MODERN EVOLUTION. 



i6 5 



supplement to the Origin of Species appeared. But 

 of this more anon. 



Meanwhile, as already named, Mr. Patrick Mat- 

 thew had in the Gardener's Chronicle of 7th April, 

 1860, drawn attention to an appendix to his book on 

 Naval Timber and Arboriculture published in 1831, 

 in which he anticipated Darwin and Wallace's theory 

 as follows: 



"The self-regulating adaptive disposition of 

 organised life may, in part, be traced to the extreme 

 fecundity of Nature, who, as before stated, has in all 

 the varieties cf her offspring a prolific power much 

 beyond (in many cases a thousandfold) what is neces- 

 sary to fill up the vacancies caused by senile decay. 

 As the field of existence is limited and pre-occupied, 

 it is only the hardier, more robust, better-suited-to- 

 circumstance individuals, who are able to struggle 

 forward to maturity, these inhabiting only the situ- 

 ations to which they have superior adaptation and 

 greater power of occupancy than any other kind; 

 the weaker and less circumstance-suited being pre- 

 maturely destroyed. This principle is in constant 

 action; it regulates the colour, the figure, the ca- 

 pacities, and instincts; those individuals in each 

 species whose colour and covering are best suited 

 to concealment or protection from enemies, or de- 

 fence from inclemencies or vicissitudes of climate, 

 whose figure is best accommodated to health, 

 strength, defence, and support; whose capacities and 

 instincts can best regulate the physical energies to 



