170 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



to the belief of that eminent Darwinian, who would say that 

 plants vary "indefinitely," so that Natural Selection might 

 select about i per cent, as " best fitting to survive ". The en- 

 vironment really so acts upon plants, that they all respond to 

 its influence, in a strictly definite and adaptive manner ; so that 

 they develop just those structures which supply them with the 

 best possible conditions for flourishing under the circumstances. 



Having thus proved by experiments how certain character- 

 istic features, which we find in plants growing in the same 

 surroundings, can be produced or withheld at will, we are 

 justified in concluding that \}i\^ fades of desert, aquatic, mari- 

 time, alpine plants, etc., have been produced by the direct 

 action of the environment upon all the wild plants normally 

 growing in those diff"erent regions, respectively ; and that by 

 a long continuance, they have acquired relatively, but not 

 absolutely fixed, hereditary characters varietal or specific. 



Further, when we examine the minute anatomy of the 

 tissues, the invariable law is soon discovered that their peculi- 

 arities are always precisely those which are best fitted for the 

 circumstances under which the plants live. 



The fact is that Darwin made an unfortunate mistake. He 

 thought that plants varied " indefinitely " in Nature, deducing 

 his conclusion from the numerous instances of what I prefer to 

 call "exaggerated" individual differences, called "Forms"' by 

 Sir J. D. Hooker, in cultivation. He purposely limited his 

 observations to cultivated plants and domesticated animals so 

 that he was not prepared to receive the overwhelming amount 

 of evidence to the contrary from Nature; and although Dr. 

 Wallace is our greatest champion of Darwinism, for he said, 

 and I suppose would still say — " Natural Selection is supreme," ^ 

 he was undoubtedly right when he opposed Darwin on this 

 point in his original paper published conjointly with Darwin's 

 in 1858.2 



^Fortnightly Review, March 1895, p. 444. 



^" On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart from the Original Type," 

 youni. Lin. Soc, 1858, p. 53. 



