MEMOIR OF THE LATE CHARLES DARWIN. 195 



Mr. Darwin was ' The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs' 

 (1842-46), in which was enunciated the theory of their growth 

 which is now generally accepted. This treatise was the first part 

 of the Geology of the ' Adventure' and ' Beagle'; the 'Geological 

 Observations on Volcanic Islands' (1844) formed the second 

 volume; ' Geological Observations on South America' appeared 

 in 1846, as the third section of the work; and this, with the 

 exception of a number of detached papers, may be said to have com- 

 pleted the formal systematic account of the task he had officially 

 undertaken between 1831 and 1836. ' A Monograph of the Fossil 

 BalanidcB and Venicidce of Great Britain' (1854), published by the 

 Palseontographical Society, was an elaborate and laborious treatise 

 on the extinct Barnacles ; while that on ' Fossil Lepadidce' (1851), 

 published three years before, referred to another section of the 

 same group. In the same year he also published, through the 

 Raj r Society, a monograph of the living forms of Barnacles. 



But the treatises here enumerated were merely the fore- 

 runners of that work which, more than any other, has made the 

 name of Darwin famous, namely, ' The Origin of Species,' which 

 appeared in 1859, and which in its turn became the preface, as it 

 were, to the elaborate series of works which at intervals followed 

 it. The theory, as set forth in this remarkable volume, of the 

 evolution of species from a few simple organisms, by a system of 

 natural selection, is now too well known to require comment, 

 but the circumstances which led to its somewhat premature 

 publication may be briefly referred to. 



In 1858 Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace, who was exploring the 

 Malay Islands, sent home a paper describing his own views as to 

 the " Origin of Species." Sir Charles Lyell and Dr. Hooker on 

 reading it were struck by the fact that Mr. Wallace had arrived 

 at conclusions almost identical with those which Mr. Darwin had 

 already communicated to them. It was felt that delay would no 

 longer be fair to Mr. Wallace, or just to Mr. Darwin, whose 

 manuscript was still unpublished. Accordingly, on the 1st July, 

 1858, papers by both authors were read to the Linnean Society, 

 and from that period must be dated the birth of the " Darwinian 

 Theory," though it was not till the 24th November, 1859, that 

 Mr. Darwin's ' Origin of Species' appeared. 



In 1862 was published ' The Various Contrivances by which 

 Orchids are Fertilised,' and, 1865, ' The Movements and Habits 



