TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 695 



universal application of Wallace's second prediction. I found tliat certain species 

 which are well protected by resembling their surroundings, were nevertheless also 

 protected by an unpleasant taste (e.g., larva of M. Ttjpica, imago of P. Bucephalus) 

 and were only eaten with reluctance in the absence of other food. 



I have given a brief abstract of the results of my experiments, which on the 

 whole confirm the general principles which Wallace laid down, but show that 

 there are other principles which may work in antagonism and prevent the applica- 

 tion of the former, or may even reverse their action. I have also shown that these 

 two methods of protection are not always sharply demarcated or mutually exclusive, 

 as was previously believed to be the case. 



5. On the Nature and Causes of Variation in Plants.^ 5// Patrick Geddes. 



In this paper (a preliminary outline of a more extended analysis underlying 

 the waiter's essay on ' "Variation and Selection,' in preparation for a forthcoming 

 volume of the ' Encyclopfedia Britannica') it was first pointed out that while the 

 fact of the origin of species by evolution was no longer disputed, nor the operation 

 of natural selection upon organic forms any longer denied, the absence of any 

 general theory or rationale of variation in either the animal or the vegetable world 

 was not only generally admitted, but often regarded as inevitable or even hopeless : 

 variation to some writers being simply ' spontaneous ' or ' accidental ; ' to others, if 

 not fortuitous, at least dependent upon causes lying beyond our present powers of 

 analysis. 



A theory of variation must deal alike with the origin of specific distinctions or 

 those vaster differences which characterise the larger groups. To commence, then, 

 with the latter, we may propose such questions as, e.c/. — (1) How comes an axis to be 

 arrested to form a flower ? "(2) How is the evolution of the forms of inflorescence 

 to be accounted for ? (3) How does perigyny or epigyny arise from hypogyny ? 

 (4) How is the reduction of the oophore and differentiation of the sporophore to be 

 explained among cryptogams and phanerogams, and why should the moss type be 

 so abeiTant and so comparatively arrested ? (5) How do angiosperms arise frora 

 gymnosperms ? (6) How are the forms of fungi, algae, &c., to be accounted for P 

 and so on. The explanation was shown to lie not in the operation of natural selection 

 upon accidental variation, requiring separate explanation in every case, but upon 

 that general and familiar antagonism between reproduction and vegetative growth 

 further analysed (in the wi-iter's subsequent paper ' On the Theory of Sex and Re- 

 production,' and ' Encyclopaedia Britannica ' article Sex) to its basis in the con- 

 structive and destructive metabolism of protoplasm. It was shown by the aid of 

 diagrams that in all such cases as those above mentioned, the reproductive axis, 

 organ, tissue, &c., in every case tended to become more and more shortened, 

 depressed, or hollowed in proportion to the vegetative. This conception was 

 further developed, and shown to apply alike to the construction of the general 

 genealogical tree, and in particular to the affinities of the flowering plants ; and 

 very frequently to the interpretation of minute details of floral structure usually 

 regarded as the product of natural selection on spontaneous local variations, the 

 common Geranium sylvaticum being selected as a case in point. 



6. The Honey Bee versus Darwinism. By the Rev. T. Miles. 



7. On the Biological Relations of Bugio, an Atlantic Boch in the Madeira 



Group. By Dr. Gkabham. 



Seasons for Writing. — Because seldom visited though possessing special interest, 

 and because considered typical of insular flora distribution and variation by Lyall 

 and others. 



' See writer's paper bearing same title as the above in Trans. Bat. Soc. Edin. 1885-6 



