<C^Wa¥Ficl.s_Xh eory of evolution X 251 



do every day by suddenly changing, as regards a liv- 

 ing being, the circumstances in which it and all the 

 individuals of its species are placed. 



"All botanists know that the plants which they 

 transplant from their natal spot into gardens for cul- 

 tivation there gradually undergo changes which in 

 the end render them unrecognizable. Many plants 

 naturally very hairy, there become glabrous or nearly 

 so ; a quantity of those which were procumbent or 

 trailing there have erect stems; others lose their 

 spines or their thorns ; finally, the dimensions of parts 

 undergo changes which the circumstances of their new 

 situation infallibly produce. This is so well known 

 that botanists prefer not to describe them, at least 

 unless they are newly cultivated. Is not wheat 

 {Triticum sativum) a plant brought by man to the 

 "■state wherein we actually see it, which otherwise I 

 could not believe? Who can now say in what place 

 its like lives in nature ? 



" To these known facts I will add others still more 

 remarkable, and which confirm the view that change 

 of circumstances operates to change the parts of 

 living organisms. 



" When Ranunculus aquatilis lives in deep water, all 

 it can do while growing is to make the end of its stalks 

 reach the surface of the water where they flourish. 

 Then all the leaves of the plant are finely cut or 

 pinked.* If the same plant grows in shallower water 

 the growth of its stalks may give them sufficient 

 extent for the upper leaves to develop out of the 

 water ; then its lower leaves only will be divided into 

 hair-like joints, while the upper ones will be simple, 

 rounded, and a little lobed.f This is not all : when the 

 seeds of the same plant fall into some ditch where 

 there is only water or moisture sufficient to make 



* Ranunculus aquaticus capillaceus (Tournef. , p. 291). 



f Ranunculus aquaticus (foliorotundo etcapillaceo, Tournef. , p. 291). 



