TRUE DARWINISM 171 



I repeat his words: "We see, then, that no inferences as 

 to varieties in a state of Nature can be deduced from the ob- 

 servation of those occurring among domestic animals ". He 

 does not say so, but I presume that this is supposed to apply 

 to plants as well as domestic animals. 



To account for variations he said :" We believe we have 

 shown that there is a tendency in Nature to the continued pro- 

 gression of certain classes of varieties further and further from 

 the original type ". Darwin, on the other hand, would not 

 admit of this " tendency" to vary. He says : " Some authors 

 . . . look at variability [he would seem to mean " variations "] 

 as a necessary contingent on reproduction, and as much an 

 aboriginal law as growth or inheritance . . . but falsely, as I 

 believe ''.^ Variability , is an inherent property, but variations 

 will not arise, unless the environment calls the former into 

 action. 



I would repeat — as the fact completely nullifies Darwin's 

 theory of the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection — 

 that there is no evidence to show that where the seeds of 

 any plant are sown in a natural environment, they grow up 

 " indefinitely," that is, with many variations ; but, on the con- 

 trary, if they vary, the offspring all vary alike ; and to use 

 Darwin's words : " A new sub- variety would be formed without 

 the aid of Natural Selection ".^ 



^Animals and Plants under Domestication, ii,, pp. 250, 253. 



"The reader will find abundance of illustrations with both inductive 

 and experimental proofs of The Origin of Species by Self-adaptation to 

 the Environment in my books entitled — The Origin of Floral Structures 

 and The Origin of Plant Structures (International Scientific Series, vols. 

 Ixiv., 1888; and Ixxvii., 1895. References to other writers are given, es- 

 pecially to M. J. Costantin's works Les Vegetaux et les Milieux Cosmiques, 

 etc., and Dr. Warming's Lagoa Santa. 



Since the preceding note was written (1903) a magnificent work has 

 appeared by Dr. Schimper full of photogravures, etc., in thorough corrobor- 

 ation of the contention in the text. It is called Botanical Geography 

 upon a Physiological Basis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1904). 



M. Eberhardt has also published an article in Ann. des Sci. Nat., 

 xviii., p. 5i (1903), upon experiments made upon numerous plants grown 



