374 NATURAL SCIENCE. june, 



became a citizen herself, and her offspring were entirely separated 

 from the degrading influences of Reserve life. All this has been 

 changed by a measure which has just been hurried through Congress. 

 The children of mixed marriages are to remain Indians, and thus one 

 of the most effectual means of removing the Indian question from the 

 problems of the State has been destroyed. Another retrograde enact- 

 ment hands over to mining speculators enormous deposits of gilsonite 

 found in the reserves set apart for the Utes, The Board of the Indian 

 Commissioners earnestly protested that if these mineral lands were to 

 be opened it should be done by selling or leasing the deposits to the 

 highest bidders for the benefit of the Indians, but Congress seemingly 

 went its own way." 



Theoretical Darwinism. 



We have the misfortune to find Mr. G. D. Haviland, M.B., 

 F.L.S.. a singularly trying author. We have received from him a 

 pamphlet in two parts (" Some Factors in the Evolution of Adapta- 

 tions " : R. H. Porter, London, 1897), ^^ which he discusses in a 

 purely abstract fashion several very interesting problems. He lays 

 down certain definitions and axioms, and then, in a series of proposi- 

 tions, deduces in a most logical fashion some biological results of 

 great importance. Unfortunately, however, biology, the doctrine of 

 life, is not founded on a series of abstract propositions, but on the 

 infinite variety of living nature. Mr. Haviland, at any rate in this 

 pamphlet, does not condescend to observation or to citation of the 

 observations of others. Logical deduction, however cleverly con- 

 trived, is of little interest by itself. As a preliminary to observation, 

 as a means of framing provisional hypotheses that may serve as 

 directions in devising experiments, it is an invaluable scientific 

 weapon. But most people who wish to make investigations are able 

 to frame their own preliminary deductions ; and we imagine that, in 

 its present form, Mr. Haviland's ingenious logomachy will be of 

 little service. If he wishes to claim the attention of biologists, he 

 should attempt observation on the lines of some of his own propo- 

 sitions. For instance, the third corollary to one of these propositions 

 is that "neither polygamy nor prostitution will influence the proportion 

 of the sexes." Let Mr. Haviland collect and publish information 

 bearing on this, and we shall all read him. 



Colour Variation in Flowers. 



So much has been written of late on the question whether 

 variation takes place in a definite direction or indefinitely, and, to the 

 would-be explainer of evolution, the question is in fact so important, 

 that a note by Mr. F. A. Waugh, in the March number of the Botanical 

 Gazette, on the definitenessof colour-variation in many flowers, seemed 

 to promise something of interest. 



" The centrifugal encroachment of a darker upon a lighter colour 

 in blossoms is," says Mr. Waugh, " one of the commonest lines of 



