No. 510] PROBLEMS IN PLANT ECOLOGY 



359 



theories, because altogether subversive of experiment. 

 The entire question was prejudged at the outset. The 

 theory of special creation, however, lias not been espe- 

 cially harmful, because it has generally seemed so un- 

 likely as to have received but little support among scien- 

 tific men. Perhaps the most baneful of all ecological 

 theories has been the Lamarekian theory of direct adapta- 

 tion. In its day, that is before 1859, it marked a distinct 

 advance, because it was the first significant attempt to 

 displace special creation by something better. The 

 great merit of Lamarckism was the recognition of plas- 

 ticity, the substitution of a dynamic for a static nature. 

 Had it been generally accepted, it might easily he said 

 to have marked the greatest single step in the advance 

 of scientific thought, but the world was not then ready 

 for dynamic conceptions. The leaven of Laplacian as- 

 tronomy had scarce begun to work, and the Lyellian 

 geology was as yet unborn. 



The evil wrought by Lamarckism is due to its accept- 

 ance by modern biologists. It is essentially ;i \ it,ili-ti<- 

 theory, presupposing that plants and animals have some 

 inherent mysterious power to contravene the ordinary 

 laws of matter. They are supposed to be able to sur- 

 vive hard conditions because able to adapt themselves 

 advantageously. Of course it is clear that those plants 

 which do respond favorably to changing conditions will 

 be most likely to survive, but adaptationists have appar- 

 ently overlooked the fact that thousands of species must 

 have died because unprovided with an adequate capacity 

 for advantageous response. Their conception of nature 

 is distorted by centering their attention upon those suc- 

 cessful plants that appear to have survived because of 

 their adaptations. The depressing effect of the adapta- 

 tion hypothesis is most obvious in that it has encouraged 

 sterile imaginings as to the advantages of this, that or the 

 other plant structure and has thus discouraged attempts 

 to discover the real facts involved in the origin of such 



