H.] FACTS AND NO THEORY 11 



how been so influenced that they reproduce the 

 results effected long before by the soma alone. 

 Now botanists have this great advantage ; they 

 have facts to deal with and no theories whatever 

 to maintain. There will be no need to write 

 an octavo volume of 350 pages like Mr Reid's. 

 All I need do and have done before, is to put 

 facts before the reader, and trust him to consider 

 them with an unbiassed, still less, a prejudiced 

 mind. 



Dismissing teleology and the "bathmic" 

 theory of evolution, according to which it " has 

 occurred in obedience to, and under the 

 immediate direction of a Deity," 1 Mr Reid 

 adds : 



" Either the environment has acted on species, 

 which have reacted to it, or, their adaptive 

 changes were miraculous. There is no thi 

 alternative. If the environment caused the 

 adaptation, it must have done so by means of 

 Natural Selection ; or, by causing individuals 

 to make adaptive acquirements which were trans- 

 mitted to offspring.'" ' 



I have italicised the last sentence as it exactly 

 describes the whole contention of plant-eco- 

 logists of to-day, and is what I am advocating 

 in this book, and of which I have just given 

 a preliminary illustration. 



Now I cannot emphasise the fact too strongly 

 that I am, and have done so for upwards of 



1 Op. tit., p. 13. a Op. cit., p. 14. 



