THE STANDPOINT OF BOTANY 71 



ways to form what we call its species, and that 

 one of these ways may have been Natural Selec- 

 tion, with or without adaptation. Our problem, 

 however, includes more than the origin of species. 

 All of our observation and experimental work in 

 this field is immensely important in demonstrat- 

 ing the theory of descent, and in showing how the 

 final diversity of species is reached; but the meth- 

 ods for securing this final diversity may not apply 

 and probably do not apply to the estabhshment 

 of the assemblages of different characters that 

 distinguish the great groups, and that any study 

 of phylogeny shows to have been wrought out 

 by steady and progressive change through all im- 

 aginable changes of environment. Species have 

 been likened to the individual waves that appear 

 on the surface of a choppy sea; if so, the deep- 

 seated changes to which I refer, and which phy- 

 logeny makes so evident, may be likened to the 

 great oceanic currents, whose movement and 

 direction proceed with no relation to the choppy 

 surface. 



