CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY 3 
helt-thetime, It 5 arells eaowe fact that pint: growing in bas 
kaline soil aevein thiek and fleshy leaves and reduced flowers, 
and those growing in acid soil develop thin and broad leaves na 
large flowers. Many other equally pegnlaess peer "9 know 
to plant breeders and are used by them in producing ne y clents, 
but, with it all, we are continually sonieiied with the factor of 
sporting along ‘senseless lines, in our attempt to explain natural 
processes rationally. The mentally lazy theologian will clasp his 
pious hands and ejaculate “What God hath wro ough t is past find- 
ing out’, but the scientist demands to know. ‘Those who claim 
the creative mind behind evolution point to the exceptional and 
not the common things as showing super-human intelligence, 
such as the development of the ear and the nervous system, and 
the blood circulation in animals. Hf the uld consider the com- 
mon exhibitions of intelligence in animals, such as the absence of 
group protection in whales (so conspic uously present in monkeys 
and peccaries), the wonderful wasp intelligence in,paralyzing food 
und making nests for their larve, and neglecting simple precaution 
ugainst fly-blowing their prey, showing that everywhere in Nature 
rtupidity prevails in the propagation and preservation of living 
forms, 
I confess to a confusion of mind in trying to recognize any- 
thing newin Osborn’s ‘‘Six Principles of the New SecsoL 
The only new thing is the oop . Ifis use of borrowed Greek 
may seem Resales but to me it ise 
I agree with Noyes and Margen that photosynthesis as an 
uncertainty B sant Ande is an empty one, for it is subject to rigi 
and is uncertain simply ler of its complexity, 
just as the Searle of the animal and vegetal hydrocarbons is 
uncertain because 2 their various responses to catalysts and tem- 
peratures. ut the more care is taken to keep conditions normal, 
the more these ioabler 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 cig 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 cere law behind it all, but I se- 
riously doubt that we can ever find a qua e explanation for 
life. Gray put it well when he said ‘that evolution can account 
for the a but not for its origin 
t Nature is dough in the hands of Man isa well-know 
fact. haw else can we account for the wonderful har Maced 
of sugarcane, bananas, and seedless citrus fruits, all.ef which are 
incapable of self-propagation 
Some people forget some , facts about animals. Itis the gen- 
