PREFACE. 



THE little Essays which form this volume originally 

 appeared in the ' St. James's Gazette,' and I owe many 

 thanks to the Editor for his kind permission to republish 

 them in their present form. 



The greater number of the papers are botanical, and 

 these, I hope, will be found to contain some new and 

 original evolutionary views. The remainder, dealing 

 with the animal world, though not, I trust, mere 

 transcripts, owe more to such previous and more serious 

 works as those of Mr. Darwin, Mr. A. R. Wallace, Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer, and Professor Weismann. I ought 

 also to express my indebtedness in the botanical portion 

 to Dr. Bentham, Sir Joseph Hooker, Professor Sachs,, 

 and other standard authors. 



G. A. 



