingdom, are not new to me ; it is 

 ten years since I expressed them in the E-evue Horticole, and I con- 

 fess I have felt not a little flattered at seeing them professed by English 

 savants of the highest distinction. This is the way in which I 

 expressed myself in 1852. " We do not believe that nature has 

 proceeded, in the formation of species, in any other manner than 

 we ourselves proceed to form varieties, &c. (See Sevue Horticole, 

 1852, p. 104, &c.* * * 



