TRANSMUTABLE. 195 



is supplied with hot-house heat, and grows equally 

 well in ours, we have found out why it will 

 grow exclusively in hot countries; or if we take 

 marsh plants from their natural situation, and 

 plant them in our gardens, we see that they 

 flourish only when planted where nature intended 

 them to grow; or, again, plants which live in 

 the shade naturally, will only grow in similar 

 situations in our gardens. So far for the causes; 

 but the laws which regulate these causes are 

 inexplicable, as well as those by which different 

 groups of plants predominate in different regions, 

 or are confined within limited areas. 



If I may venture to make a suggestion, 

 however, it is, that to the effects of localization, 

 climate, moisture, etc., we must add that of the 

 soil. Why do monkeys only live in the region 

 of palms ? Simply because the palms are necessary 

 for their subsistence. The Creator has specialized 

 the distribution of the animal to the climate 

 which produces the food upon which it lives. 

 So with plants, which have a different character 

 at the same altitudes, and temperature, in different 

 parts of the world; the same relation subsists 

 between the plant and the soil, as does between 

 the palm and the monkey. 



According to Mr. Darwin's theory, two different 

 plants growing in the same altitudes and tem- 

 peratures in different parts of the world, is a 

 proof of the varying descendants of species by 

 inheritance. I believe it is simply an adaptation 

 of the thing which grows to the elements ne- 



