DOG-ROSE A1STD BRAMBLES. 125 



of tillage. On the other hand, when, as in the case of 

 rabbits, dogs, and pigeons, we have produced an im- 

 mense variety of artificial forms, they are generally con- 

 nected so closely with one another by recent descent that 

 they all breed easily together ; and we forget their 

 differences as lop-ears or blacks, terriers or greyhounds, 

 runts or pouters, in their common points as rabbits, 

 dogs, or pigeons. 



It is not so, however, in the wild life of nature. 

 There, though some few species are well marked by the 

 dying out of intermediate forms, the difficulty in most 

 cases is to find some effective token which will constantly 

 distinguish one kind of plant or animal from another. 

 The elephant, it is true, now consists only of two ob- 

 scurely marked types, Asiatic and African ; because all 

 the others of his race have died off long since ; though 

 he was once connected by the ancestors of the mammoth 

 and the mastodon with a whole line of earlier creatures 

 intermediate between tapirs, pigs, and horses. But the 

 cat family are still so well represented in our midst that 

 you can find somewhere or other every single connecting 

 link between our own tame cats and the tiger or the 

 lion ; and most of these would probably prove fertile 

 with one another, at least along the doubtful border- 

 land. Those who watch nature closely know how hard 

 it is to draw an effective line between species anywhere ; 

 and most observers differ among themselves as to the ex- 

 act spot at which, if anywhere, it can best be drawn. 



Take, for example, our English wild roses and bram- 

 bles here. This that I hold in my hand is a true dog- 

 rose, with a scented pinky blossom, and with few or no 

 glands upon the edges of its leaflets. It is the common- 

 est English form of all ; but it merges so indefinitely 

 into the various other kinds that while Mr. Babington 



