204 DARWINIANA. 



by step in the series of forms ; but the cause of the 

 likeness here is obvious. And this brings in our 

 " motif philosophique? 



Not to insist that the likeness is after all the vari- 

 able, not the constant, element — to learn which is the 

 essential thing, resemblance among individuals or their 

 genetic connection — we have only to ask which can be 

 the cause of the other. 



In hermaphrodite plants (the normal case), and even 

 as the question is ingeniously put by De Candolle in 

 the above extract, the f ormer surely cannot be the cause 

 of the latter, though it may, in case of crossing, offer 

 occasion. But, on the ground of the most funda- 

 mental of all things in the constitution of plants and 

 animals — the fact incapable of further analysis, that 

 individuals reproduce their like, that characteristics 

 are inheritable — the likeness is a direct natural con- 

 sequence of the genetic succession ; " and it is logical 

 to place the cause above the effect." 



We are equally disposed to combat a proposition 

 of De Candolle's about genera, elaborately argued in 

 the "Geographie Botanique," and incidentally reaf- 

 firmed in his present article, viz., that genera are more 

 natural than species, and more correctly distinguished 

 by people in general, as is shown by vernacular names. 

 But we have no space left in which to present some 

 evidence to the contrary. 



