tv 



GENERAL ADAPTATIONS 315 



scattered to a considerable distance by the feet of tapirs, deer, 

 >r peccaries, and when at last the seeds fell out, perhaps 

 lided by the teeth or feet of these animals, some of them 

 vould almost certainly be trodden into the ground, and this 

 vould be facilitated by their sub-angular shape. If this is 

 he mode of dispersal it has proved very successful, for the 

 ipecies is widely scattered in moderate-sized groves over a 

 :onsiderable portion of the Amazonian forests. The main 

 acts and probabilities clearly point to the conclusion that 

 he extensive group of nut-like fruits or seeds are intended 

 o be eaten, not by birds while on the trees, but by ground- 

 eeding animals — to be devoured wholesale, in order to dis- 

 >erse and save a few which may germinate and produce 

 mother generation of trees. 



The Colours of Plants and Animals in relation to Man 



The views of Haeckel and of the whole school of 

 VIonists, as well as of most of the followers of Spencer and 

 3arwin, are strongly antagonistic to the idea that in the 

 various groups of phenomena we have so far touched upon 

 here has been in any real sense a preparation of the earth 

 or man ; and those who advocate such a theory are usually 

 reated with scorn as being unscientific, or with contempt as 

 )eing priest-ridden. Darwin himself was quite distressed at 

 ny rejection of his own conclusion — that even man's highest 

 qualities and powers had been developed out of those of the 

 ower animals by natural or sexual selection. Several critics 

 iccused me of " appealing to first causes " in order to get 

 )ver difficulties ; of maintaining that " our brains are made 

 >y God and our lungs by natural selection " ; and that, in 

 Joint of fact, " man is God's domestic animal." This was 

 vhen I published my Contributions to the Theory of Natural 

 selection, in 1870, its last chapter on The Limits of 

 Natural Selection as applied to Man, being the special 

 )bject of animadversion, because I pointed out that some of 

 nan's physical characters and many of his mental and moral 

 acuities could not have been produced and developed to 

 heir actual perfection by the law of natural selection alone, 

 because they are not of survival value in the struggle for 

 xistence. 



