4 INTRODUCTION [CHAP. 



In plants, however, the latter are not in existence 

 when the vegetative organs are affected. On the 

 other hand, Darwin says that definite variations 

 give rise to " a new sub- variety " . . . " without 

 the aid of selection." 



It is nearly forty years ago since I began 

 studying plants to see how far direct observa- 

 tions could support " Darwinism " - a theory 

 I never accepted from my first reading of the 

 " Origin " in 1859 l I never succeeded in find- 

 ing a case in nature in support of it. " Individual 

 differences " or variations are everywhere, but I 

 soon saw that these were not the materials of 

 evolution. On the other hand, proofs accumu- 

 lated on every side of Darwin's "definite" 

 variations, now called simply " Adaptations." 

 My accumulated materials were gradually 

 worked up into the two volumes published in 

 the International Scientific Series. But I by 

 no means stood alone. Botanists abroad had 

 been at work on precisely the same lines. Three 

 years after my " Origin of Plant Structures " 

 appeared (1895), M. Costantin issued his "Les 

 Vege'taux et les Milieux Cosmiques " (1898). 



Now, ecological botanists are ubiquitous, all 

 being at one in practically accepting Darwin's 

 alternative of" The Origin of Species by Response 



1 In 1872, I was fortunate in gaining the " Actonian Prize," on 

 the subject proposed by the Royal Institution" The Theory of 

 Evolution of Living Things " but I never referred to natural selection. 



