CHAP. VIII.] LIKENESSES IN ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 249 



individuals, out of utterly indifferent and indeterminate 

 variations in all conceivable directions.&quot; 



Further consideration and fresh observation have con 

 vinced me more and more of the justice of the Thisshown 

 above remarks. Their justice is however remark- b yp ants - 

 ably substantiated by the facts concerning mimicry, as it 

 exists in plants, brought forward* by Mr. Alfred W. Bennett. 

 These facts concern two kinds of mimicry, one kind relating 

 to the whole habit and mode of growth of the plants, and the 

 other referring to the development of some particular organ 

 or part. 



As to the first kind, amongst other instances he refers to 

 the imitation of Cacti by the Euphorbias, found in Africa. 

 He says : &quot; Except when they are in flower, it is, indeed, 

 difficult to believe that these African Euphorlias are not in 

 reality Cacti: and the resemblance is not merely a general 

 one ; particular groups, and even species, of African Eu 

 phorbia imitate particular groups or species of American 

 Cacti in the form and habit of the stem and the arrangement 

 of the spines, so that it is almost impossible to distinguish 

 between them.&quot; 



As to the second kind of plant mimicry, he mentions that 

 Kunge, a great authority on ferns, &quot; considered the curious 

 Stangeria paradoxa a cycad,&quot; and that Berthold Seemarm 

 found in the Sandwich Islands a variety of Solanum Nelsoni, 

 &quot; which looked for all the world like Thomasia solanacea&quot; a 

 resemblance as striking as that pointed out by Bates &quot; between 

 a certain moth and a humming-bird.&quot; 



The objection that such instances are not parallel to animal 

 mimicry because not occurring between plants which inhabit 

 the same area, is rebutted by Mr. Bennett, who brings in 

 stances to the contrary. Amongst these may be mentioned 

 the resemblance between the Eucalypti and Mimosas, both 

 Australian forms, and that between the winged-fruits (each a 

 &quot; Samara &quot;) of four genera of plants belonging to three dis- 



* ^ee Popular Science Keview, January, 1872 p. 1. 



