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MEMORIALS OF RAY : 



Paralysis, with a double flower, different kinds from those 

 with a single ? I answer, it is true they do so ; but if we 

 examine and consider wherein their differences consist, we 

 shall find reason to doubt whether they be specifically dis- 

 tinct or no ; nay, rather to conclude, they are not. First, 

 as for flowers. The main, if not only difference between 

 these pretended new species and the old, we shall find to 

 consist either in the colour of the flower, or the multi- 

 plicity of its leaves. Now that neither of these is suffi- 

 cient to infer a specifical difference, is, I think, evident, 

 unless we will admit that an European and an Ethiopian 

 are two species of men, because one is black and the 

 other white ; or an European and an Indian, because the 

 one hath a thick beard, and the other none at all, or but 

 a few straggling hairs instead of it ; the whole diversity 

 being induced by the climate, or soil, or nourishment, as 

 in other animals, is manifest. First, what effect the 

 plenty and diversity of food, and different manner of 

 living hath, appears in domestic animals, eoo. gr. swine, 

 ducks, geese, &c., which do frequently vary their colours; 

 whereas the wild of those kinds retain constantly the 

 same ; and not their colours only, but the tastes of their 

 flesh, it requiring no very critical palate to distinguish 

 between the flesh of tame and wild beasts, or fowl. As for 

 the colour, though wild animals taken and brought up tame 

 do not usually themselves in individuo change their colours, 

 but after two or three generations their breed ; but 

 sometimes they do, as I myself have seen a bull-finch, 

 which kept in a cage, after some years, from the usual 

 colour of that bird, turned to be coal black. 2. What 

 influence the diversity of soil and climate hath upon 

 divers animals as to the altering their colour, and other 

 accidents, appears in divers instances. From the difference 

 of climate, or constant inspection of snow, it proceeds 

 that in the Alps and other high mountains, and also in 

 those cold northern countries where the earth, for more 

 than half the year, is continually covered with snow, 

 there are found many animals white of those sorts, 



