CHAPTER XI 



ADAPTATION AND MEANS OF DISPERSAL 



Nature has never concerned herself directly with providing means of dispersal. — 

 Fleshy fruits not made to be eaten. — Nor "sticky" seeds to adhere to 

 plumage. — Nor prickly fruits to entangle themselves in fur and feathers. — 

 The dispersal of seeds a blind result of the struggle between the intruding 

 Evolutionary power and the controlling influence of Adaptation. 



BEFORE entering into a discussion of the causes of the floating 

 powers of seeds, it is necessary that I should state my general 

 position on the relation between capacities of dispersal in the 

 organic world and the question of adaptation. Adaptation runs 

 through all the organic and inorganic worlds, and we cannot con- 

 ceive an universe without it. The naturalist who looks only for 

 the end in the purpose served makes but a partially legitimate use 

 of the phrase. On the other hand, it has been improperly appro- 

 priated by those who hold to the theory of Natural Selection, as 

 indicating the result of small fortuitous variations that have 

 chanced to be of service to the species in the struggle for existence. 

 There is no question here of any end in view. Nature is repre- 

 sented as working blindly, and the result of such " fortuitous 

 variation " is termed an adaptation. We cannot, however, pick 

 and choose only adaptations that are very evident in their character. 

 We must include everything in the organic world as an adaptation, 

 whether apparent or not, that is in direct relation with the organism's 

 conditions of existence. It is not conceivable that an organism 

 can be adapted to conditions outside its environment, and yet 

 many so-called adaptations are of this character. 



Nature — and I here confess my belief in a determining agency 

 working above and through all living and dead matter, but largely 

 controlled and checked by the laws of the physical world — Nature, 

 as I apprehend, has never concerned herself directly with providing 



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