TKANSMUTABLE. 109 



done, I have contemplated with pleasure the 

 order and regularity with' which this is effected 

 hy flowers, I never dreamt of such a thing as 

 "habit" having anything to do with the pro- 

 cess. Why not say that the sleep of the animal 

 is a "habit." A seed is kept in a dry mummy 

 case for two or three thousand years without 

 germinating; you give it moisture, and so en- 

 able certain chemical changes to take place, and 

 the seed grows. This so-called habit then is a 

 law of nature. It suits Mr. Darwin, however, 

 to propound the doctrine, that because plants 

 transported from one climate to another, become 

 acclimatized or ''habituated" to different temper- 

 ature, they do this by u habit;" and he raises 

 this extraordinary theory to get over the difficulty 

 in his way, of species of the same genus inhabiting 

 very hot and very cold countries! If they do 

 this by "habit," he at once claims the fact as 

 "being effected during long continued descent 

 from a single parent!" 



If however they are adapted to different climates 

 by a natural law, implanted in them when spe- 

 cially created, there is, of course, an end to Mr. 

 Darwin's hypotheses, and the whole theory of his 

 book falls to the ground. To support his view, 

 he mentions the limited evidence of Dr. Hooker's 

 rhododendrons, raised from seed, gathered at dif- 

 ferent heights in the Himalaya mountains, being 

 found in this country to possess different con- 

 stitutional powers of resisting cold; and similar 

 results have been communicated to him by Mr. 



