488 COMPENSATION. 



conformation, tliese co-relationships would have been 

 rendered much more evident. A hundred different 

 plants, for instance, may be named in any particular list, 

 of which fifty shall be of one type of structure, and the 

 remainder of another. And the co-relative changes 

 in each fifty may appear to be evenly balanced, but 

 so far is this from being the case, that the frequency 

 of the occurrence of a particular change, in one species 

 in the list, may be so great as far to exceed the instances 

 of its manifestation in all the rest put together. This 

 difficulty is only very partially obviated by the addition 

 of the * to signify especial frequency of occurrence of 

 any given malformation in the plants to whose names 

 it is affixed. 



Compensation. But Httle further need be said on this 

 head. An atrophied condition of one part is generally 

 associated with an hypertrophied condition of another, 

 and scarcely a change takes place in one direction, but 

 it is associated with an inverse alteration in some other. 

 This principle is not universal, and its application must 

 not be unduly strained. It requires specially to be 

 considered in reference to differences in the degree or 

 kind of functional acti\4ty exercised by the organs 

 implicated points beyond the scope of the present 

 volume. 



Teratology and classification. Lastly, there remain to 

 be mentioned the bearings of teratology on systematic 

 botany. There are those who would entirely exclude 

 teratology from such matters. It may be ex- 

 pedient to do so when the object sought is one of 

 convenience and facility of determination only, but 

 when broader considerations are concerned, teratology 

 must no more be banished than variation. In most 

 instances the one differs but in degree from the other. 

 If variation affords aid in our speculations as to the 

 affinities and genealogical descent of species and other 

 groups, so does teratology, and in a far higher degree. 



