ORGANIC E VOL UTION. 



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save only such species as are able to fly ? Or, 

 if we go so far as to say, — " There may have 

 been some hidden reason why batrachians and 

 quadrupeds should not have been created on 

 oceanic islands," I will adduce another very 

 remarkable fact, viz., that on some of these 

 islands there occur species of plants, the seeds 

 of which are provided with numerous hooks 

 adapted to catch the hair of moving quadrupeds, 

 and so to become disseminated. But, as we 

 have just seen, there are no quadrupeds in these 

 islands to meet this case of adaptation ; so that 

 special creationists must resort to the almost 

 impious hypothesis, that in these cases the Deity 

 only carried out half His plan, in that while He 

 made an elaborate provision for plants which 

 depended for its efficiency on the presence of 

 quadrupeds, He nevertheless, after all, neglected 

 to place the quadrupeds in the same islands as 

 the plants ! Now, I submit that such abortive 



