408 DEFINITION OF SPECIES. 



wondrous designs. Those, however, who adopt this theory, too often 

 appear to put the Creator out of the c[uestion, and to subject the whole 

 of the process to an inexorable law, — how enacted they cannot tell. 

 The theory affiliates species of the present day with those of former 

 epochs, and attempts to show a natural connection between them 

 by genealogical descent. This is no doubt important in the view of 

 what is called the natural system of classification, where a law of 

 afiBnity comes into play. At the present day we see the agriculturist 

 and horticulturist selecting seeds from vigorous plants, planting them 

 in favourable' circumstances, improving them by various physiological 

 methods, preserving the forms best fitted for their purpose, and ulti- 

 mately establishing races which continue to propagate themselves 

 by seed when cultivated in favourable circumstances. Something of 

 this sort may be supposed to occur in the case of natural selection, 

 under the guidance and direction of Him who works by means of 

 instruments, and who carries out His mighty plans in an orderly and 

 systematic manner. 



There are numerous variations in species, some of them being of 

 a more permanent character than others. Some species vary in a 

 remarkable manner, without any external influences to account for it. 

 Thus, a plant of Fuchsia has produced, in successive years, flowers 

 difiering so much in form and shape, that, if they had not been known 

 to be produced by the same plant, they would have been considered as 

 belonging to distinct species. Such is also the case with Calceolarias, 

 some species of AmarylUs, and many Orchids. Hence there is some- 

 times considerable difficulty in determining what are true species and 

 what are only varieties, more especially when these varieties are perma- 

 nent and reproduce themselves. To this must in part be attjibuted 

 the disputes which have arisen among botanists as to the species of 

 many British genera, such as Eoses, Eubi, Salices, and Hieracia. 



Mr. John Ball remarks " that most widely diflfused plants give 

 rise to numerous varieties, which reproduce themselves by hereditary 

 descent, forming what are called races. In the case of wild plants we 

 have, in most cases, no positive proof that such races are descended 

 from the family stock, but we draw that inference from observing that 

 the differences by which they are distinguished are not greater than 

 what we observe among the descendants of plants submitted to culti- 

 vation, with one important difference — viz., that the wild races, having 

 been for a long period subject to the same external conditions, usually 

 show greater constancy in their characters than cultivated varieties, 

 developed under conditions of a less permanent kind. The varieties 

 enumerated in the works of systematic Botany are almost invariably 

 races, such as those above referred to, and under this head many 

 botanists are disposed to rank a large portion of the so-called species 

 described of late years in France and Germany." 



