SOME FUNDAMENTAL MISCONCEPTIONS 323 



bank can get plants to do just what he likes, with very little 

 if any limitation to variation. The comparison of living 

 things to machines and engines and furnaces, and of 

 simpler forms of life with ourselves, has obscured the 

 facts rather than made them clear. For all this we appear 

 to have some of the elementary "physiologies" largely to 

 thank. To teach things easily they have often taught them 

 wrong. The two chapters which follow are devoted to 

 some of the topics concerning which such misconceptions 

 are prevalent. 



