134 HYPOTHESIS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF 



found to be producible from one set of seeds, under various 

 conditions ; they are radically one plant. So also " the 

 clove, pink, and carnation are only varieties of a flower 

 growing among the ruins of some of our old castles, the 

 Dianthus caryophyllus." The artichoke of the garden and 

 the cardoon (a kind of thistle) of the South American wild, 

 are held as distinct species in all botanical works ; yet the 

 artichoke, in neglect, degenerates into the cardoon. ( 63 ) The 

 ranunculus aquatilis and the ranunculus hederaceus are, in 

 like manner, set down as distinct species; but behold the 

 secret of their difference ! While the former plant remains 

 in the water, its leaves are all finely cut and have their divi- 

 sions hairy ; but when the stems reach the surface, the leaves 

 developed in the atmosphere are widened, rounded, and simply 

 lobed. Should the seeds of this water plant fall upon a soil 

 merely moist without being inundated, the result is the ranun- 

 culus hederaceus the presumed distinct species with short 

 stalks, and none of the leaves divided into hairy cut work ! ( 4 ) 

 To come to a more familiar instance. It is now fully ascer- 

 tained that the various bread-forming grains, wheat, barley, 

 oats, rye, are resolvable into one. If wheat be sown in June, 

 and mown down so as not to be allowed to come to ear till the 

 next season, the product will be found to consist partly of rye 

 or some other of the cereals. Oats have in like manner been 

 transformed into rye, barley, and even wheat. Till a recent 

 period, this phenomenon was doubted ; but it has been tested 

 by experiment, and reported on by so many credible persons, 

 that it can no longer be rejected. And it appears that poor- 

 ness of soil has the same effect as mowing down. One 

 observer states that, in a field of wheat near Lucerne, he 

 saw ears resembling barley, but with grains similar to rye, 

 growing from the same stem with ears of wheat. ( 65 ) Dr. 

 Lindley, who publishes these facts, acknowledges there being 

 no theoretical improbability in such transformations, seeing 

 that, " in orchidaceous plants, forms just as different as wheat, 

 barley, rye, and oats, have been proved by the most rigorous 

 evidence to be accidental variations of one common form, 

 brought about no one knows how, but before our eyes, and 



