RED CAMPION AND WHITE. 27 



I like to believe so, and to persuade myself 

 that I too am in this matter on the side of 

 the poets. 



The differences between the two campions, 

 to return once more to solid science, form a 

 very instructive study in the origin and 

 growth of specific distinctions. In most 

 points the two plants are absolutely alike, 

 and even the technical botanists, who never 

 miss a chance of manufacturing a new species 

 where possible, admit that they are perhaps 

 mere varieties of a single form. But then 

 these varieties, especially when so markedly 

 dependent upon difference in function, are 

 nothing less than new species in the making. 

 They are nascent stages of fresh types. An 

 accidental variety of leaf or flower, like the 

 monstrosities which we cultivate in our 

 gardens, means, as a rule, very little indeed, 

 because it is not correlated with any need or 

 habit of the plant. It affords no material 

 upon which natural selection can work. But 

 a variety like the white campion has of course 



