THE TRUE DARWINISM. 



5 



been so strong that all the individuals of the same species have been 

 similarly modified without the aid of any form of selection." * 



By 11 tendency to vary," he evidently means " Response to the direct ' 

 action of the new conditions of life." 



To judge from the past, had Darwin lived until to-day, he would have 

 become assured that "Definite Results" are not only "plentiful" but 

 universal', and that "Indefinite Results" — among which the majority 

 are "Injurious " variations — do not occur at all under any new conditions 

 of life in nature ; so that " New sub- varieties," and we may add varieties, 

 species, and genera, are, in fact, ahvays produced " without the aid of 

 natural selection." 



The reader will perceive that, unlike "Darwinism," Darwin himself 

 conclusively shows that this alternative interpretation of the Origin 

 of Species is no theory at all, but represents the true Natural Law of 

 Evolution. 



Half a century has well-nigh passed away, and thirty years since Darwin 

 wrote that letter to Wagner have elapsed : how do we stand now ? Not 

 a single wild species, whether of animals or plants, has ever been scien- 

 tifically proved, either by induction or experiment, to have had its origin 

 by " means of natural selection." Dr. Wallace said: " It is, of course, 

 admitted that direct proof of the action of natural selection is wanting." 

 If a theory cannot be substantiated in fifty years, why is it retained ? 

 Especially since Darwin's alternative solution of the Method of Evolution, 

 or the production of " definite " varieties, by means of the response of the 

 organism itself, to the new influences of changed conditions of life, has 

 been long since proved to be the invariable law of nature. 



Let us now see what are the opinions of many eminent botanists at 

 the present day, who study plants as they grow and change in nature. 

 They are now called "Ecologists " for that reason.f 



There are three things which every Ecologist at once perceives. The 

 first is the struggle for existence. This prevails everywhere, and accounts 

 largely for the Distribution of species, by the survival of the better adapted 

 in the circumstances. Secondly, there are obvious adaptations in the 

 structures of plants to their environments, whether the locality be dry or 

 moist, cold or hot, &c. Thirdly, whenever one and the same species finds 

 its way into a different set of external conditions, it at once, as it grows, 

 puts on more or less the same adaptive characteristic structures, both 

 morphological and histological, of the natives of the place. This is brought 

 about by means of the inherent responsive power residing in the living 

 protoplasm and nuclei of the plant. 



I will now quote a few observations by eminent Ecologists on 

 " Adaptation." 



Mr. J. A. Thompson, writing on " Synthetic Summary of the 

 Influence of the Environment upon the Organism," says : " No attempt 

 to explain the adaptation of the organism to its environment can be com- 

 plete without recognition that external influences, in the widest sense and 

 in various degrees of directness, have, and have had, an important trans- 

 forming and adaptive action." This is exactly what Darwin meant 



* Origin, etc., p. 72; see ;ilso p. 421. 



+ I.e. " The study " of plants " at home.'' 



