The Transformation of Plants, 387 



knows how, but before our eyes, and rendered permanent by 

 equally mysterious agency." "Then," says reason, "if these 

 inconceivable changes have been proved to occur among 

 Orchidaceous plants, why should they not also occur among 

 corn-plants ? for it is not likely that such vagaries will be 

 confined to one little group in the vegetable kingdom ; it is 

 far more rational to believe them to be a part of the general 

 system of the creation." (1844, p. 555.) And again, in 

 reply to a correspondent, it was added, " as we have repeat- 

 edly stated, we think that no man should undertake to affirm 

 ex cathedra, what is possible or impossible in nature. ( 1845, 

 p. 401.) 



Some have thought these views objectionable, believing 

 that we already possess that amount of knowledge of natural 

 phenomena which justifies our deciding dogmatically upon 

 such general questions as the change of one plant into 

 another. It has been even held that scepticism in such 

 matters tends to unsettle men's minds, and to induce disbelief 

 in all by which science holds fast. We do not concur in that 

 opinion ; we see no harm in reviving even Lord Monboddo's 

 belief in human tails ; the more knowledge advances, the 

 more easily false theory and idle hypothesis are disposed of; 

 rational discussion can do no harm among men of intelli- 

 gence, — on the contrary, it is thus only that truth is to be 

 finally elicited. 



A most curious and able dissertation upon the Origin of 

 Wheat, which we have just read, completely justifies the 

 views we have held, for although it does not show that oats 

 change into rye, as many believe, and offers no support to 

 some other speculations of the same kind, nevertheless de- 

 monstrates, beyond all further question, that wheat is itself a 

 transmutation of a kind of wild grass. Mons. Esprit Fabre, 

 of Agde, well known to botanists as an acute observer and 

 patient experimentalist, has made the discovery, which has 

 been introduced to public notice by Professor Dunal, of 

 Montpellier, in a pamphlet, from which we condense the 

 following statement. 



The ancients imagined that the native country of wheat 



