i860.] DR. HARVEY. 275 



Have you seen Wollaston's attack in the ' Annals'? * The 

 stones are beginning to fly. But Theology has more to do 

 with these two attacks than Science. . . . 



[In the above letter a paper by Harvey in the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, Feb. 18, 1860, is alluded to. He describes a case 

 of monstrosity in Begonia frigida, in which the " sport " 

 differed so much from a normal Begonia that it might have 

 served as the type of a distinct natural order. Harvey goes 

 on to argue that such a case is hostile to the theory of natural 

 selection, according to which changes are not supposed to 

 take place per saltum, and adds that " a few such cases would 

 overthrow it [Mr. Darwin's hypothesis] altogether." In the 

 following number of the Gardeners' Chronicle Sir J. D. Hooker 

 showed that Dr. Harvey had misconceived the bearing of the 

 Begonia case, which he further showed to be by no means 

 calculated to shake the validity of the doctrine of modification 

 by means of natural selection. My father mentions the 

 Begonia case in a letter to Lyell (Feb. 18, 1860) : 



" I send by this post an attack in the Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 by Harvey (a first-rate Botanist, as you probably know). It 

 seems to me rather strange ; he assumes the permanence 

 of monsters, whereas, monsters are generally sterile, and not 

 often inheritable. But grant his case, it comes that I have 

 been too cautious in not admitting great and sudden varia- 

 tions. Here again comes in the mischief of my abstract. In 

 the fuller MS. I have discussed a parallel case of a normai 

 fish like a monstrous gold-fish." 



With reference to Sir J. D. Hooker's reply, my father 

 wrote :] 



Down [February 26th, 1860]. 



MY DEAR HOOKER, Your answer to Harvey seems to me 

 admirably good. You would have made a gigantic fortune as 



* 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' 1860. 



T 2 



