286 



that it may have to submit to modification, which may correct but 

 will not destroy the general view." 



Professor Balfour was not prepared to enter into Dr. M'Cosh's 

 views fully, although there were many plausible statements made by 

 him. Dr. M'C. did not appear to apply his views on the same prin- 

 ciple throughout. There could be no doubt that there were normal 

 angles at which branches and veins were given off, but it was not an 

 easy matter to get what might be called typical forms. He hoped 

 that Dr. M'C.'s remarks would lead to an investigation of the subject. 



Professor Fleming remarked that he was ill qualified to offer any 

 remarks on the interesting paper which had been read, because he 

 had long been in the habit of restraining his imagination in all sci- 

 entific inquiries. This paper he considered an imaginative one, a 

 hunting after resemblances and overlooking differences, so as to give 

 results by no means to be depended upon. The leaves were organs 

 differing in form, structure, and functions from the stem and branches, 

 and could not, homologically, be compared with them. The nerves 

 of the leaves did not all diverge at the same angle, neither did the 

 branches. These last were exposed to various influences during the 

 life of a tree, and in consequence diverged from the stem at various 

 angles in the different periods of growth. It was therefore a dream 

 of the imagination to hope to determine a typical angle of divergence, 

 when the plant was endowed with a considerable range of variation to 

 fit it for its place in the economy of Nature. 



Professor Goodsir had listened to Dr. M'Cosh's paper with much 

 interest, on two accounts : first, because it appeared to him that its 

 author had, in endeavouring to reach one of the objects he had in 

 view, embodied another attempt to investigate the laws of organic form 

 by that precise or geometrical method which can alone ultimately 

 elevate Natural History to the platform of the perfect sciences ; and 

 secondly, because, although he could not admit all the conclusions at 

 which its learned author had arrived, he yet believed the paper to 

 involve a great truth. If he might be allowed to use the expression 

 in reference to a plant, the specific physiognomy of a tree, as a mass, 

 appeared to him to depend on the particular bulk, form, and grouping 

 of its constituent masses. Now, if the form and grouping does not 

 depend upon, it certainly involves, the mode of branching peculiar to 

 the species. Dr. M'Cosh had restricted himself to the investigation 

 of the law which regulated the latter; but he had experienced, and 

 would continue to experience, that apparently at present insuperable 

 difficulty in all such researches, viz., the variation, within certain 



