153 



Near the Cwms I have repeatedly found that interesting epiphvte the 

 Orobanche elatior, not, however, realising its old Roman name Herba konina. 

 The Ranunculus genus has the species linqua, flammula, and aqwtilis here, 

 and furnishes an example of the fact that if the plants of the north tem- 

 perate regions do not fly to mountain heights for their diffusion, they resort 

 to the equalised temperature of the water ; one reason, by the way, why " the 

 Hippurida; " and other aquatic tribes are so widely diffused from the North of 

 Europe to the South Sea Islands. 



Taking the different phases of the species Ranunculus aquatilis as I have 

 observed in this neighbourhood, I am induced to regard it as uniting the two 

 varieties R. circinnatus and tripartita, fortified as I am in this view by De Can- 

 dolle, who, with Hooker, thinks the claims of B. tripartitus very slender to 

 the rank of a species. 



As in many other instances, the word species will be ultimately accepted 

 to mean forms between which transitory link3 are not found, "as numerous 

 intermediate forms are discovered every year "; and the more these are multi- 

 plied, the less able are we to decide what constitutes a variety— what a 

 species. 



If we stand upon the latter mental abstrac' ion too firmly, we get landed 

 in the constant difficulty of deciding whether we shall segregate with Babing- 

 ton, or condense like Bentham, and between Scylla and Charybdis, while 

 ignoring the authority of Cuvier, who took a world-wide view, and held that 

 species were not permanent. 



There is doubtless a wide diversity in plants as in animals, as regards 

 their respective capacities for variation ; that capacity shows itself in the pecu- 

 liar adaptation which their physical constitution undergoes to circumstances 

 as they change, and in the spontaneous growth of peculiarities not traceable to 

 any such influence. 



There are many species, again, which it is most difficult to define on 

 paper ; in fact, the attempt at definition shows merely the narrowness of the 

 definer, and reminds us of what Echo said to Ausonius : " If you must needs 

 paint me, paint a voice." The precise answer is a precision of error, an expres- 

 sion of empiricism, and has its opposite in that true philosophy which doubts 

 because it seeks to investigate thoroughly, and rests only and ever on exact 

 and complete observation. The geologist, in prosecuting his search, finds the 

 Longmyuds cradling the first faint traces of the dawn of life on our globe. 

 The botanist, too, finds an unmixed indigenous vegetation : borne on their 

 wiry breasts arc those plants which, like hardy mountaineers, remain after 

 centuries to fight the battle of life, till removed by the hand of man or the trans- 

 forming influences of civilisation. Yes, " The tree of life fills with its dead and 

 broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with ever-branch- 

 ing ramifications." 



That stupendous chemistry which has once made seas and continents 

 change places, and hills emerge from ocean's bed, is still preserved in that 



