88 LINNAEUS AS AN EVOLUTIONIST 



expressed a doubt; and the sole reason he 

 has for doubting the validity of D. longi- 

 folia is, that it and its mate species always 

 occur under precisely the same conditions 

 and together. 1 It is such a reason as none but 

 a confirmed evolutionist could give; the ex- 

 pression, perhaps unguarded, of a mind no 

 longer very patient of the opinion that two 

 species of the same genus can have the same 

 native environment. A creative fiat could, 

 of course, as readily make two species of a 

 genus suited to certain conditions as one, and 

 as easily twenty as two; and so no believer 

 in the special creation of all species could 

 have felt this doubt about the sundews to 

 which Linnaeus gave expression. 



It has been thought that the mind of 

 Linnaeus as to the absolute fixity of species 

 underwent a change between the years 1751 

 and 1762, though only in so far as to induce 

 him to admit the origin of more recent species 

 by hybridization. 2 My own impression is 

 that few if any of the plants thought by 

 Linnaeus to be hybrids are at all of that 

 origin, according to the views of modern 



1 Habitat ubique cum praecedente ; an itaque satis diversa 

 species? Species Plantarum, 1 ed., p. 282; 2 ed., p. 403. 



2 Osborn, From the Greeks to Darwin, p. 129. 



