84 SPECIES NOT 



(Kolreuter,) or nearly so, (Gartner,) in nil 

 hybrids. 



Mr. Knight says, "I could adduce many facts 

 which would satisfactorily prove that a single 

 plant is often the offspring of more than one, 

 and in some instances of many male parents. 

 Under such circumstances every species of plant, 

 which either in a natural state or cultivated by 

 man, has been once made to sport in varieties, 

 must almost of necessity continue to assume va- 

 riations of form. Some of these have often been 

 found to resemble other species of the same genus, 

 or other varieties of the same species, and of 

 permanent habits, which were assumed to be 

 species ; but / have never yet seen a hybrid plant 

 capable of affording offsjrring, which had been 

 proved by anything like satisfactory evidence to 

 have sprung from two originally distinct species ; 

 and I must therefore continue to believe that 

 there are no species capable of propagating off- 

 spring, either of plant or animal, now existing, 

 which did not come as such immediately from the 

 hand of the Creator." Physiological Papers, 

 page 253. 



Surely this work of Mr. Darwin is an exception 

 to every system of reasoning adopted by scientific 

 men. All his arguments are founded upon ex- 

 ceptional cases, and the great broad facts of science 

 he ignores with the most infatuated pertinacity. 

 He thinks much of the old maxim, "Natura non 

 facit saltum" but denies the equally true one 

 "Naturam expelles furca, tamen usque recurret." 



