BOTANICAL SUBJECTS. 13 



My listener jiimj^ed off his chair, in a fit of incredulity, took up 

 his hat and said " Grood morning " ! 



No doubt such statements are rather startling, and to some 

 minds sound much like " lunacy," but any one who is sufficiently 

 imbued with tlie spirit of evolution, cannot doubt that a lovely 

 rose, or an exquisite peach have been elaborated from seaweeds. 

 It is absurd enough if you fancy the transition was effected 

 yesterday, or in one man's lifetime, but if you allow a hundred 

 million years or perhaps vastly more, for the seaweed to become a 

 rose, there is nothing to be startled about, viewing the transition 

 with the lights we now possess. 



Then one would again be tempted to ask what is the use 

 of all this, if it do not change people's ways of looking at 

 nature ? 



Well, on one occasion I was listening to an account of some 

 interesting biological experiments made by the narrator, who is 

 a noted scientist. He said they were all published in the 



proceedings of the Society. Then I asked — 



how is it that scientists are not convinced by all these accounts, 

 which to me appear so conclusive ? " They do not read them," 

 he said ! 



I would conclude this prefatory note with the following 

 quotation from Lord Coleridge's writings. 



" Forget the rubbish, and if here and there you have had a 

 good thought put before you, remember it, act upon it, and at 

 once."* 



♦ " Thinking for ourselves." — New Review, July 1890. 



— 0«0o<>- 



