THE SUM OF HIS WORK 



scriptions given in New Creations, With his own 

 eyes he could see the striking and even spectacular 

 differences between the plants of the same fra- 

 ternity therein depicted. In effect, he received an 

 object lesson in plant variation and a convincing 

 argument for the truth — the tangible, demon- 

 strable truth — of the doctrine of evolution which 

 to him had hitherto seemed an academic question, 

 involving the living forms of the remote geological 

 eras rather than the forms of plant and animal life 

 that are all about him in the world of to-day. 



And this, it may be supposed, sufficiently 

 explains and interprets the interest in New 

 Creations that was manifested by that great body 

 of intelligent laymen personified under the title of 

 "the man in the street." 



The Interest of Theoretical Evolutionists 

 AND Botanists 



To imderstand the interest of a smaller but 

 highly important coterie of people who may be 

 broadly classified as students of evolution — ^includ- 

 ing college professors on one hand and a few 

 practical breeders of plants and animals on the 

 other — we must consider yet another aspect of 

 the intellectual atmosphere of the closing decade 

 of the nineteenth century. 



We must understand that in this period, 

 whereas the general doctrine of evolution had 



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