48 VIGNETTES FROM NATURE, 



closed chapter ; we should think of it rather 

 as a chapter that goes on writing itself con- 

 tinuously for ever. The white campion is 

 even now in course of completing its develop- 

 ment from the red ; and red and white to- 

 gether are both even now in course of 

 transforming themselves from the hermaphro- 

 dite to the separate condition. The naturalist 

 can generally make a shrewd guess at the 

 age of various elements in every plant or 

 animal. He can say, * This is a peculiarity 

 which must date back before the ancestors of 

 A diverged from the ancestors of B, because 

 both of them share in it : this, again, is a 

 peculiarity which dates later than the diver- 

 gence, because A possesses it, while B does 

 not : and this, once more, is a peculiarity 

 which has hardly yet established itself, be- 

 cause it is sometimes found in A to-day, but 

 sometimes it is absent.* In such a manner 

 as this it would not be difficult roughly to 

 reconstruct the whole history of the red cam- 

 pion, if a busy world had leisure to hear it. 



