112 EXPLANATIONS. 



by the most rigorous evidence, to be accidental 

 variations of one common form, brought about no 

 one knows how, but before our eyes, and rendered 

 permanent by equally mysterious agency. Then, 

 says Reason, if they occur in orchidaceous plants, 

 why should they not also occur in com plants ? 

 for it is not likely that such vagaries will be con- 

 fined to one little group in the vegetable kingdom ; 

 it is more rational to believe them to be a part of 

 the general system of creation . . . How can we 

 be sure, that wheat, rye, oats, and barley, are not 

 all accidental off-sets from some unsuspected 

 species?"* The reader will now be partly able 

 to judge of the value of the unsupported dictum of 

 the reviewer. 



There are many other facts that throw a strong 

 light on transmutation, both of plants and animals. 

 So far from there being any decisive proof against 

 this theory, there is no settled conclusion at this 

 moment amongst naturalists, as to what constitutes 

 a species. " There is," says Professor Henslow, 

 " no law whatever hitherto established, hy which the 

 limits of variation to a given species can be satisfac- 

 torily assigned, and until some such law be dis- 

 covered, we cannot expect precision in the details 

 * Gardeners' Chronicle, August, 1844. 



