NOTE ON HYBRIDISM IN VEGETABLES. 673 



" The vegetable kingdom regarded in this point of view would 

 no longer present itself as a linear series of which the terms would 

 proceed increasing or decreasing in complexity of organization, ac- 

 cording as we examine them by commencing at one extremity or the 

 other ; it would no longer be a disorderly entanglement of inter- 

 crossing lines ; not even a geographic map whose regions, differing in 

 form and extent would touch each other at a larger or smaller num- 

 ber of points ; but a tree whose roots, concealed in the depths of 

 cosmogonical seras, had given birth to a limited number of succes- 

 sively divided and sub-divided stems. These first stems would 

 represent the primordial types of the kingdom ; their last ramifica- 

 tions would be the present species. 



" The result would be that a perfect and rigorous classification 

 of organised beings of the same kingdom, of the same family, would 

 be nothing else than a genealogical tree of species, indicating the 

 relative antiquity of each, its degree of speciality and the line of 

 ancestors from which it had descended. The difterent degrees of 

 relationship of species would thus be represented as it were in a 

 palpable and material fashion, as also that of the groups of diff'erent 

 degrees, going back to the primordial types themselves. Such a 

 classification, drawn up in a graphic table, would be comprehended 

 with as much ease by the mind as by the eyes, and would present 

 the most beautiful application of that principle which is generally 

 admitted by naturalists, that nature is sparing of causes but pro- 

 digal of effects." 



Since these notions were put forth, I have been able to modify 

 them in certain details, but their foundation has remained in my 

 mind. I believe then in the unity of origin, and in the derivation 

 of living beings from the same branch ; and by consequence in a 

 single focus of creation whence the stocks of these great branches 

 have been elaborated, from a common nucleus. This first unity of 

 bond does not exclude the secondary centres of the multiplication 

 of forms in which I equally believe, and of which traces remain, 

 notwithstanding so many dislocations of the surface of the globe. 

 "What I regard as no less certain, is that the forms, during the pro- 

 cess of multiplication in the course of ages, have always followed 

 divergent paths, and that, in consequence, it is contrary to nature 

 to suppose that species can be changed the one into the other, or 

 that two species can be melted into one by hybridisation. 



