BY-PATHS OF BIOLOGY. 



279 



are a number of curious problems lying as it were on the 

 outskirts of biological inquiry wliicli well merit attention, 

 and which may lead to valuable results. But these 

 problems are, as you see, for the most part connected 

 with questions of locality, and require full and accurate 

 knowledge of the productions of a number of small 

 islands and other limited areas, and the means of 

 comparing them one with the other. To make such 

 comparisons, however, is now quite impossible. No 

 museum contains any fair representation of the pro- 

 ductions of these localities ; and such specimens as do 

 exist, being scattered through the general collection, are 

 almost useless for this special purpose. If, then, we are 

 to make any progress in this inquiry it is absolutely essen- 

 tial that some collectors should begin to arrange their 

 cabinets primarily on a geographical basis, keeping to- 

 gether the productions of every island or group of islands, 

 and of such divisions of each continent as are found to 

 possess any special or characteristic fauna or flora. We shall 

 then be sure to detect many unsuspected relations between 

 the animals and plants of certain localities, and we shall 

 become much better acquainted with those complex reac- 

 tions between the vegetable and animal kingdoms, and 

 between the organic world and the inorganic, which have 

 almost certainly played an important part in determining 

 many of the most conspicuous features of living things. 



