$O THE METHOD OF DARWIN, 



ograph of the group, turned it over to Darwin. 

 Gray did many things, but none well enough 

 to make what he wrote indispensable in the 

 study of any subject; he will be remembered 

 chiefly as a keeper of the zoological depart- 

 ment of the British Museum, and as a bitter 

 opponent of Darwin's theory of descent, while 

 the latter' s monograph heads the list of cirri- 

 ped literature. 



Boitard and Corbie" merely made the obser- 

 vation that, when they crossed certain breeds 

 of pigeons, birds colored like the Columba 

 livia, or common dove-cot, were almost inva- 

 riably produced. 1 It drew Darwin's attention 

 and led to numerous experiments on rever- 

 sion due to crossing. Certainly some, perhaps 

 many, scientific men had known that the species 

 of sundew (Droserd) catch insects. Darwin 

 himself had heard as much. Exhausted by 

 his long labors on the Origin of Species, he 

 was resting near Hartfield during the summer 

 .of 1860, and "was surprised by finding how 

 large a number of insects were caught by the 

 leaves of the common sundew (Drosera rotundi- 

 folid) on a heath in Sussex." 2 The right mind 



1 The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestica- 

 tion, Vol. II. p. 14. 



2 Life and Letters, Vol. I. p. 77. 



