DARWINISM 155 



biennial and still more a perennial, which may not blossom 

 for several years, as trees, then such will obviously have 

 survived in the struggle for existence. 



Darwinism asserts that specific characters (taken from the 

 flowers and fruit, for example) are secured by Natural Selection 

 weeding out less favourable varieties and intermediate forms. 

 The problem then is this : — 



How is it that characters which as yet do not exist [i.e., in 

 seedlings before they blossom] can be an important, if not the 

 main, agent in selecting the species? 



The struggle is amongst the young seedlings of the same 

 species competing with one apother whenever a large number 

 are scattered within a limited area ; or they are struggling with 

 the seedlings or adults of other species or genera. In any case 

 the particular morphological characters on which the species is 

 founded, are not formed till long after the struggle has practi- 

 cally ceased to exist. For if a plant is able to produce its 

 flowers and seeds, as stated, it has proved itself fit to survive. 



Hence, this survival has obviously nothing to do with the 

 morphological peculiarities of its flowers or fruit, upon which 

 its varietal, specific or generic characters depend. 



It must be distinctly remembered that if a plant succeed in 

 producing its flowers and fruit, its " end " in life has thereby 

 been secured. If it die before it produces flowers and fruits, 

 then, it cannot be said that its death was due to any less 

 adapted or less complex character of its flowers or fruit, by 

 which its specific characters were known ; for they were not in 

 existence. 



The conclusion from this logical analysis seems inevitable 

 that the Origin of Species cannot be aided by, much less due 

 to, Natural Selection. 



However different their flowers and fruits may be, various 

 seedlings are often well-nigh indistinguishable in form. Even 

 as adults it is often impossible to tell one species or even genus 

 from another, as among grasses, without the flowers or fruit. 

 Hence it may be recognised as a truth, that when the struggle 



