258 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [SEPTEMBER, 1914 
will depend on the length of time the War lasts, but an attempt should be 
made to “carry on.” The plants will require the same amount of 
attention, and it is hoped that establishments will be maintained as far as 
possible. We sincerely hope and pray that a settlement may not be long 
delayed, when things will gradually return to their normal condition. 
Orchidists are unquestionably interested in Heredity and Evolution, 
which was the subject of Prof. Bateson’s address at the opening of the 
British Association meeting at Melbourne, and our appetite is whetted by 
a newspaper cutting which states: ‘‘ Professor Bateson’s challenge to 
Darwinism marks an epoch. It is the most complete and authoritative 
statement of those biologists who have turned to Mendelism for the 
elucidation -of evolution and the marvellous adaptation to environment of 
the higher vertebrates ’—we hoped he was: going to say Orchids—‘ which 
they have sought in vain in Darwinism.” It is disappointingly short, but it 
‘is explained that ‘‘the war has relegated to a very humble corner of the 
English Press the doings of the British Association now meeting in 
Australia, and only the briefest summary has been possible.” A cutting 
from another source is rather more detailed, but unsatisfying, so we turn 
to the pages of Nature and are not disappointed, for we find the address 
given in fourteen closely printed columns. It includes a good deal with 
-which we are already familiar, and not much~ about Orchids, so we shall 
not attempt a summary, but one or two points merit consideration. 
It is conceded that we owe to Darwin “the first full perception of the 
significance of variation,” and that ‘‘ with him began a general recognition 
of variation as a phenomenon widely occuring in nature.” Again, 
“Darwin regarded variability as a property inherent in living things, and 
eventually we must consider whether this conception is well founded. 
We are also told that “the doctrine of the survival of the fittest © 
undeniable so long as it is applied to the organism as a whole (the italics af¢ 
ours). . . Yet it was in application to the parts, to the details of spec 
difference, to the spots on the peacock’s tail, to the colouring of an Oret 
flower, and hosts of such examples, that the potency of natural cle 
was urged with the strongest emphasis. Shorn of these pretentions 
doctrine of the survival of favoured races is a truism, helping scarcely at 
to account for the diversity of species.”” But who ever heard of the ste 
of part of an organism? And if the doctrine of progressive modificath Bs 
parts is a ‘“ pretension,” how—to give an example—are we to account sion 
the origin of the rostellum of an Orchid, and its progressive modifica 
and wide range of variation in the various tribes and genera ? How came 
it to replace a missing stigma? And why has the viscus t 
on of 
hat it exudes 
