242 LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



kind as the star-fishes and their neighbours, and such beings 

 as parasitic worms, flukes, wheel-animalcules, and the like. 

 Edward Forbes long ago spoke of this division as a kind of 

 "refuge for the destitute/' in respect of the exceedingly 

 diverse forms which had become aggregated within its 

 limits, and which presented to the eye of a zoologist, the 

 scene of incongruity beheld in the casual ward of a work- 

 house. And to this day the group remains with its ill- 

 assorted inhabitants, as a testimony against zoology at large ; 

 many naturalists, on the principle that it is one thing to 

 object to an arrangement and quite another thing to better 

 it, preferring to retain the division until a new and better 

 classification is proposed for their acceptance. The botanist 

 fares no better, in respect of confusion amongst groups of 

 plants, and with regard to the development of strange and 

 unusual forms, than his zoological brother. It is doubtful, 

 for example, if any two botanists could be found to agree 

 perfectly regarding the number of species of brambles or of 

 willows represented in the British Islands. One observer 

 will inform us that; of a certain number of either plants all 

 are perfectly good and distinct species. The next authority 

 we consult will maintain that the distinct " species " of his 

 friend are mere varieties, and not true species at all ; whilst 

 a third botanist would find cause to disagree with both 

 opinions, and would entertain very decided views as to the 

 specific nature of some of the plants regarded by others as 

 varieties, and respecting the varietal character of some speci- 

 mens which others would account as true species. The 

 present state of natural-history science, in short, exhibits all 

 the characteristics of a transition-period in literature, or of a 

 time of revolution in the arena of political life. Old ideas 

 of the rigidity of species are fast disappearing. In some 

 quarters all traces of opinions regarding the fixity of living 

 forms, formerly held as articles of scientific faith, have long 

 been obliterated. But with enlargement of wisdom there 

 has come increase of sorrow, in a scientific sense ; and one 

 of the greatest difficulties which the naturalist of to-day has 



