41 
of matter which never had life combining themselves into 
forms possessing life. 
Of course, such remarks do not apply to those who shield 
themselves from an accusation of atheism, by granting that 
God created some eight or ten forms of life ; whence all we 
see of vegetable and of animal has descended. Even this 
petty concession appears but grudgingly made. However, 
a Creator, independent of matter, is acknowledged ; and the 
arguments recently urged against Darwinism, in this Insti- 
tute, by its Vice-President, Honorary Secretary, and others, 
seem to me so thoroughly convincing, that it is something 
very like presumption in me to add to them. I consider that 
the perfect and complete forms were those created; from 
which varieties cannot be raised into species. If this be so, 
not only does it negative the embryonic theory of existence, 
but the natural- selection speculations of Mr. Darwin. That 
we must withhold our assent from the former is self-evident ; 
the latter may require a short examination, which, in the 
present sketch, must be very short indeed. 
The vegetable kingdom contains more than 100,000 of these 
perfect forms or species ; the whole of which, according to 
the natural-selection theory — save four or five at most — have 
descended from that small beginning of vegetation. This 
might be more comprehensible, if the 100,000 were only 
varieties ; as although without artificial assistance they will 
either revert to the normal forms or perish, still there might 
always be that number, or more, in existence at the same time. 
But they are species — things reproducing and perpetuating 
themselves from seed. The few created plants would multiply, 
and throw off varieties in course of time. They would go on 
multiplying themselves; while the varieties would gradually 
disappear, and others supply their places. As man also 
increased, those varieties which he found useful, or which 
pleased his fancy, would be preserved and kept on by artificial 
means : a species would keep itself on. This is judging, both 
from what we read of past vegetable physiology, and from 
present experience. I see no grounds for saying that early 
life on the globe was in any way different to present ; which it 
must have been for the land to have covered itself with 
100,000 species descended from so few types. 
I have been a grower and lover of plants for very nearly 
half a century ; and, though that is but a point in the worlds 
history, he must be a wonderfully careless observer who failed 
to notice so striking a curiosity as the establishment of a 
species from a “ sport and a variety is nothing else. A 
hybrid, too, without the intervention of artificial processes. 
