42 FLORA INDICA. 



difference, that the contention is not intermittent, but con- 

 tinuous, though unheeded by the common observer. In the 

 common course of events, therefore, the ground occupied by a 

 widely-distributed plant is held on a very different tenure in 

 different places ; some individuals are obliged to grow in the 

 shade, others in the sun; and they hence flower earlier in 

 certain places : we say of such plants that they have a power 

 of accommodating themselves to their altered conditions, or 

 better, that they have the power of resisting the effects of the 

 change. Now, this power we believe to be very much under- 

 rated, specific characters being too often founded on the differ- 

 ences in habit induced dmring a plant's migration over great 

 areas, or brought about by the change of soil and climate aud 

 surrounding vegetation, to which individuals and their succes- 

 sors are subjected in different parts of one and the same area. 



The simple fact that, of all the functions of vegetable life, 

 reproduction is the most uncertain in its effects and results, 

 seems to bear upon this particular point. Some plants are 

 never known to seed ; of many, not one ovule out of a thou- 

 sand ripens into a seed; not one seed out of a thousand ger- 

 minates, nor one plant reproduces out of a thousand that have 

 germinated. We are too apt to consider such facts, when ap- 

 plied to species or individuals, as indicating that they are not 

 in a natural condition, whereas they appear to be the conse- 

 quences of a law of nature, and ought to teach us that plants, 

 in a state of natm-e, are subjected to the operation of external 

 agents, which not only alter their habit but influence their 

 vital functions. 



In these somewhat desultory remarks on the various sub- 

 jects of which wc proposed treating, we have endeavoured to 

 illustrate our great argument, the imperati^-e necessity of 

 checking the addition of species on insufficient grounds, and 

 the importance of treating scientifically those that are akeady 

 known. We consider it to be desii-able, that for all practical 

 purposes species be regarded as definite creations, the offspring 

 each of but one parent or pair ; we believe that they are en- 



