354 THE EETURN FROM INDIA 



Darwin and Wallace's ^ joint communication on Natural 

 Selection was read before the Linnean Society in July 

 1858 ; the ' Origin ' was not published till November 1859. 

 The Introductory Essay to the Flora of Tasmania, appear- 

 ing between the two, did not thus early proclaim Natural 

 Selection as a proven theory and philosophic principle, what- 

 ever effect on his trend of thought Hooker confessed the 

 pubHcation of the ' Origin ' might produce. He frankly 

 employed the theory as a working hypothesis to see whether 

 it did not explain the perplexing questions of botanical affinity 

 and distribution better than its predecessor, which he had 

 still accepted as the working hypothesis for the New Zealand 

 Essay. AppHed to the vast material over which his mind 

 had ranged, the hypothesis ' worked ' in striking fashion. 

 So far as plant Hfe was concerned, the Tasmanian Essay 

 offered in advance a strong buttress for the * Origin,' which 

 dealt with hfe in both animals and plants. 



Discussion of this progress in scientific views is most 

 profitably postponed to a Darwinian chapter. For the present 

 it is enough to bear in mind that the species question was 

 constantly before him ; and that while working on the ordinarily 

 accepted lines until he could see more clearly, he was ready, when 

 fuller conviction came, to avow openly his change of attitude. 



With the pubhcation of the Flora of AustraHa and Tasmania 

 (1855-60) the Botany of Eoss's Voyage was completed, the 

 New Zealand Flora having been pubhshed between 1853- 

 55. The next important work of this decade was the beginning 

 of his magnum ofus, the Flora Indica. The first year after 

 his return in March 1851, * shghtly fatter, three years younger, 

 and much stronger than when I left England in '47,' was mainly 



1 Alfred Russel Wallace (1822-1913), the joint discoverer of the principle 

 of Natural Selection, gave up his profession as land-surveyor and architect 

 to travel and study nature, visiting the Amazon with Bates, 1848-52, and the 

 Malay Archipelago, 1854-62. It was from here that he sent Darwin in 1858 

 the paper which was read at the Linnean with Darwin's own, and led to the 

 speedy publication of the Origin. Besides his two great books of travel, his 

 most important scientific books are those on Geographical Distribution of 

 Animals, Tropical Nature, Island Life, and Darwinism. He received the 

 Royal Medal of the U.S. in 1868. Keenly interested in social reform, he wrote 

 a volume on Land Nationalisation. He wrote also against compulsory vac- 

 cination and became a strong supporter of spiritualism. 



