COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



overrated hypothesis of the infusion of foreign 

 blood, and which certainly cannot be traced to 

 natural selection, must be almost wholly due 

 to direct adaptation to new physical and social 

 conditions. Of kindred import is the fact that 

 " twenty-nine kinds of American trees all differ 

 from their nearest European allies in a similar 

 manner, having leaves less toothed, buds and 

 seeds smaller, fewer branchlets, etc." So M. 

 Costa states " that young shells taken from the 

 shores of England and placed in the Mediterra- 

 nean at once altered their manner of growth, 

 and formed prominent diverging rays like those 

 on the shells of the proper Mediterranean oys- 

 ter." We have seen that the direct action of 

 physical agencies will by no means account for 

 the chief features of colouring in the organic 

 world ; yet it appears to be true that members 

 of the same species of birds are more brightly 

 coloured when living in a clear dry atmosphere 

 than when living near the coast. So, too, in the 

 contour of their wings, the various butterflies 

 of Celebes all show parallel divergences, inex- 

 plicable by natural selection alone, from kindred 

 species in Java and India. And a host of like 

 facts concerning these insects are cited by Mr. 

 Mivart from Mr. Wallace's essay on the Ma- 

 layan Papilionidae. More examples might be 

 cited if this work were intended to be a scien- 

 tific treatise on Darwinism ; but for the compre- 

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