250 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



none of them appear likely to be adopted by man for the 

 service they can do ; but they are, in common with all the 

 host which cannot be mentioned here, of great interest to 

 the naturalists of our time. Their importance in the inquiries 

 which are hereafter to be made by our ever expanding science 

 of life cannot be estimated. It certainly will not be possible 

 to overreckon it in this very practical age. This plea for the 

 sparing of the mammalian species in no case needs to be 

 made so strongly, and in no other instance is so well entitled 

 to a hearing, as when it is raised for the life of the monkeys. 

 These interesting animals because of their collateral kinship 

 with man afford precious evidence as to the stages of intel- 

 lectual development which is likely to be of exceeding value 

 to students in that field of inquiry. There is unfortunately 

 little chance that any of the monkeys will ever prove useful ; 

 their habits are such that they are generally troublesome 

 neighbors ; moreover, their weakness makes it easy to ex- 

 terminate them. The result is that some species have prob- 

 ably already been destroyed, and others are in conditions 

 where during the next century they are likely to vanish. In 

 the animate realm it is hard to choose the forms which are 

 to be the most important for the naturalists of the time to 

 come, but it is certain that these students will deplore the 

 loss of the simian life and charge us sorely if we neglect due 

 effort for its preservation. 



Although the matter before us concerns the domestica- 

 tion of animals, it may be well to devote a little attention to 

 the question of the wild plants which need protection or 

 which promise to afford unwon values. It may be said that 

 plants in general are much less likely than animals to be dis- 

 turbed by the process of bringing a country under the condi- 



