Climate on Plants and Animals. 125 



provision, the tenacity of seeds for the vital principle ;* and 

 chess, while fond of a good soil, springs up by the side offences 

 and fields, and scatters its seeds, which lie in the soil till 

 favourable opportunities occur for their germination. The 

 fact that chess grows where wheat is expected, is a trifling 

 fact, which is easily accounted for on known principles, while 

 the transformation of one species of plant into another is 

 contrary to the laws which govern the growth and develop- 

 ment of organized bodies. The only point which can be 

 cited, and which is at all analogous to what appears a trans- 

 formation, is the reversion of domesticated animals to their 

 original appearance or condition ; as when the dog or hog is 

 left to roam, and becomes wild in the forests, they resort back 

 to their original condition, their original instincts returning as 

 they become wild. Now, if it can be shewn that chess is the 

 original of wheat, it might happen that where wheat springs 

 up spontaneously and sows itself, it might in time become 

 chess. But this hypothesis is unsupported by a single fact 

 in the history of the two genera. The errors which have 

 been entertained in regard to the transformation of wheat 

 into chess have arisen solely from defective observation. 

 Chess is observed in a wheat field, and becomes the more pro- 

 minent and abundant when the wheat has been winter killed. 

 Now it would be just as philosophical to maintain that the 

 common wild cherry which springs up in our northern forests, 

 whgre a windfall has occurred and swept down the pines, 

 that the pines were changed into cherry trees ; these cherry 

 trees cover the entire ground, and previous to the windfall 

 not a cherry tree was to be found. The seeds of the cherry, 

 however, lay in the ground, and when light and air was ad- 

 mitted by the destruction of the old forest, they spring up 

 and cover the ground. The occurrence is not strange, except 

 in the great abundance of trees produced ; and the occurrence 

 of chess would not be regarded strange if but few plants 

 made their appearance ; but when they become numerous, 



* The phrase, vital principle, is used for convenience ; it is not designed by 

 it to express an opinion in regard to the independent existence of something 

 which presides over the movements of a living being. 



