BOTANICAL SUBJECTS. 27 



I believe that every fact creates sooner or later a supposition, 

 as "Whewell said, or a speculation as to its cause, even in the 

 minds of savages. Looked at in its proper function and in its 

 scientific sense, one might say that speculation is a sort of 

 " scouting in unknown regions," with the view of discovering 

 some firm basis for a step forward. 



Whether we draw a right and reasonable conclusion or not, 

 will depend not only upon the collateral and other knowledge of 

 things we may possess, but also on the quality of our brain fibre. 



To give an illustration — the sun was seen as a fiery ball from 

 the beginning of time, but it was not till a later period, when 

 knowledge had accumulated and a more reasonable speculation 

 began to unfold itself in the human mind, that the sun was seen 

 to be not an isolated unrelated fact, but a branch of an infinite 

 whole. Between our modern and recent times and former times 

 an infinite number of conclusions had been drawn, and specula- 

 tions attempted by man — that is experiments in speculation — until 

 in somebody's mind the right one was suggested or revealed. This 

 was eventually considered the right one because it fitted in with 

 other speculations drawn independently of it, all forming a reason- 

 able whole. Whether the speculation be reasonable or not 

 however will much depend, as I said, on the brain fibre, and on 

 the extent of utilizable knowledge stored in the brain that 

 speculates and reasons. 



The microscope does reveal many things, but very often it can 

 only give a hint, the real revelation — the connection with other 

 parts — has to occur in the brain, the fact indicated by the micro- 

 scope remaining only as an isolated fact. It may also happen 

 perhaps that some of what are called microscopic facts may be 

 deceptive appearances, as Lindley called them.* 



In my speculations I start by accepting the theory of evolution 

 in its totality, commencing from the simplest unicellular alga — and 

 this because further backwards I cannot go — up to the highe«rt 

 development in what are called flowering plants. 



Curiously enough, under the heads of flowers, we groujD examples, 

 such as the gorgeous flowers of Amaryllis, Victoria regia, 

 Cattleya, ^rc, and also the little better than cryptogamic flowers 



♦ I know that great precautions are taken now with staining materials and 

 polarized light to avoid deceptive appearances. 



