DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 



[315] 11 



we look up with reverence to the 

 loved and immortal name of Charles 

 Darwin. 



IV. WORK IN BOTANY. 



BY W. T. THISELTON DYER, F.R.S. 



In attempting to estimate the 

 influence which Mr. Darwin's writ- 

 ings have exerted on the progress of 

 botanical science, we must necessarily 

 discriminate between the indirect 

 effect which his views have had on 

 botanical research generally, and the 

 direct results of his own contributions. 

 No doubt in a sense the former will 

 seem in the retrospect to overshadow 

 the latter. For in his later writings 

 Mr. Darwin was content to devote 

 himself to the consideration of prob- 

 lems which, in a limited field, 

 brought his own theoretical views to 

 a detailed test, and so may ultimately 

 seem to be somewhat merged in them. 

 Yet these writings can never fail to 

 command our admiration even viewed 

 apart from all else that Mr. Darwin 

 did. It is wonderful enough that so 

 great a master in biological science 

 should, at an advanced age, have been 

 content to work with all the fervor 

 and assiduity of youth at phenomena 

 of vegetable life apparently minute 

 and of the most special kind. To him, 

 no doubt, they were not minute, but 

 instinct with a significance that the 

 professed botanical world had for the 

 most part missed seeing in them fail- 

 ing the point of view which Mr. Dar- 

 win himself supplied. It is not too 

 much to say that each of his botanical 

 investigations, taken on its own 

 merits, would alone have made the 

 reputation of any ordinary botanist. 



Mr. Darwin's attitude toward bot- 

 any, as indeed to biological studies 

 generally, was, it should always be 

 remembered, in his early life essen- 

 tially that of a naturalist of the school 

 of Linnaeus and Humboldt — a point 

 of view unfortunately now perhaps a 

 little out of fashion. Nature in all 

 its aspects spoke to his feelings with 

 a voice that was living and direct. 



The wr'ter of these lines can well re- 

 member Mr. Darwin gently complain- 

 ing that some of this warm enthusiasm 

 for nature, as it presents itself un- 

 analysed to ordinary healthy vision, 

 seemed to be a little dulled in the 

 younger naturalists of the day. The 

 pages of the Journal of Researches 

 show no such restraint, but abound 

 with passages in which Mr. Darwin's 

 unstudied and simple language is car- 

 ried by the force of warm impression 

 and perfect joy in nature to a level of 

 singular beauty. One passage may 

 be quoted as an illustration ; it is 

 from' the description of Bahia in 

 chapter xxi: 



" When quietly walking along the 

 shady pathways, and admiring each 

 successive view, I wished to find 

 language to express my ideas. Epi- 

 thet after epithet was found too weak 

 to convey to those who have not 

 visited the intertropical regions, the 

 sensation of delight which the mind 

 experiences. I have said that the 

 plants in a hothouse fail to communi- 

 cate a just idea of the vegetation, yet 

 I must recur to it. The land is one 

 great wild, untidy, luxuriant hothouse,, 

 made by nature for herself, but taken 

 possession of by man, who has studded 

 it with gay houses and formal gar- 

 dens. How great would be the desire 

 in every admirer of nature to behold, 

 if such were possible, the scenery of 

 another planet ! Yet to every person 

 in Europe, it may be truly said, that 

 at the distance of only a few degrees 

 from his native soil, the glories of 

 another world are opened to him. In 

 my last walk I stopped again and 

 again to gaze on these beauties, and 

 endeavoi*ed to fix in my mind forever, 

 an impression which at the time I 

 knew sooner or later must fail. The 

 form of the orange-tree, the cocoa- 

 nut, the palm, the mango, the tree- 

 fern, the banana, will remain clear 

 and separate ; but the thousand beau- 

 ties which unite these into one per- 

 fect scene must fade away ; yet they 

 will leave, like a tale heard in child- 

 hood, a picture full of indistinct, but- 

 most beautiful figures." 



