THOUGHT-READING. 335 



nary experiences, is that there are no known physical 

 laws which would account for the supposed physical 

 action, and that as yet there seems no possibility of 

 any experimental researches on either o the brain- 

 powers supposed to be involved the power of 

 originating the suggested brain-waves, or the power 

 of receiving them. Then again, it is difficult to 

 understand why, if the theory be true, the observed 

 instances are so few, compared with the number of 

 occasions on which (considering the 1,500,000,000 

 persons existing on the globe) we might suppose the 

 suggested powers would be exerted. 



HONKSHOOD. 



BY GRANT ALLEN. 



To look at these queer, irregular blue flowers, growing 

 on a long and handsome spike in the old-fashioned 

 garden border, nobody would ever dream of saying 

 that they were in reality altered and modified butter- 

 cups. And yet that is just what they really are, with 

 all the marks of their curious pedigree still clearly 

 impressed upon their very form. Pull one of the blue 

 blossoms off, and pick it carefully to pieces, and you 

 will see how strangely and profoundly it has been 

 distorted by insect selection. Monkshood is most 

 essentially a bee-flower, and in examining it we see 

 the results of bee action plainly set forth in every 

 organ. If we pick a common meadow buttercup for 



