208 Instinct and Intelligence 



he observes, "that in my opinion the greatest 

 error which I have committed has been not 

 allowing sufficient weight to the direct action of 

 the environment, i.e., food, climate, etc., inde- 

 pendently of natural selection. When I wrote 

 the 'Origin,' and for some years afterwards, 

 I could find little good evidence of the direct 

 action of the environment. Now there is a large 

 body of evidence." In this opinion we fully 

 concur. 



Professor E. Warming, referring to the xero- 

 philous character of desert plants, observes : 

 ''' The question arises whether these adaptations 

 to the medium should be regarded as a result 

 of natural selection, or whether they owe their 

 origin to the action of the conditions of the 

 medium in modifying forms exercised directly ; 

 I adopt the latter view. The character of 

 adaptation thus directly acquired has become 

 fixed and hereditary." 1 



Professor G. Henslow has bestowed many 

 years of careful study on this subject and 

 arrived at the conclusion that, we have now 

 abundant proof both by induction and ex- 



1 /Ecology of Plants, p. 373. 



