1858.] TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES. 373 



TEANSMUTATION OF SPECIES. 



To the Editor of the ' Fhytologist.' 



Sir, — I am the correspondent who made the inquiry pub- 

 lished in the "^ Phytologist^ for September, 1857, and my object 

 was simply to learn if there be any evidence that the cultivated 

 varieties of the garden cabbage, savoys, curled greens (Scotch 

 kail), to say nothing of brocoli, cauliflower, etc., were originally 

 derived from Brassica oleracea or sea-cabbage. Mr. Cheshire 

 very politely refers me to Balfour's ' Class-book ' as evidence, 

 and quotes what may be admitted as the Doctor's opinion. Thus 

 far Mr. Cheshire has a voucher. I knew before I sent the query 

 that he might have a score. But who will be the Doctor's 

 voucher ? Mr. Cheshire will probably reply : " The general con- 

 sent of all botanical authors, from the revival of letters, and be- 

 fore, to the present time." And he may then sum up by the very 

 pertinent counter-query : " What more does the querist want ? 

 What has been believed at aU times, in every place, and by all 

 men is true, — Veritas catholica." I want facts, not assumptions ; 

 and the only fact Mr. Cheshire appears to be able to supply is, that 

 he has cultivated a wild cabbage originally from Orme's Head for 

 three generations, and the leaves have become in that time much 

 larger and broader than in the wild state, the tendency to form 

 a heart also being much greater than in its native habitat. Let 

 Mr. Cheshire go on cultivating and improving his wild Cabbage till 

 it is equal to a Battersea or Early York Cabbage — till he transforms 

 it by cultivation into Brussels sprouts, curly kail^ small kail, cauli- 

 flower, and every other variety and sort of the culinary plant. 

 Were all this efiected, it would at the best be only presumptive, 

 but not satisfactory evidence, that our vegetables and cereals 

 are or were originally derived from wild examples or wild indi- 

 viduals. The prevalent opinion certainly is, that all domesticated 

 plants have been at some time or other reclaimed from a state of 

 nature; it is, however, only an assumption or an opinion. And 

 science is not a systematic arrangement of assumptions and opi- 

 nions, but of facts. It is, it may be observed, utterly impossible 

 to prove any one of these assertions about the conversion of wild 

 into domestic or cultivated or culinary plants. Those who believe 

 in this theory of the mutability of ^gilops ovata into Triticum 



