Uderduee, Mat frome ie lf 4 MW. E |Toeta. 
Chinen. Wen W Withee 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY 3 
factors in plant development he would have got the same results in 
half the time 
lants 
but, with it all, we are continually confronted with the factor of 
sporting along senseless lines, in our attempt to explain natural 
and making nests for their larvae, and neglecting simple precaution 
against fly-blowing their prey, showing that everywhere in Nature 
rtupidity prevails in the propagation and preservation of living 
forms, 
ity, 
just as the synthesis of the animal and vegetal hydrocarbons is 
the more these complex forms are resolved. 
There is no doubt in my own mind that by proper control of 
conditions much of the sporting of living forms can be controlled, 
and the development of new forms can be hastened and directed, 
but at last analysis we are up against some form of determinative 
evolution, In the event of a perfect understanding of all grow 
ing conditions we may find a quantitive law behind it all, but I se- 
riously doubt that we can ever find a quantatitve explanation for 
life. Gray put it well when he said that evolution can account 
fact. How else can we account for the wonderful development 
of sugarcane, bananas, and seedless citrus fruits, allof which are 
incapable of self-propagation? 
Some people forget some facts about animals. JItis the gen- 
“EX LIBRIS 
| JOSEPH EWAN 
