History vii 



grown from the 293 pages of the original edition to 483 

 pages. This edition was translated into the Japanese by 

 D. Karashima, and published in 1907. 



We now come to the present edition. The book has been 

 made over by Dr. Gilbert, who has rewritten some of it 

 and who has added all the new material, and in whose 

 hands I have been glad to place it. My work in this 

 edition has been only editorial. A considerable part of the 

 old work has been preserved, whether wisely or not will 

 be the occasion for different opinions. It has seemed to be 

 desirable to retain something of a former point of view 

 while at the same time expressing the applications of the 

 work in the method and the language of the day. Con- 

 siderable use has been made of the work of others, as is 

 apparent in the pages. The Open Court Publishing Com- 

 pany has loaned illustrations from the important work of 

 de Vries, and pictures have been taken from the Yearbooks 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture. All these 

 aids we are glad to acknowledge. 



These new investigations have taken us far from the 

 point of view of Darwin, in which the original editions of 

 the book were founded. I doubt whether the students 

 .receiving their instruction to-day, with all their abounding 

 facilities and opportunities, have any such feeling for a 

 master-spirit as we had in those days when the studies of 

 Darwin had given a new meaning to nature, when there 

 were still a few naturalists left, and when the glow of his 

 writings was warm in every person's work. To one coming 

 out of a plant-growing relationship, the masterful works of 

 Darwin had introduced order, and the forms of cultivated 

 plants had been made worthy of serious study. This inter- 

 est was further stimulated by the writings of Wallace and 



