14 EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION LECT. 



In 1609 Mons. Claude Duret, President of the 

 Bench in the town of Moulins, in central France, 

 published a quaint book with still quainter illus- 

 trations. This Histoire admirable des Plantes . . - 1 

 contains evolutionary notions of a very queer sort. 

 He fully believes that many aquatic birds, as well as 

 many sorts of insects, are generated from the rotten 

 wood of trees. In Scotland it seems perhaps some 

 of you have heard of the fact and are ready to vouch 

 for it in Scotland there is one sort of tree more 

 peculiar than others ; the leaves which fall on the 

 ground yield birds, while those which fall into water 

 are soon changed into fishes. There is no doubting 

 the fact, as the scene is very distinctly depicted 

 in an old wood-engraving. A photograph, how- 

 ever, would be more convincing, but then Daguerre 

 and Niepce had not made their appearance at that 

 time. 



It may be remarked that some seventy years later 

 Father Kircher, in his Mundus Subterraneus? still 

 believed in many strange notions of the same sort, and 

 depicted the genesis of birds, apes, and men by means 

 of the transformation of some orchids. He had been 



1 The full title is : Histoire admirable des Piantcs et Herbes esmer- 

 veillables et miractileuscs en Nature, mesmes d'aticunes qui s.ont vrays 

 Zoophytes on Plantes Animalcs .... avec I cur Portraits att natwel. 

 1 8. Paris, Nicolas Brion, 1609. 



2 Amsterdam, 2. vols. in folio, 1678. 



