1897] ORIGIN OF SPECIES AMONG PLANTS i Bs 
but little variations to select from. Of common vegetables, parsnips, 
carrots, radishes, Brassica oleracea, &c., have supplied numerous 
varieties which come true by seed; though each may still furnish 
an improved “ race.” 
Similarly, if a useless character be acquired among cultivated 
plants, not only may it occur in every individual but it may become 
hereditary and relatively fixed; just as in the examples of wild 
plants already mentioned. Thus, there is no special advantage in 
the mere variety of colouring of flowers as of pansies, nor in double 
flowers, nor in excess of neuter flowers of composites, nor in the 
abortive pedicels of the feather hyacinth, &c. 
With regard to the fixation of characters, therefore, there is no 
absolute rule whatever, nor can we say why one plant is so plastic 
and another refractory. 
Nature recognises no ‘‘must” in her processes. 
Darwinism, an Unverified and Unverifiable Deduc- 
tion.—It is a common statement that Darwin placed the Doctrine 
of Evolution on a scientific basis when he pronounced the theory of 
“The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection.” It is against 
this statement that I would venture to protest most strongly. To 
take the latest example, Ludwig von Graff says :—“The selection 
theory of the celebrated Englishman, Darwin, first based the idea 
upon a scientific foundation. The obvious phenomena of heredity 
and of variability are the foundations of his bold system, the axles 
of life’s mechanism; and the motive power of this mechanism is the 
struggle of all living things for the preservation and procreation of 
life? 
Darwin’s theory, however, as stated in the title of his book, 
“The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection,” is a pure 
deduction; and deductions (2.¢., d priori reasoning), though useful 
as working hypotheses are not scientific or useless, until they 
have been verified by induction and experiments. 
The theory was based on two primary deductions ; out of these 
secondary ones followed. They were, first, that “ Individual Differ- 
ences” could supply materials for natural selection to act upon; 
secondly, that when offspring of any species varied under the action 
of new conditions of life, they generally varied indefinitely, so aftord- 
ing fresh material for natural selection. It has been shown that 
both of these fundamental assumptions are groundless. 
As an illustration of his deductive method of reasoning, let us 
take the following typical passage which states Darwin’s theory 
clearly and concisely :— 
1Dr Weismann says :—‘‘ Doubt is the parent of progress ;” yet in about a page and a 
half of Nature (June 11, 1896), in an epitome of his theory, he uses the word ‘‘ Must” 
fourteen times ! 
? Natural Science, vol. ix., p. 198. 
N 
