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To human progress generally I do not believe that there is 

 any limit whatsoever ; and I am not one of those who think that 

 the human race was ever better, either as individuals or collec- 

 tively, than it is at the present time. Although certain limited 

 parts of it may perhaps deteriorate, yet I believe most fully that, 

 speaking generally, the world as it grows older, grows better and 

 happier also ; and I venture to prophesy most confidently that 

 the men and women of a hundred years to come will be at least 

 as great improvements on ourselves, as I firmly believe we are 

 on those of a hundred years gone by. But as you will have 

 noticed, if you have been kind enough to listen to these few re- 

 marks, I consider man to be absolutely distinct from and superior 

 to plants and animals ; and though no doubt many natural 

 laws are common both to us and them, yet some which apply 

 to them do not touch us, and some which apply to us do not touch 

 them. For instance, I cannot help thinking that there is a limit 

 to the capacity of plants for development and improvement ; or, 

 at all events, that there is a limit to the amount of improvement 

 possible in any one given period. I mean that plants may, by 

 natural selection or by human skill, advance step by step, and 

 hand over hand (sometimes most rapidly), up to a certain point, 

 and then there comes either a halt or a pause. They have either 

 reached the utmost limit of their capacity for improvement, or 

 they have, as it were, tired themselves out by a too quick march, 

 and need a rest for years — it may be for centuries — before 

 they are ready again for another period of advancement. This 

 is but a theory of my own, but it is worth thinking over, and 

 perhaps some day it will be acknowledged as a natural law. And 

 I venture, simply as an illustration of this, to suggest to you 

 whether such flowers, for instance, as the Carnation, the Begonia, 

 the Dahlia, the Auricula, and perhaps — may I venture even to 

 suggest it ? — the Chrysanthemum, have not possibly already 

 reached, or nearly reached, such pause or limit, as far as the 

 beauty of the flowers is concerned ? But, even were it so, there 

 remains still ample room for the gardener and skilful hybridist 

 to exercise their intelligence and patience in improving the vigour, 

 constitution, and habit of the plants, without losing or impairing 

 by one jot or tittle anything of the really marvellous standard 

 of beauty in the flowers which has been already reached. That 

 there is ample scope for improvement in the habit, for instance, 



