LESSON 28.] SriiClKS AM) KINDS. 178 



LESSON xxviir. 



SPKCIES AND KINDS. 



49G. Until now, wo liavc boon considering ])lant.s ns to llicir 

 structure and their mode of lil'u. AVo lia\ i', as it wtii-, ix'cii read- 

 ing the biography of an individual plant, following it from the tiny 

 set-dling up to the mature and fruit-bearing herb or tree, and learning 

 how it grows and what it doe.s. The bolaniat also considers plants 

 as to their relations/iips, 



rj7. Plants and animals, as is well known, have two great pecu- 

 liaritie.s : Lst, they form themselves ; and 2d, they multiply them- 

 selves. They reproduce themselves in a continued succession of 



498. Illiliviiiimls (•'). Mineral things occur as 7nasses, which are 

 divisible into smaller and still small(;r ones without alteration of 

 their properties (o91). But organic things (vegetables and ani- 

 mals) exist as individual heimjs. Each owes its existence to a 

 parent, and produces similar individuals in its turn. So each indi- 

 vidual is a link of a chain ; and to this chain the natural-historian 

 applies the name of 



499. Species, All the descendants from the same stock therefore 

 compose one species. And it was from our observing that the sev- 

 eral sorts of plants or animals steadily reproduce themselves, — or, in 

 other words, keep up a succession of similar individuals, — that the 

 idea of species originated. So we are led to conclude that the Cre- 

 ator established a definite number of species at tlie beginning, which 

 have continued by proi)agation, each after its kind. 



i)i)(). Tiiere are few species, however, in which man has actually 

 observed the succession for many generations. It could seldom be 

 proved tliat all the White Pine trees or White Oaks of any forest 

 came from the same stock. But observation having familiarized 

 us with the general fact, that individu:ils proceeding from the same 

 stock are essciitially alike, we infer from their close resemldance 

 that tliese similar individuals belong to the same species. Tiiat is, 

 W(> infer it when tin; individuals are as much like each other as tliose 

 are wliicli we know to have sprung from the same stock. 



-jOl. We do not infer it from every resemblance ; j()r there is the 

 resemblance oi' Und, — as between the White Oak and the Red Oak, 

 15* 



