HoBKiRK : Species 



19 



environment, into tlie 168 we now find? And, further back stUl, in 

 the far remote ages of geology, — yet perhaps not going, even here, to 

 the verge of the Cainozoic age, — we may deduce that these nine forms 

 or species were but one ; that the genus Rosa was one species, of 

 which the now term of Rosacecs, including all the plants of that sub- 

 order, was what we might call the generic name. And thus, if our 

 means were sufficient, we might go backwards and backwards, 

 constantly reducing our specific terms, until we come at last, and 

 perhaps not even yet at last, to the single term " vegetable.'^ Strange 

 as this mdijj seem — nay, even if you will, preposterous, — yet the 

 analogy throughout is perfectly logical, and thus demonstrates the 

 beauty, and possibly the truth, of Darwin's brilliant hypothesis. What 

 may be thus done with Rosa, may be done more or less perfectly with 

 every other genus of plant or animal, reducing type after type as we 

 go backwards, till in the earliest stages of life on the earth we come to 

 two or three original types — possibly only one. Under this light, 

 then, what is a species 1 Is there such a thing as a species, as different 

 from a variety 1 We may answer to this, both yes, and no. 



Yes — ^because we may accept the forms which we now see around 

 us as permanent for the present ; that, with few exceptions, they have 

 remained so ever since they attained their present fades, and since the 

 environment in which they now are came into existence, and until 

 that environment shall again be changed, during the great secular 

 changes of which the world is the theatre. And also so long, and so 

 long only, as we agree to understand by the term species merely a 

 convenient method of grouping together certain individuals which, 

 whilst they agree in many well-marked particulars, yet have each 

 individual characters which may become more marked in future ages. 



No — because these very slight characters of to-day may to-morrow 

 become leading features in their organisation, and they are thus incipient 

 species, which I consider all real varieties to be. And again, because in 

 past ages many of the forms we now call species were not in existence 

 except as varieties ; that the genus of to-day was the species of yester- 

 day ; and that the species of to-day will become the genus of to-morrow. 



Therefore^ only as an exponent of our present knowledge, and to 

 arrange our ideas, can we admit the terms species and varieties at all. 

 They do not admit of strict definition with hard and fast lines, but 

 merely by assemblages of leading characters which they all possess in 

 a greater or less degree, which are not by any means fixed or 

 unvarying, but are constantly requiring further definition, and will 

 continue to do so as long as the present laws govern the universe. 



