310 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES. CHAP. xvin. 



books on plants, and looked on the coloured figures, that 

 the various species were well marked, and must have 

 had a distinct origin. I confess that that notion is fast 

 leaving me. All my simpler ideas are giving way. 

 Whether the result will be to make me happier or better 

 I cannot say. Certainly they cannot hurt me, for, after 

 all, first stocks must have had a Creator. They could not 

 spring up out of the ground unbidden, and that is enough 

 for me. There is an over-ruling Hand everywhere. 



" External influences such as soil, situation, climate, 

 and such like exercise a powerful effect on wild roses. 

 Take, for instance, the Rosa spinosissima. You know its 

 peculiar characteristics, and how very unlike the 

 common dog rose (R. canina) it is. Would you 

 believe that one bush of it on the boulder clay here, 

 has put forth flowers hardly distinguishable from dog- 

 roses. The leaves large, the flowers white, the prickles 

 hooked, and so on. You have seen roses in country 

 gardens ? White roses in a corner, with double flowers, 

 and very large unsightly leaves. Well, would you 

 think or expect Rosa spinosissima to have such large 

 unsightly leaves growing wild on hard boulder clay ? 

 Some stocks of R. spinosissima have pink petals; in 

 dry years, red petals and excessively hairy leaves ; in 

 wet seasons, white petals and smooth leaves ; in short, 

 the leaves and the whole plant vary excessively. And 

 suppose the plant changed to another soil, and favoured 

 by shelter, its improved appearance is hardly credible. 



" I have seen something worth noting. Some plants 

 of Rosa spinosissima grew on the face of a brae of blue 



