12 Mr. Grant Aliens Botanical Fables 



the leaves, which suck in carbonic acid through the 

 stomata, or breathing pores, situated chiefly on the 

 under side. It is, therefore, amount of surface that 

 should most assist a plant to gain a livelihood in 

 a populous and competitive neighbourhood. But, cc&teris 

 paribus, surface must be proportionally greater in a 

 simple than in a divided leaf; it should, therefore, 

 follow that plants growing where vegetation is dense 

 are distinguished by having their leaves not divided. 

 Mr. Grant Allen may perhaps find in a consideration 

 of this point an answer to the complaint he makes in 

 another place, 1 that " the problem of the shape of leaves, 

 ... a most important one, . . . has hardly been even 

 recognized by our scientific pastors and masters." 



So much for theory. Now, thirdly, for facts. "Just 

 in proportion as vegetation is thick and matted do 

 the plants of which it is composed tend to develop 

 minutely divided and attenuated foliage." The Butter- 

 cup being the concrete instance in hand, apropos 

 of which this is laid down, we may take for granted 

 that the vegetation amidst which it is found is of 

 the thick and matted order, and therefore let us go 

 and view in any meadow that may be at hand the 

 plants which press around it, and observe how far 

 they can, as a body, be said to have divided and 

 attenuated foliage. First there are the Sorrel and 

 the Dock, concerning the shape of whose leaves it is 

 hardly necessary to say anything. There is the Lady's 

 Mantle, which by its name sufficiently indicates the 

 form of its foliage. There are the three Plantains, 

 all with leaves broad and entire. There is the White 

 Saxifrage, leaves slightly lobed, the Cat's-ear and the 

 Knap-weed, neither of them divided or attenuated. 

 These are flowers sure to be found in any English 

 meadow; could an equal number be named equally 

 certain to be present which would in any degree bear 

 out Mr. Allen's assertion about] the form of leaves in 

 such a situation? 



1 Evohitionist at Large> p. 37. 



