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EVOLUTIONISI

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HUMBOLDT LIBRARY

or

Popular Science Literature.

No. 20. Vol. II.] NEW YORK : J. FITZGEUALI) Si, CO. [Fiktkkn Cknts.

Mov>iiib«r, INHl,

KuUrail »l Ihn Now Yurk I'utl-Ulflca b iJ«cuD(l-Clu> M*tt«r. (I.tu |wr Yrntr (! J Nuiiib«r>).

THE EYOLnTlOKIST AT LARGE.

BY GRAI^T ALLEN.

PREFACE.

TiiESK essays orif^inaily appeared in
the columns of the St. James's Gazette,
and I have to tliank the courtesy of the
editor for kind permission to republish
them. My object in writing them was
to make the general principles aiid
methods of evolutionists a little more
familiar to unscientific readers. Biol-
ogists usually deal with those underly-
ing points of structure which are most
really important, and on which all tech-
nical discussion must necessarily be
based. But ordinary people care little
for such minute anatomical and physio-
logical details. They cannot be ex-
pected to interest themselves in the
fiexor pollicis longus, or the hippo-
campus major, about whose very exist-
ence they are ignorant, and whose
names suggest to them nothing but
unpleasant ideas. What they want
to find out is how the outward and
visible forms of plants and animals were
produced. They would much rather
learn why birds have feathers than why
they have a keeled sternum ; and they
think the origin of bright flowers far
more attractive than the origin of mono-
cotyledonous seeds or exogenous stems.
It is with these surface questions of ob-
vious outward appearance that I have

attempted to deal in this little scries.
My plan is to take a simple and well-
known natural object, and give such an
explanation as evolutionary principles
afford of its most striking external
features. A strawberry, a snail-shell,
a tadpole, a bird, a wayside flower —
these are the sort of things whicli I have
tried to explain. If I have not gone
very deep, I hope at least that I have
suggested in simple language the right
way to go to Avork.

I must make an apology for the form
in which the essays are cast, so far as
regards the apparent egotism of the first
person. When they appeared anony-
mously in the columns of a daily paper,
this air of personality was not so obtru-
sive : now that they reappear under my
own name, 1 fear it may prove some-
what too marked. Nevertheless, to cut
out the personal pronoun would be to
destroy the whole machinery of the
work : so. I have reluctantly decided to
retain it, only begging the reader to
bear in mind that the / of the essays is
not a real personage, but the singular
number of the editorial we.

I have made a few alterations and
corrections in some of the papers, so aa
to bring the statements into closer ac-
cordance with scientific accuracy. At
the same time, I should like to add that

[flOj

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAUdE.

1 lmv(^ intentionally Hlni|)lillc(l the Rci-
ontitlt' fuclK UH far hh |>oMHil>It>. TIuih,
inHtftid of ttayin;; that tli*' (rroiindt^ct ix
a ooMiitoHito, I liavu Haiil tliiit it in a
<Iaisy liy fiiinily ; and iiistciul of Haying
that th(t aMi'idian htrva hi>h>ng.s to tho
Hiih-kinixtloin C'honhita, 1 have* waid that
it is H tirsl cousin of tho tadpolo. I'ov
t\n'M\ HiniitHtications, I hu[iu t(M-hni<'al
Lioh)(;i.>»tH will pardon mo. After all,
if you rtish to ho understood, it is hest
to speak to people in words whose in(>an-
in^^s they know. I)otinito and a(!(Mirate
terminology is necessary to express deti-
nitu and accurato knowledji^o ; hut one
may use va;;uo cx|)ressi()nrt where the
UcHuito onoa would convey no ideas.

G. A.

I.

MICI108COIMC HRAINS.

RiTTiNo on this little rounded ho88 of

f;neiss heside the path which cuto '>'>..
iijuely throiiijh tho meadow, I am en-
gaged in watching a hrigado of ants out
on foraging duty, and intent on secur-
ing for the nest three whole segments
of a deceased earthworm. They look
for all the world like those busy compa-
nies t>ne sees in tho Egyptian wall-paint-
ings, dragging homo a huge granite
colossus by sheer force of hone and
sinew. Every muscle in their tiny
bodies is strained to the utmost as they
prise themselves laboriously against the
great boulders which strew the path,
and which are known to our Brob-
dingnagian intelligence as grains of
sand. Besides the workers themselves,
a whole battalion of stragglers runs to
and fro upon the broad line which leads
to the headquarters of the community.
The province of these stragglers, who
seem so busy doing nothing, probably
consists in keeping communications
open, and encouraging the sturdy pullers
by occasional relays of fresh workmen.
I often wish thatl could forawliile get
inside those tiny brains, and sec, or
rather smell, the world as ants do. For
there can be little doubt that to these
brave little carnivores here the universe
is chietly known as a collective bundle
of odors, simultaneous or consecutive.

Ah (»ur world is mainly a world of vis-
ible objects, theiru, I believe, is mainly
a world of olfai'tible things.

In the iiead of every «»ne of these lit-
tle creatures is something that we may
fairly m\\ a brain. Of rourstt most in-
sects have no real brains ; tho nervo-
Mubstanee in their hea<ls is a mere (;ol-
lection of ill-arrangtid ganglia, directly
eoiine(;ted with tlutir organs of sense.
Whatever man may be, an «'arwig at
least is a conscious, or rather a semi-
conscious, automaton. He has just a
few knots of nerve-cclls in his little
»ate, each of which leads straight from
lis dim eye or his vaguo ear or his in
detinite organs of taste ; and his muscles
obey the promptings of external sensa-
tions without pot sibility of hesitation or
cotisideration, as mechanically as tho
valve of a steam-engine obeys the gov-
ernor-balls. You may say of him tridy,
" Nihil est in intellectu (juod non fucrit
in sensu ;" and you need not even add
tho Leibnitzian saving clause, " nisi
ipso intellectus ;" for the poor soul's
intellect is wholly deficient, and the
senses alone make up all that there is of
him, subjectively considered. But it is
not so with the highest insects. They
have something which truly answers to
the real brain of men, apes, and dogs,
to the cerebral hemispheres and tho
cerebellui'i which are superadded in us
mammals upon tho simple sense-centres
of lower creatures. Besides tho eye,
with its optic nerve and optic perceptive
organs — besides the ear, with its similar
mechanism — wo mammalian lords of
creation have a higher and more genu-
ine brain, which collects and compares
the information given to the senses, and
sends down the appropriate messages to
the muscles accordingly. Now, bees
and flics and ants have got much tho
same sort of arrangement, on a smaller
scale, within their tiny heads. On top
of tho little knots which do duty as
nerve-centres for their eyes and mouths,
stand two stalked bits of nervous mat-
ter, whose duty is analogous to that of
our own brains. And that is why these
three sorts of insects think and reason
so much more intellectually than bee-
tles or butterflies, and why the larger

THK EVOMTTIONIHT AT LAROK.

I'll! 3

I tho

part of ihoin Imvn orffi»n!zo<l their <l<i.
liK'Htiir Hri'aiii.>;ciiiciitit on hiicIi an cxct'l-

Ictlt CO-OlMTJitiVf [llilll.

Wo know wril )>iioii<r)i wliat fonns
tlio main niatcrial of tlioui;lit with ti«M'i
ami tlics, and tliat Ih visihh; oltjcctH,
Kor yoii iniiHt tliinL alunit sowrl/niii/ if
von think at all ; and you can hardly
nna<{ino u contuinplative l>li>w-Hv Hot-
tin;^ its(!lf down to rcHttct, liko a flindn
dcvotot', on tlio Kylhililo Oni, or on tlu!
ononoHS of oxiKtiinco. Ahstract idoan
Mi' not likely to play a larj^c part in
a[iian consciousncas. A hoe has a vory
pcrft'rt vyv, and with tliisoyn it can hoc
not only form, hut also color, as Sir
John Lnlihock's cx[»orimonts have shown
ns. Tiio information which it ^ots
through its eye, coupled with other
ideas derived from touch, smell, and
taste, no douht makes up tho main
thinkaltlc and knowablo universo as it
reveals itself to tho apian intellivj;eneo.
To ourselves atjd to bees alike tho world
is, on tho whole, a colored picture,
with tho notions of distance and solidity
thrown in by touch and muscular
effort ; but sight nndotibtedly plays the
first part in ft)rming our total concep-
tion of things generally.

What, however, forms tho thinkable
universe of those littlo anta running to
and fro so eagerly at my feet ? That is
A (piestion which used long to puzzle
me in my afternoon walks. Tho ant
lias a brain and an intelligence, but that
brain and that intolligonco must have
been developed out of something. Ex
nihilo nihil fit. You cannot think and
hnow if you have nothing to think
about. The intelligence of tho bee and
tho fly was evolved in tho course of
their flying about and looking at
things : the more they flew, and the
more they saw, tho more they knew ;
and tho more brain they got to think
with. But the ant does not generally
fly, and, as with most comparatively
unlocomotivc animals, its sight is bad.
True, tho winged males and females
have retained in part the usual sharp
eyes of their class — for they arc first
cousins to tho bees — and they also pos-
sess three littlo eyelets or ocelli, which
are wanting to the wingless neuters.

Without thoKO they would never have
found one another in their courlhhip, and
they Would havu run their heads againnt
tho nearest tree, or rushetl down tho
gaping throat of the tiiMt expectant swaU
low, and NO etTectually extinguisheil
their race. Flying aiiimaU cannot d>)
without eyes, and tlu^y always possess
tho most highly develiiped vision of any
living creatures. iJut the wingless neu-
ters are almost blind — in some species
(|uito SO ; and Sir John Lubbock hiut
sh»twn that their appreciation of color
is mostly (^onKned to an aversion to red
light, and a conipiirative endurance of
blue. Moreover, they are apparently
deaf , and n>ost of their other senses s(!cni
littlo developed. What can be the rav
material on which that pin's head ri a
brain sets itself working i Kor, small
as it is, it is a wonderful organ of intel-
lect ; and though Sir John Lubbo(rk has
shown us all too dccihivcly that tho
originality and inventive genius of ants
have been sadly overrated by Solomon
and others, yet JMrwin is probably
right none tho less in saying that no
more marvellous atom of matter exists
in tho universo than this same wee lump
of microscopic nerve-substance.

My dog trrin, running about on the
path there, with his nose to the ground,
and snitHng at every stick and stone he
meets on liis way, gives im the clew to
solve tho problem. Grip, as Professor
Ooom Robertson suggests, seems ca-
pable of extracting a separate and dis-
tinguishable smell from everything. I
have only to shy a stone on the beach
among a thousand other stones, and my
dog, like a well-bred retriever as ho is,
selects and brinsjs back to mo that in-
dividual stone from all the stones
around, by exercise of his nose alono.
It is plain that Grip's world is not
merely a world of sights, but a world
of smells as well. lie not only smells
smells, but he remembers smells, ho
thinks smells, ho even dreanis smells,
as you may see by his snifting and
growling in his sleep. Now, if I were
to cut open Grip's head (which Heaven
forfend), I should find in it a corre-
spondingly big smell-nervo and smell-
centre — an olfactory lobe, as the anato-

4 |(1'J

Tin: i:V()f,i:TI()NWT AT LAU<»E.

iiiiHtK my. All tlin iicniuiiiiliitctl tmsal
(■\|i('rii'tic(>N III' liiM iiiict'HtorM liHVn Miit<l)i
tliut lolic ciioi'inoiiMly <l«>v«-lo|i<>t|. Itiil
in a iiiiitrH lu'ud y«iU woul<i tltul h very
liir^it ami tiiio optic ccritri', iiml oniy ii
iiicri' Hlirivclicd vvVw. t<> rojirt'^nit tim
olftii'tiiry 1(>1)(»«. Voii iiiiil ( ami our
HiiccHturs liavo liiul luit littli; o<M-aHioii
for siiiltlti^ Hiid HC('iit.iti){ ; our Hit;lit iiiid
our toui-li Iwivo dotiu duty uh cliiof Iti-
tcllijit'iifcrs finiu l\u' outer worlil ; and
tlio iicrvcHof Niucll, witli tlu'ir coiiiUMfcd
rt'ntrcH, liavo witlicrt'd away to the dr-
(joiioratc «'ojiditioii in wliiili they now
urc. ('otiHtMjUi'titiy, HUH'll plavH l»iit a
Hiiiall part in our tliouL(litaml our nioni-
<»ri('s. The world that wo know i«
chictly a world of sights and touclu's.
]'ut in tho Itrain of doj;, ortlcor, or an-
ti'lopo, Hiiii'll in H prevailing facidty ; it
colors all thoir idoas, and it han in-
nunicrahlo ticrvoiiH conniiclions with
ov(!ry part of thoir hrain. Tho hi>{
olfactory lohcs are in (liroct coniniuni-
cation with a thounand othor nerves ;
odors rouse trains of thouifht or pow-
erful emotions in their minds just aH
visible olijects do in our own.

Now, in the do-^ or tho horse sight
and smell are equally developed ; so
that they probably think of most thinf^s
about e({ually in terms of each. In
ourselves, sight is highly developed,
and smell is a mere relic ; so that wo
think of most things in terms of sight
alone, and only rarely, as with a rose or
a lily, in terms of both, lint iji ants,
on the contrary, smell is highly de-
velopi'd and sight a inero relic ; so that
they probably think of most things as
Rinellaltlo only, and very little as visible,
in form or color. l)r. IJastian has
shown that bees and buttertlies are
largely guided by scent ; and though
he is certainly wrong in supposing that
sight has little to do with leading thcni
to flowers (for if you cut off tho bright-
colored corolla they will never discover
tho mutilated blossoms, even when they
visit others on tho same plant), yet the
mere fact that so many flowers art
Ecentcd is by itself enough to show that
perfume has a great deal to do with the
matter. In wingless ants, while the
eyes have undergone degeneration, this

high Hense t)f Hiiiell has been continu'^d
ami furtliet' d«'\eloped, till it liaH become
their priiieipitl m iiHe-endownieht, and
tlu' chief raw material of their intelli-
gence. Their active little brains are
almost wholly engaged in correlating
and co-ordinating hmu'IIh with actionn.
Their olfactory nervengive them nearly
all tho information they can gain about
the external world, and their brains take
in this information and work out the
iM'oper movements which it indicates.
Ily smell they lind tlu ir way about and
carry on tlu! busim-ss of their lives,
•lust as you and I know the road from
licgent's (Circus to I'all Mall by viHible
signs of thostreet-c«>riiersand the Duke
of York's Column, »o these little antH
know the way from the nest to thu
corpse of the dismembered worm by
observing and reniendiering tho smellH
which they met with on their wny.
See : I obliterate tho track for an inch
or two with my stick, and the little
creatures go beside themselves with
astonishment and dismay. They rush
about wildly, intpiiring of one another
with their antennio whether this is really
Doomsday, and whether tho whole
course of nature has been suddenly rev-
olutiojiized. Then, after a Hh«)rt con-
sultation, they determine u[)on action ;
an<l every ant starts otf in a different
<lircction to hunt the lost track, head to
the ground, exactly as a pointer hunts
tho missing trail of a bird or hare.
Kach ventures an inch or so off, and
then runs back to find tho rest, for fear
ho should get isolated altogether. At
last, after many failures, ono lucky fel-
low hits upon tho well-remembered train
of scents, and rushes back, leaving
smell-tracks no doubt upon the soil bo-
hind him. Tho message goes quickly
round from post to post, each sentry
making passes with his antenntu to the
next picket, and so sending on tho news
to tho main body in tho rear. Within
five minutes communications aro re-
established, and tho precious bit of
worm-meat continues triumphantly on
its way along tho recovered path. An
ingenious writer would oven have us be-
lievo that ants possess a scent-languago
of their own, and emit various odors

KVOl.UTroNIHT AT r.AlUJK.

[0:ij 0

rnntinu'<(l

unit, aiitl
L>ir itiU'llt-
ItruiiiH jirc
.'orrcliitiii^
li lu'tioiiii.
ii'Mi ticiii'ly
{uiii itlioiit
)niiiiN tiikd
k out tliu
iiitlicatcH.
ulxMit and
K'ir livcM.
I'oad from
l>v viKil»l(>
till! Duke
littlu aiitH
Ht tu tlio
worm by
ho hiik'IIh
lifir way.
>r an inch
thu littlu
.'IvcH with
Mk^ ru8h
ti aiiothor
H in really
10 whole
li'iily rev-
hort con-
action ;
different
head to
|cr hunt8
or hare,
off, and
for fear
»er. At
icky fel-
ed train
leaving
soil bc-
quickly
sentry
Q to the
JO news
Within
are ro-
bit of
fintly on
h. An
us be-
inguagc
s odors

from their antrnnrr which the other ant*
[MTceivo with thfirn, and re«'o^iii/u an
di><tirii't ill iiM'aiiiiii;. Ili> tlii<< iih it may,
you iiiiinot diiulit, if you wuli'li tlu-iii
loni;, tliat HceiitH and KccntH alone form
tin' ••liicf mi'aiiH by whiihthcy ri-coili-ct
and know oint another, or the external
objeets with whieli they eomo in eon-
taet. The whole universe is clearly to
them a I nm|ilicated picture matle up
entirely uf intinitu interfuHing MmelU.

II.

A WAYHIliK nKUIlV.

IIai.k-iiiiiokv in the luxuriant growth
of leaven and llowern that drapo the
deep Hide of thin green lane, I have just
eHpied a little picture in miniatunt, a
tall wild strawberry-Mtalk with three full
red berries standing out on its graceful
branchlets. There are glossy hart's-
tongues on th<! matted bank, and yellow
hawkweeds, and bright bunclies of red
eam[iion ; but somehow, amid all that
wealth of sliapo ami color, my eye falls
and rests instinctively upon tho three
littlo riubly berries, and upon nothing
else. I pick tho single stalk from the
bank and hold it here in my hands.
Tho origin and developn>ei\t of these
pretty bits of red pulp is one of the
many curious <|uestions upon which
modern theories of life have cast such a
sudden and unexpected tlood of light.
What makes tho strawberry stalk grow
out into this odd and brightly colored
himp, bearing its small fruits imbedded
on its swollen suifaco ? Clearly the
agency of those same small birds who
have been mainly instrumental in dress-
ing tho haw in its scarlet coat, and
clothing tho spindle-berries with their
twofold covering of crimson doublet
and orango cloak.

In common language wo speak of each
single strawberry as a fruit. But it is
in reality a collection of separate fruits,
the tiny yellow-brown grains wliieh stud
its sides being each cf them an individ-
ual littlo nut ; while the sweet pulp is,
in fact, no part of tho true fruit at all,
but merely a swollen stalk. There is a
white potcntilla so like a strawberry
blossom tliat even a botanist must look

clonely at the plniit before he cim be
Mure of itM iijentitv. While they ant in
tlower the tMo heaiU remain almost in-
diHtinguinliable ; but when the M>ed be
gins to set the poteiitilla developH only
a collection of dry fniillet-*, Heated upon
a green receptacji", the l>ed or woft ex-
pansion which liaiiijs on to the " hull "
or calyx. Kac h fruitlet consiHts of n
thin covering, incloning a solitary seed.
Vou may compare oiii> of tliem separately
to a plum, with its HingU; kernel, only
that in the plum the coveritc.^ U thick
and juicy, while in the potetitilla and
till! fruitlets of the strawberry it is thin
and dry. An almond comes still nearer
to the mark. Now the poteiitilla shows
us, as it were, the primitive form <tf the
strawberry. Hut in tht! ileveloped ripe
strawlterry as we now lind it the friiitl"ts
aro not crowded upon a green recep-
taclt!. After llowcsring, the strawberry
receptacle lengthens and broadens, so jis
to fortn a roundish mass of succulent
pulp ; and as tho fruitlets approach ma-
turity this sour green pulp becomes
soft, sweet, and red. The littlo need-
like fruits, which are the important
organs, stand out upon its surface like
mere specks ; while tlio comparatively
unimportant receptacle is all that wo
usually thiitk of when we talk about
strawberries. After our usual I'rotago-
rean fashion wo regard man as tho
measuro of all things, and pay littlo
heed to any part of tlie compound fruit-
cluster save that which ministers directly
to our own tastes.

But why does the strawberry develop
this large niiiss of apparently useless
matter ? Simply in order tho better to
insure tho dispersion of its small brown
fruitlets. Birds are always hunting for
seeds and insects along the hedge-rows,
and devouring such among them as con-
tain any available foodstuff. In most
cases they crush tho seeds to pieces with
their gizzards, and digest and assimilate
their contents. Seeds of this class aro
generally inclosed in green or brown
capsules, which often escape tho notice
of tho birds, and so succeed in perpet-
uating their species. But there is an-
other class of plants whose members
possess hard and indigestible seeds, and

• IWI

TIIK EVULUiloNlhT AT LAliUK.

»<) turn till' (jn-rflv l»ir<N from itniiijoroiiM I
nit'iiiifM into iiHffiil iilltri. Sii()|M(i»iii^
tlirrn v>M liy t'liunt'i', mivn n\io, oiki of
tlii'No |iriiiiitivi> urni'Mtnil NtritwIiiTrii'M,
vvliono t't'iM<|)tii('li< wiiH It liltli' iiiorc p>il|>y

tliatl l|l«lllll, Iklul I'OtltllilK'll IkHlllltll <|llltll-

tity of Nll^||ry tinUtor, diicIi nn \n often
foiMul ill viiriotiM partH of pluntH ; tlicti
it nii^lit liit|ipi'n to uttriM't tlif iittoiition
of Hoiiio liiirij^ry liinl, wliii'li, Ity t>iitin|i{
thu Hoft pulp, would li('l[t ill <liM[K>rNiii|{
tlin ititli^cntihltt frilitlctH. Ah tlii'Nt'
fruitli'ts H|irikiii; up into luMiltliy youiij{
plants, tlii'V Would tend to rcprodut-o
till! pi>(Milia!'ity ill till' Klriii'tiiro of tlin
rt'i'i'titiii'lo whii'li iiiiirkt'd tlm pan'tit

rt'i'i'ptiirl
iitoi'k, III

id Hoinn of tlifiii would prol

i| Idoh-
Iv.-d d.>.

nlily diHpliiy it in ii iiiont tiiar
crcti. Tlu'«« would III) Miini to jjct I'utcii
111 tlii'ir turn, and so to Ixmvmiiu tlio
oi-iL(iiialors of ii Htill nioro pronounced
stniwIii'iTy type. As timo went on, tlio
larKt'st and Hwectest ItcrrioH woiiM eoti-
Mtantly lu; clioKeii \>y the liinls, till the
wholu HoceicH he^an to assuinu itn kx-

istiiii^ cliaracter. Then ptaeh; would

l>e<'onii) softer and wweutor, uiul the
friiitH themselves harder and iimro in-
di<j;i'stilil(! ; lieca.ise, tin tjui oiuj han<l,
all sour «)r hard hcrries would stand a
poorer idianoe of ^cttiii}^ dispcrsod in
jjood situations for their ujrowtli, while,
on thu other hand, all Hoft-shellud
fruitletH would hu };round up and di-
gested l>y the bird, and thus etrectually
pre.ented from ever jfrowint^ into future'
plants. ,lust in like manner, many
tropi(;al nuts havo extravagantly liard
fthells, as only those survivo wliieh ean
successfully defy the teeth and hands of
the clever and persistent monkey.

This accounts for the strawberry boinf?
Rwcet and pulpy, br.t not for its beinj^
rod. Here, however, a similar reason
comes into play. All riponiiiij; fruits
and openinj^ flowers have a natural ten-
dency to ji;row brij^ht red, or purple, or
blue, thouju^h in many of them the ten-
dency is repressed by the dangers ut-
tending brilliant displays of color. This
natural habit depends upon the oxidation
of their tissues, and is exactly analogous
to the assumption of autumn tints by
leaves. If a plant, or part of a plant,
id injured by such a cliango of color,

tlio(i);li b«dni; rendofril niofo rormpleu-

OIIH to ilH foi-M, it NOOll loni'K tlld tl'tl-

doncy under tho inltiietieo of nutiifitt
M'leciion ; in other words, thoHo indi-
\ idiiaU which inoxt display it ^et killed
out, while those which jeaitt diHpluy it
survive and thrive. < >ii the other hiiiul,
if cotiNpicuoiisneNH is un advallllt^e to iho
plant, till) exact opposite happens, and
the tendency becomes developed into a
coiitlrnied habit. Tliis is the case with
the strawberry, as with many otlnr
fruits. The more bright colored the
berry is, the better its chance of yetting
its friiitlets dispersed. Kirds have i|iiick
eyes for ctilor, ((specially for nd and
white ; and tlienfon* almost all eiliblu
berries have assumed one or other of
these two hues. So long as the fruitletH
n main uiirip(!, and would therefore bo
injured by being eaten, the pulp remaitiH
Hvur, gre<>n, and iiar«l ; but aH noon !iM
they have l>ecom(t tit for dispersion it
gr*)ws soft, tills with sugary juice, uml
ac(|uires its ruddy outer tfesh. Then
the birds see and recMignize it as edible,
and govern themselves ac(!()rdingly.

Jlut if this is the genesiHof till! struw-
berry, asks somebody, why have not all
the potentillas and the whole strawberry
tribe also beetxne berries of the same
type ? Why are there still potentilla
fruit-dusters whicli consist of groups of
dry seeddiko nuts? Ay, there's the
rub. Science cannot answer as yet.
After all, these ipu'stions are still in
their infancy, and we can scarcely yet
do mort, than discover a single stray in-
terpretation hero and there. Ii. the
present case a botanist can only suggest
either that the potentilla finds its own
mode of dis[)ersion o(pially well adapted
to its own peculiar circumstances, or
else that the lucky accident, the casual
combination of circumstances, which
produced the first elongation of the re-
ceptacle in the strawberry has never
happened to befall its more modest kins-
folli. For on such occsisional freaks of
nature the whole evolution of new vari-
eties entirely depends. A gardener may
raise a thousand seedlings, and only ono
or none among them may present a
single new and important feature. So
a species may vrait for a thousand years.

TIIK F.VOI.f'TloNIHT AT I.AROE

[Ml 7

or forrvor, lu-forn Itn rlrriiiiiMinii'Pit [ (i^niii«l tint lritrinl<T with llio unmn
Imppfii III |iriH|iii-i< till* tlrot Mti'i) ImwukI j •ttrikiiii; uniininiify n<« tin- m<mt iini'ii'tit

xiiriii' ilrHiMlih' iiii|ir<iv«>r.ictit. <>iii>i\
tm pi'tiil iiuiy 1)0 iiiviiliial)li< to a !l\i-
ruyiol tti)Wi>r an i'tT<'i'tiii({ xiiinc iiiiiiii>hMi>
NHviii;; nf pollfii in itH fcrtili/aiioti ;
mill yt't tln« " «|>i»rt" wliii-h xlmll j^ivt«
it tliin Hixtli ruy iruiy iii>vi>r ucriir, or
rtiikv Ixt troililt'ii iliiwii ill tiio tiiiro iitnl
duHtroyutl l>y it piiMHiiii^ cow,

III.

IN MI-MMKU riKt.llli.

Ctriip nni\ I liiivi> i-dnn' oiii furtunorn-

in^ Htroll llllintii; flic (•|(i«*t'-iT<i|»pr(| piiM-

i\ui\ i<\iu>t\vu I fiiw«. lli'iH'o I am

ilii'liii<*il to KiiHp«'i't ihiit till' aiitipiitliy
• lofM iii'tiially I'l'ptitlt fniiii a vatfiu'ly in*
lu>rit«'i| iimtitii-t lii'rix'il frniii tlii> iliiy%
mIii'm tlii> aiii'i-Htor of our kim* wmh n
wilil Itiill, aiiij tin* lUH'i'Htor of our ||o^M
a wolf, on till" wide fon'>»t.i'lai| plaiiin of
('•'iitral Kiiropc. \Vlii>n i» com pntn up
iU tiiil nt *'\ii\\t of II (li)^ fnti'riiiv( it*
pailiiock at tlii> pri'Mi-nt ilay, it liai* prolu
alily Hoiiiit ijiiii iiiHtin'tivc I'rinti'ioiiNrii'Aii
that it KtumU in tlii> pri-»t>nci> of i\
liari^i-roiis liiTi'ilitary foi- ; ami us tlio
wolv«>H i-diilil only m'izi' witli Nat'i'ty n
Hini;li> iMolatril wilil Inill, ko tlio cowii
now iiHiiallv iiiiilv 'niin'M lanti' ii/aiiiHt

iiii.'iniiiiitv, till liiHtiiil lliwilly ilitappi'arx
iindt'r tlio opposite jfato. Siidi iii.
Iii>riti>i| antipatliicM kociii I'onmion ami

natural moip^'li. I'.viry >*\ ir-* known

and dreadH tlio ordinary ('iiciiMrt of its
rai'c. Mico Hi-ninpor away from tlio
vi-ry Mriu'll of a oat. ^^lllnl; chickonn
run to tlio kIh Iter of tlirir iimtlior'H
wiiiifH wlion tlio shadow of a hawk
paxsos ovor their heiuU. Mr. |)arwin
liiit a stiiall Hiiake into a pikper ha;;,

tiiroH lieHido the hook, ill tho very oontro

t>f oiir ^^rooii little dini^le. Hero [ ran

nit, UH \n my wont, on a dry knoll, n\\i\ jthe intnidiiii; do;;, tnrnini; their hea<U

watoli tho hirdn, hoa^tH, inMoot«, and I in ono dirootioii with very iinwonted

liorltH of tho field, while < trip H irs the

plaoo in (ivery direetion, intent, no

doiiht, upon those more praetieal ohjeetn

— mostly rats, I fancy — which poMsesH a

conufonial iiitorost for the catiino inti-lli-

goniM'. From my »!oi|;ii of vantaifo on

tliu knoil I can tako care that he inllictH

no griovouH hodily injury u[)on the

Hhoop, and that ho rocoivcH none from

the (piiek-teiiipered cow with the hrass-

knohhed horns. l<'or a kind of aiH'os-

tral foiid ceems to Hiiioulder forever ' which ho t;avc to the iiioiikeyH at tho

hctwoon (trip and tho wholo rice of j Zoo ; and oiiu monkey after another

kino, hroiikin;^ out every now and then ' opened tho ha'^, looki'd in upon tho

into open warfare, which oalls for my ' deailly foe of tho i|uadrumanous kind,

prompt intorforonco, in an attituilo of and promptly dropped the whole pack-

urmod hut lienovolent neutrality, iiK-rely i a^ro with every ucsturo of horror ami

dismay. Mven man himself — tliout;h
his instincts havu all weakened ho
'greatly with the tfrowth of his more
pl;istic, intelli;;cn(!o, adapteil to a wider
:ind more moditiaMo set of oxtornal rir-
eumstances — seems to rebiin a vatjuo
and oriijinal terror of the surpontino
form.

If wo think of pandlel cases, It is not
curious that .'Mrmials should thus in-
stinctively recoi^nizo tlioir natural cne-
mios. Wo aro not surprised that they
reoojjnizo their own fellows : and yot
thoy must do so hy means of somo
ociually stranjjo nntonuitio and inherited
mechanism in their nervous system.
One butterHy can teli its mates nt once
from a tlioii.<:and other species, though

for tho friendly purpose of kciopin;; the
pence.

This anciontfoud, T ima;;ino, is roally
ancestral, and dates many ai;es farther
back in time than (jrri|>'s individual ox-
perietioos. (^tws hate doi;s instinct.
ively, from their oaiTiost calfhood up-
ward. I used to doiiht oni'c! uiion a
time whether the hatred was not of
artificial orijjin and wholly induced hy
tho inveterate huiiuin hahit of oirM;in<;
on every dot? to worry evciry other an-
imal tliac comes in its way. lint 1
tried a mild experiment one day hy
putting a half-grown town-hrod puppy
into a small inclosuro with some
hitherto nn worried calves, and thoy all
turned to make a common lieadway

8 [66]

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAROE.

it iiiny differ from some of tlicm only
Ity n Hinj^lo spot or iirus whioli would
escape tlie notice of nil but the most at-
tentive observers. Must we not con.
elude tliat tliero are elements in the
butterfly's feeble brain exactly answer-
inji to tlio blank picture of its specific
type ? So, too, nuist we not suppose
that in every race of animals there
arises n pcreepti''e structure specially
adopted to the recofjnition of its own
kind ? J>abies notice human faces lonp;
bofojo they n.)tico any other living
thing. In like manner we know that
most creatures can judge instinctively
of their proper food. One young bird
just fledged naturally pecks at red ber-
ries ; another exhibits an untaught de-
sire to chase down grasshoppers ; a
third, which happens to be born an
ovi, turns at once to the congenial pur-
suit of small sparrows,«mice, an'i frogs.
Each species seems to have certain fac-
ulties so arranged that the sight of cer-
tain external objects, frequently con-
nected with food in their ancestral ex-
perience, immediately arouses in them
the appropriate actions for its capture.
Mr. Douglas Spahiing found that newly-
liatched chickens darted rapidly and
accurately at flies on the wing. When
we rcool.'ect that even so lato an acqui-
sition as articulate speech in human
beings has its special j)hysical seat in
the brain, it is not astonishing that com-
pli(!ated mechanisms should have arisen
among animals for the due perception
of mates, food, and foes respeci-ively.
Thus, doubtless, the serpent form has
imprinted itself indelibly on the senses
of monkeys, and the wolf or dog
form on those of cows : so that even
with a young ape or calf the sight of
these their ancestral enemies at once
calls up uneasy or terrified feelings in
their half-developed minds. Our own
infants in arms have no personal experi-
ence of the real meaning to be attached
to angry tones, yet they shrink from
the sound of a gruff voice even before
they have learned to distinguish their
nurse's face.

When Grip gets among the sheep,
their hereditary traits come out in a
very different manner. They arc by

nature and descent timid mountain ani-
mals, and they have never been accus-
tomed to face a foe, as cows and buffa-
loes arc wont to do, especially when in
a herd together. You cannot we many
traces of the original mountain life
among sheep, and yet there are still a
few remaining to mark their real jtedl-
gree. Mr. IlcrbertS^yenccrhas noticed
the fondness of hunbs for frisking on a
hillock, liowevcr small ; and when I
come to my little knoll liere, I generally
find it occupied by a couple, wlio rush
away on my upproacli, but take their
stand instead on tlie merest ant-hill
which they can find in the field. I once
knew three young goats, kids of a
mountain breed, and the only elevated
object in the paddock where thej'' were
kept was a single old elm stump. For
the j)08Scssion of this stump the goats
fought incessantly ; and the victor
would proudly perch himself on the top,
with all four legs inclined inward (for
the wliole diameter of the tree was but
some fifteen inclies), maintaining him-
self in his place with the greatest diflR-
culty, and butting at his two brothers
until at last he lost liis balance and fell.
This one old stump was the sole repre-
sentative in their limited experience of
the rocky pinnacle upon which their
forefathers kept watch like sentinels ;
and their instinctive yearnings prompted
them to perch themselves upon the only
available m.-rnento of their native
haunts. Thus, too, but in a dimmer
and vaguer way, the sheep, especially
during his younger days, loves to revert,
so far as his small opportunities permit
him, to the unconsciously remembered
;iabits of his race. But in mountain
countries, every one must have noticed
how the sheep at once becomes a differ-
ent being. On the Welsh hills lie casts
away all the dull and heavy serenity of
his brethren on the South Downs, and
displays once more the freedom, and
even the comparative boldness, of a
mountain breed. A Merionethshire
ewe thinks nothing of running up one
side of a low-roofed barn and down the
other, or of clearing a stone wall which
a Leicestershire farmer would consider
extravagantly high.

ntnln nni-
!('n acoiis-
»iui Imffa-
f Wiii-n in
SCO many
itain lifo
aru Htill a
real jtc'di-
is noticed
kin^ on a
I when I
generally
wlio nisli
akc their
t ant-hill
I. I once
ids of a
elevated
thej'^ were
lip. For
the goats
he vic+or
n the top,
vard (for
e was but
ing him-
test diffi-
brothcra
and fell.
>le repre-
rience of
ich their
entinels ;
Tompted
the only
native
diminer
specially

0 revert,
s permit
embered
lountain

noticed
a differ-
he casts
enity of
ns, and
im, and
s, of a
ethshire

up one
)wn the

1 which
oDsIder

TTIE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAUOE.

[07] 0

Another mountain trait in the stereo-
typed character <>i sheep is their well-
known RO(juaciousness. When Grip
runs after thetn they all run away
together : if one goes through a certain
gap in the hedge, every other follows ;
and if the loader jumps the beck at a
certain spot, every iamb in the flock
jumps in the self-samo place. It is
said that if you hold a stick for the first
sheep to leap over, and then withdraw
it, all the succeeding sheep will leap
with mathematical accuracy at the cor-
responding point ; and this habit is
usually held up to ridicule as proving
the utter stupidity of the whole race.
It really proves nothing but the good-
ness of their ancestral instincts. For
mountain animals, accustomed to follow
a leader, that leader being the bravest
and strongest ram of the flock, must
necessarily follow him with the most
implicit obedience, lie alone can see
whj>t obstacles come in the way ; and
each of the succeeding train must watch
and imitate the actions of their prede-
cessors. 0;herwise, if the flock hap-
pens to come to a chasm, running as
they often must with some speed, any
individual which stopped to look and
decide for itself before leaping would
inevitably be pushed over the edge by
those behind it, and so would lose all
chance of handing down its cautious
and sceptical spirit to any possible de-
scendants. On the other hand, those
uninquiring and blindly obedient ani-
mals which simply did as thoy saw
others do would both survive themselves
and become the parents of future and
similar generations. Thus there would
be handed down from dam to lamb a
general tendency to so(}uaciousness — a
follow - my - leader spirit, which was
really the best safeguard for the race
against the evils of insubordination, still
so fatal to Alpine climbers. And now
that our sheep have settled down to a
tame and monotonous existence on the
downs of Sussex or the levels of the
Midlands, the old instinct clings to
thera still, and speaks out plainly for
their mountain origin. There are few
things in nature more interesting to
notice than these constant survivals of

instinctive habits in altered ciroum-
staiuH's. They are to the mental lifo
what ruditnentary organs are to the
bodily structure : they remind us of an
older Older of things, just as the abor-
tive legs of the blind-worm show us that
ho was once a lizard, and the hidden
shell of the slug that he was once a
snail.

I\.

A 8PRI0 OF WATER CROWFOOT.

The little streamlet whoso tiny
ranges and stickles form the middle
thread of this green comlto in the Dor-
set downs is just at present richly clad
with varied foliage. Tall spikes of the
yellow flag rise above the slow-flowing
pools, while purple loose-strife over-
hangs the bank, and bunches of the
arrowhead stand high out of their
watery home, just unfolding their pretty
waxen white flowers to the air. In the
rapids, on the other hand, I find the
curious water crowfoot, a spray of
which I have this moment pulled out of
the stream and am now holding in my
hand as I sit on the little stone bridge,
with my legs dangling over the pool
below, known to me as the undoubted
residence of a pair of trout. It is a
queer plant, this crowfoot, with its two
distinct types of leaves, much cleft be-
low and broad above ; and I often won-
der why so strange a phenomenon has
attracted such very scant attention.
But then wo knew so little of lifo in
any form till the day before yesterday
that perhaps it is not surprising wo
should still have left so many odd prob-
lems quite untouched.

This problem of the shape of leaves
certainly seems to me a most important
one ; and yet it has hardly been even
recognized by our scientific pastors and
masters. At best, Mr. Herbert Spen-
cer devotes to it a passing short chap-
ter, or Mr. Darwin a stray sentence.
The practice of classifying plants main-
ly by means of their flowers has given
the flower a wholly factitious and over-
wrought importance. Besides, flowers
are so pretty, and we cultivate them so
largely, with little regard to the leaves,

10 [08J

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAUOE,

tlint tlioy liave coino to usurp almost
tlio entire interest of hotiwiists and hor-
ticulturists Jiliko. Darwinism itself has
only hpi<;htenc(l tiiis exclusive interest
by callin<^ attention to the reitiprooal re-
lations which exist between the honey-
bearinjij blossom an<l the fertilizina; in-
sect, the bri},'ht-colorod petals an-i the
myriad facets of the butterfly's eyo.
Yet the leaf is after all the real plant,
and the flower is but ii sort of after-
thoujulit, an embryo colony set apart
for the propagation of like plants in fu-
ture. Kach loaf is in truth a separate
individual organism, united with many
others into a compound community, but
possessing in full its own mouths and
digestive organs, ami carrying on its
own life to a great extent independently
of the rest. It may die without detri-
ment to them ; it may be lopped oflf
with a few others as a cutting, and it
continues its life-cycle quite uncon-
cerned. An oak tree in full foliage is
a magnificent group of such separate in-
dividuals— '. whole nation in miniature:
it may be compared to a branched coral
polypedom covered witli a thousand lit-
tle inse<'t workers, while each leaf an-
swers rather to the separiite polypes
themselves. The leaves are even capa-
ble of producing new individuals by
what tlu^y contribute to the buds on
every branch ; and the seeds which the
tree as a whole produces are to be
looked upon rather as the founders of
fresh colonics, like the swarms of bees,
than as resh individuals alone. Every
plant community, in short, both adds
new members to its own commonwealth,
and sends off totally distinct germs to
form new commonwealths elsewhere.
Thus the leaf is, in truth, the central
reality of the whole plant, while the
flower exists only for the sake of send-
ing out a shipload of young emigrants
every now and then to try their for-
tunes in some unknown soil.

The wliole life-business of a 1 af is,
of course, to eat and grow, just ; - these
same functions form the whole li.o-busi-
ness of a caterpillar or a tadpole. But
the way a plant cats, we all know, is
by taking carbon and hydrogen from
air and water under the influence of

nunlight, and building them np into
appropriate compounds in its own body.
(Certain little green worms or convo-
tuta have the same habit, and live for
the most ])art cheaply of! sunlight,
making starch out of carbonic acid and
water by means of their inclose<l cldo-
rophyl, exactly as if they were leaves.
Now, as this is what n leaf has to do,
its form will almost entirely depend up-
on the way it is affected by "unlight and
the elements around it — except, indeed,
in so far as it may be called upon to per-
form other functions, such as those of
defence or defiance. This crowfoot is
a good example of the results produced
by such agents. Its lower leaves, which
grow under water, arc minutely subdi-
vided into little branching lance - like
segments ; while its upper ones, Avhich
raise their heads above the surface, arc
broad and united, like the common
crowfoot type. How am I to account
for these peculiarities ? I fancy some-
how thus :

Plants wliich live habitually under
water almost always have thin, long,
pointed leaves, often thrcad-liko or
mere waving filaments. The reason for
this is plain enough. Gases are not
very abundant in water, as it only liolds
in solution a limited quantity of oxygen
and carbonic acid. 13oth of these the
plant needs, though in varying quanti-
ties : the carbon to build up its starch,
and the oxygen to use up in its growth.
Accordingly, broad and large leaves
would starve under water : there is not
material enough diffused through it for
them to make a living from. But
small, long, waving leaves which can
move up and down in the stream would
manage to catch almost every passing
particle of gaseous matter, and to util-
ize it under the influence of sunlight.
Hence all plants which live in fresh
water, and especially all plants of high-
er rank, have necessarily acquired such
a type of leaf. It is the only form in
which growth can possibly take place
under their circumstances. Of course,
however, the particular i)attern of leaf
depends largely upon the ancestral
form. Thus this crowfoot, even in its
submerged leaves, preserves the general

arran^;
mon tl
the eri

nontl)1
are laif
[ilossol
hang
rocky]
butter
have
mostl}
One ol
stress I
the lil
ing p

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAUOE.

[00] 11

1 np into
own l)()(ly.
i>r con vo-
id live for
Hunlifjlit,

0 acid and
osed olilo-
sro loaves.
iHH to do,
enond np-
iiliglit and
t, indeed,
on to per-

thosc of

•OWfoOt 18

produced
ca, which
;ly suhdi-
ince -like
es, wliich
rface, arc
conunon
• account
cy some-

\y under

in, long,

1-liko or

[?ason for

are not

Illy holds

" oxygen

hese the

qiianti-

starch,

growth.

leaves

re is not

fh it for

1. But

ich can

n would

passing

to util-

mlight.

1 fresh
f high-
ed suoh
"orni in
i place
course,
of leaf
icestral
1 in its
general

arrangement of rihs and leaflets com-
mon to the w.iolo buttorr ^i tribe. Tor
the crowfoot family is a large and emi-
nently a«l;iptablo race. Some of them
are lariv>piii's and similar queerly-shaped
oIoHsums ; others are columbines which
hang their complicated bells on dry and
rocky hillsides ; but the larger part are
buttercups or marsh marigoldf which
have simple cup-shaped flowers, and
mostly frequent low aivd marshy ground.
One of these typical crowfoots under
stress of circumstances — inundation, or
the like — took once upon a time to liv-
ing pretty permanently in the water.
As its native meadows grew deeper and
deeper in flood it managed from year
to year to assume a more nautical life.
So, while its leaf necessarily remained
in general structure a true crowfoot
leaf, it was naturally compelled to split
itself np into thinner and narrower seg-
ments, each of which grew out in tlie
direction where it could And most stray
carbon atoms, and most sunlight, with-
out interference from its neighbors.
This, I take it, was the origin of the
much-divided lower leaves.

But a crowfoot could never live per-
manently under water. Seaweeds and
their like, which propagate by a kind
of spores, may remain below the sur-
face forever ; but flowering plants for
the most part must come up to the
open air to blossom. The sea-weeds
are in the same position as fish, original-
ly developed in the v/ater and wholly
adapted to it, whereas flowering plants
are rather analogous to seals and whales,
air-breathing creatures, whose ancestors
lived on land, and who can themselves
manage an aquatic existence only by
frequent visits to the surface. So some
flowering water-plants actually detach
their male blossoms altogether, and let
them float loose on the top of the
water ; while they send up their female
flowers by means of a spiral coil, and
draw them down again as soon as the
wind or the fertilizing insects have car-
ried the pollen to its proper receptacle,
so as to ripen their seeds at leisure be-
neath the pond. Similarly, you may
see the arrowhead and the water-lilies
sending up their buds to open freely in

the air, or loll at ease upon the surface
of the stream. Thus the crowfoot, too,
cannot blossom to any purpose below
the water ; and as sufh among its an-
cestors as at first tried to do so must of
course have failed in producing any
seed, they and their kind have died out
forever ; while only those lucky indi-
viduals whose (rhanco lot it was to grow
a little taller and weedier than the rest,
and so overtop the stream, have hand-
ed down their race to our own time.

But as soon as the crowfoot finds it-
self above the level of the river, all the
causes which made its leaf like those
of other aquatic plants have ceased to
operate. The luiw leaves which sprout
in the air meet with abundance of car-
bon and sunlight on every side ; and
we know that plants grow fast just in
proportion to the supply of carbon.
They have pushed their way into an
unoccupied field, and they may thrive
apace without let or hindrance So,
instead of splitting np into little lance-
like leaflets, they loll on the surface,
and spread out broader ajid fuller, like
the rest of their race. The leaf be-
comes at once a broad type of crowfoot
leaf. Even the ends of the submerged
leaves, when any fall of the water in
time of drought raises them above the
level, have a tendency (as I have often
noticed) to grow broader and fatter,
with increased facilities for food ; but
when the whole leaf rises from the first
to the top the inherited family instinct
finds full play for its genius, and the
blades fill out as naturally as well-bred
pigs. The two types of leaf remind one
much of gills and lungs respectively.

But above water, as below it, the
crowfoot remains in principle a crow-
foot still. The traditions of its race,
acquired in djimp marshy meadows,
not actually under water, cling to it yet
in spite of every change. Born river
and pond plants which rise to the sur-
face, like the water-lily or the duck-
weed, have broad floating leaves that
contrast strongly with the waving fila-
ments of wholly submerged species.
They can find plenty of food every-
where, and as the sunlight falls flat up-
on them, they may as well spread out

13 [70]

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAUOE.

tliit to catch tlio sunlijjht. No other
elbowing pIimtM overtop tlioin and ap'
propriato the rays, ko coinpelling them
to run up a useless waste of stem in or-
der to poeket their fair share of the
jjjolden Hood. Moreover, they thus save
tile needless expense of a stout leaf-
stalk, as the water supports their lollinj;
leaves and blossoms ; while the broad
shade which they cast on the bottom
below prevents the undue competition
of other species. But the crowfoot,
being by descent a kind of buttercup,
has taken to the water for a few imn-
dred generations only, while the water-
lily's ancestors have been to the man-
ner born for millions cf years ; and
therefore it liappens that the crowfoot
is at heart but a meadow buttercup
still. One glance nt its simple little
flower will show you that in a moment.

V.

8LU0S AND SNAILS.

lIoEiNO among the flower-bods on
my lawn this morning — for I am a bit
of a gardener in my way — I have had
the ill-luck to maim a poor yellow slug,
who had hidden himself among the en-
croaching grass on the edge of my lit-
tle parterre of sky-blue lobelias. This
unavoidable wounding and hacking of
worms and insects, despite all one's
care, is no small drawback to tlie pleas-
ures of gardening in propria persona.
Vivisection for genuine scientific pur-
poses in responsible hands, one can
understand and tolerate, even though
lacking the heart for it one's self ; but
the useless and causeless vivisection
which cannot be prevented in every or-
dinary piece of farm-work seems a gra-
tuitous blot upon the face of benefi-
cent nature. My only consolation lies
in the half-formed belief that feeling
among these lower creatures is indefi-
nite, and that pain appears to affect them
far less acutely than it affects warm-
blooded animals. Their nerves are -"o
rudely distributed in loose knots all
over the body, instead of being closely
bound together into a single central
system as with ourselves, that they can
scarcely possess a consciousness of pain

at al! analogous to our own. A wa^p
whose head has been severed from its
body and stuck upon a pin, will still
greedily suck up honey with its throat-
less mouth ; wliilo an Italian numtis,
similarly treated, will calmly continue
to hunt and dart at midges with its de-
capitated trunk and limbs, (juito for-
getful of the fi'ot that it has got no
nuindibles left to eat them with. These
peculiarities lead one to hope that in-
sects may feel pain less than wo fear.
Yet I dare scarcely utter the hope, lest
it should lead any thoughtless hearer to
act upon the very (juestionablo belief,
as they say even the amiable enthusi-
asts of Port Iloyal acted upon the doc-
trine that animals were mere uncon-
scious automata, by pushing their theory
to the too practical length of active
cruelty. Let us at least give the slugs
and beetles the benefit of the doubt.
People often say that science makes
men unfeeling : for my own part, I
fancy it makes them only the more hu-
mane, since they are the belter able
dimly to figure to tliemselvcs the pleas-
ures and pains of humbler beings as
they really are. The man of science
perhaps realizes more vividly than all
other men the inner life and vague
rights even of crawling worms and ugly
earwigs.

I will take up this poor slug whose
mishap has set me preaching, and put
him out of his misery at once, if mis-
ery it be. My hoe has cut through the
soft flesh of the mantle and hit against
the little embedded shell. Very few
people know that a slug has a shell, but
it has, though quite hidden from
view ; at least, in this yellow kind —
for there are other sorts which have got
rid of it altogether. I am not sure
that I have wounded the poor thing
very seriously ; for the shell protects
the heart and vital organs, and the hoc
has glanced off on striking it, so that
the mantle alone is injured, and that
by no means irrecoverably. Snail flesh
heals fast, and on the whole I shall be
justified, I think, in letting him go.
But it is a very curious thing that this
slug should have a shell at all ! Of
course it is by descent a snail, and, in-

deed,

twoen

ence t

trace

tions

perfec

interii

only a

tween

kinds,

snail,

and

comfo

tackei

door

themsi

winkle

do. i

en am

places,

1. A wasp
p(l from its
n, will Htill
I it8 tiiroat-
an iiiaiitiH,
y coiitinuo
with its (lo-
(juito for-
ms {jot no
ith. Tlieso
po tliat in-
n wo ftar.
) hope, lest
IS hearer to
iblo belief,
le enthusi-
)n the doc-
[!re uiicon-
hcir theory
of active
3 the slugs
ho doubt,
ice makes
n part, I
! more hu-
>eitcr able
the pleas-
beings as
science
y than all
nd vague
and ugly

ug whose
and put
, if mis-
rough the
it against
V^ery few
shell, but
en from
' kind —
have got
not sure
|)or thing
protects
the hoc
so that
and that
nail flesh
shall be
him go.
that this
all ! Of
and, in-

TIIE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAUOB.

[71) 18

deed, there arc very few ditTereiiccs be-
tween the two races except in the prcs.
ence or absence of ii house. Vou may
trace u curiously complete set of grada-
tions between the perfect snail and the
perfect slug in this respect ; for all the
interiiiediate forms still survive with
only an almost imperceptible gap be-
tween each species mid tlie next. Some
kinds, like the common brown garden
snail, have comparatively small bodies
and big shell.*, so that they can retire
comfortably within them when at-
tacked ; and if they only had a lid or
door to their houses they could shut
themselves up hermetically, as peri-
winkles and similar mulluska actually
do. Other kiiids, like the pretty gold-
en amber-snails which fretpient marshy
places, have a body much too big for
its house, so that they cannot possibly
retire within their shells completely.
Then come a number of intermediate
species, each with progressively smaller
and thinner shells, till at length we
reach the testacella, which has only a
sort of limpet-shaped shield on his tail,
80 that he is generally recognized as be-
ing the first of the slugs rather than
the hist of the snails. You will not
find a testacella unless you particularly
look for him, for he seldom comes
above ground, being a most bloodthirsty
subterraneous carnivore who follows the
burrows of earthworms as savagely as a
ferret tracks those of rabbits ; but in
all the southern and western counties
you may light upon stray specimens if
you search carefully in damp places
under fallen leaves. Even in testaceihe,
however, the small shell is still external.
In this yellow slug here, on the con-
trary, it does not show itself at all, but
is buried under the closely wrinkled
skin of the glossy mantle. It has be-
come a mere saucer, with no more
symmetry or regularity than an oyster-
shell. Among the various kinds of
slugs, you may watch this relic or rudi-
ment gradually dwindling further and
further towards annihilation ; till final-
ly, in the great fat black slugs which
appear so plentifully on the roads after
summer showers, it is represented only
by a few rough calcareous grains, scat-

tered up and down through the man-
tle ; and sometimes eveti these are
wanting. The organs which used to
secrete the shell in their remote ances-
tors have either ceased to work alto-
gether or are reduced to performing a
useless ofHco by mere organic routitie.

The reason why some mollusks have
thus lost their shells is clear enough.
Shells are of two kinds, calcareous and
horny, lioth of theuj recjuire more or
less lime or other mineral matters,
though in varying proportiotis. Now,
the snails which thrive best on the bare
chalk downs behind my little combo
belong to that pretty banded black-and-
white sort which everybody nmst have
noticed feeding in abundance on all
chalk soils. Indeed, Sussex farmers
will lell you that South Down mutton
owes its excellence to these fat little
mollusks, not to the scanty herbage of
their thin pasture-lands. The jiretty
banded shells in question are almost
wholly composed of lime, which the
snails can, of course, obtain in any re-
♦piired quantity from the chalk. In
most limestone districts you will simi-
larly find that snails with calcareous
shells predominate. But if you go into
a granite or sandstone tract you will see
that horny shells have it all their own
way. Now, some snails with such
houses took to living in very damp and
marshy places, which they were natu-
rally apt to do — as indeed the land-
snails in a body are merely pond-snails
which have taken to crawling up the
leaves of marsh-plants, and have thus
gradually acclimatized themselves to a
terrestrial existence. We can trace a
perfectly regular scries from the most
aquatic to the most land-loving species,
just as I have tried to trace a regular
series from the shell-beanng snails to
the shell-less slugs. Well, when the
earliest common ancestor of both these
last-named races first took to living
above water, he possessed a horny shell
(like that of the araber-snail), which
his progenitors used to manufacture
from the mineral matters dissolved in
their native streams. Some of the
younger branches descended from this
primeval land-snail took to living ou

14 [72]

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE.

very dry land, nnd when tlicy roadipd
clialky diftrictH niatm fact ii red tlicir
bIicII-^, on an easy and improved princi-
ple, almost entirely out of lime. lint
others took to liviiif^ in njoist and bog-
jjy j)lHet'8, where mineral matter was
rare, and where the Hoil consisted for
the most part of decaying vegotahle
mould, llere they could get little or
no lime, and ho their shells grew suniller
and smaller, in proportion as their
hahits became more decidedly tcrrea-
trial. But 1o the last, as lung as any
shell at all remained, it generally cov-
ered their hearts and other important
organs ; because it would there act ns
a special protection, even after it had
ceased to be of any use for the defence
of the animal's body as a whole. Ex-
actly in the same way men specially
protected their heads and breasts with
helmets and cuirasses, before armor was
used for the whole body, because these
were the places where a wound would
be most dangerous ; and they contin-
ued to cover these vulnerable spots in
the same manner even when the use of
armor liad been generally abandoned.
My poor mutilated slug, who is just
now crawling off contentedly enough
towards the hedge, would have been cut
in two outright by my hoe had it not
been for that solid calcareous plate of
his, which saved his life as surely as
any coat-of mail.

How does it come, though, that slugs
and snails now live together in the self-
same districts ? Why, because they
each live in their own way. Slugs
belong by origin to very damp and
marshy spots ; but in the fierce compe-
tition of modern life they spread them-
selves over comparatively dry places,
provided there is long grass to hide in,
or stones under which to creep, or juicy
herbs like lettuce, among whose leaves
are nice moist nooks wherein to lurk
during the heat of the day. Moreover,
some kinds of slugs are quite as well
protected from birds (such as ducks) by
their nauseous taste as snails are by
their shells. Thus it happens that at
present both races may be discovered in
many hedges and thickets side by side,
but the real home of each is quite differ-

ent. The truest and most snnil-liko
snails are found in greatest abundaneo
upon high chalk-downs, heathy lime*
stone hills, and other comparatively dry
places ; while the truest and most slug*
like slugs are found in greatest abun-
dance among low water-logged mead-
ows, or under the damp fallen leaves of
moist copses. The intermediate kinds
•idiabit the intermediate places. Yet
to the last even the most thorough-
going snails retain a final trace of their
original water- haunting life, in their
imiversal habit of seeking out the cool-
est and moistcst spots of their respective
habitats. The soft-fleshed mollusks aro
all by nature aipuiticaninuds, and noth-
ing can induce them wholly to forget
the old tradition of their marine or
fresh-water existence.

VI.

A STUtr OF BONES.

On the top of this bleak chalk down,
where I am wandering on a dull after-
noon, I light upon the blanched skele-
ton of a crow, which I need not fear to
handle, as its bones have been first
picked clean by carrion birds, and
then finally purified by hungry ants,
time, and stormy weather. I pick a
piece o{ it up in my hands, and find
that I have got hold of its clumped tail-
bone. A strange fragment truly, with
a strange history, which T may well
spell out as I sit to rest a minute upon
the neighboring stile. For this dry
tail-bone consists, as I can sec at a
glance, of several separate vertebrae, all
firmly welded together into a single
piece. They must once upon a time
have been real disconnected jointed
vertebrae, like those of the dog's or
lizard's tail ; and the way in which they
have become fixed fast into a solid mass
sheds a world of light upon the true
nature and origin of birds, as well as
upon many analogous cases elsewhere.

When I say that these bones were
once separate, I am indulging in no
mere hypothetical Darwinian specula-
tion. I refer, not to the race, but to
the particular crow in person. These
very pieces themselves, in their embrj-

TIIK KVOMITIONIST AT LAUdE.

[73J 15

t Rnnil-liko
iilxtiidanco
entliy litiie-
patively dry
I numt Hlug-
iitt'Ht Hbun-
l^iid nu'iid-
.'H Iciivcs of
diatu kindn
laces. Yet
thorough-
icc of their
ft', in their
lit the cool-
r respective
lolhisks arc
, and noth-
y to forget
uiarine or

halk down,
dull aftcr-
;hcd skelc-
not fear to

been first
birds, and
ngry ants,

I pick a

and find
inped tail-
truly, with

may well
nutu upon
• this dry

SCO at a
rtebrse, all

0 a single
on a time
3d jointed

dog's or
vhich they
solid mass

the true
as well as

1 se where,
ones were
ing in no

specula-
ce, but to
n. These
jir enibrj-

1

onlo condition, wore an dintinct m the
individual boneM of the bird's neuk or
of our own Hpiucs. If you were to cx-
ainiiie the chick in the egg you would
find thorn quite diviiU-d. liut as the
young crow grows luoro and riii»ro into
the typical bird-piittcrn, this lizard-like
peculiarity fades away, and the separate
pieces unite by " anastomosis" into a
single " coccygoau l)on('," a;* the oste-
ologists call it. In all our modcni
birds, as in this crow, the vertebne
composing the tail-bone are few in
number, and are soldered together im-
movably in the a(hilt form. It was not
always so, however, with ancestral birds.
The earliest known moinlter of the
class — the famous fossil bird of the
Solenhofen lithographic stone — retained
throughout its whole life a lonij fiexible
tail, composed of twenty iinwelded vor-
tebno, each of which bore a single pair
of (piill-feathers, the predecessors of
our modern pigeon's train. There are
many other marked reptilian peculiari-
ties in this primitive oolitic bird ; and
it apparently possessed true teeth in its
jaws, as its later cretaceous kinsmen dis-
covered by Professor Marsh undoubtedly
did. When we compare side by side
those real flyinir drajxons, the Ptero-
dactyls, together with the very bird-
like Deinosaurians, on the one hand,
and these early toothed and lizard-tailed
birds on the other, we can have no
reasonable doubt in deciding that our
own sparrows and swallows are the re-
mote feathered descendants of an orig-
inal reptilian or half-reptilian ancestor.
Why modopn birds have lost their
lonjr flexible tails it is not difficult to
see. The tail descends to all liigher
vertebrates as an heir-loom from the
fishes, the amphibia, and their other
aquatic predecessors. With those it is
a necessary organ of locomotion in
swimming, and it remains almost
equally useful to the lithe and gliding
lizard on land. Indeed, the snake is
but a Hz ■; who has substituted this
wriggling motion for the use of legs
altogether ; and we can trace a gradual
succession from the four-legged true
lizards, through snake-like forms with
two legs and wholly rudimentary legs.

to the absolutely limbless serpents
themselves. I5ut to tlyinir birdn, on the
contrary, a long bonv tail is only an in-
convenience. All tfiat they need is a
little muH(;iilar knob for the support of
the tail-fe-ithors, whiith thev employ an
a rudder in guiding their flight upward
or downward, to right or ieft. The
elongatcMl waving tail of the Solenhofen
bird, with its single pair of qiiillH, must
have been a comparatively inetfectiial
and clumsy piece of mochaiiisin for
steering an aerial creature through its
novel domain. Accordingly, llie bones
soon grow fewer in number and shorter
in length, while the feathers simultane-
ously arranged themselves side by side
upon the terminal hump. As early as
the time when our tihalk was deposited,
the bird's tail had become what it is
at the present day — a single united
bone, consisting of a few scarcely dis.
tinguishabie crowded rings. This is
the form it assumes in the toothed fos-
sil birds of Western America. Hut, as
if to [)re8erve the memory of their rep-
tilian origin, birds in their embryo
stage still go on producing separate
cautlal vertebnu, only to unite them to-
gether at a later point of their devel-
opment into the typical coccygean bone.
Much the same sort of process has
taken place in the higher apes, and, as
Mr. liarwin would assure us, in man
himself. There the long prehensile tail
of the monkeys has grown gradually
shorter, and, being at last coiled up un-
der the haunches, has finally degenerated
into an insignificant and wholly im-
bedded terminal joint. But, indeed,
we can find traces of a similar adap-
tation to circumstances everywhere.
Take, for instance, the common Eng-
lish amphibians. The newt passes all
its life in the water, and therefore
always retains its serviceable tail as a
swimming organ. The frog in its tad-
pole state is also aquatic, and it swims
wholly by means of its broad and flat
rudder-like appendage. But as its legs
bud out, and it begins to fit itself for a
terrestrial existence, the tail undergoes
a rapid atrophy, and finally fades away
altogether. To a hopping frog on land,
I such a long train would be a useless

10 [74]

TIIK KVOIAITIONIST AT LAHUE.

driif;. wliilo in tho wat«'r Uk wcIiIumI
fi'ot /mil musi'uliir Ii'j^s muko n KatiKfiK;-
tory Hiil).Htittito for till) lost or^aii. fjint
of all, tlio trtH)-frt% loading a Hpi-ciallv
tcrri'Mtrial life, lian no tailpolc at all,
but uMior^c's from tlm o^fj^ in tin* full
fro|^.lik« fliapo. An ho imvor livos in
tho water, ho novor focU tho nut'd of a
tail.

Tho odihle oral* and lohstor nhow uh
nn exactly parallel ciiso UTnonj; crusta-
ceanH. Kveryhody lian noticed that a
crah'H l)ody Ih nrai^tically identical with
n lol>ster'«, only that in the cralt the
l)odv-Het;iiientH are iM'oad and compact,
whim the tail, so conspicuous in its
kiiiHnian, Ih here relatively Htnall and
tuiiked away unobtriiHivoly behind the
lej^s. This ditlercnco in construction
depends entirely npon the habits and
manners of tho two races. The lobster
lives anionfj rocks and ledj^es ; he uses
liis snuill Ic^s but little for locomotion,
but he sj)rinii;s Hurprisinj^ly fast and far
throuj^h the water by a single effort of
liis powerful muscular tail. As to his
big fore-claws, those, we all know, are
organs of prehension and weapons of
offence, not pieces of locomotive
mechanism. llcnce tho edible and
muscular part of a lobster is chiefly to
be fo\ind in the claws and tail, the lat-
ter having naturally tho tirmest and
strongest tlesh. The crab, on the other
hand, lives on the sandy l)ottom, and
walks about on its lesser legs, instead of
swimming or darting through tho water
by blows of its tail, like tlio lobster or
tho still more active prawn and shrimp,
llonce the crab's tail lias dwindled away
to a mere nselesa historical relic, while
tho most important muscles in its body
are those seated in tho network of shell
just above its locomotive legs. In this
case, again, it is clear that the appendage
has disappeared because the owner had
no further use for it. Indeed, if one
looks through all nature, one will find
the philosophy of tails eminently simple
and utilitarian. Those animals that
need them evolve them ; those animals
that do not need them never develop
them ; and those animals that have once
had them, but no longer use them for
practical purposes, retain a mere shriv-

elleil rudiment as a lingering renunls-
cence of their origiiuil habits.

vir.

niiK Mil).

Aktrii last night's rain, the cliffs that
bound the bay have come out in all
their most Itrilliant colors ; so this
morning I am turning my st<'ps seaward,
and wandering along the great ridge of
pebbles whi(;h here breaks the force of
tho Channel waves as tln'y l»eat against
the long line of the ])orset downs.
Our cliffs just at this point are com-
posed of blue lias beneath, with a cap-
[ting of yellow sandstone on their sum-
mits, above whi(;h in a few places tho
layer of chalk that once topped tho
whole country-sidu has still resisted tho
slow wear and tear of unnundxtred cen-
turies. These throe elements give a
variety to the bold and broken bluffs
which is rare along the monotonous
southern es(!arpment of the English
coast. After rain, especially, tho
changes of color on their sides are often
quite startling in their vividness and in-
tensity. To-day, for example, the yel-
low sandstone is tinged in parts with a
deep russet red, contrasting admirably
with tho bright green of the fields above
and the sombre steel-blue of tho lias
belt below. Besides, we have liad so
many landslips along this bit of shore,
that the various layers of rock have in
more than one place got mixed ui) with
one another into inextricable confusion.
The little town nestling in the hollow
behind me has long b||pn famous as
the headquarters of early geologists ;
and not a small proportion of the peo-
ple earn their livelihood to the present
day by " goin' a fossiling." Every
child about the place recognizes am-
monites as " snake-stones ;" while even
the rarer vertebra; of extinct saurians
have acquired a local designation as
" vertorberries." So, whether in search
of science or the picturesque, I often
clamber down in this direction for my
daily stroll, particularly when, as is the
case to-day, the rain has had time to
trickle through the yellow rock, and the
sun then shines full against its face, to

ng rcimniH-

;h.

10 cliffs that
out ill all
H ; HO tliirt
'pssuiiwanl,
rat r'ul^ti of
tlio foroo of
l>fat a^aiiiHt

•Hot (luWIIH.

t arc com-
with a cap-
1 tlicir Hum-

placuH tlio
topped tho
rosiHtod tho
iiliured cen-
L'litH givo a
okon bluffs
inonotonouH
liu Kiij^liHJi
'cially, tho
L'H arc often
loss and in-
»lc, the ycl-
parts with a
; admirahly
fields above
of the lias
avo had so
it of shore,
ck have in
(od up with
3 confusion,
tho hollow

famous as
[geologists ;
of the peo-
the present
." Every
gnizes am-

whilc even
ct saurians
gnation as
er in search
JO, I often
ion for my
n, as is the
id time to
ck, and the
its face, to

TIIK KVOI.ITTIOMST AT I.AWOK

i:.-*! 17

light it up with A rich Itood of goldi-n
ii[)ifiidor.

Tlu' baHO of the cliffs couHistH entirely
of a very soft and plastic blue lias iiiud.
TluN mud cuiitaiiis largo iMiiiibi>rs of
fossils, chictly fliainbt'iod shells, but
mixed with not a few relics of the great
Hwitumiiig anil llying li/ards that
swarmed among the shallow tiats or low
islands of the lias sea. When the blue
mud was slowly accumulating in the
hollows of the aiii'iciit bottom, these
huge saurians formeil practically the
highest ract! of animals then existing
upon earth. Tliero were, it is true, a
few primeval kangaroo- mice and wom-
bats among the rank brushwood of the
mainland ; and there may even have
been a species or two of re|)tili!in birds,
with murderous-looking teeth and long
li/.ard-like tails — descendantrt of those
problematical creatures which printed
their footmarks on the American trias,
and ancestors of the later toothed bird
whose tail-feathers have been naturally
lithographed for us oii the Soleiihofeii
slate. l!ut in spito of such raro ])re-
curaors -jf higher modern typen, the
saurian was in fact th^j real lord of earth
in tho lias ocean.

For biiii dill hU: Iii^h Him flamo, and his

river billowing ran,
And ho felt himself in his priclo to bo

nature's crowing race.

We have adopted an easy and slovenly
way of dividing all rocks into primary,
secondary, and tertiary, which veils
from us the real chronological relations
of evolving life iu the different periods.
Tho lias is rarited by geologists among
the earliest secondary formations ; but
if wo were to distribute all the sedi-
menbtry rocks into ten great epochs,
each representing about ctjnal duration
in time, the lias would really fall in the
tenth and latest of all. So very mis-
leading to the ordinary mind is our ac-
cepted geological nomenclature. Nay,
even commonplace geologists them-
selves often overlook tho real implica-
tions of numy facts and figures which
they have learned to quote glibly enough
in a certain off-hand way. Let mo just
briefly reconstruct tho chief features of
this scarcely recognized world's chro-

nology n« I nit on thi:« n'lcro of fallen
chalk at tho foot of tn(> mouldering
< litT, V, here the stream from tlie meailow
above brought ilown the lu^wcst land-«lip
during the hard frosts of last I>ecem.
ber. First of all, there is the vast lapse
of time represented bv the I.aureiitiaii
roitkh of Canada. These l.aurentiaii
rocks, the oldest in the worM, arc at
least ;to,ooi) feet in thickness, and it
must be allowed that it takes a reason-
able number of years to accumulate such
a mass of solid limestone or clay as that
at the bottom of even the widest
primeval ocean. In these nx-ks there
are nt) fossils, exc» ,/t i' single very
doubtful member of tho very lowest
animal type. I»ut there are indirect
traces of life in tlu' shape of limestone
probably derived fnuii sliells, and (»f
black lead proi»ably derivcil from
plants. All these early deposits have
lieen terribly twisted and contorted by
subsei|Uent convulsions of the earth, and
most of them have been melted down
by volcanic action ; so that we can tell
very little about their original ntate.
Thus the history of life opens for us,
like most other histories, with a i)eriotl
of uncertainty : its origin is lost in tho
distant vistas of time. Still, we know
that there wan such an early period ;
and from the thickness of the rocks
which represent it we may conjecture
that it spread over three out of the ten
great a'oiis into which I liave roughly
divided geological time. Next comes
tho i)eriod known as the Cambrian, and
to it we may similarly assign about two
and a half a-oiis on like grounds. The
Cambrian epoi'h begins with a fair
sprinkling of the lower animals and
plants, presumai)ly <leveloped during
tho preceding age ; but it shows no re-
mains of fish or any other vertebrates.
To tlio Silurian, J)ev()nian, and Car-
boniferous {(criods we may roughly al-
low an a'on and a fraction each ; while
to the whole group of secondary and
tertiary strata, comprising almost all the
best - known Knglish formations — red
marl, lias, oolite, greensand, chalk,
eocene, miocene, pliocene, and drift —
we can only give a single aeon to be di-
vided between them. Such facts will

Ifl f7fll

THK FVOM'TTONIRT AT I.AIKIK.

jHiMIi'icntly "nfffifp«t liow rn»iipfiriitiv«'ly
riKMlirii iiri' nil tln'm* rookn wlu'ii vicwcil
l>V tlx' \ni\\i of '>li almoliitii clirutinlii^v.
>rii\v, llit> tlri«t IIhIm'h do not ot-nir till
tilt' Siliiriiiii — tli.it ']•* to M.iv, in or iiltoiit
till) Hnvcntli ii'oii after tlio lic^inniii^ of
f;<>o|oi;ii'ii| tiiiii'. 'I'lii* tlr^t iiiitiiiiiiuU
iirM foiiiKJ ill till' triiiH, nt tli<^ lM>;;iiiiiiiii;
of tint truth II oil. Ami tln^llrMt known
liirii only iiiukcM itn ii|i|m aniiico in tli<>
oolite, altoiit liiilf way tliroiii;li tliat
latcht tu'rioil. 'I'hin will mIkiw that tlnTo
WHS plfiity of time for their (levejop-
iiient in tlio i'arlicr mn'n. Trtio, wn
liuiHt reckon the intiTval between our-
HelveH ami the dati* of thin Mile iiiiid at
many inillionH of yearH ; hut then we
niilHt reekori the interval Itetween the
lias and the earliest Cainhrian strata at
Koiiui six tiiiioM as iiiiich, an<l hotwecni
the lias and the lowest liaiiretitian lieds
at nearly tcfii times as much. .)ii><t, the
niuui) sort of lt!sseninjx porspertivo exists
in j;eoloi;y as in ordinary history.
Most people look Upon the a;^e liefofe
tlio ^(orlnan eonipiest as a men; hrief
episode of the Kiijilish annals ; yet six
whole centuries elapsed hetweeii tliu
landiii;; of tho real or niythit'al lletij^^t
at KIdistlect and tli(t landing of Wllian.
tlieCJomiueroriit llastiiii^s ; while under
eijilit centuries elapsed hetween tho time
of William the (!on<|ueror and the ac-
cession of (^ueeti Vii'toria. IJiit, just as
most Kiijilish histories jxive far more
Hpacc! to tli(! throe (JctituriessiiKro Kliza-
lietli than to tho eleven centuries which
pre(!eded them, so most hooks on jjeol-
otry uive far more space to the sin^h;
ii'on (eml>racin;jf the secondary and ter-
tiary periods) which comes nearest our
own time, than to the iiinea'ons which
spread from the Ijaurentian U) the Car-
l/oniferoiis epoch. In the earliest |)e-
riod, records either gcoloj^ical or his-
torical are wholly wantin;i; ; i"* tho later
periods they become both more numer-
ous and more varie<l in proportion as
they approach nearer and nearer to our
own time.

So, too, in tho days when Mr. Dar-
win tirst took away the breath of scien-
tific Europe by his startling; thcoricR, it
used confidently to be said that geology
had shown us no intermediate form

botweon upecies and KpoeioK. Kven nt
the time when this axsertion wan orii^-
inally made it wiis <piite untenable.
All early geolojxical forms, (tf whatever
race, beloiii; to what we foolishly call
" yetierali/ed " types : that is to nay,
they jtresent a mixture of featuren now
found separatels in several <lilTerent ani-
iiials. In other words, they represent
early ancestors of all the inotlern fortim,
with peculiariti) s intermediate between
tlios<( of their more, highly ditferentiatt'd
descetulalits ; and hence w«! ought to
call them " uiisp('cialii<:ed " rather than
" generalized " types. For example,
the earliest ancestral horse is partly a
horse aii<l jwirtly a tapir : we may re-
gard him as a tirtium «/iil(/, a middle
term, from which tlui horse has varied
in one direction and the tapir in an-
other, each of tlioin exaggerating cer-
tain special peculiarities of the comnum
ancestor and losing others, in accord-
ance with the eirciinistaiices in which
they have been plaeetl. Science is now
perp«'tually discovering intermediato
forms, many of which compose an un-
broken series between the iinspecialized
an<>estral ty])e and the familiar modern
creatures. Thus, in this very case of
the horse, I'pdessor Marsh has un-
tirthiid a long line of fossil animals
which Iea<l in direct descent from tho
extremely unhorse-like eo(!cne type to
the developoil Arab of our own times.
Similarly with birds. Professor Huxhiy
has shown that there is hardly any gap
between the very bird-like li/ar<ls of
tho lias and the very lizard-liko birds
of tho oolite. Such li^^ks, discovered
afresh every day, are j)erpetual denials
to the old parrot-like cry of " No gco-
lotrical evidence for evolution."

vin.

CUC'.OO-PINT.

In tho b ink which supports tho
hedge, beside this little hanger on tho
Hank of IMack Down, the glossy arrow-
headed leaves of tho common arum
form at this moment beautiful masses of
vivid green foliage. " Cuckoo-pint"
is the pretty poetical old English nanio
for the plant ; but village children know

THE KVOMTTIONIST AT T.AHUF.

t77) 19

Vm'U nl
I wan <>rii{-

iiritfrialtio,
f wliiitcvor
iliNlily cull

JH to »«y,
ktiin'N now
iTcrrnt »ni-

■ rcpri'Mcnt
Icrti forfim,
iv Ix-twocn
TcrcntidUul

>, oilf^llt. to
rather tlinn

■ rxnmplc,
JH jwirtly n
ro may ro-
, )i iiikMIo

lian varii'd
|iir ill an-
ratiiij; ccr-
10 coiiinion
in uc(!or<U
4 in \vlii(-li
•niu! iH now
termed iato
i»H(! an iin-
HfK'ciali/cd
iar modern
ry euHe of
I has iin-
il aninialH

from tho
le ty|)(! to
wn times.
)r Iliixhjy
y any jjap
li/ards of
liku Itirds
[liHCoverod
nl deniulii
' No gco-

>orts tho
iv on tho
wy arrow-
ion arum
masses of
koo-pint"
;lis)i namo
Iron know

it hotter hy tho oqimlly quaint and
faiieiriil titin of *' jord^ and ludieH."
'rh(? arum in not now in Ihnver : it
hlopHoiiii'd tiiiieh (!arli«*r in tho m>aHon,
and its i|iiecr chitttered fruits are jiint at
jiruscnt Hvvi'lliiit; out into rather sha|>o-
leNH little lij^lit ijreen liiillts, preparatory
to asHiiiiiiiiLC the liri^ht eoral-red hue
whieh inakcH them no eonspiciioiiH
niMonj; the hoili^erows jhiriii;; the au-
tiiiiin months. A eiit-and-dry technieal
hotanist would thereforo lit' "o little to
Hay to it in its present stai^e, heeaiise
ho ear«>s only for thtt th)wers and seeds
whieh help him in his dreary elassitiea-
tions, and i^ivo him so s|)lendi<l an op-
portunity for displayini; tho treasures
of his liUtinized terininoloj^y. Hut to
mo the plant itself is tho ct^ntral point
of interest, not tho names (tnoHtly in
had (Jreek) l>y which this or that local
orchid -hunter has ondeavorod to earn
iinmoi'tality,

This arum, for example, pfrows first
from a small hard seed with a sinj^Io
loho or seod-leaf. In the seed there is
a little storu of standi and alliumen laid
up by tho mother-plant, on which the
yoiuiij arum feeds, just a;* truly as tlu'
^^rowiii^ chick feeds on tho white;
which surrounds its native yoik, or as
you and I food on tho similar starches
and alhumons laid l»y for the use of the
youn<( plant in the}j;raiii of wheat, or for
the younu; fowl in tho ejjfj;. Kull-irrown
plants livo by takin]i; in food-stutis from
tho air iinch-r tho intluonco of sunlisiht ;
hut a yoiinj; seedlini^ can no more feed
itsolf than a human bahy can ; and so
food is stored up for it beforehand by
tho parent stock. As tho kernel swells
with heat and moisture, its starches and
nlbiimens jj;ot oxidize<l and proibu^e the
motions and rearrangements of particles
that result in the growth r a new plant.
First a little head rises tr, .vard tho sun-
light and a little root pushes downward
toward the moist soil beneath. The
business of the root is to collect water
for the circulating medium — the sap or
blood of the plant — as well as a few
mineral matters required for its stem
and cells ; but the business of tho head
is to spread out into leaves, which are
the real mouths and stomachs of the

compound organism. For we must
never forget that nil pinnts mainly
grow, not, as most p(>oplo nupposo,
from tlh' earth, but from tlie air. They
are f<»r the most part mere masscH of
carboii'compoiinds, and the carbon in
them <*oiiii's from tht* carbonic acid
ditTuned throu<.;h the atmosphere around,
and is separated by the sunlight acting
in tho leaves. There it mixes with
small iptatitities of hydrogiii and nitro-
gen brought by the roots from noil and
water ; and the stan-hcs or other bodies
thus formetl are then conveyed by tho
sap to the places where they will be ro-
qiiired in tlx; economy of the plant sys«
tein. That Ih the all-im|)ortant fact in
vegetable physiology, just as the diges-
tion ami assimilation of food and tho
circMilution of tho blood are in our own
bodies.

Tho arum, like tho grain of wheat,
has only a single seed-leaf ; whereas
tho pea, as wo all know, has two. This
is the most fundamental ditfereiico
among tlowering |)lants, as it points
back to an early and deep-seate«l mode
of growth, about \vhi(;h they must havi!
split otf from one another millions of
years ago. All tho one-l(d)ed plants
grow with stems like grasses or bam-
boos, formed by single leaves inclosing
another ; all the double lobed plants
grow with stems like an oak, formed of
concentric layers from within outward.
As soon as the arum, with its sprout-
ing head, has raiacid its tirst leaves far
enough above tho ground to reach tho
sunlight, it begins to form fresh starches
and new leaves for itself, and ceases to
bo dependent upon tho store laid up in
its buried lobe. Most seeds acconling-
ly contain just enough material to sup-
[)ort tho young seedling till it is in a
position to shift for itself ; and this,
of course, varies greatly with the habits
and manners of the particular species.
Some plants, too, such as the {)otato,
find their seeds insufficient to keep up
the race by themselves, and so lay by
abundant starches in underground
branches or tubers, for tho use of new
shoots ; and these rich starch recepta-
cles wo ourselves generally utilize aa
food-stuffs, to the manifest detriment

10 [78)

Till EVOI.irTIU.Mttr AT t.AiMK.

of tlio yoiinjj potntM-plunt*, for wlw>"t«»
lii>iii'llt llii'v Mcri> itriuiiiiilly iiitomii'tl.
Wt'll, till' iiriiiii liiiK no Miii'li vikliiikltlo ro-
ii>rv(> iiH tliiit ; it ii «'iirly mni ii|Mtti it<«
own rt'MDiiri'i'ft, iirul no it nltiftM for it<«i'lf
with ri'Noliition. \U \t\\i, uloM)' It'itvuM
Ijrow ii|)ikci>, uitil MODii llll (lilt, not only
witli UTi'i'U i'liloro|>liyl, liitt aUo with ii
•lmr|> itnd |iiinif<'nt (>MH<>ni-« whifh niiik)'<«
them liiiiii till' mouth liko I'liycnno |m'|i-

IM>r, Tlii* iirriil jiiiro \\m Im'cii iii'i|iiircil
ly tho |)liint IIH II tli'fiMii'u ii^iiiiiHt itn
•neniioA. Soriii< <>iirly iinocHtor of thi*
nriunN mntt liavc Ihm'ii liuMi' to i-oiiHiunt
iittiirkn fruiii niiiliitN, j^oiits, or other
hcriiivoroMH iiniiniiU, lunl it Iuih iiilopt-
oil this inciitiH of ri'(M'Hiti|; thoir ml
vnnrt'H. In otlii-r wonU, tliosc iininis
Mfhit'h worn nioHt |iiiliitiiM<' to tho nih-
bitn itot I'liti'n up mill ili'stroyi'il, wliilf
thoMc whirli \M>ri' ii!iHtii!Ht hiirvivi'il, iiml
hiimli'il <lown thi'ir |tiinj,;«'ni;y to fiituri'
(Ji'iii'riitioii-*. .lust in tin; >*!iiiii' way iii't-
tli'H liiivi' iici|uirnl tlicir stini( imil this-
tlt'K llii'ir |»ri»'l:l»'M, which fflli-it'iilly pro-
ti'i'l tlii'in iiu'iiitiHt all lii'riiivori'?*, cxrcpi
the patit-'iit, liiiiijfry donkoy, who )jjriiti'.
fully accepts tlioiii iih n Hort of miicf

l>i(/H(ntfl' to tllO HUl'fulrllt HtcUH.

Ami now till! arum licj^inn its jxrciit
preparations for the at!t of tlowerini;.
Kvcryhody known the general nhape of
the arum hlossom — if not in our own
purple eui'koo-pint, at leiiHt in the bi^
white " I'Uhiopian lilies" wliieh form
Miii;h freijuent ornameiitHof eottai^e win-
down. (Mearly, this is ii llower which
the plant eannot proiluee without lay-
iiii; u[> a ^;uo(l stock of material hefore-
hieid. So its .sets to work acciimulat-
ii starch in its root. This starch it
n .nufactures in its leaves, ami then
buries deep undiT ijirouml in ii tuber, by
means of the sap, so us to Hoouro it
from the attacks of rodents, who too
freipicntly appropriate to themselves
the food intendod by plants for (»thi;r

I)urposps. If you examine the tuber
xiforc the arum has blossomed, you will
find it hiru^o and nolid ; but if you di^
it up in tho autumn after the Heeds have
ripened, you will see that it is tlaceid
and drained ; all its starches and other
contents have gone to make up the
flower, the fruit, and tho stalk which

boro them. Hut the tubor hri« n fur*
ther protectiitn ii;;ain'«t eiiemien benideH
itn deep iinderuroiind nonitiott. It con-
tain* an acrid juice like that of the
leaven, which Niitllcicutl v ^llarlU it
itk^ainut foiir-fooleil depreiiatorN. Man,
however, that mo-^t per»»i>«tent of pemo-
eiitor<«, ban found out a way to Neparatn
till' juice from the Ntarch ; and in St.
Helena the bi^ white uriiiii H culti>
vated an u fond plant, and yieldn the
meal in coiiiniou use aiiioii^ the in-
lial>itiint<4.

When the aruin has laid by vnoui^h
ntarch to make a tbiwer it be^^i m to neiid
up a tall ntalk, on the top >f which
^rown the curiou-4 liDoded blosiom '
known to bn one of tho earlii'st forms
ntill niirvivini; upon earth. Hut now its

object is to attract. Hot to repel, the
animal world ; for it is an inscct-fertib
ized tlower, and it reipiires the aid of
nmall flies to carry the pnlleii fmm bios-
som to blossiiin. \'\n this purpose it
ban a pur|»lu nlieath around its head of
tlowers and a tall spike on which they
are arran;^ed in two clusters, the miilo
blonsomn abovi^ and the feiniilo below.
This npike is bright yellow in the culti-
vated species. The fertilization is one
of the most interentiin; epinoden in all
nature, but it would tak(> too loii); to
describe here in full. The tlics go from
one arum to another, attracted by the
color, in search of pollen ; and the pis.
tils, or female flowers, ripen first.
Then th(> pollen falls from the stamenn
or male llowers on the bodies of the
flies, and dusts them all over with yel-
low powder. The insects, when once
they have entered, are im[)risoned until
the polh'ii is ready to drop, by means
of several little hairs, pointing; down-
ward, and prcventintj; their exit on tho
priiKiiple of an eel- trap or lobster-pot.
nut as soon as the [tollen is discharfjed
the h'lirs wither away, and then the flies
arc free to visit a second arum. Hero
they carry the fertilizini; dust with
which they arc covered to the ripe iiis-
tils, and no enable them to set their
seed ; but, instead of getting away
again as soon as they have eaten their
fill, they arc once more imprisoned by
the lobstor-pot hairs, and dusted with a

Tin: Kvoi.rTnoNfHT at i.auwb.

l»Jtl

r lifH n fiir«

tllil'W t)fllil|(i||

'•»!. It con-

• Ittf of tlio
u'liiiriU it

• •TM. .\futl,
•If Itf jMTHO.

to Hcjijirntn

ami til St.

Ml iH nilti-

1 )it'|l|H t|ll<

•irf tliii ill.

•y tMiDiij^li
kI It to ncihI
'{ wliidi

I l>lo>tMII||| '

ilit'Nt f.iriiiH
Itiit how itH
' ri'|M.|, III..

IHrct-flTlil-

tlio aid of

I rroiii MoH-

|>iir(M)ri(> it

itH liciirl of
uliiili tli.-y

^1^, I lit' iimlf!

iiilo lu'Iow.

in tlic ciilti-

itioii is iiiin

NOrlcH ill ;|||

<>o loiij; ti)
it'H yo from
t<'<l l.y tli.f
ikI till' pis.
•ipcii tii-ht.
Ill' htaiiitiiis
li<'s of tlio
r with yi'I-
iVilCIl oiico
loMcd until

l)y nn'aiis
inji (lown-
xit on the
>i>stpr-|)ot.
lis(!lmrfifo(l
.'11 the tlios
in. 1 1 (MO
lust with
u ripo j»ls-

Hot their
ng away
aton their
soned hy
«d with a

Mioortil dop»o of |»olli<n, wlilih thyy nirri"
iiway ill turn to u third l>|oit«oiii,

A* noiMi iM th<< pi«tilit liavi' hrt*!! iiii-
pr<>^nati>il, tlm frititN liKj^in to m>i. ||i*ri<
th<*v 'ir<>, on their tall Mpik'<, whom' in-
rlxsiii^ -lii'iith hut how witlnri'd awiiy,
whilf ilit< top U lit thin iiioiiii'iit itlowly
dwiiii|liii){, MO that only the I'liiKti-r of
ix'rrit'H at itn lutsi* will linully ri-iiiain.
Tin' lirrrifK will mwuII and ^row noft, till
in aiitiiiiin they lifcuint' a lifitiitifiil Hi'ur-
let t'liiKtiT of livili);f roral, Tlu'll oiici'
iiirtro thfir olijcct will In* to nttrai't the
atiiiniil w'urlil, thin tiiiic in tin* HJiapi* of
III Id iiii'')*, Hi|iiirrt<U, and hihuII InrdH ;
hilt with a iiini-it tn-achiToiiH inli'tit.
I'or thoiii^h tho hcrrifn arn ln'itntifiil
and palat.ililit fnoii;;li they aro deadly
poiHon. The rohiiiH or Minall rodents
which eat them, attracted hy their
hi'i^lit eoloiH and pleasant taitte, not
only aid in dispersiii<^ them, Imt also
die after iiwallowin^ them, and liecoine
hiij^e manure heaps for the growth of
the yoiiiij; plant. So the wlmle cycli'
uf arum e\istenco l)e;;inM airesh, niid
then) in hardly a plant in the tiehl
around me which hart not u hirttory an
atraiii;c iih thirt one.

IX.

IlKltUIF.H ANI> IIKItHIKH.

TiiiH liltk' chine, opening toward the
Hca tliroti;;li tho Mik; lias elitfs, has heen
worn to its present pretty fjor^e-like
depth l»y the hIow iK-tion of its tiny
Btruam — a mere thread of water in tine
weaiher, that trickles down its centre
in a series of miissy cascades to tho
Hliiiijjly heach helow. Its sides are
ovor;;rown hy hramldcs and other prick-
ly hnisliwood, which form in pla<'es a
matted and irii[)enetral)lo mass ; for it
is the habit of all plaiitH protected hy
tho defensive armor of spines or thorns
to chiHter toj^c^ther in serried ranks,
throuirh which cattle or other intrunivi!
aniinaU <;annot break. Amonj; them,
near tho down above, I have just light-
ed upon a rare plant for Southoni
liritain — a wild raspberry-bush in full
fruit. Raspberries are common enouufh
in Scotland amonfj heans of stones on
tho windiest hillsides ; but tho south of

Knufland i« tn<ii wnnii nnd •Iclily for
their roJMitt tMNteN,, and they ran only
bo found here in a few bleulc Kpotn lik«
the Mtony t>)l|/et« of thin weatlierdtenton

down above the chine. The fruit itself
in ipiite an ^oimI as the garden variety,
for eiiltiviition han added little to t(i«
native virtue)* (if the riii«plM>rrv. <»ooi|
I ohl Uaae Walton in not aniianieil to
! (piote a certain (piaint nayitii; of one |>r.
I Itotcler concerning ntrawberrien, und ho
j I niippone I nee(J not be afraid to i|itote
it after him. " hoiibtless," xaid tho
Moetor, " (io(| rnii/il have made a bet-
ter berry, itut doiibtlenn aUo (tod lievef
did." Neverth'lenn, if you try tho
raj'pberry, picked frenli, with plenty of
^ood country cream, yoii munt allow
that it runs itn nintur fruit a iieck-and-
neek race.

To compare the ntructiiro of n rasp-
berry with that of a strawberry is a very
instructive botanical study. It nliowa
how similar eaus(>s may prodiii'e tho
same (;ross result in nin^iilarly ditTereiit
ways. Jtoth are rones by family, and
both have flowern essentially similar li)
that of the cuiiiiiion dojj-roMu. Hut
even in plants where the tlowern are
alike, the fruits often dilTer conspicu-
ously, beciiuH(! fresh principles come in-
to play for the dispersion and nafe ger-
mination of the see(|. This makes tho
study of fruitn the most (MUiiplicated
part in the niiravellin^ of plant lifo.
.\fter the strawberry has blossoiiie 1, tho
pulpy receptachi on which it boic it*
j^reen fruitlets bei;inH to swell and red-
den, till at leiiLTth it (jffows into an edi-
ble berry, doltcil with little yellow
nuts, containin<{ each a siiij>;le s(!e(|.
Hut in tho raspberry it is tho separate
fruitlets themselves which t;row soft and
briLCht-colored, while iIk! receptatiht re-
mains white and tasteless, forniiiii; tho
'• hull " which wo pull off from the
berry when wo are j?oinj; to eat it.
Thus tho part of tho raspberry which
we throw away answers to the part of
tho strawberry which wo eat. Only, in
the raspberry tho separate fruitlets are
all crowded close together into a sinj^lo
united mass, while in the strawberry
they aro scattered about loosely, and
imbedded in tho soft flesh of tho re-

23 180J

THK EVOLUTIONIST AT LAUUK.

ccptiiflo. Tlio l)I:ickliorry is imotiiorl
cluso rolativo ; l»iit in its fruit tiio littlo
|)iil|)y fniifii'tH rliiii; to tlio ro»'t'|ttHcU',
HO tliat Wi> pick and rat tluMii both to-
fji'tluT ; wluTi'a.H ill tlio raspborry tlu'
rcct'ptai'lo j>iills out oasily, and Icavos a
titiuiMf-sluipcd hollow ill tiio iiiiddlf of
tlu' Ix-rry. Kacli t>f tiicsi* litlU* poi uli-
nritics lias a special inoatiiii^ «)f its o>vii
u) lilt' history of tlic «lil!t'ivut plants.

Vet tlio main ol>j»'ct attainod Ity all is
in tlio I'lid pii'cisoly similar. Straw-
horrii's, rasphorrii's, and Maokbcrii's all
Ix'loni; to till' class of attractivo fruits.
They survive in virtuo ot" the attention
paid to them by birds and sii. >ll ani-
nials. .lust as the wild sti;;\v berry which
I picked in the hedjiterow the other day
procures the dispersion of its hard and
indii^estible fruit lets by p'ttiiiLf them
eaten to;x«'ther with the pulpy reccpta-
olo, so does tiie raspberry procuro the
dispersion of its soft and sugary fruit-
lets by gettint; them eaten all by them-
selves. While the strawberry fruitlets
retain throu«j;hout their dry outer eoat-
iiij;, in those of the raspberry the ex-
ternal coverin>j becoi'.ies lleshy and red,
but the iniii'r seed has, notwithstand-
ing:, u '"^till harder shell than the tiny
nuts of the strawberry. Now, this is
tlio secret of nine fruits out of ten.
They are really nuts, which clothe
themselves in an oiilcr tunic i>f sweet
and beautifully colored J>ulp. The pulp
as it were, the plant t;ives in, as an in-
ducement to the frieiully bird to swal-
h)w its seed ; but the seed itself it pro-
tects by a hard stone or shell, and often
by poisonous or bitter juices within. AVe
see this arraiii>'eiiu'nt very conspicuously
in a plum, or still better in a mango ;
thouii'li ii is really just as evident in the
raspberry, whore the smaller size ren-
ders it less eonspioiioiis to human slsjht.

It is a curious fact about the loso
family that they have a very marked
teiulenoy to produce such lleshy fruits,
instead of the more dry seed-vessels of
ordinary plants, which are named fruits
only by botanical oourte:\y. For ex-
ample, wo owe to this sinijio family the
peach, plum, apricot, cherry, diuuson,
pear, ap[)le, medlar, and quince, Jill of
tlieiu cultivated in gardens or orchai'ds

for their fruits. Tho minor j^ronp
known by tho poetical name of HryaiU,
alone supplies us with tho straw bi'rry,
raspberry, blackberry, and dewberry.
Kven tho wilder kinds, refused as fotxl
by man, produce berries well known to
our winter birds — the haw, rose-hip,
sloe, bird-cherry, and rowan. On the
other hand, tho whole tribe nuiiibers
but a siiiijle thorouj^huoiiiiX nut — the
almond ; und even this nut, always
somewhat soft-shelled and inclined to
pulpiness, has produtiod by a " sport"
tho wholly fruit-liko nectarine. The
odd tliinij about the rose tribe, how-
over, is this : that the pul|)y tendency
shows itself in very tlilTercnt jiarts
amony; the various species. In the
plum it is tho «»uter coverinu; «tf the true
iruit which grows soft and colored ; in
the apple it is a swollen mass of the
fruit-stalk surroundiiii; the ovules ; in
the rose-hip it is the hollowed re«'epta-
cio ; and in the strawberry it is tho
same receptacle, bulging out in the op-
l)Ositc direction. Such a general tend-
ency to display color and collect sugary
juices in so many diverse parts may bo
comparetl to tho general bulbous tend-
ency of the tiger-lily or the onion, and
to the general succulent tendency of the
cactus or the house-leek. In each case,
the plant benefits by it in one form or
another ; and whichever form happens
to get tho start in any particular in-
stance is increased and developed by
natural selection, just as favorable vari-
eties oi fruits or llowers are iiii'reased
and developed in cultivated species by
our own ganleners.

Sweet juices and bright coh>rs, how-
ever, could bo of no use to a plant till
there were eyes to see and tonguos to
taste them. A i>ulpy fruit is in itself a
mere waste of protluetive energy to its
mother, unless tho pulpiness aids iu tho
dispersion and promotes tho welfare of
tho voung seedlings. Accordingly, wo
might naturally expect that there would
bo no fruit-bearers on the earth until
the time wlien fruit-eaters, actual or
potentiiU, arrived npon tho scene ; or,
to put it more correctly, both must in-
evitably have developed simultaneously
and in mutual depondenco upon one

anotl

eulcll

as th|

Tlu'

tootlj

ards

Hoa-nl

priml

wonil

marsi

do V ill

the \|

soft

time

pres^

tho

the

presi

then

thi'

tho

owy

eatii

Hies

logic

tirst

tho

back

tho J

suck

eato

inov

No

boo

and

TUK KVDl.rriONIST AT LAUUK.

181J 98

iiiior jjroiij)
•' o( Divmis,
stniwIxTrv,
I tlowlioiry.
ihcmI as food
H known to
w, rosc-liip,
"I. On till"
ill*' niinilu'i's
in; „„t_tlu,

nut, always
inolini'tl to
H " sport"
irino. 'riii«
trilio. Iiow-
»y tcntlt'iioy
Vrcnt part's
i'!*. In till'
i' tif tlii< true
I't'lori'ii ; in
miss ot" tlio
ovuli's ; in
hhI roccpta-
y it is tliu
t in till' op-
'in'ial tcnil-
Jlt'i't sugary
irts may ho
ll'oiis tonil-
oiiion, anil
t'ncy of the
I oai'li case,
lie form or
Ml li.'ippens
t it'll lar in-
elopoil by
>r»l>lc vnri-
I iiicroaseil
s]»eoiL'8 by

lors, how-
i plant till
^onjviioa to
in itself a
-'r«y to its
ills in the
welfare of
insjly, wo
ere would
ii'th until
uctual or
!cno ; or,
must in<
tunoously
ipon one

nnotlier. So wo (Ind no triioes of sut'-
rnli'iit fruits evi'ii in so late a formation
lis that of tlii'si> lias or cretarrous rlills.
The birds of that day were tierce-
toothed earnivores, devonriiiiX the Tu-
ards and saiirians of the rank low-lyini;
Bea-marshes ; the mammals were most
primeval kaiiijaroos or low nnei'stral
wombats, jicntle herbivores, or savaije
nuirsiipial wolves, like the Tasmaniaii
devil of our own times. It is only in
the very modern tertiary period, whose
soft muddy deposits have not yet had
time to harden under superineuiubent
pressure into solid stone, that we liiul
the earliest traees of tho rose family,
the [greatest fruit-bearint; tribe of our
])rosent worM. And side by side with
them we tiud their elever aboreal allies,
the aneestial monkeys and squirrels,
the primitive robins, and the yet shail-
owy forefathers of our mi>dern fruit-
ealinif parrots, .lustas beesaud b.itler-
tlies neeess;irily traiH' baek their jjjeo-
loi^ieal history only to tho time of the
first honey-bearintx tlowers, .and just as
the honey-beariui; tlowers in turn trace
bai k their pediijree only to tin; date of
the rudest and i lostunspecialized honcy-
suckiiijn" insects, so are fruits iind fruit-
eaters linked toijether in orii^in by the
inevitable bond of a mutual dependence.
No bee, Jio honey ; and no lioiii>y, no
bi'c : so, too, no fruit, no fruit-bird ;
and no fruit-bii- 1, no fruit.

X.

nisr.VNT llh^LATlONS.

Rkimnu the old mill, whose overshot
wheel, backed by a wall thickly covered
with the youiiii ereepinu; fronds of hart's,
tonguo ferns, forms such u picturesi|ue
foresj;round for the view of our little
valley, the mill-stream expands into a
small, shallow pond, overhung at its
edijcs by '.lick-set hazel - bushes and
clamboriuij honeysuckle. Of course it
is only dammed back by a mud wall,
with sluices for the miller's water-
power ; but it has a certain rustic sim-
plicity of its own, which makes it beau-
tiful to our eyes for all that, in spite of
its utilitarian oric^in. At tho bottom of
this shallow pond yi>u niay now sec a

miracle daily takinj» pla("e, which but
for its commomiess we should rej^ard as
an almost incredible marvel. You may
there behold evolution actually illustrat-
iuij the transformation of life under
your very eyes : you may watch a low
type of fiill-brcathiii}^ gristly-boiu'd tisli
developiuj; into the liin;hi'st form of
luiii; - brcathiii}; terrestrial amphibian.
Nay, more — you may almost discover
the earliest known ancestor of the wholo
vertebrate kind, the l;i.-.t ctuisin of that
once famous ascidian larva, passing;
through all the upward staii'cs of exist-
ence which liiially lead it to assume the
shape of a relatively perfect four-Ici>ued
animal. For the pond is swarm iiii;
with fat black tadpoles, which are just
at this moment losiiiij their tails and
developiiiiX tlieir leu;s, on the way to bo-
coming' fully f«;nned froiX^*.

The tadpoli- and the ascidian larvii
divivlc between them the honor of
preserviiiLC ft»r us in all its native sim-
[tlicity the primitive aspect of tin* ver-
tebrate type, lleasts, birds, reptiles,
and fishes havelill descended from an
animal whose shape closely resembled
thatof these wriiiL^lini;; little black creat-
ures which dart, up and down like
imps throuixh the clear water, and raise
a cloud of mud above their heads each
time that they bury themselves com-
fortably in the soft mud of the bottom.
But while the birds and beasts, on tho
one hand, have <>;one on better! iiij them-
selves out of all knowledi^e, and while
the ascidian, on the other hand, in his
adult form has dropped back into an
obscure aiul sedentary life — sans eye^s,
sans teeth, sans taste, sans everythinij
— the tadpole alone, at least duriiiij its
early days, remains true to the ances-
tral traditions of the vertebrate family.
When first it emerijes from its ei^ij it
represents the very most rudimentary
animal with a backbone known to our
scientilic teachers. It has a biij ham-
mer-lookinjjj head, and a set of branch-
iuij outside sjjills, and a short distinct
body, and a lomj semi-transparent tail.
Its backbone is a mere gristly channel,
in which lies its spinal cord. As it
grows, it rosembies in every particular
tho ascidian larva, with which, indeed,

24 [83J

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAIUiE.

Kownlowsky nnd Profoasor Hiiy Lan-
kostur liuvu (loinoriHtrntcd its I'Hsential
ideiitiiy. But Hinuu n ^rreat many

1»eoj>Ic «ei'in wroii},>;Iy to irna^inu that
'rofoHsur Lunkostcr'H opinion on this
inattor in in Homo way at varianco witli
Mr. Darwin's and J)r. Ilaeckol's, it
may he well to consider what the de-
fioiK.'rac^y of the HS(;idian really moans.
Tiie fact is, hotli larval forms- -tlwit of
tlio fro;jf and that of the ascidian — com-

Idetoly ajjreo in the position of their
•rains, their fijill-slits, their very rudi-
mentary hacivhones, and their spinal
cords. Moreover, we ourselves and the
tinlpole ai^reo with the ascidian in a fur-
ther most important point, which no in-
vtrtchrate animal shares with us ; and
that is that our eyes j^row out of our
brains, instead of being part of our
skin, us in insects and cuttle-fish. This
would seem a jtriori a most inconven-
ient place for an eye — inside the brain ;
but then, as Professor Lankester clev
erly suggests, our common original an-
cestor, the very earliest vertebrate of
all, must have been a transparent creat-
ure, and therefore connparatively in-
dilferent as to the part of his body in
which his eye happened to be placed.
In after ages, however, as vertebrates
generally got to have thicker skulls and
tougher skins, the eye-bearing part of
the brain luid to grow outward, and so
reach the light on the surface of the
body : a thing which actually happens
to all birds, beasts, and reptiles in the
course of their embryonic development.
So that in this respect the ascidian larva
is nearer to the original type than the
tadpole or any other existing animal.

The ascidian, however, in mature
life, has grown degraded and fallen
from liis high estate, owing to liis bad
habit of rooting himself to a rock and
there settling down into a mere seden-
tary swallower of passing morsels — a
blind, handless, footless, and degenerate
thing. In his later shape he is but a
sack fixed to a stone, and with all his
limbs and higher sense-organs so com-
pletely atrophied that only his earlier
history allows us to recognize hini as a
vertebrate by descent at all. Ho is in
fact a representative of retrogressive

dovelopmont. The tadpole, on the con-
trary, goes on swimming about freely,
and keeping the use oJF its eyes, till
at lust a pair of Iiind legs and then a
pair of fore legs begin to l)ud out from
its side, and its tail fades away, and its
gills disappear, and air-breathing lunga
take their place, and it boldly hops on
idioro a fully evolved tailless amphibian.
There is, however, one inter(!sting
question about these two larvie which I
should nuich likn to solve. The ascidian
has only one eye inside its useless brain,
while the tadpole and all other verte-
brates have two from the very first.
Now which of us most nearly represents
the old mud-loving vertebrate an(!estor
in this respect ? Ilavo two original
organs coalesced in the young ascidian,
or has one organ split up into a couple
with the rest of the class ? I think
the latter is the true supposition, and
for this reason : In our heads, and
those of all vertebrates, there is a curi-
ous cross-connection between the eyes
and the brain, so that tho right optic
nerve goes to the left side of the brain
and the left optic nerve goes to the right
side. In higher animals, this " decus-
sation," as anatomists eallit, affects all
the sense-organs except those of smell ;
but in fishes it only affects the eyes.
Xow, as the young ascidian has retained
the ancestral position of his almost use-
less eye so steadily, it is reasonable to
suppose that he has retained its other
peculiarities as well. May we not con-
clude, therefore, that the primitive ver-
tebrate had only one brain-eye ; but
that afterward, as this brain-eye grew
outward to the surface, it split up into
two, because of the elongated and flat-
tened form of the head in swimming
animals, while its two halves still kept
up a memory of their former union in
the cross-connection with the opposite
halves of the brain ? If this be so, then
we might suppose that the other organs
followed suit, so as to prevent confusion
in the brain between the two sides of
the body ; while the nose, which stands
in the centre of the face, was under no
liability to such error, and therefore
still keeps up its primitive direct ar-
rangement.

It

tadft
brat*
prin
still
is ki

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LA HUE.

[83] 85

on tho con-
uiit freely,

eyes, till
uid then n
I out from
(ly, and its
liin^ lungs
ly hops on
iMiphibian.
interesting
ie which I
10 use id inn
less hrain,
lier verte-
kery first,
represents
u ancestor
> original
<; ascidian,
3 a conpio

I think
tion, and
!ads, and
is a curi-
the eyes
ght optic
the brain
) the ritrht
" dccus-
affects all
of smell ;
the eyes.
1 retained
nost usc-
>nal)Ie to
its other
not con-
itive vcr-
ye ; but
yc grow
up into
and flat-
t'imming
itill kept
union in
opposite
so, then
r organs
infusion
sides of
1 stands
ndor no
lerefore
rect ar-

Tt is worth noting, too, that these
tadpoles, like all other very low verte-
brates, are mud-haunters ; and the most
primitive among adult vertebrates are
still cartilaginous mud-tish. Not much
is known geologically about the prede-
cessors of frogs ; the tailless amphibians
are late arriv ',1s upon earth, and it may
seem curious, therefore, that they
should recall in so iiumy ways the earli-
est ancestral ty[)e. The reason doubt-
less is because they aro so much given
to larval development. Some ancestors
of theirs — primeval newts or salaman-
ders— nuist have gone on for countless
centuries improving themselves in their
adult shape from age to age, yet bring-
ing all their young into the world from
the egg, as mere mud-tish still, in much
the sanjc state as their unimproved fore-
fathers had done millions of joous be-
fore. Similarly, caterpillars are still
all but exact patterns of the primeval
insect, while butterflies are totally
different and far higher creatures.
Thus, in spite of adult degeneracy in
the ascidian and adult progress in the
frog, both tadpoles preserve for us very
nearly the original form of their earliest
backboned ancestor. Each individual
recapitulates in its own person the whole
history of evolution in its race. This
is a very lucky thing for biology ; since
•without these recapitulatory phases we
could never have traced the true lines
of descent in many cases. It would
be a real misfortune for science if every
frog had been born a typical amphibian,
as some tree-toads actually are, and if
every insect had emerged a fully
formed . adult, as some aphides very
nearly do. Larva) and embryos show
us the original types of each race :
adults show us the total amount of
change produced by progressive or re-
trogressive development.

XI.

AMONO THE HEATHER.

This is the worst year for butterflies
that I can remember. Entomologists
all over England are in despair at the
total failure of the insect crop, and have
taken to botanizing, angling, and other

bad habits, in default of moans for pur-
suii\g their natural avocation as beetle-
stickers. Last year's heavy rains killed
all the mothers as they emerged from
the chrysalis ; and so only a few stray
eygs have survived till this summer,
when the butterflies they produce will
all be needed to keep up next season's
supply. Nevertheless, I have limbed
the highest down in this part of the
country to-day, and come out for an
airing among the heather, in the vaguo
hope that I may be lucky enough to
catch a glimpse of one or two old
lepidopterous favorites. I am not a
butterfly-hunter myself, t have not the
heart to drive pins through the pretty
creatures' downy bodies, or to stifle
them with reeking chemicals ; though
I recognize the necessity for a hardened
class who will perform that useful oflii;o
on behalf of science and society, just as
I recognize the necessity ft)r slaughter-
men and knackers, liut I prefer per-
sonally to lie on the ground at my ease
and learn as \niu\h about the insect na-
ture as I can discover from simple in-
spection of the living subject as it flits
airily from bunch to bunch of bright-
colored flowers.

I suppose even that apocryphal per-
son, the general reader, would be in-
sulted at being told at this hour of the
day that all bright-colored flowers are
fertilized by the visits of insects, whose
attentions they are specially designed to
solicit. Everybody has heard over and
over again that roses, orchids, and col-
umbines have acquired their honey to
allure the friendly bee, their gaudy
petals to advertise the honey, and their
divers shapes to insure the proper fer-
tilization by the correct type of in-
sect. But everybody does not know
how specifically certain blossoms have
laid themselves out for a particular
species of fly, beetle, or tiny moth.
Here on the higher downs, for instance,
most flowers are exceptionally large and
brilliant ; while all Alpine climbers must
have noticed that the most gorgeous
masses of bloom in Switzerland occur
just below the snow-line. The reason
is, that such blossoms must be fertilized
by butterflies alone. Boos, their great

20 [84]

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAHQE.

rivals in honcy-suokinj;, friujiiont only
tlu! lower uicHclows and wlDport, whore
flowerH arc many and Hinall : tlioy hcI-
doin vontnro far from tlio hive or the
nest among the hij^h peaks and chilly
nooks where we find those ^jreat patches
of liitie gentian or purple anemone,
which hang like monstrous breadths of
tapestry upon the mountain sides. This
heather here, now fully opening in the
warmer sun of the southern counties —
it is still hut in tho bud among the
Scotch hills, I doubt not — specially lajs
itself out for the humble-bee, and its
masses fonn about his highest pasture-
grouiids ; but the butterflies — insect
vagrants that they arc — have no fixed
home, and they therefore stray far
above the level at which bee-blossoms
altogether cease to grow. Now, the
butterfly differs greatly from the bee in
his mode of honey-hunting ; ho does
not bustle about in u business-like man-
ner from one buttercup or dead-nettlo
to its nearest fellow ; but he flits joy-
ously, like a sauntering straggler that
he is, from a great patch of color here
to another great patch at a distance,
whose gleam happens to strike his rov-
ing eyo by its size and brilliancy,
llence, as that indefatigable observer.
Dr. Hermann Miillcr lias noticed, all
Alpine or hill-top flowers have very
large and conspicuous blossoms, gen-
erally grouped together in big clusters
80 as to catch a passing glance of the
butterfly's eye. As soon as the insect
spies such a cluster, the color seems to
act as a stimulant to his broad wings,
just as the candle-light does to those of
his cousin tho moth. Off he sails at
once, as if by automatic action, toward
the distant patch, anr* there both robs
the plant of its honey and at the same
time carries to it on his legs and head
fertilizing pollen from the last of its
congeners which he favored with a call.
For of course both bees and butterflies
stick on the whole to a single species at
a time ; or else the flowers would only
get uselessly hybridized instead of being
impregnated with pollen from other
plants of their own kind. For this
purpose it is that most plants lay them-
selves out to secure the attention of only

two or throe varieties among their insect
allies, while they nnike their ne(;tari'JS
either too deep or too shallow for tho
convenience of all other kinds. Na-
ture, though eager for cross-fertilization,
abhors " miscegenation" with all tho
bitterness of an American politician.

Insects, however, differ much from
one another in their u'sthetic tastes, and
flowers are adapted accordingly to tho
varying fancies of the different kinds.
Here, for example, is a spray of com-
mon white g'llium, which attracts and
is fertilized by small flics, who generally
fre<juent white blossoms. IJut here,
again, not far off, I find u luxuriant
mass of the yellow species, known by
the (plaint name of " lady's bedstraw"
— a legacy from the old legend which
represents it as having formed Our
Lady's bed in the manger at Jiethlehem.
Now why has this kind of galium yel-
low flowers, while its near kiitsman
yonder has them snowy while ? The
reason is that lady's bedstraw is fertil-
ized by small beetles ; and beetles aro
known to be ono among the most color-
loving races of insects. You may often
find one of their number, the lovely
bronze and golden-nuiiled rose-chafer,
buried deeply in the very centre of a
red garden rose, and reeling about when
touched as if drunk with pollen and
honey. Almost all the flowers wliich
beetles frequent aro consequently
brightly decked in scarlet or yellow.
On the other hand, the whole family
of the umbcllates, those tall plants with
levci bunches of tiny blossoms, like the
•^ool's parsley, have all but universally
white petals ; and Miiller, tho most
statistical of naturalists, took the trouble
to count the number of insects which
paid them a visit. He found that only
14 per cent were bees, while the re-
mainder consisted mainly of miscellane-
ous small flies and other arthropodous
riff-raff ; whereas in the brilliant class
of composites, including the asters, sun-
flowers, daisies, dandelions, and thistles,
nearly 75 per cent of the visitors were
steady, industrious bees. Certain dingy
blossoms which lay themselves out to
attract wasps are obviously adapted, as
MuUcr quaintly remarks, "to a less

a^sthoti
ors."

and till
spect t
larger
upecies
hummii
Is it
hcnsib
which

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAUUE.

[95] 87

jpsthctir.illy c'lUivjitod cirolo of visic-
ui'M." but tlic iiioHt brilliant HinoiiLrall
insoct-fcrtilizcd tluwcrs aro thoso which
Bpeciiill y affoct the Hocicty of LiitterrticH ;
ami they aru only surpassed in this re-
spect throughout all tiuturo hy the still
larger and luoro niiiguillceiit tropical
Hpcciea which owe their fertilization to
huniining-ltirdsand brush-tougued lories.
Is it iu)t a curious, yet a compre-
hensible circumstance, that the tastes
which thus show themselves in the de-
velopment, by natural selection, of
lovefv flowers, should also show them-
selves in the marked preference for
beautiful mates ? Poised on yonder
sprig of harebell stands a little purplo-
winjxed butterHv, one of the most ex-
quisite among our British kinds. That
little butterfly owes its own rich and
delicately shaded tints to the long se-
lective action of a million generations
among its ancestors. So wo find
throughout that the most beriutifully
colored birds and insects are always
those which have had most to do with
the pr«jduction of bright-colored fruits
and flowers. The butterflies and rose-
beetles aro the most gorgeous among
insects ; the humming-birds and parrots
aro the most gorgeous among birds.
Nay, more: exactly like effects have been
produced in two hemispheres on difler-
ent tribes by the same causes. The
plain brown swifts of the North have
developed among tropical West Indian
and South American orchids the metal-
lic gorgets and crimson crests of the
humming-bird ; whilo a totally unlike
group of Asiatic birds have developed
among the rich flora of India and the
Malay Archipelago the exactly similar

Jlumage of tho exquisite sun-birds,
ust as bees depend upon flo'vers, and
flowers upon bees, so the color-sense of
animals has created the bright petals of
blossoms ; and the bright petals have
reacted upon the tastes of the animals
themselves, and through their tastes
upon their own appearance.

XII.

SPECKLED TROUT.

It is a piece of tho common vanity of
anglers to suppose that they know

something about spccklod trout. A
fox might almost as well pretend that
he was intimately actpiainted with tho
domestic habits of i><>'iltiy, or an Iro-
(juois describe t' oms of tho

Algoitipiins from nations irutdo

upon the specimens who had conu; im-
der his scalping-knifc. I will allt)w
that anglers are well versed ii. the neces-
sity for fishing up-stream rather than
in the opposite direction ; and I grant
that they have attained an enqtirical
knowledge of the uisthetic preferences
of trout in the nuittcr of blue duns and
red palmers ; but that as a body they
are familiar with the speckled trout at
home I deny. If you wish to learn
all about the race in its own life you
must abjure rod and line, and creep
(juietly to the side of tho pools in an
unfished brooklet, like this on whoso
bank I am now seated ; and then, if
you have taken care not to let your
shadow fall upon the water, you may
sit and watch tho live fish themselves
for an hour together, as they bask
lazily in the sun'ight, or rise now and
then at cloudy moments with a sudden
dart at a May-fly who is trying in vain
to lay her eggs unmolested on tho sur-
face of t}io stream. Tho trout in my
little beck are fortunately too small even
for poachers to care for tickling them ;
so I am able entirely to preserve them
as objects for philosophical contempla-
tion, without any danger of their being
scared away from their accustomed
haunts by intrusive anglers.

Trout always have a recognized home
of their own, inhabited by a pretty fixed
number of individuals. But if you
catch tho two solo denizens of a par-
ticular scour, you will find another pair
installed in their place to-morrow.
Young fry seem always ready to fill up
the vacancies caused by th'j involuntary
retirement of their elders. Their size
depends almost entirely upon the quan-
tity of food they can get ; for an adult
fish may weigh anything at any time of
his life, and there is no limit to the
dimensions they may theoretically at-
tain. Mr. Herbert Spencer, who is an
angler as well as a philosopher, well
obc .rves that where tho trout are many

29 [80]

THE E^^OLUTIONIST AT LAllOE.

tlicy aro ffenornny bitirII ; nnd where
tlioy arc lar;^*' tln'y aro fjonerally few.
In tlio inill-streain down tlic valley they
inoaauro only hIx inches, though you
may fill a banket easily cnoi'jjh on a
cloudy day ; hut in the canal rcsorvf ir,
where there aro only half a dozen fish
altofjetlier, a luaj^niHcenteij^lit-pounder
lias Iteen taken more than once. In
this way we can understand the orinjin
of the f^reat hike trout, which weij^h
Konu'tiines forty ])ounds. They are
common trout which have taken to liv-
in<; in broader waters, where larfjo, food
is far more abun(hint, but where slioals
of small tish would starve. The pecu-
liarities thus impressed upon them have
been handed down to their descendants,
till at length tlicy have bcconio suHl-
cicntly marked to justify us in regard-
ing them as a separate species. But it
is difKcult to say what makes a species
in animals so very variable as fish.
There arc, in fact, no less than twelve
kinds of trout wholly peculiar to the
British Islanda, and some of these are
found in very restricted areas. Tlius,
the Loch Stennis trout inhabits only the
tarns of Orkney ; the (iaiway sea trout
lives nowhere but along the west coast
of I"eland ; the gillaroo never strays out
of the Irish loughs ; the Killin charr is
confined to a single sheet of water in
Mayo ; and other species belong exclu-
sively to the Llanbcris lakes, to Lough
Melvin, or to a few mountain pools of
Wales and Scotland. So great is the
variety that may be produced by small
changes of food and luibitat. Even the
salmon himself is only a river trc"* who
has acquired the liabit of going down
to the sea, where he gets immensely in-
creased quantities of food (for all the
trout kind are almost omnivorous), and
grows big in proportion. But ho still
retains many marks of his early exist-
ence as a river fish. In the first place,
every ealroon is hatched from the egg
in fresh water, and grows up a mere
trout. The young parr, as the salmon
is called in this stage of its growth, is
actually (as far as physiology goes) a
mature fish, and is capable of producing
milt, or male spawn, which long caused
it to be looked upon as a separate

snecies. It really rcpresonts, however,
the early form of'^the salmon, before ho
took to his annual excursion t.> the sea.
The ancestral fish, only a hundredth
fraction in weight of his huge descend-
ant, must have someliow nc([iurnd tho
habit of going seaward — possibly from
a drying uf) of his native stream in sea-
sons of drought. In tho sea, he found
himself suddenly supplied with an un-
wonted store of food, and grew, likj
all his kind under similar circumstances,
to an extraordinary size. Thus he at-
tains, as it were, to a second and final
maturity. But salmon cannot lay their
eggs in tho sea ; or at least, if they
did, tho young parr would starve for
want of their proper food, or olse bo
choked by tho salt water, to which tho
old fish have acclimatized themselves.
Accordingly, with tho return of tho
spawning season thoro comes back an
instinctive desire to seek once more tho
native fresh water. So tho salmon re-
turn up stream to spawn, and the young
aro hatched in the kind of surroundingti
wliich best suit their tender gills. This
instinctive longing for the old homo may
probab'y have arisen during an inter-
mediate stage, when the developing
species still haunted only tho brackish
water near tho river mouths ; and as
those fish alone which returned to tho
head waters could preserve their race,
it would soon grow hardened into a
habit ingrained in the nervous system,
like the migration of birds or tho clus-
tering of swarming bees around their
queen. In like manner tho Jamaican
land-crabs, which themselves live on tho
mountain-tops, come -.lown every year
to lay their eggs in tho Caribbean ; be-
cause, like all other crabs, they pass
their first larval stage as swimming tad-
poles, and afterward take instinctively
to the mountains, as tho salmon takes
to tho sea. Such a habit could only
have arisen by one generation after an-
other venturing farther and farther in-
land, while always returning at the
proper season to the native element for
the deposition of the eggs.

These trout liere, however, differ
from the salmon in one important par-
ticular besides their relative size, and

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAIME.

[87] 20

liowovcr,
Itoforo ho
t.> the 8oa.
hundredth
0 <loHccnd-
iiirod tho
ubiy from
am in son-
he found
th «n un-
,'re\v, liko
iiiistnnccH,
MiH he at-
and final
t hiy their
i, if they
^ta^vo for
•r olse ho
which tlio
oinHclves.
•n of tlio
haclc an
more tho
ihnon re-
lio young
■oundings
Is. This
lomo may
an inter-
oveloping
braclvish
; and as
id to tlio
leir race,
d into a
s nystom,
tlio chis-
nd tlu'ir
lamaican
r'e on tho
^ery year
jan ; be-
ley pass
ling tad-
inctively
)n takes
lid only
after an-
rther in-
: at the
iient for

, differ
int par-
ze, and

that is tlwit tlioy nro beautifully speckled
in their mature form, inntead of beinir
merely silvery like tho larj^er snecioH.
Tlie origin of the pretty HpecKles in
probably to be found in the corirttant
selection by the Hsh uf tho most l)eau-
tiful among tlxiir number us niMtcs.
Just an singing-l)irds are in their fullest
and clearest song at the nestii.^ period,
and just as many brilliant species only
poHsess their gorgeous plumiige while
they are going through their courtship,
and lose the decoration after tho young
biujd is hatched, so the trout are most
brightly colored at spawning time, and
become lank and dingy iifter the eggs
have been safely deposited. The par-
ent fish ascend to tho head-waters of
their native river during the autumn
season to spawn, and then, their glory
dimuKul, they return down-stream to
tho deep pools, where tliey pass tho
winter sulkily, as if ashamed to show
themselves in their dull and dusky
suits. r>ut when spring comes rouml
onco more, and flies again become
abundant, tho trout begin to move up-
stream afresh, and soon fatten out to
their customary size and brilliant colors.
It might seem at first sight that creat-
ures so humblo .is these little fish could
hardly have sufficiently developed les-
thctic tastes to prefer one mate above
another on the score of beauty. But
wo must remember th;it every species is
very sensitive to small points of detail
in its own kind, and that the choice
would only be exerted between mates
generally very like ono another, so that
extremely minute differences must
necessarily turn the scale in favor of
ono particular suitor rather than his
rivals. Anglers know that trout arc
attracted by bright colors, that they
can distinguish tho different Hies upon
which they feed, and that artificial files
must accordingly be made at least into
a rough semblance of the original in-
sects. Some scientific fishermen even
insist that it is no use offering them a
brown drake at tho time of year or the
hour of day when they are naturally ex-
pecting a red spinner. Of course their
sight is by no means so perfect as our
own, but it probably includes a fair idea

of form, and on ncuto perception of
ci.'or, while there is every rea'^on to bo.
lieve that all tiie trout family have a de-
cided love of metallic glitter, such as
that of silver or of tho salmon's scales.
Mr. I)arwin has shown that tiie littlo
sticklebactk goes through an elaltoratc
(H)urtship. and I have myself watched
trout which seemed to me as obviously
love-making as any pair of turtle-doves
I ever saw. In their early life sahnon
fry and young trout aro almost (|uito
indistinguishable, being both marked
with blue patches (known as " fin;*er-
marks") on their sides, which arc rem.
lumts of the ancestral coloring once com-
mon to the whole race. JJut as they
grow up, their later-accpiired tastes
begin to produce a divergence, duo
originally to this selective preference of
certain beautifiU mates ; and the adult
salmon clothes himself from head to tail
In sheeny silver, while tho full-grown
trout decks his sides with the beautifid
speckles which liavo earned him his
popular name. Countless generations
of slight differences, selected from time
to time by the strongest and handsomest
fish, have suttlced at length to ' "iijg
about these conspicuous variations from
the primitive typo, which the young of
both raccj still preserve.

XIII.

DODDER AND DKOOMRAPE.

This afiornoon, strolling through tho
undcrolit!, I have come across two
(juiiint and rather unconmion fiowers
among the straggling brushwood. Ono
of them is growing like a creeper around
the branches of this overblown gorse-
bush. It is the lesser dodder, a pretty
clustering mass of tiny pale pink con-
volvulus blossoms. The stem consists
of a long red thread, twining round and
round the gorse, and bursting out hero
and there into thick bundles of beauti-
ful bell-shaped flowers, liut where aro
the leaves ? You may trace the red
threads through their labyrinthine wind-
ings up and down the supporting gorse-
branches all in vain : there is not a leaf
to be seen. As a matter of fact, the
dodder has none. It is ono of the

30 [88]

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAUOE.

most tlioronpfhjjo'nj? parnniu-H in nil
iiatiiru. (»r<liiiJiry ^rct'ii-loiivt'd pliuitM
livi! Iiy Miiikiii^ NtiirclivH for tlictnMulvcH
out of ' (;arl)oni(: ticid in tliu air, uti-
(i<>r t!it> iiirlm*n<;o of Ntinlij^lit ; but tlic>
dodder Hiiiijily faHtenn itm>lf on to an-'
otIiiT plant, HttiidN down rootletH or
Huckt-rH intoitH vttiriH, and drinks up Hap
Htorisd with ri-aily-nuido HtardicHor otiior
f(»od-HtutrH, orijcinally dt'stint-d l»y its
host for tlio Huppiy «>f itH own ^rowinj;
K'avt'H, brancln's, and IdosHonis. It
livoM upon tliu f^orso iiistaH narasitiivdly
as the little j^reen aphideHlive upon o\ir
roHe-l)UMlieH. The material which it
UHCrt up in pushinji; forth its lon^ thread-
like HteiM and elustenid hells is so much
dc'.d loss to the unfortutuito plant on
which it has fixed itself.

()Kl-fashione(l Ixtoks tell us that the
mistletoe is a pcrf'^ct parasite, while the
doddtir is an iuiporfcct one ; and I i)o-
lieve almost all botanists will still rejieat
the foolish sayinf^ to the present day.
liut it rciilly hIiows considerable hazi-
ness as to what a true i)ariisite is. The
mistletoe is a plant which has taken, it
is true, to jrrowint; u[>on other trees.
Its very viscid berries are useful for at-
tai;hing the seeds to the trunk of the
oak or the a[»ple ; and there it roots it-
self into the body of its host. Jiiit it
soon [)roduceH real ^reen leaves of its
own, which contain the ordiiuiry chlo-
rophyl found in other leaves, and help
it to nuinufacturo starch, under the in-
fluence of sunlight, on its own account.
It is not, therefore, a complete draij
upon the tree which it infests ; for
thout^li it takes sap and mineral food
from the host, it supplies itself with
carbon, which is after all the important
thintj for plant-life, l^oddcr, however,
is a parasite pure and simple. Its seeds
fall originally upon the ground, and
there root themselves at first like those
of any other plant. But, as it grows,
its long twining stem begins to curl for
support round some other and stouter
stalk. If it stopped there, and then

{)roduced leaves of its own, like the
loneysuckle and the clematis, there
would be no great harm done ; and the
dodder would bo but another climbing
plant tlic more in our flora. However,

it soon irsidioufly rrpny« the unnport
given it by sending down little bud-liko
sut^kers, through which it draws up
nourishment from the gorse or clover
on which it lives. Thus it has ,0 need
to devel«>p leaves of its own ; an«! it ac-
cordingly employs all its ntolen material
in sending forth matted threa<l-liko
stems and bunch after bunch of bright
tlowers. As these increase and multi-
ply, tlu-y at last Huccet'(l in drawing
awiiy nil the nutriment from the sup-
porting plant, which tinally dies under
the constant drain, just as h horse might
• lie un<ler the attacks of a host of
leeches. Jiiit this matters little to tho
<lodder, which has had time to bo visit-
ed and fertilized by insects, and to set
and ripen its numerous seeds. One
species, the greater dodiler, is thus
parasitic upon hops and nettles ; a
second kind twines round flax ; and tho
third, which I have hero under my
eyes, mainly confines its dangerous at-
tentions to gorse, clover, and thyme.
All of them are, of course, deadly ene-
mies to tho plants they infest.

How tho dodder acqui-^d this curioua
mode of life it is not difficult to sec.
Iiy descent it is a bind-wced, or wild
convolvulus, and its blossoms are in tho
main miniature convolvulus blossoms
still. Now, all bind-weeds, as every-
body knows, aro climbing plants, which
twine themselves round stouter stems
for mere physical support. Tliis is in
itself a lialf-pnrasitic habit, because it
enables the plant to dispense with tho
trouble of making a thick and solid
stem for its own use. But just suppose
that any bind-weod, instead of merely
twining, were to pnt forth hero and
there little tendrils, something like
those of the ivy, which managed some-
how to grow into tho bark of the host,
and so naturally graft themselves to its
tissues. In that case the plant would
derive nutriment from the stouter stem
with no expense to itself, and it might
naturally bo expected to grow strong and
healthy, and hand down its peculiarities
to its descendants. As tho leaves would
thus bo rendered needless, they would
first become very much reduced in size,
and would finally disappear altogether,

ftcco
uniK
at
M..w^
rara
vege
men
the
This
do<b
T
bron
wha
steiu
brov

TIIK EVOLUTIOXIHT AT IwMlOK.

m in

« «tinport
••iKl-liko
(IruwM lip
or cloviT

aru! itao-
II inatiTial

ircad-liko

of Itrifjlit

11(1 iniiiti'

(Irawinjj

the Hiip.
i»'H under
THo niififht

llOHt of

tl(! to tlio
) l>o vinit-

lul to HCt

Is. Ono
is thus
lettles ; a
niid tho
ndcr my
jfiTous at-
I thyino.
adiy t'lio-

in curioiifl
It to Bce.
, or wild
irc in tho
bloBfloniH
»8 evory-
ts, which
er stems
'his is in
ccausc it
with tho
nd solid
supposo
f merely
ero and
ng liko
id some-
ho host,
08 to its
t would
tor stem
t might
ong and
iliaritics
8 would
' would
in size,
•gcther,

ncrortling to tho unlvorniil cu»tom of
utinoccHSHrv orifHUH. So wt« nlwtiild get
at lengtli a h'atlcNM tilant, with iiuiiktoiim
tloworrt iind Noedx, jiiHt likn tho dodilitr.
I'arHHitc!^, in *i t, wiictlicr aiiitnikl or
vcm'talilo, nlwiiyn end liy bt'comiii)^
mero rt'prodiiffivo men, uit>chaiiiHiiiH for
tho wiinpli! claltoratioii of t'gg'* or Miu'dn.
Tiiin is just what has ha[)punod to the
doildcr hcforu iiii<.

Tho other (jueer plant hero is a
l>rooiiiratK>. It ronsiMtH of u tall, soine-
what faded-looking Hti'iii, upright iii-
Htead of eliiiihing, and rovorod with
brown or purplish si-alcs in tho plat'o of
loaves. It.'* ifowers resciiiMo tho srali's
in eolor, and the (l(>H<Unett!o in shape.
It i.s, in fact, a parasitit; dead-nettle, a
trirto less degenerate as- yet than the
dodder. This hroomrapo has iKvpiired
somewhat tho saiiio haltits as the other
phmt, only that it fixes itself on the
roots of clover or broom, from which
it sucks nutriment by its own root, as
tho dodder does by its sttfin-suokers. ()f
course it still retains in most particu-
lars its original characteristif.'H as a dead-
nettle ; it grows with their uj)right
stem an<l their curiously shaped flowers,
80 specially adapted for fertilization by
insect visitors. But it has naturally lost
its loaves, for which it has no further
use, and it possesses no chlorophyl, as
tho mistletoe does. Yet it lias not
probably been i)arasitio for as long a
time as tho dodder, since it still retains
a dwindling trace of its leaves in the
shape of dry purply scales, something
liko those of young as[)aragus shoots.
These leaves are now, in all likelihood,
actually undergoing a gradual atrophy,
and wo may fairly expect that in the
course of a few thousand year they
will disa[>pcar altogether. At present,
however, they remain very conspicuous
by their color, which is not green, ow-
ing to the absence of chlorophyl, but
is duo to tho same pigment as thiit of
tho blossoms. This generally huppens
with parasites, or with that other curi-
ous sort of plants known as saprophytes,
which live upon decaying living matter
in the mould of forests. Aa they need
no green leaves, but have often inherit-
ed leafy structures of some sort, in a

morn or less degeticrato ponditiiin, from
tlii'ir Hclf-supportiiig ance<«ti)rs, they
usually display most beautiful coinrs in
tlieir steiiiH and scales, and several of
them rank aiiiniig our handsomest liot-
lioiisii plants. Kvcn the dodilcr has rod
stalks. Their only work in life being
to elaborate the materials stolen from
their host into the brilliant pigments
used in the petals for attraetiiig insect
fertilizers, they pour this t^n\\H> dye into
the stems and scales, which thus render
them still more conspicuous to the in-
sects' eyes. Moreover, as they use
their whole material in producing flow-
ers, many of tliesi. an* very large and
handsome ; one huge Sumatran species
has a blossom which measures three
feet across. On the other hand, their
seeds are usually small and very numer-
ous. Thousands of seetls must fall on
unsuitable places, spring up, and waste
all their tiny store of nourishment, find
no host at hand on which to fasten
themselves, and so die down for want
of food. It is only by producing a few
thousand young plants for every ono
destined ultimately to survive that dod-
ders and broomrapes nmnago to pro-
servo their types at all.

XIV.

noo's MKnci'RV and plantain'.
TiiE hedge and bank in llaye Lano
are now a perfect tangled nuiss of (;reep-
ing plants, among which I have just
picked out a <|ueer little three-cornered
flower, hardly known oven to village
children, but christened by our old
herbalists " dog's mercury." i'L is an
ancient trick of language to call coarser
or larger plants by the dpecific title of
some smaller or cultivated kind, with
tho addition of an animal's name.
Thus we have radish and horse-radish,
chestnut and horse-chestnut, rose and
dog-rose, parsnip and cow-parsnip,
thistle and sow-thistle. On tho samo
principle; a somewhat similar plant be-
ing known as mercury, this perennial
weed becomes dog's mercury. Both,
of course, go back to some imaginary
medicinal virtue in the herb which made
it resemble the metal in tho eyes of old-
fashioned practitioners.

an [mi

TlIK KVOLUriONISr AT LAUUli.

I)oi;'h Tnorcnrv N ono of tlio oiMont
Kii;;lii«li lIowcM I ktiiiw. Kiirli IiIdhhoiii
liiiit thrt'tt Niniill ^(n'v\\ |)«>tiiN, utiil I'ithtT
m-vtml HlaiiiciiH, or cIho n piHiil, in tlio
criitri'. Tlii'iti i-t riolliiiii^ purticulurly
ri'iiiark)il)lo in thu Homci' liciii^ ^ivcit,
for tliiiiiHiiiiiU of oflicr llowiTs an- jfrfun
iiini \vi' lU'ViT tiotifo llii'iu an in /my way
iiiiiiHinil. In fact, wu never an u riilo
iiotiit! jLTfccn MoHHoMiK at all. Vot any-
l)0)ly wlio pirki'd a piecn of doif's
nicrriiry eotiiil not fail to lie Mtiiiciv hy
itH (MU'ioiiH a|i|)t>aranri>. It iIoca not in
tlitt least reseniliji! llie iiieons|)ieuoUH
ffreen llowern uf tlio Htihijin'^-nettle, or
of most forest trees : it has a very (lis- 1
tinet set of petals wliifli at once im|)res8
one with the idea that they oiii^ht to Itu
colored. And ho indeed they onjrht : j
for dou;'s mercury is a deitenerate plant
which oiK'i^ possessed li hi'iiliant corolla
and was fertilized liy insects, Imt which i
has now fallen from its hiijh estate and
reverted to the less advanced mode of
fertilization hy thu interme(liation of
the wind. Kor si»me unknown reason |
or t)ther this species a-id all its relations
have discovered that they ^et on better
l>y the latter anil usually more wasteful
plan than hy the firmer and usually
moro cconoMucal one, II(!nco they
have jjiven u|> prudui^inu; lartje lirii^ht
petals, hecause they no longer need to
attract the eyes of insecrts ; and they
have also tjivc!i up the manufactuie of
]ion«!y, which under their new cireum-
Btan-jcs woidd he a mere waste of suh-
Btance to them. I5ut the do^'s mercury
Htill retains a distinct mark of its earlier
insect-attractinii; habits in these three
diminutive petals. Others of its rela-
tions have lost even these, so that the
oiii>;inal lloral form is almost completely
obscured in their case. The spurjjfes
are familiar Knijlish roadside examples,
and their flowers ur*}. so completely de-
graded that even botanists for a lon<?
time mistook their nature atid analogies.
The male and fennile Howera of dog's
mercury have taken to living upon sep-
arate plants. Why is this ? AVcll,
there was no doubt a time wlien every
blossom had both stamens and pistil, as
dog-roses and buttercups always have.
But when the plant took to wind fcrtil-

' izntion it underwent n chnngo of ntnio-
ture. The NtametiM on Momu bloHMonis
becanxt aborted, while the pixtil became
aborted on others. This was necesHary
in order to pn^vent Hclf-fertilizatioti ;
, for otherwise the pollen of each bhm.
Hom, hanging out an it does to the
wind, woidd have been very liable ti>
fjill upon its own pistil. Hut the pres.
ent arrangement obviates any sueh con-
tingemn', by making out* plant bear all
the male lliwerH an<l another plant all
the ftinude ones. Why, again, are the
petals green ? I think because dog's
mercury would be positively injureil by
the visits «tf insects. It has no honey
to otTer them, and if th<>y came to it at
all, they would «uily eat U[) the p«»llen
itself. JItuico I suspect that those
tlowern among the 'ncrcurles which
showed any tendency to ntain the
original colored petals would soon get
wee»h(l out, because insects wDidd eat
up all their pollen, thus preventing
them from fertilizing others ; while
those which had green pitals woidd
never be noticed and so wiiuld be per-
mitted to fertilize one another after
their new fashion. In fact, when a
blossom which has once depended upon
insects for its fertilization is driven by
circumstances to depend upon the wind,
it seems to derive a positive a<lvantago
from losing all those attrat^tive features
by whi(!h its ancestors formerly allured
the eyes of bees or beetles.

Here, again, on the roadside is a bit
of plantain. ICverybody knows its flat
rosette of green leaves and its tall spike
of grass- like blossom, with long stamens
hanging out to catch the breeze. Now
plantain is a case exactly analogous to
dog's mercury. It is an example of a
degraded blossom. Once upon a tin)o
it was a sort of distant cousin to the
veronica, that pretty sky-blue speedwell
which abounds among the meadows in
Juno and July. But these particular
speedwells gave up devoting themselves
to insects and became adapted for fer-
tilization by the wind instead. So you
must look close at them to see at all
that the flowering spike is made up of a
hundred separate little four-rayed blos-
soms, whoso pale and faded petals are

^ of ntnic-

liloHMDillH

til Itrcaiiio

iirct'NHiiry

liii/tilinti ;

nii-li liloH-

t'H to tlll>

li/ilili- to
tlid {tri'N.
Miicli con*
t iM'iir kII
' itlaiit all
n, ai-o tlio
ISU (loj^'s
ijiirol l)y
no lioiiuy
u> to it at
ii(^ ]>olI('tl
lat tliosu
•s which
tain llio
Hoon got
voiiM oat
n-vi'iitinjjf
H ; whilo
s vvoiihl
1 1(0 |>('r-
licr aftur

when n
ilttl upon
hi von hy
tho wind,
itlvantii<.jo
3 foatiirea
\y alhircd

0 in a hit

•s its flat
tall K{)ikc
; stallions
0. Now
iij^ous to
ipio of a
n a tiiiio
n to the
pcodwoll
uluws in
larticuiar
LMiisolvcs
for for-
So yoii
CO at nil
up of a
13(1 bios-
;tals arc

THE EVOIiiriONIST AT I.AIMi;.

1 1) 1 1 .'i;i

ttirlcod nwfiv out of f»itxht fhit n.jainMt
till! *ti'iii. Vot fhoir nhapo ami arrtiiiLt"'-
iiKMit <li'«fitn'tly rocail I lie lit'niitiftil vi--
ronica, ami Icavo oiii> in littjo douht a^
to till* orij^iii of tho plant. At tho Haiiio
tiiiio a nii'ioiiH do\ ii'o ha>« Hpriiiii; up
whii-h aiiHWors jiitt tho miiiio piirpoKo as
tho si'piiratioti of tho iiialt^ and foinnli'
flower-* on tho dole's inoroury. Kaili
plantain liloHtoui has hotli Htaiii«-nH and
pistiU, Ixit tlii> pi-^tiU ooino to iiiatMrily
iimt, and aro fortiii/.i-<l hy pollen lilowii
to theiii from Hoiiio iKM^hhorinir npiko.
Their feathery phiines are ailniirahly
adapted for eatehiii!^ and iitiii/iii'^ any
Mtray t;oldoii ijraiii whieh happens to
pass that way. After tho pistils have
fail(!il, tho stanieiiH ri|)en, and lian<r out
at tho end of loner waviiiij lllanietits, so
as to diseliart;(f all their pollen with
ofTlM't. (Ml oaeh spike of MossolllS tlu!

lowor flowcHfts open lirst ; and so, if
you pieic a half.ldown h[iiko, you will
s(!0 tliat all tho staiiieiiH ai'o ripi^ iiolow,
and all tho pistils al)*»ve. Wert; tho

<)[>positi! arraiiLjeiiiiMit to -ur, tho p(»l-

lon would fall from tint Htaiiieiis to tho
lowor flowers of tho samo stalk ; hut an
tho pistils helow have always hoon fer-
tilized and withercil hoforo tho stameiiH
ripon, thoro is no «'lianet> of any suidi
Hccidont and its oonso(jueiit evil results.
Thus Olio can soo cloarly that the plan-
tain has h(M>(uno wholly atla[>tod to
wind - fortili:ation, and as a natural
clIo(!t has all hut lost its hrijiht-colorod
corolla.

(!oiiitnon groundsel is also a case of
tho saiiK! kind ; hut hero tho degrada-
tion has not gono noarly ho far. I voii-
tnro to conjocture, therefore, that
groundsel has hoon eiiiharkod for a
shorter time ujion its d<jwnward course.
For evolution is not, as most people
Hoom to fancy, a thing which used once
to take place ; it is a prucoss taking
place around us every day, and it must
necessarily "ontinue to take place to the
end of all time. By family tho ground-
sel is a daisy ; hut it has ac(juired the
strange and somewhat abnormal habit
of self-fertilization, which in all prob-
ability will ultimately lead to its totid
extinction. Hence it does not need
tho assistance of insects ; and it has ac-

fordinyly nover dovoli»pod i>r oUo gol
rid of the brijiht outer r.»\.lloreti which
mav olieo have altiaeteil theiii, IIh imy
l>ell-!«ha|ied hlnNHoiiis ntill retain their
dwarf yellow corollas ; Imt thev are al-
iiio*«l hidden hy tho green euplike in«
voHtniont t)f tho tlowordioml, and ihoy
are not i'on'«pii'Uous eniMi(_di to arrest
the attention of the pasHJie^ llii s. Hero,
then, wi) have an o.xaniple of a plant
jll^<t beginning to start on the retroMrado
path already traversed by the pLutiiin
and tho nmirges. If wo eonld meet
prophetieally with a uroiimNel of Mumo
remote fuliiro eiiitiii\, 1 have hitlo
doubt wu bhollld tliid in bel|-sh;iped
petals as completely ilegrailed as thosu
of tho plantain in our own d.iv.

Tho general principle whiih these
eases ilhistralo is that wlnii Iluwcr> lia\o
alwMVs been fertili/ed bvllie wind, lliev
lo'ver have brilliant corollas ; when lliey
ae(|uirit the habit of impiemiating their
kind by tlo! iiiter\( ntioii of insects, they
almost alwa\s aci|uiro al tho same time
alluring colors, perfumes, and honey ;,
ami whi'ii they have ttiieo lu'eii so iin-
pregnatecl, and then revert onco more
to wind-fertili/ation, or bofMuno nelf-
fertilizers, they generally retain soma
sym[)toms of their earlier habits, in the
prescnci! of dwarfed and useless petals,
sometimes green, or if not green at
least devoid of tin ir former attraetivn
coloring. Thus every plant bears upon
its very face the history of its whole
previous developmont.

XV.

nt'TTKUFLV PSVf'IIOLOflV.

A HMAi.i, red - and - black butterfly
poise statuos(|uo above the purple blos-
som of this tall field-thistle. With iU.
long sucker it probes industriously
floret after floret of the crowded head,
and extracts from each its wee droj) of
buried nectar. As it stands just at
present, the dull outer sides of its four
wings are alono displayed, so that it
does not form a conspicuous mark for
passing birds ; but wlien it has drunk
up tho last drop of lioiioy from the
thistle Hower, and flits joyously awiiy to
sock another purple mass of the same

NW

TIIK KViH.t'riOMHT AT L.MIUK.

tn*r\, ll win opfri iN fi»it.«potli>i| viin<« In
tlh* "iitili.^ht, iiriil will tlii'ii kIiow it<««'lf
off iu oiiu iiiiioiii; llio pri'ttli'nt iif our

nMli\i' iii'i'f't*. I')i I'll llii»llt'.|inii| i'nU-
»\»u <(f nnuw t\vi» liiirii|ri'<l Mcpariitit lit-

tit* lM'|l-H||l|pl>l| liloMOIIIN, I'MMllcil to*

f Villi r for till' *i\kn of rnn^pi.MiiHi^nt'HH
lllo (I ^ifl^lr j;riM|p, jiixl lis tiiii li|o«Hi)|||s

of ilii> lilatt or till) >«\riiii;:i nni croMili'tl
Into l.ir-^i'r tliiniir|| Ir.s ilitixo rlnotiT'* ;
iitnl, ii><i'ii<'li Mi'pfiniti' llont liti<« luii'ctitry
of ItH outi, till) lioit or litittcitly mIio

liirlltH upon till' riillipOIIMil (liiwiT-urniip

CMii liii«y liiiiiHril" fur a iiiiiiutcMir two in
gi'lfiii'^ lit tli(! viirioim ilropH of honey
>*itliiiiit tim tii'iM'HHity for any finlliiT
«'li!iM.ri' of poxitioii tli.'ii) that of ri'volv-
inu' upon IiIh own a\iH. Jlcrn'ii tlirnc
roiiipo-itc llowrfH iir« fjri'iit favorin'H
\^ilh fill inserts wlioxK Hin-kirs urn lonc^
I'lioiieli to reach till) Itottoni of tluir
•Icinler tiilx'H.

The l.lltterlly'H \ie\V of life \n (lollKt-
lesH on ihe whole a eheerflll one. Vet

'liiit cxiNttMieti must III! i*oini'tliin<; ho
tiearlv niei-haiiieal that wit prohalily
overrate iheaiiioitnt of enjo\ nieiit wliieli
)i(> ilciivi'H from tlittin^ alioiit ho airily
iimoiii; tli(! llower?', and paHHini; his
(lays in the uiil)roU('ii amusement of
mekinuf lii|uiil honey, Siihjeciivi'ly
viewed, the hutterlly is not II hijih ordiT
of insect ; his nervous Hysteni doi'H not
nhmv that provision for comparativelv
fpoiitaneous thouLfht ami action which
ve tind in tho more intelligent orders,
like llio llicH, liecH, ants, and wasps.
J I is iicr\es artMill frittered away in little
H(;parafi! train;lia ilistrihiited anion;; the
vaiioiis se!,'iiii'nts of his liodv, instead
of luiiiu- j^uvenied l>y i\ siiiijln jjreat
Tentral oririin, or hraiii, who.si! business
it always is to correlate and co-ordinate
complex external impressions. This
nhows that the? butterlly's movcincnta
are ahiiost ai! automatic, or simply <le-
pend( lit upon immediato external stim-
ulants : lit! has not even that small
capacity for deliberation and spontane-
ous initiative which belonijs to his rela-
tion the bee. Tho f.eedom of the will
is ntithin^j to liim, or extends nt best to
tho amount olaimod on behalf of Iluri-
dan's uss : ho can just choose which of
two c<pudistant tlowcrs shall tirst huvu

till) benefit of liUriltenlion, and iiothirtK

•'l«e, \V|iate\er \iew We lake ttli ||,e

nliMiriii't inetaphyHical ipti'«tioii, it U nt
least certain tliiit ihe hiufhir iiiiimuN ran
do much more than this. 'l'h<'ir biaiii
iHablo to eorrelati! a va>«t number of v%-
tiTiml iiiipri'ssioiis, aiul to briin; llnin
under the intltnnce of cndh hs idi as or
experieiieeM, ho as lllially to e\ol\e roii-
diht which ilifTei-H ViTV widely v. ilh
dilTereiit I'ircimi'itanef^ and dilTiieiit
charaelcrx. Kven lhoii.xh it be tiiie, iu«
determinisH believe (and I reckon my-
self iimon'4 them), that Mich cotidnct in
the iiecesHary result of a^iveii cliaiacter
and >,'iven eircimistaiice* — or, if yoil
will, of a particular bet of iier\ouH
structures and a particular hd of iv In mil
stimuli — yet wu nil know that it in
capable of varyint; ho indefinitely, owinj^

to till! complexity of (he htiuclures, iiH

to be practically incalculable, lliit it
is not MO w ith till! biitteifly. His w holo
life is cut out for him In fori band ; IiIh
nervous eonnections are so simple, and
concspoiid HO directly with extiinal
stimuli, that wo can almost piedid with
eertiiinty what line of ndion he will
piirfiiU! under iiny ^iveti < iMiiniHtaneei*.
lie is, as it were, but a piece of half-
eonsciouH inechanism, answering iminc*
diatily to impulses from without, just
as till! thermometer answers to varia-
tions of temperature, and as the telc-
'.;niphic indicator answers to each niak-
iiiLT ami breakitii^ of thoelectrii cnricnt.
In early life tho future biiHertly
emerges iom tho opjjj us a eateipillar.
At once Ms many lej^s be^^in to move,
ami the caterpillar moves forward by
their motion. liiit tho ineclianisiu
which sot them movin-; was the nervous
system, with its pinglia working; tlio
separate leers of each seijment. This
movement is probably quite as automatic
as the act of sucking in tlu! ni'W-born in-
fant. The caterpillar walks, it knows
not why, but simply because it has to
walk. When it reaches a lit place for
feeding, which ditTor.s according to the
nature of the particidar larva, it foods
automatically. Certain special external
stimulants of sight, einoll, or touch 8ct
up tho npj)ropriato actions in tho
niundiblcs, just as contact of tlio lips

TllK KVOI.rTlONIHT AT I.\U«»K

|i»:i| M

ri)| nollt'thK

||<l< Mil i!,««
oil, it \n lit

iniiiiiiU run
llxir liiiiiii
iil>i'r of i»x-
tiriiiu tliiiii
MM i>li iiM or

I'Volvo I'OII-

iiltly V, itii

I tlilTdtiit

\n> tlllf, IIM

it'tkuii my.
t'oniliii't in

II rliiMiirttT

or, if J oil
>f iicr^iiiiM

of «'\tl'ltllll

that it Ih
t»'ly, owinjj;

IICllllT"*, HH

l*>. Hut it

I I IK mIioIo

1 lifiiid ; hJH

>illl[lli>, iitxl

ii (Ml mill
M'llii't with

III he will

IIIIIHtllhCt'H.
( »' of lllllf-

I'iii^ iiiiiiio*

tllOllt, jllHt

■* to viiiia-
H tlu! tulc-
(')ii'li iniik.
•i(; cuiicnt.
u biittcitly
('at('i|iillar.
1 to move,
or Willi I by
iiic'ciiiiniNin
111' nrrvoiis
orkiiij; tho
flit. This
siuitotiintic
■\v-l>orii iri-
it knows
0 it iuiH to
t phico for
linj^ to tho
a, it feeds
al oxternal
' touch net
m in tho
}f tho lip:i

wiifi m isti'rniil ltn«ly •«*l« ii|» oiicklntr
ill thi< iiiffiiit. All till •<• niou'iiM'iitM
di |ii nd u|)'iii what wi> ivill in^liiM t — that
i« to Niiy, ortfNuii' Iiiil)it4 ri'ui"ti*ri'i| in
till' niT^oiH »y»lt'ni of ilu- ra<i'. Thi-y
havi> iiiimM liy itatiiral MliM'timi iiloiii>,

I an»<' tliit«it liimM'U wliiidi dniy per-

fiiriiii'il iIm'Iii utirxivi'd, mid tlio><i> wlilrh
did Hot diilv |i<'if>iiiii ilit'iii di'd out.
Afli'r II t'ondderald'i M|iati of lifn upont
ill fi'i'dlii'^ nil I W)ilkiii'< alndit in M'ar< h
of iiiorit food, lliM ratirpillur om* Any
found itM'lf I'oiiiptdled l>y an inner
monitor !•» iiltrr itn haliit"*. Wliv. it
kiK'W Hot ; Init, jiMt <ih a tired •liild
ninkM to h|(i>p, ihi* ^orued and full-fid
eatirpillar Hiitik pi'm-ifully into a <lor-
mint stale. TInii ifn tiHsiH's melted
one hy out) into a kind of orij;anie pap,
niid IN iMitiTsklii liMidiiH'd iiilo ai'lirys-
ali^. W'itliin that Moliij i'ii<<(> ntw IIiiiIih
and ofuaiis lle^;t'''• •'• urow l»y hereditary
itiipiil'* -4. At tint r<aine tiiiD' the form

of till! nervous Mystelii altered, to HIlit

the hiiTJier and fleer life fur whii h the
iiiteet vvan uni'oiiseiuii«ly prepaiiii;^ 't-
nelf. Fewer and Hiinller Kaiijrlia now
appeared in the tail He;riueiits (-.inee no
h';;s would any loiivter he needed there),
while more iiiipDi'tant oiieH Mpraii;^ up
to);;overn the iiintioiis of the four winL;«,
liiit it was in tin; Ik ad that thu ^reiiteht
chaiiLfi's took plaee. There, a rudi-
mentary hrai.: inade its a|ipearanee, with
larufe opiio i'. aires, anwwetinj; to the
far lU'irt! perfect and important eyi's of
the fiitiiio huttertlv. I''orthe llviii'' in-
Heet will havo to Ktoer its way throiiLtli
open space, instead of ere('|>ini4 over
leaves and stones ; and it will have to
HUck the honey of Mowers, as well as to
choosi! its littin<4 mate, all of which d<!-
iiiands from it hi;;her and keener senses
than those of the purlilind caterpillar.
At length one day the chrysalis hursts
asunder, and the insect emerp's to view
on a summer morniu}; as u full-tledgej
and heautiful huttertly.

For a minuto or two it stands and
Vraits till the air it hrcathes has lilled
out its winirs, and till tho warmth and
sunlif^ht havo p;ivcn it 8trenf|;th. For
tho winfjs arc by origin a part of tin;
brealhinii; apparatus, and they require
to be plimmcd by tho air before the in-

«i>et <*iin tiiko to (litilif. Tlit>n, n< il

i;rows more iiecii<itoitit>d lo it* new life,
the hereijit.'iiy inipuUe caii"! >• it ti>
■pread ilR van* iibitrnd, and il tliei«.
S.Min a tlower catehen its i-vc, hihI tim
brit^ht iiiii«s of coloi attracts il irre»i'l»
ibiy, as tin* eandle-liuht attraets ihe i>t«
of a child a few wt ek« old. it x't* olf
lowatd the pjitcli of ri'd or \e||nw, pri>l>-
ably not biowin-x In forehaiitl that thi*
is the \i«il>le «\mlio|of food for it, hut
ineri'ly j;uide.| |.\ the blind habit oj' ii^
race, imprinted with bindiiiLf force in
the very eoie.liliilioii of its l.od\. Thin
the mollis, wlii< Il tl) by ni;.dit and vi^il
only white flowers whose cor< lias still
shine out in the fvili-jjlit, are xo irri"«isf.
ibiv leii on by the iSteMial stimulus of
liuiit from a candle falling upon their
eyes that they cnnnot choice but liio\o
their win^s rapiilly in that direilinn ;
and thouifh sin^xed and blinded twii'e or
three times by the tlaliie, must still
wheel and eddy into it, till at last they
perish in the fcorcliinu bla/e. Their
in»tincts, or, to put it more chaily,
their simple nervous im chaniHin, thniiirh
admirably adapted to their naliiial eir-
eunistaliccs, <>aiinot be eijually adapted
to Mii'h arlilieial objects as wax candles,
'i'he biitterlly in like maiiiKr is attracted
automatically by the color of his proper
tlowers, and scttlint; upon them, sin-k^
up their honey iiistinctivelv. Hut fced-
in<; is not notv his only object in life ;
he has to find and pair with a suitablo
mate. That, iiidecil, is the jxreat end
of his wiii'^eil cvistenee. litre, ai^aiii,
his simple nervous Hystcin stands him
in j^otid stead. The picture of his Kind
is, as it were, impriiitotl on his littlt)
brain, and he knows his tiwn mates ihtj
moment Im sees them, just as intuitively
as he knows the llowcrs upon which ho
must fcetl. Now we set! the reastui for
the biittertly's lari,'eoptie centres : they
have to ifui<lt> it in all its movements.
In like manner, and by a like meclian-
ism, the female biitterrty or moth select*
the riLjlit spot for lay injj h(!re;rt;s, whii;h
of course dejiends entirely upon the niv-
ture of the younf; caterjiillars' jtrttper
fot)d. Kach fjreat t;roup of inst-'cts haw
its own habits in this respect, inay-flici
laying their eggs on the water, many

86 [04J

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAUUE.

boctlos on wood, fllos on docayinsf ani-
niiit tuattiT, and ImtterfliKH mostly on
gpccial plants. Tims throuirlioiit its
wliolc life tilt' l>ntt<Mtly'H activity in en-
tirely ^jovcrnoil by a riijid law, roj^istcrcMJ
and tix((il forever in the constitution of
its ijHii<j;lia and motor nerves. (Jertain
detinite nl)jeet.soiitsidt! it invariably pro-
diice certain detinite movements on the
insert's part. No doubt it is vaiifuely
conscious of all that it does ; no doubt
it tierives a faint pleasure from due ex-
ercise of all its vital functions, and a
faint pain when they are injured or
thwarted ; but on thp whole its ranu;o
of action is narrowed and bounded by
its hereditary instincts and their ner-
vous correlatives. It may light on one
flower rather than anotlier ; it may
choose a fresher and brighter mate
rather than a battered and dingy one ;
but its little subjectivity is a mere
shadow eompared with ours, and it
hardly deserves to be eoiisidered as
more than a semi-conscious automatic
machine.

XVI.

BUTTERFLY ESTHETICS.

TriE other (hiy, wlien I was watching
that little red-spotted butterfly whose

f)syehology I found so interesting, I
ujrdly took enough account, perhaps,
of the insect's own subjective feelings
of pleasure and pain. The first great
point to understand about these minute
creatures is that they are, after all,
mainly pieces of automatic mechanism :
the se('ond great point is to understand
that they are })robaMy something more
than that as well. To-day I have found
anotlier exactly similar butterfly, and I
am going to work out with myself the
other half of the problem about him.
Granted that the insect is, viewed in-
tellectually, a cunning bit of nervous
machinery, may it not be true at the
same tir.ie that he is, viewed emotion-
ally, a faint copy of ourselves ?

Here he stands on a purple thistle
again, true, pt usual, to the plant on
wliiM I last lound him. There can be
no doubt that he distinguishes one color
from another, for you can artificially at-

' tract him by putting ft picco of ptirt)lo
paper on a green leaf, just as tho flower
naturally attracts him with its native
hue. Numerous observations and ex-
[leriments have proved with all but ab-
Holuto certainty that his discrimination
of color is essentiiilly identical with our
own ; and I think, if we run our eyo
up and down nature, observing how uni-
versally all animals are attracted by puro
and bright ctJors, we can hardly doubt
that ho appreciates and admires color as
well as discriminates it. Mr. Darwin
(icrtaiidy judges that butterflies can show
an Histhetic preference of the sort, for
he sets down their own lovely hues to
the constant sexual selection of tho
handsomest mates. Wo must not,
however, take too human a measure of
their cajjaeities in this respect. It is
suflicient to believe that the insect de-
rives some direct enjoyment from tho
stimulation of i)ure color, and is hered-
itarily attracted by it wherever it may
show itself. This pleasure draws it on,
on the one han(1, toward the gay flowers
which form its natural food ; and, on
tho other hand, toward its own brilliant
mates. Imprinted on its nervous sys-
tem is a certain blank form answering
to its own sj)ecific type ; and when the
object corresponding to this blank form
occurs in its neighborhood, the insect
blindly obeys its hereditary instinct.
But out of two or three such possible
mates it naturally selects that which is
most brightly spotted, and in other
ways most perfectly fulfils tho specific
ideal. We need not suppose that the
insect is conscious of making a selection
or of the reasons which guide it in its
choice : it is enough to believe that it
follows the strongest stimulus, just as
the child picks out the biggest and red-
dest apple from a row of ten. Yet such
unconscious selections, made from time
to time in generation after generation,
have sufficed to produce at last all the
beautiful spots and metallic eyelets of
our loveliest English or tropical butter-
flies. Insects always accustomed to ex-
ercising their color-sense upon flowers
and mates, may easily acquire a high
standard of taste in that direction, while
still remaining comparatively in a low

TIIK EVOLUTIONIST AT LAUOE

[05] 87

of purnlo
tho llower
its twitive
» and ox-
ill but jib-
riinin.'ition
il witli our
n our oyo
i^Iiow uui-
I'd by [)!:ra
lly doubt
OS '.'olor as
Darwin
■scan show
L' sort, for
ly luios to
L>n of tlio
must not,
measure of
oct. It la
insect de-
t from tho
d is hered-
vcr it may
raws it on,
r^ay Howors
I ; and, on
vn brilliant
ervous sys-
answering
1 when tlie
blank form
the insect
y instinct.
;h possible
t which ia
. in other
lie specific
e tliat the
a selection
lo it in its
ive that it
lis, just as
t and red-
Yet such
from time
:cneration,
ist all the
eyelets of
3ai butter-
led to ex-
)n flowers
re a high
ion, while
in a low

stape as rorjards their intellectual con-
dition. But the f.K't i wish ospeeially
to emphasize is this — tliat the fiowers
produced by tho color-sense of butter-
flies and their alTu^s are just those ob-
)'fi(;ts which we ourselves consider most
ovely in nature ; and that the marks
and shades ujton their own winirs, pro-
duced l)y the loiii; selective action of
their mates, arc just the thiiii;s which
we ourselves consider most beautiful
in the animal world, in this respect,
then, there seems to be a close com-
niunitv of taste and fticliu'' between the
buttertly and ourselves.

Let me note, too, just in passing,
that whi'e the upper half of the butter-
fly's wiiiLf is generally beautiful in color,
so as to attract his fastidious mate, the
under half, displiiycd wliih; he is at rest,
is almost always dull, and oft'?n resem-
bles the plant upon which he habitually
alights. The first set of colors is obvi-
ously due to sexual selection, ami has
for its object thi! making an elfective
courtship : but the scciuid set is obvi-
ously due to natural selection, and has
been produced by the fact that all
th(»s( insects whose bright colors show
through too vivitlly when they are at
rest fall a [uey to birds or other ene-
mies, leaving only the best protected to
continue the life of the species.

But sight is not the only important
sense to the butterfly, lie is largely
moved and guided by smell as well.
IJolh bees and butterflies seem largely to
Bcli'ct the flowers they vi.sit by means
of smell, thouifh eoh r also aids them
greatly. When we remember that in
ants scent alone does duty instead of
eyes, ears, or any other sense, it would
hardly be possible to doubt that other
allied insects possessed the same faculty
in a high degree : and, as Dr. Hastiaii
says, there seems good reason for be-
lieving that all the higher insects are
guided almost as much by smell as by
sight. Now it is noteworthy that most
of those flowers which lay themselves
out to attract bees and buttei flies are
not only colored but sweetly scented ;
and it is to this cause that we owe the
perfumes of the rose, the lily-of-the-
vallcy, the heliotrope, the ja.sminc, the

violet, and the stephanotis. Night-
tlowering plants, which depend entirely
for their iertili/ation upon moths, are
almost always white, and have usually
very powerful {)erfumes. Is it not a
striking fact that these various scents
are exactly those; which human beings
most admire, and which they artificially
extract for essences i Here, again, we
see that the a-sthetic tastes of butterflies
and men decidedly agree ; and that the
thyme or lavender whose perfume
pleases the bee is the very thing which
we ourselves choose to sweeten our
rooms.

Finally, if wo look at the sense of
taste, we find an e(|ually curious jigree-
metit between nn-n and insects ; for tho
honey which is stored by the flower for
the l>ee and bv the bee for its own use, is
stolen and eaten up by man instead.
Hence, when I consider the general con-
tinuity of nervous structure tliroughont
the whole animal race, and the exact simi-
larity of the stimulus in each instance,
I can hardly doubt that the butterfly
really enjo\s life somewhat us we enjoy
it, though far less vividly. I cannot
but think that he finds lnuiey sweet, and
perfumes pleasnnf, and color attractive ;
that he feels a lightsome gladness as lie
flits in the sunshine from flower to
flower, and that he knows a faint thrill
of pleasure at the sight of his chosen
mate. Still more is this belief forced
upon me when I recollect that, so far as
I can judge, throughout the whole ani-
mal world, save only in a few aberrant
types, sugar is sweet to taste, and
thyme to smell, and song to hear, and
sunsliiiK! to bask in. Therefore, on the
whole, while 1 a<lmit that the butterfiy
is mainly an animated })uppet, I must
(pialify my opinion by inlding that it is
a puppet which, after its \aguc little
fashion, thinks and feels very much as
we do.

xvir.

THE ORIGIN OF WALNUTS.

Mr. Darwin ?ias devoted no small
portion of his valuable life to tracing,
in two bulky volumes, the l)esc<'nt of
Man. Yet I suppose it is probable that

88 [1)6]

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAIIUE.

c

in our narrow nnthropinisin we should
luuc! rotiisi'tl to listen to liini had hi-
pivon us two vohiiiiOH innti'iid on the
Descent of Wiihiuts. Viewed aH u
question merely of hioloyieal science,
the one siilijeet is just as iMi[>ortant as
the other. lint the old (Jreek doctrine
that " man is the measure of all tiiitiL^s"
is stron;^ in us still. W'c form for our-
Belves a sort of [)re-(\>pernican universe,
in which the world occupies the central
point of space, and man occupies the
cential point of the woild. What
touches man interests us dee[)ly ; what
concerns him hut slightly we pass over
as of no consctjueiKX'. Nevertheless,
even the orii^in and development of
walnuts is asuhject upon which we may
protitahly reflect, not wholly without
gratification and interest.

This kiln-dried walmit on my plate,
which has su;;ij;estcd such abstract coLji-
tations to my mind, is .shown by its
rerv name to bo a foreiij;!! produtition ;
for the word contains the same root as
Wales and Welsh, the old Teutonic
name for men of a different race, which
the Oermans still apply to tho Italians,
and w(! ourselves to tho last relics of the
old Keltic population in Southern Rrit-
ain. It means " tho foreiixn nut," and
it comes for the most part f om the
south of Kurope. As a nut, it repre-
sents a very different ty|)e of fruit from
tho strawl)erry and raspberry, with their
l)riu;ht colors, sweet juices, and nutri-
tious pulp. Those fruits wliich alone
bear the name in common parlance are
attractive in their object ; tho nuts are
deterrent. An orange or a plum is
hriiihlly tinted with hues which contrast
8tn)ni«:ly with the surrounding^ foliajfo ;
its {)leasant taste and soft pulp all ad-
vertise it for the notice of bii'ds or
monkeys, as a means for assistiniif in tho
dispersion of its seed. But a nut, on
tho contrary, is a fruit whose actual
seed contains an ahui dance of oils and
other pleasant food-stuffs, which must
be carefully jjuarded against tho depre-
dations of possil)le foes. In tho plum
or the orange we do not eat the seed it-
self : we only eat the surrounding pulp.
But in the walnut the part which we
utilize is the embryo plant itself ; and

so tlio walnut's great object in life is to
avoid being eaten. Accoidingly, that
part of the fruit which in the plum ia
stored with sweet juices is, in the wal-
nut, filled with a bitter and very nau-
seous essence. We seldom see this
bitter covering in our over-civilized life,
because it is, of course, removed before
the nuts come to table. The walnut
has but a thin shell, and is poorlv pio-
teeted in eom[)arison with some of its
relations, such as the American butter-
nut, which can only be cracked by a
sharp blow from a hammer — or oven
the hickorv, whose hard covering has
done more to destroy the teeth of New
Knglanders than all either causes ])nt to-
gether, atid New luigland teeth aie uid-
versally admitted to bo the very worst
in the world. Now, all nuts have to
guard against s(|uirri 's and birds ; and
therefore their peculiarities are exactly
opposite to those of succulent fruits.
Inste.'id t)f attracting attenti ui bv being
brightly colored, they are in\arial)ly
green like tho leaves while thoy remidn
on tho tree, and brown or dusky like
the soil when they fall uj)on the ground
beneath ; instead of being iiiclo.sed in
sweet et»ats, they are provided with
bitter, acrid, or stinging husks ; and,
instead of being soft in texture, they
are surrounded l»y hard shells, like tho
cocoanut, or have a perfectly solid ker-
nel, like tho vegetable i /ory.

The origin of nuts is thus exactly tho
reveise side of the origin of fiuits.
Certain seeds, richly stored with oils
and star<:hes for aiding the growth of
tlio young ])lant, are exposed to the at-
tacks of s(piirrels, ujonkeys, parrots,
and other arboretd animals. Tho
greater part of them are eaten and com-
pletely destroyed by these their ene-
mies, and so never hand down their pe-
culiarities to any dosceiidant;.. But all
fruits vary a little in sweetness and bit-
terness, pulpy or stringy tendencies.
Thus a few among them happen to be
protected from destruction by their
originally accidental possession of a bit-
ter husk, a liard shell, or a few awkward
spines and bristles. These the monkeys
and squirrels reject ; and tliey alone
survive as tlie parents of future genera-

n life is to
"kLv, tliat
>o pliiiii is
1 tilt! wal-
vory iinii.
sfi' tliia
ilizcd life,
«'(1 l)( fore
le wjiiiiut

tXM'lv jno-

Mif of its
111 Itiittcr-
Ivdl liy a
—or oven
• riiii,' lias
li of iN'ow
"•'>* put to-
• l« aie utii-
v<rv worst
iav(! to
inls ; and
re exactly
lit fruits,
I '>y Ix'iiio-
iinariahiy
ey rt'iiijiin
Jiisl<y lil<o
lit" ^'•roiiiid
itlo.sL'd in
dc'd wlih
■l<s ; and,
lire, tlu'y
', liice tlio
solid kcr-

iJictly tlio
>f fill its,
"itii oils

I'OHlll of

o the at-

j'arrots,
. Tiie
ind com-
it'ir cne-
llu'ir pe-

But all
and l)it-
dcncic's.
n to be
y tlu'ir
>f n liit-
wjxward
ion keys
! alone
genera-

TIIE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAUGE.

[97] 89

tions. Tilt! more persistent and tlie
liiinirritT tlieir fous liceome, tiie less will
n small deLijree of hitlerness or hardness
serve to [jrotect tlieni. llenee, from
generation to <j;eneration, the bitterness
and the hardm-ss will j^o on increasini;,
because only tiiose nuts whiidi are the
nasti(Vit and the most ditliciilt to crack
will esc,a[)e (h'struetion from tlie teetli
or bills of the jifrowini^ and pressiiiL;
pojHilation of rodents and i)irds. The
nut which best survives on the averai^i!
is that whicii is least conspicuous in
color, has a rind of the most objection-
able taste, and is inclosed in tlie most
solid shell. Hut the ( xtent to whi(;h
such precautions become necessary will
depend much upon the particular ani •
nials to whose attacks the nuts of each
cnuntiy are exposeil. The Kiiropean
walii';'. 'vis only to defy a few small
wooui; ml animals, who are sutlicienlly
deterred !>y its acrid husk ; the Ameri-
can butternut has to withstand the loiin'
teeth of much more formida!>lc forcst-
ine rodents, whom it sets at naui^'ht
with its stony and wrinkle<l shell ; and
the tropical cocoas and IJrazil nuts have
to csca|ie the monkey, who pounds
them with ston<'s, or tlings them with
ail his )nii;ht from the tree-to[> si) as to
smash them in their fall against the
groun I below.

Oui own hazelnut supplies an excel-
lent illustration of the gejieral tactics
adopt il Ity <'i 'lilts at larn'c. Tiie lit-
tle re(i tufte i i.lrssoms whicli everybody
knows so -vc!! i' early spriiii; are eacli
Rurrouiideil bv ;i !■ uch of three bracts ;
and as the nut j;rows bigger, these
bracts form a green leaf-like covering,
which causes it to look very much like
the ordinarv foliage of the hazel-tree.
Besides, they are tii'ckly set with small
prickly hairs, which are extremely an-
noying to the lingers, and must prove
far more unpleasant to the delicate lips
and noses of lower animals. Just at
present the nuts have reached this stage
in our copses ; but as soon as autumn
sets in, and the seeds are ripe, they will
turn brown, fall out of their withered
investment, and easily escape notice on
the soil beneath, where the dead leaves
will soon cover them up in a mass of

shrivelled brown, indistinguishable in
sjiaile from the nuts themselves. Take,
as an exam|»le of the mon; carefully pro-
tected tropical kimls, the eoi-oannt.
(irowing on a \ery tall palm-tree, it has
to fall a eonsidcraiile distance toward tho
earth ; and so it is wrapped round in a
mass of loos(! knitt(.'d fibre, which
breaks the fall just as a lot of soft wool
would do. Then, being a large ijit,
fully stored with an abumlance of meat,
it otiers special attractions to iiiiimals,
and coiiseipieiitly rcijuires special means
of defence. Accordingly its shell is
extravagantly thick, only one small oft
spot being left at the blunter end,
through which the yonng plant may
push its head. Once upon a tiiiie, to
be sure, the coeoaiiut (•ontaiiicd three
kernels, and had three such snt't s[iiits
or holes ; but now two of them aio
aborted, and I he two holes icniiJn only
in the form of hard seal's. The Biazil-
niit is even a better illustration. 1 'rob-
ably few people know that the irnuular
aiigiilar nuts whicli appear atde.-s.'it by
that name are originally contaiiied in-
side a single round shell where they fit
tightly together, and actjuire their cpiecr
indefinite slia|)es by tnutiial pressure.
So the South American monkey has
tiist to crack the thick extei lal common
shell against a stoin; or otherwise ; and,
if he is successful in this jirocess, he
must afterward break the separate
sharp-edged inner nuts with his teeth —
a performance which is always painful
and often ineh^'ctual.

Vet it is curious that nuts and fruita
are really productnl by the very slightest
variations on a common ty[)e, so miicli
so that the technical botanist dies not
recognize the pojiular distinction be-
tween them at all. In his eyes, the
walnut and the cocoanut are not nuts,
but " drupaceous fruits," just, like the
plum and the cherry. All four alike
contain a kernel within, a hard shell
outside it, and a fibrous mass outside
that again, bounded by a thin external
layer. Only, while in the plum and
cherry this fibrous mass becomes succu-
lent and fills with sugary juice, in the
walnut its juice is bitter, and in tho
cocoanut it has no juice at all, but re-

40 [98]

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARCIE.

niaitiHa more niatlod luycrof dry fil>roH.
Anil wliili! the thin oxtcniiil skin ln'-
cnnx's |iiii'|il(! in tlic plum and ri:«l in the
clirny as tiw; fruits ripen, it rfUiaiuH
prci'ii and iirown i]i tlio ualinit and
Ofx'oaniit all tlii'ir time. Ncvcrtlick'ss,
Darwinism shows us liotli hero and oIho-
wlicre that tho |»opular distiiiL-tion an-
Bwers to H real dilTerenoo of oriijin and
function. When a sced-vcsscI, what-
ever its I»otani('al structure, surviveH l»y
dint of aftractinuj animals, it always ac-
quires a liri;j;ht-ei)lored einelopo and a
sweet pul|) ; wd)ilc it usually jxissesscs a
hard seed-shell, and often infuses hitter
essences into its kernel. On tho other
hand, when a seed-vessel survives by
escMpiiiij; the notice of animals, it fjen-
erally has a sweet and pleasant kernel,
which it protects l>y a liard shell and an
iiieons|)ictious and nauseous envelope.
If the kernel itself is hitter, as with the
hoise-cliestnut, the need for disjxuise
and external protection is nuudi less-
ened. But the Ix'st illustration of all
is »-eeu in the West Indian cashew-nut,
wliieh is what Alice in Wonderland
■would have called a portmanteau seed-
vessel — a fruit and a nut rolled into one.
In this eurions case, the stalk swells out
into a hritjht-colorcd and juicy mass,
lookiuij; somethinu; like a pear, hut of
course containinix no seeds ; while the
nut li'rows out from its end, secured
from intrusion hv a eoveiinij; with a
pungent juice, which hums and blisters
the skin at a touch. No animal except
man can ever successfully tackle the
cashew-nut itself ; but by catincj the
pear-like stalk other animr.ls ultimately
aid in distributinij tho seed. The
cashew thus vicariously sacrifices its
fruit-stem for the sake of preserving its
nut.

All nature is a eontinuons pame of
cross - purposes. Animals perpetually
outwit plants, and plants in return once
more outwit animals. Or, to drop the
metaphor, those animals alone survive
which manage to get a living in spite of
tl)(* protections adopted by plants ; and
those plants alone survive whose pecu-
liarities hap|)en successfully to defy the
attack of animals. There y on have llie
Darwinian Iliad in a nutshell.

XV III.

A r'UKTTV LAND-flllELl

The heavy rains which havc^ (h)no so
much harm to tlx; stani'ingcorn have at
least iiad theelTectof making the coun-
try look greener and lovelier than I have
seen it hxdv for many seasons. There
is now a fresh verdure about tin; upland
pastures and piiu! woods which almost
reminds one of tlui deej) valleys of tho
Ilernese ( >berland in early spring. Last
year's continuous wet weather gave the
^'eis and grass u miserable draggled ap-
pearance ; but this summer's rain, com-
ing after a dry spring, has brought out
all the foliage in unwonted luxuriance ;
iind everybody (except the ISrilish
farmer) agrees that we have never seen
the country look more biautiful.
Thouirh the year is now .so far advanced,
the trees are still as green as in spring-
tide ; and the meadows, with their ricdi
aftermath springing uj) apace, look
almost as lush and fresh as they did in
early June. Loncbuiers who i-et away
to tlie country orthe seasi(h.' this month
will enjoy an unexpected treat in seeing
the fields as they ought to be seen a
couple of months sooner in the season.

Mere, on the edge of the down,
where 1 liave come up to get a good
blowing from the clear south-west
l)reeze, I have just sat down to rest my-
self a while and to admire the \iew, and
have reverted for a moment to my old
habit of snail - hunting. Years ago,
when evolution was an infant — aii in-
fant much troubled by the complaints
inseparable from infancy, but still a
sturdy and igorous child, destined to
outlive and outgrow its early attacks —
I used to collect slugs and snails, from
an evolutionist standpoint, and put their
remains into a cabinet ; and tc) this day
1 seldom go out for a walk without a
few pill-boxes in my pocket, in ease I
should happen to hit upon any remaik-
able specimen. Now here in the tall
moss which straggles over an old heap
of stones I have this moment lighted
upon a beautifully marked shell of our
prettiest English snail. How beautiful
it is I could hardly make you believe,
unless I had you hero and could show

or

TIIK KVOLL'TIOMST AT LAIUIE.

[!)»! 41

vc done 80
»rii liavo at
:; lliti (rotin-
liitii I have

IS. TIltTO

tlio upland
I'll aiiiiost

CVS of (1)0

iiii:. Last
r iiavc the
:i;;'ti"l«'«i ap-

raiii, coiii-

■^>ll^•|lt out

Miriaiice ;

:'- l>rit;sh

over seen

iHautiful.

iilvaiici'd,

ill spriii^-

tlifir rich

ICC, look

lev did in

irct away

liis inontn

t in seeing

10 seen u

10 season,
le down,
t H fi'ood
out li- west
' rest niy-
viow, and
i> my old
■ars aiio,

: — ail in-

DUiplaiiits

lit still a

stilled to

sitlacks —

Ills, from

put their

this day

ithoiit a

i'.i case I

rciiiaik-

thc tall

old lieap

t lighted

11 of our
lieautiful

helieve,
Id show

it to y'li ; for iiiont people only know
the two or three ugly hrown or liaiidcd
snails that prey upon their calihagcs an<l
lettuces, and have no notion of the
lovely shells to he found l>y hunting
aiiMiiiir I'^iglish (Hjpsos and under the
dead Icav.'s of Scotch hill-sides. This
cyc^lostoiiia, however — I nuist troulih;
you with a Latin name for once- -is so
r(!markai>ly pretty, with its graceful
elongated spiral whorls, and its deli-
cately chiselled frtftwork tracery, thai
even natiiialists (who have; perhaps, on
the whole, less sense of heaiity than any
class of iiKui I know) have recognized
its loveliness hy giving it the specific
epithet of <7c//'f //.v. It is liig enough foi
anybody ti> notice it, being about the
size of a peii winkle ; and its exquisite
stippled eliasing is strongly marked
enough to be |)ei'fectly vislltle to the
nakeil eye. l>ut besides its beauty, the
cyclostoiii I has a strong claim u|)oii our
attention because of its curious history.
Long ago, in the infantile days of
evolulioiiisjii, I often womlercd why
people made coliections on such an irra-
tional plan. They always try to get
what they call the most typic'al speci-
mens, and reject all those which arc
doubtful or intermediate. Hence the
dogma of the fixity of species becomes
all the more firmly settled in their
miiiils, because they nuverattend to the
existing links which still so largely
bridge over the artificial gaps created
by our nomenclature between kind and
kind. 1 went to work on the opposite
plan, collecting all those aberrant indi-
viduals which mi>st diverged from the
specific type. In this way I managed
to make some series so continuous that
one might pass over specimens of three
or four different kinds, arranged in
rows, without ever being able to say
quite clearly, by the eye alone, where
one group eiuled and the next group
began. Among the snails such an
arrangement is peculiarly easy ; for
some of the species arc very indefinite,
and the varieties are numerous under
each species. Nothing can give one so
good a notion of the plasticity of organ-
ic forms as such a method. The end-
less varieties and intermediate links

which exist among dogs is tlu^ nearest
example to it with which ordinary ob-
servers are familiar.

r»iit tlu! cyc|of,toma is a snail which
introduces one to still dei-pcr piestions.
It belongs in all our sciientific classifica-
tions to the group of luiig-breathing
molliisks, like the common giirdeii snail.
Vet it has one remarkable pceiiliatity :
it possesses an operculum, or door to
its shell, like that of the; periwinkle.
This operculum represents among the
uiii\alvcs the under->licll of the oyMer
or other bivalves ; but it has compleI( ly
disappeared in most laml and fresh-
water snails, as well as among many
marine species. The fact of its occur-
rence in the cyclostoiiia would thus be
(piite inexplicable if we were compelled
to regard it as a descendant of the other
luug-breathiiig mollii>ks. So far as I
know, all naturalists have till lately
always so regarded it ; but there can be
very little doubt, with the new light
east upon the ijucstion bv harwini.^m,
that they are wrong. There exists in
all our ponds and rivers another snail,
not breathing by means of lungs, but
provided with gills, known as ])aludiiia.
This paludina has a door to its shell,
like the cyclostoma ; and so, indeed,
have all its allies. Now, strange as it
sounds to say so, it is pretty certain
that we must really class this lung-
breathing ey(;lostoma among the uill-
breathers, because of its close resem-
blance to the paludina. It is, in fact,
one of these gill-breathing pond-snails
which has taken to living on dry land,
and so has acquired the habit of pro-
ducing lungs. All molluscan lungs are
very simple : they consist merely of a
small sac or hollow behind the head,
lined with blood-vessels ; and every
now and then the snail opens this sac,
allowing the air to get in and out by
natural change, exactly as when we air
a room by opening the windows. So
primitive a mechanism as this could be
easily acquired by any soft-bodied ani-
mal like a snail. 13esides, we have
many intermediate links between the
pond-snails and my cyclostoma here.
There are some species which live in
moist moss, or the beds of trickling

42 [100]

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LAllUE.

-s4

i

n

ftrcMiiH. Tlicro nr<^ otliors vlili-li l'"
f.ntiicr from tlic water, ami Hpend tlii-ir
(iavH in (laiM|) Ljrass. And tlu'rc are yet
otlnrn wliiili liavo taken to a wlinllv
terrestrial e\i>*ten('e ill woods or mead-
ows and under lii-aps ef wtones. All
of tlieni auree with the, >oii(|-Miails in
li.'HJiij; an o|ier<'iiliiiii, and . o difft r from
the ordiiiaiy land and rivci-stiails, the
months of whose siiells are <|nite un-
protected. Thus land-snails havo two
sepMiate oriiiins — one lai'ju'e jxroiip (in-
cludinjx the ji'arden-siiail) heint; de-
rived from the common fn sli-water
niolliisks, while another much smaller
pronp (including tlio eyeloi-toina) is
deii\ed from the operculated pond-
snails.

How is it, then, that naturalists had
80 lonjj; overlooked thi-* distiin'tion i
Simply hecaiise their artificial classiti-
catioii is iias((l entirely upon tlio nature
of the l.ieathinu; apparatus. Uut, as
Mr. \N allace has well pointed out. ol»-
vions and important functional dilfer-
cnci's iire of far less value in traciiii;
relationship than insii;nili(!aiit and un-
important structural (h'tails. Any
water-snail may have to take to a ter-
restrial life if tile ponds in wiii(di it lives
arc liable to ilry up during warm
weather. Tlios(( individuals alone will
tlieii survive which <lisplay a tendency
to oxyo'enize their hlood hy some rudi-
nieiitary form of lun<;. Hence the
possession of luniks is nottlu! mark of a
real <iviiealoi;'ici:l class, liut u mere
necessary result of a terrestrial cxist-
cn''V (^n ♦!'•> other hand, the posses-
sion of an operculum, unimportant as
it may ho to the life of the animal, is a
good test of i(!lati(»nsliip hy descent.
All snails which take to livin<^ on land,
whatever their oriiiiiial form, will ac-
quire lunijs ; hut an operculated snail
will retain its operculum, and so hear
witness to its aiieostry ; while a snail
which is not operculated will of course
show no tendency to develop siudi a
etructiiro, and so will o(jually give a
true testimony as to its origin. In
sliort, the less functionally useful any
organ is, the liigher is its value as a
gauge of its owner's podigrc", like a
Jiourhun nose or an Austrian lip.

XIX.

DOOS AM) MASTEKH.

PiioiiAiu.v the most forhun and ab-
ject cri'atiiie to hi; seen on the face of
the earth is a masterless dog. Slouch-
ing aii<l sliidiing along, crin:;ing to
every human lieing it (diaiiccs to meet,
running away with its tail hctwceii its
legs fioiii smaller doj^s whum under
other eircuiiisti nci's it would accost
With a grutf who-the-dickciis-are-you
soit of giowl — it forms the veiy picture
of utter humiliation and self-alias; nicnt.
(iiip and I have just come across Mich
a lost specimen of stray dogliood, try-
ing to liiid his way hack to his homo
across the lields — I fancy he hi longs to
a travelling show which left the village
yesterday — and it is (piitc! icfn ^hing to
watch the air of supeiior wiMloiii and
calm hut mute compassioinitciiess with
whi(di (!ri|> casts his eye sith long upon
that wretched masterless \aiiiaiit, and
passes him hy without even a nod.
Ill' looks up to me complacently as ho
trots along hy my side, and seems to .^^ay
with his eye, " Poor iVllow I he's lost
his master, j'ou know — careless dog
that he is !" 1 helieve the lesson has
hai. <i good moral effect ii[)on (irip's
own conduct, too ; for he has now
spent ten whole minutes well within my
sight, and has resisted the most t( mpt-
iiig solicitations to ratting and rahhiting
held out hy half a dozen holes and
biiirows in the hedge-wall as wo go
along.

'J'liis total dependence of dous upon
a iiia>tcr is a very inten stii\«>; cvi,ii([)lo
of the growth of inherited instiiK-ts.
The oriuiual dog, who was a wolf or
something very like it, CDuld not have
had any such artificial feeling. He was
an independent, self - reliant animal,
quite well able to look after himself on
the boundless plains of Central Europe
or High Asia. But at. least as early as
the. days of the Danish shell-mounds,
perhaps thousands of years earlier, man
had learned to tame the dog and to
employ him as a friend or servant for
his own purposes. Those dogs which
best served the ends of man were pre-
served and increased ; those which fol-

n nnd nb-

(' tiirc of

Sloiifli-

iii:;;in<i; to

i to lIK'Ct,

'tween its
mil iiiiilcr
III iiceost
is-mc-\ oil
'I y i''n;tiiro
li;is'. meiit.
TOSS Miell
liootl, Iry-
liis lioino
III I onus to
lie villiiije
n •^llin^■ to
siloiii and
•nt'ss with
\i)\\<x upon
;riint, and
•n !i nod.
illy as ho
Ills to say

lin's lost
el( ss (log
essi.'ii lias

)ii (iiiji's

lias now
Yitliiii my
ist t( iiipt-

lalibiting
iok-s and
as wu go

)L>'s iijion

evi.nnilo

instincts.

I wolf or
lint liavc

lie was
: animal,
imself on

I I Europe
s early as

iiioi'.nds,
ier, man
r and to
rvant for
gs which
,vorc pre-
hicli fol-

TllK ICVOIAIIIOMST AT LAltOK.

101 j 48

lowi"! too mifli tlioir own ori'^Inil in-
Rtiints wcri! ik'stroyed or at Iciol di>-
coiir.iu't.! I. Tlio siiviigi! hiiiilor would \n>
VIMS' apt to lliii.; his siono a\<! iit tln'
hIxhII .it' a hxiiul which triiMl t > eat tli''
gam • ho h.iil hrotight down with his
lliiit-tipp>'d arrow, instcail of retries iiiu,'
it : he would l)(! most liUely to keep
carefully mil iwA wull on thMrcfiisu of
his own iiumIs the; IioiiikI which aidcil
liiiii most ill stirprisin.;, killing, ami
Heciiring his ipiarry. Thus tlior.* spranj;
up lu'twceii mm and the do^ a mutual
nil I ever-iiKU'casing synipalhy which on
the part of tlii! dcpen.U'iil creaturo has
at last h.icom 1 orgaiiiziid into an in-
h(U'ited iiMtiiii:t. If wo oiild only
tlirca I the lal»v rintli of a dog's luaiii.
we should find somewhorit in it a group
of convlited iierve-coiinections answer-
ing to this univiM'sal hihit of his race ;
and tlio grou[> in (picstion would he
quite without any analogous me(;liani«'m
ill the I. lain of the ■iiieestial wolf. As
truly as thu wing of the Itird is ada[>ted
to its congenital insiinct of tlyiiin", as
truly as the ncrsDUs system of the bee
is iiilapted to iu congenital iii>tiiict jf
honeyci iiih haiMiiig, just so tiuly is the
brain ol the dog ada[>tod to its now
congenital instinct of fi»llowiiig and
obeying a mister. The Iribit of altaeh-
ing its.ilf to a [>articular hum 111 b.-iiig is
nowadays iiiijrainud in ihj nerves of the
nio'lerii d )g jast as really, though not
quite so deeply, as the habit of running
or biting is ingrained in its bones and
muscles. Kvory d >g is born into tlu
world with a certain iniierited structure
of limits, sensii-organs, and brain : and
this iiih';rited structure governs all its
future a>.'lioiis, both bodily and iiiMital.
It seeks a mtister because it is endowed
with master-seeking brain organs ; it is
dissatisfied until it tinds one, because its
native functions can have free play in
no other way. Among a few dogs, like
those of Constantinople, the instinct
may liave died out by disuse, as the
eyes of cave animals have atrophied for
want of light ; but when a dog has
once been brought up from puj)pyhooil
nndor a master, the instinct is fully ami
freelv developed, and the masterless
coii'lition is thenceforth for him a

' thwarting and disappointing of all Ins
I iialural feelings and atlecuoiis.

Not only have dogs us a class ai'ipiir-
ed a ^pei'ial instinct with reiraril to
humanity iteiieially, but paiticuhir
i lireeds (d' dogs have iicipiiivil particular
instincts with rci;ard t • ecriaiu indi-
vidual ai'ts. Nobody >loulit-< that tlio
muscles of u greyhound arc spi cially
correlateil to the acts of runmiiL; and
leaping ; or that the imisele>. ol' a bull-
dot; are H|>eeially correlateil to the act
»f tin'Iiting. Tliewhili! external form
of th.'se creatures h;is been modilied by
111 Ill's selective lu'tioii for u delibcrato
purpose : wi; breed, as we say, from
the dog with the best points. Hut
besides being abh; to modify the visible
and outer structure of the anim il, wo
aie also able to modify, by indirect in-
dications, the hidden and inner struc-
ture of the brain. We (dioose the best
ratter among our terrieis, the best
pointer, ntriever, or setter a'lioiig oilier
breeds, to become the parent-, of our
future stock. We thus half niicoii.
scioiisly select [larticiiiar ty[tcs of ner-
V )us system in preference to others.
()iicc ujMiii a time we used even to rear
a race of dogs with a stniiin'e iiisiinet
for turning the spit in our kitchens ;
and to this ilay the ('ubans rear blood-
hounds with a natural taste for hunting
<l(»wn the trail of runaway nei^roes.
Now, everybody knows that you cannot
teach one sort of dog the kind of tricks
j which come by instinct ti» a dillereiit
soit. No amount of instiuction will
I induce a well bred teriier to retrieve
I your handkerchiof : he insists ii[»on
I worrying it instead. So no amount of
instruction will induce a well-bred re-
triever to worry a rat : he brings it
''ini'crlv to your feet, as if it was a dead
[»artridLre. The reason is obvious, be-
cause no one wouhl breed from a ro-
trievcM' which wcjrried or from a terrier
wdiich treated its natural prey as if it
were a stick. Thus the brain of each
kind is hereditarily supplied with cer-
tain nervous connections wanting in the
l)rain of other kinds. We need no
more doubt the reality of the material
distinction in the brain than we need
doubt it in the limbs and jaws of the

4-t |102j

TIIK EVOM'TIONIST AT LAIME.

(l(n'yli«)iiii(l ntul the ImlMo!;. TlntMc
wliii liavf \vuti'liii(| closely the (litTiTftit
rnt'OH (»f iiM'ii can lianlly licsitatc to lie-
lime that soiiicthiiii^aiialo^ronH cviHts in
our own case. W'liile llie liii^hcwt ty|M's
are, ii.H Mr. IIitImtI Spencer well puts
it, to Hoine extent " oriianically moral "
and >tructnrally intelli;;;ent, the lowest
types lire coMjxenitally deticient. A
lliropeiin child learns to read almost i)y
nature (t'l.r I)u;r|,('rry was essentially
ri^rlit after all), wliiic u Nclcpo child
learns to read liy painful personal e<-
perii'Mce. Ami savajxeH [»rouijht to
Europe and " civilize<l " foryears often
rctiiri^ at last with joy to their nativo
lionu', cast oil their clothes and tiieir
outor voneerinir, 'ind tako oneo iiioro
to the only lifo for which their ner-
vouH oriiaiii/ation naturally tits thorn.
*' What is hreil in th(( hone," says tiic
wise old provurh, " will out iu the
bloo.l."

XX.

BLACKCOCK.

.Tt'ST at the present moment the poor
black LTi'ouse are ii;eiierallv havini; a hot
tim(! of it. After their <|uiet sprini;
and summer they suddenly find their
heath-clad wastes inva<lc(l l»y ii strauijc^
cpidi'Miic of men, do^s, and hideous
Bhootini; iiiipl(uuents ; and Ixunjjf as yet
but youiiL? and inex[»enenced, tlu^y nre
falling- victims hy the thousand to their
youthful hahit of cliiiiiiMi; closely for
protection to tiie treacherous reed-heds.
A little later in the season, those of
them that survive will have learned
more wary ways : they will {»ack !iuu)ni;
the juniper ihiekets, and heeouu! as
cautious on the approaeh of perfidious
man as their eunnin;jf cousins, the red
grouse of the Scottish moo"s. liut so
far youthful innocenoo prevails ; no
sentiiu'ls as yet are set to watch for the
tMstant uleam of metal, and no fore-
BhailowiiiLT of man's evil intent disturl)s
their miiuls as they feed in fancied
security ujton the dry seeds of the marsh
plants in their favorite sed;;es.

The ijreat families of the pheasants
and |>Hrtridi>;es, in which the blackcock
must be included, may be roughly

diviiled into two main <livisionii ^o far
as rcLTards their appearance and general
haliits. The first class (tonsisls of
splctididly colored and eonspicuouH
hirds, such as the peacock, the ),Mlden
pheasant, and the tra;{opan ; and these
are, almost witluuit exception, ori^'inally
juny:le-liirils of tropical or sul'-trt>pical
lands, thoU]i;h a few of them have; Iteen
acclimatiiced or domesticated in tem-
perate countries. They live in re;^ions
where they have few mitural cuemiea,
aixl where they are little exposed t<)
th(! atta(d{sof num. Most of them feed
more or lens upon fruits and bright-
colored fooil-stulTs, and they are prob-
ably every one of them polynamous in
their habits. Thus we can hardly doubt
that the male birds, which alone possess
tlu! brilliant plumaire of their kind,
owe their beauty to the selective pref-
erence of their mates ; and that the
taste thus dis[>layed has been aroused
by their relation to their speitially ^ay
anti bri;iht natural surroiintiinjjs. The
most lovely species of pheasants are
found amon^ the forests of the Hima-
layas and the Malay Archipelan'o, with
their ^orii;eous fruits and fiowers ami
their ex(iuisite insects. Kven in Kng-
land our naturalize<l Oriental phcasanta
still delieht in feedin:f upon i.lju'k-
beiries, sloes, haws, ami the pretty fruit
of the honeysuckle and the holly ; while
our dinju;ier partridtjesand cjrouse subsist
rather upon heather, fxrain, and small
secids. Since there must always bo
originally nearly as many cocks as hens
in each brood, it will follow that only
the handscunest or most attractive in
the polygamous species will succeed in
attractiuLf to them a harem ; and as
beauty and strenjith usually u'o liand in
hand, they will also be the conquerors
in those battles which are universal with
all poly}i;amists in the animal world.
Thus we account for the strikinfj; and
conspicuous difference between the pea-
cock and the peahen, or between the
two sexes in the pheasant, the turkey,
and the domestic fowl.

On the other hand, the second class
consists of those birds which are exposed
to the hostility of many wild animals,
and. more especially of man. These

Til 10 KVUH IIONIST AT l.AimK.

LI(i:)J a

r»tl(i so fiir
1(1 ^fiicral

IIHiHlH of
MIHIlicllOllH

III' ^(i|<l(;tl
itiul tlicsu
oriL'iiiiillv
il'-liopii-al
liav(> licun
I in t«>in-
iti n>;;ioim

(nicniiuH,
Yposcil to
;li('iii feed
1(1 Iti'i^lit-
iire jH'ob-
i;)iiiioiis in
rdl}' doubt
lie possess
icir kind,
'live prcf-

tliat tlic
I iirousod
eiallv ^ny
ij;h. * Tlio
isaiits are

e llinia-
au;*), with
wers mid
I in Kiig-
|)li«';isant8
n i'lack-
etty fruit
y ; while
ISO subsist

lid small
I ways bo

s as bens
tliat only
active in
iicceed in
and as
J hand in
)iujueror9
iTsal with
world,
king and

the pca-
ween the
} turkey,

and class

3 exposed

animals,

These

kindn, typiri('(l by the reil i;ri»usu, par-
tritlu;f<, <|ii,iils, ami giiinca-fowN, an-
pMierally dingy in hue, with a tcndetiey
to peppcr-and-Hnh. in their pbimagit ;
and tiiity usually display very little
ditTerence between the sexes, both cocks
aihl heiiH being eitlored and feathered
niiicli aliki>. In short, they are protect-
ively ditsigned, while the tirst elasH are
attractive. 'I'heir plumage resenddos as
nearly aH possibb; the ground on which i
they sit or tiie covert in whicb they |
nkulk. They an; thus (-nabliMl t(» escape '
the notiiu) (d' their natural enemies, the
birds of prey, from wlntse ravages they i
HUtTer far nion^ in a stat(M>f nature than |
from any otlnsr (tause. We may take
the ptarmigans as the most typical ex-
ample of this elans of birds ; for in
summer their zigzagged black-and-
brown attire harmonizes admirably «it.h
the patcln^s (d" faiL'.' heath and soil upon j
the moiinl!iir>-side, as every s[»ortsiiian
well knows ; while in the winter their |
pure white plinnage can scarcely bc^ dis-
tinguislhid from the snow in which they '
lie huddled and crouching during tin; j
colder months. Even in the brillianl
8po(Mes, Mr. l)arwin and Mr. Walhu-e
have pointed out that tlie ornamental i
colors and crest are never hand(Ml down
to female desei^ndants when the habits'
of nesting are such that their motluirs i
would be exposed to (bmger by their
conspiciiousness during incubation.
Speaking broadly, only those female
birds which build in hollow trees or
make; covered nests have bright hues at
all eipial to those of the males. A
female bird nesting in the open would
bo cut off if it showed any tendency to
reproduce the brilliant coloring of its
male relations.

Now the blackcock occupies to some
extent an intermediate position between
these two types of pheasant life, though
it inclines on the whole to that first de-
scribed. It is a polygamous bird, and
it differs most conspicuously in plumage
from its consort, the graydien, as may
be seen from the very names b" which
they are each familiarly knc .u. Yet,
though the blackcock is handsome
enough, and shows evident marks of
selective preference on the part of his

ancestral h-ns, this preference has not
cNcrtcd itself largely in the dircdiuii of
brii;ht color, and that for two reasonii.
In the first plaee the blackcock (loiH not
feed upon brilli.int foo(|--.tiitTs, but up-
on small bog-berries, hard seeds, and
young shoots of heather, and it is prob.
able that an a'sthctic taste for pure and
dazzling hues is almost contliieil to those
creatures which, like biitteitlii's, lium-
mingbirds, and parrots, seek their live-
lihooil amoni; beautiful fruits or flowers,
in tiie Hceoiid place, reij, yellow, or
orange ornaments would rcmlcr the
blackcock too conspi(!uous a m irk for
the hawk, the falcon, or tin- wcipoua
(d* man ; for we must reiiieiiilier that
only those blackc<)cks survive from year
to year and hand down their peculiari-
ties to descendants which suiceed in
evading the talons of birds (d" prey or
the small-shot td" sportsmen, l-'eeiling
as they do on tin; open, they are not
pi'otcclcrl, like junL;!(! - birds, by tho
shade of trees. Thus any bird which
showed any marked tendency to develop
brighter «»r more .'onspicuous pliiinago
would almost infallibly fall a victim to
one or other (»f iiis many foes ; and
however iiiucii his beauty might possibly
charm his mates (supposing them for
the moment to possess a taste for
color), ho would have no ehance of
transmitting it to a future giuieration.
Accordingly, the decoration of tho
blackcock is confined to glossy plumage
and a few ornamental tail-feathers.
The gray-hen herself still retains the
dull and imitative coloring of the grouse
race generally ; and as for the (Mxsks,
even if a fair percentage of them is
annually cut off through their compara-
tive conspicuousness as marks, their
loss is less felt than it would be in a
monogamous community. Every spring
the blackcock hold a sort of assembly
or court of love, at which the pairing
for the year takes place. The cocks
resort to certain open and recognized
:*pots, and there invite the gray-hens by
their calls, a little duelling going on
meanwhile. Daring these meetings
they show off their beauty with great
emulation, after the fashion with which
wo arc all familiar in the case of the

40 [104 J

TIIK KVOI.r nOMST AT IMiOK.

pt'Mi'M.k ; '.111 wlu'n lln-y Imvo i;iiin»'il

tlM> ,-Mi|i|iililltiii|| i>( tlii'ir lllllti"^ lllhl

niiiiii*'! or iliivi'ii iiwiiy their rJMiU,
tli< \ iiii''' vvitli llicir rt xpi'i'tivr tiinii-
litH, rii|'.»|Hlll.lttl\, like III. ml jMil\ir-

•niixtM, thfV iiiitki* imd fiitliiMH, Ifiivitii;
til" <'iiif of flicir voiiiiij; iiliiioHi ftitin-ly
to til" lu'iM. Aci'oniiiiif to ill" \iT.i-
eioiit iircoiiiit of AitciiiiiH Wunl, tlll^
giciif pHi'^liiiiM ^^tlllli; liiiiHt'lf |ijitli('t-
ic.'illv ili'oi'iiiitcil ii|iiiii tli<> ilillii'iilty of
extcliilili'^ liJM |)MI')'iil;il iitTcrtloilH to 1 11 1
ciiil'M'i'ii. 'I'lif iiii|i(>rioiis Mai-ki'ock
B4>('iiH to liiltor iiiiiltr lliu Hiiitiu Hc'titi-
liictit.il (linuil\iititai;i>.

xxr.

IUNI>\VKi:i).

Noi tlio l"»'*t liomitifiil Jiinoni; our
TiMlivf uiiil tlowcrn am inaiiy of tliouc
wllicll L'l'ovv, too ofti'M tllllli'f(|»"i, iijolli;
t\\{\ waysiili! of every eoiiiit>y-roai|.
Till' In .i'4;e-l>or'lereil liijfliway ».' wiiicli
I ail) walking; to-day, to tako my let-
tors to iIk! villa'^'e post, is lionjeretl on
either sidu with siieli a iirofiision of
color as «)ne may never see etjiialled diir-
in'4 ininy years' e\perieneo of tropieal
or siil> - tropieal lands. .Iaiiiai<'a and
CVylon could [irodiii'i' nothing; so luill-
iant as this taii;4leil mass of L;oi'.«.e, and
thistle, and Si. Jolin's-wort, ami een-
taury, iiiteniiinLrled with th(! litlio and
whiti.iiiiiLj sprays of half-openeil elem-
atis. And lieie, on thu yerv ed;^(' of
the road, half smothered in its jjjray
dust, I have picked a pretty little con-
volvulus lilossom, with H fiv buried
head-foremf)st in its piidc belf ; and I
am c.iiiyinix them hoth alonj; with me
fls I u;o, for I'ontemplation and study.
For this little tlower, the lesser hind-
weed, is rich in hints as to the straneje
ways ill wlii<'h Natures decks herself
with so much waste loveliness, whose
meanint^ can only ho fully read by the
eyes of man, the latest comer amonu
her (diildren. The old school of think-
ers iiuaiiiiied that beauty was given to
flowers and insects for the sake of man
alone : it would not, perhaps, be too
much to say that, if the new school be
right, the beauty is not in the flowers
and insects themselves at all, but is read

into them by the fnncv of the hiimiin

riU't*. To liie lii,tt<'lll\ the MoiM |H II

little beiiiiiifiil ; to tin* fariiidaboiir it
is oiiU a llillc iiio!i> bcaiilltiil ; I lit to
the ciilti\alrd iiiiiii or the aili'-t it Ia
lovely in every cloud and ^lladl•w, in
e\cry tiii\ l.lo«Hom and pii««iiit' liul.

The oiHi r face (if the biiMivxid, ilio
exterior of the cnp, *>o to hpiak, is
prettily maiked with five d;iik iM«»it-
red bands, lietween which the n mnindcr
of the corolla is a pale pinkywhilu in
hue. N'olhini; coiihi be ^ilnpler and
prettier than this altciii.'ttion of dark
and liifht belts ; but how ih it pro-
duced .' Melely thus. '{'he ci.|i\ o|\ nlllH

blossom in till bu<l is twi>tt<l or con-
torted round and round, part of ihe cup
beiic^ folded inside, while the livo
joints of the corolla are folded (l|.l^ide,
I mu'-h after tht; fashion of an uiniuclla
when rolled up. And just as the bitH
of the umbrella which are exposed
when it is foldefl become faded in
color, Ko the bits (»f the bindweed blos-
som which arc outermost in the bud

b uiie iimre deeply oxidi/ed than the

I other parts, and acipiire a rnsset-rcd
I hue. The belted appcanince whiidi
thus results is really as accidental, if I
may use that unphilosuphical ex|iiession,
as the belted appearance' of the old um-
brella, or the wrinkles caused by the
waves on the sea-sands. 'Ihe tlower
happciiecl to be folded so, and j^cl i-ol-
ored, or <li.sci)lored, acctudiiiirly. lUit
when 11 man comes to look at it, he ree-
oi^ni/es in the alternation of colors and
the symmetrical arrang* nu lit one of
those elements of beauty with wliicdi ho
is f;imiliar in the handicraft of his own
kind, lie reads an intention into this
result of natural causes, and pcrsfuiilies
Nature us though she woik((i with an
a'sthetic design in view, just as a deco-
rative artist works when he similarly
alternates colors or arranges symmetri-
cal and radial Hgures on a cup or other
piece of human pottery. The beauty
is not in the flower itself ; it is in the
eye which sees and the brain which rec-
ognizes the intellectual order and per-
fection of the work.

I turn the bindweed blossom mouth
upward, and there I see that these rus-

•rt

rurf
pill'

TIIK EVuhUTloNIHr Al' IMHiK.

[ loAJ -IT

I' hitrnnn

IH III |H II

itlitiii r it

; I ht fo

iii>t il in

iiiImm. in

i: Ml. I.

A( I (I, tllO

>|>Mik, iit
\< lll>»t t-
I III lihdiT

^>liili' ill
|>li'r iitid

of iliii'k
s it pro-

ll\<il\ lllllH
IT CO?!.

t llic nip

tlic tlvo

(M.r»i(l(>,

iiMiliM'lla

tll(> liJtH

('\|l()S('(l

r.'idi «1 in

i'r«l liloB-

tlic lnul

lllllll lliu

•lls^*l't-rl'^l
(' wliirli
iitnl, if 1
[itcj-fion,
' old iiui-
I I'V tlio
ic Howor
I ;i'(.t roi-
ly. J '.lit
t, lio ror;-
dIoim arid

OIK' of

ivliicli lio
liis own
into tliia
•rsonifies
with an
< ji dcoo-
siiiiiliirly
"iiiiiu'tn-
or other
; beauty
is in the
licli rec-
md per-

I moutb
lese ru8-

•rt timrk-*, llioiii;h piilcr on tin' iiitnr
riiifai-c, ^tlll hliow faintly lliruii;;!i the
piii'xV wliitit rornjiii. TliiH |irodi'ffM iin
('lT> I'l iii)i iiidilvc thilt of u di'liciiti> hlit'li
riiiiii o, will) iti il.iiiity craditimiH of
iiriiit-triiii-|iiiri'iit wliiti) iiiid iiilt'i'fiiHitt ;
pill!;. I'-iil till* itiiirr rtTcrt ciin Ixt no
iimrf diKi^iicd with an ••>»• to lu'iiiity
than till* oiitir oiui wan ; mid tho very
tci'iii.H in wliii II I tliiiilv of it, I'lfinly
bIiow that my nciixt^ of itn |c»\('lini'»H it
lai';;t ly <l''iiv( d from nmipatiHoii with
hiiiiiati liindicraft. A farmer would
m-i' ill tlic foiivolviiliM iiotliiii;{ Imt ii
llHi li'HH weed ; a ciillivati'd ( yo nith in
it jiiHt iiH niiii'Ii IIS itrt natiiri! permits it
to H,'(>, I look eloser, and oliservi; tliat
thei(t aro also tliiii lines Miniiiii:^ fioiii
tlio (Uri'iiinfereiKH! to the ct'iitie, niid<
way lictvveeli the dark lielt-*. 'I'liesc

liiii's, uliii'li ad<l greatly »o tlio heaiit)
of lli(> flower, l.y marking; it out into
Zones, an- also (l.ie to ilu' foldiii'^ in tin-
l>ii I ; tli<'\ 'iri the iriin r angles of the
fold-*, just as tlmdark heltsare tin; over-
lii|ipiii\xedL;es uf the outer lllinles. I5iit,
in addiii'iii to the minor [)eaiity of these
little details, thero in the jjfeiii'ral iieaiity
of the eiip IIS u whole, wlii(di also calls
for explanalion. Its shape, is as u;rai;e.
fill as that of any (Jreidi or ICtriisean
vase, as swellini; and as Himply heaiiti-
fiil !H any heaker. Oan I aecoimt for
thesi! peeiiliaritiim on niero natural
proniids as well as for tlu; others i J
sonieliow fancy i can.

Till! Iiiiidwe(ul is dcsfipndcd from
Rome cailier ancestors which liinl five
BC]iarale petals, instead of asiiiL^lc! fused
and (rirciil'ir (aip. I.ut in thu convol-
vulus family, as in many others, iheie
five petals have joined into a continuous
rim or howl, and tlu; marks on the
blossom wliero it was folded in the biid
still answer to tho five petals. In many
plants you can sec the pointed edjjjes of
the former distinct flower-rays iw five

f)roje('tioiis, thouLdi their lower parts
lave coalesced into a bell-shaped or
tubular blossom, as in the common
hareludl. How this comes to pass we
can easily understand if we watch an
unopened fuchsia ; for there the four
briij;ht - colored sepals remain joine«l
together till the bud is ready to open,

and then opllt u\»tvx i\ Hue niiiKid out
from the \cry tii^t. I:i the plastic binl
cotidiiioii il it vt-ry cHMy for pints i)»iiallf
<4i'parati> i>o to urow out i i iiiii ui «vitu
one another. 1 do n>it m an that Kcpa<
lato picccM iictiially crow |o';;cihcr, but
that pieces which Usually -^low di'<liiiet
HoineliiiicH ^row uiiitrd tioin the >cry
llr»t. Now, four or iKc petals, ladially
a'rani.{cd, in tliem«tl\»s prodiire t!iat
kind of Hynimetry which m m, with bin
iiilellectiial love for order nil I d> liiiito
patterns, idwavs liinU beaiitii'iil. I>ut
ihe H\ miiictry in the tlowcr dimply re-
sults from the fact that a sinji' whorl
of leaves has i^rowii into (his particular
shape, while the outer an I inner wlnuU
have i;rown into other shaprn ; and
every hiicIi whoil always and neeisHiirily
pieHciits us with ail example «if the kind
of hymiiictry whieh we so niiiili ml-
iniro. ALCaiii, w hcii the petals forming
a whorl coalesce, they liiii»t, of cmirse,
[irodiice a more or les-« ic^ul ir circle.
If the points of the petals remain as
projections, then we ^it a ciide with
'. atidvkcd edijes, as in the lilv of tllO
valley ; if tinsy do not project, then wo
i;;et a simple circular liiii, as in the bind-
weed. All till lovely shapes of bell-
blo<sonis are Himply due to tlii- natural
coali'scence of four, live, or six petals ;
and this (ioalescciice is ii^ain due to
an increascnl cerlainty of fcitilization
si'ciired for tlie plant by the better
adaptation to insect visits. Similarly,
we know that the colors of th" corolla
have been acijuireil as a means of ren-
tlerinu; the flower conspicuous to the
i-yesof bcesor butterllies ; and the hues
which s(» prove attractive to insects are
of ths saiiv^ sort .vhich arouse pleasiir-
nMe stimulatioti in our own nerves.
Thus the whole loveliness of flowers is
in the last resort dependint upon all
kinds of accidental causes — causes, that
is to say, into which the deliberate de-
sii;n of the production of beautiful
effects did not enter as a distinct factor.
Those parts of nature which are of such
a sort as to arrflise in us certain feelinu^s
we call beautiful ; and those parts
which are of such a sort as to arouse in
ns the opposite feelln^js we call uijly.
But the beauty and the ugliness arc not

4H lUHII

TIIK KVoI.ITHJMHr AT I.AllOK.

ftiirf-* ttf tln> tliiiii;* ; till')' »r«t m««ri'ly
miiiitii iiiimIi'huI' ri'Uitntiii^ Koiiiit luiinn^
tlii'ir ititriloiii"*. \VlM>n>M>r in iiiittiro
wt' flinl |nir»» c'liltir, nyiiiiin'triful form,
lllni ihliiritlt' \:nii'ty«if |iJillirii, \si' ilil-
iitfiiM' to uiirnt'lvi'4 tliiit iiitliiri' «l«>i«i((iiM
tliii oltji'i't lit Im< liciiiitifiil. Wlit'ii we
triifi' ilii''«i> |M'i'iiliMititw to ilii'ii iiri^in,

IllkWt'U'r, »<> liml tllUt Cltrll nf llii'lll
OWi'H its orciirniii'i' toHilllc »<Iii'ri,'il fiH'l

ill till' liixiory of tlut oliji'd ; mid wt<
fin* fori'iMl ii> rotiflit(|(> thiit tlio imtiMii I
of iiiffiiiiniiiil i|i'-.i';;ri liii« ln'i II ri'iitl into'
it l>y liiiiiiiiii iiii.'ilii^'ioM. All iiiiliirti in
iM'tiiitifiil, iiikI iiiitft iM'itiitifiil fitr tliimi> I
in wli'iiri till' Mrii<«i' of ln'iiiity is iiiiwr, ,
iiiirlily ili'Vr|i)|ic(l ; litit it in imt liiiiiiti- ^
ful at nil r\»T[tt, t'» tlMmt> wliom- owu
cyi-H iitid riiiiitioiiH arc fitted t«> porcitivi
iU lu'aiitv.

XXII.
OM cnHNHii vurrn.
1 AM Iviiii; 1)11 my liack in thn Kiin*
uliiiic. close to flic edm« of a tTeiit l>ro-
keli |ire<i|iice, lii^nide ii eliiliilieriliij ( 'olll-
IhIi tlHliiiio; vill;iu;(t. lii front of me is
the Hea, liliier tliaii I have Heeii it niiiee
hiHt I lay in like ftiNhion a few montlis
ajjo on llie Hcli'iKlose Hlo|ieH of llir Muil-
rctteM at Ilyi'-re-*, mid looked away HrTtmn i
the jilain to the iuivi|p[iled Mediterr.inc- !
nn ami the SluchathH of the old I'lio-
crpiin nuTehantmeii. On cither hand'
riso d.'irk elilT-i »if horiiMende and t»er- j
pentine, veathend al'ove hy wind and
rain, ami mnoothed helow hy tliu ceasc-
h'ss dash i Hi; of the winter waves. I'p
to the limit of the hreakers the hard
rock !« polished like Ktryplian syeiiito ;
but heyoml tliiit point it is Hssiired hy
disinteirratioii and riehly eovered with a
dap[>le(l coat of i;ray and yellow lichen.
The slow action of th« water, always
beatim; aixainst the solid wall of «'rystal-
line rock, has eaten ont a thousand such
little hays all aloiiu this coast, each
bounded I<y lonj; headlands, whoso
points havo been worn into fantastic
pinnaelos, or scsvered from tho main
mass as precipitous islrts, tho favorite
roHtinif-placo of i^ulls and cormorants.
No fjrander coast scenery can i»o found
anywhere in the southern half of Great
Britain.

Vet when I turn inland I mco that alt
thi* beauty Uit* l>< en prodiii. d by tho
mertt iltteriietioii of the nea and till) bar*
fell moor* of the interior. Nothini;
could lie Ihtller or liiiile dexolate than
tho noiihtry hUomi* Neawiini e»earpiti(>tit

yivCK lioe to tliemi ronialitie coVe<« atid

t)vramidal rocky iolctt. It MtnicheN
away for inilen in a level iiplmd wiiMto,

onl\ redeemed from cmiipli If li.'iireii*
iios b> the low ulnitJ^I 11114 bii'.liiH of the
tlwarf fiir/e, wIiomh golden hloH«oni in
how interHpersi ' with piiiiile patches of
lini; or the paler , Mik lh»«iis of tho
CorniHli hk'iith. Here, then, I can M>0
beauty in nature actually beiriiiinn^ to
be. 1 can trai'e the oriuiii of all theHu
little bays from Hinall rills >\l'ich havo
Worn tlielll^elves jjori^e - like valleyn
thi'oiii;h the hanl i^'iieoiis rock, or uImo
from ilssiires liiially ^'i\ iiitX rii«e to sea-
caves, like the one into which I rowed
this iiiorninu; for my early s«iiM. The
waves pemtiattj for acoiipleof liiimlred
yards into tin* bowels of th" rock,
hemmed in by walls and roof of dark
si'r[)eiitine, with its interlaciiiL; veins of
^^rceii and red bearitiv( witiios hiill to
its onco molten condition ; and at
IriiLflh in most cases they proiliico a
blow-hole at the top, communicating
with the open air above, eitliir becauco
the tissuie there crops up to tlii' siiiface,
or else throiij^h the a;ienc\' of percola-
tion. At last, the roof falls in ; thn
lioiililers are carried away by the waves;
and we j^et a lonj; and narn)W cov<', still
bounded on eitlier side by tall clitfs,
whose siimmils the air and rainlall slow-
ly wear away into jaj^LCed and extpiisito
shapes. Yet in nil this wi' see nothing
but the natural play of cause and eUt'ct ;
we attribute the beauty of the sceno
merely t(» the accitleiital result of inevi-
table laws ; wo feel no necessity for
callinji in tho aid of any iindfrlying
H'sthetic, intention on the part'of the sea,
or the rock, or the creeping; lichen, in
order to acc«)unt for the lovelinesn
which wo find in the tinished picture.
Tho winds and tho waves carved the
coast into these varied shapes by force
of blind currents working; on liidden
veins of harder or softer crystal ; and
we happen tu tind tho result beautiful,

TBI RVOI.UTIO!«HT AT LAHOE

(107] 40

thai nil

l>y th«

ititt lmr>

tti< tliiiii
itrpiiH'iil
vi'H mill

irrtrhf*

1 WllHtO,

Imrri'li-
•A of thn
i'<»i>iii U
a«lii'H of

4 of tllO

ciiri m'C
iiiiiii; to

till tllCHU

Irli liiivi>

viilli'yn

, nr v\m

tl) KCfi-

I rowftl
tn. Tlu(

liiin<InMl
I" rock,

of (lurk

vciiM of

i« hlill to

mill lit

>ii|co It
ii<'jitin^
X riiui^o

lllflU'C,

Mrri>lii-

III ; tlin

\Mivo8 ;

)Vt', Htill
• litfH,

II hiow-
\(|iiisit«
iiuliiiiig
itToct ;
{' Hccne
if iiiovi-
^ity for
U'l'lying
the Hca,
•lu'U, in
(Vi'lincss
pii'ture.
■rvod the
by force

,al ; and
uutiful,

1n*t M WA hnpprn to dml Ilit< inlanil
evul, (lull, mill iit<ly. Tlic <<iii|l«>w vnrl-
nty of tliii Olio (liarniii iik, whilu tho iin-
broktm iiioiioiony tif tli« other wvArio*

Itlltl rH|MlU UN,

llorit on thu rJilT I pi<*k up n pretty f<*m
Rud n hloMoiiiiii^ hfiid of tii<< Htittiiiiti
Niiiiill — though HO NWi'nta tlowor doNcrvt-M
M uuttor tiaiiiiv Thii« furn, too, in lovoly in
itH way, with itM Itrani'hin^ Ifatli'tit anil iin
rii'h KloMy-i^roi'ti hiiu. Vul it owhh iln
nhapo jiiHt iiH truly to tlio lialanrn of ox-
turnal and intt<riial forrcM ii<*tin({ upon it
MH it dooH tho (lorniAh roaMt-ltiii<. How
cotnvii it thun that in thu onu ciino wo
inatinotivoly ro^nrd tlm huuuty im ai*i>i-
dontal, whilo in tho oth«^r wo mit it
down to a dclihcrato ii'Hthotic intent i
i think liooauMu, in tho tlntt oiiMo, wo
can actually mui tho forcoii at work,
whilo in tho Hucond thoy arc no ininutu
and HO gradual in thoir itction an to
VHcapo tho notico of all hut trained oh-
M^rvum. Thin forn ^rowH in tho ithapo

' I Hflo, hocaiiMi itH nncoHtorH havo
ti >wly inouldod into hucIi a form
ur iho whoh) i^ruup of circunintancoH
directly or indiructly aSocting thuin in
all thoir pant life ; and tho ^urni of thu
coniplox form thus produced wan im-
prosHod hy the parent plant upon tho
Hporu from which thin individual fern
took its birth. Over yonder I see a ffroat
dock-leaf ; it grows tall and rank anovo
all other plants, and is able to spread
itself boldly to the light on every side.
It has abundance of sunshine as a mo-
tive-powor of growth, and abundance of
air from which to extract tho carbon that
it needs. Hence it and all its ancestors
have spread their leaves equally on every
side, and formed largo Hat undivided
blades. Leaves such as these are com-
mon enough ; but nobody thinks of
calling them pretty. Their want of
minute subdivision, their monotonous
outline, their dull surface, all make
them ugly in our eves, just as the
flatness of tho Cornish plain makes it
also ugly to us, Where symmetry is
slightly marked and variety wanting, as
in the cabbage leaf, the mullein, and
the burdock, wo see little or nothing
to admire. On the other hand, ferns
gOQorally grow in hodgerowa or thick-

«»tii, where »nnlight U mnrh Intrmiptrd
l>y nth<>r plntitH, and whom air i« Hcant),
tiioMt of itN carbon boitig (•xtrnctod by
nt'ighborini; plants which Iravo but littln
fur ono Hhothcr'H nrod*. Ilvnco you
may notice that nioat plants growing
iindor such oirriiiiiittMni>i>i« havo l«>avi*N
ininiitely Hiibdividi'd, «<> an to ratrh
"in'h stray gleams of sunlight and siu'li
tloutitig partii'li'H of carbonic arid aM
liiippcn to piiNN thoir wiiy. L«>ok into
tho next tangled and overgrown liedgo-
row which you happen to piiss, and yoii
will seo that aliiioNl all itn IraveN are of
thischaraeter ; and whem they are othor>
wiito the anomaly usually adiiiits of an

iksy explanation. Of course tho sliapen
of plants uro mostly duo to their normal
ana UHual circumstances, and are com-
parativitly littlo iiitluenced by tho acci-
dental Niirroiindings of individuals ;
ami so when a forn of such a sort hap-
pens to grow like this i ' '• on tho open,
It still retains the form iiiiprossvd upon
it by tho life of its ancestors. Now, it
is tho striking combination of syniiiietry
and variety in tho fern, together with
vivid green coloring, which makes us
admire it so much. Nut only is tho
frond as a whole symmetrical, but each
frondlet and each division of tho frond-
let is separately symmetrical as well.
This delicate minuteness of workman-
ship, as we call it, reminds us of similar
human products — of fine lace, of deli-
cate tracery, of skilful filigree or en-
graving. Almost all the green Icavoa
which we a<lmire are noticeable, more
or less, for the same effects as in the
case of maple, parsley, horse-cheHtnut,
and vine. It is true, mere glo«sy green-
ness may, and often does, make up for
the want of variety, as we seo in tho
arum, holly, laurel, and hart's-tongue
fern ; but the leaves which we admire
most of all are those which, like maiden-
hair, are both exouisitely grceu and
delicately designed in shape. So that,
in the last resort, tho beauty of leaves,
like the beauty of coast scenery, is real-
ly due to tho constant interaction of a
vast number of natural laws, not to any
distinct aesthetic intention on the part
of Nature.
On the other hand, the pretty pink

f 1 '

60 [106]

THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LABOE.

sqnill reminds me that somi-conBcioua
ie«thetic dusign in aniuialet has some-
thing to do with the production of
beauty in nature — at least, in a few
cascH. Just as a flower garden has
been intentionally produced by man, so
flowers have been unconsciously pro-
duced by insects. As a rule, all bright
red, blue, or orange in nature (except
in the rare Cise of gems) is duo to ani>

mal selection, either of flowers, fmits,
or mates. Thus we may say that
beauty in th? inorganic world is always
accidental ; but in the organic world it i
is sometimes accidental and sometimes
designed. A waterfall is a mere result
of geological and geographical causes,
but a bluebell or a butterfly is partly
the result of a more or leu deliberate
sesthetic chrice. i

A BALLADE OP EVOLUTION.

In the mnd of the Cambrian main

Did oar earlieat uncestor dive :
From it Hhapeleeti albumiuous grain

yfe mortals our being derive.
Be could split himself up into five,

Or roll himself round like a ball ;
For the fittest will always survive,

While the weakliest go to the wall.

As an active ascidian again
Fresh forms he began to oontriTfc,

Till he grew to a fish with a brain.
And brought forth a mammal alive.

With his rivals he next had to strive.
To woo him a mate and a thrall ;

So the handsomest managed to wive.
While the ugliest went to the wall.

At length as an ape he was fain

The nuts of the forest to rive ;
Till he took to the low- lying plain,

And proceeded his fellow to knive.
Thus did cannibal men first arrive,

One another to swallow and maul ;
And the strongest continued to thrive.

While the weakliest went to the wall.

Envoy.

Prince, in our civilized Live,
Now money's the measure of all ;

And the wealthy in coaches can drive.
While the needier go to the wall.

CONTENTS.

I. MlcroMopie Bnint 2

n. A Wayside Berry 5

III. In Bummer Fields 7

IV. A Sprig of Water Crowfoot 9

V. Sings and Snails 13

VI. A Study of Bones 14

VII. Blue Hud 1«

VIII. Cuckoo-Pint 18

IS. Berries and Berries 21

X. Distant Relations 28

il. Among the Heather 85

XU. Specklad Trout «I

CHAFTIR rA«S

XIII. Dodder and Broonrap*..., 89

XIV Dog's Mercnrjr and Flantain 81

XV. Butterily Psychology 88

XVI. Butterfly JCsthetics 86

XVH. The Origin of Walnuts ST

XVIII. A Pretty Land-UheU 40

XIX. Dora and Masters 48

XX. Blackcock 44

XXI. Bindweed 40

XXr. On ComlBh Cliffs. . 48

A BaJacle of Evolalloa M>

flowers, frnita,
may say that
rorld U always
Tganic world it
and Bometimoa
s a mere result
aphical cauHeo,
tertly ia partly
lesa deliberate

tt bad to strive,
and -A thrall ;
anaged to wive,
ent to the wall.

e was fain
■est to rive ;
wlying plain,
fellow to knive.
en first arrive,
Ulow and maul ;
Qtinued to thrive,
b went to the wall.

TiMM

flantiin*.'.'. «

BS

•• . 88

'" ::::::•:::: S

4!i

44

■ 46

•;::.:: 48

••• ■■ so