THE 
NATURAL HISTORY REVIEW: 
A 
QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 
■SjLoieurs. 
XIY.—On Species. By A. De Candolle.* 
There are two classes of Naturalists, viewing tlie great question of 
the Origin of Species from as many points of view, whose opinions, 
in so far as they are founded on faithful observation, are entitled to 
grave consideration, and perhaps to equal weight. Of these the first 
includes Physiologists and Anatomists, who investigate the minute 
structures, order and methods of development, of the organs of animals 
and plants, and the absolute and relative values of the functions per¬ 
formed by these organs. The second includes systematists, who 
apply the results of the Physiologists’ and Anatomists’ studies, to¬ 
gether with those of their own special labours, to the discovery of 
the kinds and degrees of relationship existing between the groups of 
animals and plants. Amongst the latter, Professor De Candolle holds 
a distinguished place under every point of view, and may therefore 
claim, with confidence, an attentive hearing from Naturalists during the 
present crisis. And that the result will not disappoint us, it is the 
purport of this article to show in the following resume of, and 
remarks upon, his learned and most conscientious paper. 
The necessity of making a complete systematic revision of the 
whole family of Oaks, Chesnuts, &c. for the XVIth volume of the 
“ Prodromus Systematis Vegetabilium,” has offered to Professor De 
Candolle an opportunity of testing the theory of the Origin of Spe¬ 
cies by variation and natural selection, by studying the characters of 
a very large group of very variable but conspicuous plants, found 
both recent and fossil, throughout nearly the whole Northern hemi- 
* Etude sur l’Espece, a l’occasion d’tine revision de la famille des Cupuliferes, 
par M. Alph. De Candolle. Tire de la Bibliotlieque universelle de Geneve. (Arch, 
des Sciences Phys. etNat.) Nov. 1862. 
