ON ADAPTATION 



Where are those who, a century ago, said that 

 railroads could never be? Where are the Tories 

 of revolutionary times? And where are those 

 barbers of ancient days witli their cupping glasses 

 and their lancets and their leeches? 



Ah, where are the pear trees of Eurasia that 

 failed to fit into the scheme of adaptation — where 

 are the geraniums that did not learn to advertise 

 to the bee — and where are the desert cactus plants 



that could not protect themselves with thorns? 



***** 



On and on we go, one step backward some- 

 times, then two steps forward — marking time 

 awhile, then onward with a spurt — the pear tree, 

 the geraniums, the cactus plants, and we — each 

 individual among us a little different from the 

 rest, each with a separate combination of old 

 environment stored within us, finding always 

 an infinity of new environment to bring it out; 

 growing up together, the pear trees, the geraniums, 

 the cactus plants and we, all of us depending on 

 the others, and each of us playing his separate part 

 in the forward march of adaptation. 



On and on we go, because of Infinite Variation. 

 ***** 



And so, from whatever viewpoint we approach 

 the study of plants — whether with an eager eye 

 to the future and the past, or whether with an 



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