in another climate, and under another combination of circumstances 
than that at present existing, be rendered productive, and thus be en- 
abled to assume the character of true species. If so, fresh light may 
be thrown upon the remarkable fact with which geology has made us 
acquainted, of a succession of perfectly distinct races of animals and 
vegetables at different epochs of the world’s existence, each adapted to 
some peculiar condition of our planet. Such a succession of different 
races seems to require us to admit that there must either have been a 
succession of fresh creations, or else such a marked transition between 
the forms of existing species and those of their offspring, that we are 
unable to recognize them any longer as specifically identical. These 
. speculations are fraught with the deepest interest. They serve to im- 
press us with some notions of the infinite distance at which the human 
understanding lags behind the perceptions of the divine wisdom, and to 
humble any petty conceits that we might be inclined to entertain of our 
own limited powers. If there is a certain difficulty even in preparing a 
mere technical description of the works of creation, as they may be seen 
and handled by us, how much greater must be those difficulties which 
we have to surmount, when we seek to enquire into those laws by which 
the past has been altered into the present state of things; and to trace 
the means by which organic beings have been framed, altered, and 
adapted to the several changes to which the earth has been exposed. 
Here we are trenching upon those paths of wisdom which possibly we 
shall never in this life be able to penetrate to any great extent ; and of 
which we must remain content to believe that “ God (alone) under- 
standeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. For he 
looketh to the ends of the Earth, and seeth under the whole heaven.” 
Job, 28 ch. 23 v. 
INTRODUCTION; WHERE GROWN; CuLTureE. Thisshowy plant may 
be considered as a decided improvement upon the Mimulus Roseus. 
It was obtained from the seeds of a plant of that species, which had 
been fertilized by pollen from Mimulus Cardinalis. Many speci- 
mens were raised in the Botanic Garden of Bury St. Edmunds, which 
all resembled each other, and flowered for the first time, during the 
summer of 1837. We are indebted to Mr. Hodson, the diligent and 
intelligent director of the Garden, for the specimen here figured. 
Derivation oF THE NAMEs, 
Mimcetcs, from #ipw MIMO, a mon mkey,in allusion to the seeds, which resemble 
the face of this animal. Rosro-carp1NaLis,a distinctive term, compounded of 
the names of the two parent species. See the article, No. 385, Potentilla atro- 
sanguinea-pedata, in Maund’s Botanic Garden 
