444 LETTEKS TO DAKWIN, 1843-1859 



suspension of the sporules of this genus in the air and the 

 consequent strengthening of my hypothesis, that the genus 

 should be decimated sparing only every tenth 1 Of course 

 it is a strong fact for migration, and for the existence of the 

 impalpable spawn of Fungi, &c., in all air. 



I have been more coolly analysing the bearings of the 

 Forbes Botanical question ^ lately, and with the distressing 

 result, that I fear I must haul out of all participation with 

 him. You will think me unstable as water, and I must 

 blame myself for speaking too much without thinking. It 

 is not from a reconsideration of his facts and arguments 

 that my faith is weakened, but from an independent exami- 

 nation of the Flora of the N. Atlantic Isles and W. U. 

 Kingdom, which shows that there are plants in those regions 

 which have been more put to in getting there than the 

 Asturias ones need have been. Such are the American 

 plants, Eriocaulon sejptangulare in the Hebrides and W. 

 Ireland, American Neottia in S. Ireland, and Trichomanes 

 hrevisetum in W. Ireland and Madeira, all of them American 

 plants not found further E. on continents of Europe or 

 Africa. Also the Gymnogramma Totta, a fern of the Cape 

 only in Madeira and Azores, and Myrsine africana] which 

 positively skips from the Cape across all intermediate 

 Africa on one side to Abyssinia and on the other to the 

 Azores ! I hope to be allowed a conversation with Forbes 

 on the subject, for really with his Sargassum weed, &c., he 

 is going too far. 



It is very easy to explain on what sort of ground Botanists 

 make one class of plants higher, and as easy to prove them 

 futile by their results. I do not however think your objection 

 valid, urged on the grounds of Owen's observations on 

 organs which are developed in the animal kingdom,^ but 

 which organs are valueless for systematic pm-poses, if present 

 even, in the vegetable. It is upon the modifications of the 



^ Viz., that several Spanish plants in Ireland could not have been trans- 

 ported by any known agencies ; hence they supported the argument for a 

 Miocene continental extension between Ireland and Spain, and from Spain to 

 the N. Atlantic Islands. 



2 A. St. Hilaire used a multiplicity of parts — e.g. several circles of stamens, 

 as evidence of the highness of the Ranunculaceae : Owen conversely used the 

 same argument to show the lowness of some animals, urging that the fewer 

 the number of any organ by which the same end is gained, the higher the animal. 



The subject of ' high ' and ' low ' is touched upon further, pp. 460, 463. 



