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at, and this would be an abundant reward of all past labour. Besides, 

 in such a labyrinth a proposition must at first be made, and experi- 

 ence will eventually decide as to its correctness ; but assumption 

 without proof, that an alleged species is only a variety, ought to be 

 reprobated in every case. The boundaries of species both in the ge- 

 nera Rosa and Rubus are not yet perfectly ascertained, and therefore 

 I cannot agree with Mr. Watson that the attempt to ascertain these 

 boundaries is " frivolous." Neither, if the usual definition of species 

 will not apply in every family alike, is it philosophical to give up the 

 term as useless and " fall into the transition-of-species theory." For 

 in some families there may be and is a transition of one form into 

 another to a limited but not a constantly progressive extent, just as 

 the river winds in a thousand sinuosities to reach the ocean, its waters 

 by evaporation again returning to the mountains to pass over the same 

 windings as before. So in every tribe of plants, the seed more or less 

 may have power to sport whether in leaves, flowers, or fruit, to an ex- 

 tent perhaps unknown or unascertained, but not unlimited ; it can 

 only go through the changes providentially assigned to it ; in its seed 

 again brought back to its old position. This is to be particularly 

 borne in mind, for these restricted changes by no means oblige us to 

 side with the never-ending transmutation theory. The Vesligians 

 would infer that certain metamorphoses which we see confined in 

 their range, prove former transmutations which we have not witnessed, 

 and that to an unlimited extent. But this is most fallacious reason- 

 ing, for all the varieties, for instance, that horticulture shows us in the 

 Dahlia or the geranium, even if exhibited in a wild state, could give 

 us no just reason to believe that something else other than the seed 

 of a Dahlia or geranium had given rise originally to them, and that 

 they would eventually spur on to ulterior developments different from 

 their present family appearances. Because Tilia Europaea and par- 

 vifolia may, as I believe is the case, be the same species under diffe- 

 rent phases of growth, and the character of the leaf in the lime may 

 be therefore variable, it would be absurd to suppose that because we 

 must alter our definition in this respect, our confidence ceases as to 

 the Tilia really remaining one, and that we may rationally look out 

 for something else arising from the transmutation of its roots, when it 

 falls or is cut down. 



It may be inconvenient to find that Nature does not respect our 

 definition of species in every case, and that thus between the primrose 

 and the cowslip she will sport into oxlips, stalked primroses, or red 

 cowslips ; but it being once established that it is so, from repeated 



