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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 18:59:52 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 18:59:52 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/44820-0.txt b/44820-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf35914 --- /dev/null +++ b/44820-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6099 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44820 *** + +Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected +without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have +been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with +underscores: _italics_. Words printed in bold are noted with +tildes: ~bold~. + + + + Dear Mother, take this English posy, culled. + In alien fields beyond the severing sea: + Take it in memory of the boy you lulled + One chill Canadian winter on your knee. + + Its flowers are but chance friends of after years, + Whose very names my childhood hardly knew; + And even today far sweeter in my ears + Ring older names unheard long seasons through. + + I loved them all--the bloodroot, waxen white, + Canopied mayflower, trilliums red and pale, + Flaunting lobelia, lilies richly dight, + And pipe-plant from the wood behind the Swale. + + I knew each dell where yellow violets blow, + Each bud or leaf the changing seasons bring; + I marked each spot where from the melting snow + Peeped forth the first hepatica of spring. + + I watched the fireflies on the shingly ridge + Beside the swamp that bounds the Baron's hill; + Or tempted sunfish by the ebbing bridge, + Or hooked a bass by Shirley Going's mill. + + These were my budding fancy's mother-tongue: + But daisies, cowslips, dodder, primrose-hips, + All beasts or birds my little book has sung, + Sit like a borrowed speech on stammering lips. + + And still I build fond dreams of happier days, + If hard-earned pence may bridge the ocean o'er; + That yet our boy may see my mother's face, + And gather shells beside Ontario's shore: + + May yet behold Canadian woodlands dim, + And flowers and birds his father loved to see; + While you and I sit by and smile on him, + As down grey years you sat and smiled on me. + + G. A. + + + + +_By the same Author._ + + +PHYSIOLOGICAL ÆSTHETICS: a Scientific Theory of Beauty (London: C. +KEGAN PAUL & CO.) + +THE COLOUR-SENSE: its Origin and Development. An Essay on Comparative +Psychology. (London: TRÃœBNER & CO.) + + + + +THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE + +LONDON: PRINTED BY +SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE +AND PARLIAMENT STREET + + + + +THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE + + +BY + +GRANT ALLEN + + +London +CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY +1881 + +_All rights reserved_ + + + + +PREFACE. + + +These Essays originally appeared in the columns of the 'St. James's +Gazette,' and I have to thank the courtesy of the Editor for kind +permission to republish them. My object in writing them was to make the +general principles and methods of evolutionists a little more familiar +to unscientific readers. Biologists usually deal with those underlying +points of structure which are most really important, and on which all +technical discussion must necessarily be based. But ordinary people +care little for such minute anatomical and physiological details. They +cannot be expected to interest themselves in the _flexor pollicis +longus_, or the _hippocampus major_ about whose very existence +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 monocotyledonous seeds or exogenous +stems. It is with these surface questions of obvious outward appearance +that I have attempted to deal in this little series. 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 which 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 work. + +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 anonymously in the columns of a daily paper, this air of +personality was not so obtrusive: now that they reappear under my own +name, I fear it may prove somewhat 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 _I_ 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 as to bring the statements into closer accordance with scientific +accuracy. At the same time, I should like to add that I have +intentionally simplified the scientific facts as far as possible. Thus, +instead of saying that the groundsel is a composite, I have said that +it is a daisy by family; and instead of saying that the ascidian larva +belongs to the sub-kingdom Chordata, I have said that it is a first +cousin of the tadpole. For these simplifications, I hope technical +biologists will pardon me. After all, if you wish to be understood, it +is best to speak to people in words whose meanings they know. Definite +and accurate terminology is necessary to express definite and accurate +knowledge; but one may use vague expressions where the definite ones +would convey no ideas. + +I have to thank the kindness of my friend the Rev. E. PURCELL, of +Lincoln College, Oxford, for the clever and appropriate design which +appears upon the cover. + +G. A. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + +A BALLADE OF EVOLUTION 1 + + I. MICROSCOPIC BRAINS 3 + + II. A WAYSIDE BERRY 16 + + III. IN SUMMER FIELDS 25 + + IV. A SPRIG OF WATER CROWFOOT 36 + + V. SLUGS AND SNAILS 48 + + VI. A STUDY OF BONES 59 + + VII. BLUE MUD 67 + + VIII. CUCKOO-PINT 77 + + IX. BERRIES AND BERRIES 87 + + X. DISTANT RELATIONS 96 + + XI. AMONG THE HEATHER 105 + + XII. SPECKLED TROUT 114 + + XIII. DODDER AND BROOMRAPE 124 + + XIV. DOG'S MERCURY AND PLANTAIN 133 + + XV. BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY 142 + + XVI. BUTTERFLY ÆSTHETICS 153 + + XVII. THE ORIGIN OF WALNUTS 161 + +XVIII. A PRETTY LAND-SHELL 172 + + XIX. DOGS AND MASTERS 181 + + XX. BLACKCOCK 189 + + XXI. BINDWEED 198 + + XXII. ON CORNISH CLIFFS 207 + + + + +_A BALLADE OF EVOLUTION._ + + + In the mud of the Cambrian main + Did our earliest ancestor dive: + From a shapeless albuminous grain + We mortals our being derive. + He 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 contrive, + 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 civilised hive, + Now money's the measure of all; + And the wealthy in coaches can drive, + While the needier go to the wall. + + + + +THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. + + + + +I. + +_MICROSCOPIC BRAINS._ + + +Sitting on this little rounded boss of gneiss beside the path which +cuts obliquely through the meadow, I am engaged in watching a brigade +of ants out on foraging duty, and intent on securing for the nest three +whole segments of a deceased earthworm. They look for all the world +like those busy companies one sees in the Egyptian wall-paintings, +dragging home a huge granite colossus by sheer force of bone 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 Brobdingnagian 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 +head-quarters 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 that I could for a while get inside those tiny +brains, and see, or rather smell, the world as ants do. For there can +be little doubt that to these brave little carnivores here the universe +is chiefly known as a collective bundle of odours, simultaneous or +consecutive. As our world is mainly a world of visible objects, theirs, +I believe, is mainly a world of olfactible things. + +In the head of every one of these little creatures is something that we +may fairly call a brain. Of course most insects have no real brains; +the nerve-substance in their heads is a mere collection of ill-arranged +ganglia, directly connected with their organs of sense. Whatever man +may be, an earwig at least is a conscious, or rather a semi-conscious, +automaton. He has just a few knots of nerve-cells in his little pate, +each of which leads straight from his dim eye or his vague ear or +his indefinite organs of taste; and his muscles obey the promptings +of external sensations without possibility of hesitation or +consideration, as mechanically as the valve of a steam-engine obeys the +governor-balls. You may say of him truly, 'Nihil est in intellectu quod +non fuerit in sensu;' and you need not even add the Leibnitzian saving +clause, 'nisi ipse 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 the cerebellum +which are superadded in us mammals upon the simple sense-centres of +lower creatures. Besides the eye, with its optic nerve and optic +perceptive organs--besides the ear, with its similar mechanism--we +mammalian lords of creation have a higher and more genuine brain, which +collects and compares the information given to the senses, and sends +down the appropriate messages to the muscles accordingly. Now, bees and +flies and ants have got much the same sort of arrangement, on a smaller +scale, within their tiny heads. On top of the little knots which do +duty as nerve-centres for their eyes and mouths, stand two stalked bits +of nervous matter, 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 beetles or butterflies, and why the larger +part of them have organised their domestic arrangements on such an +excellent co-operative plan. + +We know well enough what forms the main material of thought with bees +and flies, and that is visible objects. For you must think about +_something_ if you think at all; and you can hardly imagine a +contemplative blow-fly setting itself down to reflect, like a Hindu +devotee, on the syllable Om, or on the oneness of existence. Abstract +ideas are not likely to play a large part in apian consciousness. A bee +has a very perfect eye, and with this eye it can see not only form, but +also colour, as Sir John Lubbock's experiments have shown us. The +information which it gets through its eye, coupled with other ideas +derived from touch, smell, and taste, no doubt makes up the main +thinkable and knowable universe as it reveals itself to the apian +intelligence. To ourselves and to bees alike the world is, on the +whole, a coloured picture, with the notions of distance and solidity +thrown in by touch and muscular effort; but sight undoubtedly plays the +first part in forming our total conception of things generally. + +What, however, forms the thinkable universe of these little ants +running to and fro so eagerly at my feet? That is a question which used +long to puzzle me in my afternoon walks. The ant has a brain and an +intelligence, but that brain and that intelligence must have been +developed out of _something_. _Ex nihilo nihil fit._ You cannot think +and know if you have nothing to think about. The intelligence of the +bee and the fly was evolved in the course of their flying about and +looking at things: the more they flew, and the more they saw, the more +they knew; and the more brain they got to think with. But the ant does +not generally fly, and, as with most comparatively unlocomotive +animals, its sight is bad. True, the winged males and females have +retained in part the usual sharp eyes of their class--for they are +first cousins to the bees--and they also possess three little eyelets +or _ocelli_, which are wanting to the wingless neuters. Without these +they would never have found one another in their courtship, and they +would have run their heads against the nearest tree, or rushed down the +gaping throat of the first expectant swallow, and so effectually +extinguished their race. Flying animals cannot do without eyes, and +they always possess the most highly developed vision of any living +creatures. But the wingless neuters are almost blind--in some species +quite so; and Sir John Lubbock has shown that their appreciation of +colour is mostly confined to an aversion to red light, and a +comparative endurance of blue. Moreover, they are apparently deaf, and +most of their other senses seem little developed. What can be the raw +material on which that pin's head of a brain sets itself working? For, +small as it is, it is a wonderful organ of intellect; and though Sir +John Lubbock has shown us all too decisively that the originality and +inventive genius of ants have been sadly overrated by Solomon and +others, yet Darwin is probably right none the less in saying that no +more marvellous atom of matter exists in the universe than this same +wee lump of microscopic nerve substance. + +My dog Grip, running about on the path there, with his nose to the +ground, and sniffing at every stick and stone he meets on his way, +gives us the clue to solve the problem. Grip, as Professor Croom +Robertson suggests, seems capable of extracting a separate and +distinguishable 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 he is, selects and brings back to me that individual stone +from all the stones around, by exercise of his nose alone. It is plain +that Grip's world is not merely a world of sights, but a world of +smells as well. He not only smells smells, but he remembers smells, he +thinks smells, he even dreams smells, as you may see by his sniffing +and growling in his sleep. Now, if I were to cut open Grip's head +(which heaven forfend), I should find in it a correspondingly big +smell-nerve and smell-centre--an olfactory lobe, as the anatomists say. +All the accumulated nasal experiences of his ancestors have made that +lobe enormously developed. But in a man's head you would find a very +large and fine optic centre, and only a mere shrivelled relic to +represent the olfactory lobes. You and I and our ancestors have had but +little occasion for sniffing and scenting; our sight and our touch have +done duty as chief intelligencers from the outer world; and the nerves +of smell, with their connected centres, have withered away to the +degenerate condition in which they now are. Consequently, smell plays +but a small part in our thought and our memories. The world that we +know is chiefly a world of sights and touches. But in the brain of dog, +or deer, or antelope, smell is a prevailing faculty; it colours all +their ideas, and it has innumerable nervous connections with every part +of their brain. The big olfactory lobes are in direct communication +with a thousand other nerves; odours rouse trains of thought or +powerful emotions in their minds just as visible objects do in our own. + +Now, in the dog or the horse sight and smell are equally developed; so +that they probably think of most things about equally in terms of each. +In ourselves, sight is highly developed, and smell is a mere relic; so +that we think of most things in terms of sight alone, and only rarely, +as with a rose or a lily, in terms of both. But in ants, on the +contrary, smell is highly developed and sight a mere relic; so that +they probably think of most things as smellable only, and very little +as visible in form or colour. Dr. Bastian has shown that bees and +butterflies are largely guided by scent; and though he is certainly +wrong in supposing that sight has little to do with leading them to +flowers (for if you cut off the bright-coloured corolla they will never +discover the mutilated blossoms, even when they visit others on the +same plant), yet the mere fact that so many flowers are scented 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 sense of smell has been continued and further developed, till +it has become their principal sense-endowment, and the chief raw +material of their intelligence. Their active little brains are almost +wholly engaged in correlating and co-ordinating smells with actions. +Their olfactory nerves give them nearly all the information they can +gain about the external world, and their brains take in this +information and work out the proper movements which it indicates. By +smell they find their way about and carry on the business of their +lives. Just as you and I know the road from Regent's Circus to Pall +Mall by visible signs of the street-corners and the Duke of York's +Column, so these little ants know the way from the nest to the corpse +of the dismembered worm by observing and remembering the smells which +they met with on their way. See: I obliterate the track for an inch or +two with my stick, and the little creatures go beside themselves with +astonishment and dismay. They rush about wildly, inquiring of one +another with their antennæ whether this is really Doomsday, and whether +the whole course of nature has been suddenly revolutionised. Then, +after a short consultation, they determine upon action; and every ant +starts off in a different direction to hunt the lost track, head to the +ground, exactly as a pointer hunts the missing trail of a bird or hare. +Each ventures an inch or so off, and then runs back to find the rest, +for fear he should get isolated altogether. At last, after many +failures, one lucky fellow hits upon the well-remembered train of +scents, and rushes back leaving smell-tracks no doubt upon the soil +behind him. The message goes quickly round from post to post, each +sentry making passes with his antennæ to the next picket, and so +sending on the news to the main body in the rear. Within five minutes +communications are re-established, and the precious bit of worm-meat +continues triumphantly on its way along the recovered path. An +ingenious writer would even have us believe that ants possess a +scent-language of their own, and emit various odours from their antennæ +which the other ants perceive with theirs, and recognise as distinct in +meaning. Be this as it may, you cannot doubt, if you watch them long, +that scents and scents alone form the chief means by which they +recollect and know one another, or the external objects with which they +come in contact. The whole universe is clearly to them a complicated +picture made up entirely of infinite interfusing smells. + + + + +II. + +_A WAYSIDE BERRY._ + + +Half-hidden in the luxuriant growth of leaves and flowers that drape +the deep side of this green lane, I have just espied a little picture +in miniature, a tall wild strawberry-stalk with three full red berries +standing out on its graceful branchlets. There are glossy +hart's-tongues on the matted bank, and yellow hawkweeds, and bright +bunches of red campion; but somehow, amid all that wealth of shape and +colour, my eye falls and rests instinctively upon the three little +ruddy berries, and upon nothing else. I pick the single stalk from the +bank and hold it here in my hands. The origin and development of these +pretty bits of red pulp is one of the many curious questions upon which +modern theories of life have cast such a sudden and unexpected flood of +light. What makes the strawberry stalk grow out into this odd and +brightly coloured lump, bearing its small fruits embedded on its +swollen surface? Clearly the agency of those same small birds who have +been mainly instrumental in dressing the haw in its scarlet coat, and +clothing the spindle-berries with their two-fold covering of crimson +doublet and orange cloak. + +In common language we speak of each single strawberry as a fruit. But +it is in reality a collection of separate fruits, the tiny yellow-brown +grains which stud its sides being each of them an individual little +nut; while the sweet pulp is, in fact, no part of the true fruit at +all, but merely a swollen stalk. There is a white potentilla so like a +strawberry blossom that even a botanist must look closely at the plant +before he can be sure of its identity. While they are in flower the two +heads remain almost indistinguishable; but when the seed begins to set +the potentilla develops only a collection of dry fruitlets, seated upon +a green receptacle, the bed or soft expansion which hangs on to the +'hull' or calyx. Each fruitlet consists of a thin covering, enclosing a +solitary seed. You may compare one of them separately to a plum, with +its single kernel, only that in the plum the covering is thick and +juicy, while in the potentilla and the fruitlets of the strawberry it +is thin and dry. An almond comes still nearer to the mark. Now the +potentilla shows us, as it were, the primitive form of the strawberry. +But in the developed ripe strawberry as we now find it the fruitlets +are not crowded upon a green receptacle. After flowering, the +strawberry receptacle lengthens and broadens, so as to form a roundish +mass of succulent pulp; and as the fruitlets approach maturity this +sour green pulp becomes soft, sweet, and red. The little seed-like +fruits, which are the important organs, stand out upon its surface like +mere specks; while the comparatively unimportant receptacle is all that +we usually think of when we talk about strawberries. After our usual +Protagorean fashion we regard man as the measure of all things, and pay +little heed to any part of the compound fruit-cluster save that which +ministers directly to our own tastes. + +But why does the strawberry develop this large mass of apparently +useless matter? Simply in order the better to ensure the dispersion of +its small brown fruitlets. Birds are always hunting for seeds and +insects along the hedge-rows, and devouring such among them as contain +any available foodstuff. In most cases they crush the seeds to pieces +with their gizzards, and digest and assimilate their contents. Seeds of +this class are generally enclosed in green or brown capsules, which +often escape the notice of the birds, and so succeed in perpetuating +their species. But there is another class of plants whose members +possess hard and indigestible seeds, and so turn the greedy birds from +dangerous enemies into useful allies. Supposing there was by chance, +ages ago, one of these primitive ancestral strawberries, whose +receptacle was a little more pulpy than usual, and contained a small +quantity of sugary matter, such as is often found in various parts of +plants; then it might happen to attract the attention of some hungry +bird, which, by eating the soft pulp, would help in dispersing the +indigestible fruitlets. As these fruitlets sprang up into healthy young +plants, they would tend to reproduce the peculiarity in the structure +of the receptacle which marked the parent stock, and some of them would +probably display it in a more marked degree. These would be sure to get +eaten in their turn, and so to become the originators of a still more +pronounced strawberry type. As time went on, the largest and sweetest +berries would constantly be chosen by the birds, till the whole species +began to assume its existing character. The receptacle would become +softer and sweeter, and the fruits themselves harder and more +indigestible: because, on the one hand, all sour or hard berries would +stand a poorer chance of getting dispersed in good situations for their +growth, while, on the other hand, all soft-shelled fruitlets would be +ground up and digested by the bird, and thus effectually prevented from +ever growing into future plants. Just in like manner, many tropical +nuts have extravagantly hard shells, as only those survive which can +successfully defy the teeth and hands of the clever and persistent +monkey. + +This accounts for the strawberry being sweet and pulpy, but not for its +being red. Here, however, a similar reason comes into play. All +ripening fruits and opening flowers have a natural tendency to grow +bright red, or purple, or blue, though in many of them the tendency is +repressed by the dangers attending brilliant displays of colour. 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, is injured by such a change of colour, +through being rendered more conspicuous to its foes, it soon loses the +tendency under the influence of natural selection; in other words, +those individuals which most display it get killed out, while those +which least display it survive and thrive. On the other hand, if +conspicuousness is an advantage to the plant, the exact opposite +happens, and the tendency becomes developed into a confirmed habit. +This is the case with the strawberry, as with many other fruits. The +more bright-coloured the berry is, the better its chance of getting its +fruitlets dispersed. Birds have quick eyes for colour, especially for +red and white; and therefore almost all edible berries have assumed one +or other of these two hues. So long as the fruitlets remain unripe, and +would therefore be injured by being eaten, the pulp remains sour, +green, and hard; but as soon as they have become fit for dispersion it +grows soft, fills with sugary juice, and acquires its ruddy outer +flesh. Then the birds see and recognise it as edible, and govern +themselves accordingly. + +But if this is the genesis of the strawberry, asks somebody, why have +not all the potentillas and the whole strawberry tribe also become +berries of the same type? Why are there still potentilla fruit-clusters +which consist of groups of dry seed-like nuts? Ay, there's the rub. +Science cannot answer as yet. After all, these questions are still in +their infancy, and we can scarcely yet do more than discover a single +stray interpretation here and there. In the present case a botanist can +only suggest either that the potentilla finds its own mode of +dispersion equally 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 receptacle in the strawberry +has never happened to befall its more modest kinsfolk. For on such +occasional freaks of nature the whole evolution of new varieties +entirely depends. A gardener may raise a thousand seedlings, and only +one or none among them may present a single new and important feature. +So a species may wait for a thousand years, or for ever, before its +circumstances happen to produce the first step towards some desirable +improvement. One extra petal may be invaluable to a five-rayed flower +as effecting some immense saving of pollen in its fertilisation; and +yet the 'sport' which shall give it this sixth ray may never occur, or +may be trodden down in the mire and destroyed by a passing cow. + + + + +III. + +_IN SUMMER FIELDS._ + + +Grip and I have come out for a morning stroll among the close-cropped +pastures beside the beck, in the very centre of our green little +dingle. Here I can sit, as is my wont, on a dry knoll, and watch the +birds, beasts, insects, and herbs of the field, while Grip scours the +place in every direction, intent, no doubt, upon those more practical +objects--mostly rats, I fancy--which possess a congenial interest for +the canine intelligence. From my coign of vantage on the knoll I can +take care that he inflicts no grievous bodily injury upon the sheep, +and that he receives none from the quick-tempered cow with the +brass-knobbed horns. For a kind of ancestral feud seems to smoulder for +ever between Grip and the whole race of kine, breaking out every now +and then into open warfare, which calls for my prompt interference, in +an attitude of armed but benevolent neutrality, merely for the friendly +purpose of keeping the peace. + +This ancient feud, I imagine, is really ancestral, and dates many ages +further back in time than Grip's individual experiences. Cows hate dogs +instinctively, from their earliest calfhood upward. I used to doubt +once upon a time whether the hatred was not of artificial origin and +wholly induced by the inveterate human habit of egging on every dog to +worry every other animal that comes in its way. But I tried a mild +experiment one day by putting a half-grown town-bred puppy into a small +enclosure with some hitherto unworried calves, and they all turned to +make a common headway against the intruder with the same striking +unanimity as the most ancient and experienced cows. Hence I am inclined +to suspect that the antipathy does actually result from a vaguely +inherited instinct derived from the days when the ancestor of our kine +was a wild bull, and the ancestor of our dogs a wolf, on the wide +forest-clad plains of Central Europe. When a cow puts up its tail at +sight of a dog entering its paddock at the present day, it has probably +some dim instinctive consciousness that it stands in the presence of a +dangerous hereditary foe; and as the wolves could only seize with +safety a single isolated wild bull, so the cows now usually make common +cause against the intruding dog, turning their heads in one direction +with very unwonted unanimity, till his tail finally disappears under +the opposite gate. Such inherited antipathies seem common and natural +enough. Every species knows and dreads the ordinary enemies of its +race. Mice scamper away from the very smell of a cat. Young chickens +run to the shelter of their mother's wings when the shadow of a hawk +passes over their heads. Mr. Darwin put a small snake into a paper bag, +which he gave to the monkeys at the Zoo; and one monkey after another +opened the bag, looked in upon the deadly foe of the quadrumanous kind, +and promptly dropped the whole package with every gesture of horror and +dismay. Even man himself--though his instincts have all weakened so +greatly with the growth of his more plastic intelligence, adapted to a +wider and more modifiable set of external circumstances--seems to +retain a vague and original terror of the serpentine form. + +If we think of parallel cases, it is not curious that animals should +thus instinctively recognise their natural enemies. We are not +surprised that they recognise their own fellows: and yet they must do +so by means of some equally strange automatic and inherited mechanism +in their nervous system. One butterfly can tell its mates at once from +a thousand other species, though it may differ from some of them only +by a single spot or line, which would escape the notice of all but the +most attentive observers. Must we not conclude that there are elements +in the butterfly's feeble brain exactly answering to the blank picture +of its specific type? So, too, must we not suppose that in every race +of animals there arises a perceptive structure specially adapted to the +recognition of its own kind? Babies notice human faces long before they +notice 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 berries; another exhibits an +untaught desire to chase down grasshoppers; a third, which happens to +be born an owl, turns at once to the congenial pursuit of small +sparrows, mice, and frogs. Each species seems to have certain faculties +so arranged that the sight of certain external objects, frequently +connected with food in their ancestral experience, immediately arouses +in them the appropriate actions for its capture. Mr. Douglas Spalding +found that newly-hatched chickens darted rapidly and accurately at +flies on the wing. When we recollect that even so late an acquisition +as articulate speech in human beings has its special physical seat in +the brain, it is not astonishing that complicated mechanisms should +have arisen among animals for the due perception of mates, food, and +foes respectively. 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 +experience 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 are by nature and descent timid mountain +animals, and they have never been accustomed to face a foe, as cows and +buffaloes are wont to do, especially when in a herd together. You +cannot see many traces of the original mountain life among sheep, and +yet there are still a few remaining to mark their real pedigree. Mr. +Herbert Spencer has noticed the fondness of lambs for frisking on a +hillock, however small; and when I come to my little knoll here, I +generally find it occupied by a couple, who rush away on my approach, +but take their stand instead on the 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 they were kept was a +single old elm stump. For the possession 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 whole diameter of the tree +was but some fifteen inches), maintaining himself in his place with the +greatest difficulty, and butting at his two brothers until at last he +lost his balance and fell. This one old stump was the sole +representative 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 memento 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 habits of his race. But in mountain countries, +every one must have noticed how the sheep at once becomes a different +being. On the Welsh hills he 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. + +Another mountain trait in the stereotyped character of sheep is their +well-known sequaciousness. When Grip runs after them they all run away +together: if one goes through a certain gap in the hedge, every other +follows; and if the leader jumps the beck at a certain spot, every lamb +in the flock jumps in the self-same 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 +corresponding 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 goodness 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. He alone can see what obstacles come in the way; +and each of the succeeding train must watch and imitate the actions of +their predecessors. Otherwise, if the flock happens 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 descendants. On the other hand, those uninquiring and blindly +obedient animals which simply did as they 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 sequaciousness--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 them 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 circumstances. They are to the mental +life what rudimentary organs are to the bodily structure: they remind +us of an older order of things, just as the abortive legs of the +blind-worm show us that he was once a lizard, and the hidden shell of +the slug that he was once a snail. + + + + +IV. + +_A SPRIG OF WATER CROWFOOT._ + + +The little streamlet whose tiny ranges and stickles form the middle +thread of this green combe in the Dorset 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 overhangs 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 below and broad above; and I often wonder +why so strange a phenomenon has attracted such very scant attention. +But then we knew so little of life in any form till the day before +yesterday that perhaps it is not surprising we should still have left +so many odd problems quite untouched. + +This problem of the shape of leaves certainly seems to me a most +important one; and yet it has hardly been even recognised by our +scientific pastors and masters. At best, Mr. Herbert Spencer devotes to +it a passing short chapter, or Mr. Darwin a stray sentence. The +practice of classifying plants mainly by means of their flowers has +given the flower a wholly factitious and overwrought importance. +Besides, flowers are so pretty, and we cultivate them so largely, with +little regard to the leaves, that they have come to usurp almost the +entire interest of botanists and horticulturists alike. Darwinism +itself has only heightened this exclusive interest by calling attention +to the reciprocal relations which exist between the honey-bearing +blossom and the fertilising insect, the bright-coloured petals and the +myriad facets of the butterfly's eye. Yet the leaf is after all the +real plant, and the flower is but a sort of afterthought, an embryo +colony set apart for the propagation of like plants in future. Each +leaf 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, and carrying on its own life to a great extent +independently of the rest. It may die without detriment to them; it may +be lopped off with a few others as a cutting, and it continues its +life-cycle quite unconcerned. An oak tree in full foliage is a +magnificent group of such separate individuals--a whole nation in +miniature: it may be compared to a branched coral polypedom covered +with a thousand little insect workers, while each leaf answers rather +to the separate polypes themselves. The leaves are even capable of +producing new individuals by what they 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 colonies, like the swarms +of bees, than as fresh 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 sending out a shipload of young +emigrants every now and then to try their fortunes in some unknown +soil. + +The whole life-business of a leaf is, of course, to eat and grow, just +as these same functions form the whole life-business of a caterpillar +or a tadpole. But the way a plant eats, we all know, is by taking +carbon and hydrogen from air and water under the influence of sunlight, +and building them up into appropriate compounds in its own body. +Certain little green worms or convoluta have the same habit, and live +for the most part cheaply off sunlight, making starch out of carbonic +acid and water by means of their enclosed chlorophyll, exactly as if +they were leaves. Now, as this is what a leaf has to do, its form will +almost entirely depend upon the way it is affected by sunlight and the +elements around it--except, indeed, in so far as it may be called upon +to perform 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, are minutely subdivided into +little branching lance-like segments; while its upper ones, which raise +their heads above the surface, are broad and united, like the common +crowfoot type. How am I to account for these peculiarities? I fancy +somehow thus:-- + +Plants which live habitually under water almost always have thin, long, +pointed leaves, often thread-like or mere waving filaments. The reason +for this is plain enough. Gases are not very abundant in water, as it +only holds in solution a limited quantity of oxygen and carbonic acid. +Both of these the plant needs, though in varying quantities: 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 utilise it under the influence of sunlight. Hence all plants +which live in fresh water, and especially all plants of higher 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 pattern of leaf depends largely upon +the ancestral form. Thus this crowfoot, even in its submerged leaves, +preserves the general arrangement of ribs and leaflets common to the +whole buttercup tribe. For the crowfoot family is a large and eminently +adaptable race. Some of them are larkspurs and similar queerly-shaped +blossoms; others are columbines which hang their complicated bells on +dry and rocky hillsides; but the larger part are buttercups or marsh +marigolds which have simple cup-shaped flowers, and mostly frequent low +and marshy ground. One of these typical crowfoots under stress of +circumstances--inundation, or the like--took once upon a time to living +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 up into +thinner and narrower segments, each of which grew out in the direction +where it could find most stray carbon atoms, and most sunlight, without +interference from its neighbours. This, I take it, was the origin of +the much-divided lower leaves. + +But a crowfoot could never live permanently under water. Seaweeds and +their like, which propagate by a kind of spores, may remain below the +surface for ever; 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, originally developed in the water 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 fertilising insects +have carried the pollen to its proper receptacle, so as to ripen their +seeds at leisure beneath 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 such among its +ancestors as at first tried to do so must of course have failed in +producing any seed, they and their kind have died out for ever; while +only those lucky individuals whose chance lot it was to grow a little +taller and weedier than the rest, and so overtop the stream, have +handed down their race to our own time. + +But as soon as the crowfoot finds itself above the level of the river, +all the causes which made its leaf like those of other aquatic plants +have ceased to operate. The new leaves which sprout in the air meet +with abundance of carbon 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 up into little +lance-like leaflets, they loll on the surface, and spread out broader +and fuller, like the rest of their race. The leaf becomes 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 +crowfoot still. The traditions of its race, acquired in damp marshy +meadows, not actually under water, cling to it yet in spite of every +change. Born river and pond plants which rise to the surface, like the +water-lily or the duck-weed, have broad floating leaves that contrast +strongly with the waving filaments of wholly submerged species. They +can find plenty of food everywhere, and as the sunlight falls flat upon +them, they may as well spread out flat to catch the sunlight. No other +elbowing plants overtop them and appropriate the rays, so compelling +them to run up a useless waste of stem in order to pocket their fair +share of the golden flood. Moreover, they thus save the needless +expense of a stout leaf-stalk, as the water supports their lolling +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 hundred generations only, while the water-lily's ancestors +have been to the manner born for millions of years; and therefore it +happens that the crowfoot is at heart but a meadow buttercup still. One +glance at its simple little flower will show you that in a moment. + + + + +V. + +_SLUGS AND SNAILS._ + + +Hoeing among the flower-beds 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 encroaching grass on the edge of +my little parterre of sky-blue lobelias. This unavoidable wounding and +hacking of worms and insects, despite all one's care, is no small +drawback to the pleasures of gardening _in propriâ personâ_. +Vivisection for genuine scientific purposes in responsible hands, one +can understand and tolerate, even though lacking the heart for it +oneself; but the useless and causeless vivisection which cannot be +prevented in every ordinary piece of farm-work seems a gratuitous blot +upon the face of beneficent nature. My only consolation lies in the +half-formed belief that feeling among these lower creatures is +indefinite, and that pain appears to affect them far less acutely than +it affects warm-blooded animals. Their nerves are so 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 all analogous to our own. A +wasp whose head has been severed from its body and stuck upon a pin, +will still greedily suck up honey with its throatless mouth; while an +Italian mantis, similarly treated, will calmly continue to hunt and +dart at midges with its decapitated trunk and limbs, quite forgetful of +the fact that it has got no mandibles left to eat them with. These +peculiarities lead one to hope that insects may feel pain less than we +fear. Yet I dare scarcely utter the hope, lest it should lead any +thoughtless hearer to act upon the very questionable belief, as they +say even the amiable enthusiasts of Port Royal acted upon the doctrine +that animals were mere unconscious 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 humane, since they are the better able dimly to figure to +themselves the pleasures and pains of humbler beings as they really +are. The man of science perhaps realises 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 misery 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 hoe 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, indeed, there are very few differences between the two +races except in the presence or absence of a house. You may trace a +curiously complete set of gradations between the perfect snail and the +perfect slug in this respect; for all the intermediate forms still +survive with only an almost imperceptible gap between each species and +the next. Some kinds, like the common brown garden snail, have +comparatively small bodies and big shells, so that they can retire +comfortably within them when attacked; and if they only had a lid or +door to their houses they could shut themselves up hermetically, as +periwinkles and similar mollusks actually do. Other kinds, like the +pretty golden amber-snails which frequent 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, so that he is generally recognised as being the first of the +slugs rather than the last 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 testacella, however, the small shell is still +external. In this yellow slug here, on the contrary, it does not show +itself at all, but is buried under the closely wrinkled skin of the +glossy mantle. It has become 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 rudiment gradually dwindling further and +further towards annihilation; till finally, 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, scattered up and +down through the mantle; and sometimes even these are wanting. The +organs which used to secrete the shell in their remote ancestors have +either ceased to work altogether or are reduced to performing a useless +office by mere organic routine. + +The reason why some mollusks have thus lost their shells is clear +enough. Shells are of two kinds, calcareous and horny. Both of them +require more or less lime or other mineral matters, though in varying +proportions. Now, the snails which thrive best on the bare chalk downs +behind my little combe belong to that pretty banded black-and-white +sort which everybody must have noticed feeding in abundance on all +chalk soils. Indeed, Sussex farmers will tell you that South Down +mutton owes its excellence to these fat little mollusks, not to the +scanty herbage of their thin pasture-lands. The pretty banded shells in +question are almost wholly composed of lime, which the snails can, of +course, obtain in any required quantity from the chalk. In most +limestone districts you will similarly 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 naturally 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 acclimatised themselves to a +terrestrial existence. We can trace a perfectly regular series from the +most aquatic to the most land-loving species, just as I have tried to +trace a regular series from the shell-bearing 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 amber-snail), which his progenitors used to +manufacture from the mineral matters dissolved in their native streams. +Some of the younger branches descended from this primæval land-snail +took to living on very dry land, and when they reached chalky districts +manufactured their shells, on an easy and improved principle, almost +entirely out of lime. But others took to living in moist and boggy +places, where mineral matter was rare, and where the soil consisted for +the most part of decaying vegetable mould. Here they could get little +or no lime, and so their shells grew smaller and smaller, in proportion +as their habits became more decidedly terrestrial. But to the last, as +long as any shell at all remained, it generally covered their hearts +and other important organs; because it would there act as a special +protection, even after it had ceased to be of any use for the defence +of the animal's body as a whole. Exactly in the same way men specially +protected their heads and breasts with helmets and cuirasses, before +armour was used for the whole body, because these were the places where +a wound would be most dangerous; and they continued to cover these +vulnerable spots in the same manner even when the use of armour had +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 +competition of modern life they spread themselves 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 different. +The truest and most snail-like snails are found in greatest abundance +upon high chalk-downs, heathy limestone hills, and other comparatively +dry places; while the truest and most slug-like slugs are found in +greatest abundance among low water-logged meadows, or under the damp +fallen leaves of moist copses. The intermediate kinds inhabit 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 universal habit of seeking out the coolest and moistest spots of +their respective habitats. The soft-fleshed mollusks are all by nature +aquatic animals, and nothing can induce them wholly to forget the old +tradition of their marine or fresh-water existence. + + + + +VI. + +_A STUDY OF BONES._ + + +On the top of this bleak chalk down, where I am wandering on a dull +afternoon, I light upon the blanched skeleton 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 of 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 I may well spell out as I sit to rest a minute +upon the neighbouring stile. For this dry tail-bone consists, as I can +see at a glance, of several separate vertebræ, all firmly welded +together into a single piece. They must once upon a time have been real +disconnected jointed vertebræ, 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 speculation. I refer, not to the race, but +to the particular crow in person. These very pieces themselves, in +their embryonic condition, were as distinct as the individual bones of +the bird's neck or of our own spines. If you were to examine the chick +in the egg you would find them quite divided. But as the young crow +grows more and more into the typical bird-pattern, this lizard-like +peculiarity fades away, and the separate pieces unite by 'anastomosis' +into a single 'coccygean bone,' as the osteologists call it. In all our +modern birds, as in this crow, the vertebræ composing the tail-bone are +few in number, and are soldered together immovably in the adult form. +It was not always so, however, with ancestral birds. The earliest known +member of the class--the famous fossil bird of the Solenhofen +lithographic stone--retained throughout its whole life a long flexible +tail, composed of twenty unwelded vertebræ, each of which bore a single +pair of quill-feathers, the predecessors of our modern pigeon's train. +There are many other marked reptilian peculiarities in this primitive +oolitic bird; and it apparently possessed true teeth in its jaws, as +its later cretaceous kinsmen discovered by Professor Marsh undoubtedly +did. When we compare side by side those real flying dragons, the +Pterodactyls, together with the very birdlike 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 remote feathered descendants of an original reptilian +or half-reptilian ancestor. + +Why modern birds have lost their long flexible tails it is not +difficult to see. The tail descends to all higher vertebrates as an +heirloom from the fishes, the amphibia, and their other aquatic +predecessors. With these 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 lizard 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. But to flying birds, on the +contrary, a long bony tail is only an inconvenience. All that they need +is a little muscular knob for the support of the tail-feathers, which +they employ as a rudder in guiding their flight upward or downward, to +right or left. The elongated waving tail of the Solenhofen bird, with +its single pair of quills, must have been a comparatively ineffectual +and clumsy piece of mechanism for steering an aërial creature through +its novel domain. Accordingly, the bones soon grew fewer in number and +shorter in length, while the feathers simultaneously arranged +themselves side by side upon the terminal hump. As early as the time +when our chalk was deposited, the bird's tail had become what it is at +the present day--a single united bone, consisting of a few scarcely +distinguishable crowded rings. This is the form it assumes in the +toothed fossil birds of Western America. But, as if to preserve the +memory of their reptilian origin, birds in their embryo stage still go +on producing separate caudal vertebræ, only to unite them together at a +later point of their development into the typical coccygean bone. + +Much the same sort of process has taken place in the higher apes, and, +as Mr. Darwin would assure us, in man himself. There the long +prehensile tail of the monkeys has grown gradually shorter, and, being +at last coiled up under the haunches, has finally degenerated into an +insignificant and wholly embedded terminal joint. But, indeed, we can +find traces of a similar adaptation to circumstances everywhere. Take, +for instance, the common English 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 tadpole 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, such a long train would be a +useless drag, while in the water its webbed feet and muscular legs make +a satisfactory substitute for the lost organ. Last of all, the +tree-frog, leading a specially terrestrial life, has no tadpole at all, +but emerges from the egg in the full frog-like shape. As he never lives +in the water, he never feels the need of a tail. + +The edible crab and lobster show us an exactly parallel case amongst +crustaceans. Everybody has noticed that a crab's body is practically +identical with a lobster's, only that in the crab the body-segments are +broad and compact, while the tail, so conspicuous in its kinsman, is +here relatively small and tucked away unobtrusively behind the legs. +This difference in construction depends entirely upon the habits and +manners of the two races. The lobster lives among rocks and ledges; he +uses his small legs but little for locomotion, but he springs +surprisingly fast and far through the water by a single effort of his +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. Hence the edible and muscular part of a lobster +is chiefly to be found in the claws and tail, the latter having +naturally the firmest and strongest flesh. The crab, on the other hand, +lives on the sandy bottom, and walks about on its lesser legs, instead +of swimming or darting through the water by blows of its tail, like the +lobster or the still more active prawn and shrimp. Hence the crab's +tail has dwindled away to a mere useless historical relic, while the +most important muscles in its body are those seated in the 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 shrivelled rudiment as a +lingering reminiscence of their original habits. + + + + +VII. + +_BLUE MUD._ + + +After last night's rain, the cliffs that bound the bay have come out in +all their most brilliant colours; so this morning I am turning my steps +seaward, and wandering along the great ridge of pebbles which here +breaks the force of the Channel waves as they beat against the long +line of the Dorset downs. Our cliffs just at this point are composed of +blue lias beneath, with a capping of yellow sandstone on their summits, +above which in a few places the layer of chalk that once topped the +whole country-side has still resisted the slow wear and tear of +unnumbered centuries. These three elements give a variety to the bold +and broken bluffs which is rare along the monotonous southern +escarpment of the English coast. After rain, especially, the changes of +colour on their sides are often quite startling in their vividness and +intensity. To-day, for example, the yellow sandstone is tinged in parts +with a deep russet red, contrasting admirably with the bright green of +the fields above and the sombre steel-blue of the lias belt below. +Besides, we have had so many landslips along this bit of shore, that +the various layers of rock have in more than one place got mixed up +with one another into inextricable confusion. The little town nestling +in the hollow behind me has long been famous as the head-quarters of +early geologists; and not a small proportion of the people earn their +livelihood to the present day by 'goin' a fossiling.' Every child about +the place recognises ammonites as 'snake-stones;' while even the rarer +vertebrae of extinct saurians have acquired a local designation as +'verterberries.' 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 +light it up with a rich flood of golden splendour. + +The base of the cliffs consists entirely of a very soft and plastic +blue lias mud. This mud contains large numbers of fossils, chiefly +chambered shells, but mixed with not a few relics of the great swimming +and flying lizards that swarmed among the shallow flats or low islands +of the lias sea. When the blue mud was slowly accumulating in the +hollows of the ancient bottom, these huge saurians formed practically +the highest race of animals then existing upon earth. There were, it is +true, a few primæval kangaroo-mice and wombats among the rank brushwood +of the mainland; and there may even have been a species or two of +reptilian birds, with murderous-looking teeth and long lizard-like +tails--descendants 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 on the +Solenhofen slate. But in spite of such rare precursors of higher modern +types, the saurian was in fact the real lord of earth in the lias ocean. + + For him did his high sun flame, and his river billowing ran, + And he felt himself in his pride to be nature's crowning 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 in the different periods. The +lias is ranked by geologists among the earliest secondary formations: +but if we were to distribute all the sedimentary rocks into ten great +epochs, each representing about equal duration in time, the lias would +really fall in the tenth and latest of all. So very misleading to the +ordinary mind is our accepted geological nomenclature. Nay, even +commonplace geologists themselves often overlook the real implications +of many facts and figures which they have learned to quote glibly +enough in a certain off-hand way. Let me just briefly reconstruct the +chief features of this scarcely recognised world's chronology as I sit +on this piece of fallen chalk at the foot of the mouldering cliff, +where the stream from the meadow above brought down the newest landslip +during the hard frosts of last December. First of all, there is the +vast lapse of time represented by the Laurentian rocks of Canada. These +Laurentian rocks, the oldest in the world, are at least 30,000 feet in +thickness, and it must be allowed that it takes a reasonable number of +years to accumulate such a mass of solid limestone or clay as that at +the bottom of even the widest primæval ocean. In these rocks there are +no fossils, except a single very doubtful member of the very lowest +animal type. But there are indirect traces of life in the shape of +limestone probably derived from shells, and of black lead probably +derived from plants. All these early deposits have been terribly +twisted and contorted by subsequent 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 state. Thus the history of life opens +for us, like most other histories, with a period of uncertainty: its +origin is lost in the distant vistas of time. Still, we know that there +_was_ 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 æons into which I have roughly divided geological time. Next +comes the period known as the Cambrian, and to it we may similarly +assign about two and a half æons on like grounds. The Cambrian epoch +begins with a fair sprinkling of the lower animals and plants, +presumably developed during the preceding age; but it shows no remains +of fish or any other vertebrates. To the Silurian, Devonian, and +Carboniferous periods we may roughly allow an æon and a fraction each: +while to the whole group of secondary and tertiary strata, comprising +almost all the best-known English formations--red marl, lias, oolite, +greensand, chalk, eocene, miocene, pliocene, and drift--we can only +give a single æon to be divided between them. Such facts will +sufficiently suggest how comparatively modern are all these rocks when +viewed by the light of an absolute chronology. Now, the first fishes do +not occur till the Silurian--that is to say, in or about the seventh +æon after the beginning of geological time. The first mammals are found +in the trias, at the beginning of the tenth æon. And the first known +bird only makes its appearance in the oolite, about half-way through +that latest period. This will show that there was plenty of time for +their development in the earlier ages. True, we must reckon the +interval between ourselves and the date of this blue mud at many +millions of years; but then we must reckon the interval between the +lias and the earliest Cambrian strata at some six times as much, and +between the lias and the lowest Laurentian beds at nearly ten times as +much. Just the same sort of lessening perspective exists in geology as +in ordinary history. Most people look upon the age before the Norman +Conquest as a mere brief episode of the English annals; yet six whole +centuries elapsed between the landing of the real or mythical Hengst at +Ebbsfleet and the landing of William the Conqueror at Hastings; while +under eight centuries elapsed between the time of William the Conqueror +and the accession of Queen Victoria. But, just as most English +histories give far more space to the three centuries since Elizabeth +than to the eleven centuries which preceded them, so most books on +geology give far more space to the single æon (embracing the secondary +and tertiary periods) which comes nearest our own time, than to the +nine æons which spread from the Laurentian to the Carboniferous epoch. +In the earliest period, records either geological or historical are +wholly wanting; in the later periods they become both more numerous and +more varied in proportion as they approach nearer and nearer to our own +time. + +So too, in the days when Mr. Darwin first took away the breath of +scientific Europe by his startling theories, it used confidently to be +said that geology had shown us no intermediate form between species and +species. Even at the time when this assertion was originally made it +was quite untenable. All early geological forms, of whatever race, +belong to what we foolishly call 'generalised' types: that is to say, +they present a mixture of features now found separately in several +different animals. In other words, they represent early ancestors of +all the modern forms, with peculiarities intermediate between those of +their more highly differentiated descendants; and hence we ought to +call them 'unspecialised' rather than 'generalised' types. For example, +the earliest ancestral horse is partly a horse and partly a tapir: we +may regard him as a _tertium quid_, a middle term, from which the horse +has varied in one direction and the tapir in another, each of them +exaggerating certain special peculiarities of the common ancestor and +losing others, in accordance with the circumstances in which they have +been placed. Science is now perpetually discovering intermediate forms, +many of which compose an unbroken series between the unspecialised +ancestral type and the familiar modern creatures. Thus, in this very +case of the horse, Professor Marsh has unearthed a long line of fossil +animals which lead in direct descent from the extremely unhorse-like +eocene type to the developed Arab of our own times. Similarly with +birds, Professor Huxley has shown that there is hardly any gap between +the very bird-like lizards of the lias and the very lizard-like birds +of the oolite. Such links, discovered afresh every day, are perpetual +denials to the old parrot-like cry of 'No geological evidence for +evolution.' + + + + +VIII. + +_CUCKOO-PINT._ + + +In the bank which supports the hedge, beside this little hanger on +the flank of Black Down, the glossy arrow-headed leaves of the common +arum form at this moment beautiful masses of vivid green foliage. +'Cuckoo-pint' is the pretty poetical old English name for the plant; +but village children know it better by the equally quaint and fanciful +title of 'lords and ladies.' The arum is not now in flower: it +blossomed much earlier in the season, and its queer clustered fruits +are just at present swelling out into rather shapeless little +light-green bulbs, preparatory to assuming the bright coral-red hue +which makes them so conspicuous among the hedgerows during the autumn +months. A cut-and-dry technical botanist would therefore have little to +say to it in its present stage, because he cares only for the flowers +and seeds which help him in his dreary classifications, and give him so +splendid an opportunity for displaying the treasures of his Latinised +terminology. But to me the plant itself is the central point of +interest, not the names (mostly in bad Greek) by which this or that +local orchid-hunter has endeavoured to earn immortality. + +This arum, for example, grows first from a small hard seed with a +single lobe or seed-leaf. In the seed there is a little store of starch +and albumen laid up by the mother-plant, on which the young arum feeds, +just as truly as the growing chick feeds on the white which surrounds +its native yolk, or as you and I feed on the similar starches and +albumens laid by for the use of the young plant in the grain of wheat, +or for the young fowl in the egg. Full-grown plants live by taking in +food-stuffs from the air under the influence of sunlight: but a young +seedling can no more feed itself than a human baby can; and so food is +stored up for it beforehand by the parent stock. As the kernel swells +with heat and moisture, its starches and albumens get oxidised and +produce the motions and rearrangements of particles that result in the +growth of a new plant. First a little head rises towards the sunlight +and a little root pushes downward towards 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 the head is to +spread out into leaves, which are the real mouths and stomachs of the +compound organism. For we must never forget that all plants mainly +grow, not, as most people suppose, from the earth, but from the air. +They are for the most part mere masses of carbon-compounds, and the +carbon in them comes from the carbonic acid diffused through the +atmosphere around, and is separated by the sunlight acting in the +leaves. There it mixes with small quantities of hydrogen and nitrogen +brought by the roots from soil and water; and the starches or other +bodies thus formed are then conveyed by the sap to the places where +they will be required in the economy of the plant system. That is the +all-important fact in vegetable physiology, just as the digestion and +assimilation of food and the circulation of the blood are in our own +bodies. + +The arum, like the grain of wheat, has only a single seed-leaf; whereas +the pea, as we all know, has two. This is the most fundamental +difference among flowering plants, as it points back to an early and +deep-seated mode of growth, about which they must have split off from +one another millions of years ago. All the one-lobed plants grow with +stems like grasses or bamboos, formed by single leaves enclosing +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 sprouting head, has raised its first leaves far enough above +the ground to reach the sunlight, it begins to form fresh starches and +new leaves for itself, and ceases to be dependent upon the store laid +up in its buried lobe. Most seeds accordingly contain just enough +material to support the 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 +potato, find their seeds insufficient to keep up the race by +themselves, and so lay by abundant starches in underground branches or +tubers, for the use of new shoots; and these rich starch receptacles we +ourselves generally utilise as food-stuffs, to the manifest detriment +of the young potato-plants, for whose benefit they were originally +intended. Well, the arum has no such valuable reserve as that; it is +early cast upon its own resources, and so it shifts for itself with +resolution. Its big, glossy leaves grow apace, and soon fill out, not +only with green chlorophyll, but also with a sharp and pungent essence +which makes them burn the mouth like cayenne pepper. This acrid juice +has been acquired by the plant as a defence against its enemies. Some +early ancestor of the arums must have been liable to constant attacks +from rabbits, goats, or other herbivorous animals, and it has adopted +this means of repelling their advances. In other words, those arums +which were most palatable to the rabbits got eaten up and destroyed, +while those which were nastiest survived, and handed down their +pungency to future generations. Just in the same way nettles have +acquired their sting and thistles their prickles, which efficiently +protect them against all herbivores except the patient, hungry donkey, +who gratefully accepts them as a sort of _sauce piquante_ to the +succulent stems. + +And now the arum begins its great preparations for the act of +flowering. Everybody knows the general shape of the arum blossom--if +not in our own purple cuckoo-pint, at least in the big white 'Æthiopian +lilies' which form such frequent ornaments of cottage windows. Clearly, +this is a flower which the plant cannot produce without laying up a +good stock of material beforehand. So it sets to work accumulating +starch in its root. This starch it manufactures in its leaves, and then +buries deep underground in a tuber, by means of the sap, so as to +secure it from the attacks of rodents, who too frequently appropriate +to themselves the food intended by plants for other purposes. If you +examine the tuber before the arum has blossomed, you will find it large +and solid; but if you dig it up in the autumn after the seeds have +ripened, you will see that it is flaccid and drained; all its starches +and other contents have gone to make up the flower, the fruit, and the +stalk which bore them. But the tuber has a further protection against +enemies besides its deep underground position. It contains an acrid +juice like that of the leaves, which sufficiently guards it against +four-footed depredators. Man, however, that most persistent of +persecutors, has found out a way to separate the juice from the starch; +and in St. Helena the big white arum is cultivated as a food-plant, and +yields the meal in common use among the inhabitants. + +When the arum has laid by enough starch to make a flower it begins to +send up a tall stalk, on the top of which grows the curious hooded +blossom known to be one of the earliest forms still surviving upon +earth. But now its object is to attract, not to repel, the animal +world; for it is an insect-fertilised flower, and it requires the aid +of small flies to carry the pollen from blossom to blossom. For this +purpose it has a purple sheath around its head of flowers and a tall +spike on which they are arranged in two clusters, the male blossoms +above and the female below. This spike is bright yellow in the +cultivated species. The fertilisation is one of the most interesting +episodes in all nature, but it would take too long to describe here in +full. The flies go from one arum to another, attracted by the colour, +in search of pollen; and the pistils, or female flowers, ripen first. +Then the pollen falls from the stamens or male flowers on the bodies of +the flies, and dusts them all over with yellow powder. The insects, +when once they have entered, are imprisoned until the pollen is ready +to drop, by means of several little hairs, pointing downwards, and +preventing their exit on the principle of an eel-trap or lobster-pot. +But as soon as the pollen is discharged the hairs wither away, and then +the flies are free to visit a second arum. Here they carry the +fertilising dust with which they are covered to the ripe pistils, and +so enable them to set their seed; but, instead of getting away again as +soon as they have eaten their fill, they are once more imprisoned by +the lobster-pot hairs, and dusted with a second dose of pollen, which +they carry away in turn to a third blossom. + +As soon as the pistils have been impregnated, the fruits begin to set. +Here they are, on their tall spike, whose enclosing sheath has now +withered away, while the top is at this moment slowly dwindling, so +that only the cluster of berries at its base will finally remain. The +berries will swell and grow soft, till in autumn they become a +beautiful scarlet cluster of living coral. Then once more their object +will be to attract the animal world, this time in the shape of +field-mice, squirrels, and small birds; but with a more treacherous +intent. For though the berries are beautiful and palatable enough they +are deadly poison. The robins or small rodents which eat them, +attracted by their bright colours and pleasant taste, not only aid in +dispersing them, but also die after swallowing them, and become huge +manure heaps for the growth of the young plant. So the whole cycle of +arum existence begins afresh, and there is hardly a plant in the field +around me which has not a history as strange as this one. + + + + +IX. + +_BERRIES AND BERRIES._ + + +This little chine, opening toward the sea through the blue lias cliffs, +has been worn to its present pretty gorge-like depth by the slow action +of its tiny stream--a mere thread of water in fine weather, that +trickles down its centre in a series of mossy cascades to the shingly +beach below. Its sides are overgrown by brambles and other prickly +brushwood, which form in places a matted and impenetrable mass: for it +is the habit of all plants protected by the defensive armour of spines +or thorns to cluster together in serried ranks, through which cattle or +other intrusive animals cannot break. Amongst them, near the down +above, I have just lighted upon a rare plant for Southern Britain--a +wild raspberry-bush in full fruit. Raspberries are common enough in +Scotland among heaps of stones on the windiest hillsides; but the south +of England is too warm and sickly for their robust tastes, and they can +only be found here in a few bleak spots like the stony edges of this +weather-beaten down above the chine. The fruit itself is quite as good +as the garden variety, for cultivation has added little to the native +virtues of the raspberry. Good old Izaak Walton is not ashamed to quote +a certain quaint saying of one Dr. Boteler concerning strawberries, and +so I suppose I need not be afraid to quote it after him. 'Doubtless,' +said the Doctor, 'God _could_ have made a better berry, but doubtless +also God never did.' Nevertheless, if you try the raspberry, picked +fresh, with plenty of good country cream, you must allow that it runs +its sister fruit a neck-and-neck race. + +To compare the structure of a raspberry with that of a strawberry is a +very instructive botanical study. It shows how similar causes may +produce the same gross result in singularly different ways. Both are +roses by family, and both have flowers essentially similar to that of +the common dog-rose. But even in plants where the flowers are alike, +the fruits often differ conspicuously, because fresh principles come +into play for the dispersion and safe germination of the seed. This +makes the study of fruits the most complicated part in the unravelling +of plant life. After the strawberry has blossomed, the pulpy receptacle +on which it bore its green fruitlets begins to swell and redden, till +at length it grows into an edible berry, dotted with little yellow +nuts, containing each a single seed. But in the raspberry it is the +separate fruitlets themselves which grow soft and bright-coloured, +while the receptacle remains white and tasteless, forming the 'hull' +which we pull off from the berry when we are going to eat it. Thus the +part of the raspberry which we throw away answers to the part of the +strawberry which we eat. Only, in the raspberry the separate fruitlets +are all crowded close together into a single united mass, while in the +strawberry they are scattered about loosely, and embedded in the soft +flesh of the receptacle. The blackberry is another close relative; but +in its fruit the little pulpy fruitlets cling to the receptacle, so +that we pick and eat them both together; whereas in the raspberry the +receptacle pulls out easily, and leaves a thimble-shaped hollow in the +middle of the berry. Each of these little peculiarities has a special +meaning of its own in the history of the different plants. + +Yet the main object attained by all is in the end precisely similar. +Strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries all belong to the class of +attractive fruits. They survive in virtue of the attention paid to them +by birds and small animals. Just as the wild strawberry which I picked +in the hedgerow the other day procures the dispersion of its hard and +indigestible fruitlets by getting them eaten together with the pulpy +receptacle, so does the raspberry procure the dispersion of its soft +and sugary fruitlets by getting them eaten all by themselves. While the +strawberry fruitlets retain throughout their dry outer coating, in +those of the raspberry the external covering becomes fleshy and red, +but the inner seed has, notwithstanding, a still harder shell than the +tiny nuts of the strawberry. Now, this is the secret of nine fruits out +of ten. They are really nuts, which clothe themselves in an outer tunic +of sweet and beautifully coloured pulp. The pulp, as it were, the plant +gives in, as an inducement to the friendly bird to swallow its seed; +but the seed itself it protects by a hard stone or shell, and often by +poisonous or bitter juices within. We see this arrangement very +conspicuously in a plum, or still better in a mango; though it is +really just as evident in the raspberry, where the smaller size renders +it less conspicuous to human sight. + +It is a curious fact about the rose family that they have a very marked +tendency to produce such fleshy fruits, instead of the mere dry +seed-vessels of ordinary plants, which are named fruits only by +botanical courtesy. For example, we owe to this single family the +peach, plum, apricot, cherry, damson, pear, apple, medlar, and quince, +all of them cultivated in gardens or orchards for their fruits. The +minor group known by the poetical name of Dryads, alone supplies us +with the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, and dewberry. Even the +wilder kinds, refused as food by man, produce berries well known to our +winter birds--the haw, rose-hip, sloe, bird-cherry, and rowan. On the +other hand, the whole tribe numbers but a single thoroughgoing nut--the +almond; and even this nut, always somewhat soft-shelled and inclined to +pulpiness, has produced by a 'sport' the wholly fruit-like nectarine. +The odd thing about the rose tribe, however, is this: that the pulpy +tendency shows itself in very different parts among the various +species. In the plum it is the outer covering of the true fruit which +grows soft and coloured: in the apple it is a swollen mass of the +fruit-stalk surrounding the ovules: in the rose-hip it is the hollowed +receptacle: and in the strawberry it is the same receptacle, bulging +out in the opposite direction. Such a general tendency to display +colour and collect sugary juices in so many diverse parts may be +compared to the general bulbous tendency 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 the start in any particular +instance is increased and developed by natural selection, just as +favourable varieties of fruits or flowers are increased and developed +in cultivated species by our own gardeners. + +Sweet juices and bright colours, however, could be of no use to a plant +till there were eyes to see and tongues to taste them. A pulpy fruit is +in itself a mere waste of productive energy to its mother, unless the +pulpiness aids in the dispersion and promotes the welfare of the young +seedlings. Accordingly, we might naturally expect that there would be +no fruit-bearers on the earth until the time when fruit-eaters, actual +or potential, arrived upon the scene: or, to put it more correctly, +both must inevitably have developed simultaneously and in mutual +dependence upon one another. So we find no traces of succulent fruits +even in so late a formation as that of these lias or cretaceous cliffs. +The birds of that day were fierce-toothed carnivores, devouring the +lizards and saurians of the rank low-lying sea-marshes: the mammals +were mostly primæval kangaroos or low ancestral wombats, gentle +herbivores, or savage marsupial wolves, like the Tasmanian 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 superincumbent +pressure into solid stone, that we find the earliest traces of the rose +family, the greatest fruit-bearing tribe of our present world. And side +by side with them we find their clever arboreal allies, the ancestral +monkeys and squirrels, the primitive robins, and the yet shadowy +forefathers of our modern fruit-eating parrots. Just as bees and +butterflies necessarily trace back their geological history only to the +time of the first honey-bearing flowers, and just as the honey-bearing +flowers in turn trace back their pedigree only to the date of the +rudest and most unspecialised honey-sucking insects, so are fruits and +fruit-eaters linked together in origin by the inevitable bond of a +mutual dependence. No bee, no honey; and no honey, no bee: so, too, no +fruit, no fruit-bird; and no fruit-bird, no fruit. + + + + +X. + +_DISTANT RELATIONS._ + + +Behind the old mill, whose overshot wheel, backed by a wall thickly +covered with the young creeping fronds of hart's-tongue ferns, forms +such a picturesque foreground for the view of our little valley, the +mill-stream expands into a small shallow pond, overhung at its edges by +thick-set hazel-bushes and clambering 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 simplicity of its own, which makes it +beautiful to our eyes for all that, in spite of its utilitarian origin. +At the bottom of this shallow pond you may now see a miracle daily +taking place, which but for its commonness we should regard as an +almost incredible marvel. You may there behold evolution actually +illustrating the transformation of life under your very eyes: you may +watch a low type of gill-breathing gristly-boned fish developing into +the highest form of lung-breathing terrestrial amphibian. Nay, +more--you may almost discover the earliest known ancestor of the whole +vertebrate kind, the first cousin of that once famous ascidian larva, +passing through all the upward stages of existence which finally lead +it to assume the shape of a relatively perfect four-legged animal. For +the pond is swarming with fat black tadpoles, which are just at this +moment losing their tails and developing their legs, on the way to +becoming fully formed frogs. + +The tadpole and the ascidian larva divide between them the honour of +preserving for us in all its native simplicity the primitive aspect of +the vertebrate type. Beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes have all +descended from an animal whose shape closely resembled that of these +wriggling little black creatures which dart up and down like imps +through the clear water, and raise a cloud of mud above their heads +each time that they bury themselves comfortably in the soft mud of the +bottom. But while the birds and beasts, on the one hand, have gone on +bettering themselves out of all knowledge, and while the ascidian, on +the other hand, in his adult form has dropped back into an obscure and +sedentary life--sans eyes, sans teeth, sans taste, sans everything--the +tadpole alone, at least during its early days, remains true to the +ancestral traditions of the vertebrate family. When first it emerges +from its egg it represents the very most rudimentary animal with a +backbone known to our scientific teachers. It has a big hammer-looking +head, and a set of branching outside gills, and a short distinct body, +and a long semi-transparent tail. Its backbone is a mere gristly +channel, in which lies its spinal cord. As it grows, it resembles in +every particular the ascidian larva, with which, indeed, Kowalewsky and +Professor Ray Lankester have demonstrated its essential identity. But +since a great many people seem wrongly to imagine that Professor +Lankester's opinion on this matter is in some way at variance with Mr. +Darwin's and Dr. Haeckel's, it may be well to consider what the +degeneracy of the ascidian really means. The fact is, both larval +forms--that of the frog and that of the ascidian--completely agree in +the position of their brains, their gill-slits, their very rudimentary +backbones, and their spinal cords. Moreover, we ourselves and the +tadpole agree with the ascidian in a further most important point, +which no invertebrate animal shares with us; and that is that our eyes +grow out of our brains, instead of being part of our skin, as in +insects and cuttle-fish. This would seem _à priori_ a most inconvenient +place for an eye--inside the brain; but then, as Professor Lankester +cleverly suggests, our common original ancestor, the very earliest +vertebrate of all, must have been a transparent creature, and therefore +comparatively indifferent 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 had 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 his high estate, owing to his bad habit of rooting himself to a +rock and there settling down into a mere sedentary 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 completely atrophied that only his earlier +history allows us to recognise him as a vertebrate by descent at all. +He is in fact a representative of retrogressive development. The +tadpole, on the contrary, goes on swimming about freely, and keeping +the use of its eyes, till at last a pair of hind legs and then a pair +of fore legs begin to bud out from its side, and its tail fades away, +and its gills disappear, and air-breathing lungs take their place, and +it boldly hops on shore a fully evolved tailless amphibian. + +There is, however, one interesting question about these two larvæ which +I should much like to solve. The ascidian has only _one_ eye inside its +useless brain, while the tadpole and all other vertebrates have _two_ +from the very first. Now which of us most nearly represents the old +mud-loving vertebrate ancestor in this respect? Have 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 curious cross-connection between the eyes and +the brain, so that the 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 'decussation,' as anatomists call it, affects all the +sense-organs except those of smell; but in fishes it only affects the +eyes. Now, as the young ascidian has retained the ancestral position of +his almost useless eye so steadily, it is reasonable to suppose that he +has retained its other peculiarities as well. May we not conclude, +therefore, that the primitive vertebrate had only one brain-eye; but +that afterwards, as this brain-eye grew outward to the surface, it +split up into two, because of the elongated and flattened 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 arrangement. + +It is worth noting, too, that these tadpoles, like all other very low +vertebrates, are mud-haunters; and the most primitive among adult +vertebrates are still cartilaginous mud-fish. Not much is known +geologically about the predecessors of frogs; the tailless amphibians +are late arrivals upon earth, and it may seem curious, therefore, that +they should recall in so many ways the earliest ancestral type. The +reason doubtless is because they are so much given to larval +development. Some ancestors of theirs--primæval newts or +salamanders--must have gone on for countless centuries improving +themselves in their adult shape from age to age, yet bringing all their +young into the world from the egg, as mere mud-fish still, in much the +same state as their unimproved forefathers had done millions of æons +before. Similarly, caterpillars are still all but exact patterns of the +primæval 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. Larvæ and embryos show us the original +types of each race; adults show us the total amount of change produced +by progressive or retrogressive development. + + + + +XI. + +_AMONG 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 botanising, angling, and other bad +habits, in default of means for pursuing 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 eggs have survived +till this summer, when the butterflies they produce will all be needed +to keep up next season's supply. Nevertheless, I have climbed the +highest down in this part of the country to-day, and come out for an +airing among the heather, in the vague hope that I may be lucky enough +to catch a glimpse of one or two old lepidopterous favourites. I am not +a butterfly-hunter myself. I have not the heart to drive pins through +the pretty creatures' downy bodies, or to stifle them with reeking +chemicals; though I recognise the necessity for a hardened class who +will perform that useful office on behalf of science and society, just +as I recognise the necessity for slaughtermen and knackers. But I +prefer personally to lie on the ground at my ease and learn as much +about the insect nature as I can discover from simple inspection of the +living subject as it flits airily from bunch to bunch of +bright-coloured flowers. + +I suppose even that apocryphal person, the general reader, would be +insulted at being told at this hour of the day that all bright-coloured +flowers are fertilised by the visits of insects, whose attentions they +are specially designed to solicit. Everybody has heard over and over +again that roses, orchids, and columbines have acquired their honey to +allure the friendly bee, their gaudy petals to advertise the honey, and +their divers shapes to ensure the proper fertilisation by the correct +type of insect. 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 fertilised by butterflies alone. Bees, their great +rivals in honey-sucking, frequent only the lower meadows and slopes, +where flowers are many and small: they seldom venture far from the hive +or the nest among the high peaks and chilly nooks where we find those +great patches of blue 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 but in the bud among the Scotch hills, I doubt not--specially +lays itself out for the bumblebee, and its masses form about his +highest pasture-grounds; but the butterflies--insect vagrants that they +are--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; he does not +bustle about in a business-like manner from one buttercup or +dead-nettle to its nearest fellow; but he flits joyously, like a +sauntering straggler that he is, from a great patch of colour here to +another great patch at a distance, whose gleam happens to strike his +roving eye by its size and brilliancy. Hence, as that indefatigable +observer, Dr. Hermann Müller, has noticed, all Alpine or hill-top +flowers have very large and conspicuous blossoms, generally grouped +together in big clusters so as to catch a passing glance of the +butterfly's eye. As soon as the insect spies such a cluster, the colour +seems to act as a stimulant to his broad wings, just as the +candle-light does to those of his cousin the moth. Off he sails at +once, as if by automatic action, towards the distant patch, and there +both robs the plant of its honey and at the same time carries to it on +his legs and head fertilising pollen from the last of its congeners +which he favoured 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 hybridised instead of being impregnated with +pollen from other plants of their own kind. For this purpose it is that +most plants lay themselves out to secure the attention of only two or +three varieties among their insect allies, while they make their +nectaries either too deep or too shallow for the convenience of all +other kinds. Nature, though eager for cross-fertilisation, abhors +'miscegenation' with all the bitterness of an American politician. + +Insects, however, differ much from one another in their æsthetic +tastes, and flowers are adapted accordingly to the varying fancies of +the different kinds. Here, for example, is a spray of common white +galium, which attracts and is fertilised by small flies, who generally +frequent white blossoms. But here, again, not far off, I find a +luxuriant mass of the yellow species, known by the quaint 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 Bethlehem. Now why has +this kind of galium yellow flowers, while its near kinsman yonder has +them snowy white? The reason is that lady's bedstraw is fertilised by +small beetles; and beetles are known to be one among the most +colour-loving races of insects. You may often find one of their number, +the lovely bronze and golden-mailed 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 which beetles +frequent are consequently brightly decked in scarlet or yellow. On the +other hand, the whole family of the umbellates, those tall plants with +level bunches of tiny blossoms, like the fool's parsley, have all but +universally white petals; and Müller, the 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 +remainder consisted mainly of miscellaneous small flies and other +arthropodous riff-raff; whereas in the brilliant class of composites, +including the asters, sunflowers, 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 Müller quaintly remarks, 'to a less æsthetically +cultivated circle of visitors.' But the most brilliant among all +insect-fertilised flowers are those which specially affect the society +of butterflies; and they are only surpassed in this respect throughout +all nature by the still larger and more magnificent tropical species +which owe their fertilisation to humming-birds and brush-tongued +lories. + +Is it not a curious, yet a comprehensible circumstance, that the tastes +which thus show themselves in the development, by natural selection, of +lovely flowers, should also show themselves in the marked preference +for beautiful mates? Poised on yonder sprig of harebell stands a little +purple-winged butterfly, one of the most exquisite among our British +kinds. That little butterfly owes its own rich and delicately shaded +tints to the long selective action of a million generations among its +ancestors. So we find throughout that the most beautifully coloured +birds and insects are always those which have had most to do with the +production of bright-coloured fruits and flowers. The butterflies and +rose-beetles are the most gorgeous among insects: the humming-birds and +parrots are the most gorgeous among birds. Nay more, exactly like +effects have been produced in two hemispheres on different tribes by +the same causes. The plain brown swifts of the North have developed +among tropical West Indian and South American orchids the metallic +gorgets and crimson crests of the humming-bird: while a totally unlike +group of Asiatic birds have developed among the rich flora of India and +the Malay Archipelago the exactly similar plumage of the exquisite +sun-birds. Just as bees depend upon flowers, and flowers upon bees, so +the colour-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 the common vanity of anglers to suppose that they know +something about speckled trout. A fox might almost as well pretend that +he was intimately acquainted with the domestic habits of poultry, or an +Iroquois describe the customs of the Algonquins from observations made +upon the specimens who had come under his scalping-knife. I will allow +that anglers are well versed in the necessity for fishing up-stream +rather than in the opposite direction; and I grant that they have +attained an empirical knowledge of the æsthetic preferences of trout in +the matter 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 quietly to the side of the pools in an unfished brooklet, like +this on whose 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 the +live fish themselves for an hour together, as they bask lazily in the +sunlight, 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 the +surface of the stream. The 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 contemplation, +without any danger of their being scared away from their accustomed +haunts by intrusive anglers. + +Trout always have a recognised home of their own, inhabited by a pretty +fixed number of individuals. But if you catch the two sole denizens of +a particular scour, you will find another pair installed in their place +to-morrow. Young fry seem always ready to fill up the vacancies caused +by the involuntary retirement of their elders. Their size depends +almost entirely upon the quantity 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 attain. Mr. Herbert Spencer, +who is an angler as well as a philosopher, well observes that where the +trout are many they are generally small; and where they are large they +are generally few. In the mill-stream down the valley they measure only +six inches, though you may fill a basket easily enough on a cloudy day; +but in the canal reservoir, where there are only half-a-dozen fish +altogether, a magnificent eight-pounder has been taken more than once. +In this way we can understand the origin of the great lake trout, which +weigh sometimes forty pounds. They are common trout which have taken to +living in broader waters, where large food is far more abundant, but +where shoals of small fish would starve. The peculiarities thus +impressed upon them have been handed down to their descendants, till at +length they have become sufficiently marked to justify us in regarding +them as a separate species. But it is difficult to say what makes a +species in animals so very variable as fish. There are, in fact, no +less than twelve kinds of trout wholly peculiar to the British Islands, +and some of these are found in very restricted areas. Thus, the Loch +Stennis trout inhabits only the tarns of Orkney; the Galway sea trout +lives nowhere but along the west coast of Ireland; 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 exclusively to +the Llanberis 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 habitat. Even the salmon himself is only a +river trout who has acquired the habit of going down to the sea, where +he gets immensely increased quantities of food (for all the trout kind +are almost omnivorous), and grows big in proportion. But he still +retains many marks of his early existence as a river fish. In the first +place, every salmon 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 species. It really represents, however, +the early form of the salmon, before he took to his annual excursion to +the sea. The ancestral fish, only a hundredth fraction in weight of his +huge descendant, must have somehow acquired the habit of going +seaward--possibly from a drying up of his native stream in seasons of +drought. In the sea, he found himself suddenly supplied with an +unwonted store of food, and grew, like all his kind under similar +circumstances, to an extraordinary size. Thus he attains, as it were, +to a second and final maturity. But salmon cannot lay their eggs in the +sea; or at least, if they did, the young parr would starve for want of +their proper food, or else be choked by the salt water, to which the +old fish have acclimatised themselves. Accordingly, with the return of +the spawning season there comes back an instinctive desire to seek once +more the native fresh water. So the salmon return up stream to spawn, +and the young are hatched in the kind of surroundings which best suit +their tender gills. This instinctive longing for the old home may +probably have arisen during an intermediate stage, when the developing +species still haunted only the brackish water near the river mouths; +and as those fish alone which returned to the head waters could +preserve their race, it would soon grow hardened into a habit engrained +in the nervous system, like the migration of birds or the clustering of +swarming bees around their queen. In like manner the Jamaican +land-crabs, which themselves live on the mountain-tops, come down every +year to lay their eggs in the Caribbean; because, like all other crabs, +they pass their first larval stage as swimming tadpoles, and afterwards +take instinctively to the mountains, as the salmon takes to the sea. +Such a habit could only have arisen by one generation after another +venturing further and further inland, while always returning at the +proper season to the native element for the deposition of the eggs. + +These trout here, however, differ from the salmon in one important +particular beside their relative size, and that is that they are +beautifully speckled in their mature form, instead of being merely +silvery like the larger species. The origin of the pretty speckles is +probably to be found in the constant selection by the fish of the most +beautiful among their number as mates. Just as singing birds are in +their fullest and clearest song at the nesting period, and just as many +brilliant species only possess their gorgeous plumage while they are +going through their courtship, and lose the decoration after the young +brood is hatched, so the trout are most brightly coloured at spawning +time, and become lank and dingy after the eggs have been safely +deposited. The parent fish ascend to the head-waters of their native +river during the autumn season to spawn, and then, their glory dimmed, +they return down-stream to the deep pools, where they pass the winter +sulkily, as if ashamed to show themselves in their dull and dusky +suits. But when spring comes round once more, and flies again become +abundant, the trout begin to move up-stream afresh, and soon fatten out +to their customary size and brilliant colours. It might seem at first +sight that creatures so humble as these little fish could hardly have +sufficiently developed aesthetic tastes to prefer one mate above +another on the score of beauty. But we must remember that 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 one +another, so that extremely minute differences must necessarily turn the +scale in favour of one particular suitor rather than his rivals. +Anglers know that trout are attracted by bright colours, that they can +distinguish the different flies upon which they feed, and that +artificial flies must accordingly be made at least into a rough +semblance of the original insects. Some scientific fishermen even +insist that it is no use offering them a brown drake at the time of +year or the hour of day when they are naturally expecting 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 an acute perception +of colour, while there is every reason to believe that all the trout +family have a decided love of metallic glitter, such as that of silver +or of the salmon's scales. Mr. Darwin has shown that the little +stickleback goes through an elaborate courtship, 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 salmon fry and young +trout are almost quite indistinguishable, being both marked with blue +patches (known as 'finger-marks') on their sides, which are remnants of +the ancestral colouring once common to the whole race. But as they grow +up, their later-acquired tastes begin to produce a divergence, due +originally to this selective preference of certain beautiful mates; and +the adult salmon clothes himself from head to tail in sheeny silver, +while the full-grown trout decks his sides with the beautiful speckles +which have earned him his popular name. Countless generations of slight +differences, selected from time to time by the strongest and handsomest +fish, have sufficed at length to bring about these conspicuous +variations from the primitive type, which the young of both races still +preserve. + + + + +XIII. + +_DODDER AND BROOMRAPE._ + + +This afternoon, strolling through the under-cliff, I have come across +two quaint and rather uncommon flowers among the straggling brushwood. +One 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 convolvulus blossoms. The stem consists of a long red +thread, twining round and round the gorse, and bursting out here and +there into thick bundles of beautiful bell-shaped flowers. But where +are the leaves? You may trace the red threads through their +labyrinthine windings 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 one of the most thorough-going parasites in all nature. +Ordinary green-leaved plants live by making starches for themselves out +of the carbonic acid in the air, under the influence of sunlight; but +the dodder simply fastens itself on to another plant, sends down +rootlets or suckers into its veins, and drinks up sap stored with +ready-made starches or other foodstuffs, originally destined by its +host for the supply of its own growing leaves, branches, and blossoms. +It lives upon the gorse just as parasitically as the little green +aphides live upon our rose-bushes. The material which it uses up in +pushing forth its long thread-like stem and clustered bells is so much +dead loss to the unfortunate plant on which it has fixed itself. + +Old-fashioned books tell us that the mistletoe is a perfect parasite, +while the dodder is an imperfect one; and I believe almost all +botanists will still repeat the foolish saying to the present day. But +it really shows considerable haziness as to what a true parasite is. +The mistletoe is a plant which has taken, it is true, to growing upon +other trees. Its very viscid berries are useful for attaching the seeds +to the trunk of the oak or the apple; and there it roots itself into +the body of its host. But it soon produces real green leaves of its +own, which contain the ordinary chlorophyll found in other leaves, and +help it to manufacture starch, under the influence of sunlight, on its +own account. It is not, therefore, a complete drag upon the tree which +it infests; for though it takes sap and mineral food from the host, it +supplies itself with carbon, which is after all the important thing for +plant-life. Dodder, 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 produced leaves of its own, like the +honeysuckle and the clematis, there would be no great harm done: and +the dodder would be but another climbing plant the more in our flora. +However, it soon insidiously repays the support given it by sending +down little bud-like suckers, through which it draws up nourishment +from the gorse or clover on which it lives. Thus it has no need to +develop leaves of its own; and it accordingly employs all its stolen +material in sending forth matted thread-like stems and bunch after +bunch of bright flowers. As these increase and multiply, they at last +succeed in drawing away all the nutriment from the supporting plant, +which finally dies under the constant drain, just as a horse might die +under the attacks of a host of leeches. But this matters little to the +dodder, which has had time to be visited and fertilised by insects, and +to set and ripen its numerous seeds. One species, the greater dodder, +is thus parasitic upon hops and nettles; a second kind twines round +flax; and the third, which I have here under my eyes, mainly confines +its dangerous attentions to gorse, clover, and thyme. All of them are, +of course, deadly enemies to the plants they infest. + +How the dodder acquired this curious mode of life it is not difficult +to see. By descent it is a bind-weed, or wild convolvulus, and its +blossoms are in the main miniature convolvulus blossoms still. Now, all +bind-weeds, as everybody knows, are climbing plants, which twine +themselves round stouter stems for mere physical support This is in +itself a half-parasitic habit, because it enables the plant to dispense +with the trouble of making a thick and solid stem for its own use. But +just suppose that any bind-weed, instead of merely twining, were to put +forth here and there little tendrils, something like those of the ivy, +which managed somehow to grow into the 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 be expected to grow strong and healthy, and hand +down its peculiarities to its descendants. As the leaves would thus be +rendered needless, they would first become very much reduced in size, +and would finally disappear altogether, according to the universal +custom of unnecessary organs. So we should get at length a leafless +plant, with numerous flowers and seeds, just like the dodder. +Parasites, in fact, whether animal or vegetable, always end by becoming +mere reproductive sacs, mechanisms for the simple elaboration of eggs +or seeds. This is just what has happened to the dodder before me. + +The other queer plant here is a broomrape. It consists of a tall, +somewhat faded-looking stem, upright instead of climbing, and covered +with brown or purplish scales in the place of leaves. Its flowers +resemble the scales in colour, and the dead-nettle in shape. It is, in +fact, a parasitic dead-nettle, a trifle less degenerate as yet than the +dodder. This broomrape has acquired somewhat the same habits as the +other plant, only that it fixes itself on the roots of clover or broom, +from which it sucks nutriment by its own root, as the dodder does by +its stem-suckers. Of course it still retains in most particulars its +original characteristics as a dead-nettle; it grows with their upright +stem and their curiously shaped flowers, so specially adapted for +fertilisation by insect visitors. But it has naturally lost its leaves, +for which it has no further use, and it possesses no chlorophyll, as +the mistletoe does. Yet it has not probably been parasitic for as long +a time as the dodder, since it still retains a dwindling trace of its +leaves in the shape of dry purply scales, something like those of young +asparagus shoots. These leaves are now, in all likelihood, actually +undergoing a gradual atrophy, and we may fairly expect that in the +course of a few thousand years they will disappear altogether. At +present, however, they remain very conspicuous by their colour, which +is not green, owing to the absence of chlorophyll, but is due to the +same pigment as that of the blossoms. This generally happens with +parasites, or with that other curious sort of plants known as +saprophytes, which live upon decaying living matter in the mould of +forests. As they need no green leaves, but have often inherited leafy +structures of some sort, in a more or less degenerate condition, from +their self-supporting ancestors, they usually display most beautiful +colours in their stems and scales, and several of them rank amongst our +handsomest hot-house plants. Even the dodder has red stalks. Their only +work in life being to elaborate the materials stolen from their host +into the brilliant pigments used in the petals for attracting insect +fertilisers, they pour this same dye into the stems and scales, which +thus render them still more conspicuous to the insects' eyes. Moreover, +as they use their whole material in producing flowers, many of these +are 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 numerous. Thousands of seeds 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 one destined ultimately to survive that dodders and +broomrapes manage to preserve their types at all. + + + + +XIV. + +_DOG'S MERCURY AND PLANTAIN._ + + +The hedge and bank in Haye Lane are now a perfect tangled mass of +creeping plants, among which I have just picked out a queer little +three-cornered flower, hardly known even to village children, but +christened by our old herbalists 'dog's mercury.' It is an ancient +trick of language to call coarser or larger plants by the specific +title of some smaller or cultivated kind, with the 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 the same principle, a somewhat similar plant being +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 the eyes of old-fashioned practitioners. + +Dog's mercury is one of the oddest English flowers I know. Each blossom +has three small green petals, and either several stamens, or else a +pistil, in the centre. There is nothing particularly remarkable in the +flower being green, for thousands of other flowers are green and we +never notice them as in any way unusual. In fact, we never as a rule +notice green blossoms at all. Yet anybody who picked a piece of dog's +mercury could not fail to be struck by its curious appearance. It does +not in the least resemble the inconspicuous green flowers of the +stinging-nettle, or of most forest trees: it has a very distinct set of +petals which at once impress one with the idea that they ought to be +coloured. And so indeed they ought: for dog's mercury is a degenerate +plant which once possessed a brilliant corolla and was fertilised by +insects, but which has now fallen from its high estate and reverted to +the less advanced mode of fertilisation by the intermediation of the +wind. For some unknown reason or other this species and all its +relations have discovered that they get on better by the latter and +usually more wasteful plan than by the former and usually more +economical one. Hence they have given up producing large bright petals, +because they no longer need to attract the eyes of insects; and they +have also given up the manufacture of honey, which under their new +circumstances would be a mere waste of substance to them. But the dog's +mercury still retains a distinct mark of its earlier insect-attracting +habits in these three diminutive petals. Others of its relations have +lost even these, so that the original floral form is almost completely +obscured in their case. The spurges are familiar English roadside +examples, and their flowers are so completely degraded that even +botanists for a long time mistook their nature and analogies. + +The male and female flowers of dog's mercury have taken to living upon +separate plants. Why is this? Well, there was no doubt a time when +every blossom had both stamens and pistil, as dog-roses and buttercups +always have. But when the plant took to wind fertilisation it underwent +a change of structure. The stamens on some blossoms became aborted, +while the pistil became aborted on others. This was necessary in order +to prevent self-fertilisation; for otherwise the pollen of each +blossom, hanging out as it does to the wind, would have been very +liable to fall upon its own pistil. But the present arrangement +obviates any such contingency, by making one plant bear all the male +flowers and another plant all the female ones. Why, again, are the +petals green? I think because dog's mercury would be positively injured +by the visits of insects. It has no honey to offer them, and if they +came to it at all, they would only eat up the pollen itself. Hence I +suspect that those flowers among the mercuries which showed any +tendency to retain the original coloured petals would soon get weeded +out, because insects would eat up all their pollen, thus preventing +them from fertilising others; while those which had green petals would +never be noticed and so would be permitted to fertilise one another +after their new fashion. In fact, when a blossom which has once +depended upon insects for its fertilisation is driven by circumstances +to depend upon the wind, it seems to derive a positive advantage from +losing all those attractive features by which its ancestors formerly +allured the eyes of bees or beetles. + +Here, again, on the roadside is a bit of plantain. Everybody 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 time it was a sort of distant cousin to the +veronica, that pretty sky-blue speedwell which abounds among the +meadows in June and July. But these particular speedwells gave up +devoting themselves to insects and became adapted for fertilisation 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 +blossoms, whose pale and faded petals are tucked away out of sight flat +against the stem. Yet their shape and arrangement distinctly recall the +beautiful veronica, and leave one in little doubt as to the origin of +the plant. At the same time a curious device has sprung up which +answers just the same purpose as the separation of the male and female +flowers on the dog's mercury. Each plantain blossom has both stamens +and pistils, but the pistils come to maturity first, and are fertilised +by pollen blown to them from some neighbouring spike. Their feathery +plumes are admirably adapted for catching and utilising any stray +golden grain which happens to pass that way. After the pistils have +faded, the stamens ripen, and hang out at the end of long waving +filaments, so as to discharge all their pollen with effect. On each +spike of blossoms the lower flowerets open first; and so, if you pick a +half-blown spike, you will see that all the stamens are ripe below, and +all the pistils above. Were the opposite arrangement to occur, the +pollen would fall from the stamens to the lower flowers of the same +stalk; but as the pistils below have always been fertilised and +withered before the stamens ripen, there is no chance of any such +accident and its consequent evil results. Thus one can see clearly that +the plantain has become wholly adapted to wind-fertilisation, and as a +natural effect has all but lost its bright-coloured corolla. + +Common groundsel is also a case of the same kind; but here the +degradation has not gone nearly so far. I venture to conjecture, +therefore, that groundsel has been embarked for a shorter time upon its +downward course. For evolution is not, as most people seem to fancy, a +thing which used once to take place; it is a process taking place +around us every day, and it must necessarily continue to take place to +the end of all time. By family the groundsel is a daisy; but it has +acquired the strange and somewhat abnormal habit of self-fertilisation, +which in all probability will ultimately lead to its total extinction. +Hence it does not need the assistance of insects; and it has +accordingly never developed or else got rid of the bright outer +ray-florets which may once have attracted them. Its tiny bell-shaped +blossoms still retain their dwarf yellow corollas; but they are almost +hidden by the green cup-like investment of the flower-head, and they +are not conspicuous enough to arrest the attention of the passing +flies. Here, then, we have an example of a plant just beginning to +start on the retrograde path already traversed by the plantain and the +spurges. If we could meet prophetically with a groundsel of some remote +future century, I have little doubt we should find its bell-shaped +petals as completely degraded as those of the plantain in our own day. + +The general principle which these cases illustrate is that when flowers +have always been fertilised by the wind, they never have brilliant +corollas; when they acquire the habit of impregnating their kind by the +intervention of insects, they almost always acquire at the same time +alluring colours, perfumes, and honey; and when they have once been so +impregnated, and then revert once more to wind-fertilisation, or become +self-fertilisers, they generally retain some symptoms of their earlier +habits, in the presence of dwarfed and useless petals, sometimes green, +or if not green at least devoid of their former attractive colouring. +Thus every plant bears upon its very face the history of its whole +previous development. + + + + +XV. + +_BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY._ + + +A small red-and-black butterfly poises statuesque above the purple +blossom of this tall field-thistle. With its long sucker it probes +industriously floret after floret of the crowded head, and extracts +from each its wee drop of buried nectar. As it stands just at present, +the dull outer sides of its four wings are alone displayed, so that it +does not form a conspicuous mark for passing birds; but when it has +drunk up the last drop of honey from the thistle flower, and flits +joyously away to seek another purple mass of the same sort, it will +open its red-spotted vans in the sunlight, and will then show itself +off as one among the prettiest of our native insects. Each thistle-head +consists of some two hundred separate little bell-shaped blossoms, +crowded together for the sake of conspicuousness into a single group, +just as the blossoms of the lilac or the syringa are crowded into +larger though less dense clusters; and, as each separate floret has a +nectary of its own, the bee or butterfly who lights upon the compound +flower-group can busy himself for a minute or two in getting at the +various drops of honey without the necessity for any further change of +position than that of revolving upon his own axis. Hence these +composite flowers are great favourites with all insects whose suckers +are long enough to reach the bottom of their slender tubes. + +The butterfly's view of life is doubtless on the whole a cheerful one. +Yet his existence must be something so nearly mechanical that we +probably overrate the amount of enjoyment which he derives from +flitting about so airily among the flowers, and passing his days in the +unbroken amusement of sucking liquid honey. Subjectively viewed, the +butterfly is not a high order of insect; his nervous system does not +show that provision for comparatively spontaneous thought and action +which we find in the more intelligent orders, like the flies, bees, +ants, and wasps. His nerves are all frittered away in little separate +ganglia distributed among the various segments of his body, instead of +being governed by a single great central organ, or brain, whose +business it always is to correlate and co-ordinate complex external +impressions. This shows that the butterfly's movements are almost all +automatic, or simply dependent upon immediate external stimulants: he +has not even that small capacity for deliberation and spontaneous +initiative which belongs to his relation the bee. The freedom of the +will is nothing to him, or extends at best to the amount claimed on +behalf of Buridan's ass: he can just choose which of two equidistant +flowers shall first have the benefit of his attention, and nothing +else. Whatever view we take on the abstract metaphysical question, it +is at least certain that the higher animals can do much more than this. +Their brain is able to correlate a vast number of external impressions, +and to bring them under the influence of endless ideas or experiences, +so as finally to evolve conduct which differs very widely with +different circumstances and different characters. Even though it be +true, as determinists believe (and I reckon myself among them), that +such conduct is the necessary result of a given character and given +circumstances--or, if you will, of a particular set of nervous +structures and a particular set of external stimuli--yet we all know +that it is capable of varying so indefinitely, owing to the complexity +of the structures, as to be practically incalculable. But it is not so +with the butterfly. His whole life is cut out for him beforehand; his +nervous connections are so simple, and correspond so directly with +external stimuli, that we can almost predict with certainty what line +of action he will pursue under any given circumstances. He is, as it +were, but a piece of half-conscious mechanism, answering immediately to +impulses from without, just as the thermometer answers to variations of +temperature, and as the telegraphic indicator answers to each making +and breaking of the electric current. + +In early life the future butterfly emerges from the egg as a +caterpillar. At once his many legs begin to move, and the caterpillar +moves forward by their motion. But the mechanism which set them moving +was the nervous system, with its ganglia working the separate legs of +each segment. This movement is probably quite as automatic as the act +of sucking in the new-born infant. The caterpillar walks, it knows not +why, but simply because it has to walk. When it reaches a fit place for +feeding, which differs according to the nature of the particular larva, +it feeds automatically. Certain special external stimulants of sight, +smell, or touch set up the appropriate actions in the mandibles, just +as contact of the lips with an external body sets up sucking in the +infant. All these movements depend upon what we call instinct--that is +to say, organic habits registered in the nervous system of the race. +They have arisen by natural selection alone, because those insects +which duly performed them survived, and those which did not duly +perform them died out. After a considerable span of life spent in +feeding and walking about in search of more food, the caterpillar one +day found itself compelled by an inner monitor to alter its habits. +Why, it knew not; but, just as a tired child sinks to sleep, the gorged +and full-fed caterpillar sank peacefully into a dormant state. Then its +tissues melted one by one into a kind of organic pap, and its outer +skin hardened into a chrysalis. Within that solid case new limbs and +organs began to grow by hereditary impulses. At the same time the form +of the nervous system altered, to suit the higher and freer life for +which the insect was unconsciously preparing itself. Fewer and smaller +ganglia now appeared in the tail segments (since no legs would any +longer be needed there), while more important ones sprang up to govern +the motions of the four wings. But it was in the head that the greatest +changes took place. There, a rudimentary brain made its appearance, +with large optic centres, answering to the far more perfect and +important eyes of the future butterfly. For the flying insect will have +to steer its way through open space, instead of creeping over leaves +and stones; and it will have to suck the honey of flowers, as well as +to choose its fitting mate, all of which demands from it higher and +keener senses than those of the purblind caterpillar. At length one day +the chrysalis bursts asunder, and the insect emerges to view on a +summer morning as a full-fledged and beautiful butterfly. + +For a minute or two it stands and waits till the air it breathes has +filled out its wings, and till the warmth and sunlight have given it +strength. For the wings are by origin a part of the breathing +apparatus, and they require to be plimmed by the air before the insect +can take to flight. Then, as it grows more accustomed to its new life, +the hereditary impulse causes it to spread its vans abroad, and it +flies. Soon a flower catches its eye, and the bright mass of colour +attracts it irresistibly, as the candle-light attracts the eye of a +child a few weeks old. It sets off towards the patch of red or yellow, +probably not knowing beforehand that this is the visible symbol of food +for it, but merely guided by the blind habit of its race, imprinted +with binding force in the very constitution of its body. Thus the +moths, which fly by night and visit only white flowers whose corollas +still shine out in the twilight, are so irresistibly led on by the +external stimulus of light from a candle falling upon their eyes that +they cannot choose but move their wings rapidly in that direction; and +though singed and blinded twice or three times by the flame, must still +wheel and eddy into it, till at last they perish in the scorching +blaze. Their instincts, or, to put it more clearly, their simple +nervous mechanism, though admirably adapted to their natural +circumstances, cannot be equally adapted to such artificial objects as +wax candles. The butterfly in like manner is attracted automatically by +the colour of his proper flowers, and settling upon them, sucks up +their honey instinctively. But feeding is not now his only object in +life: he has to find and pair with a suitable mate. That, indeed, is +the great end of his winged existence. Here, again, his simple nervous +system stands him in good stead. The picture of his kind is, as it +were, imprinted on his little brain, and he knows his own mates the +moment he sees them, just as intuitively as he knows the flowers upon +which he must feed. Now we see the reason for the butterfly's large +optic centres: they have to guide it in all its movements. In like +manner, and by a like mechanism, the female butterfly or moth selects +the right spot for laying her eggs, which of course depends entirely +upon the nature of the young caterpillars' proper food. Each great +group of insects has its own habits in this respect, may-flies laying +their eggs on the water, many beetles on wood, flies on decaying animal +matter, and butterflies mostly on special plants. Thus throughout its +whole life the butterfly's activity is entirely governed by a rigid +law, registered and fixed for ever in the constitution of its ganglia +and motor nerves. Certain definite objects outside it invariably +produce certain definite movements on the insect's part. No doubt it is +vaguely conscious of all that it does: no doubt it derives a faint +pleasure from due exercise of all its vital functions, and a faint pain +when they are injured or thwarted; but on the whole its range of action +is narrowed and bounded by its hereditary instincts and their nervous +correlatives. It may light on one flower rather than another; it may +choose a fresher and brighter mate rather than a battered and dingy +one; but its little subjectivity is a mere shadow compared with ours, +and it hardly deserves to be considered as more than a semi-conscious +automatic machine. + + + + +XVI. + +_BUTTERFLY ÆSTHETICS._ + + +The other day, when I was watching that little red-spotted butterfly +whose psychology I found so interesting, I hardly 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 +second great point is to understand that they are probably something +more than that as well. To-day I have found another 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 intellectually, a +cunning bit of nervous machinery, may it not be true at the same time +that he is, viewed emotionally, a faint copy of ourselves? + +Here he stands on a purple thistle again, true, as usual, to the plant +on which I last found him. There can be no doubt that he distinguishes +one colour from another, for you can artificially attract him by +putting a piece of purple paper on a green leaf, just as the flower +naturally attracts him with its native hue. Numerous observations and +experiments have proved with all but absolute certainty that his +discrimination of colour is essentially identical with our own; and I +think, if we run our eye up and down nature, observing how universally +all animals are attracted by pure and bright colours, we can hardly +doubt that he appreciates and admires colour as well as discriminates +it. Mr. Darwin certainly judges that butterflies can show an æsthetic +preference of the sort, for he sets down their own lovely hues to the +constant sexual selection of the handsomest mates. We must not, +however, take too human a measure of their capacities in this respect. +It is sufficient to believe that the insect derives some direct +enjoyment from the stimulation of pure colour, and is hereditarily +attracted by it wherever it may show itself. This pleasure draws it on, +on the one hand, towards the gay flowers which form its natural food; +and, on the other hand, towards its own brilliant mates. Imprinted on +its nervous system is a certain blank form answering to its own +specific type; and when the object corresponding to this blank form +occurs in its neighbourhood, 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 the 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 reddest 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 butterflies. Insects always accustomed to exercising their +colour-sense upon flowers and mates, may easily acquire a high standard +of taste in that direction, while still remaining comparatively in a +low stage as regards their intellectual condition. But the fact I wish +especially to emphasise is this--that the flowers produced by the +colour-sense of butterflies and their allies are just those objects +which we ourselves consider most lovely in nature; and that the marks +and shades upon their own wings, produced by the long selective action +of their mates, are just the things which we ourselves consider most +beautiful in the animal world. In this respect, then, there seems to be +a close community of taste and feeling between the butterfly and +ourselves. + +Let me note, too, just in passing, that while the upper half of the +butterfly's wing is generally beautiful in colour, so as to attract his +fastidious mate, the under half, displayed while he is at rest, is +almost always dull, and often resembles the plant upon which he +habitually alights. The first set of colours is obviously due to sexual +selection, and has for its object the making of an effective courtship; +but the second set is obviously due to natural selection, and has been +produced by the fact that all those insects whose bright colours show +through too vividly when they are at rest fall a prey to birds or other +enemies, leaving only the best protected to continue the life of the +species. + +But sight is not the only important sense to the butterfly. He is +largely moved and guided by smell as well. Both bees and butterflies +seem largely to select the flowers they visit by means of smell, though +colour 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. Bastian says, there seems +good reason for believing 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 butterflies are +not only coloured but sweetly scented; and it is to this cause that we +owe the perfumes of the rose, the lily-of-the-valley, the heliotrope, +the jasmine, the violet, and the stephanotis. Night-flowering plants, +which depend entirely for their fertilisation upon moths, are almost +always white, and have usually very powerful perfumes. 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? +Here, again, we see that the æsthetic 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 we look at the sense of taste, we find an equally curious +agreement between men and insects; for the honey which is stored by the +flower for the bee, and by the bee for its own use, is stolen and eaten +up by man instead. Hence, when I consider the general continuity of +nervous structure throughout the whole animal race, and the exact +similarity of the stimulus in each instance, I can hardly doubt that +the butterfly really enjoys life somewhat as we enjoy it, though far +less vividly. I cannot but think that he finds honey sweet, and +perfumes pleasant, and colour attractive; that he feels a lightsome +gladness as he 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 animal world, save only in a few +aberrant types, sugar is sweet to taste, and thyme to smell, and song +to hear, and sunshine to bask in. Therefore, on the whole, while I +admit that the butterfly is mainly an animated puppet, I must qualify +my opinion by adding that it is a puppet which, after its vague little +fashion, thinks and feels very much as we do. + + + + +XVII. + +_THE ORIGIN OF WALNUTS._ + + +Mr. Darwin has devoted no small portion of his valuable life to +tracing, in two bulky volumes, the Descent of Man. Yet I suppose it is +probable that in our narrow anthropinism we should have refused to +listen to him had he given us two volumes instead on the Descent of +Walnuts. Viewed as a question merely of biological science, the one +subject is just as important as the other. But the old Greek doctrine +that 'man is the measure of all things' is strong in us still. We form +for ourselves a sort of pre-Copernican universe, in which the world +occupies the central point of space, and man occupies the central point +of the world. What touches man interests us deeply: what concerns him +but slightly we pass over as of no consequence. Nevertheless, even the +origin and development of walnuts is a subject upon which we may +profitably reflect, not wholly without gratification and interest. + +This kiln-dried walnut on my plate, which has suggested such abstract +cogitations to my mind, is shown by its very name to be a foreign +production; for the word contains the same root as Wales and Welsh, the +old Teutonic name for men of a different race, which the Germans still +apply to the Italians, and we ourselves to the last relics of the old +Keltic population in Southern Britain. It means 'the foreign nut,' and +it comes for the most part from the south of Europe. As a nut, it +represents a very different type of fruit from the strawberry and +raspberry, with their bright colours, sweet juices, and nutritious +pulp. Those fruits which alone bear the name in common parlance are +attractive in their object; the nuts are deterrent. An orange or a plum +is brightly tinted with hues which contrast strongly with the +surrounding foliage; its pleasant taste and soft pulp all advertise it +for the notice of birds or monkeys, as a means for assisting in the +dispersion of its seed. But a nut, on the contrary, is a fruit whose +actual seed contains an abundance of oils and other pleasant +food-stuffs, which must be carefully guarded against the depredations +of possible foes. In the plum or the orange we do not eat the seed +itself: we only eat the surrounding pulp. But in the walnut the part +which we utilise is the embryo plant itself; and so the walnut's great +object in life is to avoid being eaten. Accordingly, that part of the +fruit which in the plum is stored with sweet juices is, in the walnut, +filled with a bitter and very nauseous essence. We seldom see this +bitter covering in our over-civilised life, because it is, of course, +removed before the nuts come to table. The walnut has but a thin shell, +and is poorly protected in comparison with some of its relations, such +as the American butternut, which can only be cracked by a sharp blow +from a hammer--or even the hickory, whose hard covering has done more +to destroy the teeth of New Englanders than all other causes put +together, and New England teeth are universally admitted to be the very +worst in the world. Now, all nuts have to guard against squirrels and +birds; and therefore their peculiarities are exactly opposite to those +of succulent fruits. Instead of attracting attention by being brightly +coloured, they are invariably green like the leaves while they remain +on the tree, and brown or dusky like the soil when they fall upon the +ground beneath; instead of being enclosed in sweet coats, they are +provided with bitter, acrid, or stinging husks; and, instead of being +soft in texture, they are surrounded by hard shells, like the coco-nut, +or have a perfectly solid kernel, like the vegetable ivory. + +The origin of nuts is thus exactly the reverse side of the origin of +fruits. Certain seeds, richly stored with oils and starches for aiding +the growth of the young plant, are exposed to the attacks of squirrels, +monkeys, parrots, and other arboreal animals. The greater part of them +are eaten and completely destroyed by these their enemies, and so never +hand down their peculiarities to any descendants. But all fruits vary a +little in sweetness and bitterness, pulpy or stringy tendencies. Thus a +few among them happen to be protected from destruction by their +originally accidental possession of a bitter husk, a hard shell, or a +few awkward spines and bristles. These the monkeys and squirrels +reject; and they alone survive as the parents of future generations. +The more persistent and the hungrier their foes become, the less will a +small degree of bitterness or hardness serve to protect them. Hence, +from generation to generation, the bitterness and the hardness will go +on increasing, because only those nuts which are the nastiest and the +most difficult to crack will escape destruction from the teeth or bills +of the growing and pressing population of rodents and birds. The nut +which best survives on the average is that which is least conspicuous +in colour, has a rind of the most objectionable taste, and is enclosed +in the most solid shell. But the extent to which such precautions +become necessary will depend much upon the particular animals to whose +attacks the nuts of each country are exposed. The European walnut has +only to defy a few small woodland animals, who are sufficiently +deterred by its acrid husk; the American butter-nut has to withstand +the long teeth of much more formidable forestine rodents, whom it sets +at nought with its stony and wrinkled shell; and the tropical cocos and +Brazil nuts have to escape the monkey, who pounds them with stones, or +flings them with all his might from the tree-top so as to smash them in +their fall against the ground below. + +Our own hazel-nut supplies an excellent illustration of the general +tactics adopted by the nuts at large. The little red tufted blossoms +which everybody knows so well in early spring are each surrounded by a +bunch of three bracts; and as the nut grows bigger, these bracts form a +green leaf-like covering, which causes it to look very much like the +ordinary foliage of the hazel-tree. Besides, they are thickly set with +small prickly hairs, which are extremely annoying to the fingers, 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 shade +from the nuts themselves. Take, as an example of the more carefully +protected tropical kinds, the coco-nut. Growing on a very tall +palm-tree, it has to fall a considerable distance toward the earth; and +so it is wrapped round in a mass of loose knotted fibre, which breaks +the fall just as a lot of soft wool would do. Then, being a large nut, +fully stored with an abundance of meat, it offers special attractions +to animals, and consequently requires special means of defence. +Accordingly, its shell is extravagantly thick, only one small soft spot +being left at the blunter end, through which the young plant may push +its head. Once upon a time, to be sure, the coco-nut contained three +kernels, and had three such soft spots or holes; but now two of them +are aborted, and the two holes remain only in the form of hard scars. +The Brazil nut is even a better illustration. Probably few people know +that the irregular angular nuts which appear at dessert by that name +are originally contained inside a single round shell, where they fit +tightly together, and acquire their queer indefinite shapes by mutual +pressure. So the South American monkey has first to crack the thick +external common shell against a stone or otherwise; and, if he is +successful in this process, he must afterwards break the separate +sharp-edged inner nuts with his teeth--a performance which is always +painful and often ineffectual. + +Yet it is curious that nuts and fruits are really produced by the very +slightest variations on a common type, so much so that the technical +botanist does not recognise the popular distinction between them at +all. In his eyes, the walnut and the coco-nut 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 succulent and fills with +sugary juice, in the walnut its juice is bitter, and in the coco-nut it +has no juice at all, but remains a mere matted layer of dry fibres. And +while the thin external skin becomes purple in the plum and red in the +cherry as the fruits ripen, it remains green and brown in the walnut +and coco-nut all their time. Nevertheless, Darwinism shows us both here +and elsewhere that the popular distinction answers to a real difference +of origin and function. When a seed-vessel, whatever its botanical +structure, survives by dint of attracting animals, it always acquires a +bright-coloured envelope and a sweet pulp; while it usually possesses a +hard seed-shell, and often infuses bitter essences into its kernel. On +the other hand, when a seed-vessel survives by escaping the notice of +animals, it generally has a sweet and pleasant kernel, which it +protects by a hard shell and an inconspicuous and nauseous envelope. If +the kernel itself is bitter, as with the horse-chestnut, the need for +disguise and external protection is much lessened. But the best +illustration of all is seen in the West Indian cashew-nut, which is +what Alice in Wonderland would have called a portmanteau seed-vessel--a +fruit and a nut rolled into one. In this curious case, the stalk swells +out into a bright-coloured and juicy mass, looking something like a +pear, but of course containing no seeds; while the nut grows out from +its end, secured from intrusion by a covering with a pungent juice, +which burns and blisters the skin at a touch. No animal except man can +ever successfully tackle the cashew-nut itself; but by eating the +pear-like stalk other animals ultimately aid in distributing the seed. +The cashew thus vicariously sacrifices its fruit-stem for the sake of +preserving its nut. + +All nature is a continuous game 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 the protections adopted by plants; and those plants +alone survive whose peculiarities happen successfully to defy the +attack of animals. There you have the Darwinian Iliad in a nutshell. + + + + +XVIII. + +_A PRETTY LAND-SHELL._ + + +The heavy rains which have done so much harm to the standing corn have +at least had the effect of making the country look greener and lovelier +than I have seen it look for many seasons. There is now a fresh verdure +about the upland pastures and pine woods which almost reminds one of +the deep valleys of the Bernese Oberland in early spring. Last year's +continuous wet weather gave the trees and grass a miserable draggled +appearance; but this summer's rain, coming after a dry spring, has +brought out all the foliage in unwonted luxuriance; and everybody +(except the British farmer) agrees that we have never seen the country +look more beautiful. Though the year is now so far advanced, the trees +are still as green as in springtide; and the meadows, with their rich +aftermath springing up apace, look almost as lush and fresh as they did +in early June. Londoners who get away to the country or the seaside +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. + +Here, on the edge of the down, where I have come up to get a good +blowing from the clear south-west breeze, I have just sat down to rest +myself awhile and to admire the view, and have reverted for a moment to +my old habit of snail-hunting. Years ago, when evolution was an +infant--an infant much troubled by the complaints inseparable from +infancy, but still a sturdy and vigorous 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 to +this day I seldom go out for a walk without a few pill-boxes in my +pocket, in case I should happen to hit upon any remarkable 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 here and could show it to you; for most +people only know the two or three ugly brown or banded snails that prey +upon their cabbages and lettuces, and have no notion of the lovely +shells to be found by hunting among English copses and under the dead +leaves of Scotch hill-sides. This cyclostoma, however,--I _must_ +trouble you with a Latin name for once--is so remarkably pretty, with +its graceful elongated spiral whorls, and its delicately chiselled +fretwork tracery, that even naturalists (who have perhaps, on the +whole, less sense of beauty than any class of men I know) have +recognised its loveliness by giving it the specific epithet of +_elegans_. It is big enough for anybody to notice it, being about the +size of a periwinkle; and its exquisite stippled chasing is strongly +marked enough to be perfectly visible to the naked eye. But besides its +beauty, the cyclostoma has a strong claim upon our attention because of +its curious history. + +Long ago, in the infantile days of evolutionism, I often wondered why +people made collections on such an irrational plan. They always try to +get what they call the most typical specimens, and reject all those +which are doubtful or intermediate. Hence the dogma of the fixity of +species becomes all the more firmly settled in their minds, because +they never attend to the existing links which still so largely bridge +over the artificial gaps created by our nomenclature between kind and +kind. I went to work on the opposite plan, collecting all those +aberrant individuals which most 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 ended and the next group began. Among the snails such an +arrangement is peculiarly easy; for some of the species are very +indefinite, and the varieties are numerous under each species. Nothing +can give one so good a notion of the plasticity of organic forms as +such a method. The endless varieties and intermediate links which exist +amongst dogs is the nearest example to it with which ordinary observers +are familiar. + +But the cyclostoma is a snail which introduces one to still deeper +questions. It belongs in all our scientific classifications to the +group of lung-breathing mollusks, like the common garden snail. Yet it +has one remarkable peculiarity: it possesses an operculum, or door to +its shell, like that of the periwinkle. This operculum represents among +the univalves the under-shell of the oyster or other bivalves; but it +has completely disappeared in most land and fresh-water snails, as well +as among many marine species. The fact of its occurrence in the +cyclostoma would thus be quite inexplicable if we were compelled to +regard it as a descendant of the other lung-breathing mollusks. 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 cast upon the +question by Darwinism, 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 paludina. 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 cyclostoma among the gill-breathers, +because of its close resemblance 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 producing 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 animal like a snail. Besides, 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 streams. +There are others which go further from the water, and spend their days +in damp grass. And there are yet others which have taken to a wholly +terrestrial existence in woods or meadows and under heaps of stones. +All of them agree with the pond-snails in having an operculum, and so +differ from the ordinary land and river snails, the mouths of whose +shells are quite unprotected. Thus land-nails have two separate +origins--one large group (including the garden-snail) being derived +from the common fresh-water mollusks, while another much smaller group +(including the cyclostoma) is derived from the operculated pond-snails. + +How is it, then, that naturalists had so long overlooked this +distinction? Simply because their artificial classification is based +entirely upon the nature of the breathing apparatus. But, as Mr. +Wallace has well pointed out, obvious and important functional +differences are of far less value in tracing relationship than +insignificant and unimportant structural details. Any water-snail may +have to take to a terrestrial life if the ponds in which it lives are +liable to dry up during warm weather. Those individuals alone will then +survive which display a tendency to oxygenise their blood by some +rudimentary form of lung. Hence the possession of lungs is not the mark +of a real genealogical class, but a mere necessary result of a +terrestrial existence. On the other hand, the possession of an +operculum, unimportant as it may be to the life of the animal, is a +good test of relationship by descent. All snails which take to living +on land, whatever their original form, will acquire lungs: but an +operculated snail will retain its operculum, and so bear witness to its +ancestry; while a snail which is not operculated will of course show no +tendency to develop such a structure, and so will equally give a true +testimony as to its origin. In short, the less functionally useful any +organ is, the higher is its value as a gauge of its owner's pedigree, +like a Bourbon nose or an Austrian lip. + + + + +XIX. + +_DOGS AND MASTERS._ + + +Probably the most forlorn and abject creature to be seen on the face of +the earth is a masterless dog. Slouching and slinking along, cringing +to every human being it chances to meet, running away with its tail +between its legs from smaller dogs whom under other circumstances it +would accost with a gruff who-the-dickens-are-you sort of growl,--it +forms the very picture of utter humiliation and self-abasement. Grip +and I have just come across such a lost specimen of stray doghood, +trying to find his way back to his home across the fields--I fancy he +belongs to a travelling show which left the village yesterday--and it +is quite refreshing to watch the air of superior wisdom and calm but +mute compassionateness with which Grip casts his eye sidelong upon that +wretched masterless vagrant, and passes him by without even a nod. He +looks up to me complacently as he trots along by my side, and seems to +say with his eye, 'Poor fellow! he's lost his master, you +know--careless dog that he is!' I believe the lesson has had a good +moral effect upon Grip's own conduct, too; for he has now spent ten +whole minutes well within my sight, and has resisted the most tempting +solicitations to ratting and rabbiting held out by half-a-dozen holes +and burrows in the hedge-wall as we go along. + +This total dependence of dogs upon a master is a very interesting +example of the growth of inherited instincts. The original dog, who was +a wolf or something very like it, could 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 preserved +and increased; those which followed too much their own original +instincts were destroyed or at least discouraged. The savage hunter +would be very apt to fling his stone axe at the skull of a hound which +tried to eat the game he had brought down with his flint-tipped arrow, +instead of retrieving it: he would be most likely to keep carefully and +feed well on the refuse of his own meals the hound which aided him most +in surprising, killing, and securing his quarry. Thus there sprang up +between man and the dog a mutual and ever increasing sympathy which on +the part of the dependent creature has at last become organised into an +inherited instinct. If we could only thread the labyrinth of a dog's +brain, we should find somewhere in it a group of correlated +nerve-connections answering to this universal habit of his race; and +the group in question would be quite without any analogous mechanism in +the brain of the ancestral wolf. As truly as the wing of the bird is +adapted to its congenital instinct of flying, as truly as the nervous +system of the bee is adapted to its congenital instinct of honeycomb +building, just so truly is the brain of the dog adapted to its now +congenital instinct of following and obeying a master. The habit of +attaching itself to a particular human being is nowadays engrained in +the nerves of the modern dog just as really, though not quite so +deeply, as the habit of running or biting is engrained in its bones and +muscles. Every dog is born into the world with a certain inherited +structure of limbs, sense-organs, and brain: and this inherited +structure governs all its future actions, both bodily and mental. It +seeks a master because it is endowed with master-seeking brain organs; +it is dissatisfied until it finds one, because its native functions can +have free play in no other way. Among a few dogs, like those of +Constantinople, the instinct may have 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 puppyhood under a master, the instinct is +fully and freely developed, and the masterless condition is thenceforth +for him a thwarting and disappointing of all his natural feelings and +affections. + +Not only have dogs as a class acquired a special instinct with regard +to humanity generally, but particular breeds of dogs have acquired +particular instincts with regard to certain individual acts. Nobody +doubts that the muscles of a greyhound are specially correlated to the +acts of running and leaping; or that the muscles of a bull-dog are +specially correlated to the act of fighting. The whole external form of +these creatures has been modified by man's selective action for a +deliberate purpose: we breed, as we say, from the dog with the best +points. But besides being able to modify the visible and outer +structure of the animal, we are also able to modify, by indirect +indications, the hidden and inner structure of the brain. We choose the +best ratter among our terriers, the best pointer, retriever, or setter +among other breeds, to become the parents of our future stock. We thus +half unconsciously select particular types of nervous system in +preference to others. Once upon a time we used even to rear a race of +dogs with a strange instinct for turning the spit in our kitchens; and +to this day the Cubans rear blood-hounds with a natural taste for +hunting down the trail of runaway negroes. Now, everybody knows that +you cannot teach one sort of dog the kind of tricks which come by +instinct to a different sort. No amount of instruction will induce a +well-bred terrier to retrieve your handkerchief: he insists upon +worrying it instead. So no amount of instruction will induce a +well-bred retriever to worry a rat: he brings it gingerly to your feet, +as if it was a dead partridge. The reason is obvious, because no one +would breed from a retriever which worried or from a terrier which +treated its natural prey as if it were a stick. Thus the brain of each +kind is hereditarily supplied with certain nervous connections wanting +in the brain 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 greyhound and the bull-dog. Those who have watched +closely the different races of men can hardly hesitate to believe that +something analogous exists in our own case. While the highest types +are, as Mr. Herbert Spencer well puts it, to some extent 'organically +moral' and structurally intelligent, the lowest types are congenitally +deficient. A European child learns to read almost by nature (for +Dogberry was essentially right after all), while a Negro child learns +to read by painful personal experience. And savages brought to Europe +and 'civilised' for years often return at last with joy to their native +home, cast off their clothes and their outer veneering, and take once +more to the only life for which their nervous organisation naturally +fits them. 'What is bred in the bone,' says the wise old proverb, 'will +out in the blood.' + + + + +XX. + +_BLACKCOCK._ + + +Just at the present moment the poor black grouse are generally having a +hot time of it. After their quiet spring and summer they suddenly find +their heath-clad wastes invaded by a strange epidemic of men, dogs, and +hideous shooting implements; and being as yet but young and +inexperienced, they are falling victims by the thousand to their +youthful habit of clinging closely for protection to the treacherous +reed-beds. A little later in the season, those of them that survive +will have learned more wary ways: they will pack among the juniper +thickets, and become as cautious on the approach of perfidious man as +their cunning cousins, the red grouse of the Scottish moors. But so far +youthful innocence prevails; no sentinels as yet are set to watch for +the distant gleam of metal, and no foreshadowing of man's evil intent +disturbs their minds as they feed in fancied security upon the dry +seeds of the marsh plants in their favourite sedges. + +The great families of the pheasants and partridges, in which the +blackcock must be included, may be roughly divided into two main +divisions so far as regards their appearance and general habits. The +first class consists of splendidly coloured and conspicuous birds, such +as the peacock, the golden pheasant, and the tragopan; and these are, +almost without exception, originally jungle-birds of tropical or +sub-tropical lands, though a few of them have been acclimatised or +domesticated in temperate countries. They live in regions where they +have few natural enemies, and where they are little exposed to the +attacks of man. Most of them feed more or less upon fruits and +bright-coloured food-stuffs, and they are probably every one of them +polygamous in their habits. Thus we can hardly doubt that the male +birds, which alone possess the brilliant plumage of their kind, owe +their beauty to the selective preference of their mates; and that the +taste thus displayed has been aroused by their relation to their +specially gay and bright natural surroundings. The most lovely species +of pheasants are found among the forests of the Himalayas and the Malay +Archipelago, with their gorgeous fruits and flowers and their exquisite +insects. Even in England our naturalised Oriental pheasants still +delight in feeding upon blackberries, sloes, haws, and the pretty fruit +of the honeysuckle and the holly; while our dingier partridges and +grouse subsist rather upon heather, grain, and small seeds. Since there +must always be originally nearly as many cocks as hens in each brood, +it will follow that only the handsomest or most attractive in the +polygamous species will succeed in attracting to them a harem; and as +beauty and strength usually go hand in hand, they will also be the +conquerors in those battles which are universal with all polygamists in +the animal world. Thus we account for the striking and conspicuous +difference between the peacock 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 kinds, typified by the red grouse, partridges, quails, and +guinea-fowls, are generally dingy in hue, with a tendency to +pepper-and-salt in their plumage; and they usually display very little +difference between the sexes, both cocks and hens being coloured and +feathered much alike. In short, they are protectively designed, while +the first class are attractive. Their plumage resembles as nearly as +possible the ground on which they sit or the covert in which they +skulk. They are thus enabled to escape the notice of their natural +enemies, the birds of prey, from whose ravages they suffer far more in +a state of nature than from any other cause. We may take the ptarmigans +as the most typical example of this class of birds; for in summer their +zigzagged black-and-brown attire harmonises admirably with the patches +of faded heath and soil upon the mountain-side, as every sportsman well +knows; while in the winter their pure white plumage can scarcely be +distinguished from the snow in which they lie huddled and crouching +during the colder months. Even in the brilliant species, Mr. Darwin and +Mr. Wallace have pointed out that the ornamental colours and crest are +never handed down to female descendants when the habits of nesting are +such that the mothers would be exposed to danger by their +conspicuousness during incubation. Speaking broadly, only those female +birds which build in hollow trees or make covered nests have bright +hues at all equal to those of the males. A female bird nesting in the +open would be cut off if it showed any tendency to reproduce the +brilliant colouring 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 described. It is a polygamous bird, and it differs +most conspicuously in plumage from its consort, the grey-hen, as may be +seen from the very names by which they are each familiarly known. Yet, +though the blackcock is handsome enough and shows evident marks of +selective preference on the part of his ancestral hens, this preference +has not exerted itself largely in the direction of bright colour, and +that for two reasons. In the first place the blackcock does not feed +upon brilliant foodstuffs, but upon small bog-berries, hard seeds, and +young shoots of heather, and it is probable that an æsthetic taste for +pure and dazzling hues is almost confined to those creatures which, +like butterflies, hummingbirds, and parrots, seek their livelihood +amongst beautiful fruits or flowers. In the second place, red, yellow, +or orange ornaments would render the blackcock too conspicuous a mark +for the hawk, the falcon, or the weapons of man; for we must remember +that only those blackcocks survive from year to year and hand down +their peculiarities to descendants which succeed in evading the talons +of birds of prey or the small-shot of sportsmen. Feeding as they do on +the open, they are not protected, like jungle-birds, by the shade of +trees. Thus any bird which showed any marked tendency to develop +brighter or more conspicuous plumage would almost infallibly fall a +victim to one or other of his many foes; and however much his beauty +might possibly charm his mates (supposing them for the moment to +possess a taste for colour), he would have no chance of transmitting it +to a future generation. Accordingly, the decoration of the blackcock is +confined to glossy plumage and a few ornamental tail-feathers. The +grey-hen herself still retains the dull and imitative colouring of the +grouse race generally; and as for the cocks, even if a fair percentage +of them is annually cut off through their comparative 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 recognised spots, and there invite the +grey-hens by their calls, a little duelling going on meanwhile. During +these meetings they show off their beauty with great emulation, after +the fashion with which we are all familiar in the case of the peacock; +and when they have gained the approbation of their mates and maimed or +driven away their rivals, they retire with their respective families. +Unfortunately, like most polygamists, they make bad fathers, leaving +the care of their young almost entirely to the hens. According to the +veracious account of Artemus Ward, the great Brigham Young himself +pathetically descanted upon the difficulty of extending his parental +affections to 131 children. The imperious blackcock seems to labour +under the same sentimental disadvantage. + + + + +XXI. + +_BINDWEED._ + + +Not the least beautiful among our native wild flowers are many of those +which grow, too often unheeded, along the wayside of every country +road. The hedge-bordered highway on which I am walking to-day, to take +my letters to the village post, is bordered on either side with such a +profusion of colour as one may never see equalled during many years' +experience of tropical or sub-tropical lands. Jamaica and Ceylon could +produce nothing so brilliant as this tangled mass of gorse, and +thistle, and St. John's-wort, and centaury, intermingled with the lithe +and whitening sprays of half-opened clematis. And here, on the very +edge of the road, half-smothered in its grey dust, I have picked a +pretty little convolvulus blossom, with a fly buried head-foremost in +its pink bell; and I am carrying them both along with me as I go, for +contemplation and study. For this little flower, the lesser bindweed, +is rich in hints as to the strange ways in which Nature decks herself +with so much waste loveliness, whose meaning can only be fully read by +the eyes of man, the latest comer among her children. The old school of +thinkers imagined 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 fancy of the human +race. To the butterfly the world is a little beautiful; to the +farm-labourer it is only a trifle more beautiful: but to the cultivated +man or the artist it is lovely in every cloud and shadow, in every tiny +blossom and passing bird. + +The outer face of the bindweed, the exterior of the cup, so to speak, +is prettily marked with five dark russet-red bands, between which the +remainder of the corolla is a pale pinky-white in hue. Nothing could be +simpler and prettier than this alternation of dark and light belts; but +how is it produced? Merely thus. The convolvulus blossom in the bud is +twisted or contorted round and round, part of the cup being folded +inside, while the five joints of the corolla are folded outside, much +after the fashion of an umbrella when rolled up. And just as the bits +of the umbrella which are exposed when it is folded become faded in +colour, so the bits of the bindweed blossom which are outermost in the +bud become more deeply oxidised than the other parts, and acquire a +russet-red hue. The belted appearance which thus results is really as +accidental, if I may use that unphilosophical expression, as the belted +appearance of the old umbrella, or the wrinkles caused by the waves on +the sea-sands. The flower happened to be folded so, and got coloured, +or discoloured, accordingly. But when a man comes to look at it, he +recognises in the alternation of colours and the symmetrical +arrangement one of those elements of beauty with which he is familiar +in the handicraft of his own kind. He reads an intention into this +result of natural causes, and personifies Nature as though she worked +with an æsthetic design in view, just as a decorative artist works when +he similarly alternates colours or arranges symmetrical and radial +figures 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 +recognises the intellectual order and perfection of the work. + +I turn the bindweed blossom mouth upward, and there I see that these +russet marks, though paler on the inner surface, still show faintly +through the pinky-white corolla. This produces an effect not unlike +that of a delicate shell cameo, with its dainty gradations of +semi-transparent white and interfusing pink. But the inner effect can +be no more designed with an eye to beauty than the outer one was; and +the very terms in which I think of it clearly show that my sense of its +loveliness is largely derived from comparison with human handicraft. A +farmer would see in the convolvulus nothing but a useless weed; a +cultivated eye sees in it just as much as its nature permits it to see. +I look closer, and observe that there are also thin lines running from +the circumference to the centre, midway between the dark belts. These +lines, which add greatly to the beauty of the flower, by marking it out +into zones, are also due to the folding in the bud; they are the inner +angles of the folds, just as the dark belts are the overlapping edges +of the outer angles. But, in addition to the minor beauty of these +little details, there is the general beauty of the cup as a whole, +which also calls for explanation. Its shape is as graceful as that of +any Greek or Etruscan vase, as swelling and as simply beautiful as any +beaker. Can I account for these peculiarities on mere natural grounds +as well as for the others? I somehow fancy I can. + +The bindweed is descended from some earlier ancestors which had five +separate petals, instead of a single fused and circular cup. But in the +convolvulus family, as in many others, these five petals have joined +into a continuous rim or bowl, and the marks on the blossom where it +was folded in the bud still answer to the five petals. In many plants +you can see the pointed edges of the former distinct flower-rays as +five projections, though their lower parts have coalesced into a +bell-shaped or tubular blossom, as in the common harebell. How this +comes to pass we can easily understand if we watch an unopened fuchsia; +for there the four bright-coloured sepals remain joined together till +the bud is ready to open, and then split along a line marked out from +the very first. In the plastic bud condition it is very easy for parts +usually separate so to grow out in union with one another. I do not +mean that separate pieces actually grow together, but that pieces which +usually grow distinct sometimes grow united from the very first. Now, +four or five petals, radially arranged, in themselves produce that kind +of symmetry which man, with his intellectual love for order and +definite patterns, always finds beautiful. But the symmetry in the +flower simply results from the fact that a single whorl of leaves has +grown into this particular shape, while the outer and inner whorls have +grown into other shapes; and every such whorl always and necessarily +presents us with an example of the kind of symmetry which we so much +admire. Again, when the petals forming a whorl coalesce, they must, of +course, produce a more or less regular circle. If the points of the +petals remain as projections, then we get a circle with vandyked edges, +as in the lily of the valley; if they do not project, then we get a +simple circular rim, as in the bindweed. All the lovely shapes of +bell-blossoms are simply due to the natural coalescence of four, five, +or six petals; and this coalescence is again due to an increased +certainty of fertilisation secured for the plant by the better +adaptation to insect visits. Similarly, we know that the colours of the +corolla have been acquired as a means of rendering the flower +conspicuous to the eyes of bees or butterflies; and the hues which so +prove attractive to insects are of the same sort which arouse +pleasurable stimulation in our own nerves. Thus the whole loveliness of +flowers is in the last resort dependent upon all kinds of accidental +causes--causes, that is to say, into which the deliberate design 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 arouse in us +certain feelings we call beautiful; and those parts which are of such a +sort as to arouse in us the opposite feelings we call ugly. But the +beauty and the ugliness are not parts of the things; they are merely +human modes of regarding some among their attributes. Wherever in +nature we find pure colour, symmetrical form, and intricate variety of +pattern, we imagine to ourselves that nature designs the object to be +beautiful. When we trace these peculiarities to their origin, however, +we find that each of them owes its occurrence to some special fact in +the history of the object; and we are forced to conclude that the +notion of intentional design has been read into it by human analogies. +All nature is beautiful, and most beautiful for those in whom the sense +of beauty is most highly developed; but it is not beautiful at all +except to those whose own eyes and emotions are fitted to perceive its +beauty. + + + + +XXII. + +_ON CORNISH CLIFFS._ + + +I am lying on my back in the sunshine, close to the edge of a great +broken precipice, beside a clambering Cornish fishing village. In front +of me is the sea, bluer than I have seen it since last I lay in like +fashion a few months ago on the schistose slopes of the Maurettes at +Hyères, and looked away across the plain to the unrippled Mediterranean +and the Stoechades of the old Phocæan merchant-men. On either hand rise +dark cliffs of hornblende and serpentine, weathered above by wind and +rain, and smoothed below by the ceaseless dashing of the winter waves. +Up to the limit of the breakers the hard rock is polished like Egyptian +syenite; but beyond that point it is fissured by disintegration and +richly covered with a dappled coat of grey and yellow lichen. The slow +action of the water, always beating against the solid wall of +crystalline rock, has eaten out a thousand such little bays all along +this coast, each bounded by long headlands, whose points have been worn +into fantastic pinnacles, or severed from the main mass as precipitous +islets, the favourite resting-place of gulls and cormorants. No grander +coast scenery can be found anywhere in the southern half of Great +Britain. + +Yet when I turn inland I see that all this beauty has been produced by +the mere interaction of the sea and the barren moors of the interior. +Nothing could be flatter or more desolate than the country whose +seaward escarpment gives rise to these romantic coves and pyramidal +rocky islets. It stretches away for miles in a level upland waste, only +redeemed from complete barrenness by the low straggling bushes of the +dwarf furze, whose golden blossom is now interspersed with purple +patches of ling or the paler pink flowers of the Cornish heath. Here, +then, I can see beauty in nature actually beginning to be. I can trace +the origin of all these little bays from small rills which have worn +themselves gorge-like valleys through the hard igneous rock, or else +from fissures finally giving rise to sea-caves, like the one into which +I rowed this morning for my early swim. The waves penetrate for a +couple of hundred yards into the bowels of the rock, hemmed in by walls +and roof of dark serpentine, with its interlacing veins of green and +red bearing witness still to its once molten condition; and at length +in most cases they produce a blow-hole at the top, communicating with +the open air above, either because the fissure there crops up to the +surface, or else through the agency of percolation. At last, the roof +falls in; the boulders are carried away by the waves; and we get a long +and narrow cove, still bounded on either side by tall cliffs, whose +summits the air and rainfall slowly wear away into jagged and exquisite +shapes. Yet in all this we see nothing but the natural play of cause +and effect; we attribute the beauty of the scene merely to the +accidental result of inevitable laws; we feel no necessity for calling +in the aid of any underlying æsthetic intention on the part of the sea, +or the rock, or the creeping lichen, in order to account for the +loveliness which we find in the finished picture. The winds and the +waves carved the coast into these varied shapes by force of blind +currents working on hidden veins of harder or softer crystal: and we +happen to find the result beautiful, just as we happen to find the +inland level dull and ugly. The endless variety of the one charms us, +while the unbroken monotony of the other wearies and repels us. + +Here on the cliff I pick up a pretty fern and a blossoming head of the +autumn squill--though so sweet a flower deserves a better name. This +fern, too, is lovely in its way, with its branching leaflets and its +rich glossy-green hue. Yet it owes its shape just as truly to the +balance of external and internal forces acting upon it as does the +Cornish coast-line. How comes it then that in the one case we +instinctively regard the beauty as accidental, while in the other we +set it down to a deliberate æsthetic intent? I think because, in the +first case, we can actually see the forces at work, while in the second +they are so minute and so gradual in their action as to escape the +notice of all but trained observers. This fern grows in the shape that +I see, because its ancestors have been slowly moulded into such a form +by the whole group of circumstances directly or indirectly affecting +them in all their past life; and the germ of the complex form thus +produced was impressed by the parent plant upon the spore from which +this individual fern took its birth. Over yonder I see a great +dock-leaf; it grows tall and rank above all other plants, and is able +to spread itself boldly to the light on every side. It has abundance of +sunshine as a motive-power of growth, and abundance of air from which +to extract the carbon that it needs. Hence it and all its ancestors +have spread their leaves equally on every side, and formed large flat +undivided blades. Leaves such as these are common 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 eyes, +just as the flatness of the 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, we see little or nothing to +admire. On the other hand, ferns generally grow in hedge-rows or +thickets, where sunlight is much interrupted by other plants, and where +air is scanty, most of its carbon being extracted by neighbouring +plants which leave but little for one another's needs. Hence you may +notice that most plants growing under such circumstances have leaves +minutely sub-divided, so as to catch such stray gleams of sunlight and +such floating particles of carbonic acid as happen to pass their way. +Look into the next tangled and overgrown hedge-row which you happen to +pass, and you will see that almost all its leaves are of this +character; and when they are otherwise the anomaly usually admits of an +easy explanation. Of course the shapes of plants are mostly due to +their normal and usual circumstances, and are comparatively little +influenced by the accidental surroundings of individuals; and so, when +a fern of such a sort happens to grow like this one on the open, it +still retains the form impressed upon it by the life of its ancestors. +Now, it is the striking combination of symmetry and variety in the +fern, together with vivid green colouring, which makes us admire it so +much. Not only is the frond as a whole symmetrical, but each frondlet +and each division of the frondlet is separately symmetrical as well. +This delicate minuteness of workmanship, as we call it, reminds us of +similar human products--of fine lace, of delicate tracery, of skilful +filagree or engraving. Almost all the green leaves which we admire are +noticeable, more or less, for the same effects, as in the case of +maple, parsley, horse-chestnut, and vine. It is true, mere glossy +greenness may, and often does, make up for the want of variety, as we +see in the arum, holly, laurel, and hart's-tongue fern; but the leaves +which we admire most of all are those which, like maidenhair, are both +exquisitely green and delicately designed in shape. So that, in the +last resort, the beauty of leaves, like the beauty of coast scenery, is +really due to the 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 squill reminds me that +semi-conscious aesthetic design in animals has something to do with the +production of beauty in nature--at least, in a few cases. Just as a +flower garden has been intentionally produced by man, so flowers have +been unconsciously produced by insects. As a rule, all bright red, +blue, or orange in nature (except in the rare case of gems) is due to +animal selection, either of flowers, fruits, or mates. Thus we may say +that beauty in the inorganic world is always accidental; but in the +organic world it 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 less +deliberate æsthetic choice. + + + LONDON: PRINTED BY + SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE + AND PARLIAMENT STREET + + + + +_January, 1881._ + +[Illustration] + +CHATTO & WINDUS'S + +_LIST OF BOOKS._ + + +Imperial 8vo, with 147 fine Engravings, half-morocco, 36_s._ + +THE EARLY TEUTONIC, ITALIAN, + +AND FRENCH MASTERS. + +Translated and Edited from the Dohme Series by A. H. KEANE, M.A.I. +With numerous Illustrations. + +"_Cannot fail to be of the utmost use to students of art +history._"--TIMES. + +Second Edition, Revised, Crown 8vo, 1,200 pages, half-roxburghe, +12_s._ 6_d._ + +THE READER'S HANDBOOK + +OF ALLUSIONS, REFERENCES, PLOTS, AND STORIES. + +By the Rev. 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Six of the Canterbury Tales are thus presented, + in sections of from 10 to 200 lines, mingled with prose narrative. + "Chaucer for Schools" is issued to meet a widely-expressed want, + and is especially adapted for class instruction. It may be + profitably studied in connection with the maps and illustrations + of "Chaucer for Children."_ + + +Crown 8vo, cloth limp, with Map and Illustrations, 2_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Cleopatra's Needle:~ + Its Acquisition and Removal to England. By Sir J. E. ALEXANDER. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Colman's Humorous Works:~ + "Broad Grins," "My Nightgown and Slippers," and other Humorous + Works, Prose and Poetical, of GEORGE COLMAN. With Life by G. B. + BUCKSTONE, and Frontispiece by HOGARTH. + + + ~Conway (Moncure D.), Works by:~ + + ~Demonology and Devil-Lore.~ + By MONCURE D. CONWAY, M.A. Two Vols, royal 8vo, with 65 + Illustrations, 28_s._ + + "_A valuable contribution to mythological literature.... There is + much good writing, a vast fund of humanity, undeniable earnestness, + and a delicate sense of humour, all set forth in pure + English._"--CONTEMPORARY REVIEW. + + ~A Necklace of Stories.~ + By MONCURE D. CONWAY, M.A. Illustrated by W. J. HENNESSY. Square + 8vo, cloth extra, 6_s._ + + "_This delightful 'Necklace of Stories' is inspired with lovely + and lofty sentiments._"--ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. + + +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, with Coloured Illustrations and Maps, 24_s._ + + ~Cope's History of the Rifle Brigade~ + (The Prince Consort's Own), formerly the 95th. By Sir WILLIAM + H. COPE, formerly Lieutenant, Rifle Brigade. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with 13 Portraits, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Creasy's Memoirs of Eminent Etonians~; + with Notices of the Early History of Eton College. 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Illustrated with full-page Plates on + Copper and Stone, and a profusion of small Woodcuts. + +[asterism] _Parts XV. and XVI., completing the work, are just ready._ + + "_Mr. Cussans has, from sources not accessible to Clutterbuck, + made most valuable additions to the manorial history of the county + from the earliest period downwards, cleared up many doubtful + points, and given original details concerning various subjects + untouched or imperfectly treated by that + writer._"--ACADEMY. + + +Two Vols., demy 4to, handsomely bound in half-morocco, gilt, profusely +Illustrated with Coloured and Plain Plates and Woodcuts, price £7 +7_s._ + + ~Cyclopædia of Costume~; + or, A Dictionary of Dress--Regal, Ecclesiastical, Civil, and + Military--from the Earliest Period in England to the reign of + George the Third. Including Notices of Contemporaneous Fashions + on the Continent, and a General History of the Costumes of the + Principal Countries of Europe. By J. R. PLANCHÉ, + Somerset Herald. + +The Volumes may also be had _separately_ (each Complete in itself) +at £3 13_s._ 6_d._ each: + + Vol. I. ~THE DICTIONARY.~ + Vol. II. ~A GENERAL HISTORY OF COSTUME IN EUROPE.~ + +Also in 25 Parts, at 5_s._ each. Cases for binding, 5_s._ +each. + + "_A comprehensive and highly valuable book of reference.... We + have rarely failed to find in this book an account of an article + of dress, while in most of the entries curious and instructive + details are given.... Mr. Planché's enormous labour of love, the + production of a text which, whether in its dictionary form or in + that of the 'General History,' is within its intended scope + immeasurably the best and richest work on Costume in English.... + This book is not only one of the most readable works of the kind, + but intrinsically attractive and amusing._"--ATHENÆUM. + + "_A most readable and interesting work--and it can scarcely be + consulted in vain, whether the reader is in search for information + as to military, court, ecclesiastical, legal, or professional + costume.... All the chromo-lithographs, and most of the woodcut + illustrations--the latter amounting to several thousands--are very + elaborately executed; and the work forms a livre de luxe which + renders it equally suited to the library and the ladies' + drawing-room._"--TIMES. + + +Square 8vo, cloth gilt, profusely Illustrated. + + ~Dickens.--About England with Dickens.~ + By ALFRED RIMMER. With Illustrations by the Author and CHARLES + A. VANDERHOOF. + + [_In preparation._ + + +Second Edition, revised and enlarged, demy 8vo, cloth extra, with +Illustrations. 24_s._ + + ~Dodge's (Colonel) The Hunting Grounds of the Great West:~ + A Description of the Plains, Game, and Indians of the + Great North American Desert. By RICHARD IRVING DODGE, + Lieutenant-Colonel of the United States Army. With an + Introduction by WILLIAM BLACKMORE; Map, and numerous + Illustrations drawn by ERNEST GRISET. + + +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, 12_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Doran's Memories of our Great Towns.~ + With Anecdotic Gleanings concerning their Worthies and their + Oddities. By Dr. JOHN DORAN, F.S.A. + + +Second Edition, demy 8vo, cloth gilt, with Illustrations, 18_s._ + + ~Dunraven's The Great Divide:~ + A Narrative of Travels in the Upper Yellowstone in the Summer of + 1874. By the EARL of DUNRAVEN. With Maps and numerous striking + full-page Illustrations by VALENTINE W. BROMLEY. + + "_There has not for a long time appeared a better book of travel + than Lord Dunraven's 'The Great Divide.'... This book is full of + clever observation, and both narrative and illustrations are + thoroughly good._"--ATHENÆUM. + + +Two Vols., crown 8vo, cloth extra, 21_s._ + + ~Drury Lane (Old):~ + Fifty Years' Recollections of Author, Actor, and Manager. By + EDWARD STIRLING. + + +Demy 8vo, cloth, 16_s._ + + ~Dutt's India, Past and Present~; + with Minor Essays on Cognate Subjects. By SHOSHEE CHUNDER DUTT, + Rái Báhádoor. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 6_s._ + + ~Emanuel On Diamonds and Precious Stones~; + their History, Value, and Properties; with Simple Tests for + ascertaining their Reality. By HARRY EMANUEL, F.R.G.S. With + numerous Illustrations, Tinted and Plain. + + +Demy 4to, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 36_s._ + + ~Emanuel and Grego.--A History of the Goldsmith's and Jeweller's Art + in all Ages and in all Countries.~ + By E. EMANUEL and JOSEPH GREGO. With numerous fine Engravings. + + [_In preparation._ + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Englishman's House, The:~ + A Practical Guide to all interested in Selecting or Building a + House, with full Estimates of Cost, Quantities, &c. By C. J. + RICHARDSON, Third Edition. With nearly 600 Illustrations. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth boards, 6_s._ per Volume. + + ~Early English Poets.~ + Edited, with Introductions and Annotations, by Rev. A. B. + GROSART. + + "_Mr. Grosart has spent the most laborious and the most + enthusiastic care on the perfect restoration and preservation of + the text.... From Mr. Grosart we always expect and always receive + the final results of most patient and competent + scholarship._"--EXAMINER. + + 1. ~Fletcher's (Giles, B.D.) Complete Poems:~ + Christ's Victorie in Heaven, Christ's Victorie on Earth, + Christ's Triumph over Death, and Minor Poems. With + Memorial-Introduction and Notes. One Vol. + + 2. ~Davies' (Sir John) Complete Poetical Works~, + including Psalms I. to L. in Verse, and other hitherto + Unpublished MSS., for the first time Collected and Edited. + Memorial-Introduction and Notes. Two Vols. + + 3. ~Herrick's (Robert) Hesperides, Noble Numbers, and Complete + Collected Poems.~ + With Memorial-Introduction and Notes, Steel Portrait, Index + of First Lines, and Glossarial Index, &c. Three Vols. + + 4. ~Sidney's (Sir Philip) Complete Poetical Works~, + including all those in "Arcadia." With Portrait, + Memorial-Introduction, Essay on the Poetry of Sidney, and + Notes. Three Vols. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with nearly 300 Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Evolution (Chapters on)~; + A Popular History of the Darwinian and Allied Theories of + Development. By ANDREW WILSON, Ph.D., F.R.S. Edin. &c. + + [_In preparation._ + + _Abstract of Contents:_--The Problem Stated--Sketch of + the Rise and Progress of Evolution--What Evolution is and + what it is not--The Evidence for Evolution--The Evidence from + Development--The Evidence from Rudimentary Organs--The Evidence + from Geographical Distribution--The Evidence from Geology-- + Evolution and Environments--Flowers and their Fertilisation + and Development--Evolution and Degeneration--Evolution and + Ethics--The Relations of Evolution to Ethics and Theology, &c. + &c. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6_s._ + + ~Evolutionist (The) At Large.~ + By GRANT ALLEN. + + +Two Vols., crown 8vo, cloth extra, 21_s._ + + ~Ewald.--Stories from the State Papers.~ + By ALEX. CHARLES EWALD. + + [_In preparation._ + + +Folio, cloth extra, £1 11_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Examples of Contemporary Art.~ + Etchings from Representative Works by living English and Foreign + Artists. Edited, with Critical Notes, by J. COMYNS CARR. + + "_It would not be easy to meet with a more sumptuous, and at + the same time a more tasteful and instructive drawing-room + book._"--NONCONFORMIST. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 6_s._ + + ~Fairholt's Tobacco:~ + Its History and Associations; with an Account of the Plant and + its Manufacture, and its Modes of Use in all Ages and Countries. + By F. W. FAIRHOLT, F.S.A. With Coloured Frontispiece and + upwards of 100 Illustrations by the Author. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 4_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Faraday's Chemical History of a Candle.~ + Lectures delivered to a Juvenile Audience. A New Edition. Edited + by W. CROOKES, F.C.S. With numerous Illustrations. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 4_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Faraday's Various Forces of Nature.~ + New Edition. Edited by W. CROOKES, F.C.S. Numerous Illustrations. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Finger-Ring Lore:~ + Historical, Legendary, and Anecdotal. By WM. JONES, + F.S.A. With Hundreds of Illustrations of Curious Rings of all + Ages and Countries. + + "_One of those gossiping books which are as full of amusement as + of instruction._"--ATHENÆUM. + + +_NEW NOVEL BY JUSTIN McCARTHY._ + + ~Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1881~, + Price One Shilling, contains the First Chapters of a New Novel, + entitled "THE COMET OF A SEASON," by JUSTIN MCCARTHY, M.P., + Author of "A History of Our Own Times," "Dear Lady Disdain," &c. + SCIENCE NOTES, by W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS, F.R.A.S., will also be + continued Monthly. + +[asterism] _Now ready, the Volume for_ JULY _to_ DECEMBER, _1880, +cloth extra, price 8s. 6d.; and Cases for binding, price 2s. each._ + + +_THE RUSKIN GRIMM._--Squire 8vo, cloth extra, 6_s._ 6_d._; gilt edges, +7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~German Popular Stories.~ + Collected by the Brothers GRIMM, and Translated by EDGAR + TAYLOR. Edited with an Introduction by JOHN RUSKIN. With 22 + Illustrations after the inimitable designs of GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. + Both Series Complete. + + "_The illustrations of this volume ... are of quite sterling and + admirable art, of a class precisely parallel in elevation to the + character of the tales which they illustrate; and the original + etchings, as I have before said in the Appendix to my 'Elements of + Drawing,' were unrivalled in masterfulness of touch since Rembrandt + (in some qualities of delineation, unrivalled even by him).... To + make somewhat enlarged copies of them, looking at them through a + magnifying glass, and never putting two lines where Cruikshank has + put only one, would be an exercise in decision and severe drawing + which would leave afterwards little to be learnt in + schools._"--_Extract from Introduction by_ JOHN + RUSKIN. + + +Post 8vo. cloth limp, 2_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Glenny's A Year's Work in Garden and Greenhouse:~ + Practical Advice to Amateur Gardeners as to the Management of + the Flower, Fruit, and Frame Garden. By GEORGE GLENNY. + + "_A great deal of valuable information, conveyed in very simple + language. The amateur need not wish for a better guide._"--LEEDS + MERCURY. + + + +New and Cheaper Edition, demy 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, +7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Greeks and Romans, The Life of the, Described from Antique + Monuments.~ + By ERNST GUHL and W. KONER. Translated from the Third German + Edition, and Edited by Dr. F. HUEFFER. With 545 Illustrations. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Greenwood's Low-Life Deeps:~ + An Account of the Strange Fish to be found there. By JAMES + GREENWOOD. With Illustrations in tint by ALFRED CONCANEN. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Greenwood's Wilds of London:~ + Descriptive Sketches, from Personal Observations and Experience, + of Remarkable Scenes, People, and Places in London. By JAMES + GREENWOOD. With 12 Tinted Illustrations by ALFRED CONCANEN. + + +Square 16mo (Tauchnitz size), cloth extra, 2_s._ per volume. + + ~Golden Library, The:~ + + ~Ballad History of England.~ + By W. C. BENNETT. + + ~Bayard Taylor's Diversions of the Echo Club.~ + + ~Byron's Don Juan.~ + + ~Emerson's Letters and Social Aims.~ + + ~Godwin's (William) Lives of the Necromancers.~ + + ~Holmes's Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.~ + With an Introduction by G. A. SALA. + + ~Holmes's Professor at the Breakfast Table.~ + + ~Hood's Whims and Oddities.~ + Complete. With all the original Illustrations. + + ~Irving's (Washington) Tales of a Traveller.~ + + ~Irving's (Washington) Tales of the Alhambra.~ + + ~Jesse's (Edward) Scenes and Occupations of Country Life.~ + + ~Lamb's Essays of Elia.~ + Both Series Complete in One Vol. + + ~Leigh Hunt's Essays:~ + A Tale for a Chimney Corner, and other Pieces. With Portrait, + and Introduction by EDMUND OLLIER. + + ~Mallory's (Sir Thomas) Mort d'Arthur:~ + The Stories of King Arthur and of the Knights of the Round + Table. Edited by B. MONTGOMERIE RANKING. + + ~Pascal's Provincial Letters.~ + A New Translation, with Historical Introduction and Notes, by + T. M'CRIE, D.D. + + ~Pope's Poetical Works.~ + Complete. + + ~Rochefoucauld's Maxims and Moral Reflections.~ + With Notes, and an Introductory Essay by SAINTE-BEUVE. + + ~St. Pierre's Paul and Virginia, and The Indian Cottage.~ + Edited, with Life, by the Rev. E. CLARKE. + + ~Shelley's Early Poems~, + and Queen Mab, with Essay by LEIGH HUNT. + + ~Shelley's Later Poems:~ + Laon and Cythna, &c. + + ~Shelley's Posthumous Poems~, + the Shelley Papers, &c. + + ~Shelley's Prose Works~, + including A Refutation of Deism, Zastrozzi, St. Irvyne, &c. + + ~White's Natural History of Selborne.~ + Edited, with additions, by THOMAS BROWN, F.L.S. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth gilt and gilt edges, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Golden Treasury of Thought, The:~ + An ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF QUOTATIONS from Writers of all Times + and Countries. Selected and Edited by THEODORE TAYLOR. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 4_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Guyot's Earth and Man~; + or, Physical Geography in its Relation to the History of + Mankind. With Additions by Professors AGASSIZ, PIERCE, and GRAY; + 12 Maps and Engravings on Steel, some Coloured, and copious + Index. + + + ~Hake (Dr. Thomas Gordon), Poems by:~ + + ~Maiden Ecstasy.~ Small 4to, cloth extra, 8_s._ + + ~New Symbols.~ Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6_s._ + + ~Legends of the Morrow.~ Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6_s._ + + +Medium 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Hall's (Mrs. S. C.) Sketches of Irish Character.~ + With numerous Illustrations on Steel and Wood by MACLISE, + GILBERT, HARVEY, and G. CRUIKSHANK. + + "_The Irish Sketches of this lady resemble Miss Mitford's + beautiful English sketches in 'Our Village,' but they are far + more vigorous and picturesque and bright._"--BLACKWOOD'S + MAGAZINE. + + +Post 8vo, cloth extra, 4_s._ 6_d._; a few large-paper copies, +half-Roxb., 10_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Handwriting, The Philosophy of.~ + By Don FELIX DE SALAMANCA. With 134 Facsimiles of Signatures. + + ~Haweis (Mrs.), Works by:~ + + ~The Art of Dress.~ + By Mrs. H. R. HAWEIS, Author of "The Art of Beauty," &c. + Illustrated by the Author. Small 8vo, illustrated cover, + 1_s._; cloth limp, 1_s._ 6_d._ + + "_A well-considered attempt to apply canons of good taste to the + costumes of ladies of our time.... Mrs. Haweis writes frankly and + to the point, she does not mince matters, but boldly remonstrates + with her own sex on the follies they indulge in.... We may + recommend the book to the ladies whom it + concerns._"--ATHENÆUM. + + ~The Art of Beauty.~ + By Mrs. H. R. HAWEIS, Author of "Chaucer for Children." + Square 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, gilt edges, with Coloured + Frontispiece and nearly 100 Illustrations, 10_s._ 6_d._ + +[asterism] _See also_ CHAUCER, _pp. 5 and 6 of this Catalogue._ + + +Complete in Four Vols., demy 8vo, cloth extra, 12_s._ each. + + ~History Of Our Own Times~, + from the Accession of Queen Victoria to the General Election + of 1880. By JUSTIN MCCARTHY, M.P. + + "_Criticism is disarmed before a composition which provokes little + but approval. This is a really good book on a really interesting + subject, and words piled on words could say no more for it.... + Such is the effect of its general justice, its breadth of view, + and its sparkling buoyancy, that very few of its readers will + close these volumes without looking forward with interest to the + two_ [since published] _that are to follow._"--SATURDAY REVIEW. + + +Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 5_s._ + + ~Hobhouse's The Dead Hand:~ + Addresses on the subject of Endowments and Settlements of + Property. By Sir ARTHUR HOBHOUSE, Q.C., K.C.S.I. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth limp, with Illustrations, 2_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Holmes's The Science of Voice Production and Voice + Preservation:~ + A Popular Manual for the Use of Speakers and Singers. By + GORDON HOLMES, L.R.C.P.E. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 4_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Hollingshead's (John) Plain English.~ + + "_I anticipate immense entertainment from the perusal of Mr. + Hollingshead's 'Plain English,' which I imagined to be a + philological work, but which I find to be a series of essays, in + the Hollingsheadian or Sledge-Hammer style, on those matters + theatrical with which lie is so eminently conversant._"--G. A. + S. in the ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Hood's (Thomas) Choice Works, In Prose and Verse.~ + Including the CREAM OF THE COMIC ANNUALS. With Life of + the Author, Portrait, and Two Hundred Illustrations. + + +Square crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt edges, 6_s._ + + ~Hood's (Tom) From Nowhere to the North Pole:~ + A Noah's Arkæological Narrative. With 25 Illustrations by W. + BRUNTON and E. C. BARNES. + + "_The amusing letterpress is profusely interspersed with the + jingling rhymes which children love and learn so easily. Messrs. + Brunton and Barnes do full justice to the writer's meaning, and a + pleasanter result of the harmonious co-operation of author and + artist could not be desired._"--TIMES. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Hook's (Theodore) Choice Humorous Works~, + including his Ludicrous Adventures, Bons-mots, Puns, and + Hoaxes. With a new Life of the Author, Portraits, Facsimiles, + and Illustrations. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7_s._ + + ~Horne's Orion:~ + An Epic Poem in Three Books. By RICHARD HENGIST HORNE. With a + brief Commentary by the Author. With Photographic Portrait from + a Medallion by SUMMERS. Tenth Edition. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Howell's Conflicts of Capital and Labour Historically and + Economically considered.~ + Being a History and Review of the Trade Unions of Great Britain, + showing their Origin, Progress, Constitution, and Objects, in + their Political, Social, Economical, and Industrial Aspects. By + GEORGE HOWELL. + + "_This book is an attempt, and on the whole a successful attempt, + to place the work of trade unions in the past, and their objects + in the future, fairly before the public from the working man's + point of view._"--PALL MALL GAZETTE. + + +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, 12_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Hueffer's The Troubadours:~ + A History of Provencal Life and Literature in the Middle Ages. + By FRANCIS HUEFFER. + + +Two Vols. 8vo, with 52 Illustrations and Maps, cloth extra, gilt, 14_s._ + + ~Josephus, The Complete Works of.~ + Translated by WHISTON. Containing both "The Antiquities of the + Jews" and "The Wars of the Jews." + + +A NEW EDITION, Revised and partly Re-written, with several New +Chapters and Illustrations, crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7_s._ +6_d._ + + ~Jennings' The Rosicrucians:~ + Their Rites and Mysteries. With Chapters on the Ancient Fire and + Serpent Worshippers. By HARGRAVE JENNINGS. With Five full-page + Plates and upwards of 300 Illustrations. + + +Small 8vo, cloth, full gilt, gilt edges, with Illustrations, 6_s._ + + ~Kavanaghs' Pearl Fountain~, + And other Fairy Stories. By BRIDGET and JULIA KAVANAGH. With + Thirty Illustrations by J. MOYR SMITH. + + "_Genuine new fairy stories of the old type, some of them as + delightful as the best of Grimm's 'German Popular Stories.'.... + For the most part the stories are downright, thorough-going fairy + stories of the most admirable kind.... Mr. Moyr Smith's + illustrations, too, are admirable._"--SPECTATOR. + + +Fcap. 8vo, illustrated boards. + + ~Kitchen Garden (Our):~ + The Plants we Grow, and How we Cook Them. By TOM JERROLD. Author + of "The Garden that Paid the Rent." &c. + + [_In the press._ + + +Crown 8vo, illustrated boards, with numerous Plates, 2_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Lace (Old Point), and How to Copy and Imitate it.~ + By DAISY WATERHOUSE HAWKINS. With 17 Illustrations by the + Author. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with numerous Illustrations, 10_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Lamb (Mary and Charles):~ + Their Poems, Letters, and Remains. With Reminiscences and Notes + by W. CAREW HAZLITT. With HANCOCK'S Portrait of the Essayist, + Facsimiles of the Title-pages of the rare First Editions of + Lamb's and Coleridge's Works, and numerous Illustrations. + + "_Very many passages will delight those fond of literary trifles; + hardly any portion will fail in interest for lovers of Charles + Lamb and his sister._"--STANDARD. + + +Small 8vo, cloth extra, 5_s._ + + ~Lamb's Poetry for Children, and Prince Dorus.~ + Carefully Reprinted from unique copies. + + "_The quaint and delightful little book, over the recovery + of which all the hearts of his lovers are yet warm with + rejoicing._"--A. C. SWINBURNE. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Portraits, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Lamb's Complete Works~, + In Prose and Verse, reprinted from the Original Editions, with + many Pieces hitherto unpublished. Edited, with Notes and + Introduction, by R. H. SHEPHERD. With Two Portraits and + Facsimile of a Page of the "Essay on Roast Pig." + + "_A complete edition of Lamb's writings, in prose and verse, + has long been wanted, and is now supplied. The editor appears + to have taken great pains to bring together Lamb's scattered + contributions, and his collection contains a number of pieces + which are now reproduced for the first time since their original + appearance in various old periodicals._"--SATURDAY REVIEW. + + +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, with Maps and Illustrations, 18_s._ + + ~Lamont's Yachting in the Arctic Seas~; + or, Notes of Five Voyages of Sport and Discovery in the + Neighbourhood of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. By JAMES + LAMONT, F.R.G.S. With numerous full-page Illustrations by + Dr. LIVESAY. + + "_After wading through numberless volumes of icy fiction, + concocted narrative, and spurious biography of Arctic voyagers, + it is pleasant to meet with a real and genuine volume.... 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Illustrated by Sir J. + GILBERT and ALFRED CONCANEN. + + ~BASIL.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by Sir JOHN GILBERT and + J. MAHONEY. + + ~HIDE AND SEEK.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by Sir JOHN GILBERT + and J. MAHONEY. + + ~THE DEAD SECRET.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by Sir JOHN + GILBERT and H. FURNISS. + + ~QUEEN OF HEARTS.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by Sir JOHN + GILBERT and A. CONCANEN. + + ~MY MISCELLANIES.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. With Steel Portrait, + and Illustrations by A. CONCANEN. + + ~THE WOMAN IN WHITE.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated + by Sir J. GILBERT and F. A. FRASER. + + ~THE MOONSTONE.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by G. + DU MAURIER and F. A. FRASER. + + ~MAN AND WIFE.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illust. by WM. + SMALL. + + ~POOR MISS FINCH.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by G. + DU MAURIER and EDWARD HUGHES. + + ~MISS OR MRS.?~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by S. L. + FILDES and HENRY WOODS. + + ~THE NEW MAGDALEN.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by + G. DU MAURIER and C. S. REINHART. + + ~THE FROZEN DEEP.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by G. + DU MAURIER and J. MAHONEY. + + ~THE LAW AND THE LADY.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated + by S. L. FILDES and SYDNEY HALL. + + ~THE TWO DESTINIES.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~THE HAUNTED HOTEL.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by + ARTHUR HOPKINS. + + ~THE FALLEN LEAVES.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~JEZEBEL'S DAUGHTER.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~DECEIVERS EVER.~ By Mrs. H. LOVETT CAMERON. + + ~JULIET'S GUARDIAN.~ By Mrs. H. LOVETT CAMERON. + Illustrated by VALENTINE BROMLEY. + + ~FELICIA.~ By M. BETHAM-EDWARDS. Frontispiece by W. + BOWLES. + + ~OLYMPIA.~ By R. E. FRANCILLON. + + ~GARTH.~ By JULIAN HAWTHORNE. + + ~ROBIN GRAY.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~FOR LACK OF GOLD.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~IN LOVE AND WAR.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~WHAT WILL THE WORLD SAY?~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~FOR THE KING.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~IN HONOUR BOUND.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~QUEEN OF THE MEADOW.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. Illustrated + by ARTHUR HOPKINS. + + ~UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE.~ By THOMAS HARDY. + + ~THORNICROFT'S MODEL.~ By Mrs. A. W. HUNT. + + ~FATED TO BE FREE.~ By JEAN INGELOW. + + ~CONFIDENCE.~ By HENRY JAMES, Jun. + + ~THE QUEEN OF CONNAUGHT.~ By HARRIETT JAY. + + ~THE DARK COLLEEN.~ By HARRIETT JAY. + + ~NUMBER SEVENTEEN.~ By HENRY KINGSLEY. + + ~OAKSHOTT CASTLE.~ By HENRY KINGSLEY. With a Frontispiece + by SHIRLEY HODSON. + + ~PATRICIA KEMBALL.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. With a Frontispiece + by G. DU MAURIER. + + ~THE ATONEMENT OF LEAM DUNDAS.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. With + a Frontispiece by HENRY WOODS. + + ~THE WORLD WELL LOST.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. Illustrated + by J. LAWSON and HENRY FRENCH. + + ~UNDER WHICH LORD?~ By E. LYNN LINTON. + + ~WITH A SILKEN THREAD.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. + + ~THE WATERDALE NEIGHBOURS.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + ~MY ENEMY'S DAUGHTER.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + ~LINLEY ROCHFORD.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + ~A FAIR SAXON.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + ~DEAR LADY DISDAIN.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + ~MISS MISANTHROPE.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. Illustrated by ARTHUR + HOPKINS. + + ~DONNA QUIXOTE.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. Illustrated by ARTHUR + HOPKINS. + + ~QUAKER COUSINS.~ By AGNES MACDONELL. + + ~LOST ROSE.~ By KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. + + ~THE EVIL EYE, and other Stories.~ By KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. + Illustrated by THOMAS R. MACQUOID and PERCY MACQUOID. + + ~OPEN! SESAME!~ By FLORENCE MARRYAT. Illustrated by F. A. FRASER. + + ~TOUCH AND GO.~ By JEAN MIDDLEMASS. + + ~WHITELADIES.~ By Mrs. OLIPHANT. With Illustrations by A. HOPKINS + and H. WOODS. + + ~THE BEST OF HUSBANDS.~ By JAMES PAYN. Illustrated by J. MOYR SMITH. + + ~FALLEN FORTUNES.~ By JAMES PAYN. + + ~HALVES.~ By JAMES PAYN. With a Frontispiece by J. 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TROLLOPE. + + +Post 8vo, illustrated boards, 2_s._ each. + +~Popular Novels, Cheap Editions of.~ + + [WILKIE COLLINS' NOVELS and BESANT and RICE'S NOVELS may also + be had in cloth limp at 2_s._ 6_d._ _See, too, the_ PICCADILLY + NOVELS, _for Library Editions_.] + + ~Maid, Wife, or Widow?~ By Mrs. ALEXANDER. + + ~Ready-Money Mortiboy.~ By WALTER BESANT and JAMES RICE. + + ~The Golden Butterfly.~ By Authors of "Ready-Money Mortiboy." + + ~This Son of Vulcan.~ By the same. + + ~My Little Girl.~ By the same. + + ~The Case of Mr. Lucraft.~ By Authors of "Ready-Money Mortiboy." + + ~With Harp and Crown.~ By Authors of "Ready-Money Mortiboy." + + ~The Monks of Thelema.~ By WALTER BESANT and JAMES RICE. + + ~By Celia's Arbour.~ By WALTER BESANT and JAMES RICE. + + ~'Twas in Trafalgar's Bay.~ By WALTER BESANT and JAMES RICE. + + ~Juliet's Guardian.~ By Mrs. H. LOVETT CAMERON. + + ~Surly Tim.~ By F. H. BURNETT. + + ~The Cure of Souls.~ By MACLAREN CORBAN. + + ~The Woman in White.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~Antonina.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~Basil.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~Hide and Seek.~ By the same. + + ~The Queen of Hearts.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~The Dead Secret.~ By the same. + + ~My Miscellanies.~ By the same. + + ~The Moonstone.~ By the same. + + ~Man and Wife.~ By the same. + + ~Poor Miss Finch.~ By the same. + + ~Miss or Mrs.?~ By the same. + + ~The New Magdalen.~ By the same. + + ~The Frozen Deep.~ By the same. + + ~The Law and the Lady.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~The Two Destinies.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~The Haunted Hotel.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~Roxy.~ By EDWARD EGGLESTON. + + ~Felicia.~ M. BETHAM-EDWARDS. + + ~Filthy Lucre.~ By ALBANY DE FONBLANQUE. + + ~Olympia.~ By R. E. FRANCILLON. + + ~Robin Gray.~ By CHAS. GIBBON. + + ~For Lack of Gold.~ By Charles Gibbon. + + ~What will the World Say?~ By Charles Gibbon. + + ~In Love and War.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~For the King.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~In Honour Bound.~ By CHAS. GIBBON. + + ~Dick Temple.~ By JAMES GREENWOOD. + + ~Under the Greenwood Tree.~ By THOMAS HARDY. + + ~An Heiress of Red Dog.~ By BRET HARTE. + + ~The Luck of Roaring Camp.~ By BRET HARTE. + + ~Gabriel Conroy.~ By BRET HARTE. + + ~Fated to be Free.~ By JEAN INGELOW. + + ~Confidence.~ By HENRY JAMES, Jun. + + ~The Queen of Connaught.~ By HARRIETT JAY. + + ~The Dark Colleen.~ By the same. + + ~Number Seventeen.~ By HENRY KINGSLEY. + + ~Oakshott Castle.~ By the same. + + ~Patricia Kemball.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. + + ~The Atonement of Leam Dundas.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. + + ~The World Well Lost.~ By E. 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It is an + admirable addendum, not only to his collected works, but alto to + any memoir of him that has been, or that is likely to be, + written._"--BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with numerous Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Thornbury's (Walter) Haunted London.~ + A New Edition, edited by EDWARD WALFORD, M.A.. with numerous + Illustrations by F. W. FAIRHOLT, F.S.A. + + "_Mr. Thornbury knew and loved his London.... He had read much + history, and every by-lane and every court had associations for + him. His memory and his note-books were stored with anecdote, and, + as he had singular skill in the matter of narration, it will be + readily believed that when he took to writing a set book about the + places he knew and cared for, the said book would be charming. + Charming the volume before us certainly is. 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JOHN STREET, E.C. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Evolutionist at Large, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44820 *** diff --git a/44820-h/44820-h.htm b/44820-h/44820-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb8b38c --- /dev/null +++ b/44820-h/44820-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9047 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title>The Evolutionist At Large, by Grant Allen—A Project +Gutenberg eBook</title> +<style type="text/css"> + + body {margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%;} + + p {text-indent: 0em; + text-align: justify; + margin-top: .80em; + margin-bottom: .80em; + line-height: 1.25em;} + + .hang {text-align: justify; + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em;} + + .blockquote {text-align: justify; + margin-left: 7%; + margin-right: 7%; + font-size: 92%; + margin-top: 1.5em; + margin-bottom: 1.5em;} + + .space {line-height: .25em;} + + .ralign {text-align: right; 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padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + .poetry .i0h {margin-left: 0.5em;} + .poetry .i1 {margin-left: 1em;} + .poetry .i1h {margin-left: 1.5em;} + .poetry .i2 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poetry .i3h {margin-left: 3.5em;} + .poetry .i4 {margin-left: 4em;} + + table {margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + margin-top: 0em; + margin-bottom: 0em;} + + table.left {margin-left: 0em;} + + td.chpt {vertical-align: top; + text-align: right; + padding-right: .4em;} + + td.txt {vertical-align: top; + text-align: left; + font-variant: small-caps;} + + td.pg {vertical-align: bottom; + text-align: right; + padding-left: .6em;} + + td.hang {text-align: left; + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; + vertical-align: top;} + + td.atop {vertical-align: top;} + + .tn {font-size: small; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + padding: .2em 1em .2em 1em; + background-color: #E6E6E6; + border-style: solid; + border-width: .1em;} + + div.box { margin-right:auto; + margin-left: auto; + max-width: 25em; + border-style: solid; + border-width: .1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + padding-left: .4em; + padding-right: .4em;} + + a:link {color: #00F; + text-decoration:none;} + a:visited {color:#F00; + text-decoration:none;} + +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44820 ***</div> + +<div class="figcenter"><img width="377" height="600" id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover"></div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> +<div class="stanza"> +<div>Dear Mother, take this English posy, culled.</div> +<div class="i4">In alien fields beyond the severing sea:</div> +<div>Take it in memory of the boy you lulled</div> +<div class="i4">One chill Canadian winter on your knee.</div></div> + +<div class="stanzaitalic"> +<div>Its flowers are but chance friends of after years,</div> +<div class="i4">Whose very names my childhood hardly knew;</div> +<div>And even today far sweeter in my ears</div> +<div class="i4">Ring older names unheard long seasons through.</div></div> + +<div class="stanzaitalic"> +<div>I loved them all—the bloodroot, waxen white,</div> +<div class="i4">Canopied mayflower, trilliums red and pale,</div> +<div>Flaunting lobelia, lilies richly dight,</div> +<div class="i4">And pipe-plant from the wood behind the Swale.</div></div> + +<div class="stanzaitalic"> +<div>I knew each dell where yellow violets blow,</div> +<div class="i4">Each bud or leaf the changing seasons bring;</div> +<div>I marked each spot where from the melting snow</div> +<div class="i4">Peeped forth the first hepatica of spring.</div></div> + +<div class="stanzaitalic"> +<div>I watched the fireflies on the shingly ridge</div> +<div class="i4">Beside the swamp that bounds the Baron's hill;</div> +<div>Or tempted sunfish by the ebbing bridge,</div> +<div class="i4">Or hooked a bass by Shirley Going's mill.</div></div> + +<div class="stanzaitalic"> +<div>These were my budding fancy's mother-tongue:</div> +<div class="i4">But daisies, cowslips, dodder, primrose-hips,</div> +<div>All beasts or birds my little book has sung,</div> +<div class="i4">Sit like a borrowed speech on stammering lips.</div></div> + +<div class="stanzaitalic"> +<div>And still I build fond dreams of happier days,</div> +<div class="i4">If hard-earned pence may bridge the ocean o'er;</div> +<div>That yet our boy may see my mother's face,</div> +<div class="i4">And gather shells beside Ontario's shore:</div></div> + +<div class="stanzaitalic"> +<div>May yet behold Canadian woodlands dim,</div> +<div class="i4">And flowers and birds his father loved to see;</div> +<div>While you and I sit by and smile on him,</div> +<div class="i4">As down grey years you sat and smiled on me.</div></div></div></div> + +<p class="sig"> +G. A. +</p> + + +<br> +<div class="box"> +<p class="ctr"> +<i>By the same Author.</i> +</p> + + +<p class="hang"> +PHYSIOLOGICAL ÆSTHETICS: a Scientific Theory of Beauty (London: <span class="sc">C. +Kegan Paul & Co.</span>) +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +THE COLOUR-SENSE: its Origin and Development. An Essay on Comparative +Psychology. (London: <span class="sc">Trübner & Co.</span>) +</p> +</div> + + +<br> +<p class="ctr"> +THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +LONDON: PRINTED BY<br> +SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br> +AND PARLIAMENT STREET +</p> + +<br> +<h1> +<span class="smaller">THE</span><br> +EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE +</h1> +<br> +<div class="titlepage"> +<p class="ctrsmaller"> +BY +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +GRANT ALLEN +</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img width="173" height="200" src="images/logo.jpg" alt="Publisher's logo"></div> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +London<br> +CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY<br> +1881 +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmaller"> +<i>All rights reserved</i> +</p> +</div> + + + +<h2> +PREFACE. +</h2> + + +<p> +These Essays originally appeared in the columns of the 'St. James's +Gazette,' and I have to thank the courtesy of the Editor for kind +permission to republish them. My object in writing them was to make the +general principles and methods of evolutionists a little more familiar +to unscientific readers. Biologists usually deal with those underlying +points of structure which are most really important, and on which all +technical discussion must necessarily be based. But ordinary people +care little for such minute anatomical and physiological details. They +cannot be expected to interest themselves in the <i>flexor pollicis +longus</i>, or the <i>hippocampus major</i> about whose very existence +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 monocotyledonous seeds or exogenous +stems. It is with these surface questions of obvious outward appearance +that I have attempted to deal in this little series. 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 which 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 work. +</p> + +<p> +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 anonymously in the columns of a daily paper, this air of +personality was not so obtrusive: now that they reappear under my own +name, I fear it may prove somewhat 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 <i>I</i> of the essays is not a real +personage, but the singular number of the editorial <i>we</i>. +</p> + +<p> +I have made a few alterations and corrections in some of the papers, +so as to bring the statements into closer accordance with scientific +accuracy. At the same time, I should like to add that I have +intentionally simplified the scientific facts as far as possible. Thus, +instead of saying that the groundsel is a composite, I have said that +it is a daisy by family; and instead of saying that the ascidian larva +belongs to the sub-kingdom Chordata, I have said that it is a first +cousin of the tadpole. For these simplifications, I hope technical +biologists will pardon me. After all, if you wish to be understood, it +is best to speak to people in words whose meanings they know. Definite +and accurate terminology is necessary to express definite and accurate +knowledge; but one may use vague expressions where the definite ones +would convey no ideas. +</p> + +<p> +I have to thank the kindness of my friend the Rev. <span class="sc">E. +Purcell</span>, of Lincoln College, Oxford, for the clever and +appropriate design which appears upon the cover. +</p> + +<p class="sig"> +G. A. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +CONTENTS. +</h2> + +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr> +<td class="chpt"> </td> +<td class="txt"> </td> +<td class="pg"><small>PAGE</small></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="txt" colspan="2">A Ballade of Evolution</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#ballade">1</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">I.</td> +<td class="txt">Microscopic Brains</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#I">3</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">II.</td> +<td class="txt">A Wayside Berry</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#II">16</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">III.</td> +<td class="txt">In Summer Fields</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#III">25</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">IV.</td> +<td class="txt">A Sprig of Water Crowfoot</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#IV">36</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">V.</td> +<td class="txt">Slugs and Snails</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#V">48</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">VI.</td> +<td class="txt">A Study of Bones</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#VI">59</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">VII.</td> +<td class="txt">Blue Mud</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#VII">67</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">VIII.</td> +<td class="txt">Cuckoo-Pint</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#VIII">77</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">IX.</td> +<td class="txt">Berries and Berries</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#IX">87</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">X.</td> +<td class="txt">Distant Relations</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#X">96</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XI.</td> +<td class="txt">Among the Heather</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XI">105</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XII.</td> +<td class="txt">Speckled Trout</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XII">114</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XIII.</td> +<td class="txt">Dodder and Broomrape</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XIII">124</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XIV.</td> +<td class="txt">Dog's Mercury and Plantain</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XIV">133</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XV.</td> +<td class="txt">Butterfly Psychology</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XV">142</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XVI.</td> +<td class="txt">Butterfly Æsthetics</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XVI">153</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XVII.</td> +<td class="txt">The Origin of Walnuts</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XVII">161</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XVIII.</td> +<td class="txt">A Pretty Land-Shell</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XVIII">172</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XIX.</td> +<td class="txt">Dogs and Masters</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XIX">181</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XX.</td> +<td class="txt">Blackcock</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XX">189</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XXI.</td> +<td class="txt">Bindweed</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XXI">198</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XXII.</td> +<td class="txt">On Cornish Cliffs</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XXII">207</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="med"> + +<h2> +<a name="ballade"> </a> +<i>A BALLADE OF EVOLUTION.</i> +</h2> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> +<div class="stanza"> +<div>In the mud of the Cambrian main</div> +<div class="i1">Did our earliest ancestor dive:</div> +<div>From a shapeless albuminous grain</div> +<div class="i1">We mortals our being derive.</div> +<div>He could split himself up into five,</div> +<div class="i1">Or roll himself round like a ball;</div> +<div>For the fittest will always survive,</div> +<div class="i1">While the weakliest go to the wall.</div></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<div>As an active ascidian again</div> +<div class="i1">Fresh forms he began to contrive,</div> +<div>Till he grew to a fish with a brain,</div> +<div class="i1">And brought forth a mammal alive.</div> +<div>With his rivals he next had to strive,</div> +<div class="i1">To woo him a mate and a thrall;</div> +<div>So the handsomest managed to wive,</div> +<div class="i1">While the ugliest went to the wall.</div></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<div>At length as an ape he was fain</div> +<div class="i1">The nuts of the forest to rive;</div> +<div>Till he took to the low-lying plain,</div> +<div class="i1">And proceeded his fellow to knive.</div> +<div>Thus did cannibal men first arrive,</div> +<div class="i1">One another to swallow and maul;</div> +<div>And the strongest continued to thrive,</div> +<div class="i1">While the weakliest went to the wall.</div></div></div></div> + + +<p class="ctr"> +<span class="sc">Envoy.</span> +</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> +<div class="stanza"> +<div>Prince, in our civilised hive,</div> +<div class="i1">Now money's the measure of all;</div> +<div>And the wealthy in coaches can drive,</div> +<div class="i1">While the needier go to the wall.</div></div></div></div> + + + + +<p class="booktitle"> +THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="I"> </a> +I. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>MICROSCOPIC BRAINS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Sitting on this little rounded boss of gneiss beside the path which +cuts obliquely through the meadow, I am engaged in watching a brigade +of ants out on foraging duty, and intent on securing for the nest three +whole segments of a deceased earthworm. They look for all the world +like those busy companies one sees in the Egyptian wall-paintings, +dragging home a huge granite colossus by sheer force of bone 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 Brobdingnagian 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 +head-quarters 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 that I could for a while get inside those tiny +brains, and see, or rather smell, the world as ants do. For there can +be little doubt that to these brave little carnivores here the universe +is chiefly known as a collective bundle of odours, simultaneous or +consecutive. As our world is mainly a world of visible objects, theirs, +I believe, is mainly a world of olfactible things. +</p> + +<p> +In the head of every one of these little creatures is something that we +may fairly call a brain. Of course most insects have no real brains; +the nerve-substance in their heads is a mere collection of ill-arranged +ganglia, directly connected with their organs of sense. Whatever man +may be, an earwig at least is a conscious, or rather a semi-conscious, +automaton. He has just a few knots of nerve-cells in his little pate, +each of which leads straight from his dim eye or his vague ear or his +indefinite organs of taste; and his muscles obey the promptings of +external sensations without possibility of hesitation or consideration, +as mechanically as the valve of a steam-engine obeys the +governor-balls. You may say of him truly, 'Nihil est in intellectu quod +non fuerit in sensu;' and you need not even add the Leibnitzian saving +clause, 'nisi ipse 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 the cerebellum +which are superadded in us mammals upon the simple sense-centres of +lower creatures. Besides the eye, with its optic nerve and optic +perceptive organs—besides the ear, with its similar mechanism—we +mammalian lords of creation have a higher and more genuine brain, which +collects and compares the information given to the senses, and sends +down the appropriate messages to the muscles accordingly. Now, bees and +flies and ants have got much the same sort of arrangement, on a smaller +scale, within their tiny heads. On top of the little knots which do +duty as nerve-centres for their eyes and mouths, stand two stalked bits +of nervous matter, 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 beetles or butterflies, and why the larger +part of them have organised their domestic arrangements on such an +excellent co-operative plan. +</p> + +<p> +We know well enough what forms the main material of thought with bees +and flies, and that is visible objects. For you must think about +<i>something</i> if you think at all; and you can hardly imagine a +contemplative blow-fly setting itself down to reflect, like a Hindu +devotee, on the syllable Om, or on the oneness of existence. Abstract +ideas are not likely to play a large part in apian consciousness. A bee +has a very perfect eye, and with this eye it can see not only form, but +also colour, as Sir John Lubbock's experiments have shown us. The +information which it gets through its eye, coupled with other ideas +derived from touch, smell, and taste, no doubt makes up the main +thinkable and knowable universe as it reveals itself to the apian +intelligence. To ourselves and to bees alike the world is, on the +whole, a coloured picture, with the notions of distance and solidity +thrown in by touch and muscular effort; but sight undoubtedly plays the +first part in forming our total conception of things generally. +</p> + +<p> +What, however, forms the thinkable universe of these little ants +running to and fro so eagerly at my feet? That is a question which used +long to puzzle me in my afternoon walks. The ant has a brain and an +intelligence, but that brain and that intelligence must have been +developed out of <i>something</i>. <i lang="la">Ex nihilo nihil fit.</i> You +cannot think and know if you have nothing to think about. The +intelligence of the bee and the fly was evolved in the course of their +flying about and looking at things: the more they flew, and the more +they saw, the more they knew; and the more brain they got to think +with. But the ant does not generally fly, and, as with most +comparatively unlocomotive animals, its sight is bad. True, the winged +males and females have retained in part the usual sharp eyes of their +class—for they are first cousins to the bees—and they also possess +three little eyelets or <i>ocelli</i>, which are wanting to the +wingless neuters. Without these they would never have found one another +in their courtship, and they would have run their heads against the +nearest tree, or rushed down the gaping throat of the first expectant +swallow, and so effectually extinguished their race. Flying animals +cannot do without eyes, and they always possess the most highly +developed vision of any living creatures. But the wingless neuters are +almost blind—in some species quite so; and Sir John Lubbock has shown +that their appreciation of colour is mostly confined to an aversion to +red light, and a comparative endurance of blue. Moreover, they are +apparently deaf, and most of their other senses seem little developed. +What can be the raw material on which that pin's head of a brain sets +itself working? For, small as it is, it is a wonderful organ of +intellect; and though Sir John Lubbock has shown us all too decisively +that the originality and inventive genius of ants have been sadly +overrated by Solomon and others, yet Darwin is probably right none the +less in saying that no more marvellous atom of matter exists in the +universe than this same wee lump of microscopic nerve substance. +</p> + +<p> +My dog Grip, running about on the path there, with his nose to the +ground, and sniffing at every stick and stone he meets on his way, +gives us the clue to solve the problem. Grip, as Professor Croom +Robertson suggests, seems capable of extracting a separate and +distinguishable 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 he is, selects and brings back to me that individual stone +from all the stones around, by exercise of his nose alone. It is plain +that Grip's world is not merely a world of sights, but a world of +smells as well. He not only smells smells, but he remembers smells, he +thinks smells, he even dreams smells, as you may see by his sniffing +and growling in his sleep. Now, if I were to cut open Grip's head +(which heaven forfend), I should find in it a correspondingly big +smell-nerve and smell-centre—an olfactory lobe, as the anatomists say. +All the accumulated nasal experiences of his ancestors have made that +lobe enormously developed. But in a man's head you would find a very +large and fine optic centre, and only a mere shrivelled relic to +represent the olfactory lobes. You and I and our ancestors have had but +little occasion for sniffing and scenting; our sight and our touch have +done duty as chief intelligencers from the outer world; and the nerves +of smell, with their connected centres, have withered away to the +degenerate condition in which they now are. Consequently, smell plays +but a small part in our thought and our memories. The world that we +know is chiefly a world of sights and touches. But in the brain of dog, +or deer, or antelope, smell is a prevailing faculty; it colours all +their ideas, and it has innumerable nervous connections with every part +of their brain. The big olfactory lobes are in direct communication +with a thousand other nerves; odours rouse trains of thought or +powerful emotions in their minds just as visible objects do in our own. +</p> + +<p> +Now, in the dog or the horse sight and smell are equally developed; so +that they probably think of most things about equally in terms of each. +In ourselves, sight is highly developed, and smell is a mere relic; so +that we think of most things in terms of sight alone, and only rarely, +as with a rose or a lily, in terms of both. But in ants, on the +contrary, smell is highly developed and sight a mere relic; so that +they probably think of most things as smellable only, and very little +as visible in form or colour. Dr. Bastian has shown that bees and +butterflies are largely guided by scent; and though he is certainly +wrong in supposing that sight has little to do with leading them to +flowers (for if you cut off the bright-coloured corolla they will never +discover the mutilated blossoms, even when they visit others on the +same plant), yet the mere fact that so many flowers are scented 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 sense of smell has been continued and further developed, till +it has become their principal sense-endowment, and the chief raw +material of their intelligence. Their active little brains are almost +wholly engaged in correlating and co-ordinating smells with actions. +Their olfactory nerves give them nearly all the information they can +gain about the external world, and their brains take in this +information and work out the proper movements which it indicates. By +smell they find their way about and carry on the business of their +lives. Just as you and I know the road from Regent's Circus to Pall +Mall by visible signs of the street-corners and the Duke of York's +Column, so these little ants know the way from the nest to the corpse +of the dismembered worm by observing and remembering the smells which +they met with on their way. See: I obliterate the track for an inch or +two with my stick, and the little creatures go beside themselves with +astonishment and dismay. They rush about wildly, inquiring of one +another with their antennæ whether this is really Doomsday, and whether +the whole course of nature has been suddenly revolutionised. Then, +after a short consultation, they determine upon action; and every ant +starts off in a different direction to hunt the lost track, head to the +ground, exactly as a pointer hunts the missing trail of a bird or hare. +Each ventures an inch or so off, and then runs back to find the rest, +for fear he should get isolated altogether. At last, after many +failures, one lucky fellow hits upon the well-remembered train of +scents, and rushes back leaving smell-tracks no doubt upon the soil +behind him. The message goes quickly round from post to post, each +sentry making passes with his antennæ to the next picket, and so +sending on the news to the main body in the rear. Within five minutes +communications are re-established, and the precious bit of worm-meat +continues triumphantly on its way along the recovered path. An +ingenious writer would even have us believe that ants possess a +scent-language of their own, and emit various odours from their antennæ +which the other ants perceive with theirs, and recognise as distinct in +meaning. Be this as it may, you cannot doubt, if you watch them long, +that scents and scents alone form the chief means by which they +recollect and know one another, or the external objects with which they +come in contact. The whole universe is clearly to them a complicated +picture made up entirely of infinite interfusing smells. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="II"> </a> +II. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>A WAYSIDE BERRY.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Half-hidden in the luxuriant growth of leaves and flowers that drape +the deep side of this green lane, I have just espied a little picture +in miniature, a tall wild strawberry-stalk with three full red berries +standing out on its graceful branchlets. There are glossy +hart's-tongues on the matted bank, and yellow hawkweeds, and bright +bunches of red campion; but somehow, amid all that wealth of shape and +colour, my eye falls and rests instinctively upon the three little +ruddy berries, and upon nothing else. I pick the single stalk from the +bank and hold it here in my hands. The origin and development of these +pretty bits of red pulp is one of the many curious questions upon which +modern theories of life have cast such a sudden and unexpected flood of +light. What makes the strawberry stalk grow out into this odd and +brightly coloured lump, bearing its small fruits embedded on its +swollen surface? Clearly the agency of those same small birds who have +been mainly instrumental in dressing the haw in its scarlet coat, and +clothing the spindle-berries with their two-fold covering of crimson +doublet and orange cloak. +</p> + +<p> +In common language we speak of each single strawberry as a fruit. But +it is in reality a collection of separate fruits, the tiny yellow-brown +grains which stud its sides being each of them an individual little +nut; while the sweet pulp is, in fact, no part of the true fruit at +all, but merely a swollen stalk. There is a white potentilla so like a +strawberry blossom that even a botanist must look closely at the plant +before he can be sure of its identity. While they are in flower the two +heads remain almost indistinguishable; but when the seed begins to set +the potentilla develops only a collection of dry fruitlets, seated upon +a green receptacle, the bed or soft expansion which hangs on to the +'hull' or calyx. Each fruitlet consists of a thin covering, enclosing a +solitary seed. You may compare one of them separately to a plum, with +its single kernel, only that in the plum the covering is thick and +juicy, while in the potentilla and the fruitlets of the strawberry it +is thin and dry. An almond comes still nearer to the mark. Now the +potentilla shows us, as it were, the primitive form of the strawberry. +But in the developed ripe strawberry as we now find it the fruitlets +are not crowded upon a green receptacle. After flowering, the +strawberry receptacle lengthens and broadens, so as to form a roundish +mass of succulent pulp; and as the fruitlets approach maturity this +sour green pulp becomes soft, sweet, and red. The little seed-like +fruits, which are the important organs, stand out upon its surface like +mere specks; while the comparatively unimportant receptacle is all that +we usually think of when we talk about strawberries. After our usual +Protagorean fashion we regard man as the measure of all things, and pay +little heed to any part of the compound fruit-cluster save that which +ministers directly to our own tastes. +</p> + +<p> +But why does the strawberry develop this large mass of apparently +useless matter? Simply in order the better to ensure the dispersion of +its small brown fruitlets. Birds are always hunting for seeds and +insects along the hedge-rows, and devouring such among them as contain +any available foodstuff. In most cases they crush the seeds to pieces +with their gizzards, and digest and assimilate their contents. Seeds of +this class are generally enclosed in green or brown capsules, which +often escape the notice of the birds, and so succeed in perpetuating +their species. But there is another class of plants whose members +possess hard and indigestible seeds, and so turn the greedy birds from +dangerous enemies into useful allies. Supposing there was by chance, +ages ago, one of these primitive ancestral strawberries, whose +receptacle was a little more pulpy than usual, and contained a small +quantity of sugary matter, such as is often found in various parts of +plants; then it might happen to attract the attention of some hungry +bird, which, by eating the soft pulp, would help in dispersing the +indigestible fruitlets. As these fruitlets sprang up into healthy young +plants, they would tend to reproduce the peculiarity in the structure +of the receptacle which marked the parent stock, and some of them would +probably display it in a more marked degree. These would be sure to get +eaten in their turn, and so to become the originators of a still more +pronounced strawberry type. As time went on, the largest and sweetest +berries would constantly be chosen by the birds, till the whole species +began to assume its existing character. The receptacle would become +softer and sweeter, and the fruits themselves harder and more +indigestible: because, on the one hand, all sour or hard berries would +stand a poorer chance of getting dispersed in good situations for their +growth, while, on the other hand, all soft-shelled fruitlets would be +ground up and digested by the bird, and thus effectually prevented from +ever growing into future plants. Just in like manner, many tropical +nuts have extravagantly hard shells, as only those survive which can +successfully defy the teeth and hands of the clever and persistent +monkey. +</p> + +<p> +This accounts for the strawberry being sweet and pulpy, but not for its +being red. Here, however, a similar reason comes into play. All +ripening fruits and opening flowers have a natural tendency to grow +bright red, or purple, or blue, though in many of them the tendency is +repressed by the dangers attending brilliant displays of colour. 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, is injured by such a change of colour, +through being rendered more conspicuous to its foes, it soon loses the +tendency under the influence of natural selection; in other words, +those individuals which most display it get killed out, while those +which least display it survive and thrive. On the other hand, if +conspicuousness is an advantage to the plant, the exact opposite +happens, and the tendency becomes developed into a confirmed habit. +This is the case with the strawberry, as with many other fruits. The +more bright-coloured the berry is, the better its chance of getting its +fruitlets dispersed. Birds have quick eyes for colour, especially for +red and white; and therefore almost all edible berries have assumed one +or other of these two hues. So long as the fruitlets remain unripe, and +would therefore be injured by being eaten, the pulp remains sour, +green, and hard; but as soon as they have become fit for dispersion it +grows soft, fills with sugary juice, and acquires its ruddy outer +flesh. Then the birds see and recognise it as edible, and govern +themselves accordingly. +</p> + +<p> +But if this is the genesis of the strawberry, asks somebody, why have +not all the potentillas and the whole strawberry tribe also become +berries of the same type? Why are there still potentilla fruit-clusters +which consist of groups of dry seed-like nuts? Ay, there's the rub. +Science cannot answer as yet. After all, these questions are still in +their infancy, and we can scarcely yet do more than discover a single +stray interpretation here and there. In the present case a botanist can +only suggest either that the potentilla finds its own mode of +dispersion equally 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 receptacle in the strawberry +has never happened to befall its more modest kinsfolk. For on such +occasional freaks of nature the whole evolution of new varieties +entirely depends. A gardener may raise a thousand seedlings, and only +one or none among them may present a single new and important feature. +So a species may wait for a thousand years, or for ever, before its +circumstances happen to produce the first step towards some desirable +improvement. One extra petal may be invaluable to a five-rayed flower +as effecting some immense saving of pollen in its fertilisation; and +yet the 'sport' which shall give it this sixth ray may never occur, or +may be trodden down in the mire and destroyed by a passing cow. +</p> + + + +<h2> +<a name="III"> </a> +III. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>IN SUMMER FIELDS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Grip and I have come out for a morning stroll among the close-cropped +pastures beside the beck, in the very centre of our green little +dingle. Here I can sit, as is my wont, on a dry knoll, and watch the +birds, beasts, insects, and herbs of the field, while Grip scours the +place in every direction, intent, no doubt, upon those more practical +objects—mostly rats, I fancy—which possess a congenial interest for +the canine intelligence. From my coign of vantage on the knoll I can +take care that he inflicts no grievous bodily injury upon the sheep, +and that he receives none from the quick-tempered cow with the +brass-knobbed horns. For a kind of ancestral feud seems to smoulder for +ever between Grip and the whole race of kine, breaking out every now +and then into open warfare, which calls for my prompt interference, in +an attitude of armed but benevolent neutrality, merely for the friendly +purpose of keeping the peace. +</p> + +<p> +This ancient feud, I imagine, is really ancestral, and dates many ages +further back in time than Grip's individual experiences. Cows hate dogs +instinctively, from their earliest calfhood upward. I used to doubt +once upon a time whether the hatred was not of artificial origin and +wholly induced by the inveterate human habit of egging on every dog to +worry every other animal that comes in its way. But I tried a mild +experiment one day by putting a half-grown town-bred puppy into a small +enclosure with some hitherto unworried calves, and they all turned to +make a common headway against the intruder with the same striking +unanimity as the most ancient and experienced cows. Hence I am inclined +to suspect that the antipathy does actually result from a vaguely +inherited instinct derived from the days when the ancestor of our kine +was a wild bull, and the ancestor of our dogs a wolf, on the wide +forest-clad plains of Central Europe. When a cow puts up its tail at +sight of a dog entering its paddock at the present day, it has probably +some dim instinctive consciousness that it stands in the presence of a +dangerous hereditary foe; and as the wolves could only seize with +safety a single isolated wild bull, so the cows now usually make common +cause against the intruding dog, turning their heads in one direction +with very unwonted unanimity, till his tail finally disappears under +the opposite gate. Such inherited antipathies seem common and natural +enough. Every species knows and dreads the ordinary enemies of its +race. Mice scamper away from the very smell of a cat. Young chickens +run to the shelter of their mother's wings when the shadow of a hawk +passes over their heads. Mr. Darwin put a small snake into a paper bag, +which he gave to the monkeys at the Zoo; and one monkey after another +opened the bag, looked in upon the deadly foe of the quadrumanous kind, +and promptly dropped the whole package with every gesture of horror and +dismay. Even man himself—though his instincts have all weakened so +greatly with the growth of his more plastic intelligence, adapted to a +wider and more modifiable set of external circumstances—seems to +retain a vague and original terror of the serpentine form. +</p> + +<p> +If we think of parallel cases, it is not curious that animals should +thus instinctively recognise their natural enemies. We are not +surprised that they recognise their own fellows: and yet they must do +so by means of some equally strange automatic and inherited mechanism +in their nervous system. One butterfly can tell its mates at once from +a thousand other species, though it may differ from some of them only +by a single spot or line, which would escape the notice of all but the +most attentive observers. Must we not conclude that there are elements +in the butterfly's feeble brain exactly answering to the blank picture +of its specific type? So, too, must we not suppose that in every race +of animals there arises a perceptive structure specially adapted to the +recognition of its own kind? Babies notice human faces long before they +notice 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 berries; another exhibits an +untaught desire to chase down grasshoppers; a third, which happens to +be born an owl, turns at once to the congenial pursuit of small +sparrows, mice, and frogs. Each species seems to have certain faculties +so arranged that the sight of certain external objects, frequently +connected with food in their ancestral experience, immediately arouses +in them the appropriate actions for its capture. Mr. Douglas Spalding +found that newly-hatched chickens darted rapidly and accurately at +flies on the wing. When we recollect that even so late an acquisition +as articulate speech in human beings has its special physical seat in +the brain, it is not astonishing that complicated mechanisms should +have arisen among animals for the due perception of mates, food, and +foes respectively. 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 +experience 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. +</p> + +<p> +When Grip gets among the sheep, their hereditary traits come out in a +very different manner. They are by nature and descent timid mountain +animals, and they have never been accustomed to face a foe, as cows and +buffaloes are wont to do, especially when in a herd together. You +cannot see many traces of the original mountain life among sheep, and +yet there are still a few remaining to mark their real pedigree. Mr. +Herbert Spencer has noticed the fondness of lambs for frisking on a +hillock, however small; and when I come to my little knoll here, I +generally find it occupied by a couple, who rush away on my approach, +but take their stand instead on the 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 they were kept was a +single old elm stump. For the possession 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 whole diameter of the tree +was but some fifteen inches), maintaining himself in his place with the +greatest difficulty, and butting at his two brothers until at last he +lost his balance and fell. This one old stump was the sole +representative 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 memento 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 habits of his race. But in mountain countries, +every one must have noticed how the sheep at once becomes a different +being. On the Welsh hills he 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. +</p> + +<p> +Another mountain trait in the stereotyped character of sheep is their +well-known sequaciousness. When Grip runs after them they all run away +together: if one goes through a certain gap in the hedge, every other +follows; and if the leader jumps the beck at a certain spot, every lamb +in the flock jumps in the self-same 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 +corresponding 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 goodness 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. He alone can see what obstacles come in the way; +and each of the succeeding train must watch and imitate the actions of +their predecessors. Otherwise, if the flock happens 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 descendants. On the other hand, those uninquiring and blindly +obedient animals which simply did as they 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 sequaciousness—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 them 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 circumstances. They are to the mental +life what rudimentary organs are to the bodily structure: they remind +us of an older order of things, just as the abortive legs of the +blind-worm show us that he was once a lizard, and the hidden shell of +the slug that he was once a snail. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="IV"> </a> +IV. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>A SPRIG OF WATER CROWFOOT.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +The little streamlet whose tiny ranges and stickles form the middle +thread of this green combe in the Dorset 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 overhangs 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 below and broad above; and I often wonder +why so strange a phenomenon has attracted such very scant attention. +But then we knew so little of life in any form till the day before +yesterday that perhaps it is not surprising we should still have left +so many odd problems quite untouched. +</p> + +<p> +This problem of the shape of leaves certainly seems to me a most +important one; and yet it has hardly been even recognised by our +scientific pastors and masters. At best, Mr. Herbert Spencer devotes to +it a passing short chapter, or Mr. Darwin a stray sentence. The +practice of classifying plants mainly by means of their flowers has +given the flower a wholly factitious and overwrought importance. +Besides, flowers are so pretty, and we cultivate them so largely, with +little regard to the leaves, that they have come to usurp almost the +entire interest of botanists and horticulturists alike. Darwinism +itself has only heightened this exclusive interest by calling attention +to the reciprocal relations which exist between the honey-bearing +blossom and the fertilising insect, the bright-coloured petals and the +myriad facets of the butterfly's eye. Yet the leaf is after all the +real plant, and the flower is but a sort of afterthought, an embryo +colony set apart for the propagation of like plants in future. Each +leaf 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, and carrying on its own life to a great extent +independently of the rest. It may die without detriment to them; it may +be lopped off with a few others as a cutting, and it continues its +life-cycle quite unconcerned. An oak tree in full foliage is a +magnificent group of such separate individuals—a whole nation in +miniature: it may be compared to a branched coral polypedom covered +with a thousand little insect workers, while each leaf answers rather +to the separate polypes themselves. The leaves are even capable of +producing new individuals by what they 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 colonies, like the swarms +of bees, than as fresh 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 sending out a shipload of young +emigrants every now and then to try their fortunes in some unknown +soil. +</p> + +<p> +The whole life-business of a leaf is, of course, to eat and grow, just +as these same functions form the whole life-business of a caterpillar +or a tadpole. But the way a plant eats, we all know, is by taking +carbon and hydrogen from air and water under the influence of sunlight, +and building them up into appropriate compounds in its own body. +Certain little green worms or convoluta have the same habit, and live +for the most part cheaply off sunlight, making starch out of carbonic +acid and water by means of their enclosed chlorophyll, exactly as if +they were leaves. Now, as this is what a leaf has to do, its form will +almost entirely depend upon the way it is affected by sunlight and the +elements around it—except, indeed, in so far as it may be called upon +to perform 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, are minutely subdivided into +little branching lance-like segments; while its upper ones, which raise +their heads above the surface, are broad and united, like the common +crowfoot type. How am I to account for these peculiarities? I fancy +somehow thus:— +</p> + +<p> +Plants which live habitually under water almost always have thin, long, +pointed leaves, often thread-like or mere waving filaments. The reason +for this is plain enough. Gases are not very abundant in water, as it +only holds in solution a limited quantity of oxygen and carbonic acid. +Both of these the plant needs, though in varying quantities: 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 utilise it under the influence of sunlight. Hence all plants +which live in fresh water, and especially all plants of higher 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 pattern of leaf depends largely upon +the ancestral form. Thus this crowfoot, even in its submerged leaves, +preserves the general arrangement of ribs and leaflets common to the +whole buttercup tribe. For the crowfoot family is a large and eminently +adaptable race. Some of them are larkspurs and similar queerly-shaped +blossoms; others are columbines which hang their complicated bells on +dry and rocky hillsides; but the larger part are buttercups or marsh +marigolds which have simple cup-shaped flowers, and mostly frequent low +and marshy ground. One of these typical crowfoots under stress of +circumstances—inundation, or the like—took once upon a time to living +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 up into +thinner and narrower segments, each of which grew out in the direction +where it could find most stray carbon atoms, and most sunlight, without +interference from its neighbours. This, I take it, was the origin of +the much-divided lower leaves. +</p> + +<p> +But a crowfoot could never live permanently under water. Seaweeds and +their like, which propagate by a kind of spores, may remain below the +surface for ever; 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, originally developed in the water 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 fertilising insects +have carried the pollen to its proper receptacle, so as to ripen their +seeds at leisure beneath 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 such among its +ancestors as at first tried to do so must of course have failed in +producing any seed, they and their kind have died out for ever; while +only those lucky individuals whose chance lot it was to grow a little +taller and weedier than the rest, and so overtop the stream, have +handed down their race to our own time. +</p> + +<p> +But as soon as the crowfoot finds itself above the level of the river, +all the causes which made its leaf like those of other aquatic plants +have ceased to operate. The new leaves which sprout in the air meet +with abundance of carbon 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 up into little +lance-like leaflets, they loll on the surface, and spread out broader +and fuller, like the rest of their race. The leaf becomes 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. +</p> + +<p> +But above water, as below it, the crowfoot remains in principle a +crowfoot still. The traditions of its race, acquired in damp marshy +meadows, not actually under water, cling to it yet in spite of every +change. Born river and pond plants which rise to the surface, like the +water-lily or the duck-weed, have broad floating leaves that contrast +strongly with the waving filaments of wholly submerged species. They +can find plenty of food everywhere, and as the sunlight falls flat upon +them, they may as well spread out flat to catch the sunlight. No other +elbowing plants overtop them and appropriate the rays, so compelling +them to run up a useless waste of stem in order to pocket their fair +share of the golden flood. Moreover, they thus save the needless +expense of a stout leaf-stalk, as the water supports their lolling +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 hundred generations only, while the water-lily's ancestors +have been to the manner born for millions of years; and therefore it +happens that the crowfoot is at heart but a meadow buttercup still. One +glance at its simple little flower will show you that in a moment. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="V"> </a> +V. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>SLUGS AND SNAILS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Hoeing among the flower-beds 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 encroaching grass on the edge of +my little parterre of sky-blue lobelias. This unavoidable wounding and +hacking of worms and insects, despite all one's care, is no small +drawback to the pleasures of gardening <i>in propriâ personâ</i>. +Vivisection for genuine scientific purposes in responsible hands, one +can understand and tolerate, even though lacking the heart for it +oneself; but the useless and causeless vivisection which cannot be +prevented in every ordinary piece of farm-work seems a gratuitous blot +upon the face of beneficent nature. My only consolation lies in the +half-formed belief that feeling among these lower creatures is +indefinite, and that pain appears to affect them far less acutely than +it affects warm-blooded animals. Their nerves are so 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 all analogous to our own. A +wasp whose head has been severed from its body and stuck upon a pin, +will still greedily suck up honey with its throatless mouth; while an +Italian mantis, similarly treated, will calmly continue to hunt and +dart at midges with its decapitated trunk and limbs, quite forgetful of +the fact that it has got no mandibles left to eat them with. These +peculiarities lead one to hope that insects may feel pain less than we +fear. Yet I dare scarcely utter the hope, lest it should lead any +thoughtless hearer to act upon the very questionable belief, as they +say even the amiable enthusiasts of Port Royal acted upon the doctrine +that animals were mere unconscious 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 humane, since they are the better able dimly to figure to +themselves the pleasures and pains of humbler beings as they really +are. The man of science perhaps realises more vividly than all other +men the inner life and vague rights even of crawling worms and ugly +earwigs. +</p> + +<p> +I will take up this poor slug whose mishap has set me preaching, and +put him out of his misery at once, if misery 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 hoe 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, indeed, there are very few differences between the two +races except in the presence or absence of a house. You may trace a +curiously complete set of gradations between the perfect snail and the +perfect slug in this respect; for all the intermediate forms still +survive with only an almost imperceptible gap between each species and +the next. Some kinds, like the common brown garden snail, have +comparatively small bodies and big shells, so that they can retire +comfortably within them when attacked; and if they only had a lid or +door to their houses they could shut themselves up hermetically, as +periwinkles and similar mollusks actually do. Other kinds, like the +pretty golden amber-snails which frequent 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, so that he is generally recognised as being the first of the +slugs rather than the last 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 testacella, however, the small shell is still +external. In this yellow slug here, on the contrary, it does not show +itself at all, but is buried under the closely wrinkled skin of the +glossy mantle. It has become 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 rudiment gradually dwindling further and +further towards annihilation; till finally, 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, scattered up and +down through the mantle; and sometimes even these are wanting. The +organs which used to secrete the shell in their remote ancestors have +either ceased to work altogether or are reduced to performing a useless +office by mere organic routine. +</p> + +<p> +The reason why some mollusks have thus lost their shells is clear +enough. Shells are of two kinds, calcareous and horny. Both of them +require more or less lime or other mineral matters, though in varying +proportions. Now, the snails which thrive best on the bare chalk downs +behind my little combe belong to that pretty banded black-and-white +sort which everybody must have noticed feeding in abundance on all +chalk soils. Indeed, Sussex farmers will tell you that South Down +mutton owes its excellence to these fat little mollusks, not to the +scanty herbage of their thin pasture-lands. The pretty banded shells in +question are almost wholly composed of lime, which the snails can, of +course, obtain in any required quantity from the chalk. In most +limestone districts you will similarly 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 naturally 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 acclimatised themselves to a +terrestrial existence. We can trace a perfectly regular series from the +most aquatic to the most land-loving species, just as I have tried to +trace a regular series from the shell-bearing 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 amber-snail), which his progenitors used to +manufacture from the mineral matters dissolved in their native streams. +Some of the younger branches descended from this primæval land-snail +took to living on very dry land, and when they reached chalky districts +manufactured their shells, on an easy and improved principle, almost +entirely out of lime. But others took to living in moist and boggy +places, where mineral matter was rare, and where the soil consisted for +the most part of decaying vegetable mould. Here they could get little +or no lime, and so their shells grew smaller and smaller, in proportion +as their habits became more decidedly terrestrial. But to the last, as +long as any shell at all remained, it generally covered their hearts +and other important organs; because it would there act as a special +protection, even after it had ceased to be of any use for the defence +of the animal's body as a whole. Exactly in the same way men specially +protected their heads and breasts with helmets and cuirasses, before +armour was used for the whole body, because these were the places where +a wound would be most dangerous; and they continued to cover these +vulnerable spots in the same manner even when the use of armour had +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 +competition of modern life they spread themselves 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 different. +The truest and most snail-like snails are found in greatest abundance +upon high chalk-downs, heathy limestone hills, and other comparatively +dry places; while the truest and most slug-like slugs are found in +greatest abundance among low water-logged meadows, or under the damp +fallen leaves of moist copses. The intermediate kinds inhabit 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 universal habit of seeking out the coolest and moistest spots of +their respective habitats. The soft-fleshed mollusks are all by nature +aquatic animals, and nothing can induce them wholly to forget the old +tradition of their marine or fresh-water existence. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="VI"> </a> +VI. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>A STUDY OF BONES.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +On the top of this bleak chalk down, where I am wandering on a dull +afternoon, I light upon the blanched skeleton 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 of 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 I may well spell out as I sit to rest a minute +upon the neighbouring stile. For this dry tail-bone consists, as I can +see at a glance, of several separate vertebræ, all firmly welded +together into a single piece. They must once upon a time have been real +disconnected jointed vertebræ, 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. +</p> + +<p> +When I say that these bones were once separate, I am indulging in no +mere hypothetical Darwinian speculation. I refer, not to the race, but +to the particular crow in person. These very pieces themselves, in +their embryonic condition, were as distinct as the individual bones of +the bird's neck or of our own spines. If you were to examine the chick +in the egg you would find them quite divided. But as the young crow +grows more and more into the typical bird-pattern, this lizard-like +peculiarity fades away, and the separate pieces unite by 'anastomosis' +into a single 'coccygean bone,' as the osteologists call it. In all our +modern birds, as in this crow, the vertebræ composing the tail-bone are +few in number, and are soldered together immovably in the adult form. +It was not always so, however, with ancestral birds. The earliest known +member of the class—the famous fossil bird of the Solenhofen +lithographic stone—retained throughout its whole life a long flexible +tail, composed of twenty unwelded vertebræ, each of which bore a single +pair of quill-feathers, the predecessors of our modern pigeon's train. +There are many other marked reptilian peculiarities in this primitive +oolitic bird; and it apparently possessed true teeth in its jaws, as +its later cretaceous kinsmen discovered by Professor Marsh undoubtedly +did. When we compare side by side those real flying dragons, the +Pterodactyls, together with the very birdlike 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 remote feathered descendants of an original reptilian +or half-reptilian ancestor. +</p> + +<p> +Why modern birds have lost their long flexible tails it is not +difficult to see. The tail descends to all higher vertebrates as an +heirloom from the fishes, the amphibia, and their other aquatic +predecessors. With these 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 lizard 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. But to flying birds, on the +contrary, a long bony tail is only an inconvenience. All that they need +is a little muscular knob for the support of the tail-feathers, which +they employ as a rudder in guiding their flight upward or downward, to +right or left. The elongated waving tail of the Solenhofen bird, with +its single pair of quills, must have been a comparatively ineffectual +and clumsy piece of mechanism for steering an aërial creature through +its novel domain. Accordingly, the bones soon grew fewer in number and +shorter in length, while the feathers simultaneously arranged +themselves side by side upon the terminal hump. As early as the time +when our chalk was deposited, the bird's tail had become what it is at +the present day—a single united bone, consisting of a few scarcely +distinguishable crowded rings. This is the form it assumes in the +toothed fossil birds of Western America. But, as if to preserve the +memory of their reptilian origin, birds in their embryo stage still go +on producing separate caudal vertebræ, only to unite them together at a +later point of their development into the typical coccygean bone. +</p> + +<p> +Much the same sort of process has taken place in the higher apes, and, +as Mr. Darwin would assure us, in man himself. There the long +prehensile tail of the monkeys has grown gradually shorter, and, being +at last coiled up under the haunches, has finally degenerated into an +insignificant and wholly embedded terminal joint. But, indeed, we can +find traces of a similar adaptation to circumstances everywhere. Take, +for instance, the common English 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 tadpole 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, such a long train would be a +useless drag, while in the water its webbed feet and muscular legs make +a satisfactory substitute for the lost organ. Last of all, the +tree-frog, leading a specially terrestrial life, has no tadpole at all, +but emerges from the egg in the full frog-like shape. As he never lives +in the water, he never feels the need of a tail. +</p> + +<p> +The edible crab and lobster show us an exactly parallel case amongst +crustaceans. Everybody has noticed that a crab's body is practically +identical with a lobster's, only that in the crab the body-segments are +broad and compact, while the tail, so conspicuous in its kinsman, is +here relatively small and tucked away unobtrusively behind the legs. +This difference in construction depends entirely upon the habits and +manners of the two races. The lobster lives among rocks and ledges; +he uses his small legs but little for locomotion, but he springs +surprisingly fast and far through the water by a single effort of his +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. Hence the edible and muscular part of a lobster +is chiefly to be found in the claws and tail, the latter having +naturally the firmest and strongest flesh. The crab, on the other hand, +lives on the sandy bottom, and walks about on its lesser legs, instead +of swimming or darting through the water by blows of its tail, like the +lobster or the still more active prawn and shrimp. Hence the crab's +tail has dwindled away to a mere useless historical relic, while the +most important muscles in its body are those seated in the 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 shrivelled rudiment as a +lingering reminiscence of their original habits. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="VII"> </a> +VII. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>BLUE MUD.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +After last night's rain, the cliffs that bound the bay have come out in +all their most brilliant colours; so this morning I am turning my steps +seaward, and wandering along the great ridge of pebbles which here +breaks the force of the Channel waves as they beat against the long +line of the Dorset downs. Our cliffs just at this point are composed of +blue lias beneath, with a capping of yellow sandstone on their summits, +above which in a few places the layer of chalk that once topped the +whole country-side has still resisted the slow wear and tear of +unnumbered centuries. These three elements give a variety to the bold +and broken bluffs which is rare along the monotonous southern +escarpment of the English coast. After rain, especially, the changes of +colour on their sides are often quite startling in their vividness and +intensity. To-day, for example, the yellow sandstone is tinged in parts +with a deep russet red, contrasting admirably with the bright green of +the fields above and the sombre steel-blue of the lias belt below. +Besides, we have had so many landslips along this bit of shore, that +the various layers of rock have in more than one place got mixed up +with one another into inextricable confusion. The little town nestling +in the hollow behind me has long been famous as the head-quarters of +early geologists; and not a small proportion of the people earn their +livelihood to the present day by 'goin' a fossiling.' Every child about +the place recognises ammonites as 'snake-stones;' while even the rarer +vertebrae of extinct saurians have acquired a local designation as +'verterberries.' 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 +light it up with a rich flood of golden splendour. +</p> + +<p> +The base of the cliffs consists entirely of a very soft and plastic +blue lias mud. This mud contains large numbers of fossils, chiefly +chambered shells, but mixed with not a few relics of the great swimming +and flying lizards that swarmed among the shallow flats or low islands +of the lias sea. When the blue mud was slowly accumulating in the +hollows of the ancient bottom, these huge saurians formed practically +the highest race of animals then existing upon earth. There were, it is +true, a few primæval kangaroo-mice and wombats among the rank brushwood +of the mainland; and there may even have been a species or two of +reptilian birds, with murderous-looking teeth and long lizard-like +tails—descendants 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 on the +Solenhofen slate. But in spite of such rare precursors of higher modern +types, the saurian was in fact the real lord of earth in the lias ocean. +</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> +<div class="stanza"> +<div>For him did his high sun flame, and his river billowing ran,</div> +<div>And he felt himself in his pride to be nature's crowning race.</div></div></div></div> + +<p> +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 in the different periods. The +lias is ranked by geologists among the earliest secondary formations: +but if we were to distribute all the sedimentary rocks into ten great +epochs, each representing about equal duration in time, the lias would +really fall in the tenth and latest of all. So very misleading to the +ordinary mind is our accepted geological nomenclature. Nay, even +commonplace geologists themselves often overlook the real implications +of many facts and figures which they have learned to quote glibly +enough in a certain off-hand way. Let me just briefly reconstruct the +chief features of this scarcely recognised world's chronology as I sit +on this piece of fallen chalk at the foot of the mouldering cliff, +where the stream from the meadow above brought down the newest landslip +during the hard frosts of last December. First of all, there is the +vast lapse of time represented by the Laurentian rocks of Canada. These +Laurentian rocks, the oldest in the world, are at least 30,000 feet in +thickness, and it must be allowed that it takes a reasonable number of +years to accumulate such a mass of solid limestone or clay as that at +the bottom of even the widest primæval ocean. In these rocks there are +no fossils, except a single very doubtful member of the very lowest +animal type. But there are indirect traces of life in the shape of +limestone probably derived from shells, and of black lead probably +derived from plants. All these early deposits have been terribly +twisted and contorted by subsequent 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 state. Thus the history of life opens +for us, like most other histories, with a period of uncertainty: its +origin is lost in the distant vistas of time. Still, we know that there +<i>was</i> 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 æons into which I have roughly divided geological time. +Next comes the period known as the Cambrian, and to it we may similarly +assign about two and a half æons on like grounds. The Cambrian epoch +begins with a fair sprinkling of the lower animals and plants, +presumably developed during the preceding age; but it shows no remains +of fish or any other vertebrates. To the Silurian, Devonian, and +Carboniferous periods we may roughly allow an æon and a fraction each: +while to the whole group of secondary and tertiary strata, comprising +almost all the best-known English formations—red marl, lias, oolite, +greensand, chalk, eocene, miocene, pliocene, and drift—we can only +give a single æon to be divided between them. Such facts will +sufficiently suggest how comparatively modern are all these rocks when +viewed by the light of an absolute chronology. Now, the first fishes do +not occur till the Silurian—that is to say, in or about the seventh +æon after the beginning of geological time. The first mammals are found +in the trias, at the beginning of the tenth æon. And the first known +bird only makes its appearance in the oolite, about half-way through +that latest period. This will show that there was plenty of time for +their development in the earlier ages. True, we must reckon the +interval between ourselves and the date of this blue mud at many +millions of years; but then we must reckon the interval between the +lias and the earliest Cambrian strata at some six times as much, and +between the lias and the lowest Laurentian beds at nearly ten times as +much. Just the same sort of lessening perspective exists in geology as +in ordinary history. Most people look upon the age before the Norman +Conquest as a mere brief episode of the English annals; yet six whole +centuries elapsed between the landing of the real or mythical Hengst at +Ebbsfleet and the landing of William the Conqueror at Hastings; while +under eight centuries elapsed between the time of William the Conqueror +and the accession of Queen Victoria. But, just as most English +histories give far more space to the three centuries since Elizabeth +than to the eleven centuries which preceded them, so most books on +geology give far more space to the single æon (embracing the secondary +and tertiary periods) which comes nearest our own time, than to the +nine æons which spread from the Laurentian to the Carboniferous epoch. +In the earliest period, records either geological or historical are +wholly wanting; in the later periods they become both more numerous and +more varied in proportion as they approach nearer and nearer to our own +time. +</p> + +<p> +So too, in the days when Mr. Darwin first took away the breath of +scientific Europe by his startling theories, it used confidently to be +said that geology had shown us no intermediate form between species and +species. Even at the time when this assertion was originally made it +was quite untenable. All early geological forms, of whatever race, +belong to what we foolishly call 'generalised' types: that is to say, +they present a mixture of features now found separately in several +different animals. In other words, they represent early ancestors of +all the modern forms, with peculiarities intermediate between those of +their more highly differentiated descendants; and hence we ought to +call them 'unspecialised' rather than 'generalised' types. For example, +the earliest ancestral horse is partly a horse and partly a tapir: we +may regard him as a <i lang="la">tertium quid</i>, a middle term, from +which the horse has varied in one direction and the tapir in another, +each of them exaggerating certain special peculiarities of the common +ancestor and losing others, in accordance with the circumstances in +which they have been placed. Science is now perpetually discovering +intermediate forms, many of which compose an unbroken series between +the unspecialised ancestral type and the familiar modern creatures. +Thus, in this very case of the horse, Professor Marsh has unearthed a +long line of fossil animals which lead in direct descent from the +extremely unhorse-like eocene type to the developed Arab of our own +times. Similarly with birds, Professor Huxley has shown that there is +hardly any gap between the very bird-like lizards of the lias and the +very lizard-like birds of the oolite. Such links, discovered afresh +every day, are perpetual denials to the old parrot-like cry of 'No +geological evidence for evolution.' +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="VIII"> </a> +VIII. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>CUCKOO-PINT.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +In the bank which supports the hedge, beside this little hanger on the +flank of Black Down, the glossy arrow-headed leaves of the common arum +form at this moment beautiful masses of vivid green foliage. +'Cuckoo-pint' is the pretty poetical old English name for the plant; +but village children know it better by the equally quaint and fanciful +title of 'lords and ladies.' The arum is not now in flower: it +blossomed much earlier in the season, and its queer clustered fruits +are just at present swelling out into rather shapeless little +light-green bulbs, preparatory to assuming the bright coral-red hue +which makes them so conspicuous among the hedgerows during the autumn +months. A cut-and-dry technical botanist would therefore have little to +say to it in its present stage, because he cares only for the flowers +and seeds which help him in his dreary classifications, and give him so +splendid an opportunity for displaying the treasures of his Latinised +terminology. But to me the plant itself is the central point of +interest, not the names (mostly in bad Greek) by which this or that +local orchid-hunter has endeavoured to earn immortality. +</p> + +<p> +This arum, for example, grows first from a small hard seed with a +single lobe or seed-leaf. In the seed there is a little store of starch +and albumen laid up by the mother-plant, on which the young arum feeds, +just as truly as the growing chick feeds on the white which surrounds +its native yolk, or as you and I feed on the similar starches and +albumens laid by for the use of the young plant in the grain of wheat, +or for the young fowl in the egg. Full-grown plants live by taking in +food-stuffs from the air under the influence of sunlight: but a young +seedling can no more feed itself than a human baby can; and so food is +stored up for it beforehand by the parent stock. As the kernel swells +with heat and moisture, its starches and albumens get oxidised and +produce the motions and rearrangements of particles that result in the +growth of a new plant. First a little head rises towards the sunlight +and a little root pushes downward towards 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 the head is to +spread out into leaves, which are the real mouths and stomachs of the +compound organism. For we must never forget that all plants mainly +grow, not, as most people suppose, from the earth, but from the air. +They are for the most part mere masses of carbon-compounds, and the +carbon in them comes from the carbonic acid diffused through the +atmosphere around, and is separated by the sunlight acting in the +leaves. There it mixes with small quantities of hydrogen and nitrogen +brought by the roots from soil and water; and the starches or other +bodies thus formed are then conveyed by the sap to the places where +they will be required in the economy of the plant system. That is the +all-important fact in vegetable physiology, just as the digestion and +assimilation of food and the circulation of the blood are in our own +bodies. +</p> + +<p> +The arum, like the grain of wheat, has only a single seed-leaf; whereas +the pea, as we all know, has two. This is the most fundamental +difference among flowering plants, as it points back to an early and +deep-seated mode of growth, about which they must have split off from +one another millions of years ago. All the one-lobed plants grow with +stems like grasses or bamboos, formed by single leaves enclosing +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 sprouting head, has raised its first leaves far enough above +the ground to reach the sunlight, it begins to form fresh starches and +new leaves for itself, and ceases to be dependent upon the store laid +up in its buried lobe. Most seeds accordingly contain just enough +material to support the 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 +potato, find their seeds insufficient to keep up the race by +themselves, and so lay by abundant starches in underground branches or +tubers, for the use of new shoots; and these rich starch receptacles we +ourselves generally utilise as food-stuffs, to the manifest detriment +of the young potato-plants, for whose benefit they were originally +intended. Well, the arum has no such valuable reserve as that; it is +early cast upon its own resources, and so it shifts for itself with +resolution. Its big, glossy leaves grow apace, and soon fill out, not +only with green chlorophyll, but also with a sharp and pungent essence +which makes them burn the mouth like cayenne pepper. This acrid juice +has been acquired by the plant as a defence against its enemies. Some +early ancestor of the arums must have been liable to constant attacks +from rabbits, goats, or other herbivorous animals, and it has adopted +this means of repelling their advances. In other words, those arums +which were most palatable to the rabbits got eaten up and destroyed, +while those which were nastiest survived, and handed down their +pungency to future generations. Just in the same way nettles have +acquired their sting and thistles their prickles, which efficiently +protect them against all herbivores except the patient, hungry donkey, +who gratefully accepts them as a sort of <i>sauce piquante</i> to the +succulent stems. +</p> + +<p> +And now the arum begins its great preparations for the act of +flowering. Everybody knows the general shape of the arum blossom—if +not in our own purple cuckoo-pint, at least in the big white 'Æthiopian +lilies' which form such frequent ornaments of cottage windows. Clearly, +this is a flower which the plant cannot produce without laying up a +good stock of material beforehand. So it sets to work accumulating +starch in its root. This starch it manufactures in its leaves, and then +buries deep underground in a tuber, by means of the sap, so as to +secure it from the attacks of rodents, who too frequently appropriate +to themselves the food intended by plants for other purposes. If you +examine the tuber before the arum has blossomed, you will find it large +and solid; but if you dig it up in the autumn after the seeds have +ripened, you will see that it is flaccid and drained; all its starches +and other contents have gone to make up the flower, the fruit, and the +stalk which bore them. But the tuber has a further protection against +enemies besides its deep underground position. It contains an acrid +juice like that of the leaves, which sufficiently guards it against +four-footed depredators. Man, however, that most persistent of +persecutors, has found out a way to separate the juice from the starch; +and in St. Helena the big white arum is cultivated as a food-plant, and +yields the meal in common use among the inhabitants. +</p> + +<p> +When the arum has laid by enough starch to make a flower it begins to +send up a tall stalk, on the top of which grows the curious hooded +blossom known to be one of the earliest forms still surviving upon +earth. But now its object is to attract, not to repel, the animal +world; for it is an insect-fertilised flower, and it requires the aid +of small flies to carry the pollen from blossom to blossom. For this +purpose it has a purple sheath around its head of flowers and a tall +spike on which they are arranged in two clusters, the male blossoms +above and the female below. This spike is bright yellow in the +cultivated species. The fertilisation is one of the most interesting +episodes in all nature, but it would take too long to describe here in +full. The flies go from one arum to another, attracted by the colour, +in search of pollen; and the pistils, or female flowers, ripen first. +Then the pollen falls from the stamens or male flowers on the bodies of +the flies, and dusts them all over with yellow powder. The insects, +when once they have entered, are imprisoned until the pollen is ready +to drop, by means of several little hairs, pointing downwards, and +preventing their exit on the principle of an eel-trap or lobster-pot. +But as soon as the pollen is discharged the hairs wither away, and then +the flies are free to visit a second arum. Here they carry the +fertilising dust with which they are covered to the ripe pistils, and +so enable them to set their seed; but, instead of getting away again as +soon as they have eaten their fill, they are once more imprisoned by +the lobster-pot hairs, and dusted with a second dose of pollen, which +they carry away in turn to a third blossom. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as the pistils have been impregnated, the fruits begin to set. +Here they are, on their tall spike, whose enclosing sheath has now +withered away, while the top is at this moment slowly dwindling, so +that only the cluster of berries at its base will finally remain. The +berries will swell and grow soft, till in autumn they become a +beautiful scarlet cluster of living coral. Then once more their object +will be to attract the animal world, this time in the shape of +field-mice, squirrels, and small birds; but with a more treacherous +intent. For though the berries are beautiful and palatable enough they +are deadly poison. The robins or small rodents which eat them, +attracted by their bright colours and pleasant taste, not only aid in +dispersing them, but also die after swallowing them, and become huge +manure heaps for the growth of the young plant. So the whole cycle of +arum existence begins afresh, and there is hardly a plant in the field +around me which has not a history as strange as this one. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="IX"> </a> +IX. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>BERRIES AND BERRIES.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +This little chine, opening toward the sea through the blue lias cliffs, +has been worn to its present pretty gorge-like depth by the slow action +of its tiny stream—a mere thread of water in fine weather, that +trickles down its centre in a series of mossy cascades to the shingly +beach below. Its sides are overgrown by brambles and other prickly +brushwood, which form in places a matted and impenetrable mass: for it +is the habit of all plants protected by the defensive armour of spines +or thorns to cluster together in serried ranks, through which cattle or +other intrusive animals cannot break. Amongst them, near the down +above, I have just lighted upon a rare plant for Southern Britain—a +wild raspberry-bush in full fruit. Raspberries are common enough in +Scotland among heaps of stones on the windiest hillsides; but the south +of England is too warm and sickly for their robust tastes, and they can +only be found here in a few bleak spots like the stony edges of this +weather-beaten down above the chine. The fruit itself is quite as good +as the garden variety, for cultivation has added little to the native +virtues of the raspberry. Good old Izaak Walton is not ashamed to quote +a certain quaint saying of one Dr. Boteler concerning strawberries, and +so I suppose I need not be afraid to quote it after him. 'Doubtless,' +said the Doctor, 'God <i>could</i> have made a better berry, but +doubtless also God never did.' Nevertheless, if you try the raspberry, +picked fresh, with plenty of good country cream, you must allow that it +runs its sister fruit a neck-and-neck race. +</p> + +<p> +To compare the structure of a raspberry with that of a strawberry is a +very instructive botanical study. It shows how similar causes may +produce the same gross result in singularly different ways. Both are +roses by family, and both have flowers essentially similar to that of +the common dog-rose. But even in plants where the flowers are alike, +the fruits often differ conspicuously, because fresh principles come +into play for the dispersion and safe germination of the seed. This +makes the study of fruits the most complicated part in the unravelling +of plant life. After the strawberry has blossomed, the pulpy receptacle +on which it bore its green fruitlets begins to swell and redden, till +at length it grows into an edible berry, dotted with little yellow +nuts, containing each a single seed. But in the raspberry it is the +separate fruitlets themselves which grow soft and bright-coloured, +while the receptacle remains white and tasteless, forming the 'hull' +which we pull off from the berry when we are going to eat it. Thus the +part of the raspberry which we throw away answers to the part of the +strawberry which we eat. Only, in the raspberry the separate fruitlets +are all crowded close together into a single united mass, while in the +strawberry they are scattered about loosely, and embedded in the soft +flesh of the receptacle. The blackberry is another close relative; but +in its fruit the little pulpy fruitlets cling to the receptacle, so +that we pick and eat them both together; whereas in the raspberry the +receptacle pulls out easily, and leaves a thimble-shaped hollow in the +middle of the berry. Each of these little peculiarities has a special +meaning of its own in the history of the different plants. +</p> + +<p> +Yet the main object attained by all is in the end precisely similar. +Strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries all belong to the class of +attractive fruits. They survive in virtue of the attention paid to them +by birds and small animals. Just as the wild strawberry which I picked +in the hedgerow the other day procures the dispersion of its hard and +indigestible fruitlets by getting them eaten together with the pulpy +receptacle, so does the raspberry procure the dispersion of its soft +and sugary fruitlets by getting them eaten all by themselves. While the +strawberry fruitlets retain throughout their dry outer coating, in +those of the raspberry the external covering becomes fleshy and red, +but the inner seed has, notwithstanding, a still harder shell than the +tiny nuts of the strawberry. Now, this is the secret of nine fruits out +of ten. They are really nuts, which clothe themselves in an outer tunic +of sweet and beautifully coloured pulp. The pulp, as it were, the plant +gives in, as an inducement to the friendly bird to swallow its seed; +but the seed itself it protects by a hard stone or shell, and often by +poisonous or bitter juices within. We see this arrangement very +conspicuously in a plum, or still better in a mango; though it is +really just as evident in the raspberry, where the smaller size renders +it less conspicuous to human sight. +</p> + +<p> +It is a curious fact about the rose family that they have a very marked +tendency to produce such fleshy fruits, instead of the mere dry +seed-vessels of ordinary plants, which are named fruits only by +botanical courtesy. For example, we owe to this single family the +peach, plum, apricot, cherry, damson, pear, apple, medlar, and quince, +all of them cultivated in gardens or orchards for their fruits. The +minor group known by the poetical name of Dryads, alone supplies us +with the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, and dewberry. Even the +wilder kinds, refused as food by man, produce berries well known to our +winter birds—the haw, rose-hip, sloe, bird-cherry, and rowan. On the +other hand, the whole tribe numbers but a single thoroughgoing nut—the +almond; and even this nut, always somewhat soft-shelled and inclined to +pulpiness, has produced by a 'sport' the wholly fruit-like nectarine. +The odd thing about the rose tribe, however, is this: that the pulpy +tendency shows itself in very different parts among the various +species. In the plum it is the outer covering of the true fruit which +grows soft and coloured: in the apple it is a swollen mass of the +fruit-stalk surrounding the ovules: in the rose-hip it is the hollowed +receptacle: and in the strawberry it is the same receptacle, bulging +out in the opposite direction. Such a general tendency to display +colour and collect sugary juices in so many diverse parts may be +compared to the general bulbous tendency 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 the start in any particular +instance is increased and developed by natural selection, just as +favourable varieties of fruits or flowers are increased and developed +in cultivated species by our own gardeners. +</p> + +<p> +Sweet juices and bright colours, however, could be of no use to a plant +till there were eyes to see and tongues to taste them. A pulpy fruit is +in itself a mere waste of productive energy to its mother, unless the +pulpiness aids in the dispersion and promotes the welfare of the young +seedlings. Accordingly, we might naturally expect that there would be +no fruit-bearers on the earth until the time when fruit-eaters, actual +or potential, arrived upon the scene: or, to put it more correctly, +both must inevitably have developed simultaneously and in mutual +dependence upon one another. So we find no traces of succulent fruits +even in so late a formation as that of these lias or cretaceous cliffs. +The birds of that day were fierce-toothed carnivores, devouring the +lizards and saurians of the rank low-lying sea-marshes: the mammals +were mostly primæval kangaroos or low ancestral wombats, gentle +herbivores, or savage marsupial wolves, like the Tasmanian 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 superincumbent +pressure into solid stone, that we find the earliest traces of the rose +family, the greatest fruit-bearing tribe of our present world. And side +by side with them we find their clever arboreal allies, the ancestral +monkeys and squirrels, the primitive robins, and the yet shadowy +forefathers of our modern fruit-eating parrots. Just as bees and +butterflies necessarily trace back their geological history only to the +time of the first honey-bearing flowers, and just as the honey-bearing +flowers in turn trace back their pedigree only to the date of the +rudest and most unspecialised honey-sucking insects, so are fruits and +fruit-eaters linked together in origin by the inevitable bond of a +mutual dependence. No bee, no honey; and no honey, no bee: so, too, no +fruit, no fruit-bird; and no fruit-bird, no fruit. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="X"> </a> +X. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>DISTANT RELATIONS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Behind the old mill, whose overshot wheel, backed by a wall thickly +covered with the young creeping fronds of hart's-tongue ferns, forms +such a picturesque foreground for the view of our little valley, the +mill-stream expands into a small shallow pond, overhung at its edges by +thick-set hazel-bushes and clambering 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 simplicity of its own, which makes it +beautiful to our eyes for all that, in spite of its utilitarian origin. +At the bottom of this shallow pond you may now see a miracle daily +taking place, which but for its commonness we should regard as an +almost incredible marvel. You may there behold evolution actually +illustrating the transformation of life under your very eyes: you may +watch a low type of gill-breathing gristly-boned fish developing into +the highest form of lung-breathing terrestrial amphibian. Nay, +more—you may almost discover the earliest known ancestor of the whole +vertebrate kind, the first cousin of that once famous ascidian larva, +passing through all the upward stages of existence which finally lead +it to assume the shape of a relatively perfect four-legged animal. For +the pond is swarming with fat black tadpoles, which are just at this +moment losing their tails and developing their legs, on the way to +becoming fully formed frogs. +</p> + +<p> +The tadpole and the ascidian larva divide between them the honour of +preserving for us in all its native simplicity the primitive aspect of +the vertebrate type. Beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes have all +descended from an animal whose shape closely resembled that of these +wriggling little black creatures which dart up and down like imps +through the clear water, and raise a cloud of mud above their heads +each time that they bury themselves comfortably in the soft mud of the +bottom. But while the birds and beasts, on the one hand, have gone on +bettering themselves out of all knowledge, and while the ascidian, on +the other hand, in his adult form has dropped back into an obscure and +sedentary life—sans eyes, sans teeth, sans taste, sans everything—the +tadpole alone, at least during its early days, remains true to the +ancestral traditions of the vertebrate family. When first it emerges +from its egg it represents the very most rudimentary animal with a +backbone known to our scientific teachers. It has a big hammer-looking +head, and a set of branching outside gills, and a short distinct body, +and a long semi-transparent tail. Its backbone is a mere gristly +channel, in which lies its spinal cord. As it grows, it resembles in +every particular the ascidian larva, with which, indeed, Kowalewsky and +Professor Ray Lankester have demonstrated its essential identity. But +since a great many people seem wrongly to imagine that Professor +Lankester's opinion on this matter is in some way at variance with Mr. +Darwin's and Dr. Haeckel's, it may be well to consider what the +degeneracy of the ascidian really means. The fact is, both larval +forms—that of the frog and that of the ascidian—completely agree in +the position of their brains, their gill-slits, their very rudimentary +backbones, and their spinal cords. Moreover, we ourselves and the +tadpole agree with the ascidian in a further most important point, +which no invertebrate animal shares with us; and that is that our eyes +grow out of our brains, instead of being part of our skin, as in +insects and cuttle-fish. This would seem <i>à priori</i> a most +inconvenient place for an eye—inside the brain; but then, as Professor +Lankester cleverly suggests, our common original ancestor, the very +earliest vertebrate of all, must have been a transparent creature, and +therefore comparatively indifferent 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 had 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. +</p> + +<p> +The ascidian, however, in mature life, has grown degraded and fallen +from his high estate, owing to his bad habit of rooting himself to a +rock and there settling down into a mere sedentary 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 completely atrophied that only his earlier +history allows us to recognise him as a vertebrate by descent at all. +He is in fact a representative of retrogressive development. The +tadpole, on the contrary, goes on swimming about freely, and keeping +the use of its eyes, till at last a pair of hind legs and then a pair +of fore legs begin to bud out from its side, and its tail fades away, +and its gills disappear, and air-breathing lungs take their place, and +it boldly hops on shore a fully evolved tailless amphibian. +</p> + +<p> +There is, however, one interesting question about these two larvæ which +I should much like to solve. The ascidian has only <i>one</i> eye +inside its useless brain, while the tadpole and all other vertebrates +have <i>two</i> from the very first. Now which of us most nearly +represents the old mud-loving vertebrate ancestor in this respect? Have +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 curious cross-connection between the +eyes and the brain, so that the 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 'decussation,' as anatomists call it, affects all the +sense-organs except those of smell; but in fishes it only affects the +eyes. Now, as the young ascidian has retained the ancestral position of +his almost useless eye so steadily, it is reasonable to suppose that he +has retained its other peculiarities as well. May we not conclude, +therefore, that the primitive vertebrate had only one brain-eye; but +that afterwards, as this brain-eye grew outward to the surface, it +split up into two, because of the elongated and flattened 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 arrangement. +</p> + +<p> +It is worth noting, too, that these tadpoles, like all other very low +vertebrates, are mud-haunters; and the most primitive among adult +vertebrates are still cartilaginous mud-fish. Not much is known +geologically about the predecessors of frogs; the tailless amphibians +are late arrivals upon earth, and it may seem curious, therefore, that +they should recall in so many ways the earliest ancestral type. The +reason doubtless is because they are so much given to larval +development. Some ancestors of theirs—primæval newts or +salamanders—must have gone on for countless centuries improving +themselves in their adult shape from age to age, yet bringing all their +young into the world from the egg, as mere mud-fish still, in much the +same state as their unimproved forefathers had done millions of æons +before. Similarly, caterpillars are still all but exact patterns of the +primæval 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. Larvæ and embryos show us the original +types of each race; adults show us the total amount of change produced +by progressive or retrogressive development. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XI"> </a> +XI. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>AMONG THE HEATHER.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +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 botanising, angling, and other bad habits, +in default of means for pursuing 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 eggs have survived +till this summer, when the butterflies they produce will all be needed +to keep up next season's supply. Nevertheless, I have climbed the +highest down in this part of the country to-day, and come out for an +airing among the heather, in the vague hope that I may be lucky enough +to catch a glimpse of one or two old lepidopterous favourites. I am not +a butterfly-hunter myself. I have not the heart to drive pins through +the pretty creatures' downy bodies, or to stifle them with reeking +chemicals; though I recognise the necessity for a hardened class who +will perform that useful office on behalf of science and society, just +as I recognise the necessity for slaughtermen and knackers. But I +prefer personally to lie on the ground at my ease and learn as much +about the insect nature as I can discover from simple inspection of the +living subject as it flits airily from bunch to bunch of +bright-coloured flowers. +</p> + +<p> +I suppose even that apocryphal person, the general reader, would be +insulted at being told at this hour of the day that all bright-coloured +flowers are fertilised by the visits of insects, whose attentions they +are specially designed to solicit. Everybody has heard over and over +again that roses, orchids, and columbines have acquired their honey to +allure the friendly bee, their gaudy petals to advertise the honey, and +their divers shapes to ensure the proper fertilisation by the correct +type of insect. 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 fertilised by butterflies alone. Bees, their great +rivals in honey-sucking, frequent only the lower meadows and slopes, +where flowers are many and small: they seldom venture far from the hive +or the nest among the high peaks and chilly nooks where we find those +great patches of blue 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 but in the bud among the Scotch hills, I doubt not—specially +lays itself out for the bumblebee, and its masses form about his +highest pasture-grounds; but the butterflies—insect vagrants that they +are—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; he does not +bustle about in a business-like manner from one buttercup or +dead-nettle to its nearest fellow; but he flits joyously, like a +sauntering straggler that he is, from a great patch of colour here to +another great patch at a distance, whose gleam happens to strike his +roving eye by its size and brilliancy. Hence, as that indefatigable +observer, Dr. Hermann Müller, has noticed, all Alpine or hill-top +flowers have very large and conspicuous blossoms, generally grouped +together in big clusters so as to catch a passing glance of the +butterfly's eye. As soon as the insect spies such a cluster, the colour +seems to act as a stimulant to his broad wings, just as the +candle-light does to those of his cousin the moth. Off he sails at +once, as if by automatic action, towards the distant patch, and there +both robs the plant of its honey and at the same time carries to it on +his legs and head fertilising pollen from the last of its congeners +which he favoured 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 hybridised instead of being impregnated with +pollen from other plants of their own kind. For this purpose it is that +most plants lay themselves out to secure the attention of only two or +three varieties among their insect allies, while they make their +nectaries either too deep or too shallow for the convenience of all +other kinds. Nature, though eager for cross-fertilisation, abhors +'miscegenation' with all the bitterness of an American politician. +</p> + +<p> +Insects, however, differ much from one another in their æsthetic +tastes, and flowers are adapted accordingly to the varying fancies of +the different kinds. Here, for example, is a spray of common white +galium, which attracts and is fertilised by small flies, who generally +frequent white blossoms. But here, again, not far off, I find a +luxuriant mass of the yellow species, known by the quaint 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 Bethlehem. Now why has +this kind of galium yellow flowers, while its near kinsman yonder has +them snowy white? The reason is that lady's bedstraw is fertilised by +small beetles; and beetles are known to be one among the most +colour-loving races of insects. You may often find one of their number, +the lovely bronze and golden-mailed 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 which beetles +frequent are consequently brightly decked in scarlet or yellow. On the +other hand, the whole family of the umbellates, those tall plants with +level bunches of tiny blossoms, like the fool's parsley, have all but +universally white petals; and Müller, the 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 +remainder consisted mainly of miscellaneous small flies and other +arthropodous riff-raff; whereas in the brilliant class of composites, +including the asters, sunflowers, 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 Müller quaintly remarks, 'to a less æsthetically +cultivated circle of visitors.' But the most brilliant among all +insect-fertilised flowers are those which specially affect the society +of butterflies; and they are only surpassed in this respect throughout +all nature by the still larger and more magnificent tropical species +which owe their fertilisation to humming-birds and brush-tongued +lories. +</p> + +<p> +Is it not a curious, yet a comprehensible circumstance, that the tastes +which thus show themselves in the development, by natural selection, of +lovely flowers, should also show themselves in the marked preference +for beautiful mates? Poised on yonder sprig of harebell stands a little +purple-winged butterfly, one of the most exquisite among our British +kinds. That little butterfly owes its own rich and delicately shaded +tints to the long selective action of a million generations among its +ancestors. So we find throughout that the most beautifully coloured +birds and insects are always those which have had most to do with the +production of bright-coloured fruits and flowers. The butterflies and +rose-beetles are the most gorgeous among insects: the humming-birds and +parrots are the most gorgeous among birds. Nay more, exactly like +effects have been produced in two hemispheres on different tribes by +the same causes. The plain brown swifts of the North have developed +among tropical West Indian and South American orchids the metallic +gorgets and crimson crests of the humming-bird: while a totally unlike +group of Asiatic birds have developed among the rich flora of India and +the Malay Archipelago the exactly similar plumage of the exquisite +sun-birds. Just as bees depend upon flowers, and flowers upon bees, so +the colour-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. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XII"> </a> +XII. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>SPECKLED TROUT.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +It is a piece of the common vanity of anglers to suppose that they know +something about speckled trout. A fox might almost as well pretend that +he was intimately acquainted with the domestic habits of poultry, or an +Iroquois describe the customs of the Algonquins from observations made +upon the specimens who had come under his scalping-knife. I will allow +that anglers are well versed in the necessity for fishing up-stream +rather than in the opposite direction; and I grant that they have +attained an empirical knowledge of the æsthetic preferences of trout in +the matter 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 quietly to the side of the pools in an unfished brooklet, like +this on whose 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 the +live fish themselves for an hour together, as they bask lazily in the +sunlight, 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 the +surface of the stream. The 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 contemplation, +without any danger of their being scared away from their accustomed +haunts by intrusive anglers. +</p> + +<p> +Trout always have a recognised home of their own, inhabited by a pretty +fixed number of individuals. But if you catch the two sole denizens of +a particular scour, you will find another pair installed in their place +to-morrow. Young fry seem always ready to fill up the vacancies caused +by the involuntary retirement of their elders. Their size depends +almost entirely upon the quantity 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 attain. Mr. Herbert Spencer, +who is an angler as well as a philosopher, well observes that where the +trout are many they are generally small; and where they are large they +are generally few. In the mill-stream down the valley they measure only +six inches, though you may fill a basket easily enough on a cloudy day; +but in the canal reservoir, where there are only half-a-dozen fish +altogether, a magnificent eight-pounder has been taken more than once. +In this way we can understand the origin of the great lake trout, which +weigh sometimes forty pounds. They are common trout which have taken to +living in broader waters, where large food is far more abundant, but +where shoals of small fish would starve. The peculiarities thus +impressed upon them have been handed down to their descendants, till at +length they have become sufficiently marked to justify us in regarding +them as a separate species. But it is difficult to say what makes a +species in animals so very variable as fish. There are, in fact, no +less than twelve kinds of trout wholly peculiar to the British Islands, +and some of these are found in very restricted areas. Thus, the Loch +Stennis trout inhabits only the tarns of Orkney; the Galway sea trout +lives nowhere but along the west coast of Ireland; 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 exclusively to +the Llanberis 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 habitat. Even the salmon himself is only a +river trout who has acquired the habit of going down to the sea, where +he gets immensely increased quantities of food (for all the trout kind +are almost omnivorous), and grows big in proportion. But he still +retains many marks of his early existence as a river fish. In the first +place, every salmon 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 species. It really represents, however, +the early form of the salmon, before he took to his annual excursion to +the sea. The ancestral fish, only a hundredth fraction in weight of his +huge descendant, must have somehow acquired the habit of going +seaward—possibly from a drying up of his native stream in seasons of +drought. In the sea, he found himself suddenly supplied with an +unwonted store of food, and grew, like all his kind under similar +circumstances, to an extraordinary size. Thus he attains, as it were, +to a second and final maturity. But salmon cannot lay their eggs in the +sea; or at least, if they did, the young parr would starve for want of +their proper food, or else be choked by the salt water, to which the +old fish have acclimatised themselves. Accordingly, with the return of +the spawning season there comes back an instinctive desire to seek once +more the native fresh water. So the salmon return up stream to spawn, +and the young are hatched in the kind of surroundings which best suit +their tender gills. This instinctive longing for the old home may +probably have arisen during an intermediate stage, when the developing +species still haunted only the brackish water near the river mouths; +and as those fish alone which returned to the head waters could +preserve their race, it would soon grow hardened into a habit engrained +in the nervous system, like the migration of birds or the clustering of +swarming bees around their queen. In like manner the Jamaican +land-crabs, which themselves live on the mountain-tops, come down every +year to lay their eggs in the Caribbean; because, like all other crabs, +they pass their first larval stage as swimming tadpoles, and afterwards +take instinctively to the mountains, as the salmon takes to the sea. +Such a habit could only have arisen by one generation after another +venturing further and further inland, while always returning at the +proper season to the native element for the deposition of the eggs. +</p> + +<p> +These trout here, however, differ from the salmon in one important +particular beside their relative size, and that is that they are +beautifully speckled in their mature form, instead of being merely +silvery like the larger species. The origin of the pretty speckles is +probably to be found in the constant selection by the fish of the most +beautiful among their number as mates. Just as singing birds are in +their fullest and clearest song at the nesting period, and just as many +brilliant species only possess their gorgeous plumage while they are +going through their courtship, and lose the decoration after the young +brood is hatched, so the trout are most brightly coloured at spawning +time, and become lank and dingy after the eggs have been safely +deposited. The parent fish ascend to the head-waters of their native +river during the autumn season to spawn, and then, their glory dimmed, +they return down-stream to the deep pools, where they pass the winter +sulkily, as if ashamed to show themselves in their dull and dusky +suits. But when spring comes round once more, and flies again become +abundant, the trout begin to move up-stream afresh, and soon fatten out +to their customary size and brilliant colours. It might seem at first +sight that creatures so humble as these little fish could hardly have +sufficiently developed aesthetic tastes to prefer one mate above +another on the score of beauty. But we must remember that 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 one +another, so that extremely minute differences must necessarily turn the +scale in favour of one particular suitor rather than his rivals. +Anglers know that trout are attracted by bright colours, that they can +distinguish the different flies upon which they feed, and that +artificial flies must accordingly be made at least into a rough +semblance of the original insects. Some scientific fishermen even +insist that it is no use offering them a brown drake at the time of +year or the hour of day when they are naturally expecting 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 an acute perception +of colour, while there is every reason to believe that all the trout +family have a decided love of metallic glitter, such as that of silver +or of the salmon's scales. Mr. Darwin has shown that the little +stickleback goes through an elaborate courtship, 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 salmon fry and young +trout are almost quite indistinguishable, being both marked with blue +patches (known as 'finger-marks') on their sides, which are remnants of +the ancestral colouring once common to the whole race. But as they grow +up, their later-acquired tastes begin to produce a divergence, due +originally to this selective preference of certain beautiful mates; and +the adult salmon clothes himself from head to tail in sheeny silver, +while the full-grown trout decks his sides with the beautiful speckles +which have earned him his popular name. Countless generations of slight +differences, selected from time to time by the strongest and handsomest +fish, have sufficed at length to bring about these conspicuous +variations from the primitive type, which the young of both races still +preserve. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XIII"> </a> +XIII. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>DODDER AND BROOMRAPE.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +This afternoon, strolling through the under-cliff, I have come across +two quaint and rather uncommon flowers among the straggling brushwood. +One 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 convolvulus blossoms. The stem consists of a long red +thread, twining round and round the gorse, and bursting out here and +there into thick bundles of beautiful bell-shaped flowers. But where +are the leaves? You may trace the red threads through their +labyrinthine windings 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 one of the most thorough-going parasites in all nature. +Ordinary green-leaved plants live by making starches for themselves out +of the carbonic acid in the air, under the influence of sunlight; but +the dodder simply fastens itself on to another plant, sends down +rootlets or suckers into its veins, and drinks up sap stored with +ready-made starches or other foodstuffs, originally destined by its +host for the supply of its own growing leaves, branches, and blossoms. +It lives upon the gorse just as parasitically as the little green +aphides live upon our rose-bushes. The material which it uses up in +pushing forth its long thread-like stem and clustered bells is so much +dead loss to the unfortunate plant on which it has fixed itself. +</p> + +<p> +Old-fashioned books tell us that the mistletoe is a perfect parasite, +while the dodder is an imperfect one; and I believe almost all +botanists will still repeat the foolish saying to the present day. But +it really shows considerable haziness as to what a true parasite is. +The mistletoe is a plant which has taken, it is true, to growing upon +other trees. Its very viscid berries are useful for attaching the seeds +to the trunk of the oak or the apple; and there it roots itself into +the body of its host. But it soon produces real green leaves of its +own, which contain the ordinary chlorophyll found in other leaves, and +help it to manufacture starch, under the influence of sunlight, on its +own account. It is not, therefore, a complete drag upon the tree which +it infests; for though it takes sap and mineral food from the host, it +supplies itself with carbon, which is after all the important thing for +plant-life. Dodder, 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 produced leaves of its own, like the +honeysuckle and the clematis, there would be no great harm done: and +the dodder would be but another climbing plant the more in our flora. +However, it soon insidiously repays the support given it by sending +down little bud-like suckers, through which it draws up nourishment +from the gorse or clover on which it lives. Thus it has no need to +develop leaves of its own; and it accordingly employs all its stolen +material in sending forth matted thread-like stems and bunch after +bunch of bright flowers. As these increase and multiply, they at last +succeed in drawing away all the nutriment from the supporting plant, +which finally dies under the constant drain, just as a horse might die +under the attacks of a host of leeches. But this matters little to the +dodder, which has had time to be visited and fertilised by insects, and +to set and ripen its numerous seeds. One species, the greater dodder, +is thus parasitic upon hops and nettles; a second kind twines round +flax; and the third, which I have here under my eyes, mainly confines +its dangerous attentions to gorse, clover, and thyme. All of them are, +of course, deadly enemies to the plants they infest. +</p> + +<p> +How the dodder acquired this curious mode of life it is not difficult +to see. By descent it is a bind-weed, or wild convolvulus, and its +blossoms are in the main miniature convolvulus blossoms still. Now, all +bind-weeds, as everybody knows, are climbing plants, which twine +themselves round stouter stems for mere physical support This is in +itself a half-parasitic habit, because it enables the plant to dispense +with the trouble of making a thick and solid stem for its own use. But +just suppose that any bind-weed, instead of merely twining, were to put +forth here and there little tendrils, something like those of the ivy, +which managed somehow to grow into the 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 be expected to grow strong and healthy, and hand +down its peculiarities to its descendants. As the leaves would thus be +rendered needless, they would first become very much reduced in size, +and would finally disappear altogether, according to the universal +custom of unnecessary organs. So we should get at length a leafless +plant, with numerous flowers and seeds, just like the dodder. +Parasites, in fact, whether animal or vegetable, always end by becoming +mere reproductive sacs, mechanisms for the simple elaboration of eggs +or seeds. This is just what has happened to the dodder before me. +</p> + +<p> +The other queer plant here is a broomrape. It consists of a tall, +somewhat faded-looking stem, upright instead of climbing, and covered +with brown or purplish scales in the place of leaves. Its flowers +resemble the scales in colour, and the dead-nettle in shape. It is, in +fact, a parasitic dead-nettle, a trifle less degenerate as yet than the +dodder. This broomrape has acquired somewhat the same habits as the +other plant, only that it fixes itself on the roots of clover or broom, +from which it sucks nutriment by its own root, as the dodder does by +its stem-suckers. Of course it still retains in most particulars its +original characteristics as a dead-nettle; it grows with their upright +stem and their curiously shaped flowers, so specially adapted for +fertilisation by insect visitors. But it has naturally lost its leaves, +for which it has no further use, and it possesses no chlorophyll, as +the mistletoe does. Yet it has not probably been parasitic for as long +a time as the dodder, since it still retains a dwindling trace of its +leaves in the shape of dry purply scales, something like those of young +asparagus shoots. These leaves are now, in all likelihood, actually +undergoing a gradual atrophy, and we may fairly expect that in the +course of a few thousand years they will disappear altogether. At +present, however, they remain very conspicuous by their colour, which +is not green, owing to the absence of chlorophyll, but is due to the +same pigment as that of the blossoms. This generally happens with +parasites, or with that other curious sort of plants known as +saprophytes, which live upon decaying living matter in the mould of +forests. As they need no green leaves, but have often inherited leafy +structures of some sort, in a more or less degenerate condition, from +their self-supporting ancestors, they usually display most beautiful +colours in their stems and scales, and several of them rank amongst our +handsomest hot-house plants. Even the dodder has red stalks. Their only +work in life being to elaborate the materials stolen from their host +into the brilliant pigments used in the petals for attracting insect +fertilisers, they pour this same dye into the stems and scales, which +thus render them still more conspicuous to the insects' eyes. Moreover, +as they use their whole material in producing flowers, many of these +are 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 numerous. Thousands of seeds 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 one destined ultimately to survive that dodders and +broomrapes manage to preserve their types at all. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XIV"> </a> +XIV. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>DOG'S MERCURY AND PLANTAIN.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +The hedge and bank in Haye Lane are now a perfect tangled mass of +creeping plants, among which I have just picked out a queer little +three-cornered flower, hardly known even to village children, but +christened by our old herbalists 'dog's mercury.' It is an ancient +trick of language to call coarser or larger plants by the specific +title of some smaller or cultivated kind, with the 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 the same principle, a somewhat similar plant being +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 the eyes of old-fashioned practitioners. +</p> + +<p> +Dog's mercury is one of the oddest English flowers I know. Each blossom +has three small green petals, and either several stamens, or else a +pistil, in the centre. There is nothing particularly remarkable in the +flower being green, for thousands of other flowers are green and we +never notice them as in any way unusual. In fact, we never as a rule +notice green blossoms at all. Yet anybody who picked a piece of dog's +mercury could not fail to be struck by its curious appearance. It does +not in the least resemble the inconspicuous green flowers of the +stinging-nettle, or of most forest trees: it has a very distinct set of +petals which at once impress one with the idea that they ought to be +coloured. And so indeed they ought: for dog's mercury is a degenerate +plant which once possessed a brilliant corolla and was fertilised by +insects, but which has now fallen from its high estate and reverted to +the less advanced mode of fertilisation by the intermediation of the +wind. For some unknown reason or other this species and all its +relations have discovered that they get on better by the latter and +usually more wasteful plan than by the former and usually more +economical one. Hence they have given up producing large bright petals, +because they no longer need to attract the eyes of insects; and they +have also given up the manufacture of honey, which under their new +circumstances would be a mere waste of substance to them. But the dog's +mercury still retains a distinct mark of its earlier insect-attracting +habits in these three diminutive petals. Others of its relations have +lost even these, so that the original floral form is almost completely +obscured in their case. The spurges are familiar English roadside +examples, and their flowers are so completely degraded that even +botanists for a long time mistook their nature and analogies. +</p> + +<p> +The male and female flowers of dog's mercury have taken to living upon +separate plants. Why is this? Well, there was no doubt a time when +every blossom had both stamens and pistil, as dog-roses and buttercups +always have. But when the plant took to wind fertilisation it underwent +a change of structure. The stamens on some blossoms became aborted, +while the pistil became aborted on others. This was necessary in order +to prevent self-fertilisation; for otherwise the pollen of each +blossom, hanging out as it does to the wind, would have been very +liable to fall upon its own pistil. But the present arrangement +obviates any such contingency, by making one plant bear all the male +flowers and another plant all the female ones. Why, again, are the +petals green? I think because dog's mercury would be positively injured +by the visits of insects. It has no honey to offer them, and if they +came to it at all, they would only eat up the pollen itself. Hence I +suspect that those flowers among the mercuries which showed any +tendency to retain the original coloured petals would soon get weeded +out, because insects would eat up all their pollen, thus preventing +them from fertilising others; while those which had green petals would +never be noticed and so would be permitted to fertilise one another +after their new fashion. In fact, when a blossom which has once +depended upon insects for its fertilisation is driven by circumstances +to depend upon the wind, it seems to derive a positive advantage from +losing all those attractive features by which its ancestors formerly +allured the eyes of bees or beetles. +</p> + +<p> +Here, again, on the roadside is a bit of plantain. Everybody 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 time it was a sort of distant cousin to the +veronica, that pretty sky-blue speedwell which abounds among the +meadows in June and July. But these particular speedwells gave up +devoting themselves to insects and became adapted for fertilisation 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 +blossoms, whose pale and faded petals are tucked away out of sight flat +against the stem. Yet their shape and arrangement distinctly recall the +beautiful veronica, and leave one in little doubt as to the origin of +the plant. At the same time a curious device has sprung up which +answers just the same purpose as the separation of the male and female +flowers on the dog's mercury. Each plantain blossom has both stamens +and pistils, but the pistils come to maturity first, and are fertilised +by pollen blown to them from some neighbouring spike. Their feathery +plumes are admirably adapted for catching and utilising any stray +golden grain which happens to pass that way. After the pistils have +faded, the stamens ripen, and hang out at the end of long waving +filaments, so as to discharge all their pollen with effect. On each +spike of blossoms the lower flowerets open first; and so, if you pick a +half-blown spike, you will see that all the stamens are ripe below, and +all the pistils above. Were the opposite arrangement to occur, the +pollen would fall from the stamens to the lower flowers of the same +stalk; but as the pistils below have always been fertilised and +withered before the stamens ripen, there is no chance of any such +accident and its consequent evil results. Thus one can see clearly that +the plantain has become wholly adapted to wind-fertilisation, and as a +natural effect has all but lost its bright-coloured corolla. +</p> + +<p> +Common groundsel is also a case of the same kind; but here the +degradation has not gone nearly so far. I venture to conjecture, +therefore, that groundsel has been embarked for a shorter time upon its +downward course. For evolution is not, as most people seem to fancy, a +thing which used once to take place; it is a process taking place +around us every day, and it must necessarily continue to take place to +the end of all time. By family the groundsel is a daisy; but it has +acquired the strange and somewhat abnormal habit of self-fertilisation, +which in all probability will ultimately lead to its total extinction. +Hence it does not need the assistance of insects; and it has +accordingly never developed or else got rid of the bright outer +ray-florets which may once have attracted them. Its tiny bell-shaped +blossoms still retain their dwarf yellow corollas; but they are almost +hidden by the green cup-like investment of the flower-head, and they +are not conspicuous enough to arrest the attention of the passing +flies. Here, then, we have an example of a plant just beginning to +start on the retrograde path already traversed by the plantain and the +spurges. If we could meet prophetically with a groundsel of some remote +future century, I have little doubt we should find its bell-shaped +petals as completely degraded as those of the plantain in our own day. +</p> + +<p> +The general principle which these cases illustrate is that when flowers +have always been fertilised by the wind, they never have brilliant +corollas; when they acquire the habit of impregnating their kind by the +intervention of insects, they almost always acquire at the same time +alluring colours, perfumes, and honey; and when they have once been so +impregnated, and then revert once more to wind-fertilisation, or become +self-fertilisers, they generally retain some symptoms of their earlier +habits, in the presence of dwarfed and useless petals, sometimes green, +or if not green at least devoid of their former attractive colouring. +Thus every plant bears upon its very face the history of its whole +previous development. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XV"> </a> +XV. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +A small red-and-black butterfly poises statuesque above the purple +blossom of this tall field-thistle. With its long sucker it probes +industriously floret after floret of the crowded head, and extracts +from each its wee drop of buried nectar. As it stands just at present, +the dull outer sides of its four wings are alone displayed, so that it +does not form a conspicuous mark for passing birds; but when it has +drunk up the last drop of honey from the thistle flower, and flits +joyously away to seek another purple mass of the same sort, it will +open its red-spotted vans in the sunlight, and will then show itself +off as one among the prettiest of our native insects. Each thistle-head +consists of some two hundred separate little bell-shaped blossoms, +crowded together for the sake of conspicuousness into a single group, +just as the blossoms of the lilac or the syringa are crowded into +larger though less dense clusters; and, as each separate floret has a +nectary of its own, the bee or butterfly who lights upon the compound +flower-group can busy himself for a minute or two in getting at the +various drops of honey without the necessity for any further change of +position than that of revolving upon his own axis. Hence these +composite flowers are great favourites with all insects whose suckers +are long enough to reach the bottom of their slender tubes. +</p> + +<p> +The butterfly's view of life is doubtless on the whole a cheerful one. +Yet his existence must be something so nearly mechanical that we +probably overrate the amount of enjoyment which he derives from +flitting about so airily among the flowers, and passing his days in the +unbroken amusement of sucking liquid honey. Subjectively viewed, the +butterfly is not a high order of insect; his nervous system does not +show that provision for comparatively spontaneous thought and action +which we find in the more intelligent orders, like the flies, bees, +ants, and wasps. His nerves are all frittered away in little separate +ganglia distributed among the various segments of his body, instead of +being governed by a single great central organ, or brain, whose +business it always is to correlate and co-ordinate complex external +impressions. This shows that the butterfly's movements are almost all +automatic, or simply dependent upon immediate external stimulants: he +has not even that small capacity for deliberation and spontaneous +initiative which belongs to his relation the bee. The freedom of the +will is nothing to him, or extends at best to the amount claimed on +behalf of Buridan's ass: he can just choose which of two equidistant +flowers shall first have the benefit of his attention, and nothing +else. Whatever view we take on the abstract metaphysical question, it +is at least certain that the higher animals can do much more than this. +Their brain is able to correlate a vast number of external impressions, +and to bring them under the influence of endless ideas or experiences, +so as finally to evolve conduct which differs very widely with +different circumstances and different characters. Even though it be +true, as determinists believe (and I reckon myself among them), that +such conduct is the necessary result of a given character and given +circumstances—or, if you will, of a particular set of nervous +structures and a particular set of external stimuli—yet we all know +that it is capable of varying so indefinitely, owing to the complexity +of the structures, as to be practically incalculable. But it is not so +with the butterfly. His whole life is cut out for him beforehand; his +nervous connections are so simple, and correspond so directly with +external stimuli, that we can almost predict with certainty what line +of action he will pursue under any given circumstances. He is, as it +were, but a piece of half-conscious mechanism, answering immediately to +impulses from without, just as the thermometer answers to variations of +temperature, and as the telegraphic indicator answers to each making +and breaking of the electric current. +</p> + +<p> +In early life the future butterfly emerges from the egg as a +caterpillar. At once his many legs begin to move, and the caterpillar +moves forward by their motion. But the mechanism which set them moving +was the nervous system, with its ganglia working the separate legs of +each segment. This movement is probably quite as automatic as the act +of sucking in the new-born infant. The caterpillar walks, it knows not +why, but simply because it has to walk. When it reaches a fit place for +feeding, which differs according to the nature of the particular larva, +it feeds automatically. Certain special external stimulants of sight, +smell, or touch set up the appropriate actions in the mandibles, just +as contact of the lips with an external body sets up sucking in the +infant. All these movements depend upon what we call instinct—that is +to say, organic habits registered in the nervous system of the race. +They have arisen by natural selection alone, because those insects +which duly performed them survived, and those which did not duly +perform them died out. After a considerable span of life spent in +feeding and walking about in search of more food, the caterpillar one +day found itself compelled by an inner monitor to alter its habits. +Why, it knew not; but, just as a tired child sinks to sleep, the gorged +and full-fed caterpillar sank peacefully into a dormant state. Then its +tissues melted one by one into a kind of organic pap, and its outer +skin hardened into a chrysalis. Within that solid case new limbs and +organs began to grow by hereditary impulses. At the same time the form +of the nervous system altered, to suit the higher and freer life for +which the insect was unconsciously preparing itself. Fewer and smaller +ganglia now appeared in the tail segments (since no legs would any +longer be needed there), while more important ones sprang up to govern +the motions of the four wings. But it was in the head that the greatest +changes took place. There, a rudimentary brain made its appearance, +with large optic centres, answering to the far more perfect and +important eyes of the future butterfly. For the flying insect will have +to steer its way through open space, instead of creeping over leaves +and stones; and it will have to suck the honey of flowers, as well as +to choose its fitting mate, all of which demands from it higher and +keener senses than those of the purblind caterpillar. At length one day +the chrysalis bursts asunder, and the insect emerges to view on a +summer morning as a full-fledged and beautiful butterfly. +</p> + +<p> +For a minute or two it stands and waits till the air it breathes has +filled out its wings, and till the warmth and sunlight have given it +strength. For the wings are by origin a part of the breathing +apparatus, and they require to be plimmed by the air before the insect +can take to flight. Then, as it grows more accustomed to its new life, +the hereditary impulse causes it to spread its vans abroad, and it +flies. Soon a flower catches its eye, and the bright mass of colour +attracts it irresistibly, as the candle-light attracts the eye of a +child a few weeks old. It sets off towards the patch of red or yellow, +probably not knowing beforehand that this is the visible symbol of food +for it, but merely guided by the blind habit of its race, imprinted +with binding force in the very constitution of its body. Thus the +moths, which fly by night and visit only white flowers whose corollas +still shine out in the twilight, are so irresistibly led on by the +external stimulus of light from a candle falling upon their eyes that +they cannot choose but move their wings rapidly in that direction; and +though singed and blinded twice or three times by the flame, must still +wheel and eddy into it, till at last they perish in the scorching +blaze. Their instincts, or, to put it more clearly, their simple +nervous mechanism, though admirably adapted to their natural +circumstances, cannot be equally adapted to such artificial objects as +wax candles. The butterfly in like manner is attracted automatically by +the colour of his proper flowers, and settling upon them, sucks up +their honey instinctively. But feeding is not now his only object in +life: he has to find and pair with a suitable mate. That, indeed, is +the great end of his winged existence. Here, again, his simple nervous +system stands him in good stead. The picture of his kind is, as it +were, imprinted on his little brain, and he knows his own mates the +moment he sees them, just as intuitively as he knows the flowers upon +which he must feed. Now we see the reason for the butterfly's large +optic centres: they have to guide it in all its movements. In like +manner, and by a like mechanism, the female butterfly or moth selects +the right spot for laying her eggs, which of course depends entirely +upon the nature of the young caterpillars' proper food. Each great +group of insects has its own habits in this respect, may-flies laying +their eggs on the water, many beetles on wood, flies on decaying animal +matter, and butterflies mostly on special plants. Thus throughout its +whole life the butterfly's activity is entirely governed by a rigid +law, registered and fixed for ever in the constitution of its ganglia +and motor nerves. Certain definite objects outside it invariably +produce certain definite movements on the insect's part. No doubt it is +vaguely conscious of all that it does: no doubt it derives a faint +pleasure from due exercise of all its vital functions, and a faint pain +when they are injured or thwarted; but on the whole its range of action +is narrowed and bounded by its hereditary instincts and their nervous +correlatives. It may light on one flower rather than another; it may +choose a fresher and brighter mate rather than a battered and dingy +one; but its little subjectivity is a mere shadow compared with ours, +and it hardly deserves to be considered as more than a semi-conscious +automatic machine. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XVI"> </a> +XVI. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>BUTTERFLY ÆSTHETICS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +The other day, when I was watching that little red-spotted butterfly +whose psychology I found so interesting, I hardly 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 +second great point is to understand that they are probably something +more than that as well. To-day I have found another 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 intellectually, a +cunning bit of nervous machinery, may it not be true at the same time +that he is, viewed emotionally, a faint copy of ourselves? +</p> + +<p> +Here he stands on a purple thistle again, true, as usual, to the plant +on which I last found him. There can be no doubt that he distinguishes +one colour from another, for you can artificially attract him by +putting a piece of purple paper on a green leaf, just as the flower +naturally attracts him with its native hue. Numerous observations and +experiments have proved with all but absolute certainty that his +discrimination of colour is essentially identical with our own; and I +think, if we run our eye up and down nature, observing how universally +all animals are attracted by pure and bright colours, we can hardly +doubt that he appreciates and admires colour as well as discriminates +it. Mr. Darwin certainly judges that butterflies can show an æsthetic +preference of the sort, for he sets down their own lovely hues to the +constant sexual selection of the handsomest mates. We must not, +however, take too human a measure of their capacities in this respect. +It is sufficient to believe that the insect derives some direct +enjoyment from the stimulation of pure colour, and is hereditarily +attracted by it wherever it may show itself. This pleasure draws it on, +on the one hand, towards the gay flowers which form its natural food; +and, on the other hand, towards its own brilliant mates. Imprinted on +its nervous system is a certain blank form answering to its own +specific type; and when the object corresponding to this blank form +occurs in its neighbourhood, 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 the 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 reddest 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 butterflies. Insects always accustomed to exercising their +colour-sense upon flowers and mates, may easily acquire a high standard +of taste in that direction, while still remaining comparatively in a +low stage as regards their intellectual condition. But the fact I wish +especially to emphasise is this—that the flowers produced by the +colour-sense of butterflies and their allies are just those objects +which we ourselves consider most lovely in nature; and that the marks +and shades upon their own wings, produced by the long selective action +of their mates, are just the things which we ourselves consider most +beautiful in the animal world. In this respect, then, there seems to be +a close community of taste and feeling between the butterfly and +ourselves. +</p> + +<p> +Let me note, too, just in passing, that while the upper half of the +butterfly's wing is generally beautiful in colour, so as to attract his +fastidious mate, the under half, displayed while he is at rest, is +almost always dull, and often resembles the plant upon which he +habitually alights. The first set of colours is obviously due to sexual +selection, and has for its object the making of an effective courtship; +but the second set is obviously due to natural selection, and has been +produced by the fact that all those insects whose bright colours show +through too vividly when they are at rest fall a prey to birds or other +enemies, leaving only the best protected to continue the life of the +species. +</p> + +<p> +But sight is not the only important sense to the butterfly. He is +largely moved and guided by smell as well. Both bees and butterflies +seem largely to select the flowers they visit by means of smell, though +colour 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. Bastian says, there seems +good reason for believing 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 butterflies are +not only coloured but sweetly scented; and it is to this cause that we +owe the perfumes of the rose, the lily-of-the-valley, the heliotrope, +the jasmine, the violet, and the stephanotis. Night-flowering plants, +which depend entirely for their fertilisation upon moths, are almost +always white, and have usually very powerful perfumes. 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? +Here, again, we see that the æsthetic 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. +</p> + +<p> +Finally, if we look at the sense of taste, we find an equally curious +agreement between men and insects; for the honey which is stored by the +flower for the bee, and by the bee for its own use, is stolen and eaten +up by man instead. Hence, when I consider the general continuity of +nervous structure throughout the whole animal race, and the exact +similarity of the stimulus in each instance, I can hardly doubt that +the butterfly really enjoys life somewhat as we enjoy it, though far +less vividly. I cannot but think that he finds honey sweet, and +perfumes pleasant, and colour attractive; that he feels a lightsome +gladness as he 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 animal world, save only in a few +aberrant types, sugar is sweet to taste, and thyme to smell, and song +to hear, and sunshine to bask in. Therefore, on the whole, while I +admit that the butterfly is mainly an animated puppet, I must qualify +my opinion by adding that it is a puppet which, after its vague little +fashion, thinks and feels very much as we do. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XVII"> </a> +XVII. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>THE ORIGIN OF WALNUTS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Mr. Darwin has devoted no small portion of his valuable life to +tracing, in two bulky volumes, the Descent of Man. Yet I suppose it is +probable that in our narrow anthropinism we should have refused to +listen to him had he given us two volumes instead on the Descent of +Walnuts. Viewed as a question merely of biological science, the one +subject is just as important as the other. But the old Greek doctrine +that 'man is the measure of all things' is strong in us still. We form +for ourselves a sort of pre-Copernican universe, in which the world +occupies the central point of space, and man occupies the central point +of the world. What touches man interests us deeply: what concerns him +but slightly we pass over as of no consequence. Nevertheless, even the +origin and development of walnuts is a subject upon which we may +profitably reflect, not wholly without gratification and interest. +</p> + +<p> +This kiln-dried walnut on my plate, which has suggested such abstract +cogitations to my mind, is shown by its very name to be a foreign +production; for the word contains the same root as Wales and Welsh, the +old Teutonic name for men of a different race, which the Germans still +apply to the Italians, and we ourselves to the last relics of the old +Keltic population in Southern Britain. It means 'the foreign nut,' and +it comes for the most part from the south of Europe. As a nut, it +represents a very different type of fruit from the strawberry and +raspberry, with their bright colours, sweet juices, and nutritious +pulp. Those fruits which alone bear the name in common parlance are +attractive in their object; the nuts are deterrent. An orange or a plum +is brightly tinted with hues which contrast strongly with the +surrounding foliage; its pleasant taste and soft pulp all advertise it +for the notice of birds or monkeys, as a means for assisting in the +dispersion of its seed. But a nut, on the contrary, is a fruit whose +actual seed contains an abundance of oils and other pleasant +food-stuffs, which must be carefully guarded against the depredations +of possible foes. In the plum or the orange we do not eat the seed +itself: we only eat the surrounding pulp. But in the walnut the part +which we utilise is the embryo plant itself; and so the walnut's great +object in life is to avoid being eaten. Accordingly, that part of the +fruit which in the plum is stored with sweet juices is, in the walnut, +filled with a bitter and very nauseous essence. We seldom see this +bitter covering in our over-civilised life, because it is, of course, +removed before the nuts come to table. The walnut has but a thin shell, +and is poorly protected in comparison with some of its relations, such +as the American butternut, which can only be cracked by a sharp blow +from a hammer—or even the hickory, whose hard covering has done more +to destroy the teeth of New Englanders than all other causes put +together, and New England teeth are universally admitted to be the very +worst in the world. Now, all nuts have to guard against squirrels and +birds; and therefore their peculiarities are exactly opposite to those +of succulent fruits. Instead of attracting attention by being brightly +coloured, they are invariably green like the leaves while they remain +on the tree, and brown or dusky like the soil when they fall upon the +ground beneath; instead of being enclosed in sweet coats, they are +provided with bitter, acrid, or stinging husks; and, instead of being +soft in texture, they are surrounded by hard shells, like the coco-nut, +or have a perfectly solid kernel, like the vegetable ivory. +</p> + +<p> +The origin of nuts is thus exactly the reverse side of the origin of +fruits. Certain seeds, richly stored with oils and starches for aiding +the growth of the young plant, are exposed to the attacks of squirrels, +monkeys, parrots, and other arboreal animals. The greater part of them +are eaten and completely destroyed by these their enemies, and so never +hand down their peculiarities to any descendants. But all fruits vary a +little in sweetness and bitterness, pulpy or stringy tendencies. Thus a +few among them happen to be protected from destruction by their +originally accidental possession of a bitter husk, a hard shell, or a +few awkward spines and bristles. These the monkeys and squirrels +reject; and they alone survive as the parents of future generations. +The more persistent and the hungrier their foes become, the less will a +small degree of bitterness or hardness serve to protect them. Hence, +from generation to generation, the bitterness and the hardness will go +on increasing, because only those nuts which are the nastiest and the +most difficult to crack will escape destruction from the teeth or bills +of the growing and pressing population of rodents and birds. The nut +which best survives on the average is that which is least conspicuous +in colour, has a rind of the most objectionable taste, and is enclosed +in the most solid shell. But the extent to which such precautions +become necessary will depend much upon the particular animals to whose +attacks the nuts of each country are exposed. The European walnut has +only to defy a few small woodland animals, who are sufficiently +deterred by its acrid husk; the American butter-nut has to withstand +the long teeth of much more formidable forestine rodents, whom it sets +at nought with its stony and wrinkled shell; and the tropical cocos and +Brazil nuts have to escape the monkey, who pounds them with stones, or +flings them with all his might from the tree-top so as to smash them in +their fall against the ground below. +</p> + +<p> +Our own hazel-nut supplies an excellent illustration of the general +tactics adopted by the nuts at large. The little red tufted blossoms +which everybody knows so well in early spring are each surrounded by a +bunch of three bracts; and as the nut grows bigger, these bracts form a +green leaf-like covering, which causes it to look very much like the +ordinary foliage of the hazel-tree. Besides, they are thickly set with +small prickly hairs, which are extremely annoying to the fingers, 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 shade +from the nuts themselves. Take, as an example of the more carefully +protected tropical kinds, the coco-nut. Growing on a very tall +palm-tree, it has to fall a considerable distance toward the earth; and +so it is wrapped round in a mass of loose knotted fibre, which breaks +the fall just as a lot of soft wool would do. Then, being a large nut, +fully stored with an abundance of meat, it offers special attractions +to animals, and consequently requires special means of defence. +Accordingly, its shell is extravagantly thick, only one small soft spot +being left at the blunter end, through which the young plant may push +its head. Once upon a time, to be sure, the coco-nut contained three +kernels, and had three such soft spots or holes; but now two of them +are aborted, and the two holes remain only in the form of hard scars. +The Brazil nut is even a better illustration. Probably few people know +that the irregular angular nuts which appear at dessert by that name +are originally contained inside a single round shell, where they fit +tightly together, and acquire their queer indefinite shapes by mutual +pressure. So the South American monkey has first to crack the thick +external common shell against a stone or otherwise; and, if he is +successful in this process, he must afterwards break the separate +sharp-edged inner nuts with his teeth—a performance which is always +painful and often ineffectual. +</p> + +<p> +Yet it is curious that nuts and fruits are really produced by the very +slightest variations on a common type, so much so that the technical +botanist does not recognise the popular distinction between them at +all. In his eyes, the walnut and the coco-nut 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 succulent and fills with +sugary juice, in the walnut its juice is bitter, and in the coco-nut it +has no juice at all, but remains a mere matted layer of dry fibres. And +while the thin external skin becomes purple in the plum and red in the +cherry as the fruits ripen, it remains green and brown in the walnut +and coco-nut all their time. Nevertheless, Darwinism shows us both here +and elsewhere that the popular distinction answers to a real difference +of origin and function. When a seed-vessel, whatever its botanical +structure, survives by dint of attracting animals, it always acquires a +bright-coloured envelope and a sweet pulp; while it usually possesses a +hard seed-shell, and often infuses bitter essences into its kernel. On +the other hand, when a seed-vessel survives by escaping the notice of +animals, it generally has a sweet and pleasant kernel, which it +protects by a hard shell and an inconspicuous and nauseous envelope. If +the kernel itself is bitter, as with the horse-chestnut, the need for +disguise and external protection is much lessened. But the best +illustration of all is seen in the West Indian cashew-nut, which is +what Alice in Wonderland would have called a portmanteau seed-vessel—a +fruit and a nut rolled into one. In this curious case, the stalk swells +out into a bright-coloured and juicy mass, looking something like a +pear, but of course containing no seeds; while the nut grows out from +its end, secured from intrusion by a covering with a pungent juice, +which burns and blisters the skin at a touch. No animal except man can +ever successfully tackle the cashew-nut itself; but by eating the +pear-like stalk other animals ultimately aid in distributing the seed. +The cashew thus vicariously sacrifices its fruit-stem for the sake of +preserving its nut. +</p> + +<p> +All nature is a continuous game 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 the protections adopted by plants; and those plants +alone survive whose peculiarities happen successfully to defy the +attack of animals. There you have the Darwinian Iliad in a nutshell. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XVIII"> </a> +XVIII. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>A PRETTY LAND-SHELL.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +The heavy rains which have done so much harm to the standing corn have +at least had the effect of making the country look greener and lovelier +than I have seen it look for many seasons. There is now a fresh verdure +about the upland pastures and pine woods which almost reminds one of +the deep valleys of the Bernese Oberland in early spring. Last year's +continuous wet weather gave the trees and grass a miserable draggled +appearance; but this summer's rain, coming after a dry spring, has +brought out all the foliage in unwonted luxuriance; and everybody +(except the British farmer) agrees that we have never seen the country +look more beautiful. Though the year is now so far advanced, the trees +are still as green as in springtide; and the meadows, with their rich +aftermath springing up apace, look almost as lush and fresh as they did +in early June. Londoners who get away to the country or the seaside +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. +</p> + +<p> +Here, on the edge of the down, where I have come up to get a good +blowing from the clear south-west breeze, I have just sat down to rest +myself awhile and to admire the view, and have reverted for a moment to +my old habit of snail-hunting. Years ago, when evolution was an +infant—an infant much troubled by the complaints inseparable from +infancy, but still a sturdy and vigorous 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 to +this day I seldom go out for a walk without a few pill-boxes in my +pocket, in case I should happen to hit upon any remarkable 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 here and could show it to you; for most +people only know the two or three ugly brown or banded snails that prey +upon their cabbages and lettuces, and have no notion of the lovely +shells to be found by hunting among English copses and under the dead +leaves of Scotch hill-sides. This cyclostoma, however,—I <i>must</i> +trouble you with a Latin name for once—is so remarkably pretty, with +its graceful elongated spiral whorls, and its delicately chiselled +fretwork tracery, that even naturalists (who have perhaps, on the +whole, less sense of beauty than any class of men I know) have +recognised its loveliness by giving it the specific epithet of +<i>elegans</i>. It is big enough for anybody to notice it, being about +the size of a periwinkle; and its exquisite stippled chasing is +strongly marked enough to be perfectly visible to the naked eye. But +besides its beauty, the cyclostoma has a strong claim upon our +attention because of its curious history. +</p> + +<p> +Long ago, in the infantile days of evolutionism, I often wondered why +people made collections on such an irrational plan. They always try to +get what they call the most typical specimens, and reject all those +which are doubtful or intermediate. Hence the dogma of the fixity of +species becomes all the more firmly settled in their minds, because +they never attend to the existing links which still so largely bridge +over the artificial gaps created by our nomenclature between kind and +kind. I went to work on the opposite plan, collecting all those +aberrant individuals which most 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 ended and the next group began. Among the snails such an +arrangement is peculiarly easy; for some of the species are very +indefinite, and the varieties are numerous under each species. Nothing +can give one so good a notion of the plasticity of organic forms as +such a method. The endless varieties and intermediate links which exist +amongst dogs is the nearest example to it with which ordinary observers +are familiar. +</p> + +<p> +But the cyclostoma is a snail which introduces one to still deeper +questions. It belongs in all our scientific classifications to the +group of lung-breathing mollusks, like the common garden snail. Yet it +has one remarkable peculiarity: it possesses an operculum, or door to +its shell, like that of the periwinkle. This operculum represents among +the univalves the under-shell of the oyster or other bivalves; but it +has completely disappeared in most land and fresh-water snails, as well +as among many marine species. The fact of its occurrence in the +cyclostoma would thus be quite inexplicable if we were compelled to +regard it as a descendant of the other lung-breathing mollusks. 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 cast upon the +question by Darwinism, 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 paludina. 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 cyclostoma among the gill-breathers, +because of its close resemblance 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 producing 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 animal like a snail. Besides, 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 streams. +There are others which go further from the water, and spend their days +in damp grass. And there are yet others which have taken to a wholly +terrestrial existence in woods or meadows and under heaps of stones. +All of them agree with the pond-snails in having an operculum, and so +differ from the ordinary land and river snails, the mouths of whose +shells are quite unprotected. Thus land-nails have two separate +origins—one large group (including the garden-snail) being derived +from the common fresh-water mollusks, while another much smaller group +(including the cyclostoma) is derived from the operculated pond-snails. +</p> + +<p> +How is it, then, that naturalists had so long overlooked this +distinction? Simply because their artificial classification is based +entirely upon the nature of the breathing apparatus. But, as Mr. +Wallace has well pointed out, obvious and important functional +differences are of far less value in tracing relationship than +insignificant and unimportant structural details. Any water-snail may +have to take to a terrestrial life if the ponds in which it lives are +liable to dry up during warm weather. Those individuals alone will then +survive which display a tendency to oxygenise their blood by some +rudimentary form of lung. Hence the possession of lungs is not the mark +of a real genealogical class, but a mere necessary result of a +terrestrial existence. On the other hand, the possession of an +operculum, unimportant as it may be to the life of the animal, is a +good test of relationship by descent. All snails which take to living +on land, whatever their original form, will acquire lungs: but an +operculated snail will retain its operculum, and so bear witness to its +ancestry; while a snail which is not operculated will of course show no +tendency to develop such a structure, and so will equally give a true +testimony as to its origin. In short, the less functionally useful any +organ is, the higher is its value as a gauge of its owner's pedigree, +like a Bourbon nose or an Austrian lip. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XIX"> </a> +XIX. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>DOGS AND MASTERS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Probably the most forlorn and abject creature to be seen on the face of +the earth is a masterless dog. Slouching and slinking along, cringing +to every human being it chances to meet, running away with its tail +between its legs from smaller dogs whom under other circumstances it +would accost with a gruff who-the-dickens-are-you sort of growl,—it +forms the very picture of utter humiliation and self-abasement. Grip +and I have just come across such a lost specimen of stray doghood, +trying to find his way back to his home across the fields—I fancy he +belongs to a travelling show which left the village yesterday—and it +is quite refreshing to watch the air of superior wisdom and calm but +mute compassionateness with which Grip casts his eye sidelong upon +that wretched masterless vagrant, and passes him by without even a +nod. He looks up to me complacently as he trots along by my side, and +seems to say with his eye, 'Poor fellow! he's lost his master, you +know—careless dog that he is!' I believe the lesson has had a good +moral effect upon Grip's own conduct, too; for he has now spent ten +whole minutes well within my sight, and has resisted the most tempting +solicitations to ratting and rabbiting held out by half-a-dozen holes +and burrows in the hedge-wall as we go along. +</p> + +<p> +This total dependence of dogs upon a master is a very interesting +example of the growth of inherited instincts. The original dog, who +was a wolf or something very like it, could 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 preserved +and increased; those which followed too much their own original +instincts were destroyed or at least discouraged. The savage hunter +would be very apt to fling his stone axe at the skull of a hound which +tried to eat the game he had brought down with his flint-tipped arrow, +instead of retrieving it: he would be most likely to keep carefully and +feed well on the refuse of his own meals the hound which aided him most +in surprising, killing, and securing his quarry. Thus there sprang up +between man and the dog a mutual and ever increasing sympathy which on +the part of the dependent creature has at last become organised into an +inherited instinct. If we could only thread the labyrinth of a dog's +brain, we should find somewhere in it a group of correlated +nerve-connections answering to this universal habit of his race; and +the group in question would be quite without any analogous mechanism in +the brain of the ancestral wolf. As truly as the wing of the bird is +adapted to its congenital instinct of flying, as truly as the nervous +system of the bee is adapted to its congenital instinct of honeycomb +building, just so truly is the brain of the dog adapted to its now +congenital instinct of following and obeying a master. The habit of +attaching itself to a particular human being is nowadays engrained in +the nerves of the modern dog just as really, though not quite so +deeply, as the habit of running or biting is engrained in its bones and +muscles. Every dog is born into the world with a certain inherited +structure of limbs, sense-organs, and brain: and this inherited +structure governs all its future actions, both bodily and mental. It +seeks a master because it is endowed with master-seeking brain organs; +it is dissatisfied until it finds one, because its native functions can +have free play in no other way. Among a few dogs, like those of +Constantinople, the instinct may have 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 puppyhood under a master, the instinct is +fully and freely developed, and the masterless condition is thenceforth +for him a thwarting and disappointing of all his natural feelings and +affections. +</p> + +<p> +Not only have dogs as a class acquired a special instinct with regard +to humanity generally, but particular breeds of dogs have acquired +particular instincts with regard to certain individual acts. Nobody +doubts that the muscles of a greyhound are specially correlated to the +acts of running and leaping; or that the muscles of a bull-dog are +specially correlated to the act of fighting. The whole external form of +these creatures has been modified by man's selective action for a +deliberate purpose: we breed, as we say, from the dog with the best +points. But besides being able to modify the visible and outer +structure of the animal, we are also able to modify, by indirect +indications, the hidden and inner structure of the brain. We choose the +best ratter among our terriers, the best pointer, retriever, or setter +among other breeds, to become the parents of our future stock. We thus +half unconsciously select particular types of nervous system in +preference to others. Once upon a time we used even to rear a race of +dogs with a strange instinct for turning the spit in our kitchens; and +to this day the Cubans rear blood-hounds with a natural taste for +hunting down the trail of runaway negroes. Now, everybody knows that +you cannot teach one sort of dog the kind of tricks which come by +instinct to a different sort. No amount of instruction will induce a +well-bred terrier to retrieve your handkerchief: he insists upon +worrying it instead. So no amount of instruction will induce a +well-bred retriever to worry a rat: he brings it gingerly to your feet, +as if it was a dead partridge. The reason is obvious, because no one +would breed from a retriever which worried or from a terrier which +treated its natural prey as if it were a stick. Thus the brain of each +kind is hereditarily supplied with certain nervous connections wanting +in the brain 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 greyhound and the bull-dog. Those who have watched +closely the different races of men can hardly hesitate to believe that +something analogous exists in our own case. While the highest types +are, as Mr. Herbert Spencer well puts it, to some extent 'organically +moral' and structurally intelligent, the lowest types are congenitally +deficient. A European child learns to read almost by nature (for +Dogberry was essentially right after all), while a Negro child learns +to read by painful personal experience. And savages brought to Europe +and 'civilised' for years often return at last with joy to their native +home, cast off their clothes and their outer veneering, and take once +more to the only life for which their nervous organisation naturally +fits them. 'What is bred in the bone,' says the wise old proverb, 'will +out in the blood.' +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XX"> </a> +XX. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>BLACKCOCK.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Just at the present moment the poor black grouse are generally having a +hot time of it. After their quiet spring and summer they suddenly find +their heath-clad wastes invaded by a strange epidemic of men, dogs, and +hideous shooting implements; and being as yet but young and +inexperienced, they are falling victims by the thousand to their +youthful habit of clinging closely for protection to the treacherous +reed-beds. A little later in the season, those of them that survive +will have learned more wary ways: they will pack among the juniper +thickets, and become as cautious on the approach of perfidious man as +their cunning cousins, the red grouse of the Scottish moors. But so far +youthful innocence prevails; no sentinels as yet are set to watch for +the distant gleam of metal, and no foreshadowing of man's evil intent +disturbs their minds as they feed in fancied security upon the dry +seeds of the marsh plants in their favourite sedges. +</p> + +<p> +The great families of the pheasants and partridges, in which the +blackcock must be included, may be roughly divided into two main +divisions so far as regards their appearance and general habits. The +first class consists of splendidly coloured and conspicuous birds, such +as the peacock, the golden pheasant, and the tragopan; and these are, +almost without exception, originally jungle-birds of tropical or +sub-tropical lands, though a few of them have been acclimatised or +domesticated in temperate countries. They live in regions where they +have few natural enemies, and where they are little exposed to the +attacks of man. Most of them feed more or less upon fruits and +bright-coloured food-stuffs, and they are probably every one of them +polygamous in their habits. Thus we can hardly doubt that the male +birds, which alone possess the brilliant plumage of their kind, owe +their beauty to the selective preference of their mates; and that the +taste thus displayed has been aroused by their relation to their +specially gay and bright natural surroundings. The most lovely species +of pheasants are found among the forests of the Himalayas and the Malay +Archipelago, with their gorgeous fruits and flowers and their exquisite +insects. Even in England our naturalised Oriental pheasants still +delight in feeding upon blackberries, sloes, haws, and the pretty fruit +of the honeysuckle and the holly; while our dingier partridges and +grouse subsist rather upon heather, grain, and small seeds. Since there +must always be originally nearly as many cocks as hens in each brood, +it will follow that only the handsomest or most attractive in the +polygamous species will succeed in attracting to them a harem; and as +beauty and strength usually go hand in hand, they will also be the +conquerors in those battles which are universal with all polygamists in +the animal world. Thus we account for the striking and conspicuous +difference between the peacock and the peahen, or between the two sexes +in the pheasant, the turkey, and the domestic fowl. +</p> + +<p> +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 kinds, typified by the red grouse, partridges, quails, and +guinea-fowls, are generally dingy in hue, with a tendency to +pepper-and-salt in their plumage; and they usually display very little +difference between the sexes, both cocks and hens being coloured and +feathered much alike. In short, they are protectively designed, while +the first class are attractive. Their plumage resembles as nearly as +possible the ground on which they sit or the covert in which they +skulk. They are thus enabled to escape the notice of their natural +enemies, the birds of prey, from whose ravages they suffer far more in +a state of nature than from any other cause. We may take the ptarmigans +as the most typical example of this class of birds; for in summer their +zigzagged black-and-brown attire harmonises admirably with the patches +of faded heath and soil upon the mountain-side, as every sportsman well +knows; while in the winter their pure white plumage can scarcely be +distinguished from the snow in which they lie huddled and crouching +during the colder months. Even in the brilliant species, Mr. Darwin +and Mr. Wallace have pointed out that the ornamental colours and +crest are never handed down to female descendants when the habits of +nesting are such that the mothers would be exposed to danger by their +conspicuousness during incubation. Speaking broadly, only those female +birds which build in hollow trees or make covered nests have bright +hues at all equal to those of the males. A female bird nesting in the +open would be cut off if it showed any tendency to reproduce the +brilliant colouring of its male relations. +</p> + +<p> +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 described. It is a polygamous bird, and it differs +most conspicuously in plumage from its consort, the grey-hen, as may be +seen from the very names by which they are each familiarly known. Yet, +though the blackcock is handsome enough and shows evident marks of +selective preference on the part of his ancestral hens, this preference +has not exerted itself largely in the direction of bright colour, and +that for two reasons. In the first place the blackcock does not feed +upon brilliant foodstuffs, but upon small bog-berries, hard seeds, and +young shoots of heather, and it is probable that an æsthetic taste for +pure and dazzling hues is almost confined to those creatures which, +like butterflies, hummingbirds, and parrots, seek their livelihood +amongst beautiful fruits or flowers. In the second place, red, yellow, +or orange ornaments would render the blackcock too conspicuous a mark +for the hawk, the falcon, or the weapons of man; for we must remember +that only those blackcocks survive from year to year and hand down +their peculiarities to descendants which succeed in evading the talons +of birds of prey or the small-shot of sportsmen. Feeding as they do on +the open, they are not protected, like jungle-birds, by the shade of +trees. Thus any bird which showed any marked tendency to develop +brighter or more conspicuous plumage would almost infallibly fall a +victim to one or other of his many foes; and however much his beauty +might possibly charm his mates (supposing them for the moment to +possess a taste for colour), he would have no chance of transmitting it +to a future generation. Accordingly, the decoration of the blackcock is +confined to glossy plumage and a few ornamental tail-feathers. The +grey-hen herself still retains the dull and imitative colouring of the +grouse race generally; and as for the cocks, even if a fair percentage +of them is annually cut off through their comparative 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 recognised spots, and there invite the +grey-hens by their calls, a little duelling going on meanwhile. During +these meetings they show off their beauty with great emulation, after +the fashion with which we are all familiar in the case of the peacock; +and when they have gained the approbation of their mates and maimed or +driven away their rivals, they retire with their respective families. +Unfortunately, like most polygamists, they make bad fathers, leaving +the care of their young almost entirely to the hens. According to the +veracious account of Artemus Ward, the great Brigham Young himself +pathetically descanted upon the difficulty of extending his parental +affections to 131 children. The imperious blackcock seems to labour +under the same sentimental disadvantage. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XXI"> </a> +XXI. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>BINDWEED.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Not the least beautiful among our native wild flowers are many of those +which grow, too often unheeded, along the wayside of every country +road. The hedge-bordered highway on which I am walking to-day, to take +my letters to the village post, is bordered on either side with such a +profusion of colour as one may never see equalled during many years' +experience of tropical or sub-tropical lands. Jamaica and Ceylon could +produce nothing so brilliant as this tangled mass of gorse, and +thistle, and St. John's-wort, and centaury, intermingled with the lithe +and whitening sprays of half-opened clematis. And here, on the very +edge of the road, half-smothered in its grey dust, I have picked a +pretty little convolvulus blossom, with a fly buried head-foremost in +its pink bell; and I am carrying them both along with me as I go, for +contemplation and study. For this little flower, the lesser bindweed, +is rich in hints as to the strange ways in which Nature decks herself +with so much waste loveliness, whose meaning can only be fully read by +the eyes of man, the latest comer among her children. The old school of +thinkers imagined 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 fancy of the human +race. To the butterfly the world is a little beautiful; to the +farm-labourer it is only a trifle more beautiful: but to the cultivated +man or the artist it is lovely in every cloud and shadow, in every tiny +blossom and passing bird. +</p> + +<p> +The outer face of the bindweed, the exterior of the cup, so to speak, +is prettily marked with five dark russet-red bands, between which the +remainder of the corolla is a pale pinky-white in hue. Nothing could be +simpler and prettier than this alternation of dark and light belts; but +how is it produced? Merely thus. The convolvulus blossom in the bud is +twisted or contorted round and round, part of the cup being folded +inside, while the five joints of the corolla are folded outside, much +after the fashion of an umbrella when rolled up. And just as the bits +of the umbrella which are exposed when it is folded become faded in +colour, so the bits of the bindweed blossom which are outermost in the +bud become more deeply oxidised than the other parts, and acquire a +russet-red hue. The belted appearance which thus results is really as +accidental, if I may use that unphilosophical expression, as the belted +appearance of the old umbrella, or the wrinkles caused by the waves on +the sea-sands. The flower happened to be folded so, and got coloured, +or discoloured, accordingly. But when a man comes to look at it, he +recognises in the alternation of colours and the symmetrical +arrangement one of those elements of beauty with which he is familiar +in the handicraft of his own kind. He reads an intention into this +result of natural causes, and personifies Nature as though she worked +with an æsthetic design in view, just as a decorative artist works when +he similarly alternates colours or arranges symmetrical and radial +figures 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 +recognises the intellectual order and perfection of the work. +</p> + +<p> +I turn the bindweed blossom mouth upward, and there I see that these +russet marks, though paler on the inner surface, still show faintly +through the pinky-white corolla. This produces an effect not unlike +that of a delicate shell cameo, with its dainty gradations of +semi-transparent white and interfusing pink. But the inner effect can +be no more designed with an eye to beauty than the outer one was; and +the very terms in which I think of it clearly show that my sense of its +loveliness is largely derived from comparison with human handicraft. A +farmer would see in the convolvulus nothing but a useless weed; a +cultivated eye sees in it just as much as its nature permits it to +see. I look closer, and observe that there are also thin lines running +from the circumference to the centre, midway between the dark belts. +These lines, which add greatly to the beauty of the flower, by marking +it out into zones, are also due to the folding in the bud; they are the +inner angles of the folds, just as the dark belts are the overlapping +edges of the outer angles. But, in addition to the minor beauty of +these little details, there is the general beauty of the cup as a +whole, which also calls for explanation. Its shape is as graceful as +that of any Greek or Etruscan vase, as swelling and as simply beautiful +as any beaker. Can I account for these peculiarities on mere natural +grounds as well as for the others? I somehow fancy I can. +</p> + +<p> +The bindweed is descended from some earlier ancestors which had five +separate petals, instead of a single fused and circular cup. But in the +convolvulus family, as in many others, these five petals have joined +into a continuous rim or bowl, and the marks on the blossom where it +was folded in the bud still answer to the five petals. In many plants +you can see the pointed edges of the former distinct flower-rays as +five projections, though their lower parts have coalesced into a +bell-shaped or tubular blossom, as in the common harebell. How this +comes to pass we can easily understand if we watch an unopened fuchsia; +for there the four bright-coloured sepals remain joined together till +the bud is ready to open, and then split along a line marked out from +the very first. In the plastic bud condition it is very easy for parts +usually separate so to grow out in union with one another. I do not +mean that separate pieces actually grow together, but that pieces which +usually grow distinct sometimes grow united from the very first. Now, +four or five petals, radially arranged, in themselves produce that kind +of symmetry which man, with his intellectual love for order and +definite patterns, always finds beautiful. But the symmetry in the +flower simply results from the fact that a single whorl of leaves has +grown into this particular shape, while the outer and inner whorls have +grown into other shapes; and every such whorl always and necessarily +presents us with an example of the kind of symmetry which we so much +admire. Again, when the petals forming a whorl coalesce, they must, of +course, produce a more or less regular circle. If the points of the +petals remain as projections, then we get a circle with vandyked edges, +as in the lily of the valley; if they do not project, then we get a +simple circular rim, as in the bindweed. All the lovely shapes of +bell-blossoms are simply due to the natural coalescence of four, five, +or six petals; and this coalescence is again due to an increased +certainty of fertilisation secured for the plant by the better +adaptation to insect visits. Similarly, we know that the colours of the +corolla have been acquired as a means of rendering the flower +conspicuous to the eyes of bees or butterflies; and the hues which so +prove attractive to insects are of the same sort which arouse +pleasurable stimulation in our own nerves. Thus the whole loveliness of +flowers is in the last resort dependent upon all kinds of accidental +causes—causes, that is to say, into which the deliberate design 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 arouse in us +certain feelings we call beautiful; and those parts which are of such a +sort as to arouse in us the opposite feelings we call ugly. But the +beauty and the ugliness are not parts of the things; they are merely +human modes of regarding some among their attributes. Wherever in +nature we find pure colour, symmetrical form, and intricate variety of +pattern, we imagine to ourselves that nature designs the object to be +beautiful. When we trace these peculiarities to their origin, however, +we find that each of them owes its occurrence to some special fact in +the history of the object; and we are forced to conclude that the +notion of intentional design has been read into it by human analogies. +All nature is beautiful, and most beautiful for those in whom the sense +of beauty is most highly developed; but it is not beautiful at all +except to those whose own eyes and emotions are fitted to perceive its +beauty. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XXII"> </a> +XXII. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>ON CORNISH CLIFFS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +I am lying on my back in the sunshine, close to the edge of a great +broken precipice, beside a clambering Cornish fishing village. In front +of me is the sea, bluer than I have seen it since last I lay in like +fashion a few months ago on the schistose slopes of the Maurettes at +Hyères, and looked away across the plain to the unrippled Mediterranean +and the Stœchades of the old Phocæan merchant-men. On either hand +rise dark cliffs of hornblende and serpentine, weathered above by wind +and rain, and smoothed below by the ceaseless dashing of the winter +waves. Up to the limit of the breakers the hard rock is polished like +Egyptian syenite; but beyond that point it is fissured by +disintegration and richly covered with a dappled coat of grey and +yellow lichen. The slow action of the water, always beating against the +solid wall of crystalline rock, has eaten out a thousand such little +bays all along this coast, each bounded by long headlands, whose points +have been worn into fantastic pinnacles, or severed from the main mass +as precipitous islets, the favourite resting-place of gulls and +cormorants. No grander coast scenery can be found anywhere in the +southern half of Great Britain. +</p> + +<p> +Yet when I turn inland I see that all this beauty has been produced by +the mere interaction of the sea and the barren moors of the interior. +Nothing could be flatter or more desolate than the country whose +seaward escarpment gives rise to these romantic coves and pyramidal +rocky islets. It stretches away for miles in a level upland waste, only +redeemed from complete barrenness by the low straggling bushes of the +dwarf furze, whose golden blossom is now interspersed with purple +patches of ling or the paler pink flowers of the Cornish heath. Here, +then, I can see beauty in nature actually beginning to be. I can trace +the origin of all these little bays from small rills which have worn +themselves gorge-like valleys through the hard igneous rock, or else +from fissures finally giving rise to sea-caves, like the one into which +I rowed this morning for my early swim. The waves penetrate for a +couple of hundred yards into the bowels of the rock, hemmed in by walls +and roof of dark serpentine, with its interlacing veins of green and +red bearing witness still to its once molten condition; and at length +in most cases they produce a blow-hole at the top, communicating with +the open air above, either because the fissure there crops up to the +surface, or else through the agency of percolation. At last, the roof +falls in; the boulders are carried away by the waves; and we get a long +and narrow cove, still bounded on either side by tall cliffs, whose +summits the air and rainfall slowly wear away into jagged and exquisite +shapes. Yet in all this we see nothing but the natural play of cause +and effect; we attribute the beauty of the scene merely to the +accidental result of inevitable laws; we feel no necessity for calling +in the aid of any underlying æsthetic intention on the part of the sea, +or the rock, or the creeping lichen, in order to account for the +loveliness which we find in the finished picture. The winds and the +waves carved the coast into these varied shapes by force of blind +currents working on hidden veins of harder or softer crystal: and we +happen to find the result beautiful, just as we happen to find the +inland level dull and ugly. The endless variety of the one charms us, +while the unbroken monotony of the other wearies and repels us. +</p> + +<p> +Here on the cliff I pick up a pretty fern and a blossoming head of the +autumn squill—though so sweet a flower deserves a better name. This +fern, too, is lovely in its way, with its branching leaflets and its +rich glossy-green hue. Yet it owes its shape just as truly to the +balance of external and internal forces acting upon it as does the +Cornish coast-line. How comes it then that in the one case we +instinctively regard the beauty as accidental, while in the other we +set it down to a deliberate æsthetic intent? I think because, in the +first case, we can actually see the forces at work, while in the second +they are so minute and so gradual in their action as to escape the +notice of all but trained observers. This fern grows in the shape that +I see, because its ancestors have been slowly moulded into such a form +by the whole group of circumstances directly or indirectly affecting +them in all their past life; and the germ of the complex form thus +produced was impressed by the parent plant upon the spore from which +this individual fern took its birth. Over yonder I see a great +dock-leaf; it grows tall and rank above all other plants, and is able +to spread itself boldly to the light on every side. It has abundance of +sunshine as a motive-power of growth, and abundance of air from which +to extract the carbon that it needs. Hence it and all its ancestors +have spread their leaves equally on every side, and formed large flat +undivided blades. Leaves such as these are common 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 eyes, +just as the flatness of the 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, we see little or nothing to +admire. On the other hand, ferns generally grow in hedge-rows or +thickets, where sunlight is much interrupted by other plants, and where +air is scanty, most of its carbon being extracted by neighbouring +plants which leave but little for one another's needs. Hence you may +notice that most plants growing under such circumstances have leaves +minutely sub-divided, so as to catch such stray gleams of sunlight and +such floating particles of carbonic acid as happen to pass their way. +Look into the next tangled and overgrown hedge-row which you happen to +pass, and you will see that almost all its leaves are of this +character; and when they are otherwise the anomaly usually admits of an +easy explanation. Of course the shapes of plants are mostly due to +their normal and usual circumstances, and are comparatively little +influenced by the accidental surroundings of individuals; and so, when +a fern of such a sort happens to grow like this one on the open, it +still retains the form impressed upon it by the life of its ancestors. +Now, it is the striking combination of symmetry and variety in the +fern, together with vivid green colouring, which makes us admire it so +much. Not only is the frond as a whole symmetrical, but each frondlet +and each division of the frondlet is separately symmetrical as well. +This delicate minuteness of workmanship, as we call it, reminds us of +similar human products—of fine lace, of delicate tracery, of skilful +filagree or engraving. Almost all the green leaves which we admire are +noticeable, more or less, for the same effects, as in the case of +maple, parsley, horse-chestnut, and vine. It is true, mere glossy +greenness may, and often does, make up for the want of variety, as we +see in the arum, holly, laurel, and hart's-tongue fern; but the leaves +which we admire most of all are those which, like maidenhair, are both +exquisitely green and delicately designed in shape. So that, in the +last resort, the beauty of leaves, like the beauty of coast scenery, is +really due to the constant interaction of a vast number of natural +laws, not to any distinct aesthetic intention on the part of Nature. +</p> + +<p> +On the other hand, the pretty pink squill reminds me that +semi-conscious aesthetic design in animals has something to do with the +production of beauty in nature—at least, in a few cases. Just as a +flower garden has been intentionally produced by man, so flowers have +been unconsciously produced by insects. As a rule, all bright red, +blue, or orange in nature (except in the rare case of gems) is due to +animal selection, either of flowers, fruits, or mates. Thus we may say +that beauty in the inorganic world is always accidental; but in the +organic world it 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 less +deliberate æsthetic choice. +</p> + +<br> +<p class="ctrsmall"> + LONDON: PRINTED BY<br> + SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br> + AND PARLIAMENT STREET +</p> + +<br> + +<hr class="med"> + +<div class="figcenter"><img width="500" height="200" src="images/ad001.jpg" alt="decoration"></div> + +<p class="ctrlarger"> +CHATTO & WINDUS'S +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<i><span class="sc">List of Books</span>.</i> +</p> + + +<p class="ctrsmaller"> +Imperial 8vo, with 147 fine Engravings, half-morocco, 36<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctrlarge"> +THE EARLY TEUTONIC, ITALIAN, +<br> +<span class="small">AND FRENCH MASTERS.</span> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +Translated and Edited from the Dohme Series by <span class="sc">A. H. +Keane</span>, M.A.I. With numerous Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +"<i>Cannot fail to be of the utmost use to students of art history.</i>"—<span class="sc">Times.</span> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +Second Edition, Revised, Crown 8vo, 1,200 pages, half-roxburghe, 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctrlarge"> +THE READER'S HANDBOOK +<br> +<span class="smaller">OF ALLUSIONS, REFERENCES, PLOTS, AND STORIES.</span> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +By the Rev. Dr. <span class="sc">Brewer</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Dr. Brewer has produced a wonderfully comprehensive dictionary + of references to matters which are always cropping up in + conversation and in everyday life, and writers generally will have + reason to feel grateful to the author for a most handy volume, + supplementing in a hundred ways their own knowledge or ignorance, + as the case may be…. It is something more than a mere dictionary + of quotations, though a most useful companion to any work of that + kind, being a dictionary of most of the allusions, references, + plots, stories, and characters which occur in the classical poems, + plays, novels, romances, &c., not only of our own country, but of + most nations, ancient and modern.</i>"—<span class="sc">Times.</span> +</p> + +<p> + "<i>A welcome addition to the list of what may be termed the really + handy reference-books, combining as it does a dictionary of + literature with a condensed encyclopædia, interspersed with items + one usually looks for in commonplace books. The appendices contain + the dates of celebrated and well-known dramas, operas, poems, and + novels, with the names of their authors.</i>"—<span + class="sc">Spectator.</span> +</p> + +<p> + "<i>There seems to be scarcely anything concerning which one may + not 'overhaul' Dr. Brewer's book with profit. It is a most + laborious and patient compilation, and, considering the magnitude + of the work, successfully performed…. Many queries which appear + in our pages could be satisfactorily answered by a reference to + 'The Readers Handbook:' no mean testimony to the value of Dr. + Brewer's book.</i>"—<span class="sc">Notes and Queries.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<i>A HANDBOOK FOR POTTERY-PAINTERS.</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>PRACTICAL KERAMICS FOR STUDENTS.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Charles A. Janvier</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, Coloured Frontispiece and Illustrations, cloth gilt, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Advertising, A History of.</b><br> + From the Earliest Times. Illustrated by Anecdotes, Curious + Specimens, and Notes of Successful Advertisers. 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He has furnished a + valuable contribution to the literature of surnames, and we hope to + hear more of him in this field.</i>"—<span class="sc">Times.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Charles W. Bardsley</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth + extra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The book is full of interest; in fact, it is just the thorough + and scholarly work we should expect from the author of 'English + Surnames.'</i>"—<span class="sc">Graphic.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small 4to, green and gold, 6<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; gilt edges, +7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Bechstein's As Pretty as Seven</b>,<br> + And other German Stories. Collected by <span class="sc">Ludwig + Bechstein</span>. 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Ward, Frith, Sir John Gilbert, Leslie, Ansdell, + Marcus Stone, Sir Noel Paton, Faed, Eyre Crowe, Gavin + O'Neil</span>, and <span class="sc">Madox Brown</span>. +</p> + +<p> + The <span class="sc">Second Series</span> containing Pictures by + <span class="sc">Armitage, Faed, Goodall, Hemsley, Horsley, Marks, + Nicholls, Sir Noel Paton, Pickersgill, G. Smith, Marcus Stone, + Solomon, Straight, E. M. Ward</span>, and <span + class="sc">Warren</span>. +</p> + +<p> +All engraved on Steel in the highest style of Art. Edited, with +Notices of the Artists, by <span class="sc">Sydney Armytage</span>, M.A. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>This book is well got up, and good engravings by Jeens, Lumb + Stocks, and others, bring back to us Royal Academy Exhibitions of + past years</i>."—<span class="sc">Times.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<i>NEW NOVEL BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE NEW REPUBLIC."</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Belgravia for January, 1881</b>,<br> + Price One Shilling, contains the First Parts of Three New + Serials, viz.:— +<br><br> + 1.  <span class="sc">A Romance of the Nineteenth + Century</span>, by <span class="sc">W. H. Mallock</span>, Author + of "The New Republic." +<br><br> + 2.  <span class="sc">Joseph's Coat</span>, by <span + class="sc">D. Christie Murray</span>, Author of "A Life's + Atonement." 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An entirely New and Revised + Edition, with fine full-page Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with full-page Portraits, +4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Brewster's (Sir David) Martyrs of Science.</b> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Astronomical Plates, +4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Brewster's (Sir D.) More Worlds than One</b>,<br> + the Creed of the Philosopher and the Hope of the Christian. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Bret Harte, Works by:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Bret Harte's Collected Works.</b><br> + Arranged and Revised by the Author. Complete in Five Vols., cr. + 8vo, cl. ex., 6<i>s.</i> each. +<br><br> + Vol. I. <span class="sc">Complete Poetical and Dramatic + Works.</span> With Steel Plate Portrait, and an Introduction by + the Author. +<br><br> + Vol. II. <span class="sc">Earlier + Papers</span> — <span class="sc">Luck of Roaring + Camp</span>, and other Sketches — <span + class="sc">Bohemian Papers — Spanish and + American Legends</span>. +<br><br> + Vol. III. <span class="sc">Tales of the + Argonauts — Eastern Sketches.</span> +<br><br> + Vol. IV. <span class="sc">Gabriel Conroy.</span> +<br><br> + Vol. V. <span class="sc">Stories — Condensed + Novels</span>, &c. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Select Works of Bret Harte</b>,<br> + in Prose and Poetry. With Introductory Essay by <span class="sc">J. M. + Bellew</span>, Portrait of the Author, and 50 Illustrations. Crown + 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>An Heiress of Red Dog, and other Stories.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. Post 8vo, illustrated + boards, 2<i>s.</i>; cloth limp, 2<i>s.</i>. 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Twins of Table Mountain.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. Fcap. 8vo, picture cover, + 1<i>s.</i>; crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Luck of Roaring Camp, and other Sketches.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. Post 8vo, illustrated + boards, 2<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Jeff Briggs's Love Story.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. Fcap. 8vo, picture cover, + 1<i>s.</i>; cloth extra, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, profusely Illustrated in Colours, 30<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>British Flora Medica:</b><br> + A History of the Medicinal Plants of Great Britain. Illustrated by + a Figure of each Plant, <span class="smc">COLOURED BY HAND</span>. + By <span class="sc">Benjamin H. Barton</span>, F.L.S., and <span + class="sc">Thomas Castle</span>, M.D., F.R.S. A New Edition, + revised and partly re-written by <span class="sc">John R. + Jackson</span>, A.L.S., Curator of the Museums of Economic Botany, + Royal Gardens, Kew. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>THE STOTHARD BUNYAN.</i>—Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.</b><br> + Edited by Rev. <span class="sc">T. Scott</span>. With 17 beautiful + Steel Plates by <span class="sc">Stothard</span>, engraved by + <span class="sc">Goodall</span>; and numerous Woodcuts. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Byron's Letters and Journals.</b><br> + With Notices of his Life. By <span class="sc">Thomas Moore.</span> + A Reprint of the Original Edition, newly revised, with Twelve + full-page Plates. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, 14<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Campbell's (Sir G.) White and Black:</b><br> + The Outcome of a Visit to the United States. By <span + class="sc">Sir George Campbell</span>, M.P. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Few persons are likely to take it up without finishing + it.</i>"—<span class="sc">Nonconformist.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Carlyle (Thomas) On the Choice of Books.</b><br> + With Portrait and Memoir. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small 4to, cloth gilt, with Coloured Illustrations, 10<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Chaucer for Children:</b><br> + A Golden Key. By Mrs. <span class="sc">H. R. Haweis</span>. With + Eight Coloured Pictures and numerous Woodcuts by the Author. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth limp, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Chaucer for Schools.</b><br> + By Mrs. <span class="sc">Haweis</span>, Author of "Chaucer for Children." +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + <i>This is a copious and judicious selection from Chaucer's Tales, + with full notes on the history, manners, customs, and language of + the fourteenth century, with marginal glossary and a literal + poetical version in modern English in parallel columns with the + original poetry. Six of the Canterbury Tales are thus presented, in + sections of from 10 to 200 lines, mingled with prose narrative. + "Chaucer for Schools" is issued to meet a widely-expressed want, + and is especially adapted for class instruction. It may be + profitably studied in connection with the maps and illustrations of + "Chaucer for Children."</i> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth limp, with Map and Illustrations, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Cleopatra's Needle:</b><br> + Its Acquisition and Removal to England. By Sir <span class="sc">J. E. + Alexander</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Colman's Humorous Works:</b><br> + "Broad Grins," "My Nightgown and Slippers," and other Humorous + Works, Prose and Poetical, of <span class="sc">George + Colman</span>. With Life by <span class="sc">G. B. + Buckstone</span>, and Frontispiece by <span + class="sc">Hogarth</span>. +</p> + + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Conway (Moncure D.), Works by:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Demonology and Devil-Lore.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Moncure D. Conway</span>, M.A. Two Vols, royal + 8vo, with 65 Illustrations, 28<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A valuable contribution to mythological literature…. There is + much good writing, a vast fund of humanity, undeniable earnestness, + and a delicate sense of humour, all set forth in pure + English.</i>"—<span class="sc">Contemporary Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>A Necklace of Stories.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Moncure D. Conway</span>, M.A. Illustrated by + <span class="sc">W. J. Hennessy</span>. Square 8vo, cloth extra, + 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>This delightful 'Necklace of Stories' is inspired with lovely + and lofty sentiments.</i>"—<span class="sc">Illustrated London + News.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, with Coloured Illustrations and Maps, 24<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Cope's History of the Rifle Brigade</b><br> + (The Prince Consort's Own), formerly the 95th. By Sir <span + class="sc">William H. Cope</span>, formerly Lieutenant, Rifle + Brigade. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with 13 Portraits, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Creasy's Memoirs of Eminent Etonians</b>;<br> + with Notices of the Early History of Eton College. By Sir <span + class="sc">Edward Creasy</span>, Author of "The Fifteen Decisive + Battles of the World." +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Etched Frontispiece, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Credulities, Past and Present.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">William Jones</span>, F.S.A., Author of + "Finger-Ring Lore," &c. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>NEW WORK by the AUTHOR OF "PRIMITIVE MANNERS AND +CUSTOMS."</i>—Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Crimes and Punishments.</b><br> + Including a New Translation of Beccaria's "Dei Delitti e delle + Pene." By <span class="sc">James Anson Farrer</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, Two very thick Volumes, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +each. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Cruikshank's Comic Almanack.</b><br> + Complete in <span class="sc">Two Series</span>: The <span + class="sc">First</span> from 1835 to 1843; the <span + class="sc">Second</span> from 1844 to 1853. A Gathering of the + <span class="sc">Best Humour</span> of <span class="sc">Thackeray, + Hood, Mayhew, Albert Smith, A'Beckett, Robert Brough</span>, + &c. With 2,000 Woodcuts and Steel Engravings by <span + class="sc">Cruikshank, Hine, Landells</span>, &c. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Parts I. to XIV. now ready, 21<i>s.</i> each. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Cussans' History of Hertfordshire.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">John E. Cussans</span>. Illustrated with + full-page Plates on Copper and Stone, and a profusion of small + Woodcuts. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +∴ <i>Parts XV. and XVI., completing the work, are just ready.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Mr. Cussans has, from sources not accessible to Clutterbuck, + made most valuable additions to the manorial history of the county + from the earliest period downwards, cleared up many doubtful + points, and given original details concerning various subjects + untouched or imperfectly treated by that + writer.</i>"—<span class="sc">Academy.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Two Vols., demy 4to, handsomely bound in half-morocco, gilt, profusely +Illustrated with Coloured and Plain Plates and Woodcuts, price £7 +7<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Cyclopædia of Costume</b>;<br> + or, A Dictionary of Dress—Regal, Ecclesiastical, Civil, and + Military—from the Earliest Period in England to the reign of + George the Third. Including Notices of Contemporaneous Fashions on + the Continent, and a General History of the Costumes of the + Principal Countries of Europe. By <span class="sc">J. R. + Planché</span>, Somerset Herald. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +The Volumes may also be had <i>separately</i> (each Complete in itself) +at £3 13<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> each: +<br><br>Vol. I. <b>THE DICTIONARY.</b> +<br>Vol. II. <b>A GENERAL HISTORY OF COSTUME IN EUROPE.</b> +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Also in 25 Parts, at 5<i>s.</i> each. Cases for binding, 5<i>s.</i> +each. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A comprehensive and highly valuable book of reference…. We + have rarely failed to find in this book an account of an article of + dress, while in most of the entries curious and instructive details + are given…. Mr. Planché's enormous labour of love, the production + of a text which, whether in its dictionary form or in that of the + 'General History,' is within its intended scope immeasurably the + best and richest work on Costume in English…. This book is not + only one of the most readable works of the kind, but intrinsically + attractive and amusing.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> + +<p> + "<i>A most readable and interesting work—and it can scarcely be + consulted in vain, whether the reader is in search for information + as to military, court, ecclesiastical, legal, or professional + costume…. All the chromo-lithographs, and most of the woodcut + illustrations—the latter amounting to several thousands—are very + elaborately executed; and the work forms a livre de luxe which + renders it equally suited to the library and the ladies' + drawing-room.</i>"—<span class="sc">Times.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Square 8vo, cloth gilt, profusely Illustrated. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Dickens.—About England with Dickens.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Alfred Rimmer</span>. With Illustrations by + the Author and <span class="sc">Charles A. Vanderhoof</span>. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>In preparation.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Second Edition, revised and enlarged, demy 8vo, cloth extra, with +Illustrations. 24<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Dodge's (Colonel) The Hunting Grounds of the Great West:</b><br> + A Description of the Plains, Game, and Indians of the Great North + American Desert. By <span class="sc">Richard Irving Dodge</span>, + Lieutenant-Colonel of the United States Army. With an Introduction + by <span class="sc">William Blackmore</span>; Map, and numerous + Illustrations drawn by <span class="sc">Ernest Griset</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Doran's Memories of our Great Towns.</b><br> + With Anecdotic Gleanings concerning their Worthies and their + Oddities. By Dr. <span class="sc">John Doran</span>, F.S.A. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Second Edition, demy 8vo, cloth gilt, with Illustrations, 18<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Dunraven's The Great Divide:</b><br> + A Narrative of Travels in the Upper Yellowstone in the Summer of + 1874. By the <span class="sc">Earl</span> of <span + class="sc">Dunraven</span>. With Maps and numerous striking + full-page Illustrations by <span class="sc">Valentine W. + Bromley</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>There has not for a long time appeared a better book of travel + than Lord Dunraven's 'The Great Divide.'… This book is full of + clever observation, and both narrative and illustrations are + thoroughly good.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Two Vols., crown 8vo, cloth extra, 21<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Drury Lane (Old):</b><br> + Fifty Years' Recollections of Author, Actor, and Manager. By + <span class="sc">Edward Stirling</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth, 16<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Dutt's India, Past and Present</b>;<br> + with Minor Essays on Cognate Subjects. By <span class="sc">Shoshee Chunder + Dutt</span>, Rái Báhádoor. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Emanuel On Diamonds and Precious Stones</b>;<br> + their History, Value, and Properties; with Simple Tests for + ascertaining their Reality. By <span class="sc">Harry + Emanuel</span>, F.R.G.S. With numerous Illustrations, Tinted and + Plain. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 4to, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 36<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Emanuel and Grego.—A History of the Goldsmith's and Jeweller's Art + in all Ages and in all Countries.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">E. Emanuel</span> and <span class="sc">Joseph + Grego</span>. With numerous fine Engravings. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>In preparation.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Englishman's House, The:</b><br> + A Practical Guide to all interested in Selecting or Building a + House, with full Estimates of Cost, Quantities, &c. By <span + class="sc">C. J. Richardson</span>, Third Edition. With nearly 600 + Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth boards, 6<i>s.</i> per Volume. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Early English Poets.</b><br> + Edited, with Introductions and Annotations, by Rev. <span class="sc">A. B. + Grosart</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Mr. Grosart has spent the most laborious and the most + enthusiastic care on the perfect restoration and preservation of + the text…. From Mr. Grosart we always expect and always receive + the final results of most patient and competent + scholarship.</i>"—<span class="sc">Examiner.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + 1.  <b>Fletcher's (Giles, B.D.) Complete Poems:</b><br> + Christ's Victorie in Heaven, Christ's Victorie on Earth, Christ's + Triumph over Death, and Minor Poems. With Memorial-Introduction + and Notes. One Vol. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + 2.  <b>Davies' (Sir John) Complete Poetical Works</b>,<br> + including Psalms I. to L. in Verse, and other hitherto + Unpublished MSS., for the first time Collected and Edited. + Memorial-Introduction and Notes. Two Vols. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + 3.  <b>Herrick's (Robert) Hesperides, Noble Numbers, and Complete + Collected Poems.</b><br> + With Memorial-Introduction and Notes, Steel Portrait, Index of + First Lines, and Glossarial Index, &c. Three Vols. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + 4.  <b>Sidney's (Sir Philip) Complete Poetical Works</b>,<br> + including all those in "Arcadia." With Portrait, + Memorial-Introduction, Essay on the Poetry of Sidney, and Notes. + Three Vols. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with nearly 300 Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Evolution (Chapters on)</b>;<br> + A Popular History of the Darwinian and Allied Theories of + Development. By <span class="sc">Andrew Wilson</span>, Ph.D., + F.R.S. Edin. &c. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>In preparation.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + <i>Abstract of Contents:</i> — The Problem + Stated — Sketch of the Rise and Progress of + Evolution — What Evolution is and what it is + not — The Evidence for + Evolution — The Evidence from + Development — The Evidence from Rudimentary + Organs — The Evidence from Geographical + Distribution — The Evidence from + Geology —  Evolution and + Environments — Flowers and their Fertilisation and + Development — Evolution and + Degeneration — Evolution and + Ethics — The Relations of Evolution to Ethics and + Theology, &c. &c. +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Evolutionist (The) At Large.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Grant Allen</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Two Vols., crown 8vo, cloth extra, 21<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Ewald.—Stories from the State Papers.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Alex. Charles Ewald</span>. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>In preparation.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Folio, cloth extra, £1 11<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Examples of Contemporary Art.</b><br> + Etchings from Representative Works by living English and Foreign + Artists. Edited, with Critical Notes, by <span class="sc">J. + Comyns Carr</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>It would not be easy to meet with a more sumptuous, and at the + same time a more tasteful and instructive drawing-room + book.</i>"—<span class="sc">Nonconformist.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Fairholt's Tobacco:</b><br> + Its History and Associations; with an Account of the Plant and its + Manufacture, and its Modes of Use in all Ages and Countries. By + <span class="sc">F. W. Fairholt</span>, F.S.A. With Coloured + Frontispiece and upwards of 100 Illustrations by the Author. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Faraday's Chemical History of a Candle.</b><br> + Lectures delivered to a Juvenile Audience. A New Edition. Edited + by <span class="sc">W. Crookes</span>, F.C.S. With numerous Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Faraday's Various Forces of Nature.</b><br> + New Edition. Edited by <span class="sc">W. Crookes</span>, F.C.S. Numerous + Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Finger-Ring Lore:</b><br> + Historical, Legendary, and Anecdotal. By <span class="sc">Wm. + Jones</span>, F.S.A. With Hundreds of Illustrations of Curious + Rings of all Ages and Countries. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>One of those gossiping books which are as full of amusement as + of instruction.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>NEW NOVEL BY JUSTIN McCARTHY.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1881</b>,<br> + Price One Shilling, contains the First Chapters of a New Novel, + entitled "<span class="sc">The Comet of a Season</span>," by <span + class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>, M.P., Author of "A History of + Our Own Times," "Dear Lady Disdain," &c. <span + class="sc">Science Notes</span>, by <span class="sc">W. Mattieu + Williams</span>, F.R.A.S., will also be continued Monthly. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +∴ <i>Now ready, the Volume for</i> <span class="sc">July</span> +<i>to</i> <span class="sc">December</span>, <i>1880, cloth extra, price +8s. 6d.;<br> +and Cases for binding, price 2s. each.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>THE RUSKIN GRIMM.</i>—Squire 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i>; gilt edges, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>German Popular Stories.</b><br> + Collected by the Brothers <span class="sc">Grimm</span>, and + Translated by <span class="sc">Edgar Taylor</span>. Edited with an + Introduction by <span class="sc">John Ruskin</span>. With 22 + Illustrations after the inimitable designs of <span + class="sc">George Cruikshank</span>. Both Series Complete. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The illustrations of this volume … are of quite sterling and + admirable art, of a class precisely parallel in elevation to the + character of the tales which they illustrate; and the original + etchings, as I have before said in the Appendix to my 'Elements of + Drawing,' were unrivalled in masterfulness of touch since Rembrandt + (in some qualities of delineation, unrivalled even by him)…. To + make somewhat enlarged copies of them, looking at them through a + magnifying glass, and never putting two lines where Cruikshank has + put only one, would be an exercise in decision and severe drawing + which would leave afterwards little to be learnt in + schools.</i>"—<i>Extract from Introduction by</i> <span + class="sc">John Ruskin</span>. +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Post 8vo. cloth limp, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Glenny's A Year's Work in Garden and Greenhouse:</b><br> + Practical Advice to Amateur Gardeners as to the Management of the + Flower, Fruit, and Frame Garden. By <span class="sc">George Glenny</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A great deal of valuable information, conveyed in very simple + language. The amateur need not wish for a better + guide.</i>"—<span class="sc">Leeds Mercury.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +New and Cheaper Edition, demy 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, +7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + + <b>Greeks and Romans, The Life of the, Described from Antique + Monuments.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Ernst Guhl</span> and <span class="sc">W. + Koner</span>. Translated from the Third German Edition, and Edited + by Dr. <span class="sc">F. Hueffer</span>. With 545 Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + + <b>Greenwood's Low-Life Deeps:</b><br> + An Account of the Strange Fish to be found there. By <span + class="sc">James Greenwood</span>. With Illustrations in tint by + <span class="sc">Alfred Concanen</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + + <b>Greenwood's Wilds of London:</b><br> + Descriptive Sketches, from Personal Observations and Experience, + of Remarkable Scenes, People, and Places in London. By <span + class="sc">James Greenwood</span>. With 12 Tinted Illustrations by + <span class="sc">Alfred Concanen</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Square 16mo (Tauchnitz size), cloth extra, 2<i>s.</i> per volume. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Golden Library, The:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Ballad History of England.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">W. C. Bennett</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Bayard Taylor's Diversions of the Echo Club.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Byron's Don Juan.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Emerson's Letters and Social Aims.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Godwin's (William) Lives of the Necromancers.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Holmes's Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.</b><br> + With an Introduction by <span class="sc">G. A. Sala</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Holmes's Professor at the Breakfast Table.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hood's Whims and Oddities.</b><br> + Complete. With all the original Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Irving's (Washington) Tales of a Traveller.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Irving's (Washington) Tales of the Alhambra.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Jesse's (Edward) Scenes and Occupations of Country Life.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lamb's Essays of Elia.</b><br> + Both Series Complete in One Vol. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Leigh Hunt's Essays:</b><br> + A Tale for a Chimney Corner, and other Pieces. With Portrait, and + Introduction by <span class="sc">Edmund Ollier</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Mallory's (Sir Thomas) Mort d'Arthur:</b><br> + The Stories of King Arthur and of the Knights of the Round Table. + Edited by <span class="sc">B. Montgomerie Ranking</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Pascal's Provincial Letters.</b><br> + A New Translation, with Historical Introduction and Notes, by + <span class="sc">T. M'Crie</span>, D.D. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Pope's Poetical Works.</b><br> + Complete. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Rochefoucauld's Maxims and Moral Reflections.</b><br> + With Notes, and an Introductory Essay by <span + class="sc">Sainte-Beuve</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>St. Pierre's Paul and Virginia, and The Indian Cottage.</b><br> + Edited, with Life, by the Rev. <span class="sc">E. Clarke</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shelley's Early Poems</b>,<br> + and Queen Mab, with Essay by <span class="sc">Leigh Hunt</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shelley's Later Poems:</b><br> + Laon and Cythna, &c. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shelley's Posthumous Poems</b>,<br> + the Shelley Papers, &c. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shelley's Prose Works</b>,<br> + including A Refutation of Deism, Zastrozzi, St. Irvyne, &c. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>White's Natural History of Selborne.</b><br> + Edited, with additions, by <span class="sc">Thomas Brown</span>, F.L.S. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth gilt and gilt edges, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Golden Treasury of Thought, The:</b><br> + An <span class="sc">Encyclopædia of Quotations</span> from Writers + of all Times and Countries. Selected and Edited by <span + class="sc">Theodore Taylor</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Guyot's Earth and Man</b>;<br> + or, Physical Geography in its Relation to the History of Mankind. + With Additions by Professors <span class="sc">Agassiz, + Pierce</span>, and <span class="sc">Gray</span>; 12 Maps and + Engravings on Steel, some Coloured, and copious Index. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hake (Dr. Thomas Gordon), Poems by:</b> +<br><br> + <b>Maiden Ecstasy.</b> Small 4to, cloth extra, 8<i>s.</i> +<br> + <b>New Symbols.</b> Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +<br> + <b>Legends of the Morrow.</b> Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Medium 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hall's (Mrs. S. C.) Sketches of Irish Character.</b><br> + With numerous Illustrations on Steel and Wood by <span class="sc">Maclise, + Gilbert, Harvey</span>, and <span class="sc">G. Cruikshank</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The Irish Sketches of this lady resemble Miss Mitford's + beautiful English sketches in 'Our Village,' but they are far more + vigorous and picturesque and bright.</i>"—<span class="sc">Blackwood's + Magazine.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Post 8vo, cloth extra, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; a few large-paper copies, +half-Roxb., 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Handwriting, The Philosophy of.</b><br> + By Don <span class="sc">Felix de Salamanca</span>. With 134 Facsimiles of + Signatures. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Haweis (Mrs.), Works by:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Art of Dress.</b><br> + By Mrs. <span class="sc">H. R. Haweis</span>, Author of "The Art + of Beauty," &c. Illustrated by the Author. Small 8vo, + illustrated cover, 1<i>s.</i>; cloth limp, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A well-considered attempt to apply canons of good taste to the + costumes of ladies of our time…. Mrs. Haweis writes frankly and + to the point, she does not mince matters, but boldly remonstrates + with her own sex on the follies they indulge in…. We may + recommend the book to the ladies whom it + concerns.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Art of Beauty.</b><br> + By Mrs. <span class="sc">H. R. Haweis</span>, Author of "Chaucer + for Children." Square 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, gilt edges, with + Coloured Frontispiece and nearly 100 Illustrations, 10<i>s.</i> + 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +∴ <i>See also</i> <span class="sc">Chaucer</span>, <i>pp. 5 and +6 of this Catalogue.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Complete in Four Vols., demy 8vo, cloth extra, 12<i>s.</i> each. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>History Of Our Own Times</b>,<br> + from the Accession of Queen Victoria to the General Election of + 1880. By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>, M.P. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Criticism is disarmed before a composition which provokes little + but approval. This is a really good book on a really interesting + subject, and words piled on words could say no more for it…. + Such is the effect of its general justice, its breadth of view, and + its sparkling buoyancy, that very few of its readers will close + these volumes without looking forward with interest to the two</i> + [since published] <i>that are to follow.</i>"—<span + class="sc">Saturday Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hobhouse's The Dead Hand:</b><br> + Addresses on the subject of Endowments and Settlements of + Property. By Sir <span class="sc">Arthur Hobhouse</span>, Q.C., K.C.S.I. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth limp, with Illustrations, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Holmes's The Science of Voice Production and Voice + Preservation:</b><br> + A Popular Manual for the Use of Speakers and Singers. By + <span class="sc">Gordon Holmes</span>, L.R.C.P.E. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hollingshead's (John) Plain English.</b> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>I anticipate immense entertainment from the perusal of Mr. + Hollingshead's 'Plain English,' which I imagined to be a + philological work, but which I find to be a series of essays, in + the Hollingsheadian or Sledge-Hammer style, on those matters + theatrical with which lie is so eminently conversant.</i>"—G. A. + S. in the <span class="sc">Illustrated London News</span>. +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hood's (Thomas) Choice Works, In Prose and Verse.</b><br> + Including the <span class="sc">Cream of the Comic Annuals</span>. + With Life of the Author, Portrait, and Two Hundred Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Square crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt edges, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hood's (Tom) From Nowhere to the North Pole:</b><br> + A Noah's Arkæological Narrative. With 25 Illustrations by <span + class="sc">W. Brunton</span> and <span class="sc">E. C. + Barnes</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The amusing letterpress is profusely interspersed with the + jingling rhymes which children love and learn so easily. Messrs. + Brunton and Barnes do full justice to the writer's meaning, and a + pleasanter result of the harmonious co-operation of author and + artist could not be desired.</i>"—<span class="sc">Times.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hook's (Theodore) Choice Humorous Works</b>,<br> + including his Ludicrous Adventures, Bons-mots, Puns, and Hoaxes. + With a new Life of the Author, Portraits, Facsimiles, and + Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Horne's Orion:</b><br> + An Epic Poem in Three Books. By <span class="sc">Richard Hengist + Horne</span>. With a brief Commentary by the Author. With + Photographic Portrait from a Medallion by <span + class="sc">Summers</span>. Tenth Edition. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Howell's Conflicts of Capital and Labour Historically and + Economically considered.</b><br> + Being a History and Review of the Trade Unions of Great Britain, + showing their Origin, Progress, Constitution, and Objects, in + their Political, Social, Economical, and Industrial Aspects. By + <span class="sc">George Howell</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>This book is an attempt, and on the whole a successful attempt, + to place the work of trade unions in the past, and their objects in + the future, fairly before the public from the working man's point + of view.</i>"—<span class="sc">Pall Mall Gazette.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hueffer's The Troubadours:</b><br> + A History of Provencal Life and Literature in the Middle Ages. By + <span class="sc">Francis Hueffer</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Two Vols. 8vo, with 52 Illustrations and Maps, cloth extra, gilt, 14<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Josephus, The Complete Works of.</b><br> + Translated by <span class="sc">Whiston</span>. Containing both + "The Antiquities of the Jews" and "The Wars of the Jews." +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +A <span class="sc">New Edition</span>, Revised and partly Re-written, with several New Chapters<br> +and Illustrations, crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Jennings' The Rosicrucians:</b><br> + Their Rites and Mysteries. With Chapters on the Ancient Fire and + Serpent Worshippers. By <span class="sc">Hargrave Jennings</span>. + With Five full-page Plates and upwards of 300 Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small 8vo, cloth, full gilt, gilt edges, with Illustrations, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Kavanaghs' Pearl Fountain</b>,<br> + And other Fairy Stories. By <span class="sc">Bridget</span> and + <span class="sc">Julia Kavanagh</span>. With Thirty Illustrations + by <span class="sc">J. Moyr Smith</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Genuine new fairy stories of the old type, some of them as + delightful as the best of Grimm's 'German Popular Stories.'…. For + the most part the stories are downright, thorough-going fairy + stories of the most admirable kind…. Mr. Moyr Smith's + illustrations, too, are admirable.</i>"—<span + class="sc">Spectator.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Fcap. 8vo, illustrated boards. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Kitchen Garden (Our):</b><br> + The Plants we Grow, and How we Cook Them. By <span class="sc">Tom + Jerrold</span>. Author of "The Garden that Paid the Rent." &c. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>In the press.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, illustrated boards, with numerous Plates, 2<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lace (Old Point), and How to Copy and Imitate it.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Daisy Waterhouse Hawkins</span>. With 17 + Illustrations by the Author. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with numerous Illustrations, 10<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lamb (Mary and Charles):</b><br> + Their Poems, Letters, and Remains. With Reminiscences and Notes by + <span class="sc">W. Carew Hazlitt</span>. With <span + class="sc">Hancock's</span> Portrait of the Essayist, Facsimiles + of the Title-pages of the rare First Editions of Lamb's and + Coleridge's Works, and numerous Illustrations. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Very many passages will delight those fond of literary trifles; + hardly any portion will fail in interest for lovers of Charles Lamb + and his sister.</i>"—<span class="sc">Standard.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small 8vo, cloth extra, 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lamb's Poetry for Children, and Prince Dorus.</b><br> + Carefully Reprinted from unique copies. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The quaint and delightful little book, over the recovery of + which all the hearts of his lovers are yet warm with + rejoicing.</i>"—<span class="sc">A. C. Swinburne.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Portraits, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lamb's Complete Works</b>,<br> + In Prose and Verse, reprinted from the Original Editions, with + many Pieces hitherto unpublished. Edited, with Notes and + Introduction, by <span class="sc">R. H. Shepherd</span>. With Two + Portraits and Facsimile of a Page of the "Essay on Roast Pig." +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A complete edition of Lamb's writings, in prose and verse, has + long been wanted, and is now supplied. The editor appears to have + taken great pains to bring together Lamb's scattered contributions, + and his collection contains a number of pieces which are now + reproduced for the first time since their original appearance in + various old periodicals.</i>"—<span class="sc">Saturday Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, with Maps and Illustrations, 18<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lamont's Yachting in the Arctic Seas</b>;<br> + or, Notes of Five Voyages of Sport and Discovery in the + Neighbourhood of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. By <span class="sc">James + Lamont</span>, F.R.G.S. With numerous full-page Illustrations by + Dr. <span class="sc">Livesay</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>After wading through numberless volumes of icy fiction, + concocted narrative, and spurious biography of Arctic voyagers, it + is pleasant to meet with a real and genuine volume…. He shows + much tact in recounting his adventures, and they are so + interspersed with anecdotes and information as to make them + anything but wearisome…. The book, as a whole, is the most + important addition made to our Arctic literature for a long + time.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lares and Penates</b>;<br> + or, The Background of Life. By <span class="sc">Florence Caddy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth, full gilt, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Latter-Day Lyrics:</b><br> + Poems of Sentiment and Reflection by Living Writers; selected and + arranged, with Notes, by <span class="sc">W. Davenport + Adams</span>. With a Note on some Foreign Forms of Verse, by <span + class="sc">Austin Dobson</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth, full gilt, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Leigh's A Town Garland.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Henry S. Leigh</span>, Author of "Carols of Cockayne." +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>If Mr. Leigh's verse survive to a future generation—and there + is no reason why that honour should not be accorded productions so + delicate, so finished, and so full of humour—their author will + probably be remembered as the Poet of the + Strand.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Second Edition.—Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Leisure-Time Studies, chiefly Biological.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Andrew Wilson</span>, F.R.S.E., Lecturer on + Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in the Edinburgh Medical School. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>It is well when we can take up the work of a really qualified + investigator, who in the intervals of his more serious professional + labours sets himself to impart knowledge in such a simple and + elementary form as may attract and instruct, with no danger of + misleading the tyro in natural science. Such a work is this little + volume, made up of essays and addresses written and delivered by + Dr. Andrew Wilson, lecturer and examiner in science at Edinburgh + and Glasgow, at leisure intervals in a busy professional life…. + Dr. Wilson's pages teem with matter stimulating to a healthy love + of science and a reverence for the truths of + nature.</i>"—<span class="sc">Saturday Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Life in London</b>;<br> + or, The History of Jerry Hawthorn and Corinthian Tom. With the + whole of <span class="sc">Cruikshank's</span> Illustrations, in + Colours, after the Originals. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lights on the Way:</b><br> + Some Tales within a Tale. By the late <span class="sc">J. H. + Alexander</span>, B.A. Edited, with an Explanatory Note, by <span + class="sc">H. A. Page</span>, Author of "Thoreau: A Study." +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Longfellow's Complete Prose Works.</b><br> + Including "Outre Mer," "Hyperion," "Kavanagh," "The Poets and + Poetry of Europe," and "Driftwood." With Portrait and + Illustrations by <span class="sc">Valentine Bromley</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Longfellow's Poetical Works.</b><br> + Carefully Reprinted from the Original Editions. With numerous + fine Illustrations on Steel and Wood. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lunatic Asylum, My Experiences in a.</b><br> + By a <span class="sc">Sane Patient</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The story is clever and interesting, sad beyond measure though + the subject be. There it no personal bitterness, and no violence or + anger. Whatever may have been the evidence for our author's madness + when he was consigned to an asylum, nothing can be clearer than his + sanity when he wrote this book; it is bright, calm, and to the + point.</i>"—<span class="sc">Spectator.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, with Fourteen full-page Plates, cloth boards 18<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lusiad (The) of Camoens.</b><br> + Translated into English Spenserian verse by <span + class="sc">Robert Ffrench Duff</span>, Knight Commander of the + Portuguese Royal Order of Christ. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Macquoid (Mrs.), Works by:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>In the Ardennes.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Katharine S. Macquoid</span>. With 50 fine + Illustrations by <span class="sc">Thomas R. Macquoid</span>. + Uniform with "Pictures and Legends." Square 8vo, cloth extra, + 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Pictures and Legends from Normandy and Brittany.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Katharine S. Macquoid</span>. With numerous + Illustrations by <span class="sc">Thomas R. Macquoid</span>. + Square 8vo, cloth gilt, 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Mr. and Mrs. Macquoid have been strolling in Normandy and + Brittany, and the result of their observations and researches in + that picturesque land of romantic associations is an attractive + volume, which it neither a work of travel nor a collection of + stories, but a book partaking almost in equal degree of each of + these characters…. The illustrations, which are numerous, are + drawn, as a rule, with remarkable delicacy as well at with true + artistic feeling.</i>"—<span class="sc">Daily News.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Through Normandy.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Katharine S. Macquoid</span>. With 90 + Illustrations by <span class="sc">T. R. Macquoid</span>. Square + 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>One of the few books which can be read as a piece of + literature, whilst at the same time handy in the + knapsack.</i>"—<span class="sc">British Quarterly Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Through Brittany.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Katharine S. Macquoid</span>. With numerous + Illustrations by <span class="sc">Thomas R. Macquoid</span>. + Square 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The pleasant companionship which Mrs. Macquoid offers, while + wandering from one point of interest to another, seems to throw a + renewed charm around each oft-depicted scene.</i>"—<span + class="sc">Morning Post.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Madre Natura v. The Moloch of Fashion.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Luke Limner</span>. With 32 Illustrations by + the Author. <span class="sc">Fourth Edition</span>, revised and + enlarged. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Handsomely printed in facsimile, price 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Magna Charta.</b><br> + An exact Facsimile of the Original Document in the British + Museum, printed on fine plate paper, nearly 3 feet long by 2 feet + wide, with the Arms and Seals emblazoned in Gold and Colours. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small 8vo, 1<i>s.</i>; cloth extra, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Milton's The Hygiene of the Skin.</b><br> + A Concise Set of Rules for the Management of the Skin; with + Directions for Diet, Wines, Soaps, Baths, &c. By <span + class="sc">J. L. Milton</span>, Senior Surgeon to St. John's + Hospital. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>By the same Author.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Bath in Diseases of the Skin.</b><br> + Sm. 8vo, 1<i>s.</i>; cl. extra, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Mallock's (W. H.) Works:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Is Life Worth Living?</b><br> + By <span class="sc">William Hurrell Mallock</span>. New Edition, + crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>This deeply interesting volume…. It is the most powerful + vindication of religion, both natural and revealed, that has + appeared since Bishop Butler wrote, and is much more useful than + either the Analogy or the Sermons of that great divine, as a + refutation of the peculiar form assumed by the infidelity of the + present day…. Deeply philosophical as the book is, there is not a + heavy page in it. The writer is 'possessed,' so to speak, with his + great subject, has sounded its depths, surveyed it in all its + extent, and brought to bear on it all the resources of a vivid, + rich, and impassioned style, as well as an adequate acquaintance + with the science, the philosophy, and the literature of the + day.</i>"—<span class="sc">Irish Daily News.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The New Republic</b>;<br> + or, Culture, Faith, and Philosophy in an English Country House. By + <span class="sc">William Hurrell Mallock</span>. <span + class="sc">Cheap Edition</span>, in the "Mayfair Library." Post + 8vo, cloth limp, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The New Paul and Virginia</b>;<br> + or, Positivism on an Island. By <span class="sc">William Hurrell + Mallock</span>. <span class="sc">Cheap Edition</span>, in the + "Mayfair Library." Post 8vo, cloth limp, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Poems.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">W. H. Mallock</span>. Small 4to, bound in + parchment, 8<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Mark Twain's Works:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Choice Works of Mark Twain.</b><br> + Revised and Corrected throughout by the Author. With Life, + Portrait, and numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, + 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Mark Twain</span>. With 100 Illustrations. + Small 8vo, cl. ex., 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> <span class="sc">Cheap + Edition</span>, illust. boards, 2<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>A Pleasure Trip on the Continent of Europe: The Innocents + Abroad</b>,<br> + and The New Pilgrim's Progress. By <span class="sc">Mark + Twain</span>. Post 8vo, illustrated boards, 2<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>An Idle Excursion, and other Sketches.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Mark Twain</span>. Post 8vo, illustrated + boards, 2<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>A Tramp Abroad.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Mark Twain</span>. With 314 Illustrations. + Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The fun and tenderness of the conception, of which no living + man but Mark Twain is capable, its grace and fantasy and slyness, + the wonderful feeling for animals that is manifest in every line, + make of all this episode of Jim Baker and his jays a piece of work + that is not only delightful as mere reading, but also of a high + degree of merit as literature…. The book is full of good things, + and contains passages and episodes that are equal to the funniest + of those that have gone before.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Post 8vo, cloth limp. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> per vol. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Mayfair Library, The:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The New Republic.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">W. H. Mallock</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The New Paul and Virginia.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">W. H. Mallock</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The True History of Joshua Davidson.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Old Stories Re-told.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Walter Thornbury</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Thoreau: His Life and Aims.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">H. A. Page</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>By Stream and Sea.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">William Senior</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Jeux d'Esprit.</b><br> + Edited by <span class="sc">Henry S. Leigh</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Puniana.</b><br> + By the Hon. <span class="sc">Hugh Rowley</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>More Puniana.</b><br> + By the Hon. <span class="sc">Hugh Rowley</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Puck on Pegasus.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">H. Cholmondeley-Pennell</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Speeches of Charles Dickens.</b><br> + With Chapters on Dickens as a Letter-Writer, Poet, and Public + Reader. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Muses of Mayfair.</b><br> + Edited by <span class="sc">H. Cholmondeley-Pennell</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Gastronomy as a Fine Art.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Brillat-Savarin</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Original Plays.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">W. S. Gilbert</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Carols of Cockayne.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Henry S. Leigh</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Literary Frivolities, Fancies, Follies, and Frolics.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">William T. Dobson</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Pencil and Palette:</b><br> + Biographical Anecdotes, chiefly of Contemporary Painters, with + Gossip about Pictures Lost, Stolen, and Forged, also Great + Picture Sales. By <span class="sc">Robert Kempt</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Agony Column of "The Times,".</b><br> + from 1800 to 1870. Edited, with an Introduction, by <span class="sc">Alice + Clay</span>. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>Nearly ready.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Book of Clerical Anecdotes:</b><br> + A Gathering of the Antiquities, Humours, and Eccentricities of + "The Cloth." By <span class="sc">Jacob Larwood</span>. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>Nearly ready.</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +∴ <i>Other Volumes are in preparation.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>New Novels.</b> +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>OUIDA'S NEW WORK.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>A VILLAGE COMMUNE.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. Two Vols., crown 8vo, cloth extra. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>Just ready.</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>JAMES PAYN'S NEW NOVEL.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>A CONFIDENTIAL AGENT.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. With 12 Illustrations by + <span class="sc">Arthur Hopkins</span>. Three Vols., crown 8vo. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>NEW NOVEL BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>ELLICE QUENTIN</b>,<br> + and other Stories. By <span class="sc">Julian Hawthorne</span>. + Two Vols., crown 8vo. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>MR. FRANCILLON'S NEW NOVEL.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>QUEEN COPHETUA.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">R. E. Francillon</span>. Three Vols., crown 8vo. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>MRS. HUNT'S NEW NOVEL.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE LEADEN CASKET.</b><br> + By Mrs. <span class="sc">Alfred W. Hunt</span>. Three Vols., crown 8vo. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>NEW NOVEL BY MRS. LINTON.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE REBEL OF THE FAMILY.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. Three Vols., crown 8vo. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>NEW NOVEL by the AUTHORS OF "READY-MONEY MORTIBOY."</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE TEN YEARS' TENANT</b>,<br> + and other Stories. By <span class="sc">Walter Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rick</span>. Three Vols., crown 8vo. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>Nearly ready.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small 8vo, cloth limp, with Illustrations, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Miller's Physiology for the Young</b>;<br> + or, The House of Life: Human Physiology, with its Applications to + the Preservation of Health. For use in Classes and Popular + Reading. With numerous Illustrations. By Mrs. <span class="sc">F. Fenwick + Miller</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>An admirable introduction to a subject which all who value + health and enjoy life should have at their fingers' + ends.</i>"—<span class="sc">Echo.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Square 8vo, cloth extra, with numerous Illustrations, 9<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>North Italian Folk.</b><br> + By Mrs. <span class="sc">Comyns Carr</span>. Illustrated by <span + class="sc">Randolph Caldecott</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A delightful book, of a kind which is far too rare. If anyone + wants to really know the North Italian folk, we can honestly advise + him to omit the journey, and sit down to read Mrs. Carr's pages + instead…. Description with Mrs. Carr is a real gift…. It + is rarely that a book is so happily illustrated.</i>"—<span + class="sc">Contemporary Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Vignette Portraits, price 6<i>s.</i> per Vol. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Old Dramatists, The:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Ben Jonson's Works.</b><br> + With Notes, Critical and Explanatory, and a Biographical Memoir + by <span class="sc">William Gifford</span>. Edited by Colonel + <span class="sc">Cunningham</span>. Three Vols. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Chapman's Works.</b><br> + Now First Collected. Complete in Three Vols. Vol. I. contains the + Plays complete, including the doubtful ones; Vol. II. the Poems + and Minor Translations, with an Introductory Essay by <span + class="sc">Algernon Charles Swinburne</span>. Vol. III. the + Translations of the Iliad and Odyssey. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Marlowe's Works.</b><br> + Including his Translations. Edited, with Notes and Introduction, + by Col. <span class="sc">Cunningham</span>. One Vol. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Massinger's Plays.</b><br> + From the Text of <span class="sc">William Gifford</span>. With the + addition of the Tragedy of "Believe as you List." Edited by Col. + <span class="sc">Cunningham</span>. One Vol. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, red cloth extra, 5<i>s.</i> each. +</p> + +<table class="left" summary="Ouida's Novels"> + +<tr> +<td class="hang" colspan="2"><b>Ouida's Novels.—Library Edition.</b></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Held in Bondage.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Strathmore.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Chandos.</b></td> +<td class="atop"><span class="sc">By Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Under Two Flags.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Idalia.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Cecil Castlemaine.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Tricotrin.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Puck.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Folle Farine.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Dog of Flanders.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Pascarel.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Two Wooden Shoes.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Signa.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>In a Winter City.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Ariadne.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Friendship.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Moths.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p class="ctr"> +∴ Also a Cheap Edition of all but the last, post 8vo, +illustrated boards, 2<i>s.</i> each. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Post 8vo, cloth limp, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Parliamentary Procedure, A Popular Handbook of.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Henry W. Lucy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Portrait and Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Poe's Choice Prose and Poetical Works.</b><br> + With <span class="sc">Baudelaire's</span> "Essay." +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, carefully printed on creamy paper, and tastefully bound +in cloth for the Library, price 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> each. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Piccadilly Novels, The.</b> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<i>Popular Stories by the Best Authors.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>READY-MONEY MORTIBOY.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>MY LITTLE GIRL.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> and <span + class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE CASE OF MR. LUCRAFT.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> + and <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THIS SON OF VULCAN.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>WITH HARP AND CROWN.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE GOLDEN BUTTERFLY.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. With a Frontispiece by F. S. + Walker. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>BY CELIA'S ARBOUR.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE MONKS OF THELEMA.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>'TWAS IN TRAFALGAR'S BAY.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> + & <span class="sc">James ice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE SEAMY SIDE.</b> By <span class="sc">Walter Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>ANTONINA.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by Sir <span class="sc">J. Gilbert</span> and <span + class="sc">Alfred Concanen</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>BASIL.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. Illustrated + by Sir <span class="sc">John Gilbert</span> and <span class="sc">J. + Mahoney</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>HIDE AND SEEK.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by Sir <span class="sc">John Gilbert</span> and <span + class="sc">J. Mahoney</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE DEAD SECRET.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by Sir <span class="sc">John Gilbert</span> and <span + class="sc">H. Furniss</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>QUEEN OF HEARTS.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by Sir <span class="sc">John Gilbert</span> and <span + class="sc">A. Concanen</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>MY MISCELLANIES.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + With Steel Portrait, and Illustrations by <span class="sc">A. + Concanen</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE WOMAN IN WHITE.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by Sir <span class="sc">J. Gilbert</span> and <span + class="sc">F. A. Fraser</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE MOONSTONE.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">G. Du Maurier</span> and <span + class="sc">F. A. Fraser</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>MAN AND WIFE.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illust. by <span class="sc">Wm. Small</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>POOR MISS FINCH.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">G. Du Maurier</span> and <span + class="sc">Edward Hughes</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>MISS OR MRS.?</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">S. L. Fildes</span> and <span + class="sc">Henry Woods</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE NEW MAGDALEN.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">G. Du Maurier</span> and <span + class="sc">C. S. Reinhart</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE FROZEN DEEP.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">G. Du Maurier</span> and <span + class="sc">J. Mahoney</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE LAW AND THE LADY.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie + Collins</span>. Illustrated by <span class="sc">S. L. Fildes</span> + and <span class="sc">Sydney Hall</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE TWO DESTINIES.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE HAUNTED HOTEL.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">Arthur Hopkins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE FALLEN LEAVES.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>JEZEBEL'S DAUGHTER.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>DECEIVERS EVER.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">H. Lovett Cameron</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>JULIET'S GUARDIAN.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">H. Lovett + Cameron</span>. Illustrated by <span class="sc">Valentine + Bromley</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>FELICIA.</b> By <span class="sc">M. Betham-Edwards</span>. + Frontispiece by <span class="sc">W. Bowles</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>OLYMPIA.</b> By <span class="sc">R. E. Francillon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>GARTH.</b> By <span class="sc">Julian Hawthorne</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>ROBIN GRAY.</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>FOR LACK OF GOLD.</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>IN LOVE AND WAR.</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>WHAT WILL THE WORLD SAY?</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>FOR THE KING.</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>IN HONOUR BOUND.</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>QUEEN OF THE MEADOW.</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">Arthur Hopkins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE.</b> By <span class="sc">Thomas Hardy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THORNICROFT'S MODEL.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">A. W. Hunt</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>FATED TO BE FREE.</b> By <span class="sc">Jean Ingelow</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>CONFIDENCE.</b> By <span class="sc">Henry James</span>, Jun. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE QUEEN OF CONNAUGHT.</b> By <span class="sc">Harriett Jay</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE DARK COLLEEN.</b> By <span class="sc">Harriett Jay</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>NUMBER SEVENTEEN.</b> By <span class="sc">Henry Kingsley</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>OAKSHOTT CASTLE.</b> By <span class="sc">Henry Kingsley</span>. With a + Frontispiece by <span class="sc">Shirley Hodson</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>PATRICIA KEMBALL.</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. With a + Frontispiece by <span class="sc">G. Du Maurier</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE ATONEMENT OF LEAM DUNDAS.</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn + Linton</span>. With a Frontispiece by <span class="sc">Henry + Woods</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE WORLD WELL LOST.</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">J. Lawson</span> and <span + class="sc">Henry French</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>UNDER WHICH LORD?</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>WITH A SILKEN THREAD.</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE WATERDALE NEIGHBOURS.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>MY ENEMY'S DAUGHTER.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>LINLEY ROCHFORD.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>A FAIR SAXON.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>DEAR LADY DISDAIN.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>MISS MISANTHROPE.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">Arthur Hopkins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>DONNA QUIXOTE.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">Arthur Hopkins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>QUAKER COUSINS.</b> By <span class="sc">Agnes Macdonell</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>LOST ROSE.</b> By <span class="sc">Katharine S. Macquoid</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE EVIL EYE, and other Stories.</b> By <span class="sc">Katharine S. + Macquoid</span>. Illustrated by <span class="sc">Thomas R. Macquoid</span> and + <span class="sc">Percy Macquoid</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>OPEN! SESAME!</b> By <span class="sc">Florence Marryat</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">F. A. Fraser</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>TOUCH AND GO.</b> By <span class="sc">Jean Middlemass</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>WHITELADIES.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">Oliphant</span>. With + Illustrations by <span class="sc">A. Hopkins</span> and <span + class="sc">H. Woods</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE BEST OF HUSBANDS.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">J. Moyr Smith</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>FALLEN FORTUNES.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>HALVES.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. With a + Frontispiece by <span class="sc">J. Mahoney</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>WALTER'S WORD.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. Illust. + by <span class="sc">J. Moyr Smith</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>WHAT HE COST HER.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>LESS BLACK THAN WE'RE PAINTED.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>BY PROXY.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. Illustrated by + <span class="sc">Arthur Hopkins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>UNDER ONE ROOF.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>HIGH SPIRITS.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>HER MOTHER'S DARLING.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">J. H. Riddell</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>BOUND TO THE WHEEL.</b> By <span class="sc">John Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>GUY WATERMAN.</b> By <span class="sc">John Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>ONE AGAINST THE WORLD.</b> By <span class="sc">John Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE LION IN THE PATH.</b> By <span class="sc">John Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE WAY WE LIVE NOW.</b> By <span class="sc">Anthony + Trollope</span>. Illust. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE AMERICAN SENATOR.</b> By <span class="sc">Anthony Trollope</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND.</b> By <span class="sc">T. A. Trollope</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Post 8vo, illustrated boards, 2<i>s.</i> each. +</p> + +<p> +<b>Popular Novels, Cheap Editions of.</b> +</p> + + +<p class="ctrsmall"> + [<span class="sc">Wilkie Collins' Novels</span> and <span + class="sc">Besant</span> and <span class="sc">Rice's Novels</span> + may also be had in cloth limp at 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d. See, too, the</i> + <span class="sc">Piccadilly Novels</span>, <i>for Library + Editions</i>.] +</p> + + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Maid, Wife, or Widow?</b> By Mrs. <span +class="sc">Alexander</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Ready-Money Mortiboy.</b> By <span +class="sc">Walter Besant</span> and <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Golden Butterfly.</b> By Authors of "Ready-Money Mortiboy." +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>This Son of Vulcan.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>My Little Girl.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Case of Mr. Lucraft.</b> By Authors of "Ready-Money Mortiboy." +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>With Harp and Crown.</b> By Authors of +"Ready-Money Mortiboy." +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Monks of Thelema.</b> By <span +class="sc">Walter Besant</span> and <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>By Celia's Arbour.</b> By <span +class="sc">Walter Besant</span> and <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>'Twas in Trafalgar's Bay.</b> By <span class="sc">Walter +Besant</span> and <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Juliet's Guardian.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">H. Lovett +Cameron</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Surly Tim.</b> By <span class="sc">F. H. Burnett</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Cure of Souls.</b> By <span class="sc">Maclaren Corban</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Woman in White.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Antonina.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Basil.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Hide and Seek.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Queen of Hearts.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Dead Secret.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>My Miscellanies.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Moonstone.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Man and Wife.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Poor Miss Finch.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Miss or Mrs.?</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The New Magdalen.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Frozen Deep.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Law and the Lady.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Two Destinies.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Haunted Hotel.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Roxy.</b> By <span class="sc">Edward Eggleston</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Felicia.</b> <span class="sc">M. Betham-Edwards</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Filthy Lucre.</b> By <span class="sc">Albany de Fonblanque</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Olympia.</b> By <span class="sc">R. E. +Francillon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Robin Gray.</b> By <span class="sc">Chas. Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>For Lack of Gold.</b> By Charles Gibbon. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>What will the World Say?</b> By Charles Gibbon. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>In Love and War..</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>For the King.</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>In Honour Bound.</b> By <span class="sc">Chas. Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Dick Temple.</b> By <span class="sc">James Greenwood</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Under the Greenwood Tree.</b> By <span class="sc">Thomas Hardy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>An Heiress of Red Dog.</b> By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Luck of Roaring Camp.</b> By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Gabriel Conroy.</b> By <span class="sc">Bret Harte.</span> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Fated to be Free.</b> By <span class="sc">Jean Ingelow</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Confidence.</b> By <span class="sc">Henry James</span>, Jun. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Queen of Connaught.</b> By <span class="sc">Harriett Jay</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Dark Colleen.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Number Seventeen.</b> By <span class="sc">Henry Kingsley</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Oakshott Castle.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Patricia Kemball.</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Atonement of Leam Dundas.</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn +Linton</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The World Well Lost.</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Waterdale Neighbours.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin +McCarthy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>My Enemy's Daughter.</b> Do. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Linley Rochford.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>A Fair Saxon.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Dear Lady Disdain.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Miss Misanthrope.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Lost Rose.</b> By <span class="sc">Katharine S. Macquoid</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Evil Eye.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Open! Sesame!</b> By <span class="sc">Florence Marryat</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Whiteladies.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">Oliphant</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Held in Bondage.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Strathmore.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Chandos.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Under Two Flags.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Idalia.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Cecil Castlemaine.</b> By Ouida. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Tricotrin.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Puck.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Folle Farine.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Dog of Flanders.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Pascarel.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Two Little Wooden Shoes.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Signa.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>In a Winter City.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Ariadne.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Friendship.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Fallen Fortunes.</b> By <span class="sc">J. Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Halves.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>What He Cost Her.</b> By ditto. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>By Proxy.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Less Black than We're Painted.</b> By <span class="sc">James +Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Best of Husbands.</b> Do. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Walter's Word.</b> By <span class="sc">J. Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Mystery of Marie Roget.</b> By <span class="sc">Edgar A. +Poe</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Her Mother's Darling.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">J. H. +Riddell</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Gaslight and Daylight.</b> By <span class="sc">George Augustus +Sala</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Bound to the Wheel.</b> By <span class="sc">John Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Guy Waterman.</b> By <span class="sc">J. Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>One Against the World.</b> By <span class="sc">John Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Lion in the Path.</b> By <span class="sc">John</span> and <span +class="sc">Katherine Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Tales for the Marines.</b> By <span class="sc">Walter +Thornbury</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Way we Live Now.</b> By <span class="sc">Anthony Trollope</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The American Senator.</b> By <span class="sc">Anthony Trollope</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Diamond Cut Diamond.</b> By <span class="sc">T. A. Trollope</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>An Idle Excursion.</b> By <span class="sc">Mark Twain</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Adventures of Tom Sawyer.</b> By <span class="sc">Mark Twain</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>A Pleasure Trip on the Continent of Europe.</b> By <span +class="sc">Mark Twain</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Fcap. 8vo, picture covers, 1<i>s.</i> each. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Jeff Briggs's Love Story.</b> By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Twins of Table Mountain.</b> By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Mrs. Gainsborough's Diamonds.</b> By <span class="sc">Julian Hawthorne</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Kathleen Mavourneen.</b> By the Author of "That Lass o' Lowrie's." +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lindsay's Luck.</b> By the Author of "That Lass o' Lowrie's." +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Pretty Polly Pemberton.</b> By Author of "That Lass o' Lowrie's." +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Trooping with Crows.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">Pirkis</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Planché.—Songs and Poems, from 1819 to 1879.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">J. 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Farrer</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A book which it really both instructive and amusing, and which + will open a new field of thought to many + readers.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> + +<p> + "<i>An admirable example of the application of the scientific + method and the working of the truly scientific + spirit.</i>"—<span class="sc">Saturday Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Prince of Argolis, The:</b><br> + A Story of the Old Greek Fairy Time. By <span class="sc">J. Moyr + Smith</span>. With 130 Illustrations by the Author. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Proctor's (R. A.) Works:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Easy Star Lessons for Young Learners.</b><br> + With Star Maps for Every Night in the Year, Drawings of the + Constellations, &c. By <span class="sc">Richard A. + Proctor</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>In preparation.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Myths and Marvels of Astronomy.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Rich. A. Proctor</span>, Author of "Other + Worlds than Ours," &c. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Pleasant Ways in Science.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Richard A. Proctor</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, + 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Rough Ways made Smooth:</b><br> + A Series of Familiar Essays on Scientific Subjects. By <span + class="sc">R. A. Proctor</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Our Place among Infinities:</b><br> + A Series of Essays contrasting our Little Abode in Space and Time + with the Infinities Around us. By <span class="sc">Richard A. + Proctor</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Expanse of Heaven:</b><br> + A Series of Essays on the Wonders of the Firmament. By + <span class="sc">Richard A. Proctor</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Wages and Wants of Science Workers.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Richard A. Proctor</span>. Crown 8vo, + 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Mr. Proctor, of all writers of our time, best conforms to + Matthew Arnold's conception of a man of culture, in that he strives + to humanise knowledge and divest it of whatever is harsh, crude, or + technical, and so makes it a source of happiness and brightness for + all.</i>"—<span class="sc">Westminster Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Pursuivant of Arms, The</b>;<br> + or, Heraldry founded upon Facts. A Popular Guide to the Science of + Heraldry. By <span class="sc">J. R. Planché</span>, Somerset + Herald. With Coloured Frontispiece, Plates, and 200 Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Rabelais' Works.</b><br> Faithfully Translated from the French, + with variorum Notes, and numerous characteristic Illustrations by + <span class="sc">Gustave Dore</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>His buffoonery was not merely Brutus's rough skin, which + contained a rod of gold: it was necessary as an amulet against the + monks and legates; and he must be classed with the greatest + creative minds in the world—with Shakespeare, with Dante, and with + Cervantes.</i>"—<span class="sc">S. T. Coleridge.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, with numerous Illustrations, and a beautifully +executed<br> +Chart of the various Spectra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Rambosson's Astronomy.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">J. Rambosson</span>, Laureate of the Institute + of France. Translated by <span class="sc">C. B. Pitman</span>. + Profusely Illustrated. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Richardson's (Dr.) A Ministry of Health</b>,<br> + and other Papers. By <span class="sc">Benjamin Ward + Richardson</span>, M.D., &c. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>This highly interesting volume contains upwards of nine + addresses, written in the author's well-known style, and full of + great and good thoughts…. The work is, like all those of the + author, that of a man of genius, of great power, of experience, and + noble independence of thought.</i>"—<span class="sc">Popular Science + Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Square 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Rimmer's Our Old Country Towns.</b><br> + With over 50 Illustrations. By <span class="sc">Alfred Rimmer</span>. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>Nearly ready.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Handsomely printed, price 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Roll of Battle Abbey, The</b>;<br> + or, A List of the Principal Warriors who came over from Normandy + with William the Conqueror, and Settled in this Country, A.D. + 1066-7. Printed on fine plate paper, nearly three feet by two, + with the principal Arms emblazoned in Gold and Colours. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Two Vols., large 4to, profusely Illustrated, half-morocco, £2 16<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Rowlandson, the Caricaturist.</b><br> + A Selection from his Works, with Anecdotal Descriptions of his + Famous Caricatures, and a Sketch of his Life, Times, and + Contemporaries. With nearly 400 Illustrations, mostly in Facsimile + of the Originals. By <span class="sc">Joseph Grego</span>, Author + of "James Gillray, the Caricaturist; his Life, Works, and Times." +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Mr. Grego's excellent account of the works of Thomas Rowlandson + … illustrated with some 400 spirited, accurate, and clever + transcripts from his designs…. The thanks of all who care for + what is original and personal in art are due to Mr. Grego for the + pains he has been at, and the time he has expended, in the + preparation of this very pleasant, very careful, and adequate + memorial.</i>"—<span class="sc">Pall Mall Gazette.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, profusely Illustrated, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> each. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>"Secret Out" Series, The.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Pyrotechnist's Treasury</b>;<br> + or, Complete Art of Making Fireworks. By <span class="sc">Thomas + Kentish</span>. With numerous Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Art of Amusing:</b><br> + A Collection of Graceful Arts, Games, Tricks, Puzzles, and + Charades. By <span class="sc">Frank Bellew</span>. 300 Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hanky-Panky:</b><br> + Very Easy Tricks, Very Difficult Tricks, White Magic, Sleight of + Hand. Edited by <span class="sc">W. H. Cremer</span>. 200 Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Merry Circle:</b><br> + A Book of New Intellectual Games and Amusements. By <span class="sc">Clara + Bellew</span>. Many Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Magician's Own Book:</b><br> + Performances with Cups and Balls, Eggs, Hats, Handkerchiefs, + &c. All from Actual Experience. Edited by <span class="sc">W. + H. Cremer</span>. 200 Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Magic No Mystery:</b><br> + Tricks with Cards, Dice, Balls, &c., with fully descriptive + Directions; the Art of Secret Writing; Training of Performing + Animals, &c. Coloured Frontispiece and many Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Secret Out:</b><br> + One Thousand Tricks with Cards, and other Recreations; with + Entertaining Experiments in Drawing-room or "White Magic." By + <span class="sc">W. H. Cremer</span>. 200 Engravings. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Senior's Travel and Trout in the Antipodes.</b><br> + An Angler's Sketches in Tasmania and New Zealand. By <span + class="sc">William Senior</span> ("Red Spinner"), Author of + "Stream and Sea." +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>In every way a happy production…. What Turner effected in + colour on canvas, Mr. Senior may be said to effect by the force of a + practical mind, in language that is magnificently descriptive, on + his subject. There is in both painter and writer the same magical + combination of idealism and realism, and the same hearty + appreciation for all that is sublime and pathetic in natural + scenery. That there is an undue share of travel to the number of + trout caught is certainly not Mr. Senior's fault; but the + comparative scarcity of the prince of fishes is adequately atoned + for, in that the writer was led pretty well through all the glorious + scenery of the antipodes in quest of him…. So great is the + charm and the freshness and the ability of the book, that it is hard + to put it down when once taken up.</i>"—<span class="sc">Home + News.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shakespeare:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shakespeare, The First Folio.</b><br> + Mr. <span class="sc">William Shakespeare's</span> Comedies, + Histories, and Tragedies. Published according to the true Original + Copies. London, Printed by <span class="sc">Isaac Iaggard</span> + and <span class="sc">Ed. Blount</span>, 1623.—A Reproduction of + the extremely rare original, in reduced facsimile by a + photographic process—ensuring the strictest accuracy in every + detail. Small 8vo, half-Roxburghe, 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>To Messrs. Chatto and Windus belongs the merit of having done + more to facilitate the critical study of the text of our great + dramatist than all the Shakespeare clubs and societies put + together. A complete facsimile of the celebrated First Folio + edition of 1623 for half-a-guinea is at once a miracle of cheapness + and enterprise. Being in a reduced form, the type is necessarily + rather diminutive, but it is as distinct as in a genuine copy of + the original, and will be found to be as useful and far more handy + to the student than the latter.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shakespeare, The Lansdowne.</b><br> + Beautifully printed in red and black, in small but very clear + type. With engraved facsimile of <span + class="sc">Droeshout's</span> Portrait. Post 8vo, cloth extra, + 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shakespeare for Children: Tales from Shakespeare.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Charles</span> and <span class="sc">Mary + Lamb</span>. With numerous Illustrations, coloured and plain, by + <span class="sc">J. Moyr Smith</span>. Crown 4to, cloth gilt, + 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shakespeare Music, The Handbook of.</b><br> + Being an Account of Three Hundred and Fifty Pieces of Music, set + to Words taken from the Plays and Poems of Shakespeare, the + compositions ranging from the Elizabethan Age to the Present Time. + By <span class="sc">Alfred Roffe</span>. 4to, half-Roxburghe, + 7<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shakespeare, A Study of.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Algernon Charles Swinburne</span>. Crown 8vo, + cloth extra, 8<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with 10 full-page Tinted Illustrations, +7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Sheridan's Complete Works</b>,<br> + with Life and Anecdotes. Including his Dramatic Writings, printed + from the Original Editions, his Works in Prose and Poetry, + Translations, Speeches, Jokes, Puns, &c.; with a Collection of + Sheridaniana. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Signboards:</b><br> + Their History. With Anecdotes of Famous Taverns and Remarkable + Characters. By <span class="sc">Jacob Larwood</span> and <span + class="sc">John Camden Hotten</span>. With nearly 100 + Illustrations. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Even if we were ever so maliciously inclined, we would not pick + out all Messrs. Larwood and Hotten's plums, because the good things + are so numerous as to defy the most wholesale + depredation.</i>"—<span class="sc">Times.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo. cloth extra, gilt, 6<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Slang Dictionary, The:</b><br> + Etymological, Historical, and Anecdotal. An <span class="sc">Entirely New + Edition</span>, revised throughout, and considerably Enlarged. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>We are glad to see the Slang Dictionary reprinted and enlarged. + From a high scientific point of view this book it not to be + despised. Of course it cannot fail to be amusing also. It contains + the very vocabulary of unrestrained humour, and oddity, and + grotesqueness. In a word, it provides valuable material both for + the student of language and the student of human + nature.</i>"—<span class="sc">Academy.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Exquisitely printed in miniature, cloth extra, gilt edges, 2<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Smoker's Text-Book, The.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">J. Hamer</span>, F.R.S.L. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Spalding's Elizabethan Demonology:</b><br> + An Essay in Illustration of the Belief in the Existence of Devils, + and the Powers possessed by them, with Special Reference to + Shakspere and his Works. By <span class="sc">T. Alfred + Spalding</span>, LL.B. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A very thoughtful and weighty book, which cannot but be welcome + to every earnest student.</i>"—<span class="sc">Academy.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 4to, uniform with "Chaucer for Children," with Coloured +Illustrations, cloth gilt, 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Spenser for Children.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">M. H. Towry</span>. With Illustrations in Colours by + <span class="sc">Walter J. Morgan</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Spenser has simply been transferred into plain prose, with here + and there a line or stanza quoted, where the meaning and the diction + are within a child's comprehension, and additional point is thus + given to the narrative without the cost of obscurity…. + Altogether the work has been well and carefully done.</i>"—<span + class="sc">The Times.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Post 8vo, cloth extra, 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Stories about Number Nip</b>,<br> + The Spirit of the Giant Mountains. Retold for children, by <span + class="sc">Walter Grahame</span>. With Illustrations by <span + class="sc">J. Moyr Smith</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, Illustrated, 21<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Sword, The Book of the:</b><br> + Being a History of the Sword, and its Use, in all Times and in all + Countries. By Captain <span class="sc">Richard Burton</span>. With + numerous Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>In preparation.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 9<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Stedman's Victorian Poets:</b><br> + Critical Essays. By <span class="sc">Edmund Clarence Stedman</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>We ought to be thankful to those who do critical work with + competent skill and understanding. Mr. Stedman deserves the thanks + of English scholars; … he is faithful, studious, and + discerning.</i>"—<span class="sc">Saturday Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the People of England</b>;<br> + including the Rural and Domestic Recreations, May Games, + Mummeries, Shows, Processions, Pageants, and Pompous Spectacles, + from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. With 140 + Illustrations. Edited by <span class="sc">William Hone</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Swift's Choice Works</b>,<br> + In Prose and Verse. With Memoir, Portrait, and Facsimiles of the + Maps in the Original Edition of "Gulliver's Travels." +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Swinburne's Works:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Queen Mother and Rosamond.</b><br> + Fcap. 8vo, 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Atalanta in Calydon.</b><br> + A New Edition. Crown 8vo, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Chastelard.</b><br> + A Tragedy. Crown 8vo, 7<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Poems and Ballads.</b><br> + <span class="sc">First Series.</span> Fcap. 8vo, 9<i>s.</i> Also + in crown 8vo, at same price. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Poems and Ballads.</b><br> + <span class="sc">Second Series.</span> Fcap, 8vo, 9<i>s.</i> Also + in crown 8vo, at same price. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Notes on "Poems and Ballads."</b><br> + 8vo, 1<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>William Blake:</b><br> + A Critical Essay. With Facsimile Paintings. 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OGDEN AND CO., PRINTERS, 172, ST. JOHN STREET, E.C. +</p> + +<br> +<div class="tn"> +<p class="ctr"> +Transcriber's Note: +</p> + +<p> +Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. +</p> + +<p> +Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as +printed. +</p> +</div> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44820 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/44820-h/images/ad001.jpg b/44820-h/images/ad001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6bf7a0f --- /dev/null +++ b/44820-h/images/ad001.jpg diff --git a/44820-h/images/cover.jpg b/44820-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..609b767 --- /dev/null +++ b/44820-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/44820-h/images/logo.jpg b/44820-h/images/logo.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e90bd6 --- /dev/null +++ b/44820-h/images/logo.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b3bd6d --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #44820 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44820) diff --git a/old/44820-8.txt b/old/44820-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c0df36 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44820-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6488 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolutionist at Large, by Grant Allen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Evolutionist at Large + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: February 1, 2014 [EBook #44820] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE *** + + + + +Produced by Dianna Adair and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected +without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have +been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with +underscores: _italics_. Words printed in bold are noted with +tildes: ~bold~. + + + + Dear Mother, take this English posy, culled. + In alien fields beyond the severing sea: + Take it in memory of the boy you lulled + One chill Canadian winter on your knee. + + Its flowers are but chance friends of after years, + Whose very names my childhood hardly knew; + And even today far sweeter in my ears + Ring older names unheard long seasons through. + + I loved them all--the bloodroot, waxen white, + Canopied mayflower, trilliums red and pale, + Flaunting lobelia, lilies richly dight, + And pipe-plant from the wood behind the Swale. + + I knew each dell where yellow violets blow, + Each bud or leaf the changing seasons bring; + I marked each spot where from the melting snow + Peeped forth the first hepatica of spring. + + I watched the fireflies on the shingly ridge + Beside the swamp that bounds the Baron's hill; + Or tempted sunfish by the ebbing bridge, + Or hooked a bass by Shirley Going's mill. + + These were my budding fancy's mother-tongue: + But daisies, cowslips, dodder, primrose-hips, + All beasts or birds my little book has sung, + Sit like a borrowed speech on stammering lips. + + And still I build fond dreams of happier days, + If hard-earned pence may bridge the ocean o'er; + That yet our boy may see my mother's face, + And gather shells beside Ontario's shore: + + May yet behold Canadian woodlands dim, + And flowers and birds his father loved to see; + While you and I sit by and smile on him, + As down grey years you sat and smiled on me. + + G. A. + + + + +_By the same Author._ + + +PHYSIOLOGICAL ÆSTHETICS: a Scientific Theory of Beauty (London: C. +KEGAN PAUL & CO.) + +THE COLOUR-SENSE: its Origin and Development. An Essay on Comparative +Psychology. (London: TRÜBNER & CO.) + + + + +THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE + +LONDON: PRINTED BY +SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE +AND PARLIAMENT STREET + + + + +THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE + + +BY + +GRANT ALLEN + + +London +CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY +1881 + +_All rights reserved_ + + + + +PREFACE. + + +These Essays originally appeared in the columns of the 'St. James's +Gazette,' and I have to thank the courtesy of the Editor for kind +permission to republish them. My object in writing them was to make the +general principles and methods of evolutionists a little more familiar +to unscientific readers. Biologists usually deal with those underlying +points of structure which are most really important, and on which all +technical discussion must necessarily be based. But ordinary people +care little for such minute anatomical and physiological details. They +cannot be expected to interest themselves in the _flexor pollicis +longus_, or the _hippocampus major_ about whose very existence +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 monocotyledonous seeds or exogenous +stems. It is with these surface questions of obvious outward appearance +that I have attempted to deal in this little series. 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 which 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 work. + +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 anonymously in the columns of a daily paper, this air of +personality was not so obtrusive: now that they reappear under my own +name, I fear it may prove somewhat 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 _I_ 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 as to bring the statements into closer accordance with scientific +accuracy. At the same time, I should like to add that I have +intentionally simplified the scientific facts as far as possible. Thus, +instead of saying that the groundsel is a composite, I have said that +it is a daisy by family; and instead of saying that the ascidian larva +belongs to the sub-kingdom Chordata, I have said that it is a first +cousin of the tadpole. For these simplifications, I hope technical +biologists will pardon me. After all, if you wish to be understood, it +is best to speak to people in words whose meanings they know. Definite +and accurate terminology is necessary to express definite and accurate +knowledge; but one may use vague expressions where the definite ones +would convey no ideas. + +I have to thank the kindness of my friend the Rev. E. PURCELL, of +Lincoln College, Oxford, for the clever and appropriate design which +appears upon the cover. + +G. A. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + +A BALLADE OF EVOLUTION 1 + + I. MICROSCOPIC BRAINS 3 + + II. A WAYSIDE BERRY 16 + + III. IN SUMMER FIELDS 25 + + IV. A SPRIG OF WATER CROWFOOT 36 + + V. SLUGS AND SNAILS 48 + + VI. A STUDY OF BONES 59 + + VII. BLUE MUD 67 + + VIII. CUCKOO-PINT 77 + + IX. BERRIES AND BERRIES 87 + + X. DISTANT RELATIONS 96 + + XI. AMONG THE HEATHER 105 + + XII. SPECKLED TROUT 114 + + XIII. DODDER AND BROOMRAPE 124 + + XIV. DOG'S MERCURY AND PLANTAIN 133 + + XV. BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY 142 + + XVI. BUTTERFLY ÆSTHETICS 153 + + XVII. THE ORIGIN OF WALNUTS 161 + +XVIII. A PRETTY LAND-SHELL 172 + + XIX. DOGS AND MASTERS 181 + + XX. BLACKCOCK 189 + + XXI. BINDWEED 198 + + XXII. ON CORNISH CLIFFS 207 + + + + +_A BALLADE OF EVOLUTION._ + + + In the mud of the Cambrian main + Did our earliest ancestor dive: + From a shapeless albuminous grain + We mortals our being derive. + He 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 contrive, + 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 civilised hive, + Now money's the measure of all; + And the wealthy in coaches can drive, + While the needier go to the wall. + + + + +THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. + + + + +I. + +_MICROSCOPIC BRAINS._ + + +Sitting on this little rounded boss of gneiss beside the path which +cuts obliquely through the meadow, I am engaged in watching a brigade +of ants out on foraging duty, and intent on securing for the nest three +whole segments of a deceased earthworm. They look for all the world +like those busy companies one sees in the Egyptian wall-paintings, +dragging home a huge granite colossus by sheer force of bone 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 Brobdingnagian 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 +head-quarters 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 that I could for a while get inside those tiny +brains, and see, or rather smell, the world as ants do. For there can +be little doubt that to these brave little carnivores here the universe +is chiefly known as a collective bundle of odours, simultaneous or +consecutive. As our world is mainly a world of visible objects, theirs, +I believe, is mainly a world of olfactible things. + +In the head of every one of these little creatures is something that we +may fairly call a brain. Of course most insects have no real brains; +the nerve-substance in their heads is a mere collection of ill-arranged +ganglia, directly connected with their organs of sense. Whatever man +may be, an earwig at least is a conscious, or rather a semi-conscious, +automaton. He has just a few knots of nerve-cells in his little pate, +each of which leads straight from his dim eye or his vague ear or +his indefinite organs of taste; and his muscles obey the promptings +of external sensations without possibility of hesitation or +consideration, as mechanically as the valve of a steam-engine obeys the +governor-balls. You may say of him truly, 'Nihil est in intellectu quod +non fuerit in sensu;' and you need not even add the Leibnitzian saving +clause, 'nisi ipse 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 the cerebellum +which are superadded in us mammals upon the simple sense-centres of +lower creatures. Besides the eye, with its optic nerve and optic +perceptive organs--besides the ear, with its similar mechanism--we +mammalian lords of creation have a higher and more genuine brain, which +collects and compares the information given to the senses, and sends +down the appropriate messages to the muscles accordingly. Now, bees and +flies and ants have got much the same sort of arrangement, on a smaller +scale, within their tiny heads. On top of the little knots which do +duty as nerve-centres for their eyes and mouths, stand two stalked bits +of nervous matter, 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 beetles or butterflies, and why the larger +part of them have organised their domestic arrangements on such an +excellent co-operative plan. + +We know well enough what forms the main material of thought with bees +and flies, and that is visible objects. For you must think about +_something_ if you think at all; and you can hardly imagine a +contemplative blow-fly setting itself down to reflect, like a Hindu +devotee, on the syllable Om, or on the oneness of existence. Abstract +ideas are not likely to play a large part in apian consciousness. A bee +has a very perfect eye, and with this eye it can see not only form, but +also colour, as Sir John Lubbock's experiments have shown us. The +information which it gets through its eye, coupled with other ideas +derived from touch, smell, and taste, no doubt makes up the main +thinkable and knowable universe as it reveals itself to the apian +intelligence. To ourselves and to bees alike the world is, on the +whole, a coloured picture, with the notions of distance and solidity +thrown in by touch and muscular effort; but sight undoubtedly plays the +first part in forming our total conception of things generally. + +What, however, forms the thinkable universe of these little ants +running to and fro so eagerly at my feet? That is a question which used +long to puzzle me in my afternoon walks. The ant has a brain and an +intelligence, but that brain and that intelligence must have been +developed out of _something_. _Ex nihilo nihil fit._ You cannot think +and know if you have nothing to think about. The intelligence of the +bee and the fly was evolved in the course of their flying about and +looking at things: the more they flew, and the more they saw, the more +they knew; and the more brain they got to think with. But the ant does +not generally fly, and, as with most comparatively unlocomotive +animals, its sight is bad. True, the winged males and females have +retained in part the usual sharp eyes of their class--for they are +first cousins to the bees--and they also possess three little eyelets +or _ocelli_, which are wanting to the wingless neuters. Without these +they would never have found one another in their courtship, and they +would have run their heads against the nearest tree, or rushed down the +gaping throat of the first expectant swallow, and so effectually +extinguished their race. Flying animals cannot do without eyes, and +they always possess the most highly developed vision of any living +creatures. But the wingless neuters are almost blind--in some species +quite so; and Sir John Lubbock has shown that their appreciation of +colour is mostly confined to an aversion to red light, and a +comparative endurance of blue. Moreover, they are apparently deaf, and +most of their other senses seem little developed. What can be the raw +material on which that pin's head of a brain sets itself working? For, +small as it is, it is a wonderful organ of intellect; and though Sir +John Lubbock has shown us all too decisively that the originality and +inventive genius of ants have been sadly overrated by Solomon and +others, yet Darwin is probably right none the less in saying that no +more marvellous atom of matter exists in the universe than this same +wee lump of microscopic nerve substance. + +My dog Grip, running about on the path there, with his nose to the +ground, and sniffing at every stick and stone he meets on his way, +gives us the clue to solve the problem. Grip, as Professor Croom +Robertson suggests, seems capable of extracting a separate and +distinguishable 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 he is, selects and brings back to me that individual stone +from all the stones around, by exercise of his nose alone. It is plain +that Grip's world is not merely a world of sights, but a world of +smells as well. He not only smells smells, but he remembers smells, he +thinks smells, he even dreams smells, as you may see by his sniffing +and growling in his sleep. Now, if I were to cut open Grip's head +(which heaven forfend), I should find in it a correspondingly big +smell-nerve and smell-centre--an olfactory lobe, as the anatomists say. +All the accumulated nasal experiences of his ancestors have made that +lobe enormously developed. But in a man's head you would find a very +large and fine optic centre, and only a mere shrivelled relic to +represent the olfactory lobes. You and I and our ancestors have had but +little occasion for sniffing and scenting; our sight and our touch have +done duty as chief intelligencers from the outer world; and the nerves +of smell, with their connected centres, have withered away to the +degenerate condition in which they now are. Consequently, smell plays +but a small part in our thought and our memories. The world that we +know is chiefly a world of sights and touches. But in the brain of dog, +or deer, or antelope, smell is a prevailing faculty; it colours all +their ideas, and it has innumerable nervous connections with every part +of their brain. The big olfactory lobes are in direct communication +with a thousand other nerves; odours rouse trains of thought or +powerful emotions in their minds just as visible objects do in our own. + +Now, in the dog or the horse sight and smell are equally developed; so +that they probably think of most things about equally in terms of each. +In ourselves, sight is highly developed, and smell is a mere relic; so +that we think of most things in terms of sight alone, and only rarely, +as with a rose or a lily, in terms of both. But in ants, on the +contrary, smell is highly developed and sight a mere relic; so that +they probably think of most things as smellable only, and very little +as visible in form or colour. Dr. Bastian has shown that bees and +butterflies are largely guided by scent; and though he is certainly +wrong in supposing that sight has little to do with leading them to +flowers (for if you cut off the bright-coloured corolla they will never +discover the mutilated blossoms, even when they visit others on the +same plant), yet the mere fact that so many flowers are scented 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 sense of smell has been continued and further developed, till +it has become their principal sense-endowment, and the chief raw +material of their intelligence. Their active little brains are almost +wholly engaged in correlating and co-ordinating smells with actions. +Their olfactory nerves give them nearly all the information they can +gain about the external world, and their brains take in this +information and work out the proper movements which it indicates. By +smell they find their way about and carry on the business of their +lives. Just as you and I know the road from Regent's Circus to Pall +Mall by visible signs of the street-corners and the Duke of York's +Column, so these little ants know the way from the nest to the corpse +of the dismembered worm by observing and remembering the smells which +they met with on their way. See: I obliterate the track for an inch or +two with my stick, and the little creatures go beside themselves with +astonishment and dismay. They rush about wildly, inquiring of one +another with their antennæ whether this is really Doomsday, and whether +the whole course of nature has been suddenly revolutionised. Then, +after a short consultation, they determine upon action; and every ant +starts off in a different direction to hunt the lost track, head to the +ground, exactly as a pointer hunts the missing trail of a bird or hare. +Each ventures an inch or so off, and then runs back to find the rest, +for fear he should get isolated altogether. At last, after many +failures, one lucky fellow hits upon the well-remembered train of +scents, and rushes back leaving smell-tracks no doubt upon the soil +behind him. The message goes quickly round from post to post, each +sentry making passes with his antennæ to the next picket, and so +sending on the news to the main body in the rear. Within five minutes +communications are re-established, and the precious bit of worm-meat +continues triumphantly on its way along the recovered path. An +ingenious writer would even have us believe that ants possess a +scent-language of their own, and emit various odours from their antennæ +which the other ants perceive with theirs, and recognise as distinct in +meaning. Be this as it may, you cannot doubt, if you watch them long, +that scents and scents alone form the chief means by which they +recollect and know one another, or the external objects with which they +come in contact. The whole universe is clearly to them a complicated +picture made up entirely of infinite interfusing smells. + + + + +II. + +_A WAYSIDE BERRY._ + + +Half-hidden in the luxuriant growth of leaves and flowers that drape +the deep side of this green lane, I have just espied a little picture +in miniature, a tall wild strawberry-stalk with three full red berries +standing out on its graceful branchlets. There are glossy +hart's-tongues on the matted bank, and yellow hawkweeds, and bright +bunches of red campion; but somehow, amid all that wealth of shape and +colour, my eye falls and rests instinctively upon the three little +ruddy berries, and upon nothing else. I pick the single stalk from the +bank and hold it here in my hands. The origin and development of these +pretty bits of red pulp is one of the many curious questions upon which +modern theories of life have cast such a sudden and unexpected flood of +light. What makes the strawberry stalk grow out into this odd and +brightly coloured lump, bearing its small fruits embedded on its +swollen surface? Clearly the agency of those same small birds who have +been mainly instrumental in dressing the haw in its scarlet coat, and +clothing the spindle-berries with their two-fold covering of crimson +doublet and orange cloak. + +In common language we speak of each single strawberry as a fruit. But +it is in reality a collection of separate fruits, the tiny yellow-brown +grains which stud its sides being each of them an individual little +nut; while the sweet pulp is, in fact, no part of the true fruit at +all, but merely a swollen stalk. There is a white potentilla so like a +strawberry blossom that even a botanist must look closely at the plant +before he can be sure of its identity. While they are in flower the two +heads remain almost indistinguishable; but when the seed begins to set +the potentilla develops only a collection of dry fruitlets, seated upon +a green receptacle, the bed or soft expansion which hangs on to the +'hull' or calyx. Each fruitlet consists of a thin covering, enclosing a +solitary seed. You may compare one of them separately to a plum, with +its single kernel, only that in the plum the covering is thick and +juicy, while in the potentilla and the fruitlets of the strawberry it +is thin and dry. An almond comes still nearer to the mark. Now the +potentilla shows us, as it were, the primitive form of the strawberry. +But in the developed ripe strawberry as we now find it the fruitlets +are not crowded upon a green receptacle. After flowering, the +strawberry receptacle lengthens and broadens, so as to form a roundish +mass of succulent pulp; and as the fruitlets approach maturity this +sour green pulp becomes soft, sweet, and red. The little seed-like +fruits, which are the important organs, stand out upon its surface like +mere specks; while the comparatively unimportant receptacle is all that +we usually think of when we talk about strawberries. After our usual +Protagorean fashion we regard man as the measure of all things, and pay +little heed to any part of the compound fruit-cluster save that which +ministers directly to our own tastes. + +But why does the strawberry develop this large mass of apparently +useless matter? Simply in order the better to ensure the dispersion of +its small brown fruitlets. Birds are always hunting for seeds and +insects along the hedge-rows, and devouring such among them as contain +any available foodstuff. In most cases they crush the seeds to pieces +with their gizzards, and digest and assimilate their contents. Seeds of +this class are generally enclosed in green or brown capsules, which +often escape the notice of the birds, and so succeed in perpetuating +their species. But there is another class of plants whose members +possess hard and indigestible seeds, and so turn the greedy birds from +dangerous enemies into useful allies. Supposing there was by chance, +ages ago, one of these primitive ancestral strawberries, whose +receptacle was a little more pulpy than usual, and contained a small +quantity of sugary matter, such as is often found in various parts of +plants; then it might happen to attract the attention of some hungry +bird, which, by eating the soft pulp, would help in dispersing the +indigestible fruitlets. As these fruitlets sprang up into healthy young +plants, they would tend to reproduce the peculiarity in the structure +of the receptacle which marked the parent stock, and some of them would +probably display it in a more marked degree. These would be sure to get +eaten in their turn, and so to become the originators of a still more +pronounced strawberry type. As time went on, the largest and sweetest +berries would constantly be chosen by the birds, till the whole species +began to assume its existing character. The receptacle would become +softer and sweeter, and the fruits themselves harder and more +indigestible: because, on the one hand, all sour or hard berries would +stand a poorer chance of getting dispersed in good situations for their +growth, while, on the other hand, all soft-shelled fruitlets would be +ground up and digested by the bird, and thus effectually prevented from +ever growing into future plants. Just in like manner, many tropical +nuts have extravagantly hard shells, as only those survive which can +successfully defy the teeth and hands of the clever and persistent +monkey. + +This accounts for the strawberry being sweet and pulpy, but not for its +being red. Here, however, a similar reason comes into play. All +ripening fruits and opening flowers have a natural tendency to grow +bright red, or purple, or blue, though in many of them the tendency is +repressed by the dangers attending brilliant displays of colour. 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, is injured by such a change of colour, +through being rendered more conspicuous to its foes, it soon loses the +tendency under the influence of natural selection; in other words, +those individuals which most display it get killed out, while those +which least display it survive and thrive. On the other hand, if +conspicuousness is an advantage to the plant, the exact opposite +happens, and the tendency becomes developed into a confirmed habit. +This is the case with the strawberry, as with many other fruits. The +more bright-coloured the berry is, the better its chance of getting its +fruitlets dispersed. Birds have quick eyes for colour, especially for +red and white; and therefore almost all edible berries have assumed one +or other of these two hues. So long as the fruitlets remain unripe, and +would therefore be injured by being eaten, the pulp remains sour, +green, and hard; but as soon as they have become fit for dispersion it +grows soft, fills with sugary juice, and acquires its ruddy outer +flesh. Then the birds see and recognise it as edible, and govern +themselves accordingly. + +But if this is the genesis of the strawberry, asks somebody, why have +not all the potentillas and the whole strawberry tribe also become +berries of the same type? Why are there still potentilla fruit-clusters +which consist of groups of dry seed-like nuts? Ay, there's the rub. +Science cannot answer as yet. After all, these questions are still in +their infancy, and we can scarcely yet do more than discover a single +stray interpretation here and there. In the present case a botanist can +only suggest either that the potentilla finds its own mode of +dispersion equally 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 receptacle in the strawberry +has never happened to befall its more modest kinsfolk. For on such +occasional freaks of nature the whole evolution of new varieties +entirely depends. A gardener may raise a thousand seedlings, and only +one or none among them may present a single new and important feature. +So a species may wait for a thousand years, or for ever, before its +circumstances happen to produce the first step towards some desirable +improvement. One extra petal may be invaluable to a five-rayed flower +as effecting some immense saving of pollen in its fertilisation; and +yet the 'sport' which shall give it this sixth ray may never occur, or +may be trodden down in the mire and destroyed by a passing cow. + + + + +III. + +_IN SUMMER FIELDS._ + + +Grip and I have come out for a morning stroll among the close-cropped +pastures beside the beck, in the very centre of our green little +dingle. Here I can sit, as is my wont, on a dry knoll, and watch the +birds, beasts, insects, and herbs of the field, while Grip scours the +place in every direction, intent, no doubt, upon those more practical +objects--mostly rats, I fancy--which possess a congenial interest for +the canine intelligence. From my coign of vantage on the knoll I can +take care that he inflicts no grievous bodily injury upon the sheep, +and that he receives none from the quick-tempered cow with the +brass-knobbed horns. For a kind of ancestral feud seems to smoulder for +ever between Grip and the whole race of kine, breaking out every now +and then into open warfare, which calls for my prompt interference, in +an attitude of armed but benevolent neutrality, merely for the friendly +purpose of keeping the peace. + +This ancient feud, I imagine, is really ancestral, and dates many ages +further back in time than Grip's individual experiences. Cows hate dogs +instinctively, from their earliest calfhood upward. I used to doubt +once upon a time whether the hatred was not of artificial origin and +wholly induced by the inveterate human habit of egging on every dog to +worry every other animal that comes in its way. But I tried a mild +experiment one day by putting a half-grown town-bred puppy into a small +enclosure with some hitherto unworried calves, and they all turned to +make a common headway against the intruder with the same striking +unanimity as the most ancient and experienced cows. Hence I am inclined +to suspect that the antipathy does actually result from a vaguely +inherited instinct derived from the days when the ancestor of our kine +was a wild bull, and the ancestor of our dogs a wolf, on the wide +forest-clad plains of Central Europe. When a cow puts up its tail at +sight of a dog entering its paddock at the present day, it has probably +some dim instinctive consciousness that it stands in the presence of a +dangerous hereditary foe; and as the wolves could only seize with +safety a single isolated wild bull, so the cows now usually make common +cause against the intruding dog, turning their heads in one direction +with very unwonted unanimity, till his tail finally disappears under +the opposite gate. Such inherited antipathies seem common and natural +enough. Every species knows and dreads the ordinary enemies of its +race. Mice scamper away from the very smell of a cat. Young chickens +run to the shelter of their mother's wings when the shadow of a hawk +passes over their heads. Mr. Darwin put a small snake into a paper bag, +which he gave to the monkeys at the Zoo; and one monkey after another +opened the bag, looked in upon the deadly foe of the quadrumanous kind, +and promptly dropped the whole package with every gesture of horror and +dismay. Even man himself--though his instincts have all weakened so +greatly with the growth of his more plastic intelligence, adapted to a +wider and more modifiable set of external circumstances--seems to +retain a vague and original terror of the serpentine form. + +If we think of parallel cases, it is not curious that animals should +thus instinctively recognise their natural enemies. We are not +surprised that they recognise their own fellows: and yet they must do +so by means of some equally strange automatic and inherited mechanism +in their nervous system. One butterfly can tell its mates at once from +a thousand other species, though it may differ from some of them only +by a single spot or line, which would escape the notice of all but the +most attentive observers. Must we not conclude that there are elements +in the butterfly's feeble brain exactly answering to the blank picture +of its specific type? So, too, must we not suppose that in every race +of animals there arises a perceptive structure specially adapted to the +recognition of its own kind? Babies notice human faces long before they +notice 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 berries; another exhibits an +untaught desire to chase down grasshoppers; a third, which happens to +be born an owl, turns at once to the congenial pursuit of small +sparrows, mice, and frogs. Each species seems to have certain faculties +so arranged that the sight of certain external objects, frequently +connected with food in their ancestral experience, immediately arouses +in them the appropriate actions for its capture. Mr. Douglas Spalding +found that newly-hatched chickens darted rapidly and accurately at +flies on the wing. When we recollect that even so late an acquisition +as articulate speech in human beings has its special physical seat in +the brain, it is not astonishing that complicated mechanisms should +have arisen among animals for the due perception of mates, food, and +foes respectively. 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 +experience 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 are by nature and descent timid mountain +animals, and they have never been accustomed to face a foe, as cows and +buffaloes are wont to do, especially when in a herd together. You +cannot see many traces of the original mountain life among sheep, and +yet there are still a few remaining to mark their real pedigree. Mr. +Herbert Spencer has noticed the fondness of lambs for frisking on a +hillock, however small; and when I come to my little knoll here, I +generally find it occupied by a couple, who rush away on my approach, +but take their stand instead on the 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 they were kept was a +single old elm stump. For the possession 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 whole diameter of the tree +was but some fifteen inches), maintaining himself in his place with the +greatest difficulty, and butting at his two brothers until at last he +lost his balance and fell. This one old stump was the sole +representative 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 memento 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 habits of his race. But in mountain countries, +every one must have noticed how the sheep at once becomes a different +being. On the Welsh hills he 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. + +Another mountain trait in the stereotyped character of sheep is their +well-known sequaciousness. When Grip runs after them they all run away +together: if one goes through a certain gap in the hedge, every other +follows; and if the leader jumps the beck at a certain spot, every lamb +in the flock jumps in the self-same 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 +corresponding 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 goodness 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. He alone can see what obstacles come in the way; +and each of the succeeding train must watch and imitate the actions of +their predecessors. Otherwise, if the flock happens 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 descendants. On the other hand, those uninquiring and blindly +obedient animals which simply did as they 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 sequaciousness--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 them 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 circumstances. They are to the mental +life what rudimentary organs are to the bodily structure: they remind +us of an older order of things, just as the abortive legs of the +blind-worm show us that he was once a lizard, and the hidden shell of +the slug that he was once a snail. + + + + +IV. + +_A SPRIG OF WATER CROWFOOT._ + + +The little streamlet whose tiny ranges and stickles form the middle +thread of this green combe in the Dorset 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 overhangs 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 below and broad above; and I often wonder +why so strange a phenomenon has attracted such very scant attention. +But then we knew so little of life in any form till the day before +yesterday that perhaps it is not surprising we should still have left +so many odd problems quite untouched. + +This problem of the shape of leaves certainly seems to me a most +important one; and yet it has hardly been even recognised by our +scientific pastors and masters. At best, Mr. Herbert Spencer devotes to +it a passing short chapter, or Mr. Darwin a stray sentence. The +practice of classifying plants mainly by means of their flowers has +given the flower a wholly factitious and overwrought importance. +Besides, flowers are so pretty, and we cultivate them so largely, with +little regard to the leaves, that they have come to usurp almost the +entire interest of botanists and horticulturists alike. Darwinism +itself has only heightened this exclusive interest by calling attention +to the reciprocal relations which exist between the honey-bearing +blossom and the fertilising insect, the bright-coloured petals and the +myriad facets of the butterfly's eye. Yet the leaf is after all the +real plant, and the flower is but a sort of afterthought, an embryo +colony set apart for the propagation of like plants in future. Each +leaf 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, and carrying on its own life to a great extent +independently of the rest. It may die without detriment to them; it may +be lopped off with a few others as a cutting, and it continues its +life-cycle quite unconcerned. An oak tree in full foliage is a +magnificent group of such separate individuals--a whole nation in +miniature: it may be compared to a branched coral polypedom covered +with a thousand little insect workers, while each leaf answers rather +to the separate polypes themselves. The leaves are even capable of +producing new individuals by what they 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 colonies, like the swarms +of bees, than as fresh 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 sending out a shipload of young +emigrants every now and then to try their fortunes in some unknown +soil. + +The whole life-business of a leaf is, of course, to eat and grow, just +as these same functions form the whole life-business of a caterpillar +or a tadpole. But the way a plant eats, we all know, is by taking +carbon and hydrogen from air and water under the influence of sunlight, +and building them up into appropriate compounds in its own body. +Certain little green worms or convoluta have the same habit, and live +for the most part cheaply off sunlight, making starch out of carbonic +acid and water by means of their enclosed chlorophyll, exactly as if +they were leaves. Now, as this is what a leaf has to do, its form will +almost entirely depend upon the way it is affected by sunlight and the +elements around it--except, indeed, in so far as it may be called upon +to perform 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, are minutely subdivided into +little branching lance-like segments; while its upper ones, which raise +their heads above the surface, are broad and united, like the common +crowfoot type. How am I to account for these peculiarities? I fancy +somehow thus:-- + +Plants which live habitually under water almost always have thin, long, +pointed leaves, often thread-like or mere waving filaments. The reason +for this is plain enough. Gases are not very abundant in water, as it +only holds in solution a limited quantity of oxygen and carbonic acid. +Both of these the plant needs, though in varying quantities: 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 utilise it under the influence of sunlight. Hence all plants +which live in fresh water, and especially all plants of higher 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 pattern of leaf depends largely upon +the ancestral form. Thus this crowfoot, even in its submerged leaves, +preserves the general arrangement of ribs and leaflets common to the +whole buttercup tribe. For the crowfoot family is a large and eminently +adaptable race. Some of them are larkspurs and similar queerly-shaped +blossoms; others are columbines which hang their complicated bells on +dry and rocky hillsides; but the larger part are buttercups or marsh +marigolds which have simple cup-shaped flowers, and mostly frequent low +and marshy ground. One of these typical crowfoots under stress of +circumstances--inundation, or the like--took once upon a time to living +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 up into +thinner and narrower segments, each of which grew out in the direction +where it could find most stray carbon atoms, and most sunlight, without +interference from its neighbours. This, I take it, was the origin of +the much-divided lower leaves. + +But a crowfoot could never live permanently under water. Seaweeds and +their like, which propagate by a kind of spores, may remain below the +surface for ever; 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, originally developed in the water 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 fertilising insects +have carried the pollen to its proper receptacle, so as to ripen their +seeds at leisure beneath 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 such among its +ancestors as at first tried to do so must of course have failed in +producing any seed, they and their kind have died out for ever; while +only those lucky individuals whose chance lot it was to grow a little +taller and weedier than the rest, and so overtop the stream, have +handed down their race to our own time. + +But as soon as the crowfoot finds itself above the level of the river, +all the causes which made its leaf like those of other aquatic plants +have ceased to operate. The new leaves which sprout in the air meet +with abundance of carbon 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 up into little +lance-like leaflets, they loll on the surface, and spread out broader +and fuller, like the rest of their race. The leaf becomes 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 +crowfoot still. The traditions of its race, acquired in damp marshy +meadows, not actually under water, cling to it yet in spite of every +change. Born river and pond plants which rise to the surface, like the +water-lily or the duck-weed, have broad floating leaves that contrast +strongly with the waving filaments of wholly submerged species. They +can find plenty of food everywhere, and as the sunlight falls flat upon +them, they may as well spread out flat to catch the sunlight. No other +elbowing plants overtop them and appropriate the rays, so compelling +them to run up a useless waste of stem in order to pocket their fair +share of the golden flood. Moreover, they thus save the needless +expense of a stout leaf-stalk, as the water supports their lolling +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 hundred generations only, while the water-lily's ancestors +have been to the manner born for millions of years; and therefore it +happens that the crowfoot is at heart but a meadow buttercup still. One +glance at its simple little flower will show you that in a moment. + + + + +V. + +_SLUGS AND SNAILS._ + + +Hoeing among the flower-beds 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 encroaching grass on the edge of +my little parterre of sky-blue lobelias. This unavoidable wounding and +hacking of worms and insects, despite all one's care, is no small +drawback to the pleasures of gardening _in propriâ personâ_. +Vivisection for genuine scientific purposes in responsible hands, one +can understand and tolerate, even though lacking the heart for it +oneself; but the useless and causeless vivisection which cannot be +prevented in every ordinary piece of farm-work seems a gratuitous blot +upon the face of beneficent nature. My only consolation lies in the +half-formed belief that feeling among these lower creatures is +indefinite, and that pain appears to affect them far less acutely than +it affects warm-blooded animals. Their nerves are so 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 all analogous to our own. A +wasp whose head has been severed from its body and stuck upon a pin, +will still greedily suck up honey with its throatless mouth; while an +Italian mantis, similarly treated, will calmly continue to hunt and +dart at midges with its decapitated trunk and limbs, quite forgetful of +the fact that it has got no mandibles left to eat them with. These +peculiarities lead one to hope that insects may feel pain less than we +fear. Yet I dare scarcely utter the hope, lest it should lead any +thoughtless hearer to act upon the very questionable belief, as they +say even the amiable enthusiasts of Port Royal acted upon the doctrine +that animals were mere unconscious 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 humane, since they are the better able dimly to figure to +themselves the pleasures and pains of humbler beings as they really +are. The man of science perhaps realises 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 misery 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 hoe 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, indeed, there are very few differences between the two +races except in the presence or absence of a house. You may trace a +curiously complete set of gradations between the perfect snail and the +perfect slug in this respect; for all the intermediate forms still +survive with only an almost imperceptible gap between each species and +the next. Some kinds, like the common brown garden snail, have +comparatively small bodies and big shells, so that they can retire +comfortably within them when attacked; and if they only had a lid or +door to their houses they could shut themselves up hermetically, as +periwinkles and similar mollusks actually do. Other kinds, like the +pretty golden amber-snails which frequent 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, so that he is generally recognised as being the first of the +slugs rather than the last 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 testacella, however, the small shell is still +external. In this yellow slug here, on the contrary, it does not show +itself at all, but is buried under the closely wrinkled skin of the +glossy mantle. It has become 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 rudiment gradually dwindling further and +further towards annihilation; till finally, 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, scattered up and +down through the mantle; and sometimes even these are wanting. The +organs which used to secrete the shell in their remote ancestors have +either ceased to work altogether or are reduced to performing a useless +office by mere organic routine. + +The reason why some mollusks have thus lost their shells is clear +enough. Shells are of two kinds, calcareous and horny. Both of them +require more or less lime or other mineral matters, though in varying +proportions. Now, the snails which thrive best on the bare chalk downs +behind my little combe belong to that pretty banded black-and-white +sort which everybody must have noticed feeding in abundance on all +chalk soils. Indeed, Sussex farmers will tell you that South Down +mutton owes its excellence to these fat little mollusks, not to the +scanty herbage of their thin pasture-lands. The pretty banded shells in +question are almost wholly composed of lime, which the snails can, of +course, obtain in any required quantity from the chalk. In most +limestone districts you will similarly 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 naturally 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 acclimatised themselves to a +terrestrial existence. We can trace a perfectly regular series from the +most aquatic to the most land-loving species, just as I have tried to +trace a regular series from the shell-bearing 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 amber-snail), which his progenitors used to +manufacture from the mineral matters dissolved in their native streams. +Some of the younger branches descended from this primæval land-snail +took to living on very dry land, and when they reached chalky districts +manufactured their shells, on an easy and improved principle, almost +entirely out of lime. But others took to living in moist and boggy +places, where mineral matter was rare, and where the soil consisted for +the most part of decaying vegetable mould. Here they could get little +or no lime, and so their shells grew smaller and smaller, in proportion +as their habits became more decidedly terrestrial. But to the last, as +long as any shell at all remained, it generally covered their hearts +and other important organs; because it would there act as a special +protection, even after it had ceased to be of any use for the defence +of the animal's body as a whole. Exactly in the same way men specially +protected their heads and breasts with helmets and cuirasses, before +armour was used for the whole body, because these were the places where +a wound would be most dangerous; and they continued to cover these +vulnerable spots in the same manner even when the use of armour had +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 +competition of modern life they spread themselves 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 different. +The truest and most snail-like snails are found in greatest abundance +upon high chalk-downs, heathy limestone hills, and other comparatively +dry places; while the truest and most slug-like slugs are found in +greatest abundance among low water-logged meadows, or under the damp +fallen leaves of moist copses. The intermediate kinds inhabit 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 universal habit of seeking out the coolest and moistest spots of +their respective habitats. The soft-fleshed mollusks are all by nature +aquatic animals, and nothing can induce them wholly to forget the old +tradition of their marine or fresh-water existence. + + + + +VI. + +_A STUDY OF BONES._ + + +On the top of this bleak chalk down, where I am wandering on a dull +afternoon, I light upon the blanched skeleton 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 of 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 I may well spell out as I sit to rest a minute +upon the neighbouring stile. For this dry tail-bone consists, as I can +see at a glance, of several separate vertebræ, all firmly welded +together into a single piece. They must once upon a time have been real +disconnected jointed vertebræ, 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 speculation. I refer, not to the race, but +to the particular crow in person. These very pieces themselves, in +their embryonic condition, were as distinct as the individual bones of +the bird's neck or of our own spines. If you were to examine the chick +in the egg you would find them quite divided. But as the young crow +grows more and more into the typical bird-pattern, this lizard-like +peculiarity fades away, and the separate pieces unite by 'anastomosis' +into a single 'coccygean bone,' as the osteologists call it. In all our +modern birds, as in this crow, the vertebræ composing the tail-bone are +few in number, and are soldered together immovably in the adult form. +It was not always so, however, with ancestral birds. The earliest known +member of the class--the famous fossil bird of the Solenhofen +lithographic stone--retained throughout its whole life a long flexible +tail, composed of twenty unwelded vertebræ, each of which bore a single +pair of quill-feathers, the predecessors of our modern pigeon's train. +There are many other marked reptilian peculiarities in this primitive +oolitic bird; and it apparently possessed true teeth in its jaws, as +its later cretaceous kinsmen discovered by Professor Marsh undoubtedly +did. When we compare side by side those real flying dragons, the +Pterodactyls, together with the very birdlike 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 remote feathered descendants of an original reptilian +or half-reptilian ancestor. + +Why modern birds have lost their long flexible tails it is not +difficult to see. The tail descends to all higher vertebrates as an +heirloom from the fishes, the amphibia, and their other aquatic +predecessors. With these 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 lizard 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. But to flying birds, on the +contrary, a long bony tail is only an inconvenience. All that they need +is a little muscular knob for the support of the tail-feathers, which +they employ as a rudder in guiding their flight upward or downward, to +right or left. The elongated waving tail of the Solenhofen bird, with +its single pair of quills, must have been a comparatively ineffectual +and clumsy piece of mechanism for steering an aërial creature through +its novel domain. Accordingly, the bones soon grew fewer in number and +shorter in length, while the feathers simultaneously arranged +themselves side by side upon the terminal hump. As early as the time +when our chalk was deposited, the bird's tail had become what it is at +the present day--a single united bone, consisting of a few scarcely +distinguishable crowded rings. This is the form it assumes in the +toothed fossil birds of Western America. But, as if to preserve the +memory of their reptilian origin, birds in their embryo stage still go +on producing separate caudal vertebræ, only to unite them together at a +later point of their development into the typical coccygean bone. + +Much the same sort of process has taken place in the higher apes, and, +as Mr. Darwin would assure us, in man himself. There the long +prehensile tail of the monkeys has grown gradually shorter, and, being +at last coiled up under the haunches, has finally degenerated into an +insignificant and wholly embedded terminal joint. But, indeed, we can +find traces of a similar adaptation to circumstances everywhere. Take, +for instance, the common English 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 tadpole 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, such a long train would be a +useless drag, while in the water its webbed feet and muscular legs make +a satisfactory substitute for the lost organ. Last of all, the +tree-frog, leading a specially terrestrial life, has no tadpole at all, +but emerges from the egg in the full frog-like shape. As he never lives +in the water, he never feels the need of a tail. + +The edible crab and lobster show us an exactly parallel case amongst +crustaceans. Everybody has noticed that a crab's body is practically +identical with a lobster's, only that in the crab the body-segments are +broad and compact, while the tail, so conspicuous in its kinsman, is +here relatively small and tucked away unobtrusively behind the legs. +This difference in construction depends entirely upon the habits and +manners of the two races. The lobster lives among rocks and ledges; he +uses his small legs but little for locomotion, but he springs +surprisingly fast and far through the water by a single effort of his +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. Hence the edible and muscular part of a lobster +is chiefly to be found in the claws and tail, the latter having +naturally the firmest and strongest flesh. The crab, on the other hand, +lives on the sandy bottom, and walks about on its lesser legs, instead +of swimming or darting through the water by blows of its tail, like the +lobster or the still more active prawn and shrimp. Hence the crab's +tail has dwindled away to a mere useless historical relic, while the +most important muscles in its body are those seated in the 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 shrivelled rudiment as a +lingering reminiscence of their original habits. + + + + +VII. + +_BLUE MUD._ + + +After last night's rain, the cliffs that bound the bay have come out in +all their most brilliant colours; so this morning I am turning my steps +seaward, and wandering along the great ridge of pebbles which here +breaks the force of the Channel waves as they beat against the long +line of the Dorset downs. Our cliffs just at this point are composed of +blue lias beneath, with a capping of yellow sandstone on their summits, +above which in a few places the layer of chalk that once topped the +whole country-side has still resisted the slow wear and tear of +unnumbered centuries. These three elements give a variety to the bold +and broken bluffs which is rare along the monotonous southern +escarpment of the English coast. After rain, especially, the changes of +colour on their sides are often quite startling in their vividness and +intensity. To-day, for example, the yellow sandstone is tinged in parts +with a deep russet red, contrasting admirably with the bright green of +the fields above and the sombre steel-blue of the lias belt below. +Besides, we have had so many landslips along this bit of shore, that +the various layers of rock have in more than one place got mixed up +with one another into inextricable confusion. The little town nestling +in the hollow behind me has long been famous as the head-quarters of +early geologists; and not a small proportion of the people earn their +livelihood to the present day by 'goin' a fossiling.' Every child about +the place recognises ammonites as 'snake-stones;' while even the rarer +vertebrae of extinct saurians have acquired a local designation as +'verterberries.' 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 +light it up with a rich flood of golden splendour. + +The base of the cliffs consists entirely of a very soft and plastic +blue lias mud. This mud contains large numbers of fossils, chiefly +chambered shells, but mixed with not a few relics of the great swimming +and flying lizards that swarmed among the shallow flats or low islands +of the lias sea. When the blue mud was slowly accumulating in the +hollows of the ancient bottom, these huge saurians formed practically +the highest race of animals then existing upon earth. There were, it is +true, a few primæval kangaroo-mice and wombats among the rank brushwood +of the mainland; and there may even have been a species or two of +reptilian birds, with murderous-looking teeth and long lizard-like +tails--descendants 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 on the +Solenhofen slate. But in spite of such rare precursors of higher modern +types, the saurian was in fact the real lord of earth in the lias ocean. + + For him did his high sun flame, and his river billowing ran, + And he felt himself in his pride to be nature's crowning 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 in the different periods. The +lias is ranked by geologists among the earliest secondary formations: +but if we were to distribute all the sedimentary rocks into ten great +epochs, each representing about equal duration in time, the lias would +really fall in the tenth and latest of all. So very misleading to the +ordinary mind is our accepted geological nomenclature. Nay, even +commonplace geologists themselves often overlook the real implications +of many facts and figures which they have learned to quote glibly +enough in a certain off-hand way. Let me just briefly reconstruct the +chief features of this scarcely recognised world's chronology as I sit +on this piece of fallen chalk at the foot of the mouldering cliff, +where the stream from the meadow above brought down the newest landslip +during the hard frosts of last December. First of all, there is the +vast lapse of time represented by the Laurentian rocks of Canada. These +Laurentian rocks, the oldest in the world, are at least 30,000 feet in +thickness, and it must be allowed that it takes a reasonable number of +years to accumulate such a mass of solid limestone or clay as that at +the bottom of even the widest primæval ocean. In these rocks there are +no fossils, except a single very doubtful member of the very lowest +animal type. But there are indirect traces of life in the shape of +limestone probably derived from shells, and of black lead probably +derived from plants. All these early deposits have been terribly +twisted and contorted by subsequent 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 state. Thus the history of life opens +for us, like most other histories, with a period of uncertainty: its +origin is lost in the distant vistas of time. Still, we know that there +_was_ 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 æons into which I have roughly divided geological time. Next +comes the period known as the Cambrian, and to it we may similarly +assign about two and a half æons on like grounds. The Cambrian epoch +begins with a fair sprinkling of the lower animals and plants, +presumably developed during the preceding age; but it shows no remains +of fish or any other vertebrates. To the Silurian, Devonian, and +Carboniferous periods we may roughly allow an æon and a fraction each: +while to the whole group of secondary and tertiary strata, comprising +almost all the best-known English formations--red marl, lias, oolite, +greensand, chalk, eocene, miocene, pliocene, and drift--we can only +give a single æon to be divided between them. Such facts will +sufficiently suggest how comparatively modern are all these rocks when +viewed by the light of an absolute chronology. Now, the first fishes do +not occur till the Silurian--that is to say, in or about the seventh +æon after the beginning of geological time. The first mammals are found +in the trias, at the beginning of the tenth æon. And the first known +bird only makes its appearance in the oolite, about half-way through +that latest period. This will show that there was plenty of time for +their development in the earlier ages. True, we must reckon the +interval between ourselves and the date of this blue mud at many +millions of years; but then we must reckon the interval between the +lias and the earliest Cambrian strata at some six times as much, and +between the lias and the lowest Laurentian beds at nearly ten times as +much. Just the same sort of lessening perspective exists in geology as +in ordinary history. Most people look upon the age before the Norman +Conquest as a mere brief episode of the English annals; yet six whole +centuries elapsed between the landing of the real or mythical Hengst at +Ebbsfleet and the landing of William the Conqueror at Hastings; while +under eight centuries elapsed between the time of William the Conqueror +and the accession of Queen Victoria. But, just as most English +histories give far more space to the three centuries since Elizabeth +than to the eleven centuries which preceded them, so most books on +geology give far more space to the single æon (embracing the secondary +and tertiary periods) which comes nearest our own time, than to the +nine æons which spread from the Laurentian to the Carboniferous epoch. +In the earliest period, records either geological or historical are +wholly wanting; in the later periods they become both more numerous and +more varied in proportion as they approach nearer and nearer to our own +time. + +So too, in the days when Mr. Darwin first took away the breath of +scientific Europe by his startling theories, it used confidently to be +said that geology had shown us no intermediate form between species and +species. Even at the time when this assertion was originally made it +was quite untenable. All early geological forms, of whatever race, +belong to what we foolishly call 'generalised' types: that is to say, +they present a mixture of features now found separately in several +different animals. In other words, they represent early ancestors of +all the modern forms, with peculiarities intermediate between those of +their more highly differentiated descendants; and hence we ought to +call them 'unspecialised' rather than 'generalised' types. For example, +the earliest ancestral horse is partly a horse and partly a tapir: we +may regard him as a _tertium quid_, a middle term, from which the horse +has varied in one direction and the tapir in another, each of them +exaggerating certain special peculiarities of the common ancestor and +losing others, in accordance with the circumstances in which they have +been placed. Science is now perpetually discovering intermediate forms, +many of which compose an unbroken series between the unspecialised +ancestral type and the familiar modern creatures. Thus, in this very +case of the horse, Professor Marsh has unearthed a long line of fossil +animals which lead in direct descent from the extremely unhorse-like +eocene type to the developed Arab of our own times. Similarly with +birds, Professor Huxley has shown that there is hardly any gap between +the very bird-like lizards of the lias and the very lizard-like birds +of the oolite. Such links, discovered afresh every day, are perpetual +denials to the old parrot-like cry of 'No geological evidence for +evolution.' + + + + +VIII. + +_CUCKOO-PINT._ + + +In the bank which supports the hedge, beside this little hanger on +the flank of Black Down, the glossy arrow-headed leaves of the common +arum form at this moment beautiful masses of vivid green foliage. +'Cuckoo-pint' is the pretty poetical old English name for the plant; +but village children know it better by the equally quaint and fanciful +title of 'lords and ladies.' The arum is not now in flower: it +blossomed much earlier in the season, and its queer clustered fruits +are just at present swelling out into rather shapeless little +light-green bulbs, preparatory to assuming the bright coral-red hue +which makes them so conspicuous among the hedgerows during the autumn +months. A cut-and-dry technical botanist would therefore have little to +say to it in its present stage, because he cares only for the flowers +and seeds which help him in his dreary classifications, and give him so +splendid an opportunity for displaying the treasures of his Latinised +terminology. But to me the plant itself is the central point of +interest, not the names (mostly in bad Greek) by which this or that +local orchid-hunter has endeavoured to earn immortality. + +This arum, for example, grows first from a small hard seed with a +single lobe or seed-leaf. In the seed there is a little store of starch +and albumen laid up by the mother-plant, on which the young arum feeds, +just as truly as the growing chick feeds on the white which surrounds +its native yolk, or as you and I feed on the similar starches and +albumens laid by for the use of the young plant in the grain of wheat, +or for the young fowl in the egg. Full-grown plants live by taking in +food-stuffs from the air under the influence of sunlight: but a young +seedling can no more feed itself than a human baby can; and so food is +stored up for it beforehand by the parent stock. As the kernel swells +with heat and moisture, its starches and albumens get oxidised and +produce the motions and rearrangements of particles that result in the +growth of a new plant. First a little head rises towards the sunlight +and a little root pushes downward towards 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 the head is to +spread out into leaves, which are the real mouths and stomachs of the +compound organism. For we must never forget that all plants mainly +grow, not, as most people suppose, from the earth, but from the air. +They are for the most part mere masses of carbon-compounds, and the +carbon in them comes from the carbonic acid diffused through the +atmosphere around, and is separated by the sunlight acting in the +leaves. There it mixes with small quantities of hydrogen and nitrogen +brought by the roots from soil and water; and the starches or other +bodies thus formed are then conveyed by the sap to the places where +they will be required in the economy of the plant system. That is the +all-important fact in vegetable physiology, just as the digestion and +assimilation of food and the circulation of the blood are in our own +bodies. + +The arum, like the grain of wheat, has only a single seed-leaf; whereas +the pea, as we all know, has two. This is the most fundamental +difference among flowering plants, as it points back to an early and +deep-seated mode of growth, about which they must have split off from +one another millions of years ago. All the one-lobed plants grow with +stems like grasses or bamboos, formed by single leaves enclosing +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 sprouting head, has raised its first leaves far enough above +the ground to reach the sunlight, it begins to form fresh starches and +new leaves for itself, and ceases to be dependent upon the store laid +up in its buried lobe. Most seeds accordingly contain just enough +material to support the 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 +potato, find their seeds insufficient to keep up the race by +themselves, and so lay by abundant starches in underground branches or +tubers, for the use of new shoots; and these rich starch receptacles we +ourselves generally utilise as food-stuffs, to the manifest detriment +of the young potato-plants, for whose benefit they were originally +intended. Well, the arum has no such valuable reserve as that; it is +early cast upon its own resources, and so it shifts for itself with +resolution. Its big, glossy leaves grow apace, and soon fill out, not +only with green chlorophyll, but also with a sharp and pungent essence +which makes them burn the mouth like cayenne pepper. This acrid juice +has been acquired by the plant as a defence against its enemies. Some +early ancestor of the arums must have been liable to constant attacks +from rabbits, goats, or other herbivorous animals, and it has adopted +this means of repelling their advances. In other words, those arums +which were most palatable to the rabbits got eaten up and destroyed, +while those which were nastiest survived, and handed down their +pungency to future generations. Just in the same way nettles have +acquired their sting and thistles their prickles, which efficiently +protect them against all herbivores except the patient, hungry donkey, +who gratefully accepts them as a sort of _sauce piquante_ to the +succulent stems. + +And now the arum begins its great preparations for the act of +flowering. Everybody knows the general shape of the arum blossom--if +not in our own purple cuckoo-pint, at least in the big white 'Æthiopian +lilies' which form such frequent ornaments of cottage windows. Clearly, +this is a flower which the plant cannot produce without laying up a +good stock of material beforehand. So it sets to work accumulating +starch in its root. This starch it manufactures in its leaves, and then +buries deep underground in a tuber, by means of the sap, so as to +secure it from the attacks of rodents, who too frequently appropriate +to themselves the food intended by plants for other purposes. If you +examine the tuber before the arum has blossomed, you will find it large +and solid; but if you dig it up in the autumn after the seeds have +ripened, you will see that it is flaccid and drained; all its starches +and other contents have gone to make up the flower, the fruit, and the +stalk which bore them. But the tuber has a further protection against +enemies besides its deep underground position. It contains an acrid +juice like that of the leaves, which sufficiently guards it against +four-footed depredators. Man, however, that most persistent of +persecutors, has found out a way to separate the juice from the starch; +and in St. Helena the big white arum is cultivated as a food-plant, and +yields the meal in common use among the inhabitants. + +When the arum has laid by enough starch to make a flower it begins to +send up a tall stalk, on the top of which grows the curious hooded +blossom known to be one of the earliest forms still surviving upon +earth. But now its object is to attract, not to repel, the animal +world; for it is an insect-fertilised flower, and it requires the aid +of small flies to carry the pollen from blossom to blossom. For this +purpose it has a purple sheath around its head of flowers and a tall +spike on which they are arranged in two clusters, the male blossoms +above and the female below. This spike is bright yellow in the +cultivated species. The fertilisation is one of the most interesting +episodes in all nature, but it would take too long to describe here in +full. The flies go from one arum to another, attracted by the colour, +in search of pollen; and the pistils, or female flowers, ripen first. +Then the pollen falls from the stamens or male flowers on the bodies of +the flies, and dusts them all over with yellow powder. The insects, +when once they have entered, are imprisoned until the pollen is ready +to drop, by means of several little hairs, pointing downwards, and +preventing their exit on the principle of an eel-trap or lobster-pot. +But as soon as the pollen is discharged the hairs wither away, and then +the flies are free to visit a second arum. Here they carry the +fertilising dust with which they are covered to the ripe pistils, and +so enable them to set their seed; but, instead of getting away again as +soon as they have eaten their fill, they are once more imprisoned by +the lobster-pot hairs, and dusted with a second dose of pollen, which +they carry away in turn to a third blossom. + +As soon as the pistils have been impregnated, the fruits begin to set. +Here they are, on their tall spike, whose enclosing sheath has now +withered away, while the top is at this moment slowly dwindling, so +that only the cluster of berries at its base will finally remain. The +berries will swell and grow soft, till in autumn they become a +beautiful scarlet cluster of living coral. Then once more their object +will be to attract the animal world, this time in the shape of +field-mice, squirrels, and small birds; but with a more treacherous +intent. For though the berries are beautiful and palatable enough they +are deadly poison. The robins or small rodents which eat them, +attracted by their bright colours and pleasant taste, not only aid in +dispersing them, but also die after swallowing them, and become huge +manure heaps for the growth of the young plant. So the whole cycle of +arum existence begins afresh, and there is hardly a plant in the field +around me which has not a history as strange as this one. + + + + +IX. + +_BERRIES AND BERRIES._ + + +This little chine, opening toward the sea through the blue lias cliffs, +has been worn to its present pretty gorge-like depth by the slow action +of its tiny stream--a mere thread of water in fine weather, that +trickles down its centre in a series of mossy cascades to the shingly +beach below. Its sides are overgrown by brambles and other prickly +brushwood, which form in places a matted and impenetrable mass: for it +is the habit of all plants protected by the defensive armour of spines +or thorns to cluster together in serried ranks, through which cattle or +other intrusive animals cannot break. Amongst them, near the down +above, I have just lighted upon a rare plant for Southern Britain--a +wild raspberry-bush in full fruit. Raspberries are common enough in +Scotland among heaps of stones on the windiest hillsides; but the south +of England is too warm and sickly for their robust tastes, and they can +only be found here in a few bleak spots like the stony edges of this +weather-beaten down above the chine. The fruit itself is quite as good +as the garden variety, for cultivation has added little to the native +virtues of the raspberry. Good old Izaak Walton is not ashamed to quote +a certain quaint saying of one Dr. Boteler concerning strawberries, and +so I suppose I need not be afraid to quote it after him. 'Doubtless,' +said the Doctor, 'God _could_ have made a better berry, but doubtless +also God never did.' Nevertheless, if you try the raspberry, picked +fresh, with plenty of good country cream, you must allow that it runs +its sister fruit a neck-and-neck race. + +To compare the structure of a raspberry with that of a strawberry is a +very instructive botanical study. It shows how similar causes may +produce the same gross result in singularly different ways. Both are +roses by family, and both have flowers essentially similar to that of +the common dog-rose. But even in plants where the flowers are alike, +the fruits often differ conspicuously, because fresh principles come +into play for the dispersion and safe germination of the seed. This +makes the study of fruits the most complicated part in the unravelling +of plant life. After the strawberry has blossomed, the pulpy receptacle +on which it bore its green fruitlets begins to swell and redden, till +at length it grows into an edible berry, dotted with little yellow +nuts, containing each a single seed. But in the raspberry it is the +separate fruitlets themselves which grow soft and bright-coloured, +while the receptacle remains white and tasteless, forming the 'hull' +which we pull off from the berry when we are going to eat it. Thus the +part of the raspberry which we throw away answers to the part of the +strawberry which we eat. Only, in the raspberry the separate fruitlets +are all crowded close together into a single united mass, while in the +strawberry they are scattered about loosely, and embedded in the soft +flesh of the receptacle. The blackberry is another close relative; but +in its fruit the little pulpy fruitlets cling to the receptacle, so +that we pick and eat them both together; whereas in the raspberry the +receptacle pulls out easily, and leaves a thimble-shaped hollow in the +middle of the berry. Each of these little peculiarities has a special +meaning of its own in the history of the different plants. + +Yet the main object attained by all is in the end precisely similar. +Strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries all belong to the class of +attractive fruits. They survive in virtue of the attention paid to them +by birds and small animals. Just as the wild strawberry which I picked +in the hedgerow the other day procures the dispersion of its hard and +indigestible fruitlets by getting them eaten together with the pulpy +receptacle, so does the raspberry procure the dispersion of its soft +and sugary fruitlets by getting them eaten all by themselves. While the +strawberry fruitlets retain throughout their dry outer coating, in +those of the raspberry the external covering becomes fleshy and red, +but the inner seed has, notwithstanding, a still harder shell than the +tiny nuts of the strawberry. Now, this is the secret of nine fruits out +of ten. They are really nuts, which clothe themselves in an outer tunic +of sweet and beautifully coloured pulp. The pulp, as it were, the plant +gives in, as an inducement to the friendly bird to swallow its seed; +but the seed itself it protects by a hard stone or shell, and often by +poisonous or bitter juices within. We see this arrangement very +conspicuously in a plum, or still better in a mango; though it is +really just as evident in the raspberry, where the smaller size renders +it less conspicuous to human sight. + +It is a curious fact about the rose family that they have a very marked +tendency to produce such fleshy fruits, instead of the mere dry +seed-vessels of ordinary plants, which are named fruits only by +botanical courtesy. For example, we owe to this single family the +peach, plum, apricot, cherry, damson, pear, apple, medlar, and quince, +all of them cultivated in gardens or orchards for their fruits. The +minor group known by the poetical name of Dryads, alone supplies us +with the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, and dewberry. Even the +wilder kinds, refused as food by man, produce berries well known to our +winter birds--the haw, rose-hip, sloe, bird-cherry, and rowan. On the +other hand, the whole tribe numbers but a single thoroughgoing nut--the +almond; and even this nut, always somewhat soft-shelled and inclined to +pulpiness, has produced by a 'sport' the wholly fruit-like nectarine. +The odd thing about the rose tribe, however, is this: that the pulpy +tendency shows itself in very different parts among the various +species. In the plum it is the outer covering of the true fruit which +grows soft and coloured: in the apple it is a swollen mass of the +fruit-stalk surrounding the ovules: in the rose-hip it is the hollowed +receptacle: and in the strawberry it is the same receptacle, bulging +out in the opposite direction. Such a general tendency to display +colour and collect sugary juices in so many diverse parts may be +compared to the general bulbous tendency 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 the start in any particular +instance is increased and developed by natural selection, just as +favourable varieties of fruits or flowers are increased and developed +in cultivated species by our own gardeners. + +Sweet juices and bright colours, however, could be of no use to a plant +till there were eyes to see and tongues to taste them. A pulpy fruit is +in itself a mere waste of productive energy to its mother, unless the +pulpiness aids in the dispersion and promotes the welfare of the young +seedlings. Accordingly, we might naturally expect that there would be +no fruit-bearers on the earth until the time when fruit-eaters, actual +or potential, arrived upon the scene: or, to put it more correctly, +both must inevitably have developed simultaneously and in mutual +dependence upon one another. So we find no traces of succulent fruits +even in so late a formation as that of these lias or cretaceous cliffs. +The birds of that day were fierce-toothed carnivores, devouring the +lizards and saurians of the rank low-lying sea-marshes: the mammals +were mostly primæval kangaroos or low ancestral wombats, gentle +herbivores, or savage marsupial wolves, like the Tasmanian 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 superincumbent +pressure into solid stone, that we find the earliest traces of the rose +family, the greatest fruit-bearing tribe of our present world. And side +by side with them we find their clever arboreal allies, the ancestral +monkeys and squirrels, the primitive robins, and the yet shadowy +forefathers of our modern fruit-eating parrots. Just as bees and +butterflies necessarily trace back their geological history only to the +time of the first honey-bearing flowers, and just as the honey-bearing +flowers in turn trace back their pedigree only to the date of the +rudest and most unspecialised honey-sucking insects, so are fruits and +fruit-eaters linked together in origin by the inevitable bond of a +mutual dependence. No bee, no honey; and no honey, no bee: so, too, no +fruit, no fruit-bird; and no fruit-bird, no fruit. + + + + +X. + +_DISTANT RELATIONS._ + + +Behind the old mill, whose overshot wheel, backed by a wall thickly +covered with the young creeping fronds of hart's-tongue ferns, forms +such a picturesque foreground for the view of our little valley, the +mill-stream expands into a small shallow pond, overhung at its edges by +thick-set hazel-bushes and clambering 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 simplicity of its own, which makes it +beautiful to our eyes for all that, in spite of its utilitarian origin. +At the bottom of this shallow pond you may now see a miracle daily +taking place, which but for its commonness we should regard as an +almost incredible marvel. You may there behold evolution actually +illustrating the transformation of life under your very eyes: you may +watch a low type of gill-breathing gristly-boned fish developing into +the highest form of lung-breathing terrestrial amphibian. Nay, +more--you may almost discover the earliest known ancestor of the whole +vertebrate kind, the first cousin of that once famous ascidian larva, +passing through all the upward stages of existence which finally lead +it to assume the shape of a relatively perfect four-legged animal. For +the pond is swarming with fat black tadpoles, which are just at this +moment losing their tails and developing their legs, on the way to +becoming fully formed frogs. + +The tadpole and the ascidian larva divide between them the honour of +preserving for us in all its native simplicity the primitive aspect of +the vertebrate type. Beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes have all +descended from an animal whose shape closely resembled that of these +wriggling little black creatures which dart up and down like imps +through the clear water, and raise a cloud of mud above their heads +each time that they bury themselves comfortably in the soft mud of the +bottom. But while the birds and beasts, on the one hand, have gone on +bettering themselves out of all knowledge, and while the ascidian, on +the other hand, in his adult form has dropped back into an obscure and +sedentary life--sans eyes, sans teeth, sans taste, sans everything--the +tadpole alone, at least during its early days, remains true to the +ancestral traditions of the vertebrate family. When first it emerges +from its egg it represents the very most rudimentary animal with a +backbone known to our scientific teachers. It has a big hammer-looking +head, and a set of branching outside gills, and a short distinct body, +and a long semi-transparent tail. Its backbone is a mere gristly +channel, in which lies its spinal cord. As it grows, it resembles in +every particular the ascidian larva, with which, indeed, Kowalewsky and +Professor Ray Lankester have demonstrated its essential identity. But +since a great many people seem wrongly to imagine that Professor +Lankester's opinion on this matter is in some way at variance with Mr. +Darwin's and Dr. Haeckel's, it may be well to consider what the +degeneracy of the ascidian really means. The fact is, both larval +forms--that of the frog and that of the ascidian--completely agree in +the position of their brains, their gill-slits, their very rudimentary +backbones, and their spinal cords. Moreover, we ourselves and the +tadpole agree with the ascidian in a further most important point, +which no invertebrate animal shares with us; and that is that our eyes +grow out of our brains, instead of being part of our skin, as in +insects and cuttle-fish. This would seem _à priori_ a most inconvenient +place for an eye--inside the brain; but then, as Professor Lankester +cleverly suggests, our common original ancestor, the very earliest +vertebrate of all, must have been a transparent creature, and therefore +comparatively indifferent 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 had 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 his high estate, owing to his bad habit of rooting himself to a +rock and there settling down into a mere sedentary 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 completely atrophied that only his earlier +history allows us to recognise him as a vertebrate by descent at all. +He is in fact a representative of retrogressive development. The +tadpole, on the contrary, goes on swimming about freely, and keeping +the use of its eyes, till at last a pair of hind legs and then a pair +of fore legs begin to bud out from its side, and its tail fades away, +and its gills disappear, and air-breathing lungs take their place, and +it boldly hops on shore a fully evolved tailless amphibian. + +There is, however, one interesting question about these two larvæ which +I should much like to solve. The ascidian has only _one_ eye inside its +useless brain, while the tadpole and all other vertebrates have _two_ +from the very first. Now which of us most nearly represents the old +mud-loving vertebrate ancestor in this respect? Have 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 curious cross-connection between the eyes and +the brain, so that the 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 'decussation,' as anatomists call it, affects all the +sense-organs except those of smell; but in fishes it only affects the +eyes. Now, as the young ascidian has retained the ancestral position of +his almost useless eye so steadily, it is reasonable to suppose that he +has retained its other peculiarities as well. May we not conclude, +therefore, that the primitive vertebrate had only one brain-eye; but +that afterwards, as this brain-eye grew outward to the surface, it +split up into two, because of the elongated and flattened 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 arrangement. + +It is worth noting, too, that these tadpoles, like all other very low +vertebrates, are mud-haunters; and the most primitive among adult +vertebrates are still cartilaginous mud-fish. Not much is known +geologically about the predecessors of frogs; the tailless amphibians +are late arrivals upon earth, and it may seem curious, therefore, that +they should recall in so many ways the earliest ancestral type. The +reason doubtless is because they are so much given to larval +development. Some ancestors of theirs--primæval newts or +salamanders--must have gone on for countless centuries improving +themselves in their adult shape from age to age, yet bringing all their +young into the world from the egg, as mere mud-fish still, in much the +same state as their unimproved forefathers had done millions of æons +before. Similarly, caterpillars are still all but exact patterns of the +primæval 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. Larvæ and embryos show us the original +types of each race; adults show us the total amount of change produced +by progressive or retrogressive development. + + + + +XI. + +_AMONG 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 botanising, angling, and other bad +habits, in default of means for pursuing 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 eggs have survived +till this summer, when the butterflies they produce will all be needed +to keep up next season's supply. Nevertheless, I have climbed the +highest down in this part of the country to-day, and come out for an +airing among the heather, in the vague hope that I may be lucky enough +to catch a glimpse of one or two old lepidopterous favourites. I am not +a butterfly-hunter myself. I have not the heart to drive pins through +the pretty creatures' downy bodies, or to stifle them with reeking +chemicals; though I recognise the necessity for a hardened class who +will perform that useful office on behalf of science and society, just +as I recognise the necessity for slaughtermen and knackers. But I +prefer personally to lie on the ground at my ease and learn as much +about the insect nature as I can discover from simple inspection of the +living subject as it flits airily from bunch to bunch of +bright-coloured flowers. + +I suppose even that apocryphal person, the general reader, would be +insulted at being told at this hour of the day that all bright-coloured +flowers are fertilised by the visits of insects, whose attentions they +are specially designed to solicit. Everybody has heard over and over +again that roses, orchids, and columbines have acquired their honey to +allure the friendly bee, their gaudy petals to advertise the honey, and +their divers shapes to ensure the proper fertilisation by the correct +type of insect. 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 fertilised by butterflies alone. Bees, their great +rivals in honey-sucking, frequent only the lower meadows and slopes, +where flowers are many and small: they seldom venture far from the hive +or the nest among the high peaks and chilly nooks where we find those +great patches of blue 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 but in the bud among the Scotch hills, I doubt not--specially +lays itself out for the bumblebee, and its masses form about his +highest pasture-grounds; but the butterflies--insect vagrants that they +are--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; he does not +bustle about in a business-like manner from one buttercup or +dead-nettle to its nearest fellow; but he flits joyously, like a +sauntering straggler that he is, from a great patch of colour here to +another great patch at a distance, whose gleam happens to strike his +roving eye by its size and brilliancy. Hence, as that indefatigable +observer, Dr. Hermann Müller, has noticed, all Alpine or hill-top +flowers have very large and conspicuous blossoms, generally grouped +together in big clusters so as to catch a passing glance of the +butterfly's eye. As soon as the insect spies such a cluster, the colour +seems to act as a stimulant to his broad wings, just as the +candle-light does to those of his cousin the moth. Off he sails at +once, as if by automatic action, towards the distant patch, and there +both robs the plant of its honey and at the same time carries to it on +his legs and head fertilising pollen from the last of its congeners +which he favoured 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 hybridised instead of being impregnated with +pollen from other plants of their own kind. For this purpose it is that +most plants lay themselves out to secure the attention of only two or +three varieties among their insect allies, while they make their +nectaries either too deep or too shallow for the convenience of all +other kinds. Nature, though eager for cross-fertilisation, abhors +'miscegenation' with all the bitterness of an American politician. + +Insects, however, differ much from one another in their æsthetic +tastes, and flowers are adapted accordingly to the varying fancies of +the different kinds. Here, for example, is a spray of common white +galium, which attracts and is fertilised by small flies, who generally +frequent white blossoms. But here, again, not far off, I find a +luxuriant mass of the yellow species, known by the quaint 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 Bethlehem. Now why has +this kind of galium yellow flowers, while its near kinsman yonder has +them snowy white? The reason is that lady's bedstraw is fertilised by +small beetles; and beetles are known to be one among the most +colour-loving races of insects. You may often find one of their number, +the lovely bronze and golden-mailed 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 which beetles +frequent are consequently brightly decked in scarlet or yellow. On the +other hand, the whole family of the umbellates, those tall plants with +level bunches of tiny blossoms, like the fool's parsley, have all but +universally white petals; and Müller, the 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 +remainder consisted mainly of miscellaneous small flies and other +arthropodous riff-raff; whereas in the brilliant class of composites, +including the asters, sunflowers, 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 Müller quaintly remarks, 'to a less æsthetically +cultivated circle of visitors.' But the most brilliant among all +insect-fertilised flowers are those which specially affect the society +of butterflies; and they are only surpassed in this respect throughout +all nature by the still larger and more magnificent tropical species +which owe their fertilisation to humming-birds and brush-tongued +lories. + +Is it not a curious, yet a comprehensible circumstance, that the tastes +which thus show themselves in the development, by natural selection, of +lovely flowers, should also show themselves in the marked preference +for beautiful mates? Poised on yonder sprig of harebell stands a little +purple-winged butterfly, one of the most exquisite among our British +kinds. That little butterfly owes its own rich and delicately shaded +tints to the long selective action of a million generations among its +ancestors. So we find throughout that the most beautifully coloured +birds and insects are always those which have had most to do with the +production of bright-coloured fruits and flowers. The butterflies and +rose-beetles are the most gorgeous among insects: the humming-birds and +parrots are the most gorgeous among birds. Nay more, exactly like +effects have been produced in two hemispheres on different tribes by +the same causes. The plain brown swifts of the North have developed +among tropical West Indian and South American orchids the metallic +gorgets and crimson crests of the humming-bird: while a totally unlike +group of Asiatic birds have developed among the rich flora of India and +the Malay Archipelago the exactly similar plumage of the exquisite +sun-birds. Just as bees depend upon flowers, and flowers upon bees, so +the colour-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 the common vanity of anglers to suppose that they know +something about speckled trout. A fox might almost as well pretend that +he was intimately acquainted with the domestic habits of poultry, or an +Iroquois describe the customs of the Algonquins from observations made +upon the specimens who had come under his scalping-knife. I will allow +that anglers are well versed in the necessity for fishing up-stream +rather than in the opposite direction; and I grant that they have +attained an empirical knowledge of the æsthetic preferences of trout in +the matter 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 quietly to the side of the pools in an unfished brooklet, like +this on whose 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 the +live fish themselves for an hour together, as they bask lazily in the +sunlight, 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 the +surface of the stream. The 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 contemplation, +without any danger of their being scared away from their accustomed +haunts by intrusive anglers. + +Trout always have a recognised home of their own, inhabited by a pretty +fixed number of individuals. But if you catch the two sole denizens of +a particular scour, you will find another pair installed in their place +to-morrow. Young fry seem always ready to fill up the vacancies caused +by the involuntary retirement of their elders. Their size depends +almost entirely upon the quantity 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 attain. Mr. Herbert Spencer, +who is an angler as well as a philosopher, well observes that where the +trout are many they are generally small; and where they are large they +are generally few. In the mill-stream down the valley they measure only +six inches, though you may fill a basket easily enough on a cloudy day; +but in the canal reservoir, where there are only half-a-dozen fish +altogether, a magnificent eight-pounder has been taken more than once. +In this way we can understand the origin of the great lake trout, which +weigh sometimes forty pounds. They are common trout which have taken to +living in broader waters, where large food is far more abundant, but +where shoals of small fish would starve. The peculiarities thus +impressed upon them have been handed down to their descendants, till at +length they have become sufficiently marked to justify us in regarding +them as a separate species. But it is difficult to say what makes a +species in animals so very variable as fish. There are, in fact, no +less than twelve kinds of trout wholly peculiar to the British Islands, +and some of these are found in very restricted areas. Thus, the Loch +Stennis trout inhabits only the tarns of Orkney; the Galway sea trout +lives nowhere but along the west coast of Ireland; 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 exclusively to +the Llanberis 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 habitat. Even the salmon himself is only a +river trout who has acquired the habit of going down to the sea, where +he gets immensely increased quantities of food (for all the trout kind +are almost omnivorous), and grows big in proportion. But he still +retains many marks of his early existence as a river fish. In the first +place, every salmon 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 species. It really represents, however, +the early form of the salmon, before he took to his annual excursion to +the sea. The ancestral fish, only a hundredth fraction in weight of his +huge descendant, must have somehow acquired the habit of going +seaward--possibly from a drying up of his native stream in seasons of +drought. In the sea, he found himself suddenly supplied with an +unwonted store of food, and grew, like all his kind under similar +circumstances, to an extraordinary size. Thus he attains, as it were, +to a second and final maturity. But salmon cannot lay their eggs in the +sea; or at least, if they did, the young parr would starve for want of +their proper food, or else be choked by the salt water, to which the +old fish have acclimatised themselves. Accordingly, with the return of +the spawning season there comes back an instinctive desire to seek once +more the native fresh water. So the salmon return up stream to spawn, +and the young are hatched in the kind of surroundings which best suit +their tender gills. This instinctive longing for the old home may +probably have arisen during an intermediate stage, when the developing +species still haunted only the brackish water near the river mouths; +and as those fish alone which returned to the head waters could +preserve their race, it would soon grow hardened into a habit engrained +in the nervous system, like the migration of birds or the clustering of +swarming bees around their queen. In like manner the Jamaican +land-crabs, which themselves live on the mountain-tops, come down every +year to lay their eggs in the Caribbean; because, like all other crabs, +they pass their first larval stage as swimming tadpoles, and afterwards +take instinctively to the mountains, as the salmon takes to the sea. +Such a habit could only have arisen by one generation after another +venturing further and further inland, while always returning at the +proper season to the native element for the deposition of the eggs. + +These trout here, however, differ from the salmon in one important +particular beside their relative size, and that is that they are +beautifully speckled in their mature form, instead of being merely +silvery like the larger species. The origin of the pretty speckles is +probably to be found in the constant selection by the fish of the most +beautiful among their number as mates. Just as singing birds are in +their fullest and clearest song at the nesting period, and just as many +brilliant species only possess their gorgeous plumage while they are +going through their courtship, and lose the decoration after the young +brood is hatched, so the trout are most brightly coloured at spawning +time, and become lank and dingy after the eggs have been safely +deposited. The parent fish ascend to the head-waters of their native +river during the autumn season to spawn, and then, their glory dimmed, +they return down-stream to the deep pools, where they pass the winter +sulkily, as if ashamed to show themselves in their dull and dusky +suits. But when spring comes round once more, and flies again become +abundant, the trout begin to move up-stream afresh, and soon fatten out +to their customary size and brilliant colours. It might seem at first +sight that creatures so humble as these little fish could hardly have +sufficiently developed aesthetic tastes to prefer one mate above +another on the score of beauty. But we must remember that 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 one +another, so that extremely minute differences must necessarily turn the +scale in favour of one particular suitor rather than his rivals. +Anglers know that trout are attracted by bright colours, that they can +distinguish the different flies upon which they feed, and that +artificial flies must accordingly be made at least into a rough +semblance of the original insects. Some scientific fishermen even +insist that it is no use offering them a brown drake at the time of +year or the hour of day when they are naturally expecting 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 an acute perception +of colour, while there is every reason to believe that all the trout +family have a decided love of metallic glitter, such as that of silver +or of the salmon's scales. Mr. Darwin has shown that the little +stickleback goes through an elaborate courtship, 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 salmon fry and young +trout are almost quite indistinguishable, being both marked with blue +patches (known as 'finger-marks') on their sides, which are remnants of +the ancestral colouring once common to the whole race. But as they grow +up, their later-acquired tastes begin to produce a divergence, due +originally to this selective preference of certain beautiful mates; and +the adult salmon clothes himself from head to tail in sheeny silver, +while the full-grown trout decks his sides with the beautiful speckles +which have earned him his popular name. Countless generations of slight +differences, selected from time to time by the strongest and handsomest +fish, have sufficed at length to bring about these conspicuous +variations from the primitive type, which the young of both races still +preserve. + + + + +XIII. + +_DODDER AND BROOMRAPE._ + + +This afternoon, strolling through the under-cliff, I have come across +two quaint and rather uncommon flowers among the straggling brushwood. +One 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 convolvulus blossoms. The stem consists of a long red +thread, twining round and round the gorse, and bursting out here and +there into thick bundles of beautiful bell-shaped flowers. But where +are the leaves? You may trace the red threads through their +labyrinthine windings 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 one of the most thorough-going parasites in all nature. +Ordinary green-leaved plants live by making starches for themselves out +of the carbonic acid in the air, under the influence of sunlight; but +the dodder simply fastens itself on to another plant, sends down +rootlets or suckers into its veins, and drinks up sap stored with +ready-made starches or other foodstuffs, originally destined by its +host for the supply of its own growing leaves, branches, and blossoms. +It lives upon the gorse just as parasitically as the little green +aphides live upon our rose-bushes. The material which it uses up in +pushing forth its long thread-like stem and clustered bells is so much +dead loss to the unfortunate plant on which it has fixed itself. + +Old-fashioned books tell us that the mistletoe is a perfect parasite, +while the dodder is an imperfect one; and I believe almost all +botanists will still repeat the foolish saying to the present day. But +it really shows considerable haziness as to what a true parasite is. +The mistletoe is a plant which has taken, it is true, to growing upon +other trees. Its very viscid berries are useful for attaching the seeds +to the trunk of the oak or the apple; and there it roots itself into +the body of its host. But it soon produces real green leaves of its +own, which contain the ordinary chlorophyll found in other leaves, and +help it to manufacture starch, under the influence of sunlight, on its +own account. It is not, therefore, a complete drag upon the tree which +it infests; for though it takes sap and mineral food from the host, it +supplies itself with carbon, which is after all the important thing for +plant-life. Dodder, 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 produced leaves of its own, like the +honeysuckle and the clematis, there would be no great harm done: and +the dodder would be but another climbing plant the more in our flora. +However, it soon insidiously repays the support given it by sending +down little bud-like suckers, through which it draws up nourishment +from the gorse or clover on which it lives. Thus it has no need to +develop leaves of its own; and it accordingly employs all its stolen +material in sending forth matted thread-like stems and bunch after +bunch of bright flowers. As these increase and multiply, they at last +succeed in drawing away all the nutriment from the supporting plant, +which finally dies under the constant drain, just as a horse might die +under the attacks of a host of leeches. But this matters little to the +dodder, which has had time to be visited and fertilised by insects, and +to set and ripen its numerous seeds. One species, the greater dodder, +is thus parasitic upon hops and nettles; a second kind twines round +flax; and the third, which I have here under my eyes, mainly confines +its dangerous attentions to gorse, clover, and thyme. All of them are, +of course, deadly enemies to the plants they infest. + +How the dodder acquired this curious mode of life it is not difficult +to see. By descent it is a bind-weed, or wild convolvulus, and its +blossoms are in the main miniature convolvulus blossoms still. Now, all +bind-weeds, as everybody knows, are climbing plants, which twine +themselves round stouter stems for mere physical support This is in +itself a half-parasitic habit, because it enables the plant to dispense +with the trouble of making a thick and solid stem for its own use. But +just suppose that any bind-weed, instead of merely twining, were to put +forth here and there little tendrils, something like those of the ivy, +which managed somehow to grow into the 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 be expected to grow strong and healthy, and hand +down its peculiarities to its descendants. As the leaves would thus be +rendered needless, they would first become very much reduced in size, +and would finally disappear altogether, according to the universal +custom of unnecessary organs. So we should get at length a leafless +plant, with numerous flowers and seeds, just like the dodder. +Parasites, in fact, whether animal or vegetable, always end by becoming +mere reproductive sacs, mechanisms for the simple elaboration of eggs +or seeds. This is just what has happened to the dodder before me. + +The other queer plant here is a broomrape. It consists of a tall, +somewhat faded-looking stem, upright instead of climbing, and covered +with brown or purplish scales in the place of leaves. Its flowers +resemble the scales in colour, and the dead-nettle in shape. It is, in +fact, a parasitic dead-nettle, a trifle less degenerate as yet than the +dodder. This broomrape has acquired somewhat the same habits as the +other plant, only that it fixes itself on the roots of clover or broom, +from which it sucks nutriment by its own root, as the dodder does by +its stem-suckers. Of course it still retains in most particulars its +original characteristics as a dead-nettle; it grows with their upright +stem and their curiously shaped flowers, so specially adapted for +fertilisation by insect visitors. But it has naturally lost its leaves, +for which it has no further use, and it possesses no chlorophyll, as +the mistletoe does. Yet it has not probably been parasitic for as long +a time as the dodder, since it still retains a dwindling trace of its +leaves in the shape of dry purply scales, something like those of young +asparagus shoots. These leaves are now, in all likelihood, actually +undergoing a gradual atrophy, and we may fairly expect that in the +course of a few thousand years they will disappear altogether. At +present, however, they remain very conspicuous by their colour, which +is not green, owing to the absence of chlorophyll, but is due to the +same pigment as that of the blossoms. This generally happens with +parasites, or with that other curious sort of plants known as +saprophytes, which live upon decaying living matter in the mould of +forests. As they need no green leaves, but have often inherited leafy +structures of some sort, in a more or less degenerate condition, from +their self-supporting ancestors, they usually display most beautiful +colours in their stems and scales, and several of them rank amongst our +handsomest hot-house plants. Even the dodder has red stalks. Their only +work in life being to elaborate the materials stolen from their host +into the brilliant pigments used in the petals for attracting insect +fertilisers, they pour this same dye into the stems and scales, which +thus render them still more conspicuous to the insects' eyes. Moreover, +as they use their whole material in producing flowers, many of these +are 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 numerous. Thousands of seeds 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 one destined ultimately to survive that dodders and +broomrapes manage to preserve their types at all. + + + + +XIV. + +_DOG'S MERCURY AND PLANTAIN._ + + +The hedge and bank in Haye Lane are now a perfect tangled mass of +creeping plants, among which I have just picked out a queer little +three-cornered flower, hardly known even to village children, but +christened by our old herbalists 'dog's mercury.' It is an ancient +trick of language to call coarser or larger plants by the specific +title of some smaller or cultivated kind, with the 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 the same principle, a somewhat similar plant being +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 the eyes of old-fashioned practitioners. + +Dog's mercury is one of the oddest English flowers I know. Each blossom +has three small green petals, and either several stamens, or else a +pistil, in the centre. There is nothing particularly remarkable in the +flower being green, for thousands of other flowers are green and we +never notice them as in any way unusual. In fact, we never as a rule +notice green blossoms at all. Yet anybody who picked a piece of dog's +mercury could not fail to be struck by its curious appearance. It does +not in the least resemble the inconspicuous green flowers of the +stinging-nettle, or of most forest trees: it has a very distinct set of +petals which at once impress one with the idea that they ought to be +coloured. And so indeed they ought: for dog's mercury is a degenerate +plant which once possessed a brilliant corolla and was fertilised by +insects, but which has now fallen from its high estate and reverted to +the less advanced mode of fertilisation by the intermediation of the +wind. For some unknown reason or other this species and all its +relations have discovered that they get on better by the latter and +usually more wasteful plan than by the former and usually more +economical one. Hence they have given up producing large bright petals, +because they no longer need to attract the eyes of insects; and they +have also given up the manufacture of honey, which under their new +circumstances would be a mere waste of substance to them. But the dog's +mercury still retains a distinct mark of its earlier insect-attracting +habits in these three diminutive petals. Others of its relations have +lost even these, so that the original floral form is almost completely +obscured in their case. The spurges are familiar English roadside +examples, and their flowers are so completely degraded that even +botanists for a long time mistook their nature and analogies. + +The male and female flowers of dog's mercury have taken to living upon +separate plants. Why is this? Well, there was no doubt a time when +every blossom had both stamens and pistil, as dog-roses and buttercups +always have. But when the plant took to wind fertilisation it underwent +a change of structure. The stamens on some blossoms became aborted, +while the pistil became aborted on others. This was necessary in order +to prevent self-fertilisation; for otherwise the pollen of each +blossom, hanging out as it does to the wind, would have been very +liable to fall upon its own pistil. But the present arrangement +obviates any such contingency, by making one plant bear all the male +flowers and another plant all the female ones. Why, again, are the +petals green? I think because dog's mercury would be positively injured +by the visits of insects. It has no honey to offer them, and if they +came to it at all, they would only eat up the pollen itself. Hence I +suspect that those flowers among the mercuries which showed any +tendency to retain the original coloured petals would soon get weeded +out, because insects would eat up all their pollen, thus preventing +them from fertilising others; while those which had green petals would +never be noticed and so would be permitted to fertilise one another +after their new fashion. In fact, when a blossom which has once +depended upon insects for its fertilisation is driven by circumstances +to depend upon the wind, it seems to derive a positive advantage from +losing all those attractive features by which its ancestors formerly +allured the eyes of bees or beetles. + +Here, again, on the roadside is a bit of plantain. Everybody 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 time it was a sort of distant cousin to the +veronica, that pretty sky-blue speedwell which abounds among the +meadows in June and July. But these particular speedwells gave up +devoting themselves to insects and became adapted for fertilisation 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 +blossoms, whose pale and faded petals are tucked away out of sight flat +against the stem. Yet their shape and arrangement distinctly recall the +beautiful veronica, and leave one in little doubt as to the origin of +the plant. At the same time a curious device has sprung up which +answers just the same purpose as the separation of the male and female +flowers on the dog's mercury. Each plantain blossom has both stamens +and pistils, but the pistils come to maturity first, and are fertilised +by pollen blown to them from some neighbouring spike. Their feathery +plumes are admirably adapted for catching and utilising any stray +golden grain which happens to pass that way. After the pistils have +faded, the stamens ripen, and hang out at the end of long waving +filaments, so as to discharge all their pollen with effect. On each +spike of blossoms the lower flowerets open first; and so, if you pick a +half-blown spike, you will see that all the stamens are ripe below, and +all the pistils above. Were the opposite arrangement to occur, the +pollen would fall from the stamens to the lower flowers of the same +stalk; but as the pistils below have always been fertilised and +withered before the stamens ripen, there is no chance of any such +accident and its consequent evil results. Thus one can see clearly that +the plantain has become wholly adapted to wind-fertilisation, and as a +natural effect has all but lost its bright-coloured corolla. + +Common groundsel is also a case of the same kind; but here the +degradation has not gone nearly so far. I venture to conjecture, +therefore, that groundsel has been embarked for a shorter time upon its +downward course. For evolution is not, as most people seem to fancy, a +thing which used once to take place; it is a process taking place +around us every day, and it must necessarily continue to take place to +the end of all time. By family the groundsel is a daisy; but it has +acquired the strange and somewhat abnormal habit of self-fertilisation, +which in all probability will ultimately lead to its total extinction. +Hence it does not need the assistance of insects; and it has +accordingly never developed or else got rid of the bright outer +ray-florets which may once have attracted them. Its tiny bell-shaped +blossoms still retain their dwarf yellow corollas; but they are almost +hidden by the green cup-like investment of the flower-head, and they +are not conspicuous enough to arrest the attention of the passing +flies. Here, then, we have an example of a plant just beginning to +start on the retrograde path already traversed by the plantain and the +spurges. If we could meet prophetically with a groundsel of some remote +future century, I have little doubt we should find its bell-shaped +petals as completely degraded as those of the plantain in our own day. + +The general principle which these cases illustrate is that when flowers +have always been fertilised by the wind, they never have brilliant +corollas; when they acquire the habit of impregnating their kind by the +intervention of insects, they almost always acquire at the same time +alluring colours, perfumes, and honey; and when they have once been so +impregnated, and then revert once more to wind-fertilisation, or become +self-fertilisers, they generally retain some symptoms of their earlier +habits, in the presence of dwarfed and useless petals, sometimes green, +or if not green at least devoid of their former attractive colouring. +Thus every plant bears upon its very face the history of its whole +previous development. + + + + +XV. + +_BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY._ + + +A small red-and-black butterfly poises statuesque above the purple +blossom of this tall field-thistle. With its long sucker it probes +industriously floret after floret of the crowded head, and extracts +from each its wee drop of buried nectar. As it stands just at present, +the dull outer sides of its four wings are alone displayed, so that it +does not form a conspicuous mark for passing birds; but when it has +drunk up the last drop of honey from the thistle flower, and flits +joyously away to seek another purple mass of the same sort, it will +open its red-spotted vans in the sunlight, and will then show itself +off as one among the prettiest of our native insects. Each thistle-head +consists of some two hundred separate little bell-shaped blossoms, +crowded together for the sake of conspicuousness into a single group, +just as the blossoms of the lilac or the syringa are crowded into +larger though less dense clusters; and, as each separate floret has a +nectary of its own, the bee or butterfly who lights upon the compound +flower-group can busy himself for a minute or two in getting at the +various drops of honey without the necessity for any further change of +position than that of revolving upon his own axis. Hence these +composite flowers are great favourites with all insects whose suckers +are long enough to reach the bottom of their slender tubes. + +The butterfly's view of life is doubtless on the whole a cheerful one. +Yet his existence must be something so nearly mechanical that we +probably overrate the amount of enjoyment which he derives from +flitting about so airily among the flowers, and passing his days in the +unbroken amusement of sucking liquid honey. Subjectively viewed, the +butterfly is not a high order of insect; his nervous system does not +show that provision for comparatively spontaneous thought and action +which we find in the more intelligent orders, like the flies, bees, +ants, and wasps. His nerves are all frittered away in little separate +ganglia distributed among the various segments of his body, instead of +being governed by a single great central organ, or brain, whose +business it always is to correlate and co-ordinate complex external +impressions. This shows that the butterfly's movements are almost all +automatic, or simply dependent upon immediate external stimulants: he +has not even that small capacity for deliberation and spontaneous +initiative which belongs to his relation the bee. The freedom of the +will is nothing to him, or extends at best to the amount claimed on +behalf of Buridan's ass: he can just choose which of two equidistant +flowers shall first have the benefit of his attention, and nothing +else. Whatever view we take on the abstract metaphysical question, it +is at least certain that the higher animals can do much more than this. +Their brain is able to correlate a vast number of external impressions, +and to bring them under the influence of endless ideas or experiences, +so as finally to evolve conduct which differs very widely with +different circumstances and different characters. Even though it be +true, as determinists believe (and I reckon myself among them), that +such conduct is the necessary result of a given character and given +circumstances--or, if you will, of a particular set of nervous +structures and a particular set of external stimuli--yet we all know +that it is capable of varying so indefinitely, owing to the complexity +of the structures, as to be practically incalculable. But it is not so +with the butterfly. His whole life is cut out for him beforehand; his +nervous connections are so simple, and correspond so directly with +external stimuli, that we can almost predict with certainty what line +of action he will pursue under any given circumstances. He is, as it +were, but a piece of half-conscious mechanism, answering immediately to +impulses from without, just as the thermometer answers to variations of +temperature, and as the telegraphic indicator answers to each making +and breaking of the electric current. + +In early life the future butterfly emerges from the egg as a +caterpillar. At once his many legs begin to move, and the caterpillar +moves forward by their motion. But the mechanism which set them moving +was the nervous system, with its ganglia working the separate legs of +each segment. This movement is probably quite as automatic as the act +of sucking in the new-born infant. The caterpillar walks, it knows not +why, but simply because it has to walk. When it reaches a fit place for +feeding, which differs according to the nature of the particular larva, +it feeds automatically. Certain special external stimulants of sight, +smell, or touch set up the appropriate actions in the mandibles, just +as contact of the lips with an external body sets up sucking in the +infant. All these movements depend upon what we call instinct--that is +to say, organic habits registered in the nervous system of the race. +They have arisen by natural selection alone, because those insects +which duly performed them survived, and those which did not duly +perform them died out. After a considerable span of life spent in +feeding and walking about in search of more food, the caterpillar one +day found itself compelled by an inner monitor to alter its habits. +Why, it knew not; but, just as a tired child sinks to sleep, the gorged +and full-fed caterpillar sank peacefully into a dormant state. Then its +tissues melted one by one into a kind of organic pap, and its outer +skin hardened into a chrysalis. Within that solid case new limbs and +organs began to grow by hereditary impulses. At the same time the form +of the nervous system altered, to suit the higher and freer life for +which the insect was unconsciously preparing itself. Fewer and smaller +ganglia now appeared in the tail segments (since no legs would any +longer be needed there), while more important ones sprang up to govern +the motions of the four wings. But it was in the head that the greatest +changes took place. There, a rudimentary brain made its appearance, +with large optic centres, answering to the far more perfect and +important eyes of the future butterfly. For the flying insect will have +to steer its way through open space, instead of creeping over leaves +and stones; and it will have to suck the honey of flowers, as well as +to choose its fitting mate, all of which demands from it higher and +keener senses than those of the purblind caterpillar. At length one day +the chrysalis bursts asunder, and the insect emerges to view on a +summer morning as a full-fledged and beautiful butterfly. + +For a minute or two it stands and waits till the air it breathes has +filled out its wings, and till the warmth and sunlight have given it +strength. For the wings are by origin a part of the breathing +apparatus, and they require to be plimmed by the air before the insect +can take to flight. Then, as it grows more accustomed to its new life, +the hereditary impulse causes it to spread its vans abroad, and it +flies. Soon a flower catches its eye, and the bright mass of colour +attracts it irresistibly, as the candle-light attracts the eye of a +child a few weeks old. It sets off towards the patch of red or yellow, +probably not knowing beforehand that this is the visible symbol of food +for it, but merely guided by the blind habit of its race, imprinted +with binding force in the very constitution of its body. Thus the +moths, which fly by night and visit only white flowers whose corollas +still shine out in the twilight, are so irresistibly led on by the +external stimulus of light from a candle falling upon their eyes that +they cannot choose but move their wings rapidly in that direction; and +though singed and blinded twice or three times by the flame, must still +wheel and eddy into it, till at last they perish in the scorching +blaze. Their instincts, or, to put it more clearly, their simple +nervous mechanism, though admirably adapted to their natural +circumstances, cannot be equally adapted to such artificial objects as +wax candles. The butterfly in like manner is attracted automatically by +the colour of his proper flowers, and settling upon them, sucks up +their honey instinctively. But feeding is not now his only object in +life: he has to find and pair with a suitable mate. That, indeed, is +the great end of his winged existence. Here, again, his simple nervous +system stands him in good stead. The picture of his kind is, as it +were, imprinted on his little brain, and he knows his own mates the +moment he sees them, just as intuitively as he knows the flowers upon +which he must feed. Now we see the reason for the butterfly's large +optic centres: they have to guide it in all its movements. In like +manner, and by a like mechanism, the female butterfly or moth selects +the right spot for laying her eggs, which of course depends entirely +upon the nature of the young caterpillars' proper food. Each great +group of insects has its own habits in this respect, may-flies laying +their eggs on the water, many beetles on wood, flies on decaying animal +matter, and butterflies mostly on special plants. Thus throughout its +whole life the butterfly's activity is entirely governed by a rigid +law, registered and fixed for ever in the constitution of its ganglia +and motor nerves. Certain definite objects outside it invariably +produce certain definite movements on the insect's part. No doubt it is +vaguely conscious of all that it does: no doubt it derives a faint +pleasure from due exercise of all its vital functions, and a faint pain +when they are injured or thwarted; but on the whole its range of action +is narrowed and bounded by its hereditary instincts and their nervous +correlatives. It may light on one flower rather than another; it may +choose a fresher and brighter mate rather than a battered and dingy +one; but its little subjectivity is a mere shadow compared with ours, +and it hardly deserves to be considered as more than a semi-conscious +automatic machine. + + + + +XVI. + +_BUTTERFLY ÆSTHETICS._ + + +The other day, when I was watching that little red-spotted butterfly +whose psychology I found so interesting, I hardly 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 +second great point is to understand that they are probably something +more than that as well. To-day I have found another 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 intellectually, a +cunning bit of nervous machinery, may it not be true at the same time +that he is, viewed emotionally, a faint copy of ourselves? + +Here he stands on a purple thistle again, true, as usual, to the plant +on which I last found him. There can be no doubt that he distinguishes +one colour from another, for you can artificially attract him by +putting a piece of purple paper on a green leaf, just as the flower +naturally attracts him with its native hue. Numerous observations and +experiments have proved with all but absolute certainty that his +discrimination of colour is essentially identical with our own; and I +think, if we run our eye up and down nature, observing how universally +all animals are attracted by pure and bright colours, we can hardly +doubt that he appreciates and admires colour as well as discriminates +it. Mr. Darwin certainly judges that butterflies can show an æsthetic +preference of the sort, for he sets down their own lovely hues to the +constant sexual selection of the handsomest mates. We must not, +however, take too human a measure of their capacities in this respect. +It is sufficient to believe that the insect derives some direct +enjoyment from the stimulation of pure colour, and is hereditarily +attracted by it wherever it may show itself. This pleasure draws it on, +on the one hand, towards the gay flowers which form its natural food; +and, on the other hand, towards its own brilliant mates. Imprinted on +its nervous system is a certain blank form answering to its own +specific type; and when the object corresponding to this blank form +occurs in its neighbourhood, 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 the 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 reddest 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 butterflies. Insects always accustomed to exercising their +colour-sense upon flowers and mates, may easily acquire a high standard +of taste in that direction, while still remaining comparatively in a +low stage as regards their intellectual condition. But the fact I wish +especially to emphasise is this--that the flowers produced by the +colour-sense of butterflies and their allies are just those objects +which we ourselves consider most lovely in nature; and that the marks +and shades upon their own wings, produced by the long selective action +of their mates, are just the things which we ourselves consider most +beautiful in the animal world. In this respect, then, there seems to be +a close community of taste and feeling between the butterfly and +ourselves. + +Let me note, too, just in passing, that while the upper half of the +butterfly's wing is generally beautiful in colour, so as to attract his +fastidious mate, the under half, displayed while he is at rest, is +almost always dull, and often resembles the plant upon which he +habitually alights. The first set of colours is obviously due to sexual +selection, and has for its object the making of an effective courtship; +but the second set is obviously due to natural selection, and has been +produced by the fact that all those insects whose bright colours show +through too vividly when they are at rest fall a prey to birds or other +enemies, leaving only the best protected to continue the life of the +species. + +But sight is not the only important sense to the butterfly. He is +largely moved and guided by smell as well. Both bees and butterflies +seem largely to select the flowers they visit by means of smell, though +colour 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. Bastian says, there seems +good reason for believing 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 butterflies are +not only coloured but sweetly scented; and it is to this cause that we +owe the perfumes of the rose, the lily-of-the-valley, the heliotrope, +the jasmine, the violet, and the stephanotis. Night-flowering plants, +which depend entirely for their fertilisation upon moths, are almost +always white, and have usually very powerful perfumes. 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? +Here, again, we see that the æsthetic 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 we look at the sense of taste, we find an equally curious +agreement between men and insects; for the honey which is stored by the +flower for the bee, and by the bee for its own use, is stolen and eaten +up by man instead. Hence, when I consider the general continuity of +nervous structure throughout the whole animal race, and the exact +similarity of the stimulus in each instance, I can hardly doubt that +the butterfly really enjoys life somewhat as we enjoy it, though far +less vividly. I cannot but think that he finds honey sweet, and +perfumes pleasant, and colour attractive; that he feels a lightsome +gladness as he 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 animal world, save only in a few +aberrant types, sugar is sweet to taste, and thyme to smell, and song +to hear, and sunshine to bask in. Therefore, on the whole, while I +admit that the butterfly is mainly an animated puppet, I must qualify +my opinion by adding that it is a puppet which, after its vague little +fashion, thinks and feels very much as we do. + + + + +XVII. + +_THE ORIGIN OF WALNUTS._ + + +Mr. Darwin has devoted no small portion of his valuable life to +tracing, in two bulky volumes, the Descent of Man. Yet I suppose it is +probable that in our narrow anthropinism we should have refused to +listen to him had he given us two volumes instead on the Descent of +Walnuts. Viewed as a question merely of biological science, the one +subject is just as important as the other. But the old Greek doctrine +that 'man is the measure of all things' is strong in us still. We form +for ourselves a sort of pre-Copernican universe, in which the world +occupies the central point of space, and man occupies the central point +of the world. What touches man interests us deeply: what concerns him +but slightly we pass over as of no consequence. Nevertheless, even the +origin and development of walnuts is a subject upon which we may +profitably reflect, not wholly without gratification and interest. + +This kiln-dried walnut on my plate, which has suggested such abstract +cogitations to my mind, is shown by its very name to be a foreign +production; for the word contains the same root as Wales and Welsh, the +old Teutonic name for men of a different race, which the Germans still +apply to the Italians, and we ourselves to the last relics of the old +Keltic population in Southern Britain. It means 'the foreign nut,' and +it comes for the most part from the south of Europe. As a nut, it +represents a very different type of fruit from the strawberry and +raspberry, with their bright colours, sweet juices, and nutritious +pulp. Those fruits which alone bear the name in common parlance are +attractive in their object; the nuts are deterrent. An orange or a plum +is brightly tinted with hues which contrast strongly with the +surrounding foliage; its pleasant taste and soft pulp all advertise it +for the notice of birds or monkeys, as a means for assisting in the +dispersion of its seed. But a nut, on the contrary, is a fruit whose +actual seed contains an abundance of oils and other pleasant +food-stuffs, which must be carefully guarded against the depredations +of possible foes. In the plum or the orange we do not eat the seed +itself: we only eat the surrounding pulp. But in the walnut the part +which we utilise is the embryo plant itself; and so the walnut's great +object in life is to avoid being eaten. Accordingly, that part of the +fruit which in the plum is stored with sweet juices is, in the walnut, +filled with a bitter and very nauseous essence. We seldom see this +bitter covering in our over-civilised life, because it is, of course, +removed before the nuts come to table. The walnut has but a thin shell, +and is poorly protected in comparison with some of its relations, such +as the American butternut, which can only be cracked by a sharp blow +from a hammer--or even the hickory, whose hard covering has done more +to destroy the teeth of New Englanders than all other causes put +together, and New England teeth are universally admitted to be the very +worst in the world. Now, all nuts have to guard against squirrels and +birds; and therefore their peculiarities are exactly opposite to those +of succulent fruits. Instead of attracting attention by being brightly +coloured, they are invariably green like the leaves while they remain +on the tree, and brown or dusky like the soil when they fall upon the +ground beneath; instead of being enclosed in sweet coats, they are +provided with bitter, acrid, or stinging husks; and, instead of being +soft in texture, they are surrounded by hard shells, like the coco-nut, +or have a perfectly solid kernel, like the vegetable ivory. + +The origin of nuts is thus exactly the reverse side of the origin of +fruits. Certain seeds, richly stored with oils and starches for aiding +the growth of the young plant, are exposed to the attacks of squirrels, +monkeys, parrots, and other arboreal animals. The greater part of them +are eaten and completely destroyed by these their enemies, and so never +hand down their peculiarities to any descendants. But all fruits vary a +little in sweetness and bitterness, pulpy or stringy tendencies. Thus a +few among them happen to be protected from destruction by their +originally accidental possession of a bitter husk, a hard shell, or a +few awkward spines and bristles. These the monkeys and squirrels +reject; and they alone survive as the parents of future generations. +The more persistent and the hungrier their foes become, the less will a +small degree of bitterness or hardness serve to protect them. Hence, +from generation to generation, the bitterness and the hardness will go +on increasing, because only those nuts which are the nastiest and the +most difficult to crack will escape destruction from the teeth or bills +of the growing and pressing population of rodents and birds. The nut +which best survives on the average is that which is least conspicuous +in colour, has a rind of the most objectionable taste, and is enclosed +in the most solid shell. But the extent to which such precautions +become necessary will depend much upon the particular animals to whose +attacks the nuts of each country are exposed. The European walnut has +only to defy a few small woodland animals, who are sufficiently +deterred by its acrid husk; the American butter-nut has to withstand +the long teeth of much more formidable forestine rodents, whom it sets +at nought with its stony and wrinkled shell; and the tropical cocos and +Brazil nuts have to escape the monkey, who pounds them with stones, or +flings them with all his might from the tree-top so as to smash them in +their fall against the ground below. + +Our own hazel-nut supplies an excellent illustration of the general +tactics adopted by the nuts at large. The little red tufted blossoms +which everybody knows so well in early spring are each surrounded by a +bunch of three bracts; and as the nut grows bigger, these bracts form a +green leaf-like covering, which causes it to look very much like the +ordinary foliage of the hazel-tree. Besides, they are thickly set with +small prickly hairs, which are extremely annoying to the fingers, 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 shade +from the nuts themselves. Take, as an example of the more carefully +protected tropical kinds, the coco-nut. Growing on a very tall +palm-tree, it has to fall a considerable distance toward the earth; and +so it is wrapped round in a mass of loose knotted fibre, which breaks +the fall just as a lot of soft wool would do. Then, being a large nut, +fully stored with an abundance of meat, it offers special attractions +to animals, and consequently requires special means of defence. +Accordingly, its shell is extravagantly thick, only one small soft spot +being left at the blunter end, through which the young plant may push +its head. Once upon a time, to be sure, the coco-nut contained three +kernels, and had three such soft spots or holes; but now two of them +are aborted, and the two holes remain only in the form of hard scars. +The Brazil nut is even a better illustration. Probably few people know +that the irregular angular nuts which appear at dessert by that name +are originally contained inside a single round shell, where they fit +tightly together, and acquire their queer indefinite shapes by mutual +pressure. So the South American monkey has first to crack the thick +external common shell against a stone or otherwise; and, if he is +successful in this process, he must afterwards break the separate +sharp-edged inner nuts with his teeth--a performance which is always +painful and often ineffectual. + +Yet it is curious that nuts and fruits are really produced by the very +slightest variations on a common type, so much so that the technical +botanist does not recognise the popular distinction between them at +all. In his eyes, the walnut and the coco-nut 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 succulent and fills with +sugary juice, in the walnut its juice is bitter, and in the coco-nut it +has no juice at all, but remains a mere matted layer of dry fibres. And +while the thin external skin becomes purple in the plum and red in the +cherry as the fruits ripen, it remains green and brown in the walnut +and coco-nut all their time. Nevertheless, Darwinism shows us both here +and elsewhere that the popular distinction answers to a real difference +of origin and function. When a seed-vessel, whatever its botanical +structure, survives by dint of attracting animals, it always acquires a +bright-coloured envelope and a sweet pulp; while it usually possesses a +hard seed-shell, and often infuses bitter essences into its kernel. On +the other hand, when a seed-vessel survives by escaping the notice of +animals, it generally has a sweet and pleasant kernel, which it +protects by a hard shell and an inconspicuous and nauseous envelope. If +the kernel itself is bitter, as with the horse-chestnut, the need for +disguise and external protection is much lessened. But the best +illustration of all is seen in the West Indian cashew-nut, which is +what Alice in Wonderland would have called a portmanteau seed-vessel--a +fruit and a nut rolled into one. In this curious case, the stalk swells +out into a bright-coloured and juicy mass, looking something like a +pear, but of course containing no seeds; while the nut grows out from +its end, secured from intrusion by a covering with a pungent juice, +which burns and blisters the skin at a touch. No animal except man can +ever successfully tackle the cashew-nut itself; but by eating the +pear-like stalk other animals ultimately aid in distributing the seed. +The cashew thus vicariously sacrifices its fruit-stem for the sake of +preserving its nut. + +All nature is a continuous game 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 the protections adopted by plants; and those plants +alone survive whose peculiarities happen successfully to defy the +attack of animals. There you have the Darwinian Iliad in a nutshell. + + + + +XVIII. + +_A PRETTY LAND-SHELL._ + + +The heavy rains which have done so much harm to the standing corn have +at least had the effect of making the country look greener and lovelier +than I have seen it look for many seasons. There is now a fresh verdure +about the upland pastures and pine woods which almost reminds one of +the deep valleys of the Bernese Oberland in early spring. Last year's +continuous wet weather gave the trees and grass a miserable draggled +appearance; but this summer's rain, coming after a dry spring, has +brought out all the foliage in unwonted luxuriance; and everybody +(except the British farmer) agrees that we have never seen the country +look more beautiful. Though the year is now so far advanced, the trees +are still as green as in springtide; and the meadows, with their rich +aftermath springing up apace, look almost as lush and fresh as they did +in early June. Londoners who get away to the country or the seaside +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. + +Here, on the edge of the down, where I have come up to get a good +blowing from the clear south-west breeze, I have just sat down to rest +myself awhile and to admire the view, and have reverted for a moment to +my old habit of snail-hunting. Years ago, when evolution was an +infant--an infant much troubled by the complaints inseparable from +infancy, but still a sturdy and vigorous 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 to +this day I seldom go out for a walk without a few pill-boxes in my +pocket, in case I should happen to hit upon any remarkable 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 here and could show it to you; for most +people only know the two or three ugly brown or banded snails that prey +upon their cabbages and lettuces, and have no notion of the lovely +shells to be found by hunting among English copses and under the dead +leaves of Scotch hill-sides. This cyclostoma, however,--I _must_ +trouble you with a Latin name for once--is so remarkably pretty, with +its graceful elongated spiral whorls, and its delicately chiselled +fretwork tracery, that even naturalists (who have perhaps, on the +whole, less sense of beauty than any class of men I know) have +recognised its loveliness by giving it the specific epithet of +_elegans_. It is big enough for anybody to notice it, being about the +size of a periwinkle; and its exquisite stippled chasing is strongly +marked enough to be perfectly visible to the naked eye. But besides its +beauty, the cyclostoma has a strong claim upon our attention because of +its curious history. + +Long ago, in the infantile days of evolutionism, I often wondered why +people made collections on such an irrational plan. They always try to +get what they call the most typical specimens, and reject all those +which are doubtful or intermediate. Hence the dogma of the fixity of +species becomes all the more firmly settled in their minds, because +they never attend to the existing links which still so largely bridge +over the artificial gaps created by our nomenclature between kind and +kind. I went to work on the opposite plan, collecting all those +aberrant individuals which most 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 ended and the next group began. Among the snails such an +arrangement is peculiarly easy; for some of the species are very +indefinite, and the varieties are numerous under each species. Nothing +can give one so good a notion of the plasticity of organic forms as +such a method. The endless varieties and intermediate links which exist +amongst dogs is the nearest example to it with which ordinary observers +are familiar. + +But the cyclostoma is a snail which introduces one to still deeper +questions. It belongs in all our scientific classifications to the +group of lung-breathing mollusks, like the common garden snail. Yet it +has one remarkable peculiarity: it possesses an operculum, or door to +its shell, like that of the periwinkle. This operculum represents among +the univalves the under-shell of the oyster or other bivalves; but it +has completely disappeared in most land and fresh-water snails, as well +as among many marine species. The fact of its occurrence in the +cyclostoma would thus be quite inexplicable if we were compelled to +regard it as a descendant of the other lung-breathing mollusks. 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 cast upon the +question by Darwinism, 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 paludina. 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 cyclostoma among the gill-breathers, +because of its close resemblance 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 producing 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 animal like a snail. Besides, 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 streams. +There are others which go further from the water, and spend their days +in damp grass. And there are yet others which have taken to a wholly +terrestrial existence in woods or meadows and under heaps of stones. +All of them agree with the pond-snails in having an operculum, and so +differ from the ordinary land and river snails, the mouths of whose +shells are quite unprotected. Thus land-nails have two separate +origins--one large group (including the garden-snail) being derived +from the common fresh-water mollusks, while another much smaller group +(including the cyclostoma) is derived from the operculated pond-snails. + +How is it, then, that naturalists had so long overlooked this +distinction? Simply because their artificial classification is based +entirely upon the nature of the breathing apparatus. But, as Mr. +Wallace has well pointed out, obvious and important functional +differences are of far less value in tracing relationship than +insignificant and unimportant structural details. Any water-snail may +have to take to a terrestrial life if the ponds in which it lives are +liable to dry up during warm weather. Those individuals alone will then +survive which display a tendency to oxygenise their blood by some +rudimentary form of lung. Hence the possession of lungs is not the mark +of a real genealogical class, but a mere necessary result of a +terrestrial existence. On the other hand, the possession of an +operculum, unimportant as it may be to the life of the animal, is a +good test of relationship by descent. All snails which take to living +on land, whatever their original form, will acquire lungs: but an +operculated snail will retain its operculum, and so bear witness to its +ancestry; while a snail which is not operculated will of course show no +tendency to develop such a structure, and so will equally give a true +testimony as to its origin. In short, the less functionally useful any +organ is, the higher is its value as a gauge of its owner's pedigree, +like a Bourbon nose or an Austrian lip. + + + + +XIX. + +_DOGS AND MASTERS._ + + +Probably the most forlorn and abject creature to be seen on the face of +the earth is a masterless dog. Slouching and slinking along, cringing +to every human being it chances to meet, running away with its tail +between its legs from smaller dogs whom under other circumstances it +would accost with a gruff who-the-dickens-are-you sort of growl,--it +forms the very picture of utter humiliation and self-abasement. Grip +and I have just come across such a lost specimen of stray doghood, +trying to find his way back to his home across the fields--I fancy he +belongs to a travelling show which left the village yesterday--and it +is quite refreshing to watch the air of superior wisdom and calm but +mute compassionateness with which Grip casts his eye sidelong upon that +wretched masterless vagrant, and passes him by without even a nod. He +looks up to me complacently as he trots along by my side, and seems to +say with his eye, 'Poor fellow! he's lost his master, you +know--careless dog that he is!' I believe the lesson has had a good +moral effect upon Grip's own conduct, too; for he has now spent ten +whole minutes well within my sight, and has resisted the most tempting +solicitations to ratting and rabbiting held out by half-a-dozen holes +and burrows in the hedge-wall as we go along. + +This total dependence of dogs upon a master is a very interesting +example of the growth of inherited instincts. The original dog, who was +a wolf or something very like it, could 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 preserved +and increased; those which followed too much their own original +instincts were destroyed or at least discouraged. The savage hunter +would be very apt to fling his stone axe at the skull of a hound which +tried to eat the game he had brought down with his flint-tipped arrow, +instead of retrieving it: he would be most likely to keep carefully and +feed well on the refuse of his own meals the hound which aided him most +in surprising, killing, and securing his quarry. Thus there sprang up +between man and the dog a mutual and ever increasing sympathy which on +the part of the dependent creature has at last become organised into an +inherited instinct. If we could only thread the labyrinth of a dog's +brain, we should find somewhere in it a group of correlated +nerve-connections answering to this universal habit of his race; and +the group in question would be quite without any analogous mechanism in +the brain of the ancestral wolf. As truly as the wing of the bird is +adapted to its congenital instinct of flying, as truly as the nervous +system of the bee is adapted to its congenital instinct of honeycomb +building, just so truly is the brain of the dog adapted to its now +congenital instinct of following and obeying a master. The habit of +attaching itself to a particular human being is nowadays engrained in +the nerves of the modern dog just as really, though not quite so +deeply, as the habit of running or biting is engrained in its bones and +muscles. Every dog is born into the world with a certain inherited +structure of limbs, sense-organs, and brain: and this inherited +structure governs all its future actions, both bodily and mental. It +seeks a master because it is endowed with master-seeking brain organs; +it is dissatisfied until it finds one, because its native functions can +have free play in no other way. Among a few dogs, like those of +Constantinople, the instinct may have 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 puppyhood under a master, the instinct is +fully and freely developed, and the masterless condition is thenceforth +for him a thwarting and disappointing of all his natural feelings and +affections. + +Not only have dogs as a class acquired a special instinct with regard +to humanity generally, but particular breeds of dogs have acquired +particular instincts with regard to certain individual acts. Nobody +doubts that the muscles of a greyhound are specially correlated to the +acts of running and leaping; or that the muscles of a bull-dog are +specially correlated to the act of fighting. The whole external form of +these creatures has been modified by man's selective action for a +deliberate purpose: we breed, as we say, from the dog with the best +points. But besides being able to modify the visible and outer +structure of the animal, we are also able to modify, by indirect +indications, the hidden and inner structure of the brain. We choose the +best ratter among our terriers, the best pointer, retriever, or setter +among other breeds, to become the parents of our future stock. We thus +half unconsciously select particular types of nervous system in +preference to others. Once upon a time we used even to rear a race of +dogs with a strange instinct for turning the spit in our kitchens; and +to this day the Cubans rear blood-hounds with a natural taste for +hunting down the trail of runaway negroes. Now, everybody knows that +you cannot teach one sort of dog the kind of tricks which come by +instinct to a different sort. No amount of instruction will induce a +well-bred terrier to retrieve your handkerchief: he insists upon +worrying it instead. So no amount of instruction will induce a +well-bred retriever to worry a rat: he brings it gingerly to your feet, +as if it was a dead partridge. The reason is obvious, because no one +would breed from a retriever which worried or from a terrier which +treated its natural prey as if it were a stick. Thus the brain of each +kind is hereditarily supplied with certain nervous connections wanting +in the brain 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 greyhound and the bull-dog. Those who have watched +closely the different races of men can hardly hesitate to believe that +something analogous exists in our own case. While the highest types +are, as Mr. Herbert Spencer well puts it, to some extent 'organically +moral' and structurally intelligent, the lowest types are congenitally +deficient. A European child learns to read almost by nature (for +Dogberry was essentially right after all), while a Negro child learns +to read by painful personal experience. And savages brought to Europe +and 'civilised' for years often return at last with joy to their native +home, cast off their clothes and their outer veneering, and take once +more to the only life for which their nervous organisation naturally +fits them. 'What is bred in the bone,' says the wise old proverb, 'will +out in the blood.' + + + + +XX. + +_BLACKCOCK._ + + +Just at the present moment the poor black grouse are generally having a +hot time of it. After their quiet spring and summer they suddenly find +their heath-clad wastes invaded by a strange epidemic of men, dogs, and +hideous shooting implements; and being as yet but young and +inexperienced, they are falling victims by the thousand to their +youthful habit of clinging closely for protection to the treacherous +reed-beds. A little later in the season, those of them that survive +will have learned more wary ways: they will pack among the juniper +thickets, and become as cautious on the approach of perfidious man as +their cunning cousins, the red grouse of the Scottish moors. But so far +youthful innocence prevails; no sentinels as yet are set to watch for +the distant gleam of metal, and no foreshadowing of man's evil intent +disturbs their minds as they feed in fancied security upon the dry +seeds of the marsh plants in their favourite sedges. + +The great families of the pheasants and partridges, in which the +blackcock must be included, may be roughly divided into two main +divisions so far as regards their appearance and general habits. The +first class consists of splendidly coloured and conspicuous birds, such +as the peacock, the golden pheasant, and the tragopan; and these are, +almost without exception, originally jungle-birds of tropical or +sub-tropical lands, though a few of them have been acclimatised or +domesticated in temperate countries. They live in regions where they +have few natural enemies, and where they are little exposed to the +attacks of man. Most of them feed more or less upon fruits and +bright-coloured food-stuffs, and they are probably every one of them +polygamous in their habits. Thus we can hardly doubt that the male +birds, which alone possess the brilliant plumage of their kind, owe +their beauty to the selective preference of their mates; and that the +taste thus displayed has been aroused by their relation to their +specially gay and bright natural surroundings. The most lovely species +of pheasants are found among the forests of the Himalayas and the Malay +Archipelago, with their gorgeous fruits and flowers and their exquisite +insects. Even in England our naturalised Oriental pheasants still +delight in feeding upon blackberries, sloes, haws, and the pretty fruit +of the honeysuckle and the holly; while our dingier partridges and +grouse subsist rather upon heather, grain, and small seeds. Since there +must always be originally nearly as many cocks as hens in each brood, +it will follow that only the handsomest or most attractive in the +polygamous species will succeed in attracting to them a harem; and as +beauty and strength usually go hand in hand, they will also be the +conquerors in those battles which are universal with all polygamists in +the animal world. Thus we account for the striking and conspicuous +difference between the peacock 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 kinds, typified by the red grouse, partridges, quails, and +guinea-fowls, are generally dingy in hue, with a tendency to +pepper-and-salt in their plumage; and they usually display very little +difference between the sexes, both cocks and hens being coloured and +feathered much alike. In short, they are protectively designed, while +the first class are attractive. Their plumage resembles as nearly as +possible the ground on which they sit or the covert in which they +skulk. They are thus enabled to escape the notice of their natural +enemies, the birds of prey, from whose ravages they suffer far more in +a state of nature than from any other cause. We may take the ptarmigans +as the most typical example of this class of birds; for in summer their +zigzagged black-and-brown attire harmonises admirably with the patches +of faded heath and soil upon the mountain-side, as every sportsman well +knows; while in the winter their pure white plumage can scarcely be +distinguished from the snow in which they lie huddled and crouching +during the colder months. Even in the brilliant species, Mr. Darwin and +Mr. Wallace have pointed out that the ornamental colours and crest are +never handed down to female descendants when the habits of nesting are +such that the mothers would be exposed to danger by their +conspicuousness during incubation. Speaking broadly, only those female +birds which build in hollow trees or make covered nests have bright +hues at all equal to those of the males. A female bird nesting in the +open would be cut off if it showed any tendency to reproduce the +brilliant colouring 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 described. It is a polygamous bird, and it differs +most conspicuously in plumage from its consort, the grey-hen, as may be +seen from the very names by which they are each familiarly known. Yet, +though the blackcock is handsome enough and shows evident marks of +selective preference on the part of his ancestral hens, this preference +has not exerted itself largely in the direction of bright colour, and +that for two reasons. In the first place the blackcock does not feed +upon brilliant foodstuffs, but upon small bog-berries, hard seeds, and +young shoots of heather, and it is probable that an æsthetic taste for +pure and dazzling hues is almost confined to those creatures which, +like butterflies, hummingbirds, and parrots, seek their livelihood +amongst beautiful fruits or flowers. In the second place, red, yellow, +or orange ornaments would render the blackcock too conspicuous a mark +for the hawk, the falcon, or the weapons of man; for we must remember +that only those blackcocks survive from year to year and hand down +their peculiarities to descendants which succeed in evading the talons +of birds of prey or the small-shot of sportsmen. Feeding as they do on +the open, they are not protected, like jungle-birds, by the shade of +trees. Thus any bird which showed any marked tendency to develop +brighter or more conspicuous plumage would almost infallibly fall a +victim to one or other of his many foes; and however much his beauty +might possibly charm his mates (supposing them for the moment to +possess a taste for colour), he would have no chance of transmitting it +to a future generation. Accordingly, the decoration of the blackcock is +confined to glossy plumage and a few ornamental tail-feathers. The +grey-hen herself still retains the dull and imitative colouring of the +grouse race generally; and as for the cocks, even if a fair percentage +of them is annually cut off through their comparative 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 recognised spots, and there invite the +grey-hens by their calls, a little duelling going on meanwhile. During +these meetings they show off their beauty with great emulation, after +the fashion with which we are all familiar in the case of the peacock; +and when they have gained the approbation of their mates and maimed or +driven away their rivals, they retire with their respective families. +Unfortunately, like most polygamists, they make bad fathers, leaving +the care of their young almost entirely to the hens. According to the +veracious account of Artemus Ward, the great Brigham Young himself +pathetically descanted upon the difficulty of extending his parental +affections to 131 children. The imperious blackcock seems to labour +under the same sentimental disadvantage. + + + + +XXI. + +_BINDWEED._ + + +Not the least beautiful among our native wild flowers are many of those +which grow, too often unheeded, along the wayside of every country +road. The hedge-bordered highway on which I am walking to-day, to take +my letters to the village post, is bordered on either side with such a +profusion of colour as one may never see equalled during many years' +experience of tropical or sub-tropical lands. Jamaica and Ceylon could +produce nothing so brilliant as this tangled mass of gorse, and +thistle, and St. John's-wort, and centaury, intermingled with the lithe +and whitening sprays of half-opened clematis. And here, on the very +edge of the road, half-smothered in its grey dust, I have picked a +pretty little convolvulus blossom, with a fly buried head-foremost in +its pink bell; and I am carrying them both along with me as I go, for +contemplation and study. For this little flower, the lesser bindweed, +is rich in hints as to the strange ways in which Nature decks herself +with so much waste loveliness, whose meaning can only be fully read by +the eyes of man, the latest comer among her children. The old school of +thinkers imagined 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 fancy of the human +race. To the butterfly the world is a little beautiful; to the +farm-labourer it is only a trifle more beautiful: but to the cultivated +man or the artist it is lovely in every cloud and shadow, in every tiny +blossom and passing bird. + +The outer face of the bindweed, the exterior of the cup, so to speak, +is prettily marked with five dark russet-red bands, between which the +remainder of the corolla is a pale pinky-white in hue. Nothing could be +simpler and prettier than this alternation of dark and light belts; but +how is it produced? Merely thus. The convolvulus blossom in the bud is +twisted or contorted round and round, part of the cup being folded +inside, while the five joints of the corolla are folded outside, much +after the fashion of an umbrella when rolled up. And just as the bits +of the umbrella which are exposed when it is folded become faded in +colour, so the bits of the bindweed blossom which are outermost in the +bud become more deeply oxidised than the other parts, and acquire a +russet-red hue. The belted appearance which thus results is really as +accidental, if I may use that unphilosophical expression, as the belted +appearance of the old umbrella, or the wrinkles caused by the waves on +the sea-sands. The flower happened to be folded so, and got coloured, +or discoloured, accordingly. But when a man comes to look at it, he +recognises in the alternation of colours and the symmetrical +arrangement one of those elements of beauty with which he is familiar +in the handicraft of his own kind. He reads an intention into this +result of natural causes, and personifies Nature as though she worked +with an æsthetic design in view, just as a decorative artist works when +he similarly alternates colours or arranges symmetrical and radial +figures 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 +recognises the intellectual order and perfection of the work. + +I turn the bindweed blossom mouth upward, and there I see that these +russet marks, though paler on the inner surface, still show faintly +through the pinky-white corolla. This produces an effect not unlike +that of a delicate shell cameo, with its dainty gradations of +semi-transparent white and interfusing pink. But the inner effect can +be no more designed with an eye to beauty than the outer one was; and +the very terms in which I think of it clearly show that my sense of its +loveliness is largely derived from comparison with human handicraft. A +farmer would see in the convolvulus nothing but a useless weed; a +cultivated eye sees in it just as much as its nature permits it to see. +I look closer, and observe that there are also thin lines running from +the circumference to the centre, midway between the dark belts. These +lines, which add greatly to the beauty of the flower, by marking it out +into zones, are also due to the folding in the bud; they are the inner +angles of the folds, just as the dark belts are the overlapping edges +of the outer angles. But, in addition to the minor beauty of these +little details, there is the general beauty of the cup as a whole, +which also calls for explanation. Its shape is as graceful as that of +any Greek or Etruscan vase, as swelling and as simply beautiful as any +beaker. Can I account for these peculiarities on mere natural grounds +as well as for the others? I somehow fancy I can. + +The bindweed is descended from some earlier ancestors which had five +separate petals, instead of a single fused and circular cup. But in the +convolvulus family, as in many others, these five petals have joined +into a continuous rim or bowl, and the marks on the blossom where it +was folded in the bud still answer to the five petals. In many plants +you can see the pointed edges of the former distinct flower-rays as +five projections, though their lower parts have coalesced into a +bell-shaped or tubular blossom, as in the common harebell. How this +comes to pass we can easily understand if we watch an unopened fuchsia; +for there the four bright-coloured sepals remain joined together till +the bud is ready to open, and then split along a line marked out from +the very first. In the plastic bud condition it is very easy for parts +usually separate so to grow out in union with one another. I do not +mean that separate pieces actually grow together, but that pieces which +usually grow distinct sometimes grow united from the very first. Now, +four or five petals, radially arranged, in themselves produce that kind +of symmetry which man, with his intellectual love for order and +definite patterns, always finds beautiful. But the symmetry in the +flower simply results from the fact that a single whorl of leaves has +grown into this particular shape, while the outer and inner whorls have +grown into other shapes; and every such whorl always and necessarily +presents us with an example of the kind of symmetry which we so much +admire. Again, when the petals forming a whorl coalesce, they must, of +course, produce a more or less regular circle. If the points of the +petals remain as projections, then we get a circle with vandyked edges, +as in the lily of the valley; if they do not project, then we get a +simple circular rim, as in the bindweed. All the lovely shapes of +bell-blossoms are simply due to the natural coalescence of four, five, +or six petals; and this coalescence is again due to an increased +certainty of fertilisation secured for the plant by the better +adaptation to insect visits. Similarly, we know that the colours of the +corolla have been acquired as a means of rendering the flower +conspicuous to the eyes of bees or butterflies; and the hues which so +prove attractive to insects are of the same sort which arouse +pleasurable stimulation in our own nerves. Thus the whole loveliness of +flowers is in the last resort dependent upon all kinds of accidental +causes--causes, that is to say, into which the deliberate design 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 arouse in us +certain feelings we call beautiful; and those parts which are of such a +sort as to arouse in us the opposite feelings we call ugly. But the +beauty and the ugliness are not parts of the things; they are merely +human modes of regarding some among their attributes. Wherever in +nature we find pure colour, symmetrical form, and intricate variety of +pattern, we imagine to ourselves that nature designs the object to be +beautiful. When we trace these peculiarities to their origin, however, +we find that each of them owes its occurrence to some special fact in +the history of the object; and we are forced to conclude that the +notion of intentional design has been read into it by human analogies. +All nature is beautiful, and most beautiful for those in whom the sense +of beauty is most highly developed; but it is not beautiful at all +except to those whose own eyes and emotions are fitted to perceive its +beauty. + + + + +XXII. + +_ON CORNISH CLIFFS._ + + +I am lying on my back in the sunshine, close to the edge of a great +broken precipice, beside a clambering Cornish fishing village. In front +of me is the sea, bluer than I have seen it since last I lay in like +fashion a few months ago on the schistose slopes of the Maurettes at +Hyères, and looked away across the plain to the unrippled Mediterranean +and the Stoechades of the old Phocæan merchant-men. On either hand rise +dark cliffs of hornblende and serpentine, weathered above by wind and +rain, and smoothed below by the ceaseless dashing of the winter waves. +Up to the limit of the breakers the hard rock is polished like Egyptian +syenite; but beyond that point it is fissured by disintegration and +richly covered with a dappled coat of grey and yellow lichen. The slow +action of the water, always beating against the solid wall of +crystalline rock, has eaten out a thousand such little bays all along +this coast, each bounded by long headlands, whose points have been worn +into fantastic pinnacles, or severed from the main mass as precipitous +islets, the favourite resting-place of gulls and cormorants. No grander +coast scenery can be found anywhere in the southern half of Great +Britain. + +Yet when I turn inland I see that all this beauty has been produced by +the mere interaction of the sea and the barren moors of the interior. +Nothing could be flatter or more desolate than the country whose +seaward escarpment gives rise to these romantic coves and pyramidal +rocky islets. It stretches away for miles in a level upland waste, only +redeemed from complete barrenness by the low straggling bushes of the +dwarf furze, whose golden blossom is now interspersed with purple +patches of ling or the paler pink flowers of the Cornish heath. Here, +then, I can see beauty in nature actually beginning to be. I can trace +the origin of all these little bays from small rills which have worn +themselves gorge-like valleys through the hard igneous rock, or else +from fissures finally giving rise to sea-caves, like the one into which +I rowed this morning for my early swim. The waves penetrate for a +couple of hundred yards into the bowels of the rock, hemmed in by walls +and roof of dark serpentine, with its interlacing veins of green and +red bearing witness still to its once molten condition; and at length +in most cases they produce a blow-hole at the top, communicating with +the open air above, either because the fissure there crops up to the +surface, or else through the agency of percolation. At last, the roof +falls in; the boulders are carried away by the waves; and we get a long +and narrow cove, still bounded on either side by tall cliffs, whose +summits the air and rainfall slowly wear away into jagged and exquisite +shapes. Yet in all this we see nothing but the natural play of cause +and effect; we attribute the beauty of the scene merely to the +accidental result of inevitable laws; we feel no necessity for calling +in the aid of any underlying æsthetic intention on the part of the sea, +or the rock, or the creeping lichen, in order to account for the +loveliness which we find in the finished picture. The winds and the +waves carved the coast into these varied shapes by force of blind +currents working on hidden veins of harder or softer crystal: and we +happen to find the result beautiful, just as we happen to find the +inland level dull and ugly. The endless variety of the one charms us, +while the unbroken monotony of the other wearies and repels us. + +Here on the cliff I pick up a pretty fern and a blossoming head of the +autumn squill--though so sweet a flower deserves a better name. This +fern, too, is lovely in its way, with its branching leaflets and its +rich glossy-green hue. Yet it owes its shape just as truly to the +balance of external and internal forces acting upon it as does the +Cornish coast-line. How comes it then that in the one case we +instinctively regard the beauty as accidental, while in the other we +set it down to a deliberate æsthetic intent? I think because, in the +first case, we can actually see the forces at work, while in the second +they are so minute and so gradual in their action as to escape the +notice of all but trained observers. This fern grows in the shape that +I see, because its ancestors have been slowly moulded into such a form +by the whole group of circumstances directly or indirectly affecting +them in all their past life; and the germ of the complex form thus +produced was impressed by the parent plant upon the spore from which +this individual fern took its birth. Over yonder I see a great +dock-leaf; it grows tall and rank above all other plants, and is able +to spread itself boldly to the light on every side. It has abundance of +sunshine as a motive-power of growth, and abundance of air from which +to extract the carbon that it needs. Hence it and all its ancestors +have spread their leaves equally on every side, and formed large flat +undivided blades. Leaves such as these are common 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 eyes, +just as the flatness of the 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, we see little or nothing to +admire. On the other hand, ferns generally grow in hedge-rows or +thickets, where sunlight is much interrupted by other plants, and where +air is scanty, most of its carbon being extracted by neighbouring +plants which leave but little for one another's needs. Hence you may +notice that most plants growing under such circumstances have leaves +minutely sub-divided, so as to catch such stray gleams of sunlight and +such floating particles of carbonic acid as happen to pass their way. +Look into the next tangled and overgrown hedge-row which you happen to +pass, and you will see that almost all its leaves are of this +character; and when they are otherwise the anomaly usually admits of an +easy explanation. Of course the shapes of plants are mostly due to +their normal and usual circumstances, and are comparatively little +influenced by the accidental surroundings of individuals; and so, when +a fern of such a sort happens to grow like this one on the open, it +still retains the form impressed upon it by the life of its ancestors. +Now, it is the striking combination of symmetry and variety in the +fern, together with vivid green colouring, which makes us admire it so +much. Not only is the frond as a whole symmetrical, but each frondlet +and each division of the frondlet is separately symmetrical as well. +This delicate minuteness of workmanship, as we call it, reminds us of +similar human products--of fine lace, of delicate tracery, of skilful +filagree or engraving. Almost all the green leaves which we admire are +noticeable, more or less, for the same effects, as in the case of +maple, parsley, horse-chestnut, and vine. It is true, mere glossy +greenness may, and often does, make up for the want of variety, as we +see in the arum, holly, laurel, and hart's-tongue fern; but the leaves +which we admire most of all are those which, like maidenhair, are both +exquisitely green and delicately designed in shape. So that, in the +last resort, the beauty of leaves, like the beauty of coast scenery, is +really due to the 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 squill reminds me that +semi-conscious aesthetic design in animals has something to do with the +production of beauty in nature--at least, in a few cases. Just as a +flower garden has been intentionally produced by man, so flowers have +been unconsciously produced by insects. As a rule, all bright red, +blue, or orange in nature (except in the rare case of gems) is due to +animal selection, either of flowers, fruits, or mates. Thus we may say +that beauty in the inorganic world is always accidental; but in the +organic world it 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 less +deliberate æsthetic choice. + + + LONDON: PRINTED BY + SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE + AND PARLIAMENT STREET + + + + +_January, 1881._ + +[Illustration] + +CHATTO & WINDUS'S + +_LIST OF BOOKS._ + + +Imperial 8vo, with 147 fine Engravings, half-morocco, 36_s._ + +THE EARLY TEUTONIC, ITALIAN, + +AND FRENCH MASTERS. + +Translated and Edited from the Dohme Series by A. H. KEANE, M.A.I. +With numerous Illustrations. + +"_Cannot fail to be of the utmost use to students of art +history._"--TIMES. + +Second Edition, Revised, Crown 8vo, 1,200 pages, half-roxburghe, +12_s._ 6_d._ + +THE READER'S HANDBOOK + +OF ALLUSIONS, REFERENCES, PLOTS, AND STORIES. + +By the Rev. Dr. BREWER. + + "_Dr. Brewer has produced a wonderfully comprehensive dictionary + of references to matters which are always cropping up in + conversation and in everyday life, and writers generally will have + reason to feel grateful to the author for a most handy volume, + supplementing in a hundred ways their own knowledge or ignorance, + as the case may be.... It is something more than a mere dictionary + of quotations, though a most useful companion to any work of that + kind, being a dictionary of most of the allusions, references, + plots, stories, and characters which occur in the classical poems, + plays, novels, romances, &c., not only of our own country, but of + most nations, ancient and modern._"--TIMES. + + "_A welcome addition to the list of what may be termed the really + handy reference-books, combining as it does a dictionary of + literature with a condensed encyclopædia, interspersed with items + one usually looks for in commonplace books. The appendices contain + the dates of celebrated and well-known dramas, operas, poems, and + novels, with the names of their authors._"--SPECTATOR. + + "_There seems to be scarcely anything concerning which one may not + 'overhaul' Dr. Brewer's book with profit. It is a most laborious + and patient compilation, and, considering the magnitude of the + work, successfully performed.... Many queries which appear in our + pages could be satisfactorily answered by a reference to 'The + Readers Handbook:' no mean testimony to the value of Dr. Brewer's + book._"--NOTES AND QUERIES. + + +_A HANDBOOK FOR POTTERY-PAINTERS._ + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6_s._ + +~PRACTICAL KERAMICS FOR STUDENTS.~ + By CHARLES A. JANVIER. + + +Crown 8vo, Coloured Frontispiece and Illustrations, cloth gilt, +7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Advertising, A History of.~ + From the Earliest Times. Illustrated by Anecdotes, Curious + Specimens, and Notes of Successful Advertisers. 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With Two Portraits and + Facsimile of a Page of the "Essay on Roast Pig." + + "_A complete edition of Lamb's writings, in prose and verse, + has long been wanted, and is now supplied. The editor appears + to have taken great pains to bring together Lamb's scattered + contributions, and his collection contains a number of pieces + which are now reproduced for the first time since their original + appearance in various old periodicals._"--SATURDAY REVIEW. + + +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, with Maps and Illustrations, 18_s._ + + ~Lamont's Yachting in the Arctic Seas~; + or, Notes of Five Voyages of Sport and Discovery in the + Neighbourhood of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. By JAMES + LAMONT, F.R.G.S. With numerous full-page Illustrations by + Dr. LIVESAY. + + "_After wading through numberless volumes of icy fiction, + concocted narrative, and spurious biography of Arctic voyagers, + it is pleasant to meet with a real and genuine volume.... He + shows much tact in recounting his adventures, and they are so + interspersed with anecdotes and information as to make them + anything but wearisome.... The book, as a whole, is the most + important addition made to our Arctic literature for a long + time._"-—ATHENÆUM. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6_s._ + + ~Lares and Penates~; + or, The Background of Life. By FLORENCE CADDY. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth, full gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Latter-Day Lyrics:~ + Poems of Sentiment and Reflection by Living Writers; selected + and arranged, with Notes, by W. DAVENPORT ADAMS. With a Note on + some Foreign Forms of Verse, by AUSTIN DOBSON. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth, full gilt, 6_s._ + + ~Leigh's A Town Garland.~ + By HENRY S. 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Such a work is this little + volume, made up of essays and addresses written and delivered by + Dr. Andrew Wilson, lecturer and examiner in science at Edinburgh + and Glasgow, at leisure intervals in a busy professional life.... + Dr. Wilson's pages teem with matter stimulating to a healthy love + of science and a reverence for the truths of + nature._"--SATURDAY REVIEW. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Life in London~; + or, The History of Jerry Hawthorn and Corinthian Tom. With the + whole of CRUIKSHANK'S Illustrations, in Colours, after the + Originals. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6_s._ + + ~Lights on the Way:~ + Some Tales within a Tale. By the late J. H. ALEXANDER, B.A. + Edited, with an Explanatory Note, by H. A. 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Whatever may have been the evidence for our author's + madness when he was consigned to an asylum, nothing can be clearer + than his sanity when he wrote this book; it is bright, calm, and + to the point._"--SPECTATOR. + + +Demy 8vo, with Fourteen full-page Plates, cloth boards 18_s._ + + ~Lusiad (The) of Camoens.~ + Translated into English Spenserian verse by ROBERT FFRENCH + DUFF, Knight Commander of the Portuguese Royal Order of + Christ. + + + ~Macquoid (Mrs.), Works by:~ + + ~In the Ardennes.~ + By KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. With 50 fine Illustrations by + THOMAS R. MACQUOID. Uniform with "Pictures and Legends." + Square 8vo, cloth extra, 10_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Pictures and Legends from Normandy and Brittany.~ + By KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. With numerous Illustrations by + THOMAS R. MACQUOID. 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The writer is 'possessed,' so to speak, with his + great subject, has sounded its depths, surveyed it in all its + extent, and brought to bear on it all the resources of a vivid, + rich, and impassioned style, as well as an adequate acquaintance + with the science, the philosophy, and the literature of the + day._"--IRISH DAILY NEWS. + + ~The New Republic~; + or, Culture, Faith, and Philosophy in an English Country House. + By WILLIAM HURRELL MALLOCK. CHEAP EDITION, in the "Mayfair + Library." Post 8vo, cloth limp, 2_s._ 6_d._ + + ~The New Paul and Virginia~; + or, Positivism on an Island. By WILLIAM HURRELL MALLOCK. CHEAP + EDITION, in the "Mayfair Library." Post 8vo, cloth limp, 2_s._ + 6_d._ + + ~Poems.~ + By W. H. MALLOCK. Small 4to, bound in parchment, 8_s._ + + ~Mark Twain's Works:~ + + ~The Choice Works of Mark Twain.~ + Revised and Corrected throughout by the Author. With Life, + Portrait, and numerous Illustrations. 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DU MAURIER and C. S. REINHART. + + ~THE FROZEN DEEP.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by G. + DU MAURIER and J. MAHONEY. + + ~THE LAW AND THE LADY.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated + by S. L. FILDES and SYDNEY HALL. + + ~THE TWO DESTINIES.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~THE HAUNTED HOTEL.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by + ARTHUR HOPKINS. + + ~THE FALLEN LEAVES.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~JEZEBEL'S DAUGHTER.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~DECEIVERS EVER.~ By Mrs. H. LOVETT CAMERON. + + ~JULIET'S GUARDIAN.~ By Mrs. H. LOVETT CAMERON. + Illustrated by VALENTINE BROMLEY. + + ~FELICIA.~ By M. BETHAM-EDWARDS. Frontispiece by W. + BOWLES. + + ~OLYMPIA.~ By R. E. FRANCILLON. + + ~GARTH.~ By JULIAN HAWTHORNE. + + ~ROBIN GRAY.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~FOR LACK OF GOLD.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~IN LOVE AND WAR.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~WHAT WILL THE WORLD SAY?~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~FOR THE KING.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~IN HONOUR BOUND.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~QUEEN OF THE MEADOW.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. Illustrated + by ARTHUR HOPKINS. + + ~UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE.~ By THOMAS HARDY. + + ~THORNICROFT'S MODEL.~ By Mrs. A. W. HUNT. + + ~FATED TO BE FREE.~ By JEAN INGELOW. + + ~CONFIDENCE.~ By HENRY JAMES, Jun. + + ~THE QUEEN OF CONNAUGHT.~ By HARRIETT JAY. + + ~THE DARK COLLEEN.~ By HARRIETT JAY. + + ~NUMBER SEVENTEEN.~ By HENRY KINGSLEY. + + ~OAKSHOTT CASTLE.~ By HENRY KINGSLEY. With a Frontispiece + by SHIRLEY HODSON. + + ~PATRICIA KEMBALL.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. With a Frontispiece + by G. DU MAURIER. + + ~THE ATONEMENT OF LEAM DUNDAS.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. With + a Frontispiece by HENRY WOODS. + + ~THE WORLD WELL LOST.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. Illustrated + by J. LAWSON and HENRY FRENCH. + + ~UNDER WHICH LORD?~ By E. LYNN LINTON. + + ~WITH A SILKEN THREAD.~ By E. 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TROLLOPE. + + +Post 8vo, illustrated boards, 2_s._ each. + +~Popular Novels, Cheap Editions of.~ + + [WILKIE COLLINS' NOVELS and BESANT and RICE'S NOVELS may also + be had in cloth limp at 2_s._ 6_d._ _See, too, the_ PICCADILLY + NOVELS, _for Library Editions_.] + + ~Maid, Wife, or Widow?~ By Mrs. ALEXANDER. + + ~Ready-Money Mortiboy.~ By WALTER BESANT and JAMES RICE. + + ~The Golden Butterfly.~ By Authors of "Ready-Money Mortiboy." + + ~This Son of Vulcan.~ By the same. + + ~My Little Girl.~ By the same. + + ~The Case of Mr. Lucraft.~ By Authors of "Ready-Money Mortiboy." + + ~With Harp and Crown.~ By Authors of "Ready-Money Mortiboy." + + ~The Monks of Thelema.~ By WALTER BESANT and JAMES RICE. + + ~By Celia's Arbour.~ By WALTER BESANT and JAMES RICE. + + ~'Twas in Trafalgar's Bay.~ By WALTER BESANT and JAMES RICE. + + ~Juliet's Guardian.~ By Mrs. H. LOVETT CAMERON. + + ~Surly Tim.~ By F. H. 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GIBBON. + + ~For Lack of Gold.~ By Charles Gibbon. + + ~What will the World Say?~ By Charles Gibbon. + + ~In Love and War.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~For the King.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~In Honour Bound.~ By CHAS. GIBBON. + + ~Dick Temple.~ By JAMES GREENWOOD. + + ~Under the Greenwood Tree.~ By THOMAS HARDY. + + ~An Heiress of Red Dog.~ By BRET HARTE. + + ~The Luck of Roaring Camp.~ By BRET HARTE. + + ~Gabriel Conroy.~ By BRET HARTE. + + ~Fated to be Free.~ By JEAN INGELOW. + + ~Confidence.~ By HENRY JAMES, Jun. + + ~The Queen of Connaught.~ By HARRIETT JAY. + + ~The Dark Colleen.~ By the same. + + ~Number Seventeen.~ By HENRY KINGSLEY. + + ~Oakshott Castle.~ By the same. + + ~Patricia Kemball.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. + + ~The Atonement of Leam Dundas.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. + + ~The World Well Lost.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. + + ~The Waterdale Neighbours.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + ~My Enemy's Daughter.~ Do. + + ~Linley Rochford.~ By the same. + + ~A Fair Saxon.~ By the same. + + ~Dear Lady Disdain.~ By the same. + + ~Miss Misanthrope.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + ~Lost Rose.~ By KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. + + ~The Evil Eye.~ By the same. + + ~Open! Sesame!~ By FLORENCE MARRYAT. + + ~Whiteladies.~ By Mrs. OLIPHANT. + + ~Held in Bondage.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Strathmore.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Chandos.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Under Two Flags.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Idalia.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Cecil Castlemaine.~ By Ouida. + + ~Tricotrin.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Puck.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Folle Farine.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Dog of Flanders.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Pascarel.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Two Little Wooden Shoes.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Signa.~ By OUIDA. + + ~In a Winter City.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Ariadne.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Friendship.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Fallen Fortunes.~ By J. 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There is in both painter and writer the same + magical combination of idealism and realism, and the same hearty + appreciation for all that is sublime and pathetic in natural + scenery. That there is an undue share of travel to the number of + trout caught is certainly not Mr. Senior's fault; but the + comparative scarcity of the prince of fishes is adequately atoned + for, in that the writer was led pretty well through all the + glorious scenery of the antipodes in quest of him.... So great is + the charm and the freshness and the ability of the book, that it + is hard to put it down when once taken up._"--HOME NEWS. + + + ~Shakespeare:~ + + ~Shakespeare, The First Folio.~ + Mr. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. + Published according to the true Original Copies. London, Printed + by ISAAC IAGGARD and ED. BLOUNT, 1623.--A Reproduction of the + extremely rare original, in reduced facsimile by a photographic + process--ensuring the strictest accuracy in every detail. Small + 8vo, half-Roxburghe, 10_s._ 6_d._ + + "_To Messrs. Chatto and Windus belongs the merit of having done + more to facilitate the critical study of the text of our great + dramatist than all the Shakespeare clubs and societies put + together. A complete facsimile of the celebrated First Folio + edition of 1623 for half-a-guinea is at once a miracle of cheapness + and enterprise. Being in a reduced form, the type is necessarily + rather diminutive, but it is as distinct as in a genuine copy of + the original, and will be found to be as useful and far more handy + to the student than the latter._"--ATHENÆUM. + + ~Shakespeare, The Lansdowne.~ + Beautifully printed in red and black, in small but very clear + type. With engraved facsimile of DROESHOUT'S Portrait. 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charset=utf-8"> +<title>The Evolutionist At Large, by Grant Allen—A Project +Gutenberg eBook</title> +<style type="text/css"> + + body {margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%;} + + p {text-indent: 0em; + text-align: justify; + margin-top: .80em; + margin-bottom: .80em; + line-height: 1.25em;} + + .hang {text-align: justify; + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em;} + + .blockquote {text-align: justify; + margin-left: 7%; + margin-right: 7%; + font-size: 92%; + margin-top: 1.5em; + margin-bottom: 1.5em;} + + .space {line-height: .25em;} + + .ralign {text-align: right; + margin-top: -1em;} + + .sig {margin-left: 75%; + text-align: left;} + + .smc {font-size: 85%;} + .sc {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .ctr {text-align: center;} + .ctrbold {text-align: center; + font-weight: bold;} + .ctrsmall {text-align: center; + font-size: 90%;} + .ctrsmaller {text-align: center; + font-size: 80%;} + .ctrsmallest {text-align: center; + font-size: 70%;} + .ctrlarge {text-align: center; + font-size: 115%;} + .ctrlarger {text-align: center; 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Evolutionist at Large + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: February 1, 2014 [EBook #44820] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE *** + + + + +Produced by Dianna Adair and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"><img width="377" height="600" id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover"></div> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> +<div class="stanza"> +<div>Dear Mother, take this English posy, culled.</div> +<div class="i4">In alien fields beyond the severing sea:</div> +<div>Take it in memory of the boy you lulled</div> +<div class="i4">One chill Canadian winter on your knee.</div></div> + +<div class="stanzaitalic"> +<div>Its flowers are but chance friends of after years,</div> +<div class="i4">Whose very names my childhood hardly knew;</div> +<div>And even today far sweeter in my ears</div> +<div class="i4">Ring older names unheard long seasons through.</div></div> + +<div class="stanzaitalic"> +<div>I loved them all—the bloodroot, waxen white,</div> +<div class="i4">Canopied mayflower, trilliums red and pale,</div> +<div>Flaunting lobelia, lilies richly dight,</div> +<div class="i4">And pipe-plant from the wood behind the Swale.</div></div> + +<div class="stanzaitalic"> +<div>I knew each dell where yellow violets blow,</div> +<div class="i4">Each bud or leaf the changing seasons bring;</div> +<div>I marked each spot where from the melting snow</div> +<div class="i4">Peeped forth the first hepatica of spring.</div></div> + +<div class="stanzaitalic"> +<div>I watched the fireflies on the shingly ridge</div> +<div class="i4">Beside the swamp that bounds the Baron's hill;</div> +<div>Or tempted sunfish by the ebbing bridge,</div> +<div class="i4">Or hooked a bass by Shirley Going's mill.</div></div> + +<div class="stanzaitalic"> +<div>These were my budding fancy's mother-tongue:</div> +<div class="i4">But daisies, cowslips, dodder, primrose-hips,</div> +<div>All beasts or birds my little book has sung,</div> +<div class="i4">Sit like a borrowed speech on stammering lips.</div></div> + +<div class="stanzaitalic"> +<div>And still I build fond dreams of happier days,</div> +<div class="i4">If hard-earned pence may bridge the ocean o'er;</div> +<div>That yet our boy may see my mother's face,</div> +<div class="i4">And gather shells beside Ontario's shore:</div></div> + +<div class="stanzaitalic"> +<div>May yet behold Canadian woodlands dim,</div> +<div class="i4">And flowers and birds his father loved to see;</div> +<div>While you and I sit by and smile on him,</div> +<div class="i4">As down grey years you sat and smiled on me.</div></div></div></div> + +<p class="sig"> +G. A. +</p> + + +<br> +<div class="box"> +<p class="ctr"> +<i>By the same Author.</i> +</p> + + +<p class="hang"> +PHYSIOLOGICAL ÆSTHETICS: a Scientific Theory of Beauty (London: <span class="sc">C. +Kegan Paul & Co.</span>) +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +THE COLOUR-SENSE: its Origin and Development. An Essay on Comparative +Psychology. (London: <span class="sc">Trübner & Co.</span>) +</p> +</div> + + +<br> +<p class="ctr"> +THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +LONDON: PRINTED BY<br> +SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br> +AND PARLIAMENT STREET +</p> + +<br> +<h1> +<span class="smaller">THE</span><br> +EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE +</h1> +<br> +<div class="titlepage"> +<p class="ctrsmaller"> +BY +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +GRANT ALLEN +</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img width="173" height="200" src="images/logo.jpg" alt="Publisher's logo"></div> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +London<br> +CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY<br> +1881 +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmaller"> +<i>All rights reserved</i> +</p> +</div> + + + +<h2> +PREFACE. +</h2> + + +<p> +These Essays originally appeared in the columns of the 'St. James's +Gazette,' and I have to thank the courtesy of the Editor for kind +permission to republish them. My object in writing them was to make the +general principles and methods of evolutionists a little more familiar +to unscientific readers. Biologists usually deal with those underlying +points of structure which are most really important, and on which all +technical discussion must necessarily be based. But ordinary people +care little for such minute anatomical and physiological details. They +cannot be expected to interest themselves in the <i>flexor pollicis +longus</i>, or the <i>hippocampus major</i> about whose very existence +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 monocotyledonous seeds or exogenous +stems. It is with these surface questions of obvious outward appearance +that I have attempted to deal in this little series. 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 which 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 work. +</p> + +<p> +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 anonymously in the columns of a daily paper, this air of +personality was not so obtrusive: now that they reappear under my own +name, I fear it may prove somewhat 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 <i>I</i> of the essays is not a real +personage, but the singular number of the editorial <i>we</i>. +</p> + +<p> +I have made a few alterations and corrections in some of the papers, +so as to bring the statements into closer accordance with scientific +accuracy. At the same time, I should like to add that I have +intentionally simplified the scientific facts as far as possible. Thus, +instead of saying that the groundsel is a composite, I have said that +it is a daisy by family; and instead of saying that the ascidian larva +belongs to the sub-kingdom Chordata, I have said that it is a first +cousin of the tadpole. For these simplifications, I hope technical +biologists will pardon me. After all, if you wish to be understood, it +is best to speak to people in words whose meanings they know. Definite +and accurate terminology is necessary to express definite and accurate +knowledge; but one may use vague expressions where the definite ones +would convey no ideas. +</p> + +<p> +I have to thank the kindness of my friend the Rev. <span class="sc">E. +Purcell</span>, of Lincoln College, Oxford, for the clever and +appropriate design which appears upon the cover. +</p> + +<p class="sig"> +G. A. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +CONTENTS. +</h2> + +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr> +<td class="chpt"> </td> +<td class="txt"> </td> +<td class="pg"><small>PAGE</small></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="txt" colspan="2">A Ballade of Evolution</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#ballade">1</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">I.</td> +<td class="txt">Microscopic Brains</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#I">3</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">II.</td> +<td class="txt">A Wayside Berry</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#II">16</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">III.</td> +<td class="txt">In Summer Fields</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#III">25</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">IV.</td> +<td class="txt">A Sprig of Water Crowfoot</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#IV">36</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">V.</td> +<td class="txt">Slugs and Snails</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#V">48</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">VI.</td> +<td class="txt">A Study of Bones</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#VI">59</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">VII.</td> +<td class="txt">Blue Mud</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#VII">67</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">VIII.</td> +<td class="txt">Cuckoo-Pint</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#VIII">77</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">IX.</td> +<td class="txt">Berries and Berries</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#IX">87</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">X.</td> +<td class="txt">Distant Relations</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#X">96</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XI.</td> +<td class="txt">Among the Heather</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XI">105</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XII.</td> +<td class="txt">Speckled Trout</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XII">114</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XIII.</td> +<td class="txt">Dodder and Broomrape</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XIII">124</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XIV.</td> +<td class="txt">Dog's Mercury and Plantain</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XIV">133</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XV.</td> +<td class="txt">Butterfly Psychology</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XV">142</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XVI.</td> +<td class="txt">Butterfly Æsthetics</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XVI">153</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XVII.</td> +<td class="txt">The Origin of Walnuts</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XVII">161</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XVIII.</td> +<td class="txt">A Pretty Land-Shell</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XVIII">172</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XIX.</td> +<td class="txt">Dogs and Masters</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XIX">181</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XX.</td> +<td class="txt">Blackcock</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XX">189</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XXI.</td> +<td class="txt">Bindweed</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XXI">198</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="chpt">XXII.</td> +<td class="txt">On Cornish Cliffs</td> +<td class="pg"><a href="#XXII">207</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="med"> + +<h2> +<a name="ballade"> </a> +<i>A BALLADE OF EVOLUTION.</i> +</h2> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> +<div class="stanza"> +<div>In the mud of the Cambrian main</div> +<div class="i1">Did our earliest ancestor dive:</div> +<div>From a shapeless albuminous grain</div> +<div class="i1">We mortals our being derive.</div> +<div>He could split himself up into five,</div> +<div class="i1">Or roll himself round like a ball;</div> +<div>For the fittest will always survive,</div> +<div class="i1">While the weakliest go to the wall.</div></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<div>As an active ascidian again</div> +<div class="i1">Fresh forms he began to contrive,</div> +<div>Till he grew to a fish with a brain,</div> +<div class="i1">And brought forth a mammal alive.</div> +<div>With his rivals he next had to strive,</div> +<div class="i1">To woo him a mate and a thrall;</div> +<div>So the handsomest managed to wive,</div> +<div class="i1">While the ugliest went to the wall.</div></div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<div>At length as an ape he was fain</div> +<div class="i1">The nuts of the forest to rive;</div> +<div>Till he took to the low-lying plain,</div> +<div class="i1">And proceeded his fellow to knive.</div> +<div>Thus did cannibal men first arrive,</div> +<div class="i1">One another to swallow and maul;</div> +<div>And the strongest continued to thrive,</div> +<div class="i1">While the weakliest went to the wall.</div></div></div></div> + + +<p class="ctr"> +<span class="sc">Envoy.</span> +</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> +<div class="stanza"> +<div>Prince, in our civilised hive,</div> +<div class="i1">Now money's the measure of all;</div> +<div>And the wealthy in coaches can drive,</div> +<div class="i1">While the needier go to the wall.</div></div></div></div> + + + + +<p class="booktitle"> +THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="I"> </a> +I. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>MICROSCOPIC BRAINS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Sitting on this little rounded boss of gneiss beside the path which +cuts obliquely through the meadow, I am engaged in watching a brigade +of ants out on foraging duty, and intent on securing for the nest three +whole segments of a deceased earthworm. They look for all the world +like those busy companies one sees in the Egyptian wall-paintings, +dragging home a huge granite colossus by sheer force of bone 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 Brobdingnagian 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 +head-quarters 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 that I could for a while get inside those tiny +brains, and see, or rather smell, the world as ants do. For there can +be little doubt that to these brave little carnivores here the universe +is chiefly known as a collective bundle of odours, simultaneous or +consecutive. As our world is mainly a world of visible objects, theirs, +I believe, is mainly a world of olfactible things. +</p> + +<p> +In the head of every one of these little creatures is something that we +may fairly call a brain. Of course most insects have no real brains; +the nerve-substance in their heads is a mere collection of ill-arranged +ganglia, directly connected with their organs of sense. Whatever man +may be, an earwig at least is a conscious, or rather a semi-conscious, +automaton. He has just a few knots of nerve-cells in his little pate, +each of which leads straight from his dim eye or his vague ear or his +indefinite organs of taste; and his muscles obey the promptings of +external sensations without possibility of hesitation or consideration, +as mechanically as the valve of a steam-engine obeys the +governor-balls. You may say of him truly, 'Nihil est in intellectu quod +non fuerit in sensu;' and you need not even add the Leibnitzian saving +clause, 'nisi ipse 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 the cerebellum +which are superadded in us mammals upon the simple sense-centres of +lower creatures. Besides the eye, with its optic nerve and optic +perceptive organs—besides the ear, with its similar mechanism—we +mammalian lords of creation have a higher and more genuine brain, which +collects and compares the information given to the senses, and sends +down the appropriate messages to the muscles accordingly. Now, bees and +flies and ants have got much the same sort of arrangement, on a smaller +scale, within their tiny heads. On top of the little knots which do +duty as nerve-centres for their eyes and mouths, stand two stalked bits +of nervous matter, 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 beetles or butterflies, and why the larger +part of them have organised their domestic arrangements on such an +excellent co-operative plan. +</p> + +<p> +We know well enough what forms the main material of thought with bees +and flies, and that is visible objects. For you must think about +<i>something</i> if you think at all; and you can hardly imagine a +contemplative blow-fly setting itself down to reflect, like a Hindu +devotee, on the syllable Om, or on the oneness of existence. Abstract +ideas are not likely to play a large part in apian consciousness. A bee +has a very perfect eye, and with this eye it can see not only form, but +also colour, as Sir John Lubbock's experiments have shown us. The +information which it gets through its eye, coupled with other ideas +derived from touch, smell, and taste, no doubt makes up the main +thinkable and knowable universe as it reveals itself to the apian +intelligence. To ourselves and to bees alike the world is, on the +whole, a coloured picture, with the notions of distance and solidity +thrown in by touch and muscular effort; but sight undoubtedly plays the +first part in forming our total conception of things generally. +</p> + +<p> +What, however, forms the thinkable universe of these little ants +running to and fro so eagerly at my feet? That is a question which used +long to puzzle me in my afternoon walks. The ant has a brain and an +intelligence, but that brain and that intelligence must have been +developed out of <i>something</i>. <i lang="la">Ex nihilo nihil fit.</i> You +cannot think and know if you have nothing to think about. The +intelligence of the bee and the fly was evolved in the course of their +flying about and looking at things: the more they flew, and the more +they saw, the more they knew; and the more brain they got to think +with. But the ant does not generally fly, and, as with most +comparatively unlocomotive animals, its sight is bad. True, the winged +males and females have retained in part the usual sharp eyes of their +class—for they are first cousins to the bees—and they also possess +three little eyelets or <i>ocelli</i>, which are wanting to the +wingless neuters. Without these they would never have found one another +in their courtship, and they would have run their heads against the +nearest tree, or rushed down the gaping throat of the first expectant +swallow, and so effectually extinguished their race. Flying animals +cannot do without eyes, and they always possess the most highly +developed vision of any living creatures. But the wingless neuters are +almost blind—in some species quite so; and Sir John Lubbock has shown +that their appreciation of colour is mostly confined to an aversion to +red light, and a comparative endurance of blue. Moreover, they are +apparently deaf, and most of their other senses seem little developed. +What can be the raw material on which that pin's head of a brain sets +itself working? For, small as it is, it is a wonderful organ of +intellect; and though Sir John Lubbock has shown us all too decisively +that the originality and inventive genius of ants have been sadly +overrated by Solomon and others, yet Darwin is probably right none the +less in saying that no more marvellous atom of matter exists in the +universe than this same wee lump of microscopic nerve substance. +</p> + +<p> +My dog Grip, running about on the path there, with his nose to the +ground, and sniffing at every stick and stone he meets on his way, +gives us the clue to solve the problem. Grip, as Professor Croom +Robertson suggests, seems capable of extracting a separate and +distinguishable 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 he is, selects and brings back to me that individual stone +from all the stones around, by exercise of his nose alone. It is plain +that Grip's world is not merely a world of sights, but a world of +smells as well. He not only smells smells, but he remembers smells, he +thinks smells, he even dreams smells, as you may see by his sniffing +and growling in his sleep. Now, if I were to cut open Grip's head +(which heaven forfend), I should find in it a correspondingly big +smell-nerve and smell-centre—an olfactory lobe, as the anatomists say. +All the accumulated nasal experiences of his ancestors have made that +lobe enormously developed. But in a man's head you would find a very +large and fine optic centre, and only a mere shrivelled relic to +represent the olfactory lobes. You and I and our ancestors have had but +little occasion for sniffing and scenting; our sight and our touch have +done duty as chief intelligencers from the outer world; and the nerves +of smell, with their connected centres, have withered away to the +degenerate condition in which they now are. Consequently, smell plays +but a small part in our thought and our memories. The world that we +know is chiefly a world of sights and touches. But in the brain of dog, +or deer, or antelope, smell is a prevailing faculty; it colours all +their ideas, and it has innumerable nervous connections with every part +of their brain. The big olfactory lobes are in direct communication +with a thousand other nerves; odours rouse trains of thought or +powerful emotions in their minds just as visible objects do in our own. +</p> + +<p> +Now, in the dog or the horse sight and smell are equally developed; so +that they probably think of most things about equally in terms of each. +In ourselves, sight is highly developed, and smell is a mere relic; so +that we think of most things in terms of sight alone, and only rarely, +as with a rose or a lily, in terms of both. But in ants, on the +contrary, smell is highly developed and sight a mere relic; so that +they probably think of most things as smellable only, and very little +as visible in form or colour. Dr. Bastian has shown that bees and +butterflies are largely guided by scent; and though he is certainly +wrong in supposing that sight has little to do with leading them to +flowers (for if you cut off the bright-coloured corolla they will never +discover the mutilated blossoms, even when they visit others on the +same plant), yet the mere fact that so many flowers are scented 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 sense of smell has been continued and further developed, till +it has become their principal sense-endowment, and the chief raw +material of their intelligence. Their active little brains are almost +wholly engaged in correlating and co-ordinating smells with actions. +Their olfactory nerves give them nearly all the information they can +gain about the external world, and their brains take in this +information and work out the proper movements which it indicates. By +smell they find their way about and carry on the business of their +lives. Just as you and I know the road from Regent's Circus to Pall +Mall by visible signs of the street-corners and the Duke of York's +Column, so these little ants know the way from the nest to the corpse +of the dismembered worm by observing and remembering the smells which +they met with on their way. See: I obliterate the track for an inch or +two with my stick, and the little creatures go beside themselves with +astonishment and dismay. They rush about wildly, inquiring of one +another with their antennæ whether this is really Doomsday, and whether +the whole course of nature has been suddenly revolutionised. Then, +after a short consultation, they determine upon action; and every ant +starts off in a different direction to hunt the lost track, head to the +ground, exactly as a pointer hunts the missing trail of a bird or hare. +Each ventures an inch or so off, and then runs back to find the rest, +for fear he should get isolated altogether. At last, after many +failures, one lucky fellow hits upon the well-remembered train of +scents, and rushes back leaving smell-tracks no doubt upon the soil +behind him. The message goes quickly round from post to post, each +sentry making passes with his antennæ to the next picket, and so +sending on the news to the main body in the rear. Within five minutes +communications are re-established, and the precious bit of worm-meat +continues triumphantly on its way along the recovered path. An +ingenious writer would even have us believe that ants possess a +scent-language of their own, and emit various odours from their antennæ +which the other ants perceive with theirs, and recognise as distinct in +meaning. Be this as it may, you cannot doubt, if you watch them long, +that scents and scents alone form the chief means by which they +recollect and know one another, or the external objects with which they +come in contact. The whole universe is clearly to them a complicated +picture made up entirely of infinite interfusing smells. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="II"> </a> +II. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>A WAYSIDE BERRY.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Half-hidden in the luxuriant growth of leaves and flowers that drape +the deep side of this green lane, I have just espied a little picture +in miniature, a tall wild strawberry-stalk with three full red berries +standing out on its graceful branchlets. There are glossy +hart's-tongues on the matted bank, and yellow hawkweeds, and bright +bunches of red campion; but somehow, amid all that wealth of shape and +colour, my eye falls and rests instinctively upon the three little +ruddy berries, and upon nothing else. I pick the single stalk from the +bank and hold it here in my hands. The origin and development of these +pretty bits of red pulp is one of the many curious questions upon which +modern theories of life have cast such a sudden and unexpected flood of +light. What makes the strawberry stalk grow out into this odd and +brightly coloured lump, bearing its small fruits embedded on its +swollen surface? Clearly the agency of those same small birds who have +been mainly instrumental in dressing the haw in its scarlet coat, and +clothing the spindle-berries with their two-fold covering of crimson +doublet and orange cloak. +</p> + +<p> +In common language we speak of each single strawberry as a fruit. But +it is in reality a collection of separate fruits, the tiny yellow-brown +grains which stud its sides being each of them an individual little +nut; while the sweet pulp is, in fact, no part of the true fruit at +all, but merely a swollen stalk. There is a white potentilla so like a +strawberry blossom that even a botanist must look closely at the plant +before he can be sure of its identity. While they are in flower the two +heads remain almost indistinguishable; but when the seed begins to set +the potentilla develops only a collection of dry fruitlets, seated upon +a green receptacle, the bed or soft expansion which hangs on to the +'hull' or calyx. Each fruitlet consists of a thin covering, enclosing a +solitary seed. You may compare one of them separately to a plum, with +its single kernel, only that in the plum the covering is thick and +juicy, while in the potentilla and the fruitlets of the strawberry it +is thin and dry. An almond comes still nearer to the mark. Now the +potentilla shows us, as it were, the primitive form of the strawberry. +But in the developed ripe strawberry as we now find it the fruitlets +are not crowded upon a green receptacle. After flowering, the +strawberry receptacle lengthens and broadens, so as to form a roundish +mass of succulent pulp; and as the fruitlets approach maturity this +sour green pulp becomes soft, sweet, and red. The little seed-like +fruits, which are the important organs, stand out upon its surface like +mere specks; while the comparatively unimportant receptacle is all that +we usually think of when we talk about strawberries. After our usual +Protagorean fashion we regard man as the measure of all things, and pay +little heed to any part of the compound fruit-cluster save that which +ministers directly to our own tastes. +</p> + +<p> +But why does the strawberry develop this large mass of apparently +useless matter? Simply in order the better to ensure the dispersion of +its small brown fruitlets. Birds are always hunting for seeds and +insects along the hedge-rows, and devouring such among them as contain +any available foodstuff. In most cases they crush the seeds to pieces +with their gizzards, and digest and assimilate their contents. Seeds of +this class are generally enclosed in green or brown capsules, which +often escape the notice of the birds, and so succeed in perpetuating +their species. But there is another class of plants whose members +possess hard and indigestible seeds, and so turn the greedy birds from +dangerous enemies into useful allies. Supposing there was by chance, +ages ago, one of these primitive ancestral strawberries, whose +receptacle was a little more pulpy than usual, and contained a small +quantity of sugary matter, such as is often found in various parts of +plants; then it might happen to attract the attention of some hungry +bird, which, by eating the soft pulp, would help in dispersing the +indigestible fruitlets. As these fruitlets sprang up into healthy young +plants, they would tend to reproduce the peculiarity in the structure +of the receptacle which marked the parent stock, and some of them would +probably display it in a more marked degree. These would be sure to get +eaten in their turn, and so to become the originators of a still more +pronounced strawberry type. As time went on, the largest and sweetest +berries would constantly be chosen by the birds, till the whole species +began to assume its existing character. The receptacle would become +softer and sweeter, and the fruits themselves harder and more +indigestible: because, on the one hand, all sour or hard berries would +stand a poorer chance of getting dispersed in good situations for their +growth, while, on the other hand, all soft-shelled fruitlets would be +ground up and digested by the bird, and thus effectually prevented from +ever growing into future plants. Just in like manner, many tropical +nuts have extravagantly hard shells, as only those survive which can +successfully defy the teeth and hands of the clever and persistent +monkey. +</p> + +<p> +This accounts for the strawberry being sweet and pulpy, but not for its +being red. Here, however, a similar reason comes into play. All +ripening fruits and opening flowers have a natural tendency to grow +bright red, or purple, or blue, though in many of them the tendency is +repressed by the dangers attending brilliant displays of colour. 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, is injured by such a change of colour, +through being rendered more conspicuous to its foes, it soon loses the +tendency under the influence of natural selection; in other words, +those individuals which most display it get killed out, while those +which least display it survive and thrive. On the other hand, if +conspicuousness is an advantage to the plant, the exact opposite +happens, and the tendency becomes developed into a confirmed habit. +This is the case with the strawberry, as with many other fruits. The +more bright-coloured the berry is, the better its chance of getting its +fruitlets dispersed. Birds have quick eyes for colour, especially for +red and white; and therefore almost all edible berries have assumed one +or other of these two hues. So long as the fruitlets remain unripe, and +would therefore be injured by being eaten, the pulp remains sour, +green, and hard; but as soon as they have become fit for dispersion it +grows soft, fills with sugary juice, and acquires its ruddy outer +flesh. Then the birds see and recognise it as edible, and govern +themselves accordingly. +</p> + +<p> +But if this is the genesis of the strawberry, asks somebody, why have +not all the potentillas and the whole strawberry tribe also become +berries of the same type? Why are there still potentilla fruit-clusters +which consist of groups of dry seed-like nuts? Ay, there's the rub. +Science cannot answer as yet. After all, these questions are still in +their infancy, and we can scarcely yet do more than discover a single +stray interpretation here and there. In the present case a botanist can +only suggest either that the potentilla finds its own mode of +dispersion equally 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 receptacle in the strawberry +has never happened to befall its more modest kinsfolk. For on such +occasional freaks of nature the whole evolution of new varieties +entirely depends. A gardener may raise a thousand seedlings, and only +one or none among them may present a single new and important feature. +So a species may wait for a thousand years, or for ever, before its +circumstances happen to produce the first step towards some desirable +improvement. One extra petal may be invaluable to a five-rayed flower +as effecting some immense saving of pollen in its fertilisation; and +yet the 'sport' which shall give it this sixth ray may never occur, or +may be trodden down in the mire and destroyed by a passing cow. +</p> + + + +<h2> +<a name="III"> </a> +III. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>IN SUMMER FIELDS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Grip and I have come out for a morning stroll among the close-cropped +pastures beside the beck, in the very centre of our green little +dingle. Here I can sit, as is my wont, on a dry knoll, and watch the +birds, beasts, insects, and herbs of the field, while Grip scours the +place in every direction, intent, no doubt, upon those more practical +objects—mostly rats, I fancy—which possess a congenial interest for +the canine intelligence. From my coign of vantage on the knoll I can +take care that he inflicts no grievous bodily injury upon the sheep, +and that he receives none from the quick-tempered cow with the +brass-knobbed horns. For a kind of ancestral feud seems to smoulder for +ever between Grip and the whole race of kine, breaking out every now +and then into open warfare, which calls for my prompt interference, in +an attitude of armed but benevolent neutrality, merely for the friendly +purpose of keeping the peace. +</p> + +<p> +This ancient feud, I imagine, is really ancestral, and dates many ages +further back in time than Grip's individual experiences. Cows hate dogs +instinctively, from their earliest calfhood upward. I used to doubt +once upon a time whether the hatred was not of artificial origin and +wholly induced by the inveterate human habit of egging on every dog to +worry every other animal that comes in its way. But I tried a mild +experiment one day by putting a half-grown town-bred puppy into a small +enclosure with some hitherto unworried calves, and they all turned to +make a common headway against the intruder with the same striking +unanimity as the most ancient and experienced cows. Hence I am inclined +to suspect that the antipathy does actually result from a vaguely +inherited instinct derived from the days when the ancestor of our kine +was a wild bull, and the ancestor of our dogs a wolf, on the wide +forest-clad plains of Central Europe. When a cow puts up its tail at +sight of a dog entering its paddock at the present day, it has probably +some dim instinctive consciousness that it stands in the presence of a +dangerous hereditary foe; and as the wolves could only seize with +safety a single isolated wild bull, so the cows now usually make common +cause against the intruding dog, turning their heads in one direction +with very unwonted unanimity, till his tail finally disappears under +the opposite gate. Such inherited antipathies seem common and natural +enough. Every species knows and dreads the ordinary enemies of its +race. Mice scamper away from the very smell of a cat. Young chickens +run to the shelter of their mother's wings when the shadow of a hawk +passes over their heads. Mr. Darwin put a small snake into a paper bag, +which he gave to the monkeys at the Zoo; and one monkey after another +opened the bag, looked in upon the deadly foe of the quadrumanous kind, +and promptly dropped the whole package with every gesture of horror and +dismay. Even man himself—though his instincts have all weakened so +greatly with the growth of his more plastic intelligence, adapted to a +wider and more modifiable set of external circumstances—seems to +retain a vague and original terror of the serpentine form. +</p> + +<p> +If we think of parallel cases, it is not curious that animals should +thus instinctively recognise their natural enemies. We are not +surprised that they recognise their own fellows: and yet they must do +so by means of some equally strange automatic and inherited mechanism +in their nervous system. One butterfly can tell its mates at once from +a thousand other species, though it may differ from some of them only +by a single spot or line, which would escape the notice of all but the +most attentive observers. Must we not conclude that there are elements +in the butterfly's feeble brain exactly answering to the blank picture +of its specific type? So, too, must we not suppose that in every race +of animals there arises a perceptive structure specially adapted to the +recognition of its own kind? Babies notice human faces long before they +notice 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 berries; another exhibits an +untaught desire to chase down grasshoppers; a third, which happens to +be born an owl, turns at once to the congenial pursuit of small +sparrows, mice, and frogs. Each species seems to have certain faculties +so arranged that the sight of certain external objects, frequently +connected with food in their ancestral experience, immediately arouses +in them the appropriate actions for its capture. Mr. Douglas Spalding +found that newly-hatched chickens darted rapidly and accurately at +flies on the wing. When we recollect that even so late an acquisition +as articulate speech in human beings has its special physical seat in +the brain, it is not astonishing that complicated mechanisms should +have arisen among animals for the due perception of mates, food, and +foes respectively. 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 +experience 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. +</p> + +<p> +When Grip gets among the sheep, their hereditary traits come out in a +very different manner. They are by nature and descent timid mountain +animals, and they have never been accustomed to face a foe, as cows and +buffaloes are wont to do, especially when in a herd together. You +cannot see many traces of the original mountain life among sheep, and +yet there are still a few remaining to mark their real pedigree. Mr. +Herbert Spencer has noticed the fondness of lambs for frisking on a +hillock, however small; and when I come to my little knoll here, I +generally find it occupied by a couple, who rush away on my approach, +but take their stand instead on the 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 they were kept was a +single old elm stump. For the possession 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 whole diameter of the tree +was but some fifteen inches), maintaining himself in his place with the +greatest difficulty, and butting at his two brothers until at last he +lost his balance and fell. This one old stump was the sole +representative 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 memento 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 habits of his race. But in mountain countries, +every one must have noticed how the sheep at once becomes a different +being. On the Welsh hills he 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. +</p> + +<p> +Another mountain trait in the stereotyped character of sheep is their +well-known sequaciousness. When Grip runs after them they all run away +together: if one goes through a certain gap in the hedge, every other +follows; and if the leader jumps the beck at a certain spot, every lamb +in the flock jumps in the self-same 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 +corresponding 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 goodness 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. He alone can see what obstacles come in the way; +and each of the succeeding train must watch and imitate the actions of +their predecessors. Otherwise, if the flock happens 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 descendants. On the other hand, those uninquiring and blindly +obedient animals which simply did as they 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 sequaciousness—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 them 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 circumstances. They are to the mental +life what rudimentary organs are to the bodily structure: they remind +us of an older order of things, just as the abortive legs of the +blind-worm show us that he was once a lizard, and the hidden shell of +the slug that he was once a snail. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="IV"> </a> +IV. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>A SPRIG OF WATER CROWFOOT.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +The little streamlet whose tiny ranges and stickles form the middle +thread of this green combe in the Dorset 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 overhangs 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 below and broad above; and I often wonder +why so strange a phenomenon has attracted such very scant attention. +But then we knew so little of life in any form till the day before +yesterday that perhaps it is not surprising we should still have left +so many odd problems quite untouched. +</p> + +<p> +This problem of the shape of leaves certainly seems to me a most +important one; and yet it has hardly been even recognised by our +scientific pastors and masters. At best, Mr. Herbert Spencer devotes to +it a passing short chapter, or Mr. Darwin a stray sentence. The +practice of classifying plants mainly by means of their flowers has +given the flower a wholly factitious and overwrought importance. +Besides, flowers are so pretty, and we cultivate them so largely, with +little regard to the leaves, that they have come to usurp almost the +entire interest of botanists and horticulturists alike. Darwinism +itself has only heightened this exclusive interest by calling attention +to the reciprocal relations which exist between the honey-bearing +blossom and the fertilising insect, the bright-coloured petals and the +myriad facets of the butterfly's eye. Yet the leaf is after all the +real plant, and the flower is but a sort of afterthought, an embryo +colony set apart for the propagation of like plants in future. Each +leaf 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, and carrying on its own life to a great extent +independently of the rest. It may die without detriment to them; it may +be lopped off with a few others as a cutting, and it continues its +life-cycle quite unconcerned. An oak tree in full foliage is a +magnificent group of such separate individuals—a whole nation in +miniature: it may be compared to a branched coral polypedom covered +with a thousand little insect workers, while each leaf answers rather +to the separate polypes themselves. The leaves are even capable of +producing new individuals by what they 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 colonies, like the swarms +of bees, than as fresh 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 sending out a shipload of young +emigrants every now and then to try their fortunes in some unknown +soil. +</p> + +<p> +The whole life-business of a leaf is, of course, to eat and grow, just +as these same functions form the whole life-business of a caterpillar +or a tadpole. But the way a plant eats, we all know, is by taking +carbon and hydrogen from air and water under the influence of sunlight, +and building them up into appropriate compounds in its own body. +Certain little green worms or convoluta have the same habit, and live +for the most part cheaply off sunlight, making starch out of carbonic +acid and water by means of their enclosed chlorophyll, exactly as if +they were leaves. Now, as this is what a leaf has to do, its form will +almost entirely depend upon the way it is affected by sunlight and the +elements around it—except, indeed, in so far as it may be called upon +to perform 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, are minutely subdivided into +little branching lance-like segments; while its upper ones, which raise +their heads above the surface, are broad and united, like the common +crowfoot type. How am I to account for these peculiarities? I fancy +somehow thus:— +</p> + +<p> +Plants which live habitually under water almost always have thin, long, +pointed leaves, often thread-like or mere waving filaments. The reason +for this is plain enough. Gases are not very abundant in water, as it +only holds in solution a limited quantity of oxygen and carbonic acid. +Both of these the plant needs, though in varying quantities: 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 utilise it under the influence of sunlight. Hence all plants +which live in fresh water, and especially all plants of higher 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 pattern of leaf depends largely upon +the ancestral form. Thus this crowfoot, even in its submerged leaves, +preserves the general arrangement of ribs and leaflets common to the +whole buttercup tribe. For the crowfoot family is a large and eminently +adaptable race. Some of them are larkspurs and similar queerly-shaped +blossoms; others are columbines which hang their complicated bells on +dry and rocky hillsides; but the larger part are buttercups or marsh +marigolds which have simple cup-shaped flowers, and mostly frequent low +and marshy ground. One of these typical crowfoots under stress of +circumstances—inundation, or the like—took once upon a time to living +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 up into +thinner and narrower segments, each of which grew out in the direction +where it could find most stray carbon atoms, and most sunlight, without +interference from its neighbours. This, I take it, was the origin of +the much-divided lower leaves. +</p> + +<p> +But a crowfoot could never live permanently under water. Seaweeds and +their like, which propagate by a kind of spores, may remain below the +surface for ever; 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, originally developed in the water 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 fertilising insects +have carried the pollen to its proper receptacle, so as to ripen their +seeds at leisure beneath 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 such among its +ancestors as at first tried to do so must of course have failed in +producing any seed, they and their kind have died out for ever; while +only those lucky individuals whose chance lot it was to grow a little +taller and weedier than the rest, and so overtop the stream, have +handed down their race to our own time. +</p> + +<p> +But as soon as the crowfoot finds itself above the level of the river, +all the causes which made its leaf like those of other aquatic plants +have ceased to operate. The new leaves which sprout in the air meet +with abundance of carbon 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 up into little +lance-like leaflets, they loll on the surface, and spread out broader +and fuller, like the rest of their race. The leaf becomes 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. +</p> + +<p> +But above water, as below it, the crowfoot remains in principle a +crowfoot still. The traditions of its race, acquired in damp marshy +meadows, not actually under water, cling to it yet in spite of every +change. Born river and pond plants which rise to the surface, like the +water-lily or the duck-weed, have broad floating leaves that contrast +strongly with the waving filaments of wholly submerged species. They +can find plenty of food everywhere, and as the sunlight falls flat upon +them, they may as well spread out flat to catch the sunlight. No other +elbowing plants overtop them and appropriate the rays, so compelling +them to run up a useless waste of stem in order to pocket their fair +share of the golden flood. Moreover, they thus save the needless +expense of a stout leaf-stalk, as the water supports their lolling +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 hundred generations only, while the water-lily's ancestors +have been to the manner born for millions of years; and therefore it +happens that the crowfoot is at heart but a meadow buttercup still. One +glance at its simple little flower will show you that in a moment. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="V"> </a> +V. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>SLUGS AND SNAILS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Hoeing among the flower-beds 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 encroaching grass on the edge of +my little parterre of sky-blue lobelias. This unavoidable wounding and +hacking of worms and insects, despite all one's care, is no small +drawback to the pleasures of gardening <i>in propriâ personâ</i>. +Vivisection for genuine scientific purposes in responsible hands, one +can understand and tolerate, even though lacking the heart for it +oneself; but the useless and causeless vivisection which cannot be +prevented in every ordinary piece of farm-work seems a gratuitous blot +upon the face of beneficent nature. My only consolation lies in the +half-formed belief that feeling among these lower creatures is +indefinite, and that pain appears to affect them far less acutely than +it affects warm-blooded animals. Their nerves are so 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 all analogous to our own. A +wasp whose head has been severed from its body and stuck upon a pin, +will still greedily suck up honey with its throatless mouth; while an +Italian mantis, similarly treated, will calmly continue to hunt and +dart at midges with its decapitated trunk and limbs, quite forgetful of +the fact that it has got no mandibles left to eat them with. These +peculiarities lead one to hope that insects may feel pain less than we +fear. Yet I dare scarcely utter the hope, lest it should lead any +thoughtless hearer to act upon the very questionable belief, as they +say even the amiable enthusiasts of Port Royal acted upon the doctrine +that animals were mere unconscious 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 humane, since they are the better able dimly to figure to +themselves the pleasures and pains of humbler beings as they really +are. The man of science perhaps realises more vividly than all other +men the inner life and vague rights even of crawling worms and ugly +earwigs. +</p> + +<p> +I will take up this poor slug whose mishap has set me preaching, and +put him out of his misery at once, if misery 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 hoe 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, indeed, there are very few differences between the two +races except in the presence or absence of a house. You may trace a +curiously complete set of gradations between the perfect snail and the +perfect slug in this respect; for all the intermediate forms still +survive with only an almost imperceptible gap between each species and +the next. Some kinds, like the common brown garden snail, have +comparatively small bodies and big shells, so that they can retire +comfortably within them when attacked; and if they only had a lid or +door to their houses they could shut themselves up hermetically, as +periwinkles and similar mollusks actually do. Other kinds, like the +pretty golden amber-snails which frequent 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, so that he is generally recognised as being the first of the +slugs rather than the last 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 testacella, however, the small shell is still +external. In this yellow slug here, on the contrary, it does not show +itself at all, but is buried under the closely wrinkled skin of the +glossy mantle. It has become 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 rudiment gradually dwindling further and +further towards annihilation; till finally, 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, scattered up and +down through the mantle; and sometimes even these are wanting. The +organs which used to secrete the shell in their remote ancestors have +either ceased to work altogether or are reduced to performing a useless +office by mere organic routine. +</p> + +<p> +The reason why some mollusks have thus lost their shells is clear +enough. Shells are of two kinds, calcareous and horny. Both of them +require more or less lime or other mineral matters, though in varying +proportions. Now, the snails which thrive best on the bare chalk downs +behind my little combe belong to that pretty banded black-and-white +sort which everybody must have noticed feeding in abundance on all +chalk soils. Indeed, Sussex farmers will tell you that South Down +mutton owes its excellence to these fat little mollusks, not to the +scanty herbage of their thin pasture-lands. The pretty banded shells in +question are almost wholly composed of lime, which the snails can, of +course, obtain in any required quantity from the chalk. In most +limestone districts you will similarly 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 naturally 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 acclimatised themselves to a +terrestrial existence. We can trace a perfectly regular series from the +most aquatic to the most land-loving species, just as I have tried to +trace a regular series from the shell-bearing 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 amber-snail), which his progenitors used to +manufacture from the mineral matters dissolved in their native streams. +Some of the younger branches descended from this primæval land-snail +took to living on very dry land, and when they reached chalky districts +manufactured their shells, on an easy and improved principle, almost +entirely out of lime. But others took to living in moist and boggy +places, where mineral matter was rare, and where the soil consisted for +the most part of decaying vegetable mould. Here they could get little +or no lime, and so their shells grew smaller and smaller, in proportion +as their habits became more decidedly terrestrial. But to the last, as +long as any shell at all remained, it generally covered their hearts +and other important organs; because it would there act as a special +protection, even after it had ceased to be of any use for the defence +of the animal's body as a whole. Exactly in the same way men specially +protected their heads and breasts with helmets and cuirasses, before +armour was used for the whole body, because these were the places where +a wound would be most dangerous; and they continued to cover these +vulnerable spots in the same manner even when the use of armour had +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 +competition of modern life they spread themselves 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 different. +The truest and most snail-like snails are found in greatest abundance +upon high chalk-downs, heathy limestone hills, and other comparatively +dry places; while the truest and most slug-like slugs are found in +greatest abundance among low water-logged meadows, or under the damp +fallen leaves of moist copses. The intermediate kinds inhabit 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 universal habit of seeking out the coolest and moistest spots of +their respective habitats. The soft-fleshed mollusks are all by nature +aquatic animals, and nothing can induce them wholly to forget the old +tradition of their marine or fresh-water existence. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="VI"> </a> +VI. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>A STUDY OF BONES.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +On the top of this bleak chalk down, where I am wandering on a dull +afternoon, I light upon the blanched skeleton 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 of 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 I may well spell out as I sit to rest a minute +upon the neighbouring stile. For this dry tail-bone consists, as I can +see at a glance, of several separate vertebræ, all firmly welded +together into a single piece. They must once upon a time have been real +disconnected jointed vertebræ, 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. +</p> + +<p> +When I say that these bones were once separate, I am indulging in no +mere hypothetical Darwinian speculation. I refer, not to the race, but +to the particular crow in person. These very pieces themselves, in +their embryonic condition, were as distinct as the individual bones of +the bird's neck or of our own spines. If you were to examine the chick +in the egg you would find them quite divided. But as the young crow +grows more and more into the typical bird-pattern, this lizard-like +peculiarity fades away, and the separate pieces unite by 'anastomosis' +into a single 'coccygean bone,' as the osteologists call it. In all our +modern birds, as in this crow, the vertebræ composing the tail-bone are +few in number, and are soldered together immovably in the adult form. +It was not always so, however, with ancestral birds. The earliest known +member of the class—the famous fossil bird of the Solenhofen +lithographic stone—retained throughout its whole life a long flexible +tail, composed of twenty unwelded vertebræ, each of which bore a single +pair of quill-feathers, the predecessors of our modern pigeon's train. +There are many other marked reptilian peculiarities in this primitive +oolitic bird; and it apparently possessed true teeth in its jaws, as +its later cretaceous kinsmen discovered by Professor Marsh undoubtedly +did. When we compare side by side those real flying dragons, the +Pterodactyls, together with the very birdlike 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 remote feathered descendants of an original reptilian +or half-reptilian ancestor. +</p> + +<p> +Why modern birds have lost their long flexible tails it is not +difficult to see. The tail descends to all higher vertebrates as an +heirloom from the fishes, the amphibia, and their other aquatic +predecessors. With these 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 lizard 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. But to flying birds, on the +contrary, a long bony tail is only an inconvenience. All that they need +is a little muscular knob for the support of the tail-feathers, which +they employ as a rudder in guiding their flight upward or downward, to +right or left. The elongated waving tail of the Solenhofen bird, with +its single pair of quills, must have been a comparatively ineffectual +and clumsy piece of mechanism for steering an aërial creature through +its novel domain. Accordingly, the bones soon grew fewer in number and +shorter in length, while the feathers simultaneously arranged +themselves side by side upon the terminal hump. As early as the time +when our chalk was deposited, the bird's tail had become what it is at +the present day—a single united bone, consisting of a few scarcely +distinguishable crowded rings. This is the form it assumes in the +toothed fossil birds of Western America. But, as if to preserve the +memory of their reptilian origin, birds in their embryo stage still go +on producing separate caudal vertebræ, only to unite them together at a +later point of their development into the typical coccygean bone. +</p> + +<p> +Much the same sort of process has taken place in the higher apes, and, +as Mr. Darwin would assure us, in man himself. There the long +prehensile tail of the monkeys has grown gradually shorter, and, being +at last coiled up under the haunches, has finally degenerated into an +insignificant and wholly embedded terminal joint. But, indeed, we can +find traces of a similar adaptation to circumstances everywhere. Take, +for instance, the common English 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 tadpole 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, such a long train would be a +useless drag, while in the water its webbed feet and muscular legs make +a satisfactory substitute for the lost organ. Last of all, the +tree-frog, leading a specially terrestrial life, has no tadpole at all, +but emerges from the egg in the full frog-like shape. As he never lives +in the water, he never feels the need of a tail. +</p> + +<p> +The edible crab and lobster show us an exactly parallel case amongst +crustaceans. Everybody has noticed that a crab's body is practically +identical with a lobster's, only that in the crab the body-segments are +broad and compact, while the tail, so conspicuous in its kinsman, is +here relatively small and tucked away unobtrusively behind the legs. +This difference in construction depends entirely upon the habits and +manners of the two races. The lobster lives among rocks and ledges; +he uses his small legs but little for locomotion, but he springs +surprisingly fast and far through the water by a single effort of his +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. Hence the edible and muscular part of a lobster +is chiefly to be found in the claws and tail, the latter having +naturally the firmest and strongest flesh. The crab, on the other hand, +lives on the sandy bottom, and walks about on its lesser legs, instead +of swimming or darting through the water by blows of its tail, like the +lobster or the still more active prawn and shrimp. Hence the crab's +tail has dwindled away to a mere useless historical relic, while the +most important muscles in its body are those seated in the 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 shrivelled rudiment as a +lingering reminiscence of their original habits. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="VII"> </a> +VII. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>BLUE MUD.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +After last night's rain, the cliffs that bound the bay have come out in +all their most brilliant colours; so this morning I am turning my steps +seaward, and wandering along the great ridge of pebbles which here +breaks the force of the Channel waves as they beat against the long +line of the Dorset downs. Our cliffs just at this point are composed of +blue lias beneath, with a capping of yellow sandstone on their summits, +above which in a few places the layer of chalk that once topped the +whole country-side has still resisted the slow wear and tear of +unnumbered centuries. These three elements give a variety to the bold +and broken bluffs which is rare along the monotonous southern +escarpment of the English coast. After rain, especially, the changes of +colour on their sides are often quite startling in their vividness and +intensity. To-day, for example, the yellow sandstone is tinged in parts +with a deep russet red, contrasting admirably with the bright green of +the fields above and the sombre steel-blue of the lias belt below. +Besides, we have had so many landslips along this bit of shore, that +the various layers of rock have in more than one place got mixed up +with one another into inextricable confusion. The little town nestling +in the hollow behind me has long been famous as the head-quarters of +early geologists; and not a small proportion of the people earn their +livelihood to the present day by 'goin' a fossiling.' Every child about +the place recognises ammonites as 'snake-stones;' while even the rarer +vertebrae of extinct saurians have acquired a local designation as +'verterberries.' 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 +light it up with a rich flood of golden splendour. +</p> + +<p> +The base of the cliffs consists entirely of a very soft and plastic +blue lias mud. This mud contains large numbers of fossils, chiefly +chambered shells, but mixed with not a few relics of the great swimming +and flying lizards that swarmed among the shallow flats or low islands +of the lias sea. When the blue mud was slowly accumulating in the +hollows of the ancient bottom, these huge saurians formed practically +the highest race of animals then existing upon earth. There were, it is +true, a few primæval kangaroo-mice and wombats among the rank brushwood +of the mainland; and there may even have been a species or two of +reptilian birds, with murderous-looking teeth and long lizard-like +tails—descendants 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 on the +Solenhofen slate. But in spite of such rare precursors of higher modern +types, the saurian was in fact the real lord of earth in the lias ocean. +</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> +<div class="stanza"> +<div>For him did his high sun flame, and his river billowing ran,</div> +<div>And he felt himself in his pride to be nature's crowning race.</div></div></div></div> + +<p> +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 in the different periods. The +lias is ranked by geologists among the earliest secondary formations: +but if we were to distribute all the sedimentary rocks into ten great +epochs, each representing about equal duration in time, the lias would +really fall in the tenth and latest of all. So very misleading to the +ordinary mind is our accepted geological nomenclature. Nay, even +commonplace geologists themselves often overlook the real implications +of many facts and figures which they have learned to quote glibly +enough in a certain off-hand way. Let me just briefly reconstruct the +chief features of this scarcely recognised world's chronology as I sit +on this piece of fallen chalk at the foot of the mouldering cliff, +where the stream from the meadow above brought down the newest landslip +during the hard frosts of last December. First of all, there is the +vast lapse of time represented by the Laurentian rocks of Canada. These +Laurentian rocks, the oldest in the world, are at least 30,000 feet in +thickness, and it must be allowed that it takes a reasonable number of +years to accumulate such a mass of solid limestone or clay as that at +the bottom of even the widest primæval ocean. In these rocks there are +no fossils, except a single very doubtful member of the very lowest +animal type. But there are indirect traces of life in the shape of +limestone probably derived from shells, and of black lead probably +derived from plants. All these early deposits have been terribly +twisted and contorted by subsequent 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 state. Thus the history of life opens +for us, like most other histories, with a period of uncertainty: its +origin is lost in the distant vistas of time. Still, we know that there +<i>was</i> 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 æons into which I have roughly divided geological time. +Next comes the period known as the Cambrian, and to it we may similarly +assign about two and a half æons on like grounds. The Cambrian epoch +begins with a fair sprinkling of the lower animals and plants, +presumably developed during the preceding age; but it shows no remains +of fish or any other vertebrates. To the Silurian, Devonian, and +Carboniferous periods we may roughly allow an æon and a fraction each: +while to the whole group of secondary and tertiary strata, comprising +almost all the best-known English formations—red marl, lias, oolite, +greensand, chalk, eocene, miocene, pliocene, and drift—we can only +give a single æon to be divided between them. Such facts will +sufficiently suggest how comparatively modern are all these rocks when +viewed by the light of an absolute chronology. Now, the first fishes do +not occur till the Silurian—that is to say, in or about the seventh +æon after the beginning of geological time. The first mammals are found +in the trias, at the beginning of the tenth æon. And the first known +bird only makes its appearance in the oolite, about half-way through +that latest period. This will show that there was plenty of time for +their development in the earlier ages. True, we must reckon the +interval between ourselves and the date of this blue mud at many +millions of years; but then we must reckon the interval between the +lias and the earliest Cambrian strata at some six times as much, and +between the lias and the lowest Laurentian beds at nearly ten times as +much. Just the same sort of lessening perspective exists in geology as +in ordinary history. Most people look upon the age before the Norman +Conquest as a mere brief episode of the English annals; yet six whole +centuries elapsed between the landing of the real or mythical Hengst at +Ebbsfleet and the landing of William the Conqueror at Hastings; while +under eight centuries elapsed between the time of William the Conqueror +and the accession of Queen Victoria. But, just as most English +histories give far more space to the three centuries since Elizabeth +than to the eleven centuries which preceded them, so most books on +geology give far more space to the single æon (embracing the secondary +and tertiary periods) which comes nearest our own time, than to the +nine æons which spread from the Laurentian to the Carboniferous epoch. +In the earliest period, records either geological or historical are +wholly wanting; in the later periods they become both more numerous and +more varied in proportion as they approach nearer and nearer to our own +time. +</p> + +<p> +So too, in the days when Mr. Darwin first took away the breath of +scientific Europe by his startling theories, it used confidently to be +said that geology had shown us no intermediate form between species and +species. Even at the time when this assertion was originally made it +was quite untenable. All early geological forms, of whatever race, +belong to what we foolishly call 'generalised' types: that is to say, +they present a mixture of features now found separately in several +different animals. In other words, they represent early ancestors of +all the modern forms, with peculiarities intermediate between those of +their more highly differentiated descendants; and hence we ought to +call them 'unspecialised' rather than 'generalised' types. For example, +the earliest ancestral horse is partly a horse and partly a tapir: we +may regard him as a <i lang="la">tertium quid</i>, a middle term, from +which the horse has varied in one direction and the tapir in another, +each of them exaggerating certain special peculiarities of the common +ancestor and losing others, in accordance with the circumstances in +which they have been placed. Science is now perpetually discovering +intermediate forms, many of which compose an unbroken series between +the unspecialised ancestral type and the familiar modern creatures. +Thus, in this very case of the horse, Professor Marsh has unearthed a +long line of fossil animals which lead in direct descent from the +extremely unhorse-like eocene type to the developed Arab of our own +times. Similarly with birds, Professor Huxley has shown that there is +hardly any gap between the very bird-like lizards of the lias and the +very lizard-like birds of the oolite. Such links, discovered afresh +every day, are perpetual denials to the old parrot-like cry of 'No +geological evidence for evolution.' +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="VIII"> </a> +VIII. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>CUCKOO-PINT.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +In the bank which supports the hedge, beside this little hanger on the +flank of Black Down, the glossy arrow-headed leaves of the common arum +form at this moment beautiful masses of vivid green foliage. +'Cuckoo-pint' is the pretty poetical old English name for the plant; +but village children know it better by the equally quaint and fanciful +title of 'lords and ladies.' The arum is not now in flower: it +blossomed much earlier in the season, and its queer clustered fruits +are just at present swelling out into rather shapeless little +light-green bulbs, preparatory to assuming the bright coral-red hue +which makes them so conspicuous among the hedgerows during the autumn +months. A cut-and-dry technical botanist would therefore have little to +say to it in its present stage, because he cares only for the flowers +and seeds which help him in his dreary classifications, and give him so +splendid an opportunity for displaying the treasures of his Latinised +terminology. But to me the plant itself is the central point of +interest, not the names (mostly in bad Greek) by which this or that +local orchid-hunter has endeavoured to earn immortality. +</p> + +<p> +This arum, for example, grows first from a small hard seed with a +single lobe or seed-leaf. In the seed there is a little store of starch +and albumen laid up by the mother-plant, on which the young arum feeds, +just as truly as the growing chick feeds on the white which surrounds +its native yolk, or as you and I feed on the similar starches and +albumens laid by for the use of the young plant in the grain of wheat, +or for the young fowl in the egg. Full-grown plants live by taking in +food-stuffs from the air under the influence of sunlight: but a young +seedling can no more feed itself than a human baby can; and so food is +stored up for it beforehand by the parent stock. As the kernel swells +with heat and moisture, its starches and albumens get oxidised and +produce the motions and rearrangements of particles that result in the +growth of a new plant. First a little head rises towards the sunlight +and a little root pushes downward towards 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 the head is to +spread out into leaves, which are the real mouths and stomachs of the +compound organism. For we must never forget that all plants mainly +grow, not, as most people suppose, from the earth, but from the air. +They are for the most part mere masses of carbon-compounds, and the +carbon in them comes from the carbonic acid diffused through the +atmosphere around, and is separated by the sunlight acting in the +leaves. There it mixes with small quantities of hydrogen and nitrogen +brought by the roots from soil and water; and the starches or other +bodies thus formed are then conveyed by the sap to the places where +they will be required in the economy of the plant system. That is the +all-important fact in vegetable physiology, just as the digestion and +assimilation of food and the circulation of the blood are in our own +bodies. +</p> + +<p> +The arum, like the grain of wheat, has only a single seed-leaf; whereas +the pea, as we all know, has two. This is the most fundamental +difference among flowering plants, as it points back to an early and +deep-seated mode of growth, about which they must have split off from +one another millions of years ago. All the one-lobed plants grow with +stems like grasses or bamboos, formed by single leaves enclosing +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 sprouting head, has raised its first leaves far enough above +the ground to reach the sunlight, it begins to form fresh starches and +new leaves for itself, and ceases to be dependent upon the store laid +up in its buried lobe. Most seeds accordingly contain just enough +material to support the 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 +potato, find their seeds insufficient to keep up the race by +themselves, and so lay by abundant starches in underground branches or +tubers, for the use of new shoots; and these rich starch receptacles we +ourselves generally utilise as food-stuffs, to the manifest detriment +of the young potato-plants, for whose benefit they were originally +intended. Well, the arum has no such valuable reserve as that; it is +early cast upon its own resources, and so it shifts for itself with +resolution. Its big, glossy leaves grow apace, and soon fill out, not +only with green chlorophyll, but also with a sharp and pungent essence +which makes them burn the mouth like cayenne pepper. This acrid juice +has been acquired by the plant as a defence against its enemies. Some +early ancestor of the arums must have been liable to constant attacks +from rabbits, goats, or other herbivorous animals, and it has adopted +this means of repelling their advances. In other words, those arums +which were most palatable to the rabbits got eaten up and destroyed, +while those which were nastiest survived, and handed down their +pungency to future generations. Just in the same way nettles have +acquired their sting and thistles their prickles, which efficiently +protect them against all herbivores except the patient, hungry donkey, +who gratefully accepts them as a sort of <i>sauce piquante</i> to the +succulent stems. +</p> + +<p> +And now the arum begins its great preparations for the act of +flowering. Everybody knows the general shape of the arum blossom—if +not in our own purple cuckoo-pint, at least in the big white 'Æthiopian +lilies' which form such frequent ornaments of cottage windows. Clearly, +this is a flower which the plant cannot produce without laying up a +good stock of material beforehand. So it sets to work accumulating +starch in its root. This starch it manufactures in its leaves, and then +buries deep underground in a tuber, by means of the sap, so as to +secure it from the attacks of rodents, who too frequently appropriate +to themselves the food intended by plants for other purposes. If you +examine the tuber before the arum has blossomed, you will find it large +and solid; but if you dig it up in the autumn after the seeds have +ripened, you will see that it is flaccid and drained; all its starches +and other contents have gone to make up the flower, the fruit, and the +stalk which bore them. But the tuber has a further protection against +enemies besides its deep underground position. It contains an acrid +juice like that of the leaves, which sufficiently guards it against +four-footed depredators. Man, however, that most persistent of +persecutors, has found out a way to separate the juice from the starch; +and in St. Helena the big white arum is cultivated as a food-plant, and +yields the meal in common use among the inhabitants. +</p> + +<p> +When the arum has laid by enough starch to make a flower it begins to +send up a tall stalk, on the top of which grows the curious hooded +blossom known to be one of the earliest forms still surviving upon +earth. But now its object is to attract, not to repel, the animal +world; for it is an insect-fertilised flower, and it requires the aid +of small flies to carry the pollen from blossom to blossom. For this +purpose it has a purple sheath around its head of flowers and a tall +spike on which they are arranged in two clusters, the male blossoms +above and the female below. This spike is bright yellow in the +cultivated species. The fertilisation is one of the most interesting +episodes in all nature, but it would take too long to describe here in +full. The flies go from one arum to another, attracted by the colour, +in search of pollen; and the pistils, or female flowers, ripen first. +Then the pollen falls from the stamens or male flowers on the bodies of +the flies, and dusts them all over with yellow powder. The insects, +when once they have entered, are imprisoned until the pollen is ready +to drop, by means of several little hairs, pointing downwards, and +preventing their exit on the principle of an eel-trap or lobster-pot. +But as soon as the pollen is discharged the hairs wither away, and then +the flies are free to visit a second arum. Here they carry the +fertilising dust with which they are covered to the ripe pistils, and +so enable them to set their seed; but, instead of getting away again as +soon as they have eaten their fill, they are once more imprisoned by +the lobster-pot hairs, and dusted with a second dose of pollen, which +they carry away in turn to a third blossom. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as the pistils have been impregnated, the fruits begin to set. +Here they are, on their tall spike, whose enclosing sheath has now +withered away, while the top is at this moment slowly dwindling, so +that only the cluster of berries at its base will finally remain. The +berries will swell and grow soft, till in autumn they become a +beautiful scarlet cluster of living coral. Then once more their object +will be to attract the animal world, this time in the shape of +field-mice, squirrels, and small birds; but with a more treacherous +intent. For though the berries are beautiful and palatable enough they +are deadly poison. The robins or small rodents which eat them, +attracted by their bright colours and pleasant taste, not only aid in +dispersing them, but also die after swallowing them, and become huge +manure heaps for the growth of the young plant. So the whole cycle of +arum existence begins afresh, and there is hardly a plant in the field +around me which has not a history as strange as this one. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="IX"> </a> +IX. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>BERRIES AND BERRIES.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +This little chine, opening toward the sea through the blue lias cliffs, +has been worn to its present pretty gorge-like depth by the slow action +of its tiny stream—a mere thread of water in fine weather, that +trickles down its centre in a series of mossy cascades to the shingly +beach below. Its sides are overgrown by brambles and other prickly +brushwood, which form in places a matted and impenetrable mass: for it +is the habit of all plants protected by the defensive armour of spines +or thorns to cluster together in serried ranks, through which cattle or +other intrusive animals cannot break. Amongst them, near the down +above, I have just lighted upon a rare plant for Southern Britain—a +wild raspberry-bush in full fruit. Raspberries are common enough in +Scotland among heaps of stones on the windiest hillsides; but the south +of England is too warm and sickly for their robust tastes, and they can +only be found here in a few bleak spots like the stony edges of this +weather-beaten down above the chine. The fruit itself is quite as good +as the garden variety, for cultivation has added little to the native +virtues of the raspberry. Good old Izaak Walton is not ashamed to quote +a certain quaint saying of one Dr. Boteler concerning strawberries, and +so I suppose I need not be afraid to quote it after him. 'Doubtless,' +said the Doctor, 'God <i>could</i> have made a better berry, but +doubtless also God never did.' Nevertheless, if you try the raspberry, +picked fresh, with plenty of good country cream, you must allow that it +runs its sister fruit a neck-and-neck race. +</p> + +<p> +To compare the structure of a raspberry with that of a strawberry is a +very instructive botanical study. It shows how similar causes may +produce the same gross result in singularly different ways. Both are +roses by family, and both have flowers essentially similar to that of +the common dog-rose. But even in plants where the flowers are alike, +the fruits often differ conspicuously, because fresh principles come +into play for the dispersion and safe germination of the seed. This +makes the study of fruits the most complicated part in the unravelling +of plant life. After the strawberry has blossomed, the pulpy receptacle +on which it bore its green fruitlets begins to swell and redden, till +at length it grows into an edible berry, dotted with little yellow +nuts, containing each a single seed. But in the raspberry it is the +separate fruitlets themselves which grow soft and bright-coloured, +while the receptacle remains white and tasteless, forming the 'hull' +which we pull off from the berry when we are going to eat it. Thus the +part of the raspberry which we throw away answers to the part of the +strawberry which we eat. Only, in the raspberry the separate fruitlets +are all crowded close together into a single united mass, while in the +strawberry they are scattered about loosely, and embedded in the soft +flesh of the receptacle. The blackberry is another close relative; but +in its fruit the little pulpy fruitlets cling to the receptacle, so +that we pick and eat them both together; whereas in the raspberry the +receptacle pulls out easily, and leaves a thimble-shaped hollow in the +middle of the berry. Each of these little peculiarities has a special +meaning of its own in the history of the different plants. +</p> + +<p> +Yet the main object attained by all is in the end precisely similar. +Strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries all belong to the class of +attractive fruits. They survive in virtue of the attention paid to them +by birds and small animals. Just as the wild strawberry which I picked +in the hedgerow the other day procures the dispersion of its hard and +indigestible fruitlets by getting them eaten together with the pulpy +receptacle, so does the raspberry procure the dispersion of its soft +and sugary fruitlets by getting them eaten all by themselves. While the +strawberry fruitlets retain throughout their dry outer coating, in +those of the raspberry the external covering becomes fleshy and red, +but the inner seed has, notwithstanding, a still harder shell than the +tiny nuts of the strawberry. Now, this is the secret of nine fruits out +of ten. They are really nuts, which clothe themselves in an outer tunic +of sweet and beautifully coloured pulp. The pulp, as it were, the plant +gives in, as an inducement to the friendly bird to swallow its seed; +but the seed itself it protects by a hard stone or shell, and often by +poisonous or bitter juices within. We see this arrangement very +conspicuously in a plum, or still better in a mango; though it is +really just as evident in the raspberry, where the smaller size renders +it less conspicuous to human sight. +</p> + +<p> +It is a curious fact about the rose family that they have a very marked +tendency to produce such fleshy fruits, instead of the mere dry +seed-vessels of ordinary plants, which are named fruits only by +botanical courtesy. For example, we owe to this single family the +peach, plum, apricot, cherry, damson, pear, apple, medlar, and quince, +all of them cultivated in gardens or orchards for their fruits. The +minor group known by the poetical name of Dryads, alone supplies us +with the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, and dewberry. Even the +wilder kinds, refused as food by man, produce berries well known to our +winter birds—the haw, rose-hip, sloe, bird-cherry, and rowan. On the +other hand, the whole tribe numbers but a single thoroughgoing nut—the +almond; and even this nut, always somewhat soft-shelled and inclined to +pulpiness, has produced by a 'sport' the wholly fruit-like nectarine. +The odd thing about the rose tribe, however, is this: that the pulpy +tendency shows itself in very different parts among the various +species. In the plum it is the outer covering of the true fruit which +grows soft and coloured: in the apple it is a swollen mass of the +fruit-stalk surrounding the ovules: in the rose-hip it is the hollowed +receptacle: and in the strawberry it is the same receptacle, bulging +out in the opposite direction. Such a general tendency to display +colour and collect sugary juices in so many diverse parts may be +compared to the general bulbous tendency 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 the start in any particular +instance is increased and developed by natural selection, just as +favourable varieties of fruits or flowers are increased and developed +in cultivated species by our own gardeners. +</p> + +<p> +Sweet juices and bright colours, however, could be of no use to a plant +till there were eyes to see and tongues to taste them. A pulpy fruit is +in itself a mere waste of productive energy to its mother, unless the +pulpiness aids in the dispersion and promotes the welfare of the young +seedlings. Accordingly, we might naturally expect that there would be +no fruit-bearers on the earth until the time when fruit-eaters, actual +or potential, arrived upon the scene: or, to put it more correctly, +both must inevitably have developed simultaneously and in mutual +dependence upon one another. So we find no traces of succulent fruits +even in so late a formation as that of these lias or cretaceous cliffs. +The birds of that day were fierce-toothed carnivores, devouring the +lizards and saurians of the rank low-lying sea-marshes: the mammals +were mostly primæval kangaroos or low ancestral wombats, gentle +herbivores, or savage marsupial wolves, like the Tasmanian 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 superincumbent +pressure into solid stone, that we find the earliest traces of the rose +family, the greatest fruit-bearing tribe of our present world. And side +by side with them we find their clever arboreal allies, the ancestral +monkeys and squirrels, the primitive robins, and the yet shadowy +forefathers of our modern fruit-eating parrots. Just as bees and +butterflies necessarily trace back their geological history only to the +time of the first honey-bearing flowers, and just as the honey-bearing +flowers in turn trace back their pedigree only to the date of the +rudest and most unspecialised honey-sucking insects, so are fruits and +fruit-eaters linked together in origin by the inevitable bond of a +mutual dependence. No bee, no honey; and no honey, no bee: so, too, no +fruit, no fruit-bird; and no fruit-bird, no fruit. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="X"> </a> +X. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>DISTANT RELATIONS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Behind the old mill, whose overshot wheel, backed by a wall thickly +covered with the young creeping fronds of hart's-tongue ferns, forms +such a picturesque foreground for the view of our little valley, the +mill-stream expands into a small shallow pond, overhung at its edges by +thick-set hazel-bushes and clambering 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 simplicity of its own, which makes it +beautiful to our eyes for all that, in spite of its utilitarian origin. +At the bottom of this shallow pond you may now see a miracle daily +taking place, which but for its commonness we should regard as an +almost incredible marvel. You may there behold evolution actually +illustrating the transformation of life under your very eyes: you may +watch a low type of gill-breathing gristly-boned fish developing into +the highest form of lung-breathing terrestrial amphibian. Nay, +more—you may almost discover the earliest known ancestor of the whole +vertebrate kind, the first cousin of that once famous ascidian larva, +passing through all the upward stages of existence which finally lead +it to assume the shape of a relatively perfect four-legged animal. For +the pond is swarming with fat black tadpoles, which are just at this +moment losing their tails and developing their legs, on the way to +becoming fully formed frogs. +</p> + +<p> +The tadpole and the ascidian larva divide between them the honour of +preserving for us in all its native simplicity the primitive aspect of +the vertebrate type. Beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes have all +descended from an animal whose shape closely resembled that of these +wriggling little black creatures which dart up and down like imps +through the clear water, and raise a cloud of mud above their heads +each time that they bury themselves comfortably in the soft mud of the +bottom. But while the birds and beasts, on the one hand, have gone on +bettering themselves out of all knowledge, and while the ascidian, on +the other hand, in his adult form has dropped back into an obscure and +sedentary life—sans eyes, sans teeth, sans taste, sans everything—the +tadpole alone, at least during its early days, remains true to the +ancestral traditions of the vertebrate family. When first it emerges +from its egg it represents the very most rudimentary animal with a +backbone known to our scientific teachers. It has a big hammer-looking +head, and a set of branching outside gills, and a short distinct body, +and a long semi-transparent tail. Its backbone is a mere gristly +channel, in which lies its spinal cord. As it grows, it resembles in +every particular the ascidian larva, with which, indeed, Kowalewsky and +Professor Ray Lankester have demonstrated its essential identity. But +since a great many people seem wrongly to imagine that Professor +Lankester's opinion on this matter is in some way at variance with Mr. +Darwin's and Dr. Haeckel's, it may be well to consider what the +degeneracy of the ascidian really means. The fact is, both larval +forms—that of the frog and that of the ascidian—completely agree in +the position of their brains, their gill-slits, their very rudimentary +backbones, and their spinal cords. Moreover, we ourselves and the +tadpole agree with the ascidian in a further most important point, +which no invertebrate animal shares with us; and that is that our eyes +grow out of our brains, instead of being part of our skin, as in +insects and cuttle-fish. This would seem <i>à priori</i> a most +inconvenient place for an eye—inside the brain; but then, as Professor +Lankester cleverly suggests, our common original ancestor, the very +earliest vertebrate of all, must have been a transparent creature, and +therefore comparatively indifferent 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 had 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. +</p> + +<p> +The ascidian, however, in mature life, has grown degraded and fallen +from his high estate, owing to his bad habit of rooting himself to a +rock and there settling down into a mere sedentary 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 completely atrophied that only his earlier +history allows us to recognise him as a vertebrate by descent at all. +He is in fact a representative of retrogressive development. The +tadpole, on the contrary, goes on swimming about freely, and keeping +the use of its eyes, till at last a pair of hind legs and then a pair +of fore legs begin to bud out from its side, and its tail fades away, +and its gills disappear, and air-breathing lungs take their place, and +it boldly hops on shore a fully evolved tailless amphibian. +</p> + +<p> +There is, however, one interesting question about these two larvæ which +I should much like to solve. The ascidian has only <i>one</i> eye +inside its useless brain, while the tadpole and all other vertebrates +have <i>two</i> from the very first. Now which of us most nearly +represents the old mud-loving vertebrate ancestor in this respect? Have +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 curious cross-connection between the +eyes and the brain, so that the 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 'decussation,' as anatomists call it, affects all the +sense-organs except those of smell; but in fishes it only affects the +eyes. Now, as the young ascidian has retained the ancestral position of +his almost useless eye so steadily, it is reasonable to suppose that he +has retained its other peculiarities as well. May we not conclude, +therefore, that the primitive vertebrate had only one brain-eye; but +that afterwards, as this brain-eye grew outward to the surface, it +split up into two, because of the elongated and flattened 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 arrangement. +</p> + +<p> +It is worth noting, too, that these tadpoles, like all other very low +vertebrates, are mud-haunters; and the most primitive among adult +vertebrates are still cartilaginous mud-fish. Not much is known +geologically about the predecessors of frogs; the tailless amphibians +are late arrivals upon earth, and it may seem curious, therefore, that +they should recall in so many ways the earliest ancestral type. The +reason doubtless is because they are so much given to larval +development. Some ancestors of theirs—primæval newts or +salamanders—must have gone on for countless centuries improving +themselves in their adult shape from age to age, yet bringing all their +young into the world from the egg, as mere mud-fish still, in much the +same state as their unimproved forefathers had done millions of æons +before. Similarly, caterpillars are still all but exact patterns of the +primæval 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. Larvæ and embryos show us the original +types of each race; adults show us the total amount of change produced +by progressive or retrogressive development. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XI"> </a> +XI. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>AMONG THE HEATHER.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +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 botanising, angling, and other bad habits, +in default of means for pursuing 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 eggs have survived +till this summer, when the butterflies they produce will all be needed +to keep up next season's supply. Nevertheless, I have climbed the +highest down in this part of the country to-day, and come out for an +airing among the heather, in the vague hope that I may be lucky enough +to catch a glimpse of one or two old lepidopterous favourites. I am not +a butterfly-hunter myself. I have not the heart to drive pins through +the pretty creatures' downy bodies, or to stifle them with reeking +chemicals; though I recognise the necessity for a hardened class who +will perform that useful office on behalf of science and society, just +as I recognise the necessity for slaughtermen and knackers. But I +prefer personally to lie on the ground at my ease and learn as much +about the insect nature as I can discover from simple inspection of the +living subject as it flits airily from bunch to bunch of +bright-coloured flowers. +</p> + +<p> +I suppose even that apocryphal person, the general reader, would be +insulted at being told at this hour of the day that all bright-coloured +flowers are fertilised by the visits of insects, whose attentions they +are specially designed to solicit. Everybody has heard over and over +again that roses, orchids, and columbines have acquired their honey to +allure the friendly bee, their gaudy petals to advertise the honey, and +their divers shapes to ensure the proper fertilisation by the correct +type of insect. 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 fertilised by butterflies alone. Bees, their great +rivals in honey-sucking, frequent only the lower meadows and slopes, +where flowers are many and small: they seldom venture far from the hive +or the nest among the high peaks and chilly nooks where we find those +great patches of blue 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 but in the bud among the Scotch hills, I doubt not—specially +lays itself out for the bumblebee, and its masses form about his +highest pasture-grounds; but the butterflies—insect vagrants that they +are—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; he does not +bustle about in a business-like manner from one buttercup or +dead-nettle to its nearest fellow; but he flits joyously, like a +sauntering straggler that he is, from a great patch of colour here to +another great patch at a distance, whose gleam happens to strike his +roving eye by its size and brilliancy. Hence, as that indefatigable +observer, Dr. Hermann Müller, has noticed, all Alpine or hill-top +flowers have very large and conspicuous blossoms, generally grouped +together in big clusters so as to catch a passing glance of the +butterfly's eye. As soon as the insect spies such a cluster, the colour +seems to act as a stimulant to his broad wings, just as the +candle-light does to those of his cousin the moth. Off he sails at +once, as if by automatic action, towards the distant patch, and there +both robs the plant of its honey and at the same time carries to it on +his legs and head fertilising pollen from the last of its congeners +which he favoured 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 hybridised instead of being impregnated with +pollen from other plants of their own kind. For this purpose it is that +most plants lay themselves out to secure the attention of only two or +three varieties among their insect allies, while they make their +nectaries either too deep or too shallow for the convenience of all +other kinds. Nature, though eager for cross-fertilisation, abhors +'miscegenation' with all the bitterness of an American politician. +</p> + +<p> +Insects, however, differ much from one another in their æsthetic +tastes, and flowers are adapted accordingly to the varying fancies of +the different kinds. Here, for example, is a spray of common white +galium, which attracts and is fertilised by small flies, who generally +frequent white blossoms. But here, again, not far off, I find a +luxuriant mass of the yellow species, known by the quaint 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 Bethlehem. Now why has +this kind of galium yellow flowers, while its near kinsman yonder has +them snowy white? The reason is that lady's bedstraw is fertilised by +small beetles; and beetles are known to be one among the most +colour-loving races of insects. You may often find one of their number, +the lovely bronze and golden-mailed 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 which beetles +frequent are consequently brightly decked in scarlet or yellow. On the +other hand, the whole family of the umbellates, those tall plants with +level bunches of tiny blossoms, like the fool's parsley, have all but +universally white petals; and Müller, the 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 +remainder consisted mainly of miscellaneous small flies and other +arthropodous riff-raff; whereas in the brilliant class of composites, +including the asters, sunflowers, 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 Müller quaintly remarks, 'to a less æsthetically +cultivated circle of visitors.' But the most brilliant among all +insect-fertilised flowers are those which specially affect the society +of butterflies; and they are only surpassed in this respect throughout +all nature by the still larger and more magnificent tropical species +which owe their fertilisation to humming-birds and brush-tongued +lories. +</p> + +<p> +Is it not a curious, yet a comprehensible circumstance, that the tastes +which thus show themselves in the development, by natural selection, of +lovely flowers, should also show themselves in the marked preference +for beautiful mates? Poised on yonder sprig of harebell stands a little +purple-winged butterfly, one of the most exquisite among our British +kinds. That little butterfly owes its own rich and delicately shaded +tints to the long selective action of a million generations among its +ancestors. So we find throughout that the most beautifully coloured +birds and insects are always those which have had most to do with the +production of bright-coloured fruits and flowers. The butterflies and +rose-beetles are the most gorgeous among insects: the humming-birds and +parrots are the most gorgeous among birds. Nay more, exactly like +effects have been produced in two hemispheres on different tribes by +the same causes. The plain brown swifts of the North have developed +among tropical West Indian and South American orchids the metallic +gorgets and crimson crests of the humming-bird: while a totally unlike +group of Asiatic birds have developed among the rich flora of India and +the Malay Archipelago the exactly similar plumage of the exquisite +sun-birds. Just as bees depend upon flowers, and flowers upon bees, so +the colour-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. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XII"> </a> +XII. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>SPECKLED TROUT.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +It is a piece of the common vanity of anglers to suppose that they know +something about speckled trout. A fox might almost as well pretend that +he was intimately acquainted with the domestic habits of poultry, or an +Iroquois describe the customs of the Algonquins from observations made +upon the specimens who had come under his scalping-knife. I will allow +that anglers are well versed in the necessity for fishing up-stream +rather than in the opposite direction; and I grant that they have +attained an empirical knowledge of the æsthetic preferences of trout in +the matter 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 quietly to the side of the pools in an unfished brooklet, like +this on whose 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 the +live fish themselves for an hour together, as they bask lazily in the +sunlight, 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 the +surface of the stream. The 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 contemplation, +without any danger of their being scared away from their accustomed +haunts by intrusive anglers. +</p> + +<p> +Trout always have a recognised home of their own, inhabited by a pretty +fixed number of individuals. But if you catch the two sole denizens of +a particular scour, you will find another pair installed in their place +to-morrow. Young fry seem always ready to fill up the vacancies caused +by the involuntary retirement of their elders. Their size depends +almost entirely upon the quantity 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 attain. Mr. Herbert Spencer, +who is an angler as well as a philosopher, well observes that where the +trout are many they are generally small; and where they are large they +are generally few. In the mill-stream down the valley they measure only +six inches, though you may fill a basket easily enough on a cloudy day; +but in the canal reservoir, where there are only half-a-dozen fish +altogether, a magnificent eight-pounder has been taken more than once. +In this way we can understand the origin of the great lake trout, which +weigh sometimes forty pounds. They are common trout which have taken to +living in broader waters, where large food is far more abundant, but +where shoals of small fish would starve. The peculiarities thus +impressed upon them have been handed down to their descendants, till at +length they have become sufficiently marked to justify us in regarding +them as a separate species. But it is difficult to say what makes a +species in animals so very variable as fish. There are, in fact, no +less than twelve kinds of trout wholly peculiar to the British Islands, +and some of these are found in very restricted areas. Thus, the Loch +Stennis trout inhabits only the tarns of Orkney; the Galway sea trout +lives nowhere but along the west coast of Ireland; 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 exclusively to +the Llanberis 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 habitat. Even the salmon himself is only a +river trout who has acquired the habit of going down to the sea, where +he gets immensely increased quantities of food (for all the trout kind +are almost omnivorous), and grows big in proportion. But he still +retains many marks of his early existence as a river fish. In the first +place, every salmon 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 species. It really represents, however, +the early form of the salmon, before he took to his annual excursion to +the sea. The ancestral fish, only a hundredth fraction in weight of his +huge descendant, must have somehow acquired the habit of going +seaward—possibly from a drying up of his native stream in seasons of +drought. In the sea, he found himself suddenly supplied with an +unwonted store of food, and grew, like all his kind under similar +circumstances, to an extraordinary size. Thus he attains, as it were, +to a second and final maturity. But salmon cannot lay their eggs in the +sea; or at least, if they did, the young parr would starve for want of +their proper food, or else be choked by the salt water, to which the +old fish have acclimatised themselves. Accordingly, with the return of +the spawning season there comes back an instinctive desire to seek once +more the native fresh water. So the salmon return up stream to spawn, +and the young are hatched in the kind of surroundings which best suit +their tender gills. This instinctive longing for the old home may +probably have arisen during an intermediate stage, when the developing +species still haunted only the brackish water near the river mouths; +and as those fish alone which returned to the head waters could +preserve their race, it would soon grow hardened into a habit engrained +in the nervous system, like the migration of birds or the clustering of +swarming bees around their queen. In like manner the Jamaican +land-crabs, which themselves live on the mountain-tops, come down every +year to lay their eggs in the Caribbean; because, like all other crabs, +they pass their first larval stage as swimming tadpoles, and afterwards +take instinctively to the mountains, as the salmon takes to the sea. +Such a habit could only have arisen by one generation after another +venturing further and further inland, while always returning at the +proper season to the native element for the deposition of the eggs. +</p> + +<p> +These trout here, however, differ from the salmon in one important +particular beside their relative size, and that is that they are +beautifully speckled in their mature form, instead of being merely +silvery like the larger species. The origin of the pretty speckles is +probably to be found in the constant selection by the fish of the most +beautiful among their number as mates. Just as singing birds are in +their fullest and clearest song at the nesting period, and just as many +brilliant species only possess their gorgeous plumage while they are +going through their courtship, and lose the decoration after the young +brood is hatched, so the trout are most brightly coloured at spawning +time, and become lank and dingy after the eggs have been safely +deposited. The parent fish ascend to the head-waters of their native +river during the autumn season to spawn, and then, their glory dimmed, +they return down-stream to the deep pools, where they pass the winter +sulkily, as if ashamed to show themselves in their dull and dusky +suits. But when spring comes round once more, and flies again become +abundant, the trout begin to move up-stream afresh, and soon fatten out +to their customary size and brilliant colours. It might seem at first +sight that creatures so humble as these little fish could hardly have +sufficiently developed aesthetic tastes to prefer one mate above +another on the score of beauty. But we must remember that 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 one +another, so that extremely minute differences must necessarily turn the +scale in favour of one particular suitor rather than his rivals. +Anglers know that trout are attracted by bright colours, that they can +distinguish the different flies upon which they feed, and that +artificial flies must accordingly be made at least into a rough +semblance of the original insects. Some scientific fishermen even +insist that it is no use offering them a brown drake at the time of +year or the hour of day when they are naturally expecting 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 an acute perception +of colour, while there is every reason to believe that all the trout +family have a decided love of metallic glitter, such as that of silver +or of the salmon's scales. Mr. Darwin has shown that the little +stickleback goes through an elaborate courtship, 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 salmon fry and young +trout are almost quite indistinguishable, being both marked with blue +patches (known as 'finger-marks') on their sides, which are remnants of +the ancestral colouring once common to the whole race. But as they grow +up, their later-acquired tastes begin to produce a divergence, due +originally to this selective preference of certain beautiful mates; and +the adult salmon clothes himself from head to tail in sheeny silver, +while the full-grown trout decks his sides with the beautiful speckles +which have earned him his popular name. Countless generations of slight +differences, selected from time to time by the strongest and handsomest +fish, have sufficed at length to bring about these conspicuous +variations from the primitive type, which the young of both races still +preserve. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XIII"> </a> +XIII. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>DODDER AND BROOMRAPE.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +This afternoon, strolling through the under-cliff, I have come across +two quaint and rather uncommon flowers among the straggling brushwood. +One 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 convolvulus blossoms. The stem consists of a long red +thread, twining round and round the gorse, and bursting out here and +there into thick bundles of beautiful bell-shaped flowers. But where +are the leaves? You may trace the red threads through their +labyrinthine windings 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 one of the most thorough-going parasites in all nature. +Ordinary green-leaved plants live by making starches for themselves out +of the carbonic acid in the air, under the influence of sunlight; but +the dodder simply fastens itself on to another plant, sends down +rootlets or suckers into its veins, and drinks up sap stored with +ready-made starches or other foodstuffs, originally destined by its +host for the supply of its own growing leaves, branches, and blossoms. +It lives upon the gorse just as parasitically as the little green +aphides live upon our rose-bushes. The material which it uses up in +pushing forth its long thread-like stem and clustered bells is so much +dead loss to the unfortunate plant on which it has fixed itself. +</p> + +<p> +Old-fashioned books tell us that the mistletoe is a perfect parasite, +while the dodder is an imperfect one; and I believe almost all +botanists will still repeat the foolish saying to the present day. But +it really shows considerable haziness as to what a true parasite is. +The mistletoe is a plant which has taken, it is true, to growing upon +other trees. Its very viscid berries are useful for attaching the seeds +to the trunk of the oak or the apple; and there it roots itself into +the body of its host. But it soon produces real green leaves of its +own, which contain the ordinary chlorophyll found in other leaves, and +help it to manufacture starch, under the influence of sunlight, on its +own account. It is not, therefore, a complete drag upon the tree which +it infests; for though it takes sap and mineral food from the host, it +supplies itself with carbon, which is after all the important thing for +plant-life. Dodder, 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 produced leaves of its own, like the +honeysuckle and the clematis, there would be no great harm done: and +the dodder would be but another climbing plant the more in our flora. +However, it soon insidiously repays the support given it by sending +down little bud-like suckers, through which it draws up nourishment +from the gorse or clover on which it lives. Thus it has no need to +develop leaves of its own; and it accordingly employs all its stolen +material in sending forth matted thread-like stems and bunch after +bunch of bright flowers. As these increase and multiply, they at last +succeed in drawing away all the nutriment from the supporting plant, +which finally dies under the constant drain, just as a horse might die +under the attacks of a host of leeches. But this matters little to the +dodder, which has had time to be visited and fertilised by insects, and +to set and ripen its numerous seeds. One species, the greater dodder, +is thus parasitic upon hops and nettles; a second kind twines round +flax; and the third, which I have here under my eyes, mainly confines +its dangerous attentions to gorse, clover, and thyme. All of them are, +of course, deadly enemies to the plants they infest. +</p> + +<p> +How the dodder acquired this curious mode of life it is not difficult +to see. By descent it is a bind-weed, or wild convolvulus, and its +blossoms are in the main miniature convolvulus blossoms still. Now, all +bind-weeds, as everybody knows, are climbing plants, which twine +themselves round stouter stems for mere physical support This is in +itself a half-parasitic habit, because it enables the plant to dispense +with the trouble of making a thick and solid stem for its own use. But +just suppose that any bind-weed, instead of merely twining, were to put +forth here and there little tendrils, something like those of the ivy, +which managed somehow to grow into the 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 be expected to grow strong and healthy, and hand +down its peculiarities to its descendants. As the leaves would thus be +rendered needless, they would first become very much reduced in size, +and would finally disappear altogether, according to the universal +custom of unnecessary organs. So we should get at length a leafless +plant, with numerous flowers and seeds, just like the dodder. +Parasites, in fact, whether animal or vegetable, always end by becoming +mere reproductive sacs, mechanisms for the simple elaboration of eggs +or seeds. This is just what has happened to the dodder before me. +</p> + +<p> +The other queer plant here is a broomrape. It consists of a tall, +somewhat faded-looking stem, upright instead of climbing, and covered +with brown or purplish scales in the place of leaves. Its flowers +resemble the scales in colour, and the dead-nettle in shape. It is, in +fact, a parasitic dead-nettle, a trifle less degenerate as yet than the +dodder. This broomrape has acquired somewhat the same habits as the +other plant, only that it fixes itself on the roots of clover or broom, +from which it sucks nutriment by its own root, as the dodder does by +its stem-suckers. Of course it still retains in most particulars its +original characteristics as a dead-nettle; it grows with their upright +stem and their curiously shaped flowers, so specially adapted for +fertilisation by insect visitors. But it has naturally lost its leaves, +for which it has no further use, and it possesses no chlorophyll, as +the mistletoe does. Yet it has not probably been parasitic for as long +a time as the dodder, since it still retains a dwindling trace of its +leaves in the shape of dry purply scales, something like those of young +asparagus shoots. These leaves are now, in all likelihood, actually +undergoing a gradual atrophy, and we may fairly expect that in the +course of a few thousand years they will disappear altogether. At +present, however, they remain very conspicuous by their colour, which +is not green, owing to the absence of chlorophyll, but is due to the +same pigment as that of the blossoms. This generally happens with +parasites, or with that other curious sort of plants known as +saprophytes, which live upon decaying living matter in the mould of +forests. As they need no green leaves, but have often inherited leafy +structures of some sort, in a more or less degenerate condition, from +their self-supporting ancestors, they usually display most beautiful +colours in their stems and scales, and several of them rank amongst our +handsomest hot-house plants. Even the dodder has red stalks. Their only +work in life being to elaborate the materials stolen from their host +into the brilliant pigments used in the petals for attracting insect +fertilisers, they pour this same dye into the stems and scales, which +thus render them still more conspicuous to the insects' eyes. Moreover, +as they use their whole material in producing flowers, many of these +are 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 numerous. Thousands of seeds 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 one destined ultimately to survive that dodders and +broomrapes manage to preserve their types at all. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XIV"> </a> +XIV. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>DOG'S MERCURY AND PLANTAIN.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +The hedge and bank in Haye Lane are now a perfect tangled mass of +creeping plants, among which I have just picked out a queer little +three-cornered flower, hardly known even to village children, but +christened by our old herbalists 'dog's mercury.' It is an ancient +trick of language to call coarser or larger plants by the specific +title of some smaller or cultivated kind, with the 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 the same principle, a somewhat similar plant being +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 the eyes of old-fashioned practitioners. +</p> + +<p> +Dog's mercury is one of the oddest English flowers I know. Each blossom +has three small green petals, and either several stamens, or else a +pistil, in the centre. There is nothing particularly remarkable in the +flower being green, for thousands of other flowers are green and we +never notice them as in any way unusual. In fact, we never as a rule +notice green blossoms at all. Yet anybody who picked a piece of dog's +mercury could not fail to be struck by its curious appearance. It does +not in the least resemble the inconspicuous green flowers of the +stinging-nettle, or of most forest trees: it has a very distinct set of +petals which at once impress one with the idea that they ought to be +coloured. And so indeed they ought: for dog's mercury is a degenerate +plant which once possessed a brilliant corolla and was fertilised by +insects, but which has now fallen from its high estate and reverted to +the less advanced mode of fertilisation by the intermediation of the +wind. For some unknown reason or other this species and all its +relations have discovered that they get on better by the latter and +usually more wasteful plan than by the former and usually more +economical one. Hence they have given up producing large bright petals, +because they no longer need to attract the eyes of insects; and they +have also given up the manufacture of honey, which under their new +circumstances would be a mere waste of substance to them. But the dog's +mercury still retains a distinct mark of its earlier insect-attracting +habits in these three diminutive petals. Others of its relations have +lost even these, so that the original floral form is almost completely +obscured in their case. The spurges are familiar English roadside +examples, and their flowers are so completely degraded that even +botanists for a long time mistook their nature and analogies. +</p> + +<p> +The male and female flowers of dog's mercury have taken to living upon +separate plants. Why is this? Well, there was no doubt a time when +every blossom had both stamens and pistil, as dog-roses and buttercups +always have. But when the plant took to wind fertilisation it underwent +a change of structure. The stamens on some blossoms became aborted, +while the pistil became aborted on others. This was necessary in order +to prevent self-fertilisation; for otherwise the pollen of each +blossom, hanging out as it does to the wind, would have been very +liable to fall upon its own pistil. But the present arrangement +obviates any such contingency, by making one plant bear all the male +flowers and another plant all the female ones. Why, again, are the +petals green? I think because dog's mercury would be positively injured +by the visits of insects. It has no honey to offer them, and if they +came to it at all, they would only eat up the pollen itself. Hence I +suspect that those flowers among the mercuries which showed any +tendency to retain the original coloured petals would soon get weeded +out, because insects would eat up all their pollen, thus preventing +them from fertilising others; while those which had green petals would +never be noticed and so would be permitted to fertilise one another +after their new fashion. In fact, when a blossom which has once +depended upon insects for its fertilisation is driven by circumstances +to depend upon the wind, it seems to derive a positive advantage from +losing all those attractive features by which its ancestors formerly +allured the eyes of bees or beetles. +</p> + +<p> +Here, again, on the roadside is a bit of plantain. Everybody 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 time it was a sort of distant cousin to the +veronica, that pretty sky-blue speedwell which abounds among the +meadows in June and July. But these particular speedwells gave up +devoting themselves to insects and became adapted for fertilisation 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 +blossoms, whose pale and faded petals are tucked away out of sight flat +against the stem. Yet their shape and arrangement distinctly recall the +beautiful veronica, and leave one in little doubt as to the origin of +the plant. At the same time a curious device has sprung up which +answers just the same purpose as the separation of the male and female +flowers on the dog's mercury. Each plantain blossom has both stamens +and pistils, but the pistils come to maturity first, and are fertilised +by pollen blown to them from some neighbouring spike. Their feathery +plumes are admirably adapted for catching and utilising any stray +golden grain which happens to pass that way. After the pistils have +faded, the stamens ripen, and hang out at the end of long waving +filaments, so as to discharge all their pollen with effect. On each +spike of blossoms the lower flowerets open first; and so, if you pick a +half-blown spike, you will see that all the stamens are ripe below, and +all the pistils above. Were the opposite arrangement to occur, the +pollen would fall from the stamens to the lower flowers of the same +stalk; but as the pistils below have always been fertilised and +withered before the stamens ripen, there is no chance of any such +accident and its consequent evil results. Thus one can see clearly that +the plantain has become wholly adapted to wind-fertilisation, and as a +natural effect has all but lost its bright-coloured corolla. +</p> + +<p> +Common groundsel is also a case of the same kind; but here the +degradation has not gone nearly so far. I venture to conjecture, +therefore, that groundsel has been embarked for a shorter time upon its +downward course. For evolution is not, as most people seem to fancy, a +thing which used once to take place; it is a process taking place +around us every day, and it must necessarily continue to take place to +the end of all time. By family the groundsel is a daisy; but it has +acquired the strange and somewhat abnormal habit of self-fertilisation, +which in all probability will ultimately lead to its total extinction. +Hence it does not need the assistance of insects; and it has +accordingly never developed or else got rid of the bright outer +ray-florets which may once have attracted them. Its tiny bell-shaped +blossoms still retain their dwarf yellow corollas; but they are almost +hidden by the green cup-like investment of the flower-head, and they +are not conspicuous enough to arrest the attention of the passing +flies. Here, then, we have an example of a plant just beginning to +start on the retrograde path already traversed by the plantain and the +spurges. If we could meet prophetically with a groundsel of some remote +future century, I have little doubt we should find its bell-shaped +petals as completely degraded as those of the plantain in our own day. +</p> + +<p> +The general principle which these cases illustrate is that when flowers +have always been fertilised by the wind, they never have brilliant +corollas; when they acquire the habit of impregnating their kind by the +intervention of insects, they almost always acquire at the same time +alluring colours, perfumes, and honey; and when they have once been so +impregnated, and then revert once more to wind-fertilisation, or become +self-fertilisers, they generally retain some symptoms of their earlier +habits, in the presence of dwarfed and useless petals, sometimes green, +or if not green at least devoid of their former attractive colouring. +Thus every plant bears upon its very face the history of its whole +previous development. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XV"> </a> +XV. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +A small red-and-black butterfly poises statuesque above the purple +blossom of this tall field-thistle. With its long sucker it probes +industriously floret after floret of the crowded head, and extracts +from each its wee drop of buried nectar. As it stands just at present, +the dull outer sides of its four wings are alone displayed, so that it +does not form a conspicuous mark for passing birds; but when it has +drunk up the last drop of honey from the thistle flower, and flits +joyously away to seek another purple mass of the same sort, it will +open its red-spotted vans in the sunlight, and will then show itself +off as one among the prettiest of our native insects. Each thistle-head +consists of some two hundred separate little bell-shaped blossoms, +crowded together for the sake of conspicuousness into a single group, +just as the blossoms of the lilac or the syringa are crowded into +larger though less dense clusters; and, as each separate floret has a +nectary of its own, the bee or butterfly who lights upon the compound +flower-group can busy himself for a minute or two in getting at the +various drops of honey without the necessity for any further change of +position than that of revolving upon his own axis. Hence these +composite flowers are great favourites with all insects whose suckers +are long enough to reach the bottom of their slender tubes. +</p> + +<p> +The butterfly's view of life is doubtless on the whole a cheerful one. +Yet his existence must be something so nearly mechanical that we +probably overrate the amount of enjoyment which he derives from +flitting about so airily among the flowers, and passing his days in the +unbroken amusement of sucking liquid honey. Subjectively viewed, the +butterfly is not a high order of insect; his nervous system does not +show that provision for comparatively spontaneous thought and action +which we find in the more intelligent orders, like the flies, bees, +ants, and wasps. His nerves are all frittered away in little separate +ganglia distributed among the various segments of his body, instead of +being governed by a single great central organ, or brain, whose +business it always is to correlate and co-ordinate complex external +impressions. This shows that the butterfly's movements are almost all +automatic, or simply dependent upon immediate external stimulants: he +has not even that small capacity for deliberation and spontaneous +initiative which belongs to his relation the bee. The freedom of the +will is nothing to him, or extends at best to the amount claimed on +behalf of Buridan's ass: he can just choose which of two equidistant +flowers shall first have the benefit of his attention, and nothing +else. Whatever view we take on the abstract metaphysical question, it +is at least certain that the higher animals can do much more than this. +Their brain is able to correlate a vast number of external impressions, +and to bring them under the influence of endless ideas or experiences, +so as finally to evolve conduct which differs very widely with +different circumstances and different characters. Even though it be +true, as determinists believe (and I reckon myself among them), that +such conduct is the necessary result of a given character and given +circumstances—or, if you will, of a particular set of nervous +structures and a particular set of external stimuli—yet we all know +that it is capable of varying so indefinitely, owing to the complexity +of the structures, as to be practically incalculable. But it is not so +with the butterfly. His whole life is cut out for him beforehand; his +nervous connections are so simple, and correspond so directly with +external stimuli, that we can almost predict with certainty what line +of action he will pursue under any given circumstances. He is, as it +were, but a piece of half-conscious mechanism, answering immediately to +impulses from without, just as the thermometer answers to variations of +temperature, and as the telegraphic indicator answers to each making +and breaking of the electric current. +</p> + +<p> +In early life the future butterfly emerges from the egg as a +caterpillar. At once his many legs begin to move, and the caterpillar +moves forward by their motion. But the mechanism which set them moving +was the nervous system, with its ganglia working the separate legs of +each segment. This movement is probably quite as automatic as the act +of sucking in the new-born infant. The caterpillar walks, it knows not +why, but simply because it has to walk. When it reaches a fit place for +feeding, which differs according to the nature of the particular larva, +it feeds automatically. Certain special external stimulants of sight, +smell, or touch set up the appropriate actions in the mandibles, just +as contact of the lips with an external body sets up sucking in the +infant. All these movements depend upon what we call instinct—that is +to say, organic habits registered in the nervous system of the race. +They have arisen by natural selection alone, because those insects +which duly performed them survived, and those which did not duly +perform them died out. After a considerable span of life spent in +feeding and walking about in search of more food, the caterpillar one +day found itself compelled by an inner monitor to alter its habits. +Why, it knew not; but, just as a tired child sinks to sleep, the gorged +and full-fed caterpillar sank peacefully into a dormant state. Then its +tissues melted one by one into a kind of organic pap, and its outer +skin hardened into a chrysalis. Within that solid case new limbs and +organs began to grow by hereditary impulses. At the same time the form +of the nervous system altered, to suit the higher and freer life for +which the insect was unconsciously preparing itself. Fewer and smaller +ganglia now appeared in the tail segments (since no legs would any +longer be needed there), while more important ones sprang up to govern +the motions of the four wings. But it was in the head that the greatest +changes took place. There, a rudimentary brain made its appearance, +with large optic centres, answering to the far more perfect and +important eyes of the future butterfly. For the flying insect will have +to steer its way through open space, instead of creeping over leaves +and stones; and it will have to suck the honey of flowers, as well as +to choose its fitting mate, all of which demands from it higher and +keener senses than those of the purblind caterpillar. At length one day +the chrysalis bursts asunder, and the insect emerges to view on a +summer morning as a full-fledged and beautiful butterfly. +</p> + +<p> +For a minute or two it stands and waits till the air it breathes has +filled out its wings, and till the warmth and sunlight have given it +strength. For the wings are by origin a part of the breathing +apparatus, and they require to be plimmed by the air before the insect +can take to flight. Then, as it grows more accustomed to its new life, +the hereditary impulse causes it to spread its vans abroad, and it +flies. Soon a flower catches its eye, and the bright mass of colour +attracts it irresistibly, as the candle-light attracts the eye of a +child a few weeks old. It sets off towards the patch of red or yellow, +probably not knowing beforehand that this is the visible symbol of food +for it, but merely guided by the blind habit of its race, imprinted +with binding force in the very constitution of its body. Thus the +moths, which fly by night and visit only white flowers whose corollas +still shine out in the twilight, are so irresistibly led on by the +external stimulus of light from a candle falling upon their eyes that +they cannot choose but move their wings rapidly in that direction; and +though singed and blinded twice or three times by the flame, must still +wheel and eddy into it, till at last they perish in the scorching +blaze. Their instincts, or, to put it more clearly, their simple +nervous mechanism, though admirably adapted to their natural +circumstances, cannot be equally adapted to such artificial objects as +wax candles. The butterfly in like manner is attracted automatically by +the colour of his proper flowers, and settling upon them, sucks up +their honey instinctively. But feeding is not now his only object in +life: he has to find and pair with a suitable mate. That, indeed, is +the great end of his winged existence. Here, again, his simple nervous +system stands him in good stead. The picture of his kind is, as it +were, imprinted on his little brain, and he knows his own mates the +moment he sees them, just as intuitively as he knows the flowers upon +which he must feed. Now we see the reason for the butterfly's large +optic centres: they have to guide it in all its movements. In like +manner, and by a like mechanism, the female butterfly or moth selects +the right spot for laying her eggs, which of course depends entirely +upon the nature of the young caterpillars' proper food. Each great +group of insects has its own habits in this respect, may-flies laying +their eggs on the water, many beetles on wood, flies on decaying animal +matter, and butterflies mostly on special plants. Thus throughout its +whole life the butterfly's activity is entirely governed by a rigid +law, registered and fixed for ever in the constitution of its ganglia +and motor nerves. Certain definite objects outside it invariably +produce certain definite movements on the insect's part. No doubt it is +vaguely conscious of all that it does: no doubt it derives a faint +pleasure from due exercise of all its vital functions, and a faint pain +when they are injured or thwarted; but on the whole its range of action +is narrowed and bounded by its hereditary instincts and their nervous +correlatives. It may light on one flower rather than another; it may +choose a fresher and brighter mate rather than a battered and dingy +one; but its little subjectivity is a mere shadow compared with ours, +and it hardly deserves to be considered as more than a semi-conscious +automatic machine. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XVI"> </a> +XVI. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>BUTTERFLY ÆSTHETICS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +The other day, when I was watching that little red-spotted butterfly +whose psychology I found so interesting, I hardly 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 +second great point is to understand that they are probably something +more than that as well. To-day I have found another 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 intellectually, a +cunning bit of nervous machinery, may it not be true at the same time +that he is, viewed emotionally, a faint copy of ourselves? +</p> + +<p> +Here he stands on a purple thistle again, true, as usual, to the plant +on which I last found him. There can be no doubt that he distinguishes +one colour from another, for you can artificially attract him by +putting a piece of purple paper on a green leaf, just as the flower +naturally attracts him with its native hue. Numerous observations and +experiments have proved with all but absolute certainty that his +discrimination of colour is essentially identical with our own; and I +think, if we run our eye up and down nature, observing how universally +all animals are attracted by pure and bright colours, we can hardly +doubt that he appreciates and admires colour as well as discriminates +it. Mr. Darwin certainly judges that butterflies can show an æsthetic +preference of the sort, for he sets down their own lovely hues to the +constant sexual selection of the handsomest mates. We must not, +however, take too human a measure of their capacities in this respect. +It is sufficient to believe that the insect derives some direct +enjoyment from the stimulation of pure colour, and is hereditarily +attracted by it wherever it may show itself. This pleasure draws it on, +on the one hand, towards the gay flowers which form its natural food; +and, on the other hand, towards its own brilliant mates. Imprinted on +its nervous system is a certain blank form answering to its own +specific type; and when the object corresponding to this blank form +occurs in its neighbourhood, 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 the 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 reddest 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 butterflies. Insects always accustomed to exercising their +colour-sense upon flowers and mates, may easily acquire a high standard +of taste in that direction, while still remaining comparatively in a +low stage as regards their intellectual condition. But the fact I wish +especially to emphasise is this—that the flowers produced by the +colour-sense of butterflies and their allies are just those objects +which we ourselves consider most lovely in nature; and that the marks +and shades upon their own wings, produced by the long selective action +of their mates, are just the things which we ourselves consider most +beautiful in the animal world. In this respect, then, there seems to be +a close community of taste and feeling between the butterfly and +ourselves. +</p> + +<p> +Let me note, too, just in passing, that while the upper half of the +butterfly's wing is generally beautiful in colour, so as to attract his +fastidious mate, the under half, displayed while he is at rest, is +almost always dull, and often resembles the plant upon which he +habitually alights. The first set of colours is obviously due to sexual +selection, and has for its object the making of an effective courtship; +but the second set is obviously due to natural selection, and has been +produced by the fact that all those insects whose bright colours show +through too vividly when they are at rest fall a prey to birds or other +enemies, leaving only the best protected to continue the life of the +species. +</p> + +<p> +But sight is not the only important sense to the butterfly. He is +largely moved and guided by smell as well. Both bees and butterflies +seem largely to select the flowers they visit by means of smell, though +colour 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. Bastian says, there seems +good reason for believing 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 butterflies are +not only coloured but sweetly scented; and it is to this cause that we +owe the perfumes of the rose, the lily-of-the-valley, the heliotrope, +the jasmine, the violet, and the stephanotis. Night-flowering plants, +which depend entirely for their fertilisation upon moths, are almost +always white, and have usually very powerful perfumes. 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? +Here, again, we see that the æsthetic 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. +</p> + +<p> +Finally, if we look at the sense of taste, we find an equally curious +agreement between men and insects; for the honey which is stored by the +flower for the bee, and by the bee for its own use, is stolen and eaten +up by man instead. Hence, when I consider the general continuity of +nervous structure throughout the whole animal race, and the exact +similarity of the stimulus in each instance, I can hardly doubt that +the butterfly really enjoys life somewhat as we enjoy it, though far +less vividly. I cannot but think that he finds honey sweet, and +perfumes pleasant, and colour attractive; that he feels a lightsome +gladness as he 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 animal world, save only in a few +aberrant types, sugar is sweet to taste, and thyme to smell, and song +to hear, and sunshine to bask in. Therefore, on the whole, while I +admit that the butterfly is mainly an animated puppet, I must qualify +my opinion by adding that it is a puppet which, after its vague little +fashion, thinks and feels very much as we do. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XVII"> </a> +XVII. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>THE ORIGIN OF WALNUTS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Mr. Darwin has devoted no small portion of his valuable life to +tracing, in two bulky volumes, the Descent of Man. Yet I suppose it is +probable that in our narrow anthropinism we should have refused to +listen to him had he given us two volumes instead on the Descent of +Walnuts. Viewed as a question merely of biological science, the one +subject is just as important as the other. But the old Greek doctrine +that 'man is the measure of all things' is strong in us still. We form +for ourselves a sort of pre-Copernican universe, in which the world +occupies the central point of space, and man occupies the central point +of the world. What touches man interests us deeply: what concerns him +but slightly we pass over as of no consequence. Nevertheless, even the +origin and development of walnuts is a subject upon which we may +profitably reflect, not wholly without gratification and interest. +</p> + +<p> +This kiln-dried walnut on my plate, which has suggested such abstract +cogitations to my mind, is shown by its very name to be a foreign +production; for the word contains the same root as Wales and Welsh, the +old Teutonic name for men of a different race, which the Germans still +apply to the Italians, and we ourselves to the last relics of the old +Keltic population in Southern Britain. It means 'the foreign nut,' and +it comes for the most part from the south of Europe. As a nut, it +represents a very different type of fruit from the strawberry and +raspberry, with their bright colours, sweet juices, and nutritious +pulp. Those fruits which alone bear the name in common parlance are +attractive in their object; the nuts are deterrent. An orange or a plum +is brightly tinted with hues which contrast strongly with the +surrounding foliage; its pleasant taste and soft pulp all advertise it +for the notice of birds or monkeys, as a means for assisting in the +dispersion of its seed. But a nut, on the contrary, is a fruit whose +actual seed contains an abundance of oils and other pleasant +food-stuffs, which must be carefully guarded against the depredations +of possible foes. In the plum or the orange we do not eat the seed +itself: we only eat the surrounding pulp. But in the walnut the part +which we utilise is the embryo plant itself; and so the walnut's great +object in life is to avoid being eaten. Accordingly, that part of the +fruit which in the plum is stored with sweet juices is, in the walnut, +filled with a bitter and very nauseous essence. We seldom see this +bitter covering in our over-civilised life, because it is, of course, +removed before the nuts come to table. The walnut has but a thin shell, +and is poorly protected in comparison with some of its relations, such +as the American butternut, which can only be cracked by a sharp blow +from a hammer—or even the hickory, whose hard covering has done more +to destroy the teeth of New Englanders than all other causes put +together, and New England teeth are universally admitted to be the very +worst in the world. Now, all nuts have to guard against squirrels and +birds; and therefore their peculiarities are exactly opposite to those +of succulent fruits. Instead of attracting attention by being brightly +coloured, they are invariably green like the leaves while they remain +on the tree, and brown or dusky like the soil when they fall upon the +ground beneath; instead of being enclosed in sweet coats, they are +provided with bitter, acrid, or stinging husks; and, instead of being +soft in texture, they are surrounded by hard shells, like the coco-nut, +or have a perfectly solid kernel, like the vegetable ivory. +</p> + +<p> +The origin of nuts is thus exactly the reverse side of the origin of +fruits. Certain seeds, richly stored with oils and starches for aiding +the growth of the young plant, are exposed to the attacks of squirrels, +monkeys, parrots, and other arboreal animals. The greater part of them +are eaten and completely destroyed by these their enemies, and so never +hand down their peculiarities to any descendants. But all fruits vary a +little in sweetness and bitterness, pulpy or stringy tendencies. Thus a +few among them happen to be protected from destruction by their +originally accidental possession of a bitter husk, a hard shell, or a +few awkward spines and bristles. These the monkeys and squirrels +reject; and they alone survive as the parents of future generations. +The more persistent and the hungrier their foes become, the less will a +small degree of bitterness or hardness serve to protect them. Hence, +from generation to generation, the bitterness and the hardness will go +on increasing, because only those nuts which are the nastiest and the +most difficult to crack will escape destruction from the teeth or bills +of the growing and pressing population of rodents and birds. The nut +which best survives on the average is that which is least conspicuous +in colour, has a rind of the most objectionable taste, and is enclosed +in the most solid shell. But the extent to which such precautions +become necessary will depend much upon the particular animals to whose +attacks the nuts of each country are exposed. The European walnut has +only to defy a few small woodland animals, who are sufficiently +deterred by its acrid husk; the American butter-nut has to withstand +the long teeth of much more formidable forestine rodents, whom it sets +at nought with its stony and wrinkled shell; and the tropical cocos and +Brazil nuts have to escape the monkey, who pounds them with stones, or +flings them with all his might from the tree-top so as to smash them in +their fall against the ground below. +</p> + +<p> +Our own hazel-nut supplies an excellent illustration of the general +tactics adopted by the nuts at large. The little red tufted blossoms +which everybody knows so well in early spring are each surrounded by a +bunch of three bracts; and as the nut grows bigger, these bracts form a +green leaf-like covering, which causes it to look very much like the +ordinary foliage of the hazel-tree. Besides, they are thickly set with +small prickly hairs, which are extremely annoying to the fingers, 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 shade +from the nuts themselves. Take, as an example of the more carefully +protected tropical kinds, the coco-nut. Growing on a very tall +palm-tree, it has to fall a considerable distance toward the earth; and +so it is wrapped round in a mass of loose knotted fibre, which breaks +the fall just as a lot of soft wool would do. Then, being a large nut, +fully stored with an abundance of meat, it offers special attractions +to animals, and consequently requires special means of defence. +Accordingly, its shell is extravagantly thick, only one small soft spot +being left at the blunter end, through which the young plant may push +its head. Once upon a time, to be sure, the coco-nut contained three +kernels, and had three such soft spots or holes; but now two of them +are aborted, and the two holes remain only in the form of hard scars. +The Brazil nut is even a better illustration. Probably few people know +that the irregular angular nuts which appear at dessert by that name +are originally contained inside a single round shell, where they fit +tightly together, and acquire their queer indefinite shapes by mutual +pressure. So the South American monkey has first to crack the thick +external common shell against a stone or otherwise; and, if he is +successful in this process, he must afterwards break the separate +sharp-edged inner nuts with his teeth—a performance which is always +painful and often ineffectual. +</p> + +<p> +Yet it is curious that nuts and fruits are really produced by the very +slightest variations on a common type, so much so that the technical +botanist does not recognise the popular distinction between them at +all. In his eyes, the walnut and the coco-nut 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 succulent and fills with +sugary juice, in the walnut its juice is bitter, and in the coco-nut it +has no juice at all, but remains a mere matted layer of dry fibres. And +while the thin external skin becomes purple in the plum and red in the +cherry as the fruits ripen, it remains green and brown in the walnut +and coco-nut all their time. Nevertheless, Darwinism shows us both here +and elsewhere that the popular distinction answers to a real difference +of origin and function. When a seed-vessel, whatever its botanical +structure, survives by dint of attracting animals, it always acquires a +bright-coloured envelope and a sweet pulp; while it usually possesses a +hard seed-shell, and often infuses bitter essences into its kernel. On +the other hand, when a seed-vessel survives by escaping the notice of +animals, it generally has a sweet and pleasant kernel, which it +protects by a hard shell and an inconspicuous and nauseous envelope. If +the kernel itself is bitter, as with the horse-chestnut, the need for +disguise and external protection is much lessened. But the best +illustration of all is seen in the West Indian cashew-nut, which is +what Alice in Wonderland would have called a portmanteau seed-vessel—a +fruit and a nut rolled into one. In this curious case, the stalk swells +out into a bright-coloured and juicy mass, looking something like a +pear, but of course containing no seeds; while the nut grows out from +its end, secured from intrusion by a covering with a pungent juice, +which burns and blisters the skin at a touch. No animal except man can +ever successfully tackle the cashew-nut itself; but by eating the +pear-like stalk other animals ultimately aid in distributing the seed. +The cashew thus vicariously sacrifices its fruit-stem for the sake of +preserving its nut. +</p> + +<p> +All nature is a continuous game 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 the protections adopted by plants; and those plants +alone survive whose peculiarities happen successfully to defy the +attack of animals. There you have the Darwinian Iliad in a nutshell. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XVIII"> </a> +XVIII. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>A PRETTY LAND-SHELL.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +The heavy rains which have done so much harm to the standing corn have +at least had the effect of making the country look greener and lovelier +than I have seen it look for many seasons. There is now a fresh verdure +about the upland pastures and pine woods which almost reminds one of +the deep valleys of the Bernese Oberland in early spring. Last year's +continuous wet weather gave the trees and grass a miserable draggled +appearance; but this summer's rain, coming after a dry spring, has +brought out all the foliage in unwonted luxuriance; and everybody +(except the British farmer) agrees that we have never seen the country +look more beautiful. Though the year is now so far advanced, the trees +are still as green as in springtide; and the meadows, with their rich +aftermath springing up apace, look almost as lush and fresh as they did +in early June. Londoners who get away to the country or the seaside +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. +</p> + +<p> +Here, on the edge of the down, where I have come up to get a good +blowing from the clear south-west breeze, I have just sat down to rest +myself awhile and to admire the view, and have reverted for a moment to +my old habit of snail-hunting. Years ago, when evolution was an +infant—an infant much troubled by the complaints inseparable from +infancy, but still a sturdy and vigorous 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 to +this day I seldom go out for a walk without a few pill-boxes in my +pocket, in case I should happen to hit upon any remarkable 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 here and could show it to you; for most +people only know the two or three ugly brown or banded snails that prey +upon their cabbages and lettuces, and have no notion of the lovely +shells to be found by hunting among English copses and under the dead +leaves of Scotch hill-sides. This cyclostoma, however,—I <i>must</i> +trouble you with a Latin name for once—is so remarkably pretty, with +its graceful elongated spiral whorls, and its delicately chiselled +fretwork tracery, that even naturalists (who have perhaps, on the +whole, less sense of beauty than any class of men I know) have +recognised its loveliness by giving it the specific epithet of +<i>elegans</i>. It is big enough for anybody to notice it, being about +the size of a periwinkle; and its exquisite stippled chasing is +strongly marked enough to be perfectly visible to the naked eye. But +besides its beauty, the cyclostoma has a strong claim upon our +attention because of its curious history. +</p> + +<p> +Long ago, in the infantile days of evolutionism, I often wondered why +people made collections on such an irrational plan. They always try to +get what they call the most typical specimens, and reject all those +which are doubtful or intermediate. Hence the dogma of the fixity of +species becomes all the more firmly settled in their minds, because +they never attend to the existing links which still so largely bridge +over the artificial gaps created by our nomenclature between kind and +kind. I went to work on the opposite plan, collecting all those +aberrant individuals which most 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 ended and the next group began. Among the snails such an +arrangement is peculiarly easy; for some of the species are very +indefinite, and the varieties are numerous under each species. Nothing +can give one so good a notion of the plasticity of organic forms as +such a method. The endless varieties and intermediate links which exist +amongst dogs is the nearest example to it with which ordinary observers +are familiar. +</p> + +<p> +But the cyclostoma is a snail which introduces one to still deeper +questions. It belongs in all our scientific classifications to the +group of lung-breathing mollusks, like the common garden snail. Yet it +has one remarkable peculiarity: it possesses an operculum, or door to +its shell, like that of the periwinkle. This operculum represents among +the univalves the under-shell of the oyster or other bivalves; but it +has completely disappeared in most land and fresh-water snails, as well +as among many marine species. The fact of its occurrence in the +cyclostoma would thus be quite inexplicable if we were compelled to +regard it as a descendant of the other lung-breathing mollusks. 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 cast upon the +question by Darwinism, 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 paludina. 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 cyclostoma among the gill-breathers, +because of its close resemblance 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 producing 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 animal like a snail. Besides, 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 streams. +There are others which go further from the water, and spend their days +in damp grass. And there are yet others which have taken to a wholly +terrestrial existence in woods or meadows and under heaps of stones. +All of them agree with the pond-snails in having an operculum, and so +differ from the ordinary land and river snails, the mouths of whose +shells are quite unprotected. Thus land-nails have two separate +origins—one large group (including the garden-snail) being derived +from the common fresh-water mollusks, while another much smaller group +(including the cyclostoma) is derived from the operculated pond-snails. +</p> + +<p> +How is it, then, that naturalists had so long overlooked this +distinction? Simply because their artificial classification is based +entirely upon the nature of the breathing apparatus. But, as Mr. +Wallace has well pointed out, obvious and important functional +differences are of far less value in tracing relationship than +insignificant and unimportant structural details. Any water-snail may +have to take to a terrestrial life if the ponds in which it lives are +liable to dry up during warm weather. Those individuals alone will then +survive which display a tendency to oxygenise their blood by some +rudimentary form of lung. Hence the possession of lungs is not the mark +of a real genealogical class, but a mere necessary result of a +terrestrial existence. On the other hand, the possession of an +operculum, unimportant as it may be to the life of the animal, is a +good test of relationship by descent. All snails which take to living +on land, whatever their original form, will acquire lungs: but an +operculated snail will retain its operculum, and so bear witness to its +ancestry; while a snail which is not operculated will of course show no +tendency to develop such a structure, and so will equally give a true +testimony as to its origin. In short, the less functionally useful any +organ is, the higher is its value as a gauge of its owner's pedigree, +like a Bourbon nose or an Austrian lip. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XIX"> </a> +XIX. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>DOGS AND MASTERS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Probably the most forlorn and abject creature to be seen on the face of +the earth is a masterless dog. Slouching and slinking along, cringing +to every human being it chances to meet, running away with its tail +between its legs from smaller dogs whom under other circumstances it +would accost with a gruff who-the-dickens-are-you sort of growl,—it +forms the very picture of utter humiliation and self-abasement. Grip +and I have just come across such a lost specimen of stray doghood, +trying to find his way back to his home across the fields—I fancy he +belongs to a travelling show which left the village yesterday—and it +is quite refreshing to watch the air of superior wisdom and calm but +mute compassionateness with which Grip casts his eye sidelong upon +that wretched masterless vagrant, and passes him by without even a +nod. He looks up to me complacently as he trots along by my side, and +seems to say with his eye, 'Poor fellow! he's lost his master, you +know—careless dog that he is!' I believe the lesson has had a good +moral effect upon Grip's own conduct, too; for he has now spent ten +whole minutes well within my sight, and has resisted the most tempting +solicitations to ratting and rabbiting held out by half-a-dozen holes +and burrows in the hedge-wall as we go along. +</p> + +<p> +This total dependence of dogs upon a master is a very interesting +example of the growth of inherited instincts. The original dog, who +was a wolf or something very like it, could 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 preserved +and increased; those which followed too much their own original +instincts were destroyed or at least discouraged. The savage hunter +would be very apt to fling his stone axe at the skull of a hound which +tried to eat the game he had brought down with his flint-tipped arrow, +instead of retrieving it: he would be most likely to keep carefully and +feed well on the refuse of his own meals the hound which aided him most +in surprising, killing, and securing his quarry. Thus there sprang up +between man and the dog a mutual and ever increasing sympathy which on +the part of the dependent creature has at last become organised into an +inherited instinct. If we could only thread the labyrinth of a dog's +brain, we should find somewhere in it a group of correlated +nerve-connections answering to this universal habit of his race; and +the group in question would be quite without any analogous mechanism in +the brain of the ancestral wolf. As truly as the wing of the bird is +adapted to its congenital instinct of flying, as truly as the nervous +system of the bee is adapted to its congenital instinct of honeycomb +building, just so truly is the brain of the dog adapted to its now +congenital instinct of following and obeying a master. The habit of +attaching itself to a particular human being is nowadays engrained in +the nerves of the modern dog just as really, though not quite so +deeply, as the habit of running or biting is engrained in its bones and +muscles. Every dog is born into the world with a certain inherited +structure of limbs, sense-organs, and brain: and this inherited +structure governs all its future actions, both bodily and mental. It +seeks a master because it is endowed with master-seeking brain organs; +it is dissatisfied until it finds one, because its native functions can +have free play in no other way. Among a few dogs, like those of +Constantinople, the instinct may have 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 puppyhood under a master, the instinct is +fully and freely developed, and the masterless condition is thenceforth +for him a thwarting and disappointing of all his natural feelings and +affections. +</p> + +<p> +Not only have dogs as a class acquired a special instinct with regard +to humanity generally, but particular breeds of dogs have acquired +particular instincts with regard to certain individual acts. Nobody +doubts that the muscles of a greyhound are specially correlated to the +acts of running and leaping; or that the muscles of a bull-dog are +specially correlated to the act of fighting. The whole external form of +these creatures has been modified by man's selective action for a +deliberate purpose: we breed, as we say, from the dog with the best +points. But besides being able to modify the visible and outer +structure of the animal, we are also able to modify, by indirect +indications, the hidden and inner structure of the brain. We choose the +best ratter among our terriers, the best pointer, retriever, or setter +among other breeds, to become the parents of our future stock. We thus +half unconsciously select particular types of nervous system in +preference to others. Once upon a time we used even to rear a race of +dogs with a strange instinct for turning the spit in our kitchens; and +to this day the Cubans rear blood-hounds with a natural taste for +hunting down the trail of runaway negroes. Now, everybody knows that +you cannot teach one sort of dog the kind of tricks which come by +instinct to a different sort. No amount of instruction will induce a +well-bred terrier to retrieve your handkerchief: he insists upon +worrying it instead. So no amount of instruction will induce a +well-bred retriever to worry a rat: he brings it gingerly to your feet, +as if it was a dead partridge. The reason is obvious, because no one +would breed from a retriever which worried or from a terrier which +treated its natural prey as if it were a stick. Thus the brain of each +kind is hereditarily supplied with certain nervous connections wanting +in the brain 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 greyhound and the bull-dog. Those who have watched +closely the different races of men can hardly hesitate to believe that +something analogous exists in our own case. While the highest types +are, as Mr. Herbert Spencer well puts it, to some extent 'organically +moral' and structurally intelligent, the lowest types are congenitally +deficient. A European child learns to read almost by nature (for +Dogberry was essentially right after all), while a Negro child learns +to read by painful personal experience. And savages brought to Europe +and 'civilised' for years often return at last with joy to their native +home, cast off their clothes and their outer veneering, and take once +more to the only life for which their nervous organisation naturally +fits them. 'What is bred in the bone,' says the wise old proverb, 'will +out in the blood.' +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XX"> </a> +XX. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>BLACKCOCK.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Just at the present moment the poor black grouse are generally having a +hot time of it. After their quiet spring and summer they suddenly find +their heath-clad wastes invaded by a strange epidemic of men, dogs, and +hideous shooting implements; and being as yet but young and +inexperienced, they are falling victims by the thousand to their +youthful habit of clinging closely for protection to the treacherous +reed-beds. A little later in the season, those of them that survive +will have learned more wary ways: they will pack among the juniper +thickets, and become as cautious on the approach of perfidious man as +their cunning cousins, the red grouse of the Scottish moors. But so far +youthful innocence prevails; no sentinels as yet are set to watch for +the distant gleam of metal, and no foreshadowing of man's evil intent +disturbs their minds as they feed in fancied security upon the dry +seeds of the marsh plants in their favourite sedges. +</p> + +<p> +The great families of the pheasants and partridges, in which the +blackcock must be included, may be roughly divided into two main +divisions so far as regards their appearance and general habits. The +first class consists of splendidly coloured and conspicuous birds, such +as the peacock, the golden pheasant, and the tragopan; and these are, +almost without exception, originally jungle-birds of tropical or +sub-tropical lands, though a few of them have been acclimatised or +domesticated in temperate countries. They live in regions where they +have few natural enemies, and where they are little exposed to the +attacks of man. Most of them feed more or less upon fruits and +bright-coloured food-stuffs, and they are probably every one of them +polygamous in their habits. Thus we can hardly doubt that the male +birds, which alone possess the brilliant plumage of their kind, owe +their beauty to the selective preference of their mates; and that the +taste thus displayed has been aroused by their relation to their +specially gay and bright natural surroundings. The most lovely species +of pheasants are found among the forests of the Himalayas and the Malay +Archipelago, with their gorgeous fruits and flowers and their exquisite +insects. Even in England our naturalised Oriental pheasants still +delight in feeding upon blackberries, sloes, haws, and the pretty fruit +of the honeysuckle and the holly; while our dingier partridges and +grouse subsist rather upon heather, grain, and small seeds. Since there +must always be originally nearly as many cocks as hens in each brood, +it will follow that only the handsomest or most attractive in the +polygamous species will succeed in attracting to them a harem; and as +beauty and strength usually go hand in hand, they will also be the +conquerors in those battles which are universal with all polygamists in +the animal world. Thus we account for the striking and conspicuous +difference between the peacock and the peahen, or between the two sexes +in the pheasant, the turkey, and the domestic fowl. +</p> + +<p> +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 kinds, typified by the red grouse, partridges, quails, and +guinea-fowls, are generally dingy in hue, with a tendency to +pepper-and-salt in their plumage; and they usually display very little +difference between the sexes, both cocks and hens being coloured and +feathered much alike. In short, they are protectively designed, while +the first class are attractive. Their plumage resembles as nearly as +possible the ground on which they sit or the covert in which they +skulk. They are thus enabled to escape the notice of their natural +enemies, the birds of prey, from whose ravages they suffer far more in +a state of nature than from any other cause. We may take the ptarmigans +as the most typical example of this class of birds; for in summer their +zigzagged black-and-brown attire harmonises admirably with the patches +of faded heath and soil upon the mountain-side, as every sportsman well +knows; while in the winter their pure white plumage can scarcely be +distinguished from the snow in which they lie huddled and crouching +during the colder months. Even in the brilliant species, Mr. Darwin +and Mr. Wallace have pointed out that the ornamental colours and +crest are never handed down to female descendants when the habits of +nesting are such that the mothers would be exposed to danger by their +conspicuousness during incubation. Speaking broadly, only those female +birds which build in hollow trees or make covered nests have bright +hues at all equal to those of the males. A female bird nesting in the +open would be cut off if it showed any tendency to reproduce the +brilliant colouring of its male relations. +</p> + +<p> +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 described. It is a polygamous bird, and it differs +most conspicuously in plumage from its consort, the grey-hen, as may be +seen from the very names by which they are each familiarly known. Yet, +though the blackcock is handsome enough and shows evident marks of +selective preference on the part of his ancestral hens, this preference +has not exerted itself largely in the direction of bright colour, and +that for two reasons. In the first place the blackcock does not feed +upon brilliant foodstuffs, but upon small bog-berries, hard seeds, and +young shoots of heather, and it is probable that an æsthetic taste for +pure and dazzling hues is almost confined to those creatures which, +like butterflies, hummingbirds, and parrots, seek their livelihood +amongst beautiful fruits or flowers. In the second place, red, yellow, +or orange ornaments would render the blackcock too conspicuous a mark +for the hawk, the falcon, or the weapons of man; for we must remember +that only those blackcocks survive from year to year and hand down +their peculiarities to descendants which succeed in evading the talons +of birds of prey or the small-shot of sportsmen. Feeding as they do on +the open, they are not protected, like jungle-birds, by the shade of +trees. Thus any bird which showed any marked tendency to develop +brighter or more conspicuous plumage would almost infallibly fall a +victim to one or other of his many foes; and however much his beauty +might possibly charm his mates (supposing them for the moment to +possess a taste for colour), he would have no chance of transmitting it +to a future generation. Accordingly, the decoration of the blackcock is +confined to glossy plumage and a few ornamental tail-feathers. The +grey-hen herself still retains the dull and imitative colouring of the +grouse race generally; and as for the cocks, even if a fair percentage +of them is annually cut off through their comparative 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 recognised spots, and there invite the +grey-hens by their calls, a little duelling going on meanwhile. During +these meetings they show off their beauty with great emulation, after +the fashion with which we are all familiar in the case of the peacock; +and when they have gained the approbation of their mates and maimed or +driven away their rivals, they retire with their respective families. +Unfortunately, like most polygamists, they make bad fathers, leaving +the care of their young almost entirely to the hens. According to the +veracious account of Artemus Ward, the great Brigham Young himself +pathetically descanted upon the difficulty of extending his parental +affections to 131 children. The imperious blackcock seems to labour +under the same sentimental disadvantage. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XXI"> </a> +XXI. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>BINDWEED.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +Not the least beautiful among our native wild flowers are many of those +which grow, too often unheeded, along the wayside of every country +road. The hedge-bordered highway on which I am walking to-day, to take +my letters to the village post, is bordered on either side with such a +profusion of colour as one may never see equalled during many years' +experience of tropical or sub-tropical lands. Jamaica and Ceylon could +produce nothing so brilliant as this tangled mass of gorse, and +thistle, and St. John's-wort, and centaury, intermingled with the lithe +and whitening sprays of half-opened clematis. And here, on the very +edge of the road, half-smothered in its grey dust, I have picked a +pretty little convolvulus blossom, with a fly buried head-foremost in +its pink bell; and I am carrying them both along with me as I go, for +contemplation and study. For this little flower, the lesser bindweed, +is rich in hints as to the strange ways in which Nature decks herself +with so much waste loveliness, whose meaning can only be fully read by +the eyes of man, the latest comer among her children. The old school of +thinkers imagined 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 fancy of the human +race. To the butterfly the world is a little beautiful; to the +farm-labourer it is only a trifle more beautiful: but to the cultivated +man or the artist it is lovely in every cloud and shadow, in every tiny +blossom and passing bird. +</p> + +<p> +The outer face of the bindweed, the exterior of the cup, so to speak, +is prettily marked with five dark russet-red bands, between which the +remainder of the corolla is a pale pinky-white in hue. Nothing could be +simpler and prettier than this alternation of dark and light belts; but +how is it produced? Merely thus. The convolvulus blossom in the bud is +twisted or contorted round and round, part of the cup being folded +inside, while the five joints of the corolla are folded outside, much +after the fashion of an umbrella when rolled up. And just as the bits +of the umbrella which are exposed when it is folded become faded in +colour, so the bits of the bindweed blossom which are outermost in the +bud become more deeply oxidised than the other parts, and acquire a +russet-red hue. The belted appearance which thus results is really as +accidental, if I may use that unphilosophical expression, as the belted +appearance of the old umbrella, or the wrinkles caused by the waves on +the sea-sands. The flower happened to be folded so, and got coloured, +or discoloured, accordingly. But when a man comes to look at it, he +recognises in the alternation of colours and the symmetrical +arrangement one of those elements of beauty with which he is familiar +in the handicraft of his own kind. He reads an intention into this +result of natural causes, and personifies Nature as though she worked +with an æsthetic design in view, just as a decorative artist works when +he similarly alternates colours or arranges symmetrical and radial +figures 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 +recognises the intellectual order and perfection of the work. +</p> + +<p> +I turn the bindweed blossom mouth upward, and there I see that these +russet marks, though paler on the inner surface, still show faintly +through the pinky-white corolla. This produces an effect not unlike +that of a delicate shell cameo, with its dainty gradations of +semi-transparent white and interfusing pink. But the inner effect can +be no more designed with an eye to beauty than the outer one was; and +the very terms in which I think of it clearly show that my sense of its +loveliness is largely derived from comparison with human handicraft. A +farmer would see in the convolvulus nothing but a useless weed; a +cultivated eye sees in it just as much as its nature permits it to +see. I look closer, and observe that there are also thin lines running +from the circumference to the centre, midway between the dark belts. +These lines, which add greatly to the beauty of the flower, by marking +it out into zones, are also due to the folding in the bud; they are the +inner angles of the folds, just as the dark belts are the overlapping +edges of the outer angles. But, in addition to the minor beauty of +these little details, there is the general beauty of the cup as a +whole, which also calls for explanation. Its shape is as graceful as +that of any Greek or Etruscan vase, as swelling and as simply beautiful +as any beaker. Can I account for these peculiarities on mere natural +grounds as well as for the others? I somehow fancy I can. +</p> + +<p> +The bindweed is descended from some earlier ancestors which had five +separate petals, instead of a single fused and circular cup. But in the +convolvulus family, as in many others, these five petals have joined +into a continuous rim or bowl, and the marks on the blossom where it +was folded in the bud still answer to the five petals. In many plants +you can see the pointed edges of the former distinct flower-rays as +five projections, though their lower parts have coalesced into a +bell-shaped or tubular blossom, as in the common harebell. How this +comes to pass we can easily understand if we watch an unopened fuchsia; +for there the four bright-coloured sepals remain joined together till +the bud is ready to open, and then split along a line marked out from +the very first. In the plastic bud condition it is very easy for parts +usually separate so to grow out in union with one another. I do not +mean that separate pieces actually grow together, but that pieces which +usually grow distinct sometimes grow united from the very first. Now, +four or five petals, radially arranged, in themselves produce that kind +of symmetry which man, with his intellectual love for order and +definite patterns, always finds beautiful. But the symmetry in the +flower simply results from the fact that a single whorl of leaves has +grown into this particular shape, while the outer and inner whorls have +grown into other shapes; and every such whorl always and necessarily +presents us with an example of the kind of symmetry which we so much +admire. Again, when the petals forming a whorl coalesce, they must, of +course, produce a more or less regular circle. If the points of the +petals remain as projections, then we get a circle with vandyked edges, +as in the lily of the valley; if they do not project, then we get a +simple circular rim, as in the bindweed. All the lovely shapes of +bell-blossoms are simply due to the natural coalescence of four, five, +or six petals; and this coalescence is again due to an increased +certainty of fertilisation secured for the plant by the better +adaptation to insect visits. Similarly, we know that the colours of the +corolla have been acquired as a means of rendering the flower +conspicuous to the eyes of bees or butterflies; and the hues which so +prove attractive to insects are of the same sort which arouse +pleasurable stimulation in our own nerves. Thus the whole loveliness of +flowers is in the last resort dependent upon all kinds of accidental +causes—causes, that is to say, into which the deliberate design 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 arouse in us +certain feelings we call beautiful; and those parts which are of such a +sort as to arouse in us the opposite feelings we call ugly. But the +beauty and the ugliness are not parts of the things; they are merely +human modes of regarding some among their attributes. Wherever in +nature we find pure colour, symmetrical form, and intricate variety of +pattern, we imagine to ourselves that nature designs the object to be +beautiful. When we trace these peculiarities to their origin, however, +we find that each of them owes its occurrence to some special fact in +the history of the object; and we are forced to conclude that the +notion of intentional design has been read into it by human analogies. +All nature is beautiful, and most beautiful for those in whom the sense +of beauty is most highly developed; but it is not beautiful at all +except to those whose own eyes and emotions are fitted to perceive its +beauty. +</p> + + + + +<h2> +<a name="XXII"> </a> +XXII. +<br><br> +<span class="smaller"> +<i>ON CORNISH CLIFFS.</i> +</span> +</h2> + + +<p> +I am lying on my back in the sunshine, close to the edge of a great +broken precipice, beside a clambering Cornish fishing village. In front +of me is the sea, bluer than I have seen it since last I lay in like +fashion a few months ago on the schistose slopes of the Maurettes at +Hyères, and looked away across the plain to the unrippled Mediterranean +and the Stœchades of the old Phocæan merchant-men. On either hand +rise dark cliffs of hornblende and serpentine, weathered above by wind +and rain, and smoothed below by the ceaseless dashing of the winter +waves. Up to the limit of the breakers the hard rock is polished like +Egyptian syenite; but beyond that point it is fissured by +disintegration and richly covered with a dappled coat of grey and +yellow lichen. The slow action of the water, always beating against the +solid wall of crystalline rock, has eaten out a thousand such little +bays all along this coast, each bounded by long headlands, whose points +have been worn into fantastic pinnacles, or severed from the main mass +as precipitous islets, the favourite resting-place of gulls and +cormorants. No grander coast scenery can be found anywhere in the +southern half of Great Britain. +</p> + +<p> +Yet when I turn inland I see that all this beauty has been produced by +the mere interaction of the sea and the barren moors of the interior. +Nothing could be flatter or more desolate than the country whose +seaward escarpment gives rise to these romantic coves and pyramidal +rocky islets. It stretches away for miles in a level upland waste, only +redeemed from complete barrenness by the low straggling bushes of the +dwarf furze, whose golden blossom is now interspersed with purple +patches of ling or the paler pink flowers of the Cornish heath. Here, +then, I can see beauty in nature actually beginning to be. I can trace +the origin of all these little bays from small rills which have worn +themselves gorge-like valleys through the hard igneous rock, or else +from fissures finally giving rise to sea-caves, like the one into which +I rowed this morning for my early swim. The waves penetrate for a +couple of hundred yards into the bowels of the rock, hemmed in by walls +and roof of dark serpentine, with its interlacing veins of green and +red bearing witness still to its once molten condition; and at length +in most cases they produce a blow-hole at the top, communicating with +the open air above, either because the fissure there crops up to the +surface, or else through the agency of percolation. At last, the roof +falls in; the boulders are carried away by the waves; and we get a long +and narrow cove, still bounded on either side by tall cliffs, whose +summits the air and rainfall slowly wear away into jagged and exquisite +shapes. Yet in all this we see nothing but the natural play of cause +and effect; we attribute the beauty of the scene merely to the +accidental result of inevitable laws; we feel no necessity for calling +in the aid of any underlying æsthetic intention on the part of the sea, +or the rock, or the creeping lichen, in order to account for the +loveliness which we find in the finished picture. The winds and the +waves carved the coast into these varied shapes by force of blind +currents working on hidden veins of harder or softer crystal: and we +happen to find the result beautiful, just as we happen to find the +inland level dull and ugly. The endless variety of the one charms us, +while the unbroken monotony of the other wearies and repels us. +</p> + +<p> +Here on the cliff I pick up a pretty fern and a blossoming head of the +autumn squill—though so sweet a flower deserves a better name. This +fern, too, is lovely in its way, with its branching leaflets and its +rich glossy-green hue. Yet it owes its shape just as truly to the +balance of external and internal forces acting upon it as does the +Cornish coast-line. How comes it then that in the one case we +instinctively regard the beauty as accidental, while in the other we +set it down to a deliberate æsthetic intent? I think because, in the +first case, we can actually see the forces at work, while in the second +they are so minute and so gradual in their action as to escape the +notice of all but trained observers. This fern grows in the shape that +I see, because its ancestors have been slowly moulded into such a form +by the whole group of circumstances directly or indirectly affecting +them in all their past life; and the germ of the complex form thus +produced was impressed by the parent plant upon the spore from which +this individual fern took its birth. Over yonder I see a great +dock-leaf; it grows tall and rank above all other plants, and is able +to spread itself boldly to the light on every side. It has abundance of +sunshine as a motive-power of growth, and abundance of air from which +to extract the carbon that it needs. Hence it and all its ancestors +have spread their leaves equally on every side, and formed large flat +undivided blades. Leaves such as these are common 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 eyes, +just as the flatness of the 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, we see little or nothing to +admire. On the other hand, ferns generally grow in hedge-rows or +thickets, where sunlight is much interrupted by other plants, and where +air is scanty, most of its carbon being extracted by neighbouring +plants which leave but little for one another's needs. Hence you may +notice that most plants growing under such circumstances have leaves +minutely sub-divided, so as to catch such stray gleams of sunlight and +such floating particles of carbonic acid as happen to pass their way. +Look into the next tangled and overgrown hedge-row which you happen to +pass, and you will see that almost all its leaves are of this +character; and when they are otherwise the anomaly usually admits of an +easy explanation. Of course the shapes of plants are mostly due to +their normal and usual circumstances, and are comparatively little +influenced by the accidental surroundings of individuals; and so, when +a fern of such a sort happens to grow like this one on the open, it +still retains the form impressed upon it by the life of its ancestors. +Now, it is the striking combination of symmetry and variety in the +fern, together with vivid green colouring, which makes us admire it so +much. Not only is the frond as a whole symmetrical, but each frondlet +and each division of the frondlet is separately symmetrical as well. +This delicate minuteness of workmanship, as we call it, reminds us of +similar human products—of fine lace, of delicate tracery, of skilful +filagree or engraving. Almost all the green leaves which we admire are +noticeable, more or less, for the same effects, as in the case of +maple, parsley, horse-chestnut, and vine. It is true, mere glossy +greenness may, and often does, make up for the want of variety, as we +see in the arum, holly, laurel, and hart's-tongue fern; but the leaves +which we admire most of all are those which, like maidenhair, are both +exquisitely green and delicately designed in shape. So that, in the +last resort, the beauty of leaves, like the beauty of coast scenery, is +really due to the constant interaction of a vast number of natural +laws, not to any distinct aesthetic intention on the part of Nature. +</p> + +<p> +On the other hand, the pretty pink squill reminds me that +semi-conscious aesthetic design in animals has something to do with the +production of beauty in nature—at least, in a few cases. Just as a +flower garden has been intentionally produced by man, so flowers have +been unconsciously produced by insects. As a rule, all bright red, +blue, or orange in nature (except in the rare case of gems) is due to +animal selection, either of flowers, fruits, or mates. Thus we may say +that beauty in the inorganic world is always accidental; but in the +organic world it 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 less +deliberate æsthetic choice. +</p> + +<br> +<p class="ctrsmall"> + LONDON: PRINTED BY<br> + SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br> + AND PARLIAMENT STREET +</p> + +<br> + +<hr class="med"> + +<div class="figcenter"><img width="500" height="200" src="images/ad001.jpg" alt="decoration"></div> + +<p class="ctrlarger"> +CHATTO & WINDUS'S +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<i><span class="sc">List of Books</span>.</i> +</p> + + +<p class="ctrsmaller"> +Imperial 8vo, with 147 fine Engravings, half-morocco, 36<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctrlarge"> +THE EARLY TEUTONIC, ITALIAN, +<br> +<span class="small">AND FRENCH MASTERS.</span> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +Translated and Edited from the Dohme Series by <span class="sc">A. H. +Keane</span>, M.A.I. With numerous Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +"<i>Cannot fail to be of the utmost use to students of art history.</i>"—<span class="sc">Times.</span> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +Second Edition, Revised, Crown 8vo, 1,200 pages, half-roxburghe, 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctrlarge"> +THE READER'S HANDBOOK +<br> +<span class="smaller">OF ALLUSIONS, REFERENCES, PLOTS, AND STORIES.</span> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +By the Rev. Dr. <span class="sc">Brewer</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Dr. Brewer has produced a wonderfully comprehensive dictionary + of references to matters which are always cropping up in + conversation and in everyday life, and writers generally will have + reason to feel grateful to the author for a most handy volume, + supplementing in a hundred ways their own knowledge or ignorance, + as the case may be…. It is something more than a mere dictionary + of quotations, though a most useful companion to any work of that + kind, being a dictionary of most of the allusions, references, + plots, stories, and characters which occur in the classical poems, + plays, novels, romances, &c., not only of our own country, but of + most nations, ancient and modern.</i>"—<span class="sc">Times.</span> +</p> + +<p> + "<i>A welcome addition to the list of what may be termed the really + handy reference-books, combining as it does a dictionary of + literature with a condensed encyclopædia, interspersed with items + one usually looks for in commonplace books. The appendices contain + the dates of celebrated and well-known dramas, operas, poems, and + novels, with the names of their authors.</i>"—<span + class="sc">Spectator.</span> +</p> + +<p> + "<i>There seems to be scarcely anything concerning which one may + not 'overhaul' Dr. Brewer's book with profit. It is a most + laborious and patient compilation, and, considering the magnitude + of the work, successfully performed…. Many queries which appear + in our pages could be satisfactorily answered by a reference to + 'The Readers Handbook:' no mean testimony to the value of Dr. + Brewer's book.</i>"—<span class="sc">Notes and Queries.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<i>A HANDBOOK FOR POTTERY-PAINTERS.</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>PRACTICAL KERAMICS FOR STUDENTS.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Charles A. Janvier</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, Coloured Frontispiece and Illustrations, cloth gilt, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Advertising, A History of.</b><br> + From the Earliest Times. Illustrated by Anecdotes, Curious + Specimens, and Notes of Successful Advertisers. 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He has furnished a + valuable contribution to the literature of surnames, and we hope to + hear more of him in this field.</i>"—<span class="sc">Times.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Charles W. Bardsley</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth + extra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The book is full of interest; in fact, it is just the thorough + and scholarly work we should expect from the author of 'English + Surnames.'</i>"—<span class="sc">Graphic.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small 4to, green and gold, 6<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; gilt edges, +7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Bechstein's As Pretty as Seven</b>,<br> + And other German Stories. Collected by <span class="sc">Ludwig + Bechstein</span>. 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With 70 Illustrations, +1<i>s.</i></li> +<li class="hang"><b>The English Pictures at the National Gallery.</b> +With 114 Illustrations. 1<i>s.</i></li> +<li class="hang"><b>The Old Masters at the National Gallery.</b> 128 +Illusts. 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></li> +<li class="hang"><b>Academy Notes, 1875 79.</b> Complete in One Volume, +with nearly 600 Illustrations in Facsimile. Demy 8vo, cloth limp, +6<i>s.</i></li> +<li class="hang"><b>A Complete Illustrated Catalogue to the National +Gallery.</b> With Notes by <span class="sc">Henry Blackburn</span>, +and 242 Illustrations. 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W. Lawson</span>. With Facsimile Sketches by the Artist. Demy 8vo, 1<i>s.</i></li> +</ul> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Folio, half-bound boards, India Proofs, 21<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Blake (William):</b><br> + Etchings from his Works. By <span class="sc">W. B. Scott</span>. With + descriptive Text. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The best side of Blake's work is given here, and makes a really + attractive volume, which all can enjoy…. The etching is of the + best kind, more refined and delicate than the original + work.</i>"—<span class="sc">Saturday Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo. cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Boccaccio's Decameron</b>;<br> + or, Ten Days' Entertainment. Translated into English, with an + Introduction by <span class="sc">Thomas Wright</span>, Esq., M.A., + F.S.A. With Portrait, and <span class="sc">Stothard's</span> + beautiful Copperplates. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Bowers' (G.) Hunting Sketches:</b><br> + <b>Canters in Crampshire.</b> By <span class="sc">G. + Bowers</span>. I. Gallops from Gorseborough. II. Scrambles with + Scratch Packs. III. Studies with Stag Hounds. Oblong 4to, + half-bound boards, 21<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Leaves from a Hunting Journal.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">G. Powers</span>. Coloured in facsimile of the + originals. Oblong 4to. half-bound, 21<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Brand's Observations on Popular Antiquities</b>,<br> + chiefly Illustrating the Origin of our Vulgar Customs, Ceremonies, + and Superstitions. With the Additions of Sir <span + class="sc">Henry Ellis</span>. An entirely New and Revised + Edition, with fine full-page Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with full-page Portraits, +4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Brewster's (Sir David) Martyrs of Science.</b> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Astronomical Plates, +4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Brewster's (Sir D.) More Worlds than One</b>,<br> + the Creed of the Philosopher and the Hope of the Christian. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Bret Harte, Works by:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Bret Harte's Collected Works.</b><br> + Arranged and Revised by the Author. Complete in Five Vols., cr. + 8vo, cl. ex., 6<i>s.</i> each. +<br><br> + Vol. I. <span class="sc">Complete Poetical and Dramatic + Works.</span> With Steel Plate Portrait, and an Introduction by + the Author. +<br><br> + Vol. II. <span class="sc">Earlier + Papers</span> — <span class="sc">Luck of Roaring + Camp</span>, and other Sketches — <span + class="sc">Bohemian Papers — Spanish and + American Legends</span>. +<br><br> + Vol. III. <span class="sc">Tales of the + Argonauts — Eastern Sketches.</span> +<br><br> + Vol. IV. <span class="sc">Gabriel Conroy.</span> +<br><br> + Vol. V. <span class="sc">Stories — Condensed + Novels</span>, &c. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Select Works of Bret Harte</b>,<br> + in Prose and Poetry. With Introductory Essay by <span class="sc">J. M. + Bellew</span>, Portrait of the Author, and 50 Illustrations. Crown + 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>An Heiress of Red Dog, and other Stories.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. Post 8vo, illustrated + boards, 2<i>s.</i>; cloth limp, 2<i>s.</i>. 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Twins of Table Mountain.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. Fcap. 8vo, picture cover, + 1<i>s.</i>; crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Luck of Roaring Camp, and other Sketches.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. Post 8vo, illustrated + boards, 2<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Jeff Briggs's Love Story.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. Fcap. 8vo, picture cover, + 1<i>s.</i>; cloth extra, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, profusely Illustrated in Colours, 30<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>British Flora Medica:</b><br> + A History of the Medicinal Plants of Great Britain. Illustrated by + a Figure of each Plant, <span class="smc">COLOURED BY HAND</span>. + By <span class="sc">Benjamin H. Barton</span>, F.L.S., and <span + class="sc">Thomas Castle</span>, M.D., F.R.S. A New Edition, + revised and partly re-written by <span class="sc">John R. + Jackson</span>, A.L.S., Curator of the Museums of Economic Botany, + Royal Gardens, Kew. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>THE STOTHARD BUNYAN.</i>—Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.</b><br> + Edited by Rev. <span class="sc">T. Scott</span>. With 17 beautiful + Steel Plates by <span class="sc">Stothard</span>, engraved by + <span class="sc">Goodall</span>; and numerous Woodcuts. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Byron's Letters and Journals.</b><br> + With Notices of his Life. By <span class="sc">Thomas Moore.</span> + A Reprint of the Original Edition, newly revised, with Twelve + full-page Plates. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, 14<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Campbell's (Sir G.) White and Black:</b><br> + The Outcome of a Visit to the United States. By <span + class="sc">Sir George Campbell</span>, M.P. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Few persons are likely to take it up without finishing + it.</i>"—<span class="sc">Nonconformist.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Carlyle (Thomas) On the Choice of Books.</b><br> + With Portrait and Memoir. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small 4to, cloth gilt, with Coloured Illustrations, 10<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Chaucer for Children:</b><br> + A Golden Key. By Mrs. <span class="sc">H. R. Haweis</span>. With + Eight Coloured Pictures and numerous Woodcuts by the Author. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth limp, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Chaucer for Schools.</b><br> + By Mrs. <span class="sc">Haweis</span>, Author of "Chaucer for Children." +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + <i>This is a copious and judicious selection from Chaucer's Tales, + with full notes on the history, manners, customs, and language of + the fourteenth century, with marginal glossary and a literal + poetical version in modern English in parallel columns with the + original poetry. Six of the Canterbury Tales are thus presented, in + sections of from 10 to 200 lines, mingled with prose narrative. + "Chaucer for Schools" is issued to meet a widely-expressed want, + and is especially adapted for class instruction. It may be + profitably studied in connection with the maps and illustrations of + "Chaucer for Children."</i> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth limp, with Map and Illustrations, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Cleopatra's Needle:</b><br> + Its Acquisition and Removal to England. By Sir <span class="sc">J. E. + Alexander</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Colman's Humorous Works:</b><br> + "Broad Grins," "My Nightgown and Slippers," and other Humorous + Works, Prose and Poetical, of <span class="sc">George + Colman</span>. With Life by <span class="sc">G. B. + Buckstone</span>, and Frontispiece by <span + class="sc">Hogarth</span>. +</p> + + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Conway (Moncure D.), Works by:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Demonology and Devil-Lore.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Moncure D. Conway</span>, M.A. Two Vols, royal + 8vo, with 65 Illustrations, 28<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A valuable contribution to mythological literature…. There is + much good writing, a vast fund of humanity, undeniable earnestness, + and a delicate sense of humour, all set forth in pure + English.</i>"—<span class="sc">Contemporary Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>A Necklace of Stories.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Moncure D. Conway</span>, M.A. Illustrated by + <span class="sc">W. J. Hennessy</span>. Square 8vo, cloth extra, + 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>This delightful 'Necklace of Stories' is inspired with lovely + and lofty sentiments.</i>"—<span class="sc">Illustrated London + News.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, with Coloured Illustrations and Maps, 24<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Cope's History of the Rifle Brigade</b><br> + (The Prince Consort's Own), formerly the 95th. By Sir <span + class="sc">William H. Cope</span>, formerly Lieutenant, Rifle + Brigade. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with 13 Portraits, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Creasy's Memoirs of Eminent Etonians</b>;<br> + with Notices of the Early History of Eton College. By Sir <span + class="sc">Edward Creasy</span>, Author of "The Fifteen Decisive + Battles of the World." +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Etched Frontispiece, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Credulities, Past and Present.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">William Jones</span>, F.S.A., Author of + "Finger-Ring Lore," &c. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>NEW WORK by the AUTHOR OF "PRIMITIVE MANNERS AND +CUSTOMS."</i>—Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Crimes and Punishments.</b><br> + Including a New Translation of Beccaria's "Dei Delitti e delle + Pene." By <span class="sc">James Anson Farrer</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, Two very thick Volumes, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +each. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Cruikshank's Comic Almanack.</b><br> + Complete in <span class="sc">Two Series</span>: The <span + class="sc">First</span> from 1835 to 1843; the <span + class="sc">Second</span> from 1844 to 1853. A Gathering of the + <span class="sc">Best Humour</span> of <span class="sc">Thackeray, + Hood, Mayhew, Albert Smith, A'Beckett, Robert Brough</span>, + &c. With 2,000 Woodcuts and Steel Engravings by <span + class="sc">Cruikshank, Hine, Landells</span>, &c. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Parts I. to XIV. now ready, 21<i>s.</i> each. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Cussans' History of Hertfordshire.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">John E. Cussans</span>. Illustrated with + full-page Plates on Copper and Stone, and a profusion of small + Woodcuts. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +∴ <i>Parts XV. and XVI., completing the work, are just ready.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Mr. Cussans has, from sources not accessible to Clutterbuck, + made most valuable additions to the manorial history of the county + from the earliest period downwards, cleared up many doubtful + points, and given original details concerning various subjects + untouched or imperfectly treated by that + writer.</i>"—<span class="sc">Academy.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Two Vols., demy 4to, handsomely bound in half-morocco, gilt, profusely +Illustrated with Coloured and Plain Plates and Woodcuts, price £7 +7<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Cyclopædia of Costume</b>;<br> + or, A Dictionary of Dress—Regal, Ecclesiastical, Civil, and + Military—from the Earliest Period in England to the reign of + George the Third. Including Notices of Contemporaneous Fashions on + the Continent, and a General History of the Costumes of the + Principal Countries of Europe. By <span class="sc">J. R. + Planché</span>, Somerset Herald. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +The Volumes may also be had <i>separately</i> (each Complete in itself) +at £3 13<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> each: +<br><br>Vol. I. <b>THE DICTIONARY.</b> +<br>Vol. II. <b>A GENERAL HISTORY OF COSTUME IN EUROPE.</b> +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Also in 25 Parts, at 5<i>s.</i> each. Cases for binding, 5<i>s.</i> +each. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A comprehensive and highly valuable book of reference…. We + have rarely failed to find in this book an account of an article of + dress, while in most of the entries curious and instructive details + are given…. Mr. Planché's enormous labour of love, the production + of a text which, whether in its dictionary form or in that of the + 'General History,' is within its intended scope immeasurably the + best and richest work on Costume in English…. This book is not + only one of the most readable works of the kind, but intrinsically + attractive and amusing.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> + +<p> + "<i>A most readable and interesting work—and it can scarcely be + consulted in vain, whether the reader is in search for information + as to military, court, ecclesiastical, legal, or professional + costume…. All the chromo-lithographs, and most of the woodcut + illustrations—the latter amounting to several thousands—are very + elaborately executed; and the work forms a livre de luxe which + renders it equally suited to the library and the ladies' + drawing-room.</i>"—<span class="sc">Times.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Square 8vo, cloth gilt, profusely Illustrated. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Dickens.—About England with Dickens.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Alfred Rimmer</span>. With Illustrations by + the Author and <span class="sc">Charles A. Vanderhoof</span>. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>In preparation.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Second Edition, revised and enlarged, demy 8vo, cloth extra, with +Illustrations. 24<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Dodge's (Colonel) The Hunting Grounds of the Great West:</b><br> + A Description of the Plains, Game, and Indians of the Great North + American Desert. By <span class="sc">Richard Irving Dodge</span>, + Lieutenant-Colonel of the United States Army. With an Introduction + by <span class="sc">William Blackmore</span>; Map, and numerous + Illustrations drawn by <span class="sc">Ernest Griset</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Doran's Memories of our Great Towns.</b><br> + With Anecdotic Gleanings concerning their Worthies and their + Oddities. By Dr. <span class="sc">John Doran</span>, F.S.A. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Second Edition, demy 8vo, cloth gilt, with Illustrations, 18<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Dunraven's The Great Divide:</b><br> + A Narrative of Travels in the Upper Yellowstone in the Summer of + 1874. By the <span class="sc">Earl</span> of <span + class="sc">Dunraven</span>. With Maps and numerous striking + full-page Illustrations by <span class="sc">Valentine W. + Bromley</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>There has not for a long time appeared a better book of travel + than Lord Dunraven's 'The Great Divide.'… This book is full of + clever observation, and both narrative and illustrations are + thoroughly good.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Two Vols., crown 8vo, cloth extra, 21<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Drury Lane (Old):</b><br> + Fifty Years' Recollections of Author, Actor, and Manager. By + <span class="sc">Edward Stirling</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth, 16<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Dutt's India, Past and Present</b>;<br> + with Minor Essays on Cognate Subjects. By <span class="sc">Shoshee Chunder + Dutt</span>, Rái Báhádoor. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Emanuel On Diamonds and Precious Stones</b>;<br> + their History, Value, and Properties; with Simple Tests for + ascertaining their Reality. By <span class="sc">Harry + Emanuel</span>, F.R.G.S. With numerous Illustrations, Tinted and + Plain. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 4to, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 36<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Emanuel and Grego.—A History of the Goldsmith's and Jeweller's Art + in all Ages and in all Countries.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">E. Emanuel</span> and <span class="sc">Joseph + Grego</span>. With numerous fine Engravings. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>In preparation.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Englishman's House, The:</b><br> + A Practical Guide to all interested in Selecting or Building a + House, with full Estimates of Cost, Quantities, &c. By <span + class="sc">C. J. Richardson</span>, Third Edition. With nearly 600 + Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth boards, 6<i>s.</i> per Volume. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Early English Poets.</b><br> + Edited, with Introductions and Annotations, by Rev. <span class="sc">A. B. + Grosart</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Mr. Grosart has spent the most laborious and the most + enthusiastic care on the perfect restoration and preservation of + the text…. From Mr. Grosart we always expect and always receive + the final results of most patient and competent + scholarship.</i>"—<span class="sc">Examiner.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + 1.  <b>Fletcher's (Giles, B.D.) Complete Poems:</b><br> + Christ's Victorie in Heaven, Christ's Victorie on Earth, Christ's + Triumph over Death, and Minor Poems. With Memorial-Introduction + and Notes. One Vol. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + 2.  <b>Davies' (Sir John) Complete Poetical Works</b>,<br> + including Psalms I. to L. in Verse, and other hitherto + Unpublished MSS., for the first time Collected and Edited. + Memorial-Introduction and Notes. Two Vols. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + 3.  <b>Herrick's (Robert) Hesperides, Noble Numbers, and Complete + Collected Poems.</b><br> + With Memorial-Introduction and Notes, Steel Portrait, Index of + First Lines, and Glossarial Index, &c. Three Vols. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + 4.  <b>Sidney's (Sir Philip) Complete Poetical Works</b>,<br> + including all those in "Arcadia." With Portrait, + Memorial-Introduction, Essay on the Poetry of Sidney, and Notes. + Three Vols. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with nearly 300 Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Evolution (Chapters on)</b>;<br> + A Popular History of the Darwinian and Allied Theories of + Development. By <span class="sc">Andrew Wilson</span>, Ph.D., + F.R.S. Edin. &c. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>In preparation.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + <i>Abstract of Contents:</i> — The Problem + Stated — Sketch of the Rise and Progress of + Evolution — What Evolution is and what it is + not — The Evidence for + Evolution — The Evidence from + Development — The Evidence from Rudimentary + Organs — The Evidence from Geographical + Distribution — The Evidence from + Geology —  Evolution and + Environments — Flowers and their Fertilisation and + Development — Evolution and + Degeneration — Evolution and + Ethics — The Relations of Evolution to Ethics and + Theology, &c. &c. +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Evolutionist (The) At Large.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Grant Allen</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Two Vols., crown 8vo, cloth extra, 21<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Ewald.—Stories from the State Papers.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Alex. Charles Ewald</span>. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>In preparation.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Folio, cloth extra, £1 11<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Examples of Contemporary Art.</b><br> + Etchings from Representative Works by living English and Foreign + Artists. Edited, with Critical Notes, by <span class="sc">J. + Comyns Carr</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>It would not be easy to meet with a more sumptuous, and at the + same time a more tasteful and instructive drawing-room + book.</i>"—<span class="sc">Nonconformist.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Fairholt's Tobacco:</b><br> + Its History and Associations; with an Account of the Plant and its + Manufacture, and its Modes of Use in all Ages and Countries. By + <span class="sc">F. W. Fairholt</span>, F.S.A. With Coloured + Frontispiece and upwards of 100 Illustrations by the Author. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Faraday's Chemical History of a Candle.</b><br> + Lectures delivered to a Juvenile Audience. A New Edition. Edited + by <span class="sc">W. Crookes</span>, F.C.S. With numerous Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Faraday's Various Forces of Nature.</b><br> + New Edition. Edited by <span class="sc">W. Crookes</span>, F.C.S. Numerous + Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Finger-Ring Lore:</b><br> + Historical, Legendary, and Anecdotal. By <span class="sc">Wm. + Jones</span>, F.S.A. With Hundreds of Illustrations of Curious + Rings of all Ages and Countries. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>One of those gossiping books which are as full of amusement as + of instruction.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>NEW NOVEL BY JUSTIN McCARTHY.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1881</b>,<br> + Price One Shilling, contains the First Chapters of a New Novel, + entitled "<span class="sc">The Comet of a Season</span>," by <span + class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>, M.P., Author of "A History of + Our Own Times," "Dear Lady Disdain," &c. <span + class="sc">Science Notes</span>, by <span class="sc">W. Mattieu + Williams</span>, F.R.A.S., will also be continued Monthly. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +∴ <i>Now ready, the Volume for</i> <span class="sc">July</span> +<i>to</i> <span class="sc">December</span>, <i>1880, cloth extra, price +8s. 6d.;<br> +and Cases for binding, price 2s. each.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>THE RUSKIN GRIMM.</i>—Squire 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i>; gilt edges, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>German Popular Stories.</b><br> + Collected by the Brothers <span class="sc">Grimm</span>, and + Translated by <span class="sc">Edgar Taylor</span>. Edited with an + Introduction by <span class="sc">John Ruskin</span>. With 22 + Illustrations after the inimitable designs of <span + class="sc">George Cruikshank</span>. Both Series Complete. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The illustrations of this volume … are of quite sterling and + admirable art, of a class precisely parallel in elevation to the + character of the tales which they illustrate; and the original + etchings, as I have before said in the Appendix to my 'Elements of + Drawing,' were unrivalled in masterfulness of touch since Rembrandt + (in some qualities of delineation, unrivalled even by him)…. To + make somewhat enlarged copies of them, looking at them through a + magnifying glass, and never putting two lines where Cruikshank has + put only one, would be an exercise in decision and severe drawing + which would leave afterwards little to be learnt in + schools.</i>"—<i>Extract from Introduction by</i> <span + class="sc">John Ruskin</span>. +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Post 8vo. cloth limp, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Glenny's A Year's Work in Garden and Greenhouse:</b><br> + Practical Advice to Amateur Gardeners as to the Management of the + Flower, Fruit, and Frame Garden. By <span class="sc">George Glenny</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A great deal of valuable information, conveyed in very simple + language. The amateur need not wish for a better + guide.</i>"—<span class="sc">Leeds Mercury.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +New and Cheaper Edition, demy 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, +7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + + <b>Greeks and Romans, The Life of the, Described from Antique + Monuments.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Ernst Guhl</span> and <span class="sc">W. + Koner</span>. Translated from the Third German Edition, and Edited + by Dr. <span class="sc">F. Hueffer</span>. With 545 Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + + <b>Greenwood's Low-Life Deeps:</b><br> + An Account of the Strange Fish to be found there. By <span + class="sc">James Greenwood</span>. With Illustrations in tint by + <span class="sc">Alfred Concanen</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + + <b>Greenwood's Wilds of London:</b><br> + Descriptive Sketches, from Personal Observations and Experience, + of Remarkable Scenes, People, and Places in London. By <span + class="sc">James Greenwood</span>. With 12 Tinted Illustrations by + <span class="sc">Alfred Concanen</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Square 16mo (Tauchnitz size), cloth extra, 2<i>s.</i> per volume. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Golden Library, The:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Ballad History of England.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">W. C. Bennett</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Bayard Taylor's Diversions of the Echo Club.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Byron's Don Juan.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Emerson's Letters and Social Aims.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Godwin's (William) Lives of the Necromancers.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Holmes's Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.</b><br> + With an Introduction by <span class="sc">G. A. Sala</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Holmes's Professor at the Breakfast Table.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hood's Whims and Oddities.</b><br> + Complete. With all the original Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Irving's (Washington) Tales of a Traveller.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Irving's (Washington) Tales of the Alhambra.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Jesse's (Edward) Scenes and Occupations of Country Life.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lamb's Essays of Elia.</b><br> + Both Series Complete in One Vol. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Leigh Hunt's Essays:</b><br> + A Tale for a Chimney Corner, and other Pieces. With Portrait, and + Introduction by <span class="sc">Edmund Ollier</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Mallory's (Sir Thomas) Mort d'Arthur:</b><br> + The Stories of King Arthur and of the Knights of the Round Table. + Edited by <span class="sc">B. Montgomerie Ranking</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Pascal's Provincial Letters.</b><br> + A New Translation, with Historical Introduction and Notes, by + <span class="sc">T. M'Crie</span>, D.D. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Pope's Poetical Works.</b><br> + Complete. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Rochefoucauld's Maxims and Moral Reflections.</b><br> + With Notes, and an Introductory Essay by <span + class="sc">Sainte-Beuve</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>St. Pierre's Paul and Virginia, and The Indian Cottage.</b><br> + Edited, with Life, by the Rev. <span class="sc">E. Clarke</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shelley's Early Poems</b>,<br> + and Queen Mab, with Essay by <span class="sc">Leigh Hunt</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shelley's Later Poems:</b><br> + Laon and Cythna, &c. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shelley's Posthumous Poems</b>,<br> + the Shelley Papers, &c. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shelley's Prose Works</b>,<br> + including A Refutation of Deism, Zastrozzi, St. Irvyne, &c. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>White's Natural History of Selborne.</b><br> + Edited, with additions, by <span class="sc">Thomas Brown</span>, F.L.S. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth gilt and gilt edges, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Golden Treasury of Thought, The:</b><br> + An <span class="sc">Encyclopædia of Quotations</span> from Writers + of all Times and Countries. Selected and Edited by <span + class="sc">Theodore Taylor</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Guyot's Earth and Man</b>;<br> + or, Physical Geography in its Relation to the History of Mankind. + With Additions by Professors <span class="sc">Agassiz, + Pierce</span>, and <span class="sc">Gray</span>; 12 Maps and + Engravings on Steel, some Coloured, and copious Index. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hake (Dr. Thomas Gordon), Poems by:</b> +<br><br> + <b>Maiden Ecstasy.</b> Small 4to, cloth extra, 8<i>s.</i> +<br> + <b>New Symbols.</b> Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +<br> + <b>Legends of the Morrow.</b> Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Medium 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hall's (Mrs. S. C.) Sketches of Irish Character.</b><br> + With numerous Illustrations on Steel and Wood by <span class="sc">Maclise, + Gilbert, Harvey</span>, and <span class="sc">G. Cruikshank</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The Irish Sketches of this lady resemble Miss Mitford's + beautiful English sketches in 'Our Village,' but they are far more + vigorous and picturesque and bright.</i>"—<span class="sc">Blackwood's + Magazine.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Post 8vo, cloth extra, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; a few large-paper copies, +half-Roxb., 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Handwriting, The Philosophy of.</b><br> + By Don <span class="sc">Felix de Salamanca</span>. With 134 Facsimiles of + Signatures. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Haweis (Mrs.), Works by:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Art of Dress.</b><br> + By Mrs. <span class="sc">H. R. Haweis</span>, Author of "The Art + of Beauty," &c. Illustrated by the Author. Small 8vo, + illustrated cover, 1<i>s.</i>; cloth limp, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A well-considered attempt to apply canons of good taste to the + costumes of ladies of our time…. Mrs. Haweis writes frankly and + to the point, she does not mince matters, but boldly remonstrates + with her own sex on the follies they indulge in…. We may + recommend the book to the ladies whom it + concerns.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Art of Beauty.</b><br> + By Mrs. <span class="sc">H. R. Haweis</span>, Author of "Chaucer + for Children." Square 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, gilt edges, with + Coloured Frontispiece and nearly 100 Illustrations, 10<i>s.</i> + 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +∴ <i>See also</i> <span class="sc">Chaucer</span>, <i>pp. 5 and +6 of this Catalogue.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Complete in Four Vols., demy 8vo, cloth extra, 12<i>s.</i> each. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>History Of Our Own Times</b>,<br> + from the Accession of Queen Victoria to the General Election of + 1880. By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>, M.P. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Criticism is disarmed before a composition which provokes little + but approval. This is a really good book on a really interesting + subject, and words piled on words could say no more for it…. + Such is the effect of its general justice, its breadth of view, and + its sparkling buoyancy, that very few of its readers will close + these volumes without looking forward with interest to the two</i> + [since published] <i>that are to follow.</i>"—<span + class="sc">Saturday Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hobhouse's The Dead Hand:</b><br> + Addresses on the subject of Endowments and Settlements of + Property. By Sir <span class="sc">Arthur Hobhouse</span>, Q.C., K.C.S.I. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth limp, with Illustrations, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Holmes's The Science of Voice Production and Voice + Preservation:</b><br> + A Popular Manual for the Use of Speakers and Singers. By + <span class="sc">Gordon Holmes</span>, L.R.C.P.E. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hollingshead's (John) Plain English.</b> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>I anticipate immense entertainment from the perusal of Mr. + Hollingshead's 'Plain English,' which I imagined to be a + philological work, but which I find to be a series of essays, in + the Hollingsheadian or Sledge-Hammer style, on those matters + theatrical with which lie is so eminently conversant.</i>"—G. A. + S. in the <span class="sc">Illustrated London News</span>. +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hood's (Thomas) Choice Works, In Prose and Verse.</b><br> + Including the <span class="sc">Cream of the Comic Annuals</span>. + With Life of the Author, Portrait, and Two Hundred Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Square crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt edges, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hood's (Tom) From Nowhere to the North Pole:</b><br> + A Noah's Arkæological Narrative. With 25 Illustrations by <span + class="sc">W. Brunton</span> and <span class="sc">E. C. + Barnes</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The amusing letterpress is profusely interspersed with the + jingling rhymes which children love and learn so easily. Messrs. + Brunton and Barnes do full justice to the writer's meaning, and a + pleasanter result of the harmonious co-operation of author and + artist could not be desired.</i>"—<span class="sc">Times.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hook's (Theodore) Choice Humorous Works</b>,<br> + including his Ludicrous Adventures, Bons-mots, Puns, and Hoaxes. + With a new Life of the Author, Portraits, Facsimiles, and + Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Horne's Orion:</b><br> + An Epic Poem in Three Books. By <span class="sc">Richard Hengist + Horne</span>. With a brief Commentary by the Author. With + Photographic Portrait from a Medallion by <span + class="sc">Summers</span>. Tenth Edition. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Howell's Conflicts of Capital and Labour Historically and + Economically considered.</b><br> + Being a History and Review of the Trade Unions of Great Britain, + showing their Origin, Progress, Constitution, and Objects, in + their Political, Social, Economical, and Industrial Aspects. By + <span class="sc">George Howell</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>This book is an attempt, and on the whole a successful attempt, + to place the work of trade unions in the past, and their objects in + the future, fairly before the public from the working man's point + of view.</i>"—<span class="sc">Pall Mall Gazette.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hueffer's The Troubadours:</b><br> + A History of Provencal Life and Literature in the Middle Ages. By + <span class="sc">Francis Hueffer</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Two Vols. 8vo, with 52 Illustrations and Maps, cloth extra, gilt, 14<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Josephus, The Complete Works of.</b><br> + Translated by <span class="sc">Whiston</span>. Containing both + "The Antiquities of the Jews" and "The Wars of the Jews." +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +A <span class="sc">New Edition</span>, Revised and partly Re-written, with several New Chapters<br> +and Illustrations, crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Jennings' The Rosicrucians:</b><br> + Their Rites and Mysteries. With Chapters on the Ancient Fire and + Serpent Worshippers. By <span class="sc">Hargrave Jennings</span>. + With Five full-page Plates and upwards of 300 Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small 8vo, cloth, full gilt, gilt edges, with Illustrations, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Kavanaghs' Pearl Fountain</b>,<br> + And other Fairy Stories. By <span class="sc">Bridget</span> and + <span class="sc">Julia Kavanagh</span>. With Thirty Illustrations + by <span class="sc">J. Moyr Smith</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Genuine new fairy stories of the old type, some of them as + delightful as the best of Grimm's 'German Popular Stories.'…. For + the most part the stories are downright, thorough-going fairy + stories of the most admirable kind…. Mr. Moyr Smith's + illustrations, too, are admirable.</i>"—<span + class="sc">Spectator.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Fcap. 8vo, illustrated boards. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Kitchen Garden (Our):</b><br> + The Plants we Grow, and How we Cook Them. By <span class="sc">Tom + Jerrold</span>. Author of "The Garden that Paid the Rent." &c. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>In the press.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, illustrated boards, with numerous Plates, 2<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lace (Old Point), and How to Copy and Imitate it.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Daisy Waterhouse Hawkins</span>. With 17 + Illustrations by the Author. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with numerous Illustrations, 10<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lamb (Mary and Charles):</b><br> + Their Poems, Letters, and Remains. With Reminiscences and Notes by + <span class="sc">W. Carew Hazlitt</span>. With <span + class="sc">Hancock's</span> Portrait of the Essayist, Facsimiles + of the Title-pages of the rare First Editions of Lamb's and + Coleridge's Works, and numerous Illustrations. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Very many passages will delight those fond of literary trifles; + hardly any portion will fail in interest for lovers of Charles Lamb + and his sister.</i>"—<span class="sc">Standard.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small 8vo, cloth extra, 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lamb's Poetry for Children, and Prince Dorus.</b><br> + Carefully Reprinted from unique copies. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The quaint and delightful little book, over the recovery of + which all the hearts of his lovers are yet warm with + rejoicing.</i>"—<span class="sc">A. C. Swinburne.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Portraits, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lamb's Complete Works</b>,<br> + In Prose and Verse, reprinted from the Original Editions, with + many Pieces hitherto unpublished. Edited, with Notes and + Introduction, by <span class="sc">R. H. Shepherd</span>. With Two + Portraits and Facsimile of a Page of the "Essay on Roast Pig." +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A complete edition of Lamb's writings, in prose and verse, has + long been wanted, and is now supplied. The editor appears to have + taken great pains to bring together Lamb's scattered contributions, + and his collection contains a number of pieces which are now + reproduced for the first time since their original appearance in + various old periodicals.</i>"—<span class="sc">Saturday Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, with Maps and Illustrations, 18<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lamont's Yachting in the Arctic Seas</b>;<br> + or, Notes of Five Voyages of Sport and Discovery in the + Neighbourhood of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. By <span class="sc">James + Lamont</span>, F.R.G.S. With numerous full-page Illustrations by + Dr. <span class="sc">Livesay</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>After wading through numberless volumes of icy fiction, + concocted narrative, and spurious biography of Arctic voyagers, it + is pleasant to meet with a real and genuine volume…. He shows + much tact in recounting his adventures, and they are so + interspersed with anecdotes and information as to make them + anything but wearisome…. The book, as a whole, is the most + important addition made to our Arctic literature for a long + time.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lares and Penates</b>;<br> + or, The Background of Life. By <span class="sc">Florence Caddy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth, full gilt, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Latter-Day Lyrics:</b><br> + Poems of Sentiment and Reflection by Living Writers; selected and + arranged, with Notes, by <span class="sc">W. Davenport + Adams</span>. With a Note on some Foreign Forms of Verse, by <span + class="sc">Austin Dobson</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth, full gilt, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Leigh's A Town Garland.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Henry S. Leigh</span>, Author of "Carols of Cockayne." +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>If Mr. Leigh's verse survive to a future generation—and there + is no reason why that honour should not be accorded productions so + delicate, so finished, and so full of humour—their author will + probably be remembered as the Poet of the + Strand.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Second Edition.—Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Leisure-Time Studies, chiefly Biological.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Andrew Wilson</span>, F.R.S.E., Lecturer on + Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in the Edinburgh Medical School. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>It is well when we can take up the work of a really qualified + investigator, who in the intervals of his more serious professional + labours sets himself to impart knowledge in such a simple and + elementary form as may attract and instruct, with no danger of + misleading the tyro in natural science. Such a work is this little + volume, made up of essays and addresses written and delivered by + Dr. Andrew Wilson, lecturer and examiner in science at Edinburgh + and Glasgow, at leisure intervals in a busy professional life…. + Dr. Wilson's pages teem with matter stimulating to a healthy love + of science and a reverence for the truths of + nature.</i>"—<span class="sc">Saturday Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Life in London</b>;<br> + or, The History of Jerry Hawthorn and Corinthian Tom. With the + whole of <span class="sc">Cruikshank's</span> Illustrations, in + Colours, after the Originals. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lights on the Way:</b><br> + Some Tales within a Tale. By the late <span class="sc">J. H. + Alexander</span>, B.A. Edited, with an Explanatory Note, by <span + class="sc">H. A. Page</span>, Author of "Thoreau: A Study." +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Longfellow's Complete Prose Works.</b><br> + Including "Outre Mer," "Hyperion," "Kavanagh," "The Poets and + Poetry of Europe," and "Driftwood." With Portrait and + Illustrations by <span class="sc">Valentine Bromley</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Longfellow's Poetical Works.</b><br> + Carefully Reprinted from the Original Editions. With numerous + fine Illustrations on Steel and Wood. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lunatic Asylum, My Experiences in a.</b><br> + By a <span class="sc">Sane Patient</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The story is clever and interesting, sad beyond measure though + the subject be. There it no personal bitterness, and no violence or + anger. Whatever may have been the evidence for our author's madness + when he was consigned to an asylum, nothing can be clearer than his + sanity when he wrote this book; it is bright, calm, and to the + point.</i>"—<span class="sc">Spectator.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, with Fourteen full-page Plates, cloth boards 18<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lusiad (The) of Camoens.</b><br> + Translated into English Spenserian verse by <span + class="sc">Robert Ffrench Duff</span>, Knight Commander of the + Portuguese Royal Order of Christ. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Macquoid (Mrs.), Works by:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>In the Ardennes.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Katharine S. Macquoid</span>. With 50 fine + Illustrations by <span class="sc">Thomas R. Macquoid</span>. + Uniform with "Pictures and Legends." Square 8vo, cloth extra, + 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Pictures and Legends from Normandy and Brittany.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Katharine S. Macquoid</span>. With numerous + Illustrations by <span class="sc">Thomas R. Macquoid</span>. + Square 8vo, cloth gilt, 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Mr. and Mrs. Macquoid have been strolling in Normandy and + Brittany, and the result of their observations and researches in + that picturesque land of romantic associations is an attractive + volume, which it neither a work of travel nor a collection of + stories, but a book partaking almost in equal degree of each of + these characters…. The illustrations, which are numerous, are + drawn, as a rule, with remarkable delicacy as well at with true + artistic feeling.</i>"—<span class="sc">Daily News.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Through Normandy.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Katharine S. Macquoid</span>. With 90 + Illustrations by <span class="sc">T. R. Macquoid</span>. Square + 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>One of the few books which can be read as a piece of + literature, whilst at the same time handy in the + knapsack.</i>"—<span class="sc">British Quarterly Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Through Brittany.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Katharine S. Macquoid</span>. With numerous + Illustrations by <span class="sc">Thomas R. Macquoid</span>. + Square 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The pleasant companionship which Mrs. Macquoid offers, while + wandering from one point of interest to another, seems to throw a + renewed charm around each oft-depicted scene.</i>"—<span + class="sc">Morning Post.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Madre Natura v. The Moloch of Fashion.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Luke Limner</span>. With 32 Illustrations by + the Author. <span class="sc">Fourth Edition</span>, revised and + enlarged. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Handsomely printed in facsimile, price 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Magna Charta.</b><br> + An exact Facsimile of the Original Document in the British + Museum, printed on fine plate paper, nearly 3 feet long by 2 feet + wide, with the Arms and Seals emblazoned in Gold and Colours. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small 8vo, 1<i>s.</i>; cloth extra, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Milton's The Hygiene of the Skin.</b><br> + A Concise Set of Rules for the Management of the Skin; with + Directions for Diet, Wines, Soaps, Baths, &c. By <span + class="sc">J. L. Milton</span>, Senior Surgeon to St. John's + Hospital. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>By the same Author.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Bath in Diseases of the Skin.</b><br> + Sm. 8vo, 1<i>s.</i>; cl. extra, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Mallock's (W. H.) Works:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Is Life Worth Living?</b><br> + By <span class="sc">William Hurrell Mallock</span>. New Edition, + crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>This deeply interesting volume…. It is the most powerful + vindication of religion, both natural and revealed, that has + appeared since Bishop Butler wrote, and is much more useful than + either the Analogy or the Sermons of that great divine, as a + refutation of the peculiar form assumed by the infidelity of the + present day…. Deeply philosophical as the book is, there is not a + heavy page in it. The writer is 'possessed,' so to speak, with his + great subject, has sounded its depths, surveyed it in all its + extent, and brought to bear on it all the resources of a vivid, + rich, and impassioned style, as well as an adequate acquaintance + with the science, the philosophy, and the literature of the + day.</i>"—<span class="sc">Irish Daily News.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The New Republic</b>;<br> + or, Culture, Faith, and Philosophy in an English Country House. By + <span class="sc">William Hurrell Mallock</span>. <span + class="sc">Cheap Edition</span>, in the "Mayfair Library." Post + 8vo, cloth limp, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The New Paul and Virginia</b>;<br> + or, Positivism on an Island. By <span class="sc">William Hurrell + Mallock</span>. <span class="sc">Cheap Edition</span>, in the + "Mayfair Library." Post 8vo, cloth limp, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Poems.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">W. H. Mallock</span>. Small 4to, bound in + parchment, 8<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Mark Twain's Works:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Choice Works of Mark Twain.</b><br> + Revised and Corrected throughout by the Author. With Life, + Portrait, and numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, + 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Mark Twain</span>. With 100 Illustrations. + Small 8vo, cl. ex., 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> <span class="sc">Cheap + Edition</span>, illust. boards, 2<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>A Pleasure Trip on the Continent of Europe: The Innocents + Abroad</b>,<br> + and The New Pilgrim's Progress. By <span class="sc">Mark + Twain</span>. Post 8vo, illustrated boards, 2<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>An Idle Excursion, and other Sketches.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Mark Twain</span>. Post 8vo, illustrated + boards, 2<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>A Tramp Abroad.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Mark Twain</span>. With 314 Illustrations. + Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>The fun and tenderness of the conception, of which no living + man but Mark Twain is capable, its grace and fantasy and slyness, + the wonderful feeling for animals that is manifest in every line, + make of all this episode of Jim Baker and his jays a piece of work + that is not only delightful as mere reading, but also of a high + degree of merit as literature…. The book is full of good things, + and contains passages and episodes that are equal to the funniest + of those that have gone before.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Post 8vo, cloth limp. 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> per vol. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Mayfair Library, The:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The New Republic.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">W. H. Mallock</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The New Paul and Virginia.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">W. H. Mallock</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The True History of Joshua Davidson.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Old Stories Re-told.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Walter Thornbury</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Thoreau: His Life and Aims.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">H. A. Page</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>By Stream and Sea.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">William Senior</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Jeux d'Esprit.</b><br> + Edited by <span class="sc">Henry S. Leigh</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Puniana.</b><br> + By the Hon. <span class="sc">Hugh Rowley</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>More Puniana.</b><br> + By the Hon. <span class="sc">Hugh Rowley</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Puck on Pegasus.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">H. Cholmondeley-Pennell</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Speeches of Charles Dickens.</b><br> + With Chapters on Dickens as a Letter-Writer, Poet, and Public + Reader. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Muses of Mayfair.</b><br> + Edited by <span class="sc">H. Cholmondeley-Pennell</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Gastronomy as a Fine Art.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Brillat-Savarin</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Original Plays.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">W. S. Gilbert</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Carols of Cockayne.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Henry S. Leigh</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Literary Frivolities, Fancies, Follies, and Frolics.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">William T. Dobson</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Pencil and Palette:</b><br> + Biographical Anecdotes, chiefly of Contemporary Painters, with + Gossip about Pictures Lost, Stolen, and Forged, also Great + Picture Sales. By <span class="sc">Robert Kempt</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Agony Column of "The Times,".</b><br> + from 1800 to 1870. Edited, with an Introduction, by <span class="sc">Alice + Clay</span>. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>Nearly ready.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Book of Clerical Anecdotes:</b><br> + A Gathering of the Antiquities, Humours, and Eccentricities of + "The Cloth." By <span class="sc">Jacob Larwood</span>. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>Nearly ready.</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +∴ <i>Other Volumes are in preparation.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>New Novels.</b> +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>OUIDA'S NEW WORK.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>A VILLAGE COMMUNE.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. Two Vols., crown 8vo, cloth extra. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>Just ready.</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>JAMES PAYN'S NEW NOVEL.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>A CONFIDENTIAL AGENT.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. With 12 Illustrations by + <span class="sc">Arthur Hopkins</span>. Three Vols., crown 8vo. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>NEW NOVEL BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>ELLICE QUENTIN</b>,<br> + and other Stories. By <span class="sc">Julian Hawthorne</span>. + Two Vols., crown 8vo. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>MR. FRANCILLON'S NEW NOVEL.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>QUEEN COPHETUA.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">R. E. Francillon</span>. Three Vols., crown 8vo. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>MRS. HUNT'S NEW NOVEL.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE LEADEN CASKET.</b><br> + By Mrs. <span class="sc">Alfred W. Hunt</span>. Three Vols., crown 8vo. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>NEW NOVEL BY MRS. LINTON.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE REBEL OF THE FAMILY.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. Three Vols., crown 8vo. +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>NEW NOVEL by the AUTHORS OF "READY-MONEY MORTIBOY."</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE TEN YEARS' TENANT</b>,<br> + and other Stories. By <span class="sc">Walter Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rick</span>. Three Vols., crown 8vo. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>Nearly ready.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small 8vo, cloth limp, with Illustrations, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Miller's Physiology for the Young</b>;<br> + or, The House of Life: Human Physiology, with its Applications to + the Preservation of Health. For use in Classes and Popular + Reading. With numerous Illustrations. By Mrs. <span class="sc">F. Fenwick + Miller</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>An admirable introduction to a subject which all who value + health and enjoy life should have at their fingers' + ends.</i>"—<span class="sc">Echo.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Square 8vo, cloth extra, with numerous Illustrations, 9<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>North Italian Folk.</b><br> + By Mrs. <span class="sc">Comyns Carr</span>. Illustrated by <span + class="sc">Randolph Caldecott</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A delightful book, of a kind which is far too rare. If anyone + wants to really know the North Italian folk, we can honestly advise + him to omit the journey, and sit down to read Mrs. Carr's pages + instead…. Description with Mrs. Carr is a real gift…. It + is rarely that a book is so happily illustrated.</i>"—<span + class="sc">Contemporary Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Vignette Portraits, price 6<i>s.</i> per Vol. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Old Dramatists, The:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Ben Jonson's Works.</b><br> + With Notes, Critical and Explanatory, and a Biographical Memoir + by <span class="sc">William Gifford</span>. Edited by Colonel + <span class="sc">Cunningham</span>. Three Vols. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Chapman's Works.</b><br> + Now First Collected. Complete in Three Vols. Vol. I. contains the + Plays complete, including the doubtful ones; Vol. II. the Poems + and Minor Translations, with an Introductory Essay by <span + class="sc">Algernon Charles Swinburne</span>. Vol. III. the + Translations of the Iliad and Odyssey. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Marlowe's Works.</b><br> + Including his Translations. Edited, with Notes and Introduction, + by Col. <span class="sc">Cunningham</span>. One Vol. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Massinger's Plays.</b><br> + From the Text of <span class="sc">William Gifford</span>. With the + addition of the Tragedy of "Believe as you List." Edited by Col. + <span class="sc">Cunningham</span>. One Vol. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, red cloth extra, 5<i>s.</i> each. +</p> + +<table class="left" summary="Ouida's Novels"> + +<tr> +<td class="hang" colspan="2"><b>Ouida's Novels.—Library Edition.</b></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Held in Bondage.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Strathmore.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Chandos.</b></td> +<td class="atop"><span class="sc">By Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Under Two Flags.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Idalia.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Cecil Castlemaine.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Tricotrin.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Puck.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Folle Farine.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Dog of Flanders.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Pascarel.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Two Wooden Shoes.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Signa.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>In a Winter City.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Ariadne.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Friendship.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="hang"><b>Moths.</b></td> +<td class="atop">By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p class="ctr"> +∴ Also a Cheap Edition of all but the last, post 8vo, +illustrated boards, 2<i>s.</i> each. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Post 8vo, cloth limp, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Parliamentary Procedure, A Popular Handbook of.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Henry W. Lucy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Portrait and Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Poe's Choice Prose and Poetical Works.</b><br> + With <span class="sc">Baudelaire's</span> "Essay." +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, carefully printed on creamy paper, and tastefully bound +in cloth for the Library, price 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> each. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Piccadilly Novels, The.</b> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<i>Popular Stories by the Best Authors.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>READY-MONEY MORTIBOY.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>MY LITTLE GIRL.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> and <span + class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE CASE OF MR. LUCRAFT.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> + and <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THIS SON OF VULCAN.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>WITH HARP AND CROWN.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE GOLDEN BUTTERFLY.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. With a Frontispiece by F. S. + Walker. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>BY CELIA'S ARBOUR.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE MONKS OF THELEMA.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>'TWAS IN TRAFALGAR'S BAY.</b> By <span class="sc">W. Besant</span> + & <span class="sc">James ice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE SEAMY SIDE.</b> By <span class="sc">Walter Besant</span> and + <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>ANTONINA.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by Sir <span class="sc">J. Gilbert</span> and <span + class="sc">Alfred Concanen</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>BASIL.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. Illustrated + by Sir <span class="sc">John Gilbert</span> and <span class="sc">J. + Mahoney</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>HIDE AND SEEK.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by Sir <span class="sc">John Gilbert</span> and <span + class="sc">J. Mahoney</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE DEAD SECRET.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by Sir <span class="sc">John Gilbert</span> and <span + class="sc">H. Furniss</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>QUEEN OF HEARTS.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by Sir <span class="sc">John Gilbert</span> and <span + class="sc">A. Concanen</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>MY MISCELLANIES.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + With Steel Portrait, and Illustrations by <span class="sc">A. + Concanen</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE WOMAN IN WHITE.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by Sir <span class="sc">J. Gilbert</span> and <span + class="sc">F. A. Fraser</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE MOONSTONE.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">G. Du Maurier</span> and <span + class="sc">F. A. Fraser</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>MAN AND WIFE.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illust. by <span class="sc">Wm. Small</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>POOR MISS FINCH.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">G. Du Maurier</span> and <span + class="sc">Edward Hughes</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>MISS OR MRS.?</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">S. L. Fildes</span> and <span + class="sc">Henry Woods</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE NEW MAGDALEN.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">G. Du Maurier</span> and <span + class="sc">C. S. Reinhart</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE FROZEN DEEP.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">G. Du Maurier</span> and <span + class="sc">J. Mahoney</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE LAW AND THE LADY.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie + Collins</span>. Illustrated by <span class="sc">S. L. Fildes</span> + and <span class="sc">Sydney Hall</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE TWO DESTINIES.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE HAUNTED HOTEL.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">Arthur Hopkins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE FALLEN LEAVES.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>JEZEBEL'S DAUGHTER.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>DECEIVERS EVER.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">H. Lovett Cameron</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>JULIET'S GUARDIAN.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">H. Lovett + Cameron</span>. Illustrated by <span class="sc">Valentine + Bromley</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>FELICIA.</b> By <span class="sc">M. Betham-Edwards</span>. + Frontispiece by <span class="sc">W. Bowles</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>OLYMPIA.</b> By <span class="sc">R. E. Francillon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>GARTH.</b> By <span class="sc">Julian Hawthorne</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>ROBIN GRAY.</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>FOR LACK OF GOLD.</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>IN LOVE AND WAR.</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>WHAT WILL THE WORLD SAY?</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>FOR THE KING.</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>IN HONOUR BOUND.</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>QUEEN OF THE MEADOW.</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">Arthur Hopkins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE.</b> By <span class="sc">Thomas Hardy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THORNICROFT'S MODEL.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">A. W. Hunt</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>FATED TO BE FREE.</b> By <span class="sc">Jean Ingelow</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>CONFIDENCE.</b> By <span class="sc">Henry James</span>, Jun. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE QUEEN OF CONNAUGHT.</b> By <span class="sc">Harriett Jay</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE DARK COLLEEN.</b> By <span class="sc">Harriett Jay</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>NUMBER SEVENTEEN.</b> By <span class="sc">Henry Kingsley</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>OAKSHOTT CASTLE.</b> By <span class="sc">Henry Kingsley</span>. With a + Frontispiece by <span class="sc">Shirley Hodson</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>PATRICIA KEMBALL.</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. With a + Frontispiece by <span class="sc">G. Du Maurier</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE ATONEMENT OF LEAM DUNDAS.</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn + Linton</span>. With a Frontispiece by <span class="sc">Henry + Woods</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE WORLD WELL LOST.</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">J. Lawson</span> and <span + class="sc">Henry French</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>UNDER WHICH LORD?</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>WITH A SILKEN THREAD.</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE WATERDALE NEIGHBOURS.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>MY ENEMY'S DAUGHTER.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>LINLEY ROCHFORD.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>A FAIR SAXON.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>DEAR LADY DISDAIN.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>MISS MISANTHROPE.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">Arthur Hopkins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>DONNA QUIXOTE.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">Arthur Hopkins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>QUAKER COUSINS.</b> By <span class="sc">Agnes Macdonell</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>LOST ROSE.</b> By <span class="sc">Katharine S. Macquoid</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE EVIL EYE, and other Stories.</b> By <span class="sc">Katharine S. + Macquoid</span>. Illustrated by <span class="sc">Thomas R. Macquoid</span> and + <span class="sc">Percy Macquoid</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>OPEN! SESAME!</b> By <span class="sc">Florence Marryat</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">F. A. Fraser</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>TOUCH AND GO.</b> By <span class="sc">Jean Middlemass</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>WHITELADIES.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">Oliphant</span>. With + Illustrations by <span class="sc">A. Hopkins</span> and <span + class="sc">H. Woods</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE BEST OF HUSBANDS.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. + Illustrated by <span class="sc">J. Moyr Smith</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>FALLEN FORTUNES.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>HALVES.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. With a + Frontispiece by <span class="sc">J. Mahoney</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>WALTER'S WORD.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. Illust. + by <span class="sc">J. Moyr Smith</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>WHAT HE COST HER.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>LESS BLACK THAN WE'RE PAINTED.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>BY PROXY.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. Illustrated by + <span class="sc">Arthur Hopkins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>UNDER ONE ROOF.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>HIGH SPIRITS.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>HER MOTHER'S DARLING.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">J. H. Riddell</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>BOUND TO THE WHEEL.</b> By <span class="sc">John Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>GUY WATERMAN.</b> By <span class="sc">John Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>ONE AGAINST THE WORLD.</b> By <span class="sc">John Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE LION IN THE PATH.</b> By <span class="sc">John Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE WAY WE LIVE NOW.</b> By <span class="sc">Anthony + Trollope</span>. Illust. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>THE AMERICAN SENATOR.</b> By <span class="sc">Anthony Trollope</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND.</b> By <span class="sc">T. A. Trollope</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Post 8vo, illustrated boards, 2<i>s.</i> each. +</p> + +<p> +<b>Popular Novels, Cheap Editions of.</b> +</p> + + +<p class="ctrsmall"> + [<span class="sc">Wilkie Collins' Novels</span> and <span + class="sc">Besant</span> and <span class="sc">Rice's Novels</span> + may also be had in cloth limp at 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d. See, too, the</i> + <span class="sc">Piccadilly Novels</span>, <i>for Library + Editions</i>.] +</p> + + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Maid, Wife, or Widow?</b> By Mrs. <span +class="sc">Alexander</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Ready-Money Mortiboy.</b> By <span +class="sc">Walter Besant</span> and <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Golden Butterfly.</b> By Authors of "Ready-Money Mortiboy." +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>This Son of Vulcan.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>My Little Girl.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Case of Mr. Lucraft.</b> By Authors of "Ready-Money Mortiboy." +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>With Harp and Crown.</b> By Authors of +"Ready-Money Mortiboy." +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Monks of Thelema.</b> By <span +class="sc">Walter Besant</span> and <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>By Celia's Arbour.</b> By <span +class="sc">Walter Besant</span> and <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>'Twas in Trafalgar's Bay.</b> By <span class="sc">Walter +Besant</span> and <span class="sc">James Rice</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Juliet's Guardian.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">H. Lovett +Cameron</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Surly Tim.</b> By <span class="sc">F. H. Burnett</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Cure of Souls.</b> By <span class="sc">Maclaren Corban</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Woman in White.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Antonina.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Basil.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Hide and Seek.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Queen of Hearts.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Dead Secret.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>My Miscellanies.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Moonstone.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Man and Wife.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Poor Miss Finch.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Miss or Mrs.?</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The New Magdalen.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Frozen Deep.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Law and the Lady.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Two Destinies.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Haunted Hotel.</b> By <span class="sc">Wilkie Collins</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Roxy.</b> By <span class="sc">Edward Eggleston</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Felicia.</b> <span class="sc">M. Betham-Edwards</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Filthy Lucre.</b> By <span class="sc">Albany de Fonblanque</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Olympia.</b> By <span class="sc">R. E. +Francillon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Robin Gray.</b> By <span class="sc">Chas. Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>For Lack of Gold.</b> By Charles Gibbon. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>What will the World Say?</b> By Charles Gibbon. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>In Love and War..</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>For the King.</b> By <span class="sc">Charles Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>In Honour Bound.</b> By <span class="sc">Chas. Gibbon</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Dick Temple.</b> By <span class="sc">James Greenwood</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Under the Greenwood Tree.</b> By <span class="sc">Thomas Hardy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>An Heiress of Red Dog.</b> By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Luck of Roaring Camp.</b> By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Gabriel Conroy.</b> By <span class="sc">Bret Harte.</span> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Fated to be Free.</b> By <span class="sc">Jean Ingelow</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Confidence.</b> By <span class="sc">Henry James</span>, Jun. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Queen of Connaught.</b> By <span class="sc">Harriett Jay</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Dark Colleen.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Number Seventeen.</b> By <span class="sc">Henry Kingsley</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Oakshott Castle.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Patricia Kemball.</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Atonement of Leam Dundas.</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn +Linton</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The World Well Lost.</b> By <span class="sc">E. Lynn Linton</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Waterdale Neighbours.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin +McCarthy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>My Enemy's Daughter.</b> Do. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Linley Rochford.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>A Fair Saxon.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Dear Lady Disdain.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Miss Misanthrope.</b> By <span class="sc">Justin McCarthy</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Lost Rose.</b> By <span class="sc">Katharine S. Macquoid</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Evil Eye.</b> By the same. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Open! Sesame!</b> By <span class="sc">Florence Marryat</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Whiteladies.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">Oliphant</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Held in Bondage.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Strathmore.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Chandos.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Under Two Flags.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Idalia.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Cecil Castlemaine.</b> By Ouida. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Tricotrin.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Puck.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Folle Farine.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Dog of Flanders.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Pascarel.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Two Little Wooden Shoes.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Signa.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>In a Winter City.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Ariadne.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Friendship.</b> By <span class="sc">Ouida</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Fallen Fortunes.</b> By <span class="sc">J. Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Halves.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>What He Cost Her.</b> By ditto. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>By Proxy.</b> By <span class="sc">James Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Less Black than We're Painted.</b> By <span class="sc">James +Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Best of Husbands.</b> Do. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Walter's Word.</b> By <span class="sc">J. Payn</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Mystery of Marie Roget.</b> By <span class="sc">Edgar A. +Poe</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Her Mother's Darling.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">J. H. +Riddell</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Gaslight and Daylight.</b> By <span class="sc">George Augustus +Sala</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Bound to the Wheel.</b> By <span class="sc">John Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Guy Waterman.</b> By <span class="sc">J. Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>One Against the World.</b> By <span class="sc">John Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Lion in the Path.</b> By <span class="sc">John</span> and <span +class="sc">Katherine Saunders</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Tales for the Marines.</b> By <span class="sc">Walter +Thornbury</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The Way we Live Now.</b> By <span class="sc">Anthony Trollope</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>The American Senator.</b> By <span class="sc">Anthony Trollope</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Diamond Cut Diamond.</b> By <span class="sc">T. A. Trollope</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>An Idle Excursion.</b> By <span class="sc">Mark Twain</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>Adventures of Tom Sawyer.</b> By <span class="sc">Mark Twain</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>A Pleasure Trip on the Continent of Europe.</b> By <span +class="sc">Mark Twain</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Fcap. 8vo, picture covers, 1<i>s.</i> each. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Jeff Briggs's Love Story.</b> By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Twins of Table Mountain.</b> By <span class="sc">Bret Harte</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Mrs. Gainsborough's Diamonds.</b> By <span class="sc">Julian Hawthorne</span>. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Kathleen Mavourneen.</b> By the Author of "That Lass o' Lowrie's." +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Lindsay's Luck.</b> By the Author of "That Lass o' Lowrie's." +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Pretty Polly Pemberton.</b> By Author of "That Lass o' Lowrie's." +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Trooping with Crows.</b> By Mrs. <span class="sc">Pirkis</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Planché.—Songs and Poems, from 1819 to 1879.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">J. R. Planché</span>. Edited, with an + Introduction, by his Daughter, Mrs. <span + class="sc">Mackarness</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Two Vols. 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Plutarch's Lives of Illustrious Men.</b><br> + Translated from the Greek, with Notes, Critical and Historical, + and a Life of Plutarch, by <span class="sc">John</span> and <span + class="sc">William Langhorne</span>. New Edition, with Medallion + Portraits. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Primitive Manners and Customs.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">James A. Farrer</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A book which it really both instructive and amusing, and which + will open a new field of thought to many + readers.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> + +<p> + "<i>An admirable example of the application of the scientific + method and the working of the truly scientific + spirit.</i>"—<span class="sc">Saturday Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Small 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Prince of Argolis, The:</b><br> + A Story of the Old Greek Fairy Time. By <span class="sc">J. Moyr + Smith</span>. With 130 Illustrations by the Author. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Proctor's (R. A.) Works:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Easy Star Lessons for Young Learners.</b><br> + With Star Maps for Every Night in the Year, Drawings of the + Constellations, &c. By <span class="sc">Richard A. + Proctor</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>In preparation.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Myths and Marvels of Astronomy.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Rich. A. Proctor</span>, Author of "Other + Worlds than Ours," &c. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Pleasant Ways in Science.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Richard A. Proctor</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, + 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Rough Ways made Smooth:</b><br> + A Series of Familiar Essays on Scientific Subjects. By <span + class="sc">R. A. Proctor</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Our Place among Infinities:</b><br> + A Series of Essays contrasting our Little Abode in Space and Time + with the Infinities Around us. By <span class="sc">Richard A. + Proctor</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Expanse of Heaven:</b><br> + A Series of Essays on the Wonders of the Firmament. By + <span class="sc">Richard A. Proctor</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Wages and Wants of Science Workers.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Richard A. Proctor</span>. Crown 8vo, + 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Mr. Proctor, of all writers of our time, best conforms to + Matthew Arnold's conception of a man of culture, in that he strives + to humanise knowledge and divest it of whatever is harsh, crude, or + technical, and so makes it a source of happiness and brightness for + all.</i>"—<span class="sc">Westminster Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Pursuivant of Arms, The</b>;<br> + or, Heraldry founded upon Facts. A Popular Guide to the Science of + Heraldry. By <span class="sc">J. R. Planché</span>, Somerset + Herald. With Coloured Frontispiece, Plates, and 200 Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Rabelais' Works.</b><br> Faithfully Translated from the French, + with variorum Notes, and numerous characteristic Illustrations by + <span class="sc">Gustave Dore</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>His buffoonery was not merely Brutus's rough skin, which + contained a rod of gold: it was necessary as an amulet against the + monks and legates; and he must be classed with the greatest + creative minds in the world—with Shakespeare, with Dante, and with + Cervantes.</i>"—<span class="sc">S. T. Coleridge.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, with numerous Illustrations, and a beautifully +executed<br> +Chart of the various Spectra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Rambosson's Astronomy.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">J. Rambosson</span>, Laureate of the Institute + of France. Translated by <span class="sc">C. B. Pitman</span>. + Profusely Illustrated. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Richardson's (Dr.) A Ministry of Health</b>,<br> + and other Papers. By <span class="sc">Benjamin Ward + Richardson</span>, M.D., &c. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>This highly interesting volume contains upwards of nine + addresses, written in the author's well-known style, and full of + great and good thoughts…. The work is, like all those of the + author, that of a man of genius, of great power, of experience, and + noble independence of thought.</i>"—<span class="sc">Popular Science + Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Square 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Rimmer's Our Old Country Towns.</b><br> + With over 50 Illustrations. By <span class="sc">Alfred Rimmer</span>. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>Nearly ready.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Handsomely printed, price 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Roll of Battle Abbey, The</b>;<br> + or, A List of the Principal Warriors who came over from Normandy + with William the Conqueror, and Settled in this Country, A.D. + 1066-7. Printed on fine plate paper, nearly three feet by two, + with the principal Arms emblazoned in Gold and Colours. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Two Vols., large 4to, profusely Illustrated, half-morocco, £2 16<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Rowlandson, the Caricaturist.</b><br> + A Selection from his Works, with Anecdotal Descriptions of his + Famous Caricatures, and a Sketch of his Life, Times, and + Contemporaries. With nearly 400 Illustrations, mostly in Facsimile + of the Originals. By <span class="sc">Joseph Grego</span>, Author + of "James Gillray, the Caricaturist; his Life, Works, and Times." +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Mr. Grego's excellent account of the works of Thomas Rowlandson + … illustrated with some 400 spirited, accurate, and clever + transcripts from his designs…. The thanks of all who care for + what is original and personal in art are due to Mr. Grego for the + pains he has been at, and the time he has expended, in the + preparation of this very pleasant, very careful, and adequate + memorial.</i>"—<span class="sc">Pall Mall Gazette.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, profusely Illustrated, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> each. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>"Secret Out" Series, The.</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Pyrotechnist's Treasury</b>;<br> + or, Complete Art of Making Fireworks. By <span class="sc">Thomas + Kentish</span>. With numerous Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Art of Amusing:</b><br> + A Collection of Graceful Arts, Games, Tricks, Puzzles, and + Charades. By <span class="sc">Frank Bellew</span>. 300 Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Hanky-Panky:</b><br> + Very Easy Tricks, Very Difficult Tricks, White Magic, Sleight of + Hand. Edited by <span class="sc">W. H. Cremer</span>. 200 Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Merry Circle:</b><br> + A Book of New Intellectual Games and Amusements. By <span class="sc">Clara + Bellew</span>. Many Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Magician's Own Book:</b><br> + Performances with Cups and Balls, Eggs, Hats, Handkerchiefs, + &c. All from Actual Experience. Edited by <span class="sc">W. + H. Cremer</span>. 200 Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Magic No Mystery:</b><br> + Tricks with Cards, Dice, Balls, &c., with fully descriptive + Directions; the Art of Secret Writing; Training of Performing + Animals, &c. Coloured Frontispiece and many Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Secret Out:</b><br> + One Thousand Tricks with Cards, and other Recreations; with + Entertaining Experiments in Drawing-room or "White Magic." By + <span class="sc">W. H. Cremer</span>. 200 Engravings. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Senior's Travel and Trout in the Antipodes.</b><br> + An Angler's Sketches in Tasmania and New Zealand. By <span + class="sc">William Senior</span> ("Red Spinner"), Author of + "Stream and Sea." +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>In every way a happy production…. What Turner effected in + colour on canvas, Mr. Senior may be said to effect by the force of a + practical mind, in language that is magnificently descriptive, on + his subject. There is in both painter and writer the same magical + combination of idealism and realism, and the same hearty + appreciation for all that is sublime and pathetic in natural + scenery. That there is an undue share of travel to the number of + trout caught is certainly not Mr. Senior's fault; but the + comparative scarcity of the prince of fishes is adequately atoned + for, in that the writer was led pretty well through all the glorious + scenery of the antipodes in quest of him…. So great is the + charm and the freshness and the ability of the book, that it is hard + to put it down when once taken up.</i>"—<span class="sc">Home + News.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shakespeare:</b> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shakespeare, The First Folio.</b><br> + Mr. <span class="sc">William Shakespeare's</span> Comedies, + Histories, and Tragedies. Published according to the true Original + Copies. London, Printed by <span class="sc">Isaac Iaggard</span> + and <span class="sc">Ed. Blount</span>, 1623.—A Reproduction of + the extremely rare original, in reduced facsimile by a + photographic process—ensuring the strictest accuracy in every + detail. Small 8vo, half-Roxburghe, 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>To Messrs. Chatto and Windus belongs the merit of having done + more to facilitate the critical study of the text of our great + dramatist than all the Shakespeare clubs and societies put + together. A complete facsimile of the celebrated First Folio + edition of 1623 for half-a-guinea is at once a miracle of cheapness + and enterprise. Being in a reduced form, the type is necessarily + rather diminutive, but it is as distinct as in a genuine copy of + the original, and will be found to be as useful and far more handy + to the student than the latter.</i>"—<span class="sc">Athenæum.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shakespeare, The Lansdowne.</b><br> + Beautifully printed in red and black, in small but very clear + type. With engraved facsimile of <span + class="sc">Droeshout's</span> Portrait. Post 8vo, cloth extra, + 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shakespeare for Children: Tales from Shakespeare.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Charles</span> and <span class="sc">Mary + Lamb</span>. With numerous Illustrations, coloured and plain, by + <span class="sc">J. Moyr Smith</span>. Crown 4to, cloth gilt, + 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shakespeare Music, The Handbook of.</b><br> + Being an Account of Three Hundred and Fifty Pieces of Music, set + to Words taken from the Plays and Poems of Shakespeare, the + compositions ranging from the Elizabethan Age to the Present Time. + By <span class="sc">Alfred Roffe</span>. 4to, half-Roxburghe, + 7<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Shakespeare, A Study of.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">Algernon Charles Swinburne</span>. Crown 8vo, + cloth extra, 8<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with 10 full-page Tinted Illustrations, +7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Sheridan's Complete Works</b>,<br> + with Life and Anecdotes. Including his Dramatic Writings, printed + from the Original Editions, his Works in Prose and Poetry, + Translations, Speeches, Jokes, Puns, &c.; with a Collection of + Sheridaniana. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Signboards:</b><br> + Their History. With Anecdotes of Famous Taverns and Remarkable + Characters. By <span class="sc">Jacob Larwood</span> and <span + class="sc">John Camden Hotten</span>. With nearly 100 + Illustrations. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Even if we were ever so maliciously inclined, we would not pick + out all Messrs. Larwood and Hotten's plums, because the good things + are so numerous as to defy the most wholesale + depredation.</i>"—<span class="sc">Times.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo. cloth extra, gilt, 6<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Slang Dictionary, The:</b><br> + Etymological, Historical, and Anecdotal. An <span class="sc">Entirely New + Edition</span>, revised throughout, and considerably Enlarged. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>We are glad to see the Slang Dictionary reprinted and enlarged. + From a high scientific point of view this book it not to be + despised. Of course it cannot fail to be amusing also. It contains + the very vocabulary of unrestrained humour, and oddity, and + grotesqueness. In a word, it provides valuable material both for + the student of language and the student of human + nature.</i>"—<span class="sc">Academy.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Exquisitely printed in miniature, cloth extra, gilt edges, 2<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Smoker's Text-Book, The.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">J. Hamer</span>, F.R.S.L. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Spalding's Elizabethan Demonology:</b><br> + An Essay in Illustration of the Belief in the Existence of Devils, + and the Powers possessed by them, with Special Reference to + Shakspere and his Works. By <span class="sc">T. Alfred + Spalding</span>, LL.B. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>A very thoughtful and weighty book, which cannot but be welcome + to every earnest student.</i>"—<span class="sc">Academy.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 4to, uniform with "Chaucer for Children," with Coloured +Illustrations, cloth gilt, 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Spenser for Children.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">M. H. Towry</span>. With Illustrations in Colours by + <span class="sc">Walter J. Morgan</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Spenser has simply been transferred into plain prose, with here + and there a line or stanza quoted, where the meaning and the diction + are within a child's comprehension, and additional point is thus + given to the narrative without the cost of obscurity…. + Altogether the work has been well and carefully done.</i>"—<span + class="sc">The Times.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Post 8vo, cloth extra, 5<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Stories about Number Nip</b>,<br> + The Spirit of the Giant Mountains. Retold for children, by <span + class="sc">Walter Grahame</span>. With Illustrations by <span + class="sc">J. 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Mr. Stedman deserves the thanks + of English scholars; … he is faithful, studious, and + discerning.</i>"—<span class="sc">Saturday Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the People of England</b>;<br> + including the Rural and Domestic Recreations, May Games, + Mummeries, Shows, Processions, Pageants, and Pompous Spectacles, + from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. With 140 + Illustrations. Edited by <span class="sc">William Hone</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Swift's Choice Works</b>,<br> + In Prose and Verse. 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C. + Hotten</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Four Vols. small 8vo, cloth boards, 30<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Taine's History of English Literature.</b><br> + Translated by <span class="sc">Henry Van Laun</span>. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +∴ Also a <span class="sc">Popular Edition</span>, in Two Vols. +crown 8vo, cloth extra, 15<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo. cloth gilt, profusely Illustrated, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Tales of Old Thule.</b><br> + Collected and Illustrated by <span class="sc">J. Moyr Smith</span>. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>It is not often that we meet with a volume of fairy tales + possessing more fully the double recommendation of absorbing + interest and purity of tone than does the one before us containing + a collection of 'Tales of Old Thule.' These come, to say the least, + near fulfilling the idea of perfect works of the kind; and the + illustrations with which the volume is embellished are equally + excellent…. We commend the book to parents and teachers as an + admirable gift to their children and pupils.</i>"—<span + class="sc">Literary World.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +One Vol. crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Taylor's (Tom) Historical Dramas:</b><br> + "Clancarty," "Jeanne Dare," "Twixt Axe and Crown," "The Fool's + Revenge." "Arkwright's Wife," "Anne Boleyn," "Plot and Passion." +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +∴ The Plays may also be had separately, at 1<i>s.</i> each. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Coloured Frontispiece and numerous +Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Thackerayana:</b><br> + Notes and Anecdotes. Illustrated by a profusion of Sketches by + <span class="sc">William Makepeace Thackeray</span>, depicting Humorous + Incidents in his School-life, and Favourite Characters in the + books of his everyday reading. With Hundreds of Wood Engravings, + facsimiled from Mr. Thackeray's Original Drawings. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> + +<p> + "<i>It would have been a real loss to bibliographical literature + had copyright difficulties deprived the general public of this very + amusing collection. One of Thackeray's habits, from his schoolboy + days, was to ornament the margins and blank pages of the books he + had in use with caricature illustrations of their contents. This + gave special value to the sale of his library, and is almost cause + for regret that it could not have been preserved in its integrity. + Thackeray's place in literature is eminent enough to have made this + an interest to future generations. The anonymous editor has done + the best that he could to compensate for the lack of this. It is an + admirable addendum, not only to his collected works, but alto to + any memoir of him that has been, or that is likely to be, + written.</i>"—<span class="sc">British Quarterly Review.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with numerous Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Thornbury's (Walter) Haunted London.</b><br> + A New Edition, edited by <span class="sc">Edward Walford</span>, + M.A.. with numerous Illustrations by <span class="sc">F. W. + Fairholt</span>, F.S.A. +</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "<i>Mr. Thornbury knew and loved his London…. He had read much + history, and every by-lane and every court had associations for him. + His memory and his note-books were stored with anecdote, and, as he + had singular skill in the matter of narration, it will be readily + believed that when he took to writing a set book about the places he + knew and cared for, the said book would be charming. Charming the + volume before us certainly is. It may be begun in the beginning, or + middle, or end, it is all one: wherever one lights, there is some + pleasant and curious bit of gossip, some amusing fragment of + allusion or quotation.</i>"—<span class="sc">Vanity Fair.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt edges, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Thomson's Seasons and Castle of Indolence.</b><br> + With a Biographical and Critical Introduction by <span class="sc">Allan + Cunningham</span>, and over 50 fine Illustrations on Steel and + Wood. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Timbs' Clubs and Club Life in London.</b><br> + With Anecdotes of its famous Coffee-houses, Hostelries, and + Taverns. By <span class="sc">John Timbs</span>, F.S.A. With numerous + Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Timbs' English Eccentrics and Eccentricities:</b><br> + Stories of Wealth and Fashion, Delusions, Impostures, and Fanatic + Missions, Strange Sights and Sporting Scenes, Eccentric Artists, + Theatrical Folks, Men of Letters, &c. By <span class="sc">John + Timbs</span>, F.S.A. With nearly 50 Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, 14<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Torrens' The Marquess Wellesley</b>,<br> + Architect of Empire. An Historic Portrait. <i>Forming Vol. I. + of</i> <span class="sc">Pro-Consul</span> and <span + class="sc">Tribune: Wellesley</span> and <span + class="sc">O'Connell</span>: Historic Portraits. By <span + class="sc">W. M. Torrens</span>, M.P. In Two Vols. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Coloured Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Turner's (J. M. W.) Life and Correspondence:</b><br> + Founded upon Letters and Papers furnished by his Friends and + fellow-Academicians. By <span class="sc">Walter Thornbury</span>. + A New Edition, considerably Enlarged. With numerous Illustrations + in Colours, facsimiled from Turner's original Drawings. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Two Vols., crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Map and Ground-Plans, 14<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Walcott's Church Work and Life in English Minsters</b>;<br> + and the English Student's Monasticon. By the Rev. <span + class="sc">Mackenzie E. C. Walcott</span>, B.D. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Large crown 8vo, cloth antique, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Walton and Cotton's Complete Angler</b>;<br> + or, The Contemplative Man's Recreation: being a Discourse of + Rivers, Fishponds, Fish and Fishing, written by <span + class="sc">Izaak Walton</span>; and Instructions how to Angle for + a Trout or Grayling in a clear Stream, by <span class="sc">Charles + Cotton</span>. With Original Memoirs and Notes by Sir <span + class="sc">Harris Nicolas</span>, and 61 Copperplate Illustrations. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Carefully printed on paper to imitate the Original, 22 in. by 14 in., +2<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Warrant to Execute Charles I.</b><br> + An exact Facsimile of this important Document, with the + Fifty-nine Signatures of the Regicides, and corresponding Seals. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +The Twenty-first Annual Edition, for 1881, cloth, full gilt, 50<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Walford's County Families of the United Kingdom.</b><br> + A Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of Great + Britain and Ireland. By <span class="sc">Edward Walford</span>, M. + A., late Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford. Containing Notices of + the Descent, Birth, Marriage, Education, &c., of more than + 12,000 distinguished Heads of Families in the United Kingdom, + their Heirs Apparent or Presumptive, together with a Record of the + Patronage at their disposal, the Offices which they hold or have + held, their Town Addresses, Country Residences, Clubs, &c. +</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +[<i>Nearly ready.</i> +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Beautifully printed on paper to imitate the Original MS., price 2<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Warrant to Execute Mary Queen of Scots.</b><br> + An exact Facsimile, including the Signature of Queen Elizabeth, + and a Facsimile of the Great Seal. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth limp, with numerous Illustrations, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Westropp's Handbook of Pottery and Porcelain</b>;<br> + or, History of those Arts from the Earliest Period. By <span + class="sc">Hodder M. Westropp</span>, Author of "Handbook of + Archæology," &c. With numerous beautiful Illustrations, and a + List of Marks. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<span class="sc">Seventh Edition.</span> Square 8vo, 1<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Whistler v. Ruskin: Art and Art Critics.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">J. A. Macneill Whistler</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth limp, with Illustrations, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Williams' A Simple Treatise on Heat.</b><br> + By <span class="sc">W. Mattieu Williams</span>, F.R.A.S., F.C.S., + Author of "The Fuel of the Sun," &c. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +<i>A HANDSOME GIFT-BOOK.</i>—Small 8vo. cloth extra, 6<i>s.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Wooing (The) of the Water Witch:</b><br> + A Northern Oddity. By <span class="sc">Evan Daldorne</span>. With + One Hundred and Twenty-five fine Illustrations by <span + class="sc">J. Moyr Smith</span>. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Wright's Caricature History of the Georges.</b><br> + (The House of Hanover.) With 400 Pictures. Caricatures, Squibs, + Broadsides, Window Pictures, &c. By <span class="sc">Thomas + Wright</span>, M.A., F.S.A. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<p class="ctrsmall"> +Large post 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>Wright's History of Caricature and of the Grotesque in Art, + Literature, Sculpture, and Painting</b>,<br> + from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. By <span + class="sc">Thomas Wright</span>, M.A., F.S.A. Profusely + Illustrated by <span class="sc">F. W. Fairholt</span>, F.S.A. +</p> + +<p class="space"> + +</p> + +<br> +<p class="ctrsmall"> +J. OGDEN AND CO., PRINTERS, 172, ST. JOHN STREET, E.C. +</p> + +<br> +<div class="tn"> +<p class="ctr"> +Transcriber's Note: +</p> + +<p> +Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. +</p> + +<p> +Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as +printed. +</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Evolutionist at Large, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE *** + +***** This file should be named 44820-h.htm or 44820-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/8/2/44820/ + +Produced by Dianna Adair and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Evolutionist at Large + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: February 1, 2014 [EBook #44820] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE *** + + + + +Produced by Dianna Adair and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected +without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have +been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with +underscores: _italics_. Words printed in bold are noted with +tildes: ~bold~. + + + + Dear Mother, take this English posy, culled. + In alien fields beyond the severing sea: + Take it in memory of the boy you lulled + One chill Canadian winter on your knee. + + Its flowers are but chance friends of after years, + Whose very names my childhood hardly knew; + And even today far sweeter in my ears + Ring older names unheard long seasons through. + + I loved them all--the bloodroot, waxen white, + Canopied mayflower, trilliums red and pale, + Flaunting lobelia, lilies richly dight, + And pipe-plant from the wood behind the Swale. + + I knew each dell where yellow violets blow, + Each bud or leaf the changing seasons bring; + I marked each spot where from the melting snow + Peeped forth the first hepatica of spring. + + I watched the fireflies on the shingly ridge + Beside the swamp that bounds the Baron's hill; + Or tempted sunfish by the ebbing bridge, + Or hooked a bass by Shirley Going's mill. + + These were my budding fancy's mother-tongue: + But daisies, cowslips, dodder, primrose-hips, + All beasts or birds my little book has sung, + Sit like a borrowed speech on stammering lips. + + And still I build fond dreams of happier days, + If hard-earned pence may bridge the ocean o'er; + That yet our boy may see my mother's face, + And gather shells beside Ontario's shore: + + May yet behold Canadian woodlands dim, + And flowers and birds his father loved to see; + While you and I sit by and smile on him, + As down grey years you sat and smiled on me. + + G. A. + + + + +_By the same Author._ + + +PHYSIOLOGICAL AESTHETICS: a Scientific Theory of Beauty (London: C. +KEGAN PAUL & CO.) + +THE COLOUR-SENSE: its Origin and Development. An Essay on Comparative +Psychology. (London: TRUeBNER & CO.) + + + + +THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE + +LONDON: PRINTED BY +SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE +AND PARLIAMENT STREET + + + + +THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE + + +BY + +GRANT ALLEN + + +London +CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY +1881 + +_All rights reserved_ + + + + +PREFACE. + + +These Essays originally appeared in the columns of the 'St. James's +Gazette,' and I have to thank the courtesy of the Editor for kind +permission to republish them. My object in writing them was to make the +general principles and methods of evolutionists a little more familiar +to unscientific readers. Biologists usually deal with those underlying +points of structure which are most really important, and on which all +technical discussion must necessarily be based. But ordinary people +care little for such minute anatomical and physiological details. They +cannot be expected to interest themselves in the _flexor pollicis +longus_, or the _hippocampus major_ about whose very existence +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 monocotyledonous seeds or exogenous +stems. It is with these surface questions of obvious outward appearance +that I have attempted to deal in this little series. 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 which 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 work. + +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 anonymously in the columns of a daily paper, this air of +personality was not so obtrusive: now that they reappear under my own +name, I fear it may prove somewhat 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 _I_ 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 as to bring the statements into closer accordance with scientific +accuracy. At the same time, I should like to add that I have +intentionally simplified the scientific facts as far as possible. Thus, +instead of saying that the groundsel is a composite, I have said that +it is a daisy by family; and instead of saying that the ascidian larva +belongs to the sub-kingdom Chordata, I have said that it is a first +cousin of the tadpole. For these simplifications, I hope technical +biologists will pardon me. After all, if you wish to be understood, it +is best to speak to people in words whose meanings they know. Definite +and accurate terminology is necessary to express definite and accurate +knowledge; but one may use vague expressions where the definite ones +would convey no ideas. + +I have to thank the kindness of my friend the Rev. E. PURCELL, of +Lincoln College, Oxford, for the clever and appropriate design which +appears upon the cover. + +G. A. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + +A BALLADE OF EVOLUTION 1 + + I. MICROSCOPIC BRAINS 3 + + II. A WAYSIDE BERRY 16 + + III. IN SUMMER FIELDS 25 + + IV. A SPRIG OF WATER CROWFOOT 36 + + V. SLUGS AND SNAILS 48 + + VI. A STUDY OF BONES 59 + + VII. BLUE MUD 67 + + VIII. CUCKOO-PINT 77 + + IX. BERRIES AND BERRIES 87 + + X. DISTANT RELATIONS 96 + + XI. AMONG THE HEATHER 105 + + XII. SPECKLED TROUT 114 + + XIII. DODDER AND BROOMRAPE 124 + + XIV. DOG'S MERCURY AND PLANTAIN 133 + + XV. BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY 142 + + XVI. BUTTERFLY AESTHETICS 153 + + XVII. THE ORIGIN OF WALNUTS 161 + +XVIII. A PRETTY LAND-SHELL 172 + + XIX. DOGS AND MASTERS 181 + + XX. BLACKCOCK 189 + + XXI. BINDWEED 198 + + XXII. ON CORNISH CLIFFS 207 + + + + +_A BALLADE OF EVOLUTION._ + + + In the mud of the Cambrian main + Did our earliest ancestor dive: + From a shapeless albuminous grain + We mortals our being derive. + He 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 contrive, + 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 civilised hive, + Now money's the measure of all; + And the wealthy in coaches can drive, + While the needier go to the wall. + + + + +THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. + + + + +I. + +_MICROSCOPIC BRAINS._ + + +Sitting on this little rounded boss of gneiss beside the path which +cuts obliquely through the meadow, I am engaged in watching a brigade +of ants out on foraging duty, and intent on securing for the nest three +whole segments of a deceased earthworm. They look for all the world +like those busy companies one sees in the Egyptian wall-paintings, +dragging home a huge granite colossus by sheer force of bone 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 Brobdingnagian 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 +head-quarters 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 that I could for a while get inside those tiny +brains, and see, or rather smell, the world as ants do. For there can +be little doubt that to these brave little carnivores here the universe +is chiefly known as a collective bundle of odours, simultaneous or +consecutive. As our world is mainly a world of visible objects, theirs, +I believe, is mainly a world of olfactible things. + +In the head of every one of these little creatures is something that we +may fairly call a brain. Of course most insects have no real brains; +the nerve-substance in their heads is a mere collection of ill-arranged +ganglia, directly connected with their organs of sense. Whatever man +may be, an earwig at least is a conscious, or rather a semi-conscious, +automaton. He has just a few knots of nerve-cells in his little pate, +each of which leads straight from his dim eye or his vague ear or +his indefinite organs of taste; and his muscles obey the promptings +of external sensations without possibility of hesitation or +consideration, as mechanically as the valve of a steam-engine obeys the +governor-balls. You may say of him truly, 'Nihil est in intellectu quod +non fuerit in sensu;' and you need not even add the Leibnitzian saving +clause, 'nisi ipse 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 the cerebellum +which are superadded in us mammals upon the simple sense-centres of +lower creatures. Besides the eye, with its optic nerve and optic +perceptive organs--besides the ear, with its similar mechanism--we +mammalian lords of creation have a higher and more genuine brain, which +collects and compares the information given to the senses, and sends +down the appropriate messages to the muscles accordingly. Now, bees and +flies and ants have got much the same sort of arrangement, on a smaller +scale, within their tiny heads. On top of the little knots which do +duty as nerve-centres for their eyes and mouths, stand two stalked bits +of nervous matter, 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 beetles or butterflies, and why the larger +part of them have organised their domestic arrangements on such an +excellent co-operative plan. + +We know well enough what forms the main material of thought with bees +and flies, and that is visible objects. For you must think about +_something_ if you think at all; and you can hardly imagine a +contemplative blow-fly setting itself down to reflect, like a Hindu +devotee, on the syllable Om, or on the oneness of existence. Abstract +ideas are not likely to play a large part in apian consciousness. A bee +has a very perfect eye, and with this eye it can see not only form, but +also colour, as Sir John Lubbock's experiments have shown us. The +information which it gets through its eye, coupled with other ideas +derived from touch, smell, and taste, no doubt makes up the main +thinkable and knowable universe as it reveals itself to the apian +intelligence. To ourselves and to bees alike the world is, on the +whole, a coloured picture, with the notions of distance and solidity +thrown in by touch and muscular effort; but sight undoubtedly plays the +first part in forming our total conception of things generally. + +What, however, forms the thinkable universe of these little ants +running to and fro so eagerly at my feet? That is a question which used +long to puzzle me in my afternoon walks. The ant has a brain and an +intelligence, but that brain and that intelligence must have been +developed out of _something_. _Ex nihilo nihil fit._ You cannot think +and know if you have nothing to think about. The intelligence of the +bee and the fly was evolved in the course of their flying about and +looking at things: the more they flew, and the more they saw, the more +they knew; and the more brain they got to think with. But the ant does +not generally fly, and, as with most comparatively unlocomotive +animals, its sight is bad. True, the winged males and females have +retained in part the usual sharp eyes of their class--for they are +first cousins to the bees--and they also possess three little eyelets +or _ocelli_, which are wanting to the wingless neuters. Without these +they would never have found one another in their courtship, and they +would have run their heads against the nearest tree, or rushed down the +gaping throat of the first expectant swallow, and so effectually +extinguished their race. Flying animals cannot do without eyes, and +they always possess the most highly developed vision of any living +creatures. But the wingless neuters are almost blind--in some species +quite so; and Sir John Lubbock has shown that their appreciation of +colour is mostly confined to an aversion to red light, and a +comparative endurance of blue. Moreover, they are apparently deaf, and +most of their other senses seem little developed. What can be the raw +material on which that pin's head of a brain sets itself working? For, +small as it is, it is a wonderful organ of intellect; and though Sir +John Lubbock has shown us all too decisively that the originality and +inventive genius of ants have been sadly overrated by Solomon and +others, yet Darwin is probably right none the less in saying that no +more marvellous atom of matter exists in the universe than this same +wee lump of microscopic nerve substance. + +My dog Grip, running about on the path there, with his nose to the +ground, and sniffing at every stick and stone he meets on his way, +gives us the clue to solve the problem. Grip, as Professor Croom +Robertson suggests, seems capable of extracting a separate and +distinguishable 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 he is, selects and brings back to me that individual stone +from all the stones around, by exercise of his nose alone. It is plain +that Grip's world is not merely a world of sights, but a world of +smells as well. He not only smells smells, but he remembers smells, he +thinks smells, he even dreams smells, as you may see by his sniffing +and growling in his sleep. Now, if I were to cut open Grip's head +(which heaven forfend), I should find in it a correspondingly big +smell-nerve and smell-centre--an olfactory lobe, as the anatomists say. +All the accumulated nasal experiences of his ancestors have made that +lobe enormously developed. But in a man's head you would find a very +large and fine optic centre, and only a mere shrivelled relic to +represent the olfactory lobes. You and I and our ancestors have had but +little occasion for sniffing and scenting; our sight and our touch have +done duty as chief intelligencers from the outer world; and the nerves +of smell, with their connected centres, have withered away to the +degenerate condition in which they now are. Consequently, smell plays +but a small part in our thought and our memories. The world that we +know is chiefly a world of sights and touches. But in the brain of dog, +or deer, or antelope, smell is a prevailing faculty; it colours all +their ideas, and it has innumerable nervous connections with every part +of their brain. The big olfactory lobes are in direct communication +with a thousand other nerves; odours rouse trains of thought or +powerful emotions in their minds just as visible objects do in our own. + +Now, in the dog or the horse sight and smell are equally developed; so +that they probably think of most things about equally in terms of each. +In ourselves, sight is highly developed, and smell is a mere relic; so +that we think of most things in terms of sight alone, and only rarely, +as with a rose or a lily, in terms of both. But in ants, on the +contrary, smell is highly developed and sight a mere relic; so that +they probably think of most things as smellable only, and very little +as visible in form or colour. Dr. Bastian has shown that bees and +butterflies are largely guided by scent; and though he is certainly +wrong in supposing that sight has little to do with leading them to +flowers (for if you cut off the bright-coloured corolla they will never +discover the mutilated blossoms, even when they visit others on the +same plant), yet the mere fact that so many flowers are scented 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 sense of smell has been continued and further developed, till +it has become their principal sense-endowment, and the chief raw +material of their intelligence. Their active little brains are almost +wholly engaged in correlating and co-ordinating smells with actions. +Their olfactory nerves give them nearly all the information they can +gain about the external world, and their brains take in this +information and work out the proper movements which it indicates. By +smell they find their way about and carry on the business of their +lives. Just as you and I know the road from Regent's Circus to Pall +Mall by visible signs of the street-corners and the Duke of York's +Column, so these little ants know the way from the nest to the corpse +of the dismembered worm by observing and remembering the smells which +they met with on their way. See: I obliterate the track for an inch or +two with my stick, and the little creatures go beside themselves with +astonishment and dismay. They rush about wildly, inquiring of one +another with their antennae whether this is really Doomsday, and whether +the whole course of nature has been suddenly revolutionised. Then, +after a short consultation, they determine upon action; and every ant +starts off in a different direction to hunt the lost track, head to the +ground, exactly as a pointer hunts the missing trail of a bird or hare. +Each ventures an inch or so off, and then runs back to find the rest, +for fear he should get isolated altogether. At last, after many +failures, one lucky fellow hits upon the well-remembered train of +scents, and rushes back leaving smell-tracks no doubt upon the soil +behind him. The message goes quickly round from post to post, each +sentry making passes with his antennae to the next picket, and so +sending on the news to the main body in the rear. Within five minutes +communications are re-established, and the precious bit of worm-meat +continues triumphantly on its way along the recovered path. An +ingenious writer would even have us believe that ants possess a +scent-language of their own, and emit various odours from their antennae +which the other ants perceive with theirs, and recognise as distinct in +meaning. Be this as it may, you cannot doubt, if you watch them long, +that scents and scents alone form the chief means by which they +recollect and know one another, or the external objects with which they +come in contact. The whole universe is clearly to them a complicated +picture made up entirely of infinite interfusing smells. + + + + +II. + +_A WAYSIDE BERRY._ + + +Half-hidden in the luxuriant growth of leaves and flowers that drape +the deep side of this green lane, I have just espied a little picture +in miniature, a tall wild strawberry-stalk with three full red berries +standing out on its graceful branchlets. There are glossy +hart's-tongues on the matted bank, and yellow hawkweeds, and bright +bunches of red campion; but somehow, amid all that wealth of shape and +colour, my eye falls and rests instinctively upon the three little +ruddy berries, and upon nothing else. I pick the single stalk from the +bank and hold it here in my hands. The origin and development of these +pretty bits of red pulp is one of the many curious questions upon which +modern theories of life have cast such a sudden and unexpected flood of +light. What makes the strawberry stalk grow out into this odd and +brightly coloured lump, bearing its small fruits embedded on its +swollen surface? Clearly the agency of those same small birds who have +been mainly instrumental in dressing the haw in its scarlet coat, and +clothing the spindle-berries with their two-fold covering of crimson +doublet and orange cloak. + +In common language we speak of each single strawberry as a fruit. But +it is in reality a collection of separate fruits, the tiny yellow-brown +grains which stud its sides being each of them an individual little +nut; while the sweet pulp is, in fact, no part of the true fruit at +all, but merely a swollen stalk. There is a white potentilla so like a +strawberry blossom that even a botanist must look closely at the plant +before he can be sure of its identity. While they are in flower the two +heads remain almost indistinguishable; but when the seed begins to set +the potentilla develops only a collection of dry fruitlets, seated upon +a green receptacle, the bed or soft expansion which hangs on to the +'hull' or calyx. Each fruitlet consists of a thin covering, enclosing a +solitary seed. You may compare one of them separately to a plum, with +its single kernel, only that in the plum the covering is thick and +juicy, while in the potentilla and the fruitlets of the strawberry it +is thin and dry. An almond comes still nearer to the mark. Now the +potentilla shows us, as it were, the primitive form of the strawberry. +But in the developed ripe strawberry as we now find it the fruitlets +are not crowded upon a green receptacle. After flowering, the +strawberry receptacle lengthens and broadens, so as to form a roundish +mass of succulent pulp; and as the fruitlets approach maturity this +sour green pulp becomes soft, sweet, and red. The little seed-like +fruits, which are the important organs, stand out upon its surface like +mere specks; while the comparatively unimportant receptacle is all that +we usually think of when we talk about strawberries. After our usual +Protagorean fashion we regard man as the measure of all things, and pay +little heed to any part of the compound fruit-cluster save that which +ministers directly to our own tastes. + +But why does the strawberry develop this large mass of apparently +useless matter? Simply in order the better to ensure the dispersion of +its small brown fruitlets. Birds are always hunting for seeds and +insects along the hedge-rows, and devouring such among them as contain +any available foodstuff. In most cases they crush the seeds to pieces +with their gizzards, and digest and assimilate their contents. Seeds of +this class are generally enclosed in green or brown capsules, which +often escape the notice of the birds, and so succeed in perpetuating +their species. But there is another class of plants whose members +possess hard and indigestible seeds, and so turn the greedy birds from +dangerous enemies into useful allies. Supposing there was by chance, +ages ago, one of these primitive ancestral strawberries, whose +receptacle was a little more pulpy than usual, and contained a small +quantity of sugary matter, such as is often found in various parts of +plants; then it might happen to attract the attention of some hungry +bird, which, by eating the soft pulp, would help in dispersing the +indigestible fruitlets. As these fruitlets sprang up into healthy young +plants, they would tend to reproduce the peculiarity in the structure +of the receptacle which marked the parent stock, and some of them would +probably display it in a more marked degree. These would be sure to get +eaten in their turn, and so to become the originators of a still more +pronounced strawberry type. As time went on, the largest and sweetest +berries would constantly be chosen by the birds, till the whole species +began to assume its existing character. The receptacle would become +softer and sweeter, and the fruits themselves harder and more +indigestible: because, on the one hand, all sour or hard berries would +stand a poorer chance of getting dispersed in good situations for their +growth, while, on the other hand, all soft-shelled fruitlets would be +ground up and digested by the bird, and thus effectually prevented from +ever growing into future plants. Just in like manner, many tropical +nuts have extravagantly hard shells, as only those survive which can +successfully defy the teeth and hands of the clever and persistent +monkey. + +This accounts for the strawberry being sweet and pulpy, but not for its +being red. Here, however, a similar reason comes into play. All +ripening fruits and opening flowers have a natural tendency to grow +bright red, or purple, or blue, though in many of them the tendency is +repressed by the dangers attending brilliant displays of colour. 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, is injured by such a change of colour, +through being rendered more conspicuous to its foes, it soon loses the +tendency under the influence of natural selection; in other words, +those individuals which most display it get killed out, while those +which least display it survive and thrive. On the other hand, if +conspicuousness is an advantage to the plant, the exact opposite +happens, and the tendency becomes developed into a confirmed habit. +This is the case with the strawberry, as with many other fruits. The +more bright-coloured the berry is, the better its chance of getting its +fruitlets dispersed. Birds have quick eyes for colour, especially for +red and white; and therefore almost all edible berries have assumed one +or other of these two hues. So long as the fruitlets remain unripe, and +would therefore be injured by being eaten, the pulp remains sour, +green, and hard; but as soon as they have become fit for dispersion it +grows soft, fills with sugary juice, and acquires its ruddy outer +flesh. Then the birds see and recognise it as edible, and govern +themselves accordingly. + +But if this is the genesis of the strawberry, asks somebody, why have +not all the potentillas and the whole strawberry tribe also become +berries of the same type? Why are there still potentilla fruit-clusters +which consist of groups of dry seed-like nuts? Ay, there's the rub. +Science cannot answer as yet. After all, these questions are still in +their infancy, and we can scarcely yet do more than discover a single +stray interpretation here and there. In the present case a botanist can +only suggest either that the potentilla finds its own mode of +dispersion equally 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 receptacle in the strawberry +has never happened to befall its more modest kinsfolk. For on such +occasional freaks of nature the whole evolution of new varieties +entirely depends. A gardener may raise a thousand seedlings, and only +one or none among them may present a single new and important feature. +So a species may wait for a thousand years, or for ever, before its +circumstances happen to produce the first step towards some desirable +improvement. One extra petal may be invaluable to a five-rayed flower +as effecting some immense saving of pollen in its fertilisation; and +yet the 'sport' which shall give it this sixth ray may never occur, or +may be trodden down in the mire and destroyed by a passing cow. + + + + +III. + +_IN SUMMER FIELDS._ + + +Grip and I have come out for a morning stroll among the close-cropped +pastures beside the beck, in the very centre of our green little +dingle. Here I can sit, as is my wont, on a dry knoll, and watch the +birds, beasts, insects, and herbs of the field, while Grip scours the +place in every direction, intent, no doubt, upon those more practical +objects--mostly rats, I fancy--which possess a congenial interest for +the canine intelligence. From my coign of vantage on the knoll I can +take care that he inflicts no grievous bodily injury upon the sheep, +and that he receives none from the quick-tempered cow with the +brass-knobbed horns. For a kind of ancestral feud seems to smoulder for +ever between Grip and the whole race of kine, breaking out every now +and then into open warfare, which calls for my prompt interference, in +an attitude of armed but benevolent neutrality, merely for the friendly +purpose of keeping the peace. + +This ancient feud, I imagine, is really ancestral, and dates many ages +further back in time than Grip's individual experiences. Cows hate dogs +instinctively, from their earliest calfhood upward. I used to doubt +once upon a time whether the hatred was not of artificial origin and +wholly induced by the inveterate human habit of egging on every dog to +worry every other animal that comes in its way. But I tried a mild +experiment one day by putting a half-grown town-bred puppy into a small +enclosure with some hitherto unworried calves, and they all turned to +make a common headway against the intruder with the same striking +unanimity as the most ancient and experienced cows. Hence I am inclined +to suspect that the antipathy does actually result from a vaguely +inherited instinct derived from the days when the ancestor of our kine +was a wild bull, and the ancestor of our dogs a wolf, on the wide +forest-clad plains of Central Europe. When a cow puts up its tail at +sight of a dog entering its paddock at the present day, it has probably +some dim instinctive consciousness that it stands in the presence of a +dangerous hereditary foe; and as the wolves could only seize with +safety a single isolated wild bull, so the cows now usually make common +cause against the intruding dog, turning their heads in one direction +with very unwonted unanimity, till his tail finally disappears under +the opposite gate. Such inherited antipathies seem common and natural +enough. Every species knows and dreads the ordinary enemies of its +race. Mice scamper away from the very smell of a cat. Young chickens +run to the shelter of their mother's wings when the shadow of a hawk +passes over their heads. Mr. Darwin put a small snake into a paper bag, +which he gave to the monkeys at the Zoo; and one monkey after another +opened the bag, looked in upon the deadly foe of the quadrumanous kind, +and promptly dropped the whole package with every gesture of horror and +dismay. Even man himself--though his instincts have all weakened so +greatly with the growth of his more plastic intelligence, adapted to a +wider and more modifiable set of external circumstances--seems to +retain a vague and original terror of the serpentine form. + +If we think of parallel cases, it is not curious that animals should +thus instinctively recognise their natural enemies. We are not +surprised that they recognise their own fellows: and yet they must do +so by means of some equally strange automatic and inherited mechanism +in their nervous system. One butterfly can tell its mates at once from +a thousand other species, though it may differ from some of them only +by a single spot or line, which would escape the notice of all but the +most attentive observers. Must we not conclude that there are elements +in the butterfly's feeble brain exactly answering to the blank picture +of its specific type? So, too, must we not suppose that in every race +of animals there arises a perceptive structure specially adapted to the +recognition of its own kind? Babies notice human faces long before they +notice 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 berries; another exhibits an +untaught desire to chase down grasshoppers; a third, which happens to +be born an owl, turns at once to the congenial pursuit of small +sparrows, mice, and frogs. Each species seems to have certain faculties +so arranged that the sight of certain external objects, frequently +connected with food in their ancestral experience, immediately arouses +in them the appropriate actions for its capture. Mr. Douglas Spalding +found that newly-hatched chickens darted rapidly and accurately at +flies on the wing. When we recollect that even so late an acquisition +as articulate speech in human beings has its special physical seat in +the brain, it is not astonishing that complicated mechanisms should +have arisen among animals for the due perception of mates, food, and +foes respectively. 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 +experience 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 are by nature and descent timid mountain +animals, and they have never been accustomed to face a foe, as cows and +buffaloes are wont to do, especially when in a herd together. You +cannot see many traces of the original mountain life among sheep, and +yet there are still a few remaining to mark their real pedigree. Mr. +Herbert Spencer has noticed the fondness of lambs for frisking on a +hillock, however small; and when I come to my little knoll here, I +generally find it occupied by a couple, who rush away on my approach, +but take their stand instead on the 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 they were kept was a +single old elm stump. For the possession 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 whole diameter of the tree +was but some fifteen inches), maintaining himself in his place with the +greatest difficulty, and butting at his two brothers until at last he +lost his balance and fell. This one old stump was the sole +representative 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 memento 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 habits of his race. But in mountain countries, +every one must have noticed how the sheep at once becomes a different +being. On the Welsh hills he 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. + +Another mountain trait in the stereotyped character of sheep is their +well-known sequaciousness. When Grip runs after them they all run away +together: if one goes through a certain gap in the hedge, every other +follows; and if the leader jumps the beck at a certain spot, every lamb +in the flock jumps in the self-same 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 +corresponding 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 goodness 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. He alone can see what obstacles come in the way; +and each of the succeeding train must watch and imitate the actions of +their predecessors. Otherwise, if the flock happens 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 descendants. On the other hand, those uninquiring and blindly +obedient animals which simply did as they 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 sequaciousness--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 them 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 circumstances. They are to the mental +life what rudimentary organs are to the bodily structure: they remind +us of an older order of things, just as the abortive legs of the +blind-worm show us that he was once a lizard, and the hidden shell of +the slug that he was once a snail. + + + + +IV. + +_A SPRIG OF WATER CROWFOOT._ + + +The little streamlet whose tiny ranges and stickles form the middle +thread of this green combe in the Dorset 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 overhangs 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 below and broad above; and I often wonder +why so strange a phenomenon has attracted such very scant attention. +But then we knew so little of life in any form till the day before +yesterday that perhaps it is not surprising we should still have left +so many odd problems quite untouched. + +This problem of the shape of leaves certainly seems to me a most +important one; and yet it has hardly been even recognised by our +scientific pastors and masters. At best, Mr. Herbert Spencer devotes to +it a passing short chapter, or Mr. Darwin a stray sentence. The +practice of classifying plants mainly by means of their flowers has +given the flower a wholly factitious and overwrought importance. +Besides, flowers are so pretty, and we cultivate them so largely, with +little regard to the leaves, that they have come to usurp almost the +entire interest of botanists and horticulturists alike. Darwinism +itself has only heightened this exclusive interest by calling attention +to the reciprocal relations which exist between the honey-bearing +blossom and the fertilising insect, the bright-coloured petals and the +myriad facets of the butterfly's eye. Yet the leaf is after all the +real plant, and the flower is but a sort of afterthought, an embryo +colony set apart for the propagation of like plants in future. Each +leaf 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, and carrying on its own life to a great extent +independently of the rest. It may die without detriment to them; it may +be lopped off with a few others as a cutting, and it continues its +life-cycle quite unconcerned. An oak tree in full foliage is a +magnificent group of such separate individuals--a whole nation in +miniature: it may be compared to a branched coral polypedom covered +with a thousand little insect workers, while each leaf answers rather +to the separate polypes themselves. The leaves are even capable of +producing new individuals by what they 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 colonies, like the swarms +of bees, than as fresh 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 sending out a shipload of young +emigrants every now and then to try their fortunes in some unknown +soil. + +The whole life-business of a leaf is, of course, to eat and grow, just +as these same functions form the whole life-business of a caterpillar +or a tadpole. But the way a plant eats, we all know, is by taking +carbon and hydrogen from air and water under the influence of sunlight, +and building them up into appropriate compounds in its own body. +Certain little green worms or convoluta have the same habit, and live +for the most part cheaply off sunlight, making starch out of carbonic +acid and water by means of their enclosed chlorophyll, exactly as if +they were leaves. Now, as this is what a leaf has to do, its form will +almost entirely depend upon the way it is affected by sunlight and the +elements around it--except, indeed, in so far as it may be called upon +to perform 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, are minutely subdivided into +little branching lance-like segments; while its upper ones, which raise +their heads above the surface, are broad and united, like the common +crowfoot type. How am I to account for these peculiarities? I fancy +somehow thus:-- + +Plants which live habitually under water almost always have thin, long, +pointed leaves, often thread-like or mere waving filaments. The reason +for this is plain enough. Gases are not very abundant in water, as it +only holds in solution a limited quantity of oxygen and carbonic acid. +Both of these the plant needs, though in varying quantities: 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 utilise it under the influence of sunlight. Hence all plants +which live in fresh water, and especially all plants of higher 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 pattern of leaf depends largely upon +the ancestral form. Thus this crowfoot, even in its submerged leaves, +preserves the general arrangement of ribs and leaflets common to the +whole buttercup tribe. For the crowfoot family is a large and eminently +adaptable race. Some of them are larkspurs and similar queerly-shaped +blossoms; others are columbines which hang their complicated bells on +dry and rocky hillsides; but the larger part are buttercups or marsh +marigolds which have simple cup-shaped flowers, and mostly frequent low +and marshy ground. One of these typical crowfoots under stress of +circumstances--inundation, or the like--took once upon a time to living +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 up into +thinner and narrower segments, each of which grew out in the direction +where it could find most stray carbon atoms, and most sunlight, without +interference from its neighbours. This, I take it, was the origin of +the much-divided lower leaves. + +But a crowfoot could never live permanently under water. Seaweeds and +their like, which propagate by a kind of spores, may remain below the +surface for ever; 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, originally developed in the water 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 fertilising insects +have carried the pollen to its proper receptacle, so as to ripen their +seeds at leisure beneath 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 such among its +ancestors as at first tried to do so must of course have failed in +producing any seed, they and their kind have died out for ever; while +only those lucky individuals whose chance lot it was to grow a little +taller and weedier than the rest, and so overtop the stream, have +handed down their race to our own time. + +But as soon as the crowfoot finds itself above the level of the river, +all the causes which made its leaf like those of other aquatic plants +have ceased to operate. The new leaves which sprout in the air meet +with abundance of carbon 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 up into little +lance-like leaflets, they loll on the surface, and spread out broader +and fuller, like the rest of their race. The leaf becomes 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 +crowfoot still. The traditions of its race, acquired in damp marshy +meadows, not actually under water, cling to it yet in spite of every +change. Born river and pond plants which rise to the surface, like the +water-lily or the duck-weed, have broad floating leaves that contrast +strongly with the waving filaments of wholly submerged species. They +can find plenty of food everywhere, and as the sunlight falls flat upon +them, they may as well spread out flat to catch the sunlight. No other +elbowing plants overtop them and appropriate the rays, so compelling +them to run up a useless waste of stem in order to pocket their fair +share of the golden flood. Moreover, they thus save the needless +expense of a stout leaf-stalk, as the water supports their lolling +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 hundred generations only, while the water-lily's ancestors +have been to the manner born for millions of years; and therefore it +happens that the crowfoot is at heart but a meadow buttercup still. One +glance at its simple little flower will show you that in a moment. + + + + +V. + +_SLUGS AND SNAILS._ + + +Hoeing among the flower-beds 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 encroaching grass on the edge of +my little parterre of sky-blue lobelias. This unavoidable wounding and +hacking of worms and insects, despite all one's care, is no small +drawback to the pleasures of gardening _in propria persona_. +Vivisection for genuine scientific purposes in responsible hands, one +can understand and tolerate, even though lacking the heart for it +oneself; but the useless and causeless vivisection which cannot be +prevented in every ordinary piece of farm-work seems a gratuitous blot +upon the face of beneficent nature. My only consolation lies in the +half-formed belief that feeling among these lower creatures is +indefinite, and that pain appears to affect them far less acutely than +it affects warm-blooded animals. Their nerves are so 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 all analogous to our own. A +wasp whose head has been severed from its body and stuck upon a pin, +will still greedily suck up honey with its throatless mouth; while an +Italian mantis, similarly treated, will calmly continue to hunt and +dart at midges with its decapitated trunk and limbs, quite forgetful of +the fact that it has got no mandibles left to eat them with. These +peculiarities lead one to hope that insects may feel pain less than we +fear. Yet I dare scarcely utter the hope, lest it should lead any +thoughtless hearer to act upon the very questionable belief, as they +say even the amiable enthusiasts of Port Royal acted upon the doctrine +that animals were mere unconscious 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 humane, since they are the better able dimly to figure to +themselves the pleasures and pains of humbler beings as they really +are. The man of science perhaps realises 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 misery 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 hoe 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, indeed, there are very few differences between the two +races except in the presence or absence of a house. You may trace a +curiously complete set of gradations between the perfect snail and the +perfect slug in this respect; for all the intermediate forms still +survive with only an almost imperceptible gap between each species and +the next. Some kinds, like the common brown garden snail, have +comparatively small bodies and big shells, so that they can retire +comfortably within them when attacked; and if they only had a lid or +door to their houses they could shut themselves up hermetically, as +periwinkles and similar mollusks actually do. Other kinds, like the +pretty golden amber-snails which frequent 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, so that he is generally recognised as being the first of the +slugs rather than the last 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 testacella, however, the small shell is still +external. In this yellow slug here, on the contrary, it does not show +itself at all, but is buried under the closely wrinkled skin of the +glossy mantle. It has become 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 rudiment gradually dwindling further and +further towards annihilation; till finally, 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, scattered up and +down through the mantle; and sometimes even these are wanting. The +organs which used to secrete the shell in their remote ancestors have +either ceased to work altogether or are reduced to performing a useless +office by mere organic routine. + +The reason why some mollusks have thus lost their shells is clear +enough. Shells are of two kinds, calcareous and horny. Both of them +require more or less lime or other mineral matters, though in varying +proportions. Now, the snails which thrive best on the bare chalk downs +behind my little combe belong to that pretty banded black-and-white +sort which everybody must have noticed feeding in abundance on all +chalk soils. Indeed, Sussex farmers will tell you that South Down +mutton owes its excellence to these fat little mollusks, not to the +scanty herbage of their thin pasture-lands. The pretty banded shells in +question are almost wholly composed of lime, which the snails can, of +course, obtain in any required quantity from the chalk. In most +limestone districts you will similarly 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 naturally 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 acclimatised themselves to a +terrestrial existence. We can trace a perfectly regular series from the +most aquatic to the most land-loving species, just as I have tried to +trace a regular series from the shell-bearing 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 amber-snail), which his progenitors used to +manufacture from the mineral matters dissolved in their native streams. +Some of the younger branches descended from this primaeval land-snail +took to living on very dry land, and when they reached chalky districts +manufactured their shells, on an easy and improved principle, almost +entirely out of lime. But others took to living in moist and boggy +places, where mineral matter was rare, and where the soil consisted for +the most part of decaying vegetable mould. Here they could get little +or no lime, and so their shells grew smaller and smaller, in proportion +as their habits became more decidedly terrestrial. But to the last, as +long as any shell at all remained, it generally covered their hearts +and other important organs; because it would there act as a special +protection, even after it had ceased to be of any use for the defence +of the animal's body as a whole. Exactly in the same way men specially +protected their heads and breasts with helmets and cuirasses, before +armour was used for the whole body, because these were the places where +a wound would be most dangerous; and they continued to cover these +vulnerable spots in the same manner even when the use of armour had +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 +competition of modern life they spread themselves 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 different. +The truest and most snail-like snails are found in greatest abundance +upon high chalk-downs, heathy limestone hills, and other comparatively +dry places; while the truest and most slug-like slugs are found in +greatest abundance among low water-logged meadows, or under the damp +fallen leaves of moist copses. The intermediate kinds inhabit 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 universal habit of seeking out the coolest and moistest spots of +their respective habitats. The soft-fleshed mollusks are all by nature +aquatic animals, and nothing can induce them wholly to forget the old +tradition of their marine or fresh-water existence. + + + + +VI. + +_A STUDY OF BONES._ + + +On the top of this bleak chalk down, where I am wandering on a dull +afternoon, I light upon the blanched skeleton 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 of 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 I may well spell out as I sit to rest a minute +upon the neighbouring stile. For this dry tail-bone consists, as I can +see 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 speculation. I refer, not to the race, but +to the particular crow in person. These very pieces themselves, in +their embryonic condition, were as distinct as the individual bones of +the bird's neck or of our own spines. If you were to examine the chick +in the egg you would find them quite divided. But as the young crow +grows more and more into the typical bird-pattern, this lizard-like +peculiarity fades away, and the separate pieces unite by 'anastomosis' +into a single 'coccygean bone,' as the osteologists call it. In all our +modern birds, as in this crow, the vertebrae composing the tail-bone are +few in number, and are soldered together immovably in the adult form. +It was not always so, however, with ancestral birds. The earliest known +member of the class--the famous fossil bird of the Solenhofen +lithographic stone--retained throughout its whole life a long flexible +tail, composed of twenty unwelded vertebrae, each of which bore a single +pair of quill-feathers, the predecessors of our modern pigeon's train. +There are many other marked reptilian peculiarities in this primitive +oolitic bird; and it apparently possessed true teeth in its jaws, as +its later cretaceous kinsmen discovered by Professor Marsh undoubtedly +did. When we compare side by side those real flying dragons, the +Pterodactyls, together with the very birdlike 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 remote feathered descendants of an original reptilian +or half-reptilian ancestor. + +Why modern birds have lost their long flexible tails it is not +difficult to see. The tail descends to all higher vertebrates as an +heirloom from the fishes, the amphibia, and their other aquatic +predecessors. With these 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 lizard 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. But to flying birds, on the +contrary, a long bony tail is only an inconvenience. All that they need +is a little muscular knob for the support of the tail-feathers, which +they employ as a rudder in guiding their flight upward or downward, to +right or left. The elongated waving tail of the Solenhofen bird, with +its single pair of quills, must have been a comparatively ineffectual +and clumsy piece of mechanism for steering an aerial creature through +its novel domain. Accordingly, the bones soon grew fewer in number and +shorter in length, while the feathers simultaneously arranged +themselves side by side upon the terminal hump. As early as the time +when our chalk was deposited, the bird's tail had become what it is at +the present day--a single united bone, consisting of a few scarcely +distinguishable crowded rings. This is the form it assumes in the +toothed fossil birds of Western America. But, as if to preserve the +memory of their reptilian origin, birds in their embryo stage still go +on producing separate caudal vertebrae, only to unite them together at a +later point of their development into the typical coccygean bone. + +Much the same sort of process has taken place in the higher apes, and, +as Mr. Darwin would assure us, in man himself. There the long +prehensile tail of the monkeys has grown gradually shorter, and, being +at last coiled up under the haunches, has finally degenerated into an +insignificant and wholly embedded terminal joint. But, indeed, we can +find traces of a similar adaptation to circumstances everywhere. Take, +for instance, the common English 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 tadpole 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, such a long train would be a +useless drag, while in the water its webbed feet and muscular legs make +a satisfactory substitute for the lost organ. Last of all, the +tree-frog, leading a specially terrestrial life, has no tadpole at all, +but emerges from the egg in the full frog-like shape. As he never lives +in the water, he never feels the need of a tail. + +The edible crab and lobster show us an exactly parallel case amongst +crustaceans. Everybody has noticed that a crab's body is practically +identical with a lobster's, only that in the crab the body-segments are +broad and compact, while the tail, so conspicuous in its kinsman, is +here relatively small and tucked away unobtrusively behind the legs. +This difference in construction depends entirely upon the habits and +manners of the two races. The lobster lives among rocks and ledges; he +uses his small legs but little for locomotion, but he springs +surprisingly fast and far through the water by a single effort of his +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. Hence the edible and muscular part of a lobster +is chiefly to be found in the claws and tail, the latter having +naturally the firmest and strongest flesh. The crab, on the other hand, +lives on the sandy bottom, and walks about on its lesser legs, instead +of swimming or darting through the water by blows of its tail, like the +lobster or the still more active prawn and shrimp. Hence the crab's +tail has dwindled away to a mere useless historical relic, while the +most important muscles in its body are those seated in the 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 shrivelled rudiment as a +lingering reminiscence of their original habits. + + + + +VII. + +_BLUE MUD._ + + +After last night's rain, the cliffs that bound the bay have come out in +all their most brilliant colours; so this morning I am turning my steps +seaward, and wandering along the great ridge of pebbles which here +breaks the force of the Channel waves as they beat against the long +line of the Dorset downs. Our cliffs just at this point are composed of +blue lias beneath, with a capping of yellow sandstone on their summits, +above which in a few places the layer of chalk that once topped the +whole country-side has still resisted the slow wear and tear of +unnumbered centuries. These three elements give a variety to the bold +and broken bluffs which is rare along the monotonous southern +escarpment of the English coast. After rain, especially, the changes of +colour on their sides are often quite startling in their vividness and +intensity. To-day, for example, the yellow sandstone is tinged in parts +with a deep russet red, contrasting admirably with the bright green of +the fields above and the sombre steel-blue of the lias belt below. +Besides, we have had so many landslips along this bit of shore, that +the various layers of rock have in more than one place got mixed up +with one another into inextricable confusion. The little town nestling +in the hollow behind me has long been famous as the head-quarters of +early geologists; and not a small proportion of the people earn their +livelihood to the present day by 'goin' a fossiling.' Every child about +the place recognises ammonites as 'snake-stones;' while even the rarer +vertebrae of extinct saurians have acquired a local designation as +'verterberries.' 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 +light it up with a rich flood of golden splendour. + +The base of the cliffs consists entirely of a very soft and plastic +blue lias mud. This mud contains large numbers of fossils, chiefly +chambered shells, but mixed with not a few relics of the great swimming +and flying lizards that swarmed among the shallow flats or low islands +of the lias sea. When the blue mud was slowly accumulating in the +hollows of the ancient bottom, these huge saurians formed practically +the highest race of animals then existing upon earth. There were, it is +true, a few primaeval kangaroo-mice and wombats among the rank brushwood +of the mainland; and there may even have been a species or two of +reptilian birds, with murderous-looking teeth and long lizard-like +tails--descendants 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 on the +Solenhofen slate. But in spite of such rare precursors of higher modern +types, the saurian was in fact the real lord of earth in the lias ocean. + + For him did his high sun flame, and his river billowing ran, + And he felt himself in his pride to be nature's crowning 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 in the different periods. The +lias is ranked by geologists among the earliest secondary formations: +but if we were to distribute all the sedimentary rocks into ten great +epochs, each representing about equal duration in time, the lias would +really fall in the tenth and latest of all. So very misleading to the +ordinary mind is our accepted geological nomenclature. Nay, even +commonplace geologists themselves often overlook the real implications +of many facts and figures which they have learned to quote glibly +enough in a certain off-hand way. Let me just briefly reconstruct the +chief features of this scarcely recognised world's chronology as I sit +on this piece of fallen chalk at the foot of the mouldering cliff, +where the stream from the meadow above brought down the newest landslip +during the hard frosts of last December. First of all, there is the +vast lapse of time represented by the Laurentian rocks of Canada. These +Laurentian rocks, the oldest in the world, are at least 30,000 feet in +thickness, and it must be allowed that it takes a reasonable number of +years to accumulate such a mass of solid limestone or clay as that at +the bottom of even the widest primaeval ocean. In these rocks there are +no fossils, except a single very doubtful member of the very lowest +animal type. But there are indirect traces of life in the shape of +limestone probably derived from shells, and of black lead probably +derived from plants. All these early deposits have been terribly +twisted and contorted by subsequent 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 state. Thus the history of life opens +for us, like most other histories, with a period of uncertainty: its +origin is lost in the distant vistas of time. Still, we know that there +_was_ 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 aeons into which I have roughly divided geological time. Next +comes the period known as the Cambrian, and to it we may similarly +assign about two and a half aeons on like grounds. The Cambrian epoch +begins with a fair sprinkling of the lower animals and plants, +presumably developed during the preceding age; but it shows no remains +of fish or any other vertebrates. To the Silurian, Devonian, and +Carboniferous periods we may roughly allow an aeon and a fraction each: +while to the whole group of secondary and tertiary strata, comprising +almost all the best-known English formations--red marl, lias, oolite, +greensand, chalk, eocene, miocene, pliocene, and drift--we can only +give a single aeon to be divided between them. Such facts will +sufficiently suggest how comparatively modern are all these rocks when +viewed by the light of an absolute chronology. Now, the first fishes do +not occur till the Silurian--that is to say, in or about the seventh +aeon after the beginning of geological time. The first mammals are found +in the trias, at the beginning of the tenth aeon. And the first known +bird only makes its appearance in the oolite, about half-way through +that latest period. This will show that there was plenty of time for +their development in the earlier ages. True, we must reckon the +interval between ourselves and the date of this blue mud at many +millions of years; but then we must reckon the interval between the +lias and the earliest Cambrian strata at some six times as much, and +between the lias and the lowest Laurentian beds at nearly ten times as +much. Just the same sort of lessening perspective exists in geology as +in ordinary history. Most people look upon the age before the Norman +Conquest as a mere brief episode of the English annals; yet six whole +centuries elapsed between the landing of the real or mythical Hengst at +Ebbsfleet and the landing of William the Conqueror at Hastings; while +under eight centuries elapsed between the time of William the Conqueror +and the accession of Queen Victoria. But, just as most English +histories give far more space to the three centuries since Elizabeth +than to the eleven centuries which preceded them, so most books on +geology give far more space to the single aeon (embracing the secondary +and tertiary periods) which comes nearest our own time, than to the +nine aeons which spread from the Laurentian to the Carboniferous epoch. +In the earliest period, records either geological or historical are +wholly wanting; in the later periods they become both more numerous and +more varied in proportion as they approach nearer and nearer to our own +time. + +So too, in the days when Mr. Darwin first took away the breath of +scientific Europe by his startling theories, it used confidently to be +said that geology had shown us no intermediate form between species and +species. Even at the time when this assertion was originally made it +was quite untenable. All early geological forms, of whatever race, +belong to what we foolishly call 'generalised' types: that is to say, +they present a mixture of features now found separately in several +different animals. In other words, they represent early ancestors of +all the modern forms, with peculiarities intermediate between those of +their more highly differentiated descendants; and hence we ought to +call them 'unspecialised' rather than 'generalised' types. For example, +the earliest ancestral horse is partly a horse and partly a tapir: we +may regard him as a _tertium quid_, a middle term, from which the horse +has varied in one direction and the tapir in another, each of them +exaggerating certain special peculiarities of the common ancestor and +losing others, in accordance with the circumstances in which they have +been placed. Science is now perpetually discovering intermediate forms, +many of which compose an unbroken series between the unspecialised +ancestral type and the familiar modern creatures. Thus, in this very +case of the horse, Professor Marsh has unearthed a long line of fossil +animals which lead in direct descent from the extremely unhorse-like +eocene type to the developed Arab of our own times. Similarly with +birds, Professor Huxley has shown that there is hardly any gap between +the very bird-like lizards of the lias and the very lizard-like birds +of the oolite. Such links, discovered afresh every day, are perpetual +denials to the old parrot-like cry of 'No geological evidence for +evolution.' + + + + +VIII. + +_CUCKOO-PINT._ + + +In the bank which supports the hedge, beside this little hanger on +the flank of Black Down, the glossy arrow-headed leaves of the common +arum form at this moment beautiful masses of vivid green foliage. +'Cuckoo-pint' is the pretty poetical old English name for the plant; +but village children know it better by the equally quaint and fanciful +title of 'lords and ladies.' The arum is not now in flower: it +blossomed much earlier in the season, and its queer clustered fruits +are just at present swelling out into rather shapeless little +light-green bulbs, preparatory to assuming the bright coral-red hue +which makes them so conspicuous among the hedgerows during the autumn +months. A cut-and-dry technical botanist would therefore have little to +say to it in its present stage, because he cares only for the flowers +and seeds which help him in his dreary classifications, and give him so +splendid an opportunity for displaying the treasures of his Latinised +terminology. But to me the plant itself is the central point of +interest, not the names (mostly in bad Greek) by which this or that +local orchid-hunter has endeavoured to earn immortality. + +This arum, for example, grows first from a small hard seed with a +single lobe or seed-leaf. In the seed there is a little store of starch +and albumen laid up by the mother-plant, on which the young arum feeds, +just as truly as the growing chick feeds on the white which surrounds +its native yolk, or as you and I feed on the similar starches and +albumens laid by for the use of the young plant in the grain of wheat, +or for the young fowl in the egg. Full-grown plants live by taking in +food-stuffs from the air under the influence of sunlight: but a young +seedling can no more feed itself than a human baby can; and so food is +stored up for it beforehand by the parent stock. As the kernel swells +with heat and moisture, its starches and albumens get oxidised and +produce the motions and rearrangements of particles that result in the +growth of a new plant. First a little head rises towards the sunlight +and a little root pushes downward towards 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 the head is to +spread out into leaves, which are the real mouths and stomachs of the +compound organism. For we must never forget that all plants mainly +grow, not, as most people suppose, from the earth, but from the air. +They are for the most part mere masses of carbon-compounds, and the +carbon in them comes from the carbonic acid diffused through the +atmosphere around, and is separated by the sunlight acting in the +leaves. There it mixes with small quantities of hydrogen and nitrogen +brought by the roots from soil and water; and the starches or other +bodies thus formed are then conveyed by the sap to the places where +they will be required in the economy of the plant system. That is the +all-important fact in vegetable physiology, just as the digestion and +assimilation of food and the circulation of the blood are in our own +bodies. + +The arum, like the grain of wheat, has only a single seed-leaf; whereas +the pea, as we all know, has two. This is the most fundamental +difference among flowering plants, as it points back to an early and +deep-seated mode of growth, about which they must have split off from +one another millions of years ago. All the one-lobed plants grow with +stems like grasses or bamboos, formed by single leaves enclosing +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 sprouting head, has raised its first leaves far enough above +the ground to reach the sunlight, it begins to form fresh starches and +new leaves for itself, and ceases to be dependent upon the store laid +up in its buried lobe. Most seeds accordingly contain just enough +material to support the 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 +potato, find their seeds insufficient to keep up the race by +themselves, and so lay by abundant starches in underground branches or +tubers, for the use of new shoots; and these rich starch receptacles we +ourselves generally utilise as food-stuffs, to the manifest detriment +of the young potato-plants, for whose benefit they were originally +intended. Well, the arum has no such valuable reserve as that; it is +early cast upon its own resources, and so it shifts for itself with +resolution. Its big, glossy leaves grow apace, and soon fill out, not +only with green chlorophyll, but also with a sharp and pungent essence +which makes them burn the mouth like cayenne pepper. This acrid juice +has been acquired by the plant as a defence against its enemies. Some +early ancestor of the arums must have been liable to constant attacks +from rabbits, goats, or other herbivorous animals, and it has adopted +this means of repelling their advances. In other words, those arums +which were most palatable to the rabbits got eaten up and destroyed, +while those which were nastiest survived, and handed down their +pungency to future generations. Just in the same way nettles have +acquired their sting and thistles their prickles, which efficiently +protect them against all herbivores except the patient, hungry donkey, +who gratefully accepts them as a sort of _sauce piquante_ to the +succulent stems. + +And now the arum begins its great preparations for the act of +flowering. Everybody knows the general shape of the arum blossom--if +not in our own purple cuckoo-pint, at least in the big white 'AEthiopian +lilies' which form such frequent ornaments of cottage windows. Clearly, +this is a flower which the plant cannot produce without laying up a +good stock of material beforehand. So it sets to work accumulating +starch in its root. This starch it manufactures in its leaves, and then +buries deep underground in a tuber, by means of the sap, so as to +secure it from the attacks of rodents, who too frequently appropriate +to themselves the food intended by plants for other purposes. If you +examine the tuber before the arum has blossomed, you will find it large +and solid; but if you dig it up in the autumn after the seeds have +ripened, you will see that it is flaccid and drained; all its starches +and other contents have gone to make up the flower, the fruit, and the +stalk which bore them. But the tuber has a further protection against +enemies besides its deep underground position. It contains an acrid +juice like that of the leaves, which sufficiently guards it against +four-footed depredators. Man, however, that most persistent of +persecutors, has found out a way to separate the juice from the starch; +and in St. Helena the big white arum is cultivated as a food-plant, and +yields the meal in common use among the inhabitants. + +When the arum has laid by enough starch to make a flower it begins to +send up a tall stalk, on the top of which grows the curious hooded +blossom known to be one of the earliest forms still surviving upon +earth. But now its object is to attract, not to repel, the animal +world; for it is an insect-fertilised flower, and it requires the aid +of small flies to carry the pollen from blossom to blossom. For this +purpose it has a purple sheath around its head of flowers and a tall +spike on which they are arranged in two clusters, the male blossoms +above and the female below. This spike is bright yellow in the +cultivated species. The fertilisation is one of the most interesting +episodes in all nature, but it would take too long to describe here in +full. The flies go from one arum to another, attracted by the colour, +in search of pollen; and the pistils, or female flowers, ripen first. +Then the pollen falls from the stamens or male flowers on the bodies of +the flies, and dusts them all over with yellow powder. The insects, +when once they have entered, are imprisoned until the pollen is ready +to drop, by means of several little hairs, pointing downwards, and +preventing their exit on the principle of an eel-trap or lobster-pot. +But as soon as the pollen is discharged the hairs wither away, and then +the flies are free to visit a second arum. Here they carry the +fertilising dust with which they are covered to the ripe pistils, and +so enable them to set their seed; but, instead of getting away again as +soon as they have eaten their fill, they are once more imprisoned by +the lobster-pot hairs, and dusted with a second dose of pollen, which +they carry away in turn to a third blossom. + +As soon as the pistils have been impregnated, the fruits begin to set. +Here they are, on their tall spike, whose enclosing sheath has now +withered away, while the top is at this moment slowly dwindling, so +that only the cluster of berries at its base will finally remain. The +berries will swell and grow soft, till in autumn they become a +beautiful scarlet cluster of living coral. Then once more their object +will be to attract the animal world, this time in the shape of +field-mice, squirrels, and small birds; but with a more treacherous +intent. For though the berries are beautiful and palatable enough they +are deadly poison. The robins or small rodents which eat them, +attracted by their bright colours and pleasant taste, not only aid in +dispersing them, but also die after swallowing them, and become huge +manure heaps for the growth of the young plant. So the whole cycle of +arum existence begins afresh, and there is hardly a plant in the field +around me which has not a history as strange as this one. + + + + +IX. + +_BERRIES AND BERRIES._ + + +This little chine, opening toward the sea through the blue lias cliffs, +has been worn to its present pretty gorge-like depth by the slow action +of its tiny stream--a mere thread of water in fine weather, that +trickles down its centre in a series of mossy cascades to the shingly +beach below. Its sides are overgrown by brambles and other prickly +brushwood, which form in places a matted and impenetrable mass: for it +is the habit of all plants protected by the defensive armour of spines +or thorns to cluster together in serried ranks, through which cattle or +other intrusive animals cannot break. Amongst them, near the down +above, I have just lighted upon a rare plant for Southern Britain--a +wild raspberry-bush in full fruit. Raspberries are common enough in +Scotland among heaps of stones on the windiest hillsides; but the south +of England is too warm and sickly for their robust tastes, and they can +only be found here in a few bleak spots like the stony edges of this +weather-beaten down above the chine. The fruit itself is quite as good +as the garden variety, for cultivation has added little to the native +virtues of the raspberry. Good old Izaak Walton is not ashamed to quote +a certain quaint saying of one Dr. Boteler concerning strawberries, and +so I suppose I need not be afraid to quote it after him. 'Doubtless,' +said the Doctor, 'God _could_ have made a better berry, but doubtless +also God never did.' Nevertheless, if you try the raspberry, picked +fresh, with plenty of good country cream, you must allow that it runs +its sister fruit a neck-and-neck race. + +To compare the structure of a raspberry with that of a strawberry is a +very instructive botanical study. It shows how similar causes may +produce the same gross result in singularly different ways. Both are +roses by family, and both have flowers essentially similar to that of +the common dog-rose. But even in plants where the flowers are alike, +the fruits often differ conspicuously, because fresh principles come +into play for the dispersion and safe germination of the seed. This +makes the study of fruits the most complicated part in the unravelling +of plant life. After the strawberry has blossomed, the pulpy receptacle +on which it bore its green fruitlets begins to swell and redden, till +at length it grows into an edible berry, dotted with little yellow +nuts, containing each a single seed. But in the raspberry it is the +separate fruitlets themselves which grow soft and bright-coloured, +while the receptacle remains white and tasteless, forming the 'hull' +which we pull off from the berry when we are going to eat it. Thus the +part of the raspberry which we throw away answers to the part of the +strawberry which we eat. Only, in the raspberry the separate fruitlets +are all crowded close together into a single united mass, while in the +strawberry they are scattered about loosely, and embedded in the soft +flesh of the receptacle. The blackberry is another close relative; but +in its fruit the little pulpy fruitlets cling to the receptacle, so +that we pick and eat them both together; whereas in the raspberry the +receptacle pulls out easily, and leaves a thimble-shaped hollow in the +middle of the berry. Each of these little peculiarities has a special +meaning of its own in the history of the different plants. + +Yet the main object attained by all is in the end precisely similar. +Strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries all belong to the class of +attractive fruits. They survive in virtue of the attention paid to them +by birds and small animals. Just as the wild strawberry which I picked +in the hedgerow the other day procures the dispersion of its hard and +indigestible fruitlets by getting them eaten together with the pulpy +receptacle, so does the raspberry procure the dispersion of its soft +and sugary fruitlets by getting them eaten all by themselves. While the +strawberry fruitlets retain throughout their dry outer coating, in +those of the raspberry the external covering becomes fleshy and red, +but the inner seed has, notwithstanding, a still harder shell than the +tiny nuts of the strawberry. Now, this is the secret of nine fruits out +of ten. They are really nuts, which clothe themselves in an outer tunic +of sweet and beautifully coloured pulp. The pulp, as it were, the plant +gives in, as an inducement to the friendly bird to swallow its seed; +but the seed itself it protects by a hard stone or shell, and often by +poisonous or bitter juices within. We see this arrangement very +conspicuously in a plum, or still better in a mango; though it is +really just as evident in the raspberry, where the smaller size renders +it less conspicuous to human sight. + +It is a curious fact about the rose family that they have a very marked +tendency to produce such fleshy fruits, instead of the mere dry +seed-vessels of ordinary plants, which are named fruits only by +botanical courtesy. For example, we owe to this single family the +peach, plum, apricot, cherry, damson, pear, apple, medlar, and quince, +all of them cultivated in gardens or orchards for their fruits. The +minor group known by the poetical name of Dryads, alone supplies us +with the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, and dewberry. Even the +wilder kinds, refused as food by man, produce berries well known to our +winter birds--the haw, rose-hip, sloe, bird-cherry, and rowan. On the +other hand, the whole tribe numbers but a single thoroughgoing nut--the +almond; and even this nut, always somewhat soft-shelled and inclined to +pulpiness, has produced by a 'sport' the wholly fruit-like nectarine. +The odd thing about the rose tribe, however, is this: that the pulpy +tendency shows itself in very different parts among the various +species. In the plum it is the outer covering of the true fruit which +grows soft and coloured: in the apple it is a swollen mass of the +fruit-stalk surrounding the ovules: in the rose-hip it is the hollowed +receptacle: and in the strawberry it is the same receptacle, bulging +out in the opposite direction. Such a general tendency to display +colour and collect sugary juices in so many diverse parts may be +compared to the general bulbous tendency 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 the start in any particular +instance is increased and developed by natural selection, just as +favourable varieties of fruits or flowers are increased and developed +in cultivated species by our own gardeners. + +Sweet juices and bright colours, however, could be of no use to a plant +till there were eyes to see and tongues to taste them. A pulpy fruit is +in itself a mere waste of productive energy to its mother, unless the +pulpiness aids in the dispersion and promotes the welfare of the young +seedlings. Accordingly, we might naturally expect that there would be +no fruit-bearers on the earth until the time when fruit-eaters, actual +or potential, arrived upon the scene: or, to put it more correctly, +both must inevitably have developed simultaneously and in mutual +dependence upon one another. So we find no traces of succulent fruits +even in so late a formation as that of these lias or cretaceous cliffs. +The birds of that day were fierce-toothed carnivores, devouring the +lizards and saurians of the rank low-lying sea-marshes: the mammals +were mostly primaeval kangaroos or low ancestral wombats, gentle +herbivores, or savage marsupial wolves, like the Tasmanian 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 superincumbent +pressure into solid stone, that we find the earliest traces of the rose +family, the greatest fruit-bearing tribe of our present world. And side +by side with them we find their clever arboreal allies, the ancestral +monkeys and squirrels, the primitive robins, and the yet shadowy +forefathers of our modern fruit-eating parrots. Just as bees and +butterflies necessarily trace back their geological history only to the +time of the first honey-bearing flowers, and just as the honey-bearing +flowers in turn trace back their pedigree only to the date of the +rudest and most unspecialised honey-sucking insects, so are fruits and +fruit-eaters linked together in origin by the inevitable bond of a +mutual dependence. No bee, no honey; and no honey, no bee: so, too, no +fruit, no fruit-bird; and no fruit-bird, no fruit. + + + + +X. + +_DISTANT RELATIONS._ + + +Behind the old mill, whose overshot wheel, backed by a wall thickly +covered with the young creeping fronds of hart's-tongue ferns, forms +such a picturesque foreground for the view of our little valley, the +mill-stream expands into a small shallow pond, overhung at its edges by +thick-set hazel-bushes and clambering 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 simplicity of its own, which makes it +beautiful to our eyes for all that, in spite of its utilitarian origin. +At the bottom of this shallow pond you may now see a miracle daily +taking place, which but for its commonness we should regard as an +almost incredible marvel. You may there behold evolution actually +illustrating the transformation of life under your very eyes: you may +watch a low type of gill-breathing gristly-boned fish developing into +the highest form of lung-breathing terrestrial amphibian. Nay, +more--you may almost discover the earliest known ancestor of the whole +vertebrate kind, the first cousin of that once famous ascidian larva, +passing through all the upward stages of existence which finally lead +it to assume the shape of a relatively perfect four-legged animal. For +the pond is swarming with fat black tadpoles, which are just at this +moment losing their tails and developing their legs, on the way to +becoming fully formed frogs. + +The tadpole and the ascidian larva divide between them the honour of +preserving for us in all its native simplicity the primitive aspect of +the vertebrate type. Beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes have all +descended from an animal whose shape closely resembled that of these +wriggling little black creatures which dart up and down like imps +through the clear water, and raise a cloud of mud above their heads +each time that they bury themselves comfortably in the soft mud of the +bottom. But while the birds and beasts, on the one hand, have gone on +bettering themselves out of all knowledge, and while the ascidian, on +the other hand, in his adult form has dropped back into an obscure and +sedentary life--sans eyes, sans teeth, sans taste, sans everything--the +tadpole alone, at least during its early days, remains true to the +ancestral traditions of the vertebrate family. When first it emerges +from its egg it represents the very most rudimentary animal with a +backbone known to our scientific teachers. It has a big hammer-looking +head, and a set of branching outside gills, and a short distinct body, +and a long semi-transparent tail. Its backbone is a mere gristly +channel, in which lies its spinal cord. As it grows, it resembles in +every particular the ascidian larva, with which, indeed, Kowalewsky and +Professor Ray Lankester have demonstrated its essential identity. But +since a great many people seem wrongly to imagine that Professor +Lankester's opinion on this matter is in some way at variance with Mr. +Darwin's and Dr. Haeckel's, it may be well to consider what the +degeneracy of the ascidian really means. The fact is, both larval +forms--that of the frog and that of the ascidian--completely agree in +the position of their brains, their gill-slits, their very rudimentary +backbones, and their spinal cords. Moreover, we ourselves and the +tadpole agree with the ascidian in a further most important point, +which no invertebrate animal shares with us; and that is that our eyes +grow out of our brains, instead of being part of our skin, as in +insects and cuttle-fish. This would seem _a priori_ a most inconvenient +place for an eye--inside the brain; but then, as Professor Lankester +cleverly suggests, our common original ancestor, the very earliest +vertebrate of all, must have been a transparent creature, and therefore +comparatively indifferent 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 had 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 his high estate, owing to his bad habit of rooting himself to a +rock and there settling down into a mere sedentary 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 completely atrophied that only his earlier +history allows us to recognise him as a vertebrate by descent at all. +He is in fact a representative of retrogressive development. The +tadpole, on the contrary, goes on swimming about freely, and keeping +the use of its eyes, till at last a pair of hind legs and then a pair +of fore legs begin to bud out from its side, and its tail fades away, +and its gills disappear, and air-breathing lungs take their place, and +it boldly hops on shore a fully evolved tailless amphibian. + +There is, however, one interesting question about these two larvae which +I should much like to solve. The ascidian has only _one_ eye inside its +useless brain, while the tadpole and all other vertebrates have _two_ +from the very first. Now which of us most nearly represents the old +mud-loving vertebrate ancestor in this respect? Have 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 curious cross-connection between the eyes and +the brain, so that the 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 'decussation,' as anatomists call it, affects all the +sense-organs except those of smell; but in fishes it only affects the +eyes. Now, as the young ascidian has retained the ancestral position of +his almost useless eye so steadily, it is reasonable to suppose that he +has retained its other peculiarities as well. May we not conclude, +therefore, that the primitive vertebrate had only one brain-eye; but +that afterwards, as this brain-eye grew outward to the surface, it +split up into two, because of the elongated and flattened 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 arrangement. + +It is worth noting, too, that these tadpoles, like all other very low +vertebrates, are mud-haunters; and the most primitive among adult +vertebrates are still cartilaginous mud-fish. Not much is known +geologically about the predecessors of frogs; the tailless amphibians +are late arrivals upon earth, and it may seem curious, therefore, that +they should recall in so many ways the earliest ancestral type. The +reason doubtless is because they are so much given to larval +development. Some ancestors of theirs--primaeval newts or +salamanders--must have gone on for countless centuries improving +themselves in their adult shape from age to age, yet bringing all their +young into the world from the egg, as mere mud-fish still, in much the +same state as their unimproved forefathers had done millions of aeons +before. Similarly, caterpillars are still all but exact patterns of the +primaeval 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. Larvae and embryos show us the original +types of each race; adults show us the total amount of change produced +by progressive or retrogressive development. + + + + +XI. + +_AMONG 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 botanising, angling, and other bad +habits, in default of means for pursuing 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 eggs have survived +till this summer, when the butterflies they produce will all be needed +to keep up next season's supply. Nevertheless, I have climbed the +highest down in this part of the country to-day, and come out for an +airing among the heather, in the vague hope that I may be lucky enough +to catch a glimpse of one or two old lepidopterous favourites. I am not +a butterfly-hunter myself. I have not the heart to drive pins through +the pretty creatures' downy bodies, or to stifle them with reeking +chemicals; though I recognise the necessity for a hardened class who +will perform that useful office on behalf of science and society, just +as I recognise the necessity for slaughtermen and knackers. But I +prefer personally to lie on the ground at my ease and learn as much +about the insect nature as I can discover from simple inspection of the +living subject as it flits airily from bunch to bunch of +bright-coloured flowers. + +I suppose even that apocryphal person, the general reader, would be +insulted at being told at this hour of the day that all bright-coloured +flowers are fertilised by the visits of insects, whose attentions they +are specially designed to solicit. Everybody has heard over and over +again that roses, orchids, and columbines have acquired their honey to +allure the friendly bee, their gaudy petals to advertise the honey, and +their divers shapes to ensure the proper fertilisation by the correct +type of insect. 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 fertilised by butterflies alone. Bees, their great +rivals in honey-sucking, frequent only the lower meadows and slopes, +where flowers are many and small: they seldom venture far from the hive +or the nest among the high peaks and chilly nooks where we find those +great patches of blue 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 but in the bud among the Scotch hills, I doubt not--specially +lays itself out for the bumblebee, and its masses form about his +highest pasture-grounds; but the butterflies--insect vagrants that they +are--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; he does not +bustle about in a business-like manner from one buttercup or +dead-nettle to its nearest fellow; but he flits joyously, like a +sauntering straggler that he is, from a great patch of colour here to +another great patch at a distance, whose gleam happens to strike his +roving eye by its size and brilliancy. Hence, as that indefatigable +observer, Dr. Hermann Mueller, has noticed, all Alpine or hill-top +flowers have very large and conspicuous blossoms, generally grouped +together in big clusters so as to catch a passing glance of the +butterfly's eye. As soon as the insect spies such a cluster, the colour +seems to act as a stimulant to his broad wings, just as the +candle-light does to those of his cousin the moth. Off he sails at +once, as if by automatic action, towards the distant patch, and there +both robs the plant of its honey and at the same time carries to it on +his legs and head fertilising pollen from the last of its congeners +which he favoured 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 hybridised instead of being impregnated with +pollen from other plants of their own kind. For this purpose it is that +most plants lay themselves out to secure the attention of only two or +three varieties among their insect allies, while they make their +nectaries either too deep or too shallow for the convenience of all +other kinds. Nature, though eager for cross-fertilisation, abhors +'miscegenation' with all the bitterness of an American politician. + +Insects, however, differ much from one another in their aesthetic +tastes, and flowers are adapted accordingly to the varying fancies of +the different kinds. Here, for example, is a spray of common white +galium, which attracts and is fertilised by small flies, who generally +frequent white blossoms. But here, again, not far off, I find a +luxuriant mass of the yellow species, known by the quaint 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 Bethlehem. Now why has +this kind of galium yellow flowers, while its near kinsman yonder has +them snowy white? The reason is that lady's bedstraw is fertilised by +small beetles; and beetles are known to be one among the most +colour-loving races of insects. You may often find one of their number, +the lovely bronze and golden-mailed 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 which beetles +frequent are consequently brightly decked in scarlet or yellow. On the +other hand, the whole family of the umbellates, those tall plants with +level bunches of tiny blossoms, like the fool's parsley, have all but +universally white petals; and Mueller, the 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 +remainder consisted mainly of miscellaneous small flies and other +arthropodous riff-raff; whereas in the brilliant class of composites, +including the asters, sunflowers, 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 Mueller quaintly remarks, 'to a less aesthetically +cultivated circle of visitors.' But the most brilliant among all +insect-fertilised flowers are those which specially affect the society +of butterflies; and they are only surpassed in this respect throughout +all nature by the still larger and more magnificent tropical species +which owe their fertilisation to humming-birds and brush-tongued +lories. + +Is it not a curious, yet a comprehensible circumstance, that the tastes +which thus show themselves in the development, by natural selection, of +lovely flowers, should also show themselves in the marked preference +for beautiful mates? Poised on yonder sprig of harebell stands a little +purple-winged butterfly, one of the most exquisite among our British +kinds. That little butterfly owes its own rich and delicately shaded +tints to the long selective action of a million generations among its +ancestors. So we find throughout that the most beautifully coloured +birds and insects are always those which have had most to do with the +production of bright-coloured fruits and flowers. The butterflies and +rose-beetles are the most gorgeous among insects: the humming-birds and +parrots are the most gorgeous among birds. Nay more, exactly like +effects have been produced in two hemispheres on different tribes by +the same causes. The plain brown swifts of the North have developed +among tropical West Indian and South American orchids the metallic +gorgets and crimson crests of the humming-bird: while a totally unlike +group of Asiatic birds have developed among the rich flora of India and +the Malay Archipelago the exactly similar plumage of the exquisite +sun-birds. Just as bees depend upon flowers, and flowers upon bees, so +the colour-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 the common vanity of anglers to suppose that they know +something about speckled trout. A fox might almost as well pretend that +he was intimately acquainted with the domestic habits of poultry, or an +Iroquois describe the customs of the Algonquins from observations made +upon the specimens who had come under his scalping-knife. I will allow +that anglers are well versed in the necessity for fishing up-stream +rather than in the opposite direction; and I grant that they have +attained an empirical knowledge of the aesthetic preferences of trout in +the matter 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 quietly to the side of the pools in an unfished brooklet, like +this on whose 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 the +live fish themselves for an hour together, as they bask lazily in the +sunlight, 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 the +surface of the stream. The 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 contemplation, +without any danger of their being scared away from their accustomed +haunts by intrusive anglers. + +Trout always have a recognised home of their own, inhabited by a pretty +fixed number of individuals. But if you catch the two sole denizens of +a particular scour, you will find another pair installed in their place +to-morrow. Young fry seem always ready to fill up the vacancies caused +by the involuntary retirement of their elders. Their size depends +almost entirely upon the quantity 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 attain. Mr. Herbert Spencer, +who is an angler as well as a philosopher, well observes that where the +trout are many they are generally small; and where they are large they +are generally few. In the mill-stream down the valley they measure only +six inches, though you may fill a basket easily enough on a cloudy day; +but in the canal reservoir, where there are only half-a-dozen fish +altogether, a magnificent eight-pounder has been taken more than once. +In this way we can understand the origin of the great lake trout, which +weigh sometimes forty pounds. They are common trout which have taken to +living in broader waters, where large food is far more abundant, but +where shoals of small fish would starve. The peculiarities thus +impressed upon them have been handed down to their descendants, till at +length they have become sufficiently marked to justify us in regarding +them as a separate species. But it is difficult to say what makes a +species in animals so very variable as fish. There are, in fact, no +less than twelve kinds of trout wholly peculiar to the British Islands, +and some of these are found in very restricted areas. Thus, the Loch +Stennis trout inhabits only the tarns of Orkney; the Galway sea trout +lives nowhere but along the west coast of Ireland; 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 exclusively to +the Llanberis 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 habitat. Even the salmon himself is only a +river trout who has acquired the habit of going down to the sea, where +he gets immensely increased quantities of food (for all the trout kind +are almost omnivorous), and grows big in proportion. But he still +retains many marks of his early existence as a river fish. In the first +place, every salmon 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 species. It really represents, however, +the early form of the salmon, before he took to his annual excursion to +the sea. The ancestral fish, only a hundredth fraction in weight of his +huge descendant, must have somehow acquired the habit of going +seaward--possibly from a drying up of his native stream in seasons of +drought. In the sea, he found himself suddenly supplied with an +unwonted store of food, and grew, like all his kind under similar +circumstances, to an extraordinary size. Thus he attains, as it were, +to a second and final maturity. But salmon cannot lay their eggs in the +sea; or at least, if they did, the young parr would starve for want of +their proper food, or else be choked by the salt water, to which the +old fish have acclimatised themselves. Accordingly, with the return of +the spawning season there comes back an instinctive desire to seek once +more the native fresh water. So the salmon return up stream to spawn, +and the young are hatched in the kind of surroundings which best suit +their tender gills. This instinctive longing for the old home may +probably have arisen during an intermediate stage, when the developing +species still haunted only the brackish water near the river mouths; +and as those fish alone which returned to the head waters could +preserve their race, it would soon grow hardened into a habit engrained +in the nervous system, like the migration of birds or the clustering of +swarming bees around their queen. In like manner the Jamaican +land-crabs, which themselves live on the mountain-tops, come down every +year to lay their eggs in the Caribbean; because, like all other crabs, +they pass their first larval stage as swimming tadpoles, and afterwards +take instinctively to the mountains, as the salmon takes to the sea. +Such a habit could only have arisen by one generation after another +venturing further and further inland, while always returning at the +proper season to the native element for the deposition of the eggs. + +These trout here, however, differ from the salmon in one important +particular beside their relative size, and that is that they are +beautifully speckled in their mature form, instead of being merely +silvery like the larger species. The origin of the pretty speckles is +probably to be found in the constant selection by the fish of the most +beautiful among their number as mates. Just as singing birds are in +their fullest and clearest song at the nesting period, and just as many +brilliant species only possess their gorgeous plumage while they are +going through their courtship, and lose the decoration after the young +brood is hatched, so the trout are most brightly coloured at spawning +time, and become lank and dingy after the eggs have been safely +deposited. The parent fish ascend to the head-waters of their native +river during the autumn season to spawn, and then, their glory dimmed, +they return down-stream to the deep pools, where they pass the winter +sulkily, as if ashamed to show themselves in their dull and dusky +suits. But when spring comes round once more, and flies again become +abundant, the trout begin to move up-stream afresh, and soon fatten out +to their customary size and brilliant colours. It might seem at first +sight that creatures so humble as these little fish could hardly have +sufficiently developed aesthetic tastes to prefer one mate above +another on the score of beauty. But we must remember that 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 one +another, so that extremely minute differences must necessarily turn the +scale in favour of one particular suitor rather than his rivals. +Anglers know that trout are attracted by bright colours, that they can +distinguish the different flies upon which they feed, and that +artificial flies must accordingly be made at least into a rough +semblance of the original insects. Some scientific fishermen even +insist that it is no use offering them a brown drake at the time of +year or the hour of day when they are naturally expecting 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 an acute perception +of colour, while there is every reason to believe that all the trout +family have a decided love of metallic glitter, such as that of silver +or of the salmon's scales. Mr. Darwin has shown that the little +stickleback goes through an elaborate courtship, 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 salmon fry and young +trout are almost quite indistinguishable, being both marked with blue +patches (known as 'finger-marks') on their sides, which are remnants of +the ancestral colouring once common to the whole race. But as they grow +up, their later-acquired tastes begin to produce a divergence, due +originally to this selective preference of certain beautiful mates; and +the adult salmon clothes himself from head to tail in sheeny silver, +while the full-grown trout decks his sides with the beautiful speckles +which have earned him his popular name. Countless generations of slight +differences, selected from time to time by the strongest and handsomest +fish, have sufficed at length to bring about these conspicuous +variations from the primitive type, which the young of both races still +preserve. + + + + +XIII. + +_DODDER AND BROOMRAPE._ + + +This afternoon, strolling through the under-cliff, I have come across +two quaint and rather uncommon flowers among the straggling brushwood. +One 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 convolvulus blossoms. The stem consists of a long red +thread, twining round and round the gorse, and bursting out here and +there into thick bundles of beautiful bell-shaped flowers. But where +are the leaves? You may trace the red threads through their +labyrinthine windings 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 one of the most thorough-going parasites in all nature. +Ordinary green-leaved plants live by making starches for themselves out +of the carbonic acid in the air, under the influence of sunlight; but +the dodder simply fastens itself on to another plant, sends down +rootlets or suckers into its veins, and drinks up sap stored with +ready-made starches or other foodstuffs, originally destined by its +host for the supply of its own growing leaves, branches, and blossoms. +It lives upon the gorse just as parasitically as the little green +aphides live upon our rose-bushes. The material which it uses up in +pushing forth its long thread-like stem and clustered bells is so much +dead loss to the unfortunate plant on which it has fixed itself. + +Old-fashioned books tell us that the mistletoe is a perfect parasite, +while the dodder is an imperfect one; and I believe almost all +botanists will still repeat the foolish saying to the present day. But +it really shows considerable haziness as to what a true parasite is. +The mistletoe is a plant which has taken, it is true, to growing upon +other trees. Its very viscid berries are useful for attaching the seeds +to the trunk of the oak or the apple; and there it roots itself into +the body of its host. But it soon produces real green leaves of its +own, which contain the ordinary chlorophyll found in other leaves, and +help it to manufacture starch, under the influence of sunlight, on its +own account. It is not, therefore, a complete drag upon the tree which +it infests; for though it takes sap and mineral food from the host, it +supplies itself with carbon, which is after all the important thing for +plant-life. Dodder, 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 produced leaves of its own, like the +honeysuckle and the clematis, there would be no great harm done: and +the dodder would be but another climbing plant the more in our flora. +However, it soon insidiously repays the support given it by sending +down little bud-like suckers, through which it draws up nourishment +from the gorse or clover on which it lives. Thus it has no need to +develop leaves of its own; and it accordingly employs all its stolen +material in sending forth matted thread-like stems and bunch after +bunch of bright flowers. As these increase and multiply, they at last +succeed in drawing away all the nutriment from the supporting plant, +which finally dies under the constant drain, just as a horse might die +under the attacks of a host of leeches. But this matters little to the +dodder, which has had time to be visited and fertilised by insects, and +to set and ripen its numerous seeds. One species, the greater dodder, +is thus parasitic upon hops and nettles; a second kind twines round +flax; and the third, which I have here under my eyes, mainly confines +its dangerous attentions to gorse, clover, and thyme. All of them are, +of course, deadly enemies to the plants they infest. + +How the dodder acquired this curious mode of life it is not difficult +to see. By descent it is a bind-weed, or wild convolvulus, and its +blossoms are in the main miniature convolvulus blossoms still. Now, all +bind-weeds, as everybody knows, are climbing plants, which twine +themselves round stouter stems for mere physical support This is in +itself a half-parasitic habit, because it enables the plant to dispense +with the trouble of making a thick and solid stem for its own use. But +just suppose that any bind-weed, instead of merely twining, were to put +forth here and there little tendrils, something like those of the ivy, +which managed somehow to grow into the 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 be expected to grow strong and healthy, and hand +down its peculiarities to its descendants. As the leaves would thus be +rendered needless, they would first become very much reduced in size, +and would finally disappear altogether, according to the universal +custom of unnecessary organs. So we should get at length a leafless +plant, with numerous flowers and seeds, just like the dodder. +Parasites, in fact, whether animal or vegetable, always end by becoming +mere reproductive sacs, mechanisms for the simple elaboration of eggs +or seeds. This is just what has happened to the dodder before me. + +The other queer plant here is a broomrape. It consists of a tall, +somewhat faded-looking stem, upright instead of climbing, and covered +with brown or purplish scales in the place of leaves. Its flowers +resemble the scales in colour, and the dead-nettle in shape. It is, in +fact, a parasitic dead-nettle, a trifle less degenerate as yet than the +dodder. This broomrape has acquired somewhat the same habits as the +other plant, only that it fixes itself on the roots of clover or broom, +from which it sucks nutriment by its own root, as the dodder does by +its stem-suckers. Of course it still retains in most particulars its +original characteristics as a dead-nettle; it grows with their upright +stem and their curiously shaped flowers, so specially adapted for +fertilisation by insect visitors. But it has naturally lost its leaves, +for which it has no further use, and it possesses no chlorophyll, as +the mistletoe does. Yet it has not probably been parasitic for as long +a time as the dodder, since it still retains a dwindling trace of its +leaves in the shape of dry purply scales, something like those of young +asparagus shoots. These leaves are now, in all likelihood, actually +undergoing a gradual atrophy, and we may fairly expect that in the +course of a few thousand years they will disappear altogether. At +present, however, they remain very conspicuous by their colour, which +is not green, owing to the absence of chlorophyll, but is due to the +same pigment as that of the blossoms. This generally happens with +parasites, or with that other curious sort of plants known as +saprophytes, which live upon decaying living matter in the mould of +forests. As they need no green leaves, but have often inherited leafy +structures of some sort, in a more or less degenerate condition, from +their self-supporting ancestors, they usually display most beautiful +colours in their stems and scales, and several of them rank amongst our +handsomest hot-house plants. Even the dodder has red stalks. Their only +work in life being to elaborate the materials stolen from their host +into the brilliant pigments used in the petals for attracting insect +fertilisers, they pour this same dye into the stems and scales, which +thus render them still more conspicuous to the insects' eyes. Moreover, +as they use their whole material in producing flowers, many of these +are 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 numerous. Thousands of seeds 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 one destined ultimately to survive that dodders and +broomrapes manage to preserve their types at all. + + + + +XIV. + +_DOG'S MERCURY AND PLANTAIN._ + + +The hedge and bank in Haye Lane are now a perfect tangled mass of +creeping plants, among which I have just picked out a queer little +three-cornered flower, hardly known even to village children, but +christened by our old herbalists 'dog's mercury.' It is an ancient +trick of language to call coarser or larger plants by the specific +title of some smaller or cultivated kind, with the 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 the same principle, a somewhat similar plant being +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 the eyes of old-fashioned practitioners. + +Dog's mercury is one of the oddest English flowers I know. Each blossom +has three small green petals, and either several stamens, or else a +pistil, in the centre. There is nothing particularly remarkable in the +flower being green, for thousands of other flowers are green and we +never notice them as in any way unusual. In fact, we never as a rule +notice green blossoms at all. Yet anybody who picked a piece of dog's +mercury could not fail to be struck by its curious appearance. It does +not in the least resemble the inconspicuous green flowers of the +stinging-nettle, or of most forest trees: it has a very distinct set of +petals which at once impress one with the idea that they ought to be +coloured. And so indeed they ought: for dog's mercury is a degenerate +plant which once possessed a brilliant corolla and was fertilised by +insects, but which has now fallen from its high estate and reverted to +the less advanced mode of fertilisation by the intermediation of the +wind. For some unknown reason or other this species and all its +relations have discovered that they get on better by the latter and +usually more wasteful plan than by the former and usually more +economical one. Hence they have given up producing large bright petals, +because they no longer need to attract the eyes of insects; and they +have also given up the manufacture of honey, which under their new +circumstances would be a mere waste of substance to them. But the dog's +mercury still retains a distinct mark of its earlier insect-attracting +habits in these three diminutive petals. Others of its relations have +lost even these, so that the original floral form is almost completely +obscured in their case. The spurges are familiar English roadside +examples, and their flowers are so completely degraded that even +botanists for a long time mistook their nature and analogies. + +The male and female flowers of dog's mercury have taken to living upon +separate plants. Why is this? Well, there was no doubt a time when +every blossom had both stamens and pistil, as dog-roses and buttercups +always have. But when the plant took to wind fertilisation it underwent +a change of structure. The stamens on some blossoms became aborted, +while the pistil became aborted on others. This was necessary in order +to prevent self-fertilisation; for otherwise the pollen of each +blossom, hanging out as it does to the wind, would have been very +liable to fall upon its own pistil. But the present arrangement +obviates any such contingency, by making one plant bear all the male +flowers and another plant all the female ones. Why, again, are the +petals green? I think because dog's mercury would be positively injured +by the visits of insects. It has no honey to offer them, and if they +came to it at all, they would only eat up the pollen itself. Hence I +suspect that those flowers among the mercuries which showed any +tendency to retain the original coloured petals would soon get weeded +out, because insects would eat up all their pollen, thus preventing +them from fertilising others; while those which had green petals would +never be noticed and so would be permitted to fertilise one another +after their new fashion. In fact, when a blossom which has once +depended upon insects for its fertilisation is driven by circumstances +to depend upon the wind, it seems to derive a positive advantage from +losing all those attractive features by which its ancestors formerly +allured the eyes of bees or beetles. + +Here, again, on the roadside is a bit of plantain. Everybody 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 time it was a sort of distant cousin to the +veronica, that pretty sky-blue speedwell which abounds among the +meadows in June and July. But these particular speedwells gave up +devoting themselves to insects and became adapted for fertilisation 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 +blossoms, whose pale and faded petals are tucked away out of sight flat +against the stem. Yet their shape and arrangement distinctly recall the +beautiful veronica, and leave one in little doubt as to the origin of +the plant. At the same time a curious device has sprung up which +answers just the same purpose as the separation of the male and female +flowers on the dog's mercury. Each plantain blossom has both stamens +and pistils, but the pistils come to maturity first, and are fertilised +by pollen blown to them from some neighbouring spike. Their feathery +plumes are admirably adapted for catching and utilising any stray +golden grain which happens to pass that way. After the pistils have +faded, the stamens ripen, and hang out at the end of long waving +filaments, so as to discharge all their pollen with effect. On each +spike of blossoms the lower flowerets open first; and so, if you pick a +half-blown spike, you will see that all the stamens are ripe below, and +all the pistils above. Were the opposite arrangement to occur, the +pollen would fall from the stamens to the lower flowers of the same +stalk; but as the pistils below have always been fertilised and +withered before the stamens ripen, there is no chance of any such +accident and its consequent evil results. Thus one can see clearly that +the plantain has become wholly adapted to wind-fertilisation, and as a +natural effect has all but lost its bright-coloured corolla. + +Common groundsel is also a case of the same kind; but here the +degradation has not gone nearly so far. I venture to conjecture, +therefore, that groundsel has been embarked for a shorter time upon its +downward course. For evolution is not, as most people seem to fancy, a +thing which used once to take place; it is a process taking place +around us every day, and it must necessarily continue to take place to +the end of all time. By family the groundsel is a daisy; but it has +acquired the strange and somewhat abnormal habit of self-fertilisation, +which in all probability will ultimately lead to its total extinction. +Hence it does not need the assistance of insects; and it has +accordingly never developed or else got rid of the bright outer +ray-florets which may once have attracted them. Its tiny bell-shaped +blossoms still retain their dwarf yellow corollas; but they are almost +hidden by the green cup-like investment of the flower-head, and they +are not conspicuous enough to arrest the attention of the passing +flies. Here, then, we have an example of a plant just beginning to +start on the retrograde path already traversed by the plantain and the +spurges. If we could meet prophetically with a groundsel of some remote +future century, I have little doubt we should find its bell-shaped +petals as completely degraded as those of the plantain in our own day. + +The general principle which these cases illustrate is that when flowers +have always been fertilised by the wind, they never have brilliant +corollas; when they acquire the habit of impregnating their kind by the +intervention of insects, they almost always acquire at the same time +alluring colours, perfumes, and honey; and when they have once been so +impregnated, and then revert once more to wind-fertilisation, or become +self-fertilisers, they generally retain some symptoms of their earlier +habits, in the presence of dwarfed and useless petals, sometimes green, +or if not green at least devoid of their former attractive colouring. +Thus every plant bears upon its very face the history of its whole +previous development. + + + + +XV. + +_BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY._ + + +A small red-and-black butterfly poises statuesque above the purple +blossom of this tall field-thistle. With its long sucker it probes +industriously floret after floret of the crowded head, and extracts +from each its wee drop of buried nectar. As it stands just at present, +the dull outer sides of its four wings are alone displayed, so that it +does not form a conspicuous mark for passing birds; but when it has +drunk up the last drop of honey from the thistle flower, and flits +joyously away to seek another purple mass of the same sort, it will +open its red-spotted vans in the sunlight, and will then show itself +off as one among the prettiest of our native insects. Each thistle-head +consists of some two hundred separate little bell-shaped blossoms, +crowded together for the sake of conspicuousness into a single group, +just as the blossoms of the lilac or the syringa are crowded into +larger though less dense clusters; and, as each separate floret has a +nectary of its own, the bee or butterfly who lights upon the compound +flower-group can busy himself for a minute or two in getting at the +various drops of honey without the necessity for any further change of +position than that of revolving upon his own axis. Hence these +composite flowers are great favourites with all insects whose suckers +are long enough to reach the bottom of their slender tubes. + +The butterfly's view of life is doubtless on the whole a cheerful one. +Yet his existence must be something so nearly mechanical that we +probably overrate the amount of enjoyment which he derives from +flitting about so airily among the flowers, and passing his days in the +unbroken amusement of sucking liquid honey. Subjectively viewed, the +butterfly is not a high order of insect; his nervous system does not +show that provision for comparatively spontaneous thought and action +which we find in the more intelligent orders, like the flies, bees, +ants, and wasps. His nerves are all frittered away in little separate +ganglia distributed among the various segments of his body, instead of +being governed by a single great central organ, or brain, whose +business it always is to correlate and co-ordinate complex external +impressions. This shows that the butterfly's movements are almost all +automatic, or simply dependent upon immediate external stimulants: he +has not even that small capacity for deliberation and spontaneous +initiative which belongs to his relation the bee. The freedom of the +will is nothing to him, or extends at best to the amount claimed on +behalf of Buridan's ass: he can just choose which of two equidistant +flowers shall first have the benefit of his attention, and nothing +else. Whatever view we take on the abstract metaphysical question, it +is at least certain that the higher animals can do much more than this. +Their brain is able to correlate a vast number of external impressions, +and to bring them under the influence of endless ideas or experiences, +so as finally to evolve conduct which differs very widely with +different circumstances and different characters. Even though it be +true, as determinists believe (and I reckon myself among them), that +such conduct is the necessary result of a given character and given +circumstances--or, if you will, of a particular set of nervous +structures and a particular set of external stimuli--yet we all know +that it is capable of varying so indefinitely, owing to the complexity +of the structures, as to be practically incalculable. But it is not so +with the butterfly. His whole life is cut out for him beforehand; his +nervous connections are so simple, and correspond so directly with +external stimuli, that we can almost predict with certainty what line +of action he will pursue under any given circumstances. He is, as it +were, but a piece of half-conscious mechanism, answering immediately to +impulses from without, just as the thermometer answers to variations of +temperature, and as the telegraphic indicator answers to each making +and breaking of the electric current. + +In early life the future butterfly emerges from the egg as a +caterpillar. At once his many legs begin to move, and the caterpillar +moves forward by their motion. But the mechanism which set them moving +was the nervous system, with its ganglia working the separate legs of +each segment. This movement is probably quite as automatic as the act +of sucking in the new-born infant. The caterpillar walks, it knows not +why, but simply because it has to walk. When it reaches a fit place for +feeding, which differs according to the nature of the particular larva, +it feeds automatically. Certain special external stimulants of sight, +smell, or touch set up the appropriate actions in the mandibles, just +as contact of the lips with an external body sets up sucking in the +infant. All these movements depend upon what we call instinct--that is +to say, organic habits registered in the nervous system of the race. +They have arisen by natural selection alone, because those insects +which duly performed them survived, and those which did not duly +perform them died out. After a considerable span of life spent in +feeding and walking about in search of more food, the caterpillar one +day found itself compelled by an inner monitor to alter its habits. +Why, it knew not; but, just as a tired child sinks to sleep, the gorged +and full-fed caterpillar sank peacefully into a dormant state. Then its +tissues melted one by one into a kind of organic pap, and its outer +skin hardened into a chrysalis. Within that solid case new limbs and +organs began to grow by hereditary impulses. At the same time the form +of the nervous system altered, to suit the higher and freer life for +which the insect was unconsciously preparing itself. Fewer and smaller +ganglia now appeared in the tail segments (since no legs would any +longer be needed there), while more important ones sprang up to govern +the motions of the four wings. But it was in the head that the greatest +changes took place. There, a rudimentary brain made its appearance, +with large optic centres, answering to the far more perfect and +important eyes of the future butterfly. For the flying insect will have +to steer its way through open space, instead of creeping over leaves +and stones; and it will have to suck the honey of flowers, as well as +to choose its fitting mate, all of which demands from it higher and +keener senses than those of the purblind caterpillar. At length one day +the chrysalis bursts asunder, and the insect emerges to view on a +summer morning as a full-fledged and beautiful butterfly. + +For a minute or two it stands and waits till the air it breathes has +filled out its wings, and till the warmth and sunlight have given it +strength. For the wings are by origin a part of the breathing +apparatus, and they require to be plimmed by the air before the insect +can take to flight. Then, as it grows more accustomed to its new life, +the hereditary impulse causes it to spread its vans abroad, and it +flies. Soon a flower catches its eye, and the bright mass of colour +attracts it irresistibly, as the candle-light attracts the eye of a +child a few weeks old. It sets off towards the patch of red or yellow, +probably not knowing beforehand that this is the visible symbol of food +for it, but merely guided by the blind habit of its race, imprinted +with binding force in the very constitution of its body. Thus the +moths, which fly by night and visit only white flowers whose corollas +still shine out in the twilight, are so irresistibly led on by the +external stimulus of light from a candle falling upon their eyes that +they cannot choose but move their wings rapidly in that direction; and +though singed and blinded twice or three times by the flame, must still +wheel and eddy into it, till at last they perish in the scorching +blaze. Their instincts, or, to put it more clearly, their simple +nervous mechanism, though admirably adapted to their natural +circumstances, cannot be equally adapted to such artificial objects as +wax candles. The butterfly in like manner is attracted automatically by +the colour of his proper flowers, and settling upon them, sucks up +their honey instinctively. But feeding is not now his only object in +life: he has to find and pair with a suitable mate. That, indeed, is +the great end of his winged existence. Here, again, his simple nervous +system stands him in good stead. The picture of his kind is, as it +were, imprinted on his little brain, and he knows his own mates the +moment he sees them, just as intuitively as he knows the flowers upon +which he must feed. Now we see the reason for the butterfly's large +optic centres: they have to guide it in all its movements. In like +manner, and by a like mechanism, the female butterfly or moth selects +the right spot for laying her eggs, which of course depends entirely +upon the nature of the young caterpillars' proper food. Each great +group of insects has its own habits in this respect, may-flies laying +their eggs on the water, many beetles on wood, flies on decaying animal +matter, and butterflies mostly on special plants. Thus throughout its +whole life the butterfly's activity is entirely governed by a rigid +law, registered and fixed for ever in the constitution of its ganglia +and motor nerves. Certain definite objects outside it invariably +produce certain definite movements on the insect's part. No doubt it is +vaguely conscious of all that it does: no doubt it derives a faint +pleasure from due exercise of all its vital functions, and a faint pain +when they are injured or thwarted; but on the whole its range of action +is narrowed and bounded by its hereditary instincts and their nervous +correlatives. It may light on one flower rather than another; it may +choose a fresher and brighter mate rather than a battered and dingy +one; but its little subjectivity is a mere shadow compared with ours, +and it hardly deserves to be considered as more than a semi-conscious +automatic machine. + + + + +XVI. + +_BUTTERFLY AESTHETICS._ + + +The other day, when I was watching that little red-spotted butterfly +whose psychology I found so interesting, I hardly 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 +second great point is to understand that they are probably something +more than that as well. To-day I have found another 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 intellectually, a +cunning bit of nervous machinery, may it not be true at the same time +that he is, viewed emotionally, a faint copy of ourselves? + +Here he stands on a purple thistle again, true, as usual, to the plant +on which I last found him. There can be no doubt that he distinguishes +one colour from another, for you can artificially attract him by +putting a piece of purple paper on a green leaf, just as the flower +naturally attracts him with its native hue. Numerous observations and +experiments have proved with all but absolute certainty that his +discrimination of colour is essentially identical with our own; and I +think, if we run our eye up and down nature, observing how universally +all animals are attracted by pure and bright colours, we can hardly +doubt that he appreciates and admires colour as well as discriminates +it. Mr. Darwin certainly judges that butterflies can show an aesthetic +preference of the sort, for he sets down their own lovely hues to the +constant sexual selection of the handsomest mates. We must not, +however, take too human a measure of their capacities in this respect. +It is sufficient to believe that the insect derives some direct +enjoyment from the stimulation of pure colour, and is hereditarily +attracted by it wherever it may show itself. This pleasure draws it on, +on the one hand, towards the gay flowers which form its natural food; +and, on the other hand, towards its own brilliant mates. Imprinted on +its nervous system is a certain blank form answering to its own +specific type; and when the object corresponding to this blank form +occurs in its neighbourhood, 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 the 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 reddest 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 butterflies. Insects always accustomed to exercising their +colour-sense upon flowers and mates, may easily acquire a high standard +of taste in that direction, while still remaining comparatively in a +low stage as regards their intellectual condition. But the fact I wish +especially to emphasise is this--that the flowers produced by the +colour-sense of butterflies and their allies are just those objects +which we ourselves consider most lovely in nature; and that the marks +and shades upon their own wings, produced by the long selective action +of their mates, are just the things which we ourselves consider most +beautiful in the animal world. In this respect, then, there seems to be +a close community of taste and feeling between the butterfly and +ourselves. + +Let me note, too, just in passing, that while the upper half of the +butterfly's wing is generally beautiful in colour, so as to attract his +fastidious mate, the under half, displayed while he is at rest, is +almost always dull, and often resembles the plant upon which he +habitually alights. The first set of colours is obviously due to sexual +selection, and has for its object the making of an effective courtship; +but the second set is obviously due to natural selection, and has been +produced by the fact that all those insects whose bright colours show +through too vividly when they are at rest fall a prey to birds or other +enemies, leaving only the best protected to continue the life of the +species. + +But sight is not the only important sense to the butterfly. He is +largely moved and guided by smell as well. Both bees and butterflies +seem largely to select the flowers they visit by means of smell, though +colour 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. Bastian says, there seems +good reason for believing 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 butterflies are +not only coloured but sweetly scented; and it is to this cause that we +owe the perfumes of the rose, the lily-of-the-valley, the heliotrope, +the jasmine, the violet, and the stephanotis. Night-flowering plants, +which depend entirely for their fertilisation upon moths, are almost +always white, and have usually very powerful perfumes. 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? +Here, again, we see that the aesthetic 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 we look at the sense of taste, we find an equally curious +agreement between men and insects; for the honey which is stored by the +flower for the bee, and by the bee for its own use, is stolen and eaten +up by man instead. Hence, when I consider the general continuity of +nervous structure throughout the whole animal race, and the exact +similarity of the stimulus in each instance, I can hardly doubt that +the butterfly really enjoys life somewhat as we enjoy it, though far +less vividly. I cannot but think that he finds honey sweet, and +perfumes pleasant, and colour attractive; that he feels a lightsome +gladness as he 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 animal world, save only in a few +aberrant types, sugar is sweet to taste, and thyme to smell, and song +to hear, and sunshine to bask in. Therefore, on the whole, while I +admit that the butterfly is mainly an animated puppet, I must qualify +my opinion by adding that it is a puppet which, after its vague little +fashion, thinks and feels very much as we do. + + + + +XVII. + +_THE ORIGIN OF WALNUTS._ + + +Mr. Darwin has devoted no small portion of his valuable life to +tracing, in two bulky volumes, the Descent of Man. Yet I suppose it is +probable that in our narrow anthropinism we should have refused to +listen to him had he given us two volumes instead on the Descent of +Walnuts. Viewed as a question merely of biological science, the one +subject is just as important as the other. But the old Greek doctrine +that 'man is the measure of all things' is strong in us still. We form +for ourselves a sort of pre-Copernican universe, in which the world +occupies the central point of space, and man occupies the central point +of the world. What touches man interests us deeply: what concerns him +but slightly we pass over as of no consequence. Nevertheless, even the +origin and development of walnuts is a subject upon which we may +profitably reflect, not wholly without gratification and interest. + +This kiln-dried walnut on my plate, which has suggested such abstract +cogitations to my mind, is shown by its very name to be a foreign +production; for the word contains the same root as Wales and Welsh, the +old Teutonic name for men of a different race, which the Germans still +apply to the Italians, and we ourselves to the last relics of the old +Keltic population in Southern Britain. It means 'the foreign nut,' and +it comes for the most part from the south of Europe. As a nut, it +represents a very different type of fruit from the strawberry and +raspberry, with their bright colours, sweet juices, and nutritious +pulp. Those fruits which alone bear the name in common parlance are +attractive in their object; the nuts are deterrent. An orange or a plum +is brightly tinted with hues which contrast strongly with the +surrounding foliage; its pleasant taste and soft pulp all advertise it +for the notice of birds or monkeys, as a means for assisting in the +dispersion of its seed. But a nut, on the contrary, is a fruit whose +actual seed contains an abundance of oils and other pleasant +food-stuffs, which must be carefully guarded against the depredations +of possible foes. In the plum or the orange we do not eat the seed +itself: we only eat the surrounding pulp. But in the walnut the part +which we utilise is the embryo plant itself; and so the walnut's great +object in life is to avoid being eaten. Accordingly, that part of the +fruit which in the plum is stored with sweet juices is, in the walnut, +filled with a bitter and very nauseous essence. We seldom see this +bitter covering in our over-civilised life, because it is, of course, +removed before the nuts come to table. The walnut has but a thin shell, +and is poorly protected in comparison with some of its relations, such +as the American butternut, which can only be cracked by a sharp blow +from a hammer--or even the hickory, whose hard covering has done more +to destroy the teeth of New Englanders than all other causes put +together, and New England teeth are universally admitted to be the very +worst in the world. Now, all nuts have to guard against squirrels and +birds; and therefore their peculiarities are exactly opposite to those +of succulent fruits. Instead of attracting attention by being brightly +coloured, they are invariably green like the leaves while they remain +on the tree, and brown or dusky like the soil when they fall upon the +ground beneath; instead of being enclosed in sweet coats, they are +provided with bitter, acrid, or stinging husks; and, instead of being +soft in texture, they are surrounded by hard shells, like the coco-nut, +or have a perfectly solid kernel, like the vegetable ivory. + +The origin of nuts is thus exactly the reverse side of the origin of +fruits. Certain seeds, richly stored with oils and starches for aiding +the growth of the young plant, are exposed to the attacks of squirrels, +monkeys, parrots, and other arboreal animals. The greater part of them +are eaten and completely destroyed by these their enemies, and so never +hand down their peculiarities to any descendants. But all fruits vary a +little in sweetness and bitterness, pulpy or stringy tendencies. Thus a +few among them happen to be protected from destruction by their +originally accidental possession of a bitter husk, a hard shell, or a +few awkward spines and bristles. These the monkeys and squirrels +reject; and they alone survive as the parents of future generations. +The more persistent and the hungrier their foes become, the less will a +small degree of bitterness or hardness serve to protect them. Hence, +from generation to generation, the bitterness and the hardness will go +on increasing, because only those nuts which are the nastiest and the +most difficult to crack will escape destruction from the teeth or bills +of the growing and pressing population of rodents and birds. The nut +which best survives on the average is that which is least conspicuous +in colour, has a rind of the most objectionable taste, and is enclosed +in the most solid shell. But the extent to which such precautions +become necessary will depend much upon the particular animals to whose +attacks the nuts of each country are exposed. The European walnut has +only to defy a few small woodland animals, who are sufficiently +deterred by its acrid husk; the American butter-nut has to withstand +the long teeth of much more formidable forestine rodents, whom it sets +at nought with its stony and wrinkled shell; and the tropical cocos and +Brazil nuts have to escape the monkey, who pounds them with stones, or +flings them with all his might from the tree-top so as to smash them in +their fall against the ground below. + +Our own hazel-nut supplies an excellent illustration of the general +tactics adopted by the nuts at large. The little red tufted blossoms +which everybody knows so well in early spring are each surrounded by a +bunch of three bracts; and as the nut grows bigger, these bracts form a +green leaf-like covering, which causes it to look very much like the +ordinary foliage of the hazel-tree. Besides, they are thickly set with +small prickly hairs, which are extremely annoying to the fingers, 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 shade +from the nuts themselves. Take, as an example of the more carefully +protected tropical kinds, the coco-nut. Growing on a very tall +palm-tree, it has to fall a considerable distance toward the earth; and +so it is wrapped round in a mass of loose knotted fibre, which breaks +the fall just as a lot of soft wool would do. Then, being a large nut, +fully stored with an abundance of meat, it offers special attractions +to animals, and consequently requires special means of defence. +Accordingly, its shell is extravagantly thick, only one small soft spot +being left at the blunter end, through which the young plant may push +its head. Once upon a time, to be sure, the coco-nut contained three +kernels, and had three such soft spots or holes; but now two of them +are aborted, and the two holes remain only in the form of hard scars. +The Brazil nut is even a better illustration. Probably few people know +that the irregular angular nuts which appear at dessert by that name +are originally contained inside a single round shell, where they fit +tightly together, and acquire their queer indefinite shapes by mutual +pressure. So the South American monkey has first to crack the thick +external common shell against a stone or otherwise; and, if he is +successful in this process, he must afterwards break the separate +sharp-edged inner nuts with his teeth--a performance which is always +painful and often ineffectual. + +Yet it is curious that nuts and fruits are really produced by the very +slightest variations on a common type, so much so that the technical +botanist does not recognise the popular distinction between them at +all. In his eyes, the walnut and the coco-nut 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 succulent and fills with +sugary juice, in the walnut its juice is bitter, and in the coco-nut it +has no juice at all, but remains a mere matted layer of dry fibres. And +while the thin external skin becomes purple in the plum and red in the +cherry as the fruits ripen, it remains green and brown in the walnut +and coco-nut all their time. Nevertheless, Darwinism shows us both here +and elsewhere that the popular distinction answers to a real difference +of origin and function. When a seed-vessel, whatever its botanical +structure, survives by dint of attracting animals, it always acquires a +bright-coloured envelope and a sweet pulp; while it usually possesses a +hard seed-shell, and often infuses bitter essences into its kernel. On +the other hand, when a seed-vessel survives by escaping the notice of +animals, it generally has a sweet and pleasant kernel, which it +protects by a hard shell and an inconspicuous and nauseous envelope. If +the kernel itself is bitter, as with the horse-chestnut, the need for +disguise and external protection is much lessened. But the best +illustration of all is seen in the West Indian cashew-nut, which is +what Alice in Wonderland would have called a portmanteau seed-vessel--a +fruit and a nut rolled into one. In this curious case, the stalk swells +out into a bright-coloured and juicy mass, looking something like a +pear, but of course containing no seeds; while the nut grows out from +its end, secured from intrusion by a covering with a pungent juice, +which burns and blisters the skin at a touch. No animal except man can +ever successfully tackle the cashew-nut itself; but by eating the +pear-like stalk other animals ultimately aid in distributing the seed. +The cashew thus vicariously sacrifices its fruit-stem for the sake of +preserving its nut. + +All nature is a continuous game 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 the protections adopted by plants; and those plants +alone survive whose peculiarities happen successfully to defy the +attack of animals. There you have the Darwinian Iliad in a nutshell. + + + + +XVIII. + +_A PRETTY LAND-SHELL._ + + +The heavy rains which have done so much harm to the standing corn have +at least had the effect of making the country look greener and lovelier +than I have seen it look for many seasons. There is now a fresh verdure +about the upland pastures and pine woods which almost reminds one of +the deep valleys of the Bernese Oberland in early spring. Last year's +continuous wet weather gave the trees and grass a miserable draggled +appearance; but this summer's rain, coming after a dry spring, has +brought out all the foliage in unwonted luxuriance; and everybody +(except the British farmer) agrees that we have never seen the country +look more beautiful. Though the year is now so far advanced, the trees +are still as green as in springtide; and the meadows, with their rich +aftermath springing up apace, look almost as lush and fresh as they did +in early June. Londoners who get away to the country or the seaside +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. + +Here, on the edge of the down, where I have come up to get a good +blowing from the clear south-west breeze, I have just sat down to rest +myself awhile and to admire the view, and have reverted for a moment to +my old habit of snail-hunting. Years ago, when evolution was an +infant--an infant much troubled by the complaints inseparable from +infancy, but still a sturdy and vigorous 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 to +this day I seldom go out for a walk without a few pill-boxes in my +pocket, in case I should happen to hit upon any remarkable 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 here and could show it to you; for most +people only know the two or three ugly brown or banded snails that prey +upon their cabbages and lettuces, and have no notion of the lovely +shells to be found by hunting among English copses and under the dead +leaves of Scotch hill-sides. This cyclostoma, however,--I _must_ +trouble you with a Latin name for once--is so remarkably pretty, with +its graceful elongated spiral whorls, and its delicately chiselled +fretwork tracery, that even naturalists (who have perhaps, on the +whole, less sense of beauty than any class of men I know) have +recognised its loveliness by giving it the specific epithet of +_elegans_. It is big enough for anybody to notice it, being about the +size of a periwinkle; and its exquisite stippled chasing is strongly +marked enough to be perfectly visible to the naked eye. But besides its +beauty, the cyclostoma has a strong claim upon our attention because of +its curious history. + +Long ago, in the infantile days of evolutionism, I often wondered why +people made collections on such an irrational plan. They always try to +get what they call the most typical specimens, and reject all those +which are doubtful or intermediate. Hence the dogma of the fixity of +species becomes all the more firmly settled in their minds, because +they never attend to the existing links which still so largely bridge +over the artificial gaps created by our nomenclature between kind and +kind. I went to work on the opposite plan, collecting all those +aberrant individuals which most 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 ended and the next group began. Among the snails such an +arrangement is peculiarly easy; for some of the species are very +indefinite, and the varieties are numerous under each species. Nothing +can give one so good a notion of the plasticity of organic forms as +such a method. The endless varieties and intermediate links which exist +amongst dogs is the nearest example to it with which ordinary observers +are familiar. + +But the cyclostoma is a snail which introduces one to still deeper +questions. It belongs in all our scientific classifications to the +group of lung-breathing mollusks, like the common garden snail. Yet it +has one remarkable peculiarity: it possesses an operculum, or door to +its shell, like that of the periwinkle. This operculum represents among +the univalves the under-shell of the oyster or other bivalves; but it +has completely disappeared in most land and fresh-water snails, as well +as among many marine species. The fact of its occurrence in the +cyclostoma would thus be quite inexplicable if we were compelled to +regard it as a descendant of the other lung-breathing mollusks. 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 cast upon the +question by Darwinism, 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 paludina. 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 cyclostoma among the gill-breathers, +because of its close resemblance 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 producing 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 animal like a snail. Besides, 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 streams. +There are others which go further from the water, and spend their days +in damp grass. And there are yet others which have taken to a wholly +terrestrial existence in woods or meadows and under heaps of stones. +All of them agree with the pond-snails in having an operculum, and so +differ from the ordinary land and river snails, the mouths of whose +shells are quite unprotected. Thus land-nails have two separate +origins--one large group (including the garden-snail) being derived +from the common fresh-water mollusks, while another much smaller group +(including the cyclostoma) is derived from the operculated pond-snails. + +How is it, then, that naturalists had so long overlooked this +distinction? Simply because their artificial classification is based +entirely upon the nature of the breathing apparatus. But, as Mr. +Wallace has well pointed out, obvious and important functional +differences are of far less value in tracing relationship than +insignificant and unimportant structural details. Any water-snail may +have to take to a terrestrial life if the ponds in which it lives are +liable to dry up during warm weather. Those individuals alone will then +survive which display a tendency to oxygenise their blood by some +rudimentary form of lung. Hence the possession of lungs is not the mark +of a real genealogical class, but a mere necessary result of a +terrestrial existence. On the other hand, the possession of an +operculum, unimportant as it may be to the life of the animal, is a +good test of relationship by descent. All snails which take to living +on land, whatever their original form, will acquire lungs: but an +operculated snail will retain its operculum, and so bear witness to its +ancestry; while a snail which is not operculated will of course show no +tendency to develop such a structure, and so will equally give a true +testimony as to its origin. In short, the less functionally useful any +organ is, the higher is its value as a gauge of its owner's pedigree, +like a Bourbon nose or an Austrian lip. + + + + +XIX. + +_DOGS AND MASTERS._ + + +Probably the most forlorn and abject creature to be seen on the face of +the earth is a masterless dog. Slouching and slinking along, cringing +to every human being it chances to meet, running away with its tail +between its legs from smaller dogs whom under other circumstances it +would accost with a gruff who-the-dickens-are-you sort of growl,--it +forms the very picture of utter humiliation and self-abasement. Grip +and I have just come across such a lost specimen of stray doghood, +trying to find his way back to his home across the fields--I fancy he +belongs to a travelling show which left the village yesterday--and it +is quite refreshing to watch the air of superior wisdom and calm but +mute compassionateness with which Grip casts his eye sidelong upon that +wretched masterless vagrant, and passes him by without even a nod. He +looks up to me complacently as he trots along by my side, and seems to +say with his eye, 'Poor fellow! he's lost his master, you +know--careless dog that he is!' I believe the lesson has had a good +moral effect upon Grip's own conduct, too; for he has now spent ten +whole minutes well within my sight, and has resisted the most tempting +solicitations to ratting and rabbiting held out by half-a-dozen holes +and burrows in the hedge-wall as we go along. + +This total dependence of dogs upon a master is a very interesting +example of the growth of inherited instincts. The original dog, who was +a wolf or something very like it, could 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 preserved +and increased; those which followed too much their own original +instincts were destroyed or at least discouraged. The savage hunter +would be very apt to fling his stone axe at the skull of a hound which +tried to eat the game he had brought down with his flint-tipped arrow, +instead of retrieving it: he would be most likely to keep carefully and +feed well on the refuse of his own meals the hound which aided him most +in surprising, killing, and securing his quarry. Thus there sprang up +between man and the dog a mutual and ever increasing sympathy which on +the part of the dependent creature has at last become organised into an +inherited instinct. If we could only thread the labyrinth of a dog's +brain, we should find somewhere in it a group of correlated +nerve-connections answering to this universal habit of his race; and +the group in question would be quite without any analogous mechanism in +the brain of the ancestral wolf. As truly as the wing of the bird is +adapted to its congenital instinct of flying, as truly as the nervous +system of the bee is adapted to its congenital instinct of honeycomb +building, just so truly is the brain of the dog adapted to its now +congenital instinct of following and obeying a master. The habit of +attaching itself to a particular human being is nowadays engrained in +the nerves of the modern dog just as really, though not quite so +deeply, as the habit of running or biting is engrained in its bones and +muscles. Every dog is born into the world with a certain inherited +structure of limbs, sense-organs, and brain: and this inherited +structure governs all its future actions, both bodily and mental. It +seeks a master because it is endowed with master-seeking brain organs; +it is dissatisfied until it finds one, because its native functions can +have free play in no other way. Among a few dogs, like those of +Constantinople, the instinct may have 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 puppyhood under a master, the instinct is +fully and freely developed, and the masterless condition is thenceforth +for him a thwarting and disappointing of all his natural feelings and +affections. + +Not only have dogs as a class acquired a special instinct with regard +to humanity generally, but particular breeds of dogs have acquired +particular instincts with regard to certain individual acts. Nobody +doubts that the muscles of a greyhound are specially correlated to the +acts of running and leaping; or that the muscles of a bull-dog are +specially correlated to the act of fighting. The whole external form of +these creatures has been modified by man's selective action for a +deliberate purpose: we breed, as we say, from the dog with the best +points. But besides being able to modify the visible and outer +structure of the animal, we are also able to modify, by indirect +indications, the hidden and inner structure of the brain. We choose the +best ratter among our terriers, the best pointer, retriever, or setter +among other breeds, to become the parents of our future stock. We thus +half unconsciously select particular types of nervous system in +preference to others. Once upon a time we used even to rear a race of +dogs with a strange instinct for turning the spit in our kitchens; and +to this day the Cubans rear blood-hounds with a natural taste for +hunting down the trail of runaway negroes. Now, everybody knows that +you cannot teach one sort of dog the kind of tricks which come by +instinct to a different sort. No amount of instruction will induce a +well-bred terrier to retrieve your handkerchief: he insists upon +worrying it instead. So no amount of instruction will induce a +well-bred retriever to worry a rat: he brings it gingerly to your feet, +as if it was a dead partridge. The reason is obvious, because no one +would breed from a retriever which worried or from a terrier which +treated its natural prey as if it were a stick. Thus the brain of each +kind is hereditarily supplied with certain nervous connections wanting +in the brain 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 greyhound and the bull-dog. Those who have watched +closely the different races of men can hardly hesitate to believe that +something analogous exists in our own case. While the highest types +are, as Mr. Herbert Spencer well puts it, to some extent 'organically +moral' and structurally intelligent, the lowest types are congenitally +deficient. A European child learns to read almost by nature (for +Dogberry was essentially right after all), while a Negro child learns +to read by painful personal experience. And savages brought to Europe +and 'civilised' for years often return at last with joy to their native +home, cast off their clothes and their outer veneering, and take once +more to the only life for which their nervous organisation naturally +fits them. 'What is bred in the bone,' says the wise old proverb, 'will +out in the blood.' + + + + +XX. + +_BLACKCOCK._ + + +Just at the present moment the poor black grouse are generally having a +hot time of it. After their quiet spring and summer they suddenly find +their heath-clad wastes invaded by a strange epidemic of men, dogs, and +hideous shooting implements; and being as yet but young and +inexperienced, they are falling victims by the thousand to their +youthful habit of clinging closely for protection to the treacherous +reed-beds. A little later in the season, those of them that survive +will have learned more wary ways: they will pack among the juniper +thickets, and become as cautious on the approach of perfidious man as +their cunning cousins, the red grouse of the Scottish moors. But so far +youthful innocence prevails; no sentinels as yet are set to watch for +the distant gleam of metal, and no foreshadowing of man's evil intent +disturbs their minds as they feed in fancied security upon the dry +seeds of the marsh plants in their favourite sedges. + +The great families of the pheasants and partridges, in which the +blackcock must be included, may be roughly divided into two main +divisions so far as regards their appearance and general habits. The +first class consists of splendidly coloured and conspicuous birds, such +as the peacock, the golden pheasant, and the tragopan; and these are, +almost without exception, originally jungle-birds of tropical or +sub-tropical lands, though a few of them have been acclimatised or +domesticated in temperate countries. They live in regions where they +have few natural enemies, and where they are little exposed to the +attacks of man. Most of them feed more or less upon fruits and +bright-coloured food-stuffs, and they are probably every one of them +polygamous in their habits. Thus we can hardly doubt that the male +birds, which alone possess the brilliant plumage of their kind, owe +their beauty to the selective preference of their mates; and that the +taste thus displayed has been aroused by their relation to their +specially gay and bright natural surroundings. The most lovely species +of pheasants are found among the forests of the Himalayas and the Malay +Archipelago, with their gorgeous fruits and flowers and their exquisite +insects. Even in England our naturalised Oriental pheasants still +delight in feeding upon blackberries, sloes, haws, and the pretty fruit +of the honeysuckle and the holly; while our dingier partridges and +grouse subsist rather upon heather, grain, and small seeds. Since there +must always be originally nearly as many cocks as hens in each brood, +it will follow that only the handsomest or most attractive in the +polygamous species will succeed in attracting to them a harem; and as +beauty and strength usually go hand in hand, they will also be the +conquerors in those battles which are universal with all polygamists in +the animal world. Thus we account for the striking and conspicuous +difference between the peacock 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 kinds, typified by the red grouse, partridges, quails, and +guinea-fowls, are generally dingy in hue, with a tendency to +pepper-and-salt in their plumage; and they usually display very little +difference between the sexes, both cocks and hens being coloured and +feathered much alike. In short, they are protectively designed, while +the first class are attractive. Their plumage resembles as nearly as +possible the ground on which they sit or the covert in which they +skulk. They are thus enabled to escape the notice of their natural +enemies, the birds of prey, from whose ravages they suffer far more in +a state of nature than from any other cause. We may take the ptarmigans +as the most typical example of this class of birds; for in summer their +zigzagged black-and-brown attire harmonises admirably with the patches +of faded heath and soil upon the mountain-side, as every sportsman well +knows; while in the winter their pure white plumage can scarcely be +distinguished from the snow in which they lie huddled and crouching +during the colder months. Even in the brilliant species, Mr. Darwin and +Mr. Wallace have pointed out that the ornamental colours and crest are +never handed down to female descendants when the habits of nesting are +such that the mothers would be exposed to danger by their +conspicuousness during incubation. Speaking broadly, only those female +birds which build in hollow trees or make covered nests have bright +hues at all equal to those of the males. A female bird nesting in the +open would be cut off if it showed any tendency to reproduce the +brilliant colouring 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 described. It is a polygamous bird, and it differs +most conspicuously in plumage from its consort, the grey-hen, as may be +seen from the very names by which they are each familiarly known. Yet, +though the blackcock is handsome enough and shows evident marks of +selective preference on the part of his ancestral hens, this preference +has not exerted itself largely in the direction of bright colour, and +that for two reasons. In the first place the blackcock does not feed +upon brilliant foodstuffs, but upon small bog-berries, hard seeds, and +young shoots of heather, and it is probable that an aesthetic taste for +pure and dazzling hues is almost confined to those creatures which, +like butterflies, hummingbirds, and parrots, seek their livelihood +amongst beautiful fruits or flowers. In the second place, red, yellow, +or orange ornaments would render the blackcock too conspicuous a mark +for the hawk, the falcon, or the weapons of man; for we must remember +that only those blackcocks survive from year to year and hand down +their peculiarities to descendants which succeed in evading the talons +of birds of prey or the small-shot of sportsmen. Feeding as they do on +the open, they are not protected, like jungle-birds, by the shade of +trees. Thus any bird which showed any marked tendency to develop +brighter or more conspicuous plumage would almost infallibly fall a +victim to one or other of his many foes; and however much his beauty +might possibly charm his mates (supposing them for the moment to +possess a taste for colour), he would have no chance of transmitting it +to a future generation. Accordingly, the decoration of the blackcock is +confined to glossy plumage and a few ornamental tail-feathers. The +grey-hen herself still retains the dull and imitative colouring of the +grouse race generally; and as for the cocks, even if a fair percentage +of them is annually cut off through their comparative 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 recognised spots, and there invite the +grey-hens by their calls, a little duelling going on meanwhile. During +these meetings they show off their beauty with great emulation, after +the fashion with which we are all familiar in the case of the peacock; +and when they have gained the approbation of their mates and maimed or +driven away their rivals, they retire with their respective families. +Unfortunately, like most polygamists, they make bad fathers, leaving +the care of their young almost entirely to the hens. According to the +veracious account of Artemus Ward, the great Brigham Young himself +pathetically descanted upon the difficulty of extending his parental +affections to 131 children. The imperious blackcock seems to labour +under the same sentimental disadvantage. + + + + +XXI. + +_BINDWEED._ + + +Not the least beautiful among our native wild flowers are many of those +which grow, too often unheeded, along the wayside of every country +road. The hedge-bordered highway on which I am walking to-day, to take +my letters to the village post, is bordered on either side with such a +profusion of colour as one may never see equalled during many years' +experience of tropical or sub-tropical lands. Jamaica and Ceylon could +produce nothing so brilliant as this tangled mass of gorse, and +thistle, and St. John's-wort, and centaury, intermingled with the lithe +and whitening sprays of half-opened clematis. And here, on the very +edge of the road, half-smothered in its grey dust, I have picked a +pretty little convolvulus blossom, with a fly buried head-foremost in +its pink bell; and I am carrying them both along with me as I go, for +contemplation and study. For this little flower, the lesser bindweed, +is rich in hints as to the strange ways in which Nature decks herself +with so much waste loveliness, whose meaning can only be fully read by +the eyes of man, the latest comer among her children. The old school of +thinkers imagined 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 fancy of the human +race. To the butterfly the world is a little beautiful; to the +farm-labourer it is only a trifle more beautiful: but to the cultivated +man or the artist it is lovely in every cloud and shadow, in every tiny +blossom and passing bird. + +The outer face of the bindweed, the exterior of the cup, so to speak, +is prettily marked with five dark russet-red bands, between which the +remainder of the corolla is a pale pinky-white in hue. Nothing could be +simpler and prettier than this alternation of dark and light belts; but +how is it produced? Merely thus. The convolvulus blossom in the bud is +twisted or contorted round and round, part of the cup being folded +inside, while the five joints of the corolla are folded outside, much +after the fashion of an umbrella when rolled up. And just as the bits +of the umbrella which are exposed when it is folded become faded in +colour, so the bits of the bindweed blossom which are outermost in the +bud become more deeply oxidised than the other parts, and acquire a +russet-red hue. The belted appearance which thus results is really as +accidental, if I may use that unphilosophical expression, as the belted +appearance of the old umbrella, or the wrinkles caused by the waves on +the sea-sands. The flower happened to be folded so, and got coloured, +or discoloured, accordingly. But when a man comes to look at it, he +recognises in the alternation of colours and the symmetrical +arrangement one of those elements of beauty with which he is familiar +in the handicraft of his own kind. He reads an intention into this +result of natural causes, and personifies Nature as though she worked +with an aesthetic design in view, just as a decorative artist works when +he similarly alternates colours or arranges symmetrical and radial +figures 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 +recognises the intellectual order and perfection of the work. + +I turn the bindweed blossom mouth upward, and there I see that these +russet marks, though paler on the inner surface, still show faintly +through the pinky-white corolla. This produces an effect not unlike +that of a delicate shell cameo, with its dainty gradations of +semi-transparent white and interfusing pink. But the inner effect can +be no more designed with an eye to beauty than the outer one was; and +the very terms in which I think of it clearly show that my sense of its +loveliness is largely derived from comparison with human handicraft. A +farmer would see in the convolvulus nothing but a useless weed; a +cultivated eye sees in it just as much as its nature permits it to see. +I look closer, and observe that there are also thin lines running from +the circumference to the centre, midway between the dark belts. These +lines, which add greatly to the beauty of the flower, by marking it out +into zones, are also due to the folding in the bud; they are the inner +angles of the folds, just as the dark belts are the overlapping edges +of the outer angles. But, in addition to the minor beauty of these +little details, there is the general beauty of the cup as a whole, +which also calls for explanation. Its shape is as graceful as that of +any Greek or Etruscan vase, as swelling and as simply beautiful as any +beaker. Can I account for these peculiarities on mere natural grounds +as well as for the others? I somehow fancy I can. + +The bindweed is descended from some earlier ancestors which had five +separate petals, instead of a single fused and circular cup. But in the +convolvulus family, as in many others, these five petals have joined +into a continuous rim or bowl, and the marks on the blossom where it +was folded in the bud still answer to the five petals. In many plants +you can see the pointed edges of the former distinct flower-rays as +five projections, though their lower parts have coalesced into a +bell-shaped or tubular blossom, as in the common harebell. How this +comes to pass we can easily understand if we watch an unopened fuchsia; +for there the four bright-coloured sepals remain joined together till +the bud is ready to open, and then split along a line marked out from +the very first. In the plastic bud condition it is very easy for parts +usually separate so to grow out in union with one another. I do not +mean that separate pieces actually grow together, but that pieces which +usually grow distinct sometimes grow united from the very first. Now, +four or five petals, radially arranged, in themselves produce that kind +of symmetry which man, with his intellectual love for order and +definite patterns, always finds beautiful. But the symmetry in the +flower simply results from the fact that a single whorl of leaves has +grown into this particular shape, while the outer and inner whorls have +grown into other shapes; and every such whorl always and necessarily +presents us with an example of the kind of symmetry which we so much +admire. Again, when the petals forming a whorl coalesce, they must, of +course, produce a more or less regular circle. If the points of the +petals remain as projections, then we get a circle with vandyked edges, +as in the lily of the valley; if they do not project, then we get a +simple circular rim, as in the bindweed. All the lovely shapes of +bell-blossoms are simply due to the natural coalescence of four, five, +or six petals; and this coalescence is again due to an increased +certainty of fertilisation secured for the plant by the better +adaptation to insect visits. Similarly, we know that the colours of the +corolla have been acquired as a means of rendering the flower +conspicuous to the eyes of bees or butterflies; and the hues which so +prove attractive to insects are of the same sort which arouse +pleasurable stimulation in our own nerves. Thus the whole loveliness of +flowers is in the last resort dependent upon all kinds of accidental +causes--causes, that is to say, into which the deliberate design 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 arouse in us +certain feelings we call beautiful; and those parts which are of such a +sort as to arouse in us the opposite feelings we call ugly. But the +beauty and the ugliness are not parts of the things; they are merely +human modes of regarding some among their attributes. Wherever in +nature we find pure colour, symmetrical form, and intricate variety of +pattern, we imagine to ourselves that nature designs the object to be +beautiful. When we trace these peculiarities to their origin, however, +we find that each of them owes its occurrence to some special fact in +the history of the object; and we are forced to conclude that the +notion of intentional design has been read into it by human analogies. +All nature is beautiful, and most beautiful for those in whom the sense +of beauty is most highly developed; but it is not beautiful at all +except to those whose own eyes and emotions are fitted to perceive its +beauty. + + + + +XXII. + +_ON CORNISH CLIFFS._ + + +I am lying on my back in the sunshine, close to the edge of a great +broken precipice, beside a clambering Cornish fishing village. In front +of me is the sea, bluer than I have seen it since last I lay in like +fashion a few months ago on the schistose slopes of the Maurettes at +Hyeres, and looked away across the plain to the unrippled Mediterranean +and the Stoechades of the old Phocaean merchant-men. On either hand rise +dark cliffs of hornblende and serpentine, weathered above by wind and +rain, and smoothed below by the ceaseless dashing of the winter waves. +Up to the limit of the breakers the hard rock is polished like Egyptian +syenite; but beyond that point it is fissured by disintegration and +richly covered with a dappled coat of grey and yellow lichen. The slow +action of the water, always beating against the solid wall of +crystalline rock, has eaten out a thousand such little bays all along +this coast, each bounded by long headlands, whose points have been worn +into fantastic pinnacles, or severed from the main mass as precipitous +islets, the favourite resting-place of gulls and cormorants. No grander +coast scenery can be found anywhere in the southern half of Great +Britain. + +Yet when I turn inland I see that all this beauty has been produced by +the mere interaction of the sea and the barren moors of the interior. +Nothing could be flatter or more desolate than the country whose +seaward escarpment gives rise to these romantic coves and pyramidal +rocky islets. It stretches away for miles in a level upland waste, only +redeemed from complete barrenness by the low straggling bushes of the +dwarf furze, whose golden blossom is now interspersed with purple +patches of ling or the paler pink flowers of the Cornish heath. Here, +then, I can see beauty in nature actually beginning to be. I can trace +the origin of all these little bays from small rills which have worn +themselves gorge-like valleys through the hard igneous rock, or else +from fissures finally giving rise to sea-caves, like the one into which +I rowed this morning for my early swim. The waves penetrate for a +couple of hundred yards into the bowels of the rock, hemmed in by walls +and roof of dark serpentine, with its interlacing veins of green and +red bearing witness still to its once molten condition; and at length +in most cases they produce a blow-hole at the top, communicating with +the open air above, either because the fissure there crops up to the +surface, or else through the agency of percolation. At last, the roof +falls in; the boulders are carried away by the waves; and we get a long +and narrow cove, still bounded on either side by tall cliffs, whose +summits the air and rainfall slowly wear away into jagged and exquisite +shapes. Yet in all this we see nothing but the natural play of cause +and effect; we attribute the beauty of the scene merely to the +accidental result of inevitable laws; we feel no necessity for calling +in the aid of any underlying aesthetic intention on the part of the sea, +or the rock, or the creeping lichen, in order to account for the +loveliness which we find in the finished picture. The winds and the +waves carved the coast into these varied shapes by force of blind +currents working on hidden veins of harder or softer crystal: and we +happen to find the result beautiful, just as we happen to find the +inland level dull and ugly. The endless variety of the one charms us, +while the unbroken monotony of the other wearies and repels us. + +Here on the cliff I pick up a pretty fern and a blossoming head of the +autumn squill--though so sweet a flower deserves a better name. This +fern, too, is lovely in its way, with its branching leaflets and its +rich glossy-green hue. Yet it owes its shape just as truly to the +balance of external and internal forces acting upon it as does the +Cornish coast-line. How comes it then that in the one case we +instinctively regard the beauty as accidental, while in the other we +set it down to a deliberate aesthetic intent? I think because, in the +first case, we can actually see the forces at work, while in the second +they are so minute and so gradual in their action as to escape the +notice of all but trained observers. This fern grows in the shape that +I see, because its ancestors have been slowly moulded into such a form +by the whole group of circumstances directly or indirectly affecting +them in all their past life; and the germ of the complex form thus +produced was impressed by the parent plant upon the spore from which +this individual fern took its birth. Over yonder I see a great +dock-leaf; it grows tall and rank above all other plants, and is able +to spread itself boldly to the light on every side. It has abundance of +sunshine as a motive-power of growth, and abundance of air from which +to extract the carbon that it needs. Hence it and all its ancestors +have spread their leaves equally on every side, and formed large flat +undivided blades. Leaves such as these are common 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 eyes, +just as the flatness of the 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, we see little or nothing to +admire. On the other hand, ferns generally grow in hedge-rows or +thickets, where sunlight is much interrupted by other plants, and where +air is scanty, most of its carbon being extracted by neighbouring +plants which leave but little for one another's needs. Hence you may +notice that most plants growing under such circumstances have leaves +minutely sub-divided, so as to catch such stray gleams of sunlight and +such floating particles of carbonic acid as happen to pass their way. +Look into the next tangled and overgrown hedge-row which you happen to +pass, and you will see that almost all its leaves are of this +character; and when they are otherwise the anomaly usually admits of an +easy explanation. Of course the shapes of plants are mostly due to +their normal and usual circumstances, and are comparatively little +influenced by the accidental surroundings of individuals; and so, when +a fern of such a sort happens to grow like this one on the open, it +still retains the form impressed upon it by the life of its ancestors. +Now, it is the striking combination of symmetry and variety in the +fern, together with vivid green colouring, which makes us admire it so +much. Not only is the frond as a whole symmetrical, but each frondlet +and each division of the frondlet is separately symmetrical as well. +This delicate minuteness of workmanship, as we call it, reminds us of +similar human products--of fine lace, of delicate tracery, of skilful +filagree or engraving. Almost all the green leaves which we admire are +noticeable, more or less, for the same effects, as in the case of +maple, parsley, horse-chestnut, and vine. It is true, mere glossy +greenness may, and often does, make up for the want of variety, as we +see in the arum, holly, laurel, and hart's-tongue fern; but the leaves +which we admire most of all are those which, like maidenhair, are both +exquisitely green and delicately designed in shape. So that, in the +last resort, the beauty of leaves, like the beauty of coast scenery, is +really due to the 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 squill reminds me that +semi-conscious aesthetic design in animals has something to do with the +production of beauty in nature--at least, in a few cases. Just as a +flower garden has been intentionally produced by man, so flowers have +been unconsciously produced by insects. As a rule, all bright red, +blue, or orange in nature (except in the rare case of gems) is due to +animal selection, either of flowers, fruits, or mates. Thus we may say +that beauty in the inorganic world is always accidental; but in the +organic world it 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 less +deliberate aesthetic choice. + + + LONDON: PRINTED BY + SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE + AND PARLIAMENT STREET + + + + +_January, 1881._ + +[Illustration] + +CHATTO & WINDUS'S + +_LIST OF BOOKS._ + + +Imperial 8vo, with 147 fine Engravings, half-morocco, 36_s._ + +THE EARLY TEUTONIC, ITALIAN, + +AND FRENCH MASTERS. + +Translated and Edited from the Dohme Series by A. H. KEANE, M.A.I. +With numerous Illustrations. + +"_Cannot fail to be of the utmost use to students of art +history._"--TIMES. + +Second Edition, Revised, Crown 8vo, 1,200 pages, half-roxburghe, +12_s._ 6_d._ + +THE READER'S HANDBOOK + +OF ALLUSIONS, REFERENCES, PLOTS, AND STORIES. + +By the Rev. 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With numerous + Illustrations. + +[asterism] _The FORTY-SECOND Volume of BELGRAVIA, elegantly bound +in crimson cloth, full gilt side and back, gilt edges, price 7s. 6d., +is now ready.--Handsome Cases for binding volumes can be had at 2s. +each._ + + +Demy 8vo, Illustrated, uniform in size for binding. + + ~Blackburn's Art Handbooks:~ + + ~Academy Notes, 1875. ~ With 40 Illustrations. 1_s._ + + ~Academy Notes, 1876.~ With 107 Illustrations. 1_s._ + + ~Academy Notes, 1877.~ With 143 Illustrations. 1_s._ + + ~Academy Notes, 1878.~ With 150 Illustrations. 1_s._ + + ~Academy Notes, 1879.~ With 146 Illustrations. 1_s._ + + ~Academy Notes, 1880.~ With 126 Illustrations. + + ~Grosvenor Notes, 1878.~ With 68 Illustrations. 1_s._ + + ~Grosvenor Notes, 1879.~ With 60 Illustrations. 1_s._ + + ~Grosvenor Notes, 1880.~ With 48 Illustrations. + + ~Pictures at the Paris Exhibition, 1878.~ 80 Illustrations. + + ~Pictures at South Kensington.~ (The Raphael Cartoons, + Sheepshanks Collection, &c.) 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Illustrated with full-page Plates on + Copper and Stone, and a profusion of small Woodcuts. + +[asterism] _Parts XV. and XVI., completing the work, are just ready._ + + "_Mr. Cussans has, from sources not accessible to Clutterbuck, + made most valuable additions to the manorial history of the county + from the earliest period downwards, cleared up many doubtful + points, and given original details concerning various subjects + untouched or imperfectly treated by that + writer._"--ACADEMY. + + +Two Vols., demy 4to, handsomely bound in half-morocco, gilt, profusely +Illustrated with Coloured and Plain Plates and Woodcuts, price L7 +7_s._ + + ~Cyclopaedia of Costume~; + or, A Dictionary of Dress--Regal, Ecclesiastical, Civil, and + Military--from the Earliest Period in England to the reign of + George the Third. Including Notices of Contemporaneous Fashions + on the Continent, and a General History of the Costumes of the + Principal Countries of Europe. By J. R. PLANCHE, + Somerset Herald. + +The Volumes may also be had _separately_ (each Complete in itself) +at L3 13_s._ 6_d._ each: + + Vol. I. ~THE DICTIONARY.~ + Vol. II. ~A GENERAL HISTORY OF COSTUME IN EUROPE.~ + +Also in 25 Parts, at 5_s._ each. Cases for binding, 5_s._ +each. + + "_A comprehensive and highly valuable book of reference.... We + have rarely failed to find in this book an account of an article + of dress, while in most of the entries curious and instructive + details are given.... Mr. Planche's enormous labour of love, the + production of a text which, whether in its dictionary form or in + that of the 'General History,' is within its intended scope + immeasurably the best and richest work on Costume in English.... + This book is not only one of the most readable works of the kind, + but intrinsically attractive and amusing._"--ATHENAEUM. + + "_A most readable and interesting work--and it can scarcely be + consulted in vain, whether the reader is in search for information + as to military, court, ecclesiastical, legal, or professional + costume.... All the chromo-lithographs, and most of the woodcut + illustrations--the latter amounting to several thousands--are very + elaborately executed; and the work forms a livre de luxe which + renders it equally suited to the library and the ladies' + drawing-room._"--TIMES. + + +Square 8vo, cloth gilt, profusely Illustrated. + + ~Dickens.--About England with Dickens.~ + By ALFRED RIMMER. With Illustrations by the Author and CHARLES + A. VANDERHOOF. + + [_In preparation._ + + +Second Edition, revised and enlarged, demy 8vo, cloth extra, with +Illustrations. 24_s._ + + ~Dodge's (Colonel) The Hunting Grounds of the Great West:~ + A Description of the Plains, Game, and Indians of the + Great North American Desert. By RICHARD IRVING DODGE, + Lieutenant-Colonel of the United States Army. With an + Introduction by WILLIAM BLACKMORE; Map, and numerous + Illustrations drawn by ERNEST GRISET. + + +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, 12_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Doran's Memories of our Great Towns.~ + With Anecdotic Gleanings concerning their Worthies and their + Oddities. By Dr. JOHN DORAN, F.S.A. + + +Second Edition, demy 8vo, cloth gilt, with Illustrations, 18_s._ + + ~Dunraven's The Great Divide:~ + A Narrative of Travels in the Upper Yellowstone in the Summer of + 1874. By the EARL of DUNRAVEN. With Maps and numerous striking + full-page Illustrations by VALENTINE W. BROMLEY. + + "_There has not for a long time appeared a better book of travel + than Lord Dunraven's 'The Great Divide.'... This book is full of + clever observation, and both narrative and illustrations are + thoroughly good._"--ATHENAEUM. + + +Two Vols., crown 8vo, cloth extra, 21_s._ + + ~Drury Lane (Old):~ + Fifty Years' Recollections of Author, Actor, and Manager. By + EDWARD STIRLING. + + +Demy 8vo, cloth, 16_s._ + + ~Dutt's India, Past and Present~; + with Minor Essays on Cognate Subjects. By SHOSHEE CHUNDER DUTT, + Rai Bahadoor. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 6_s._ + + ~Emanuel On Diamonds and Precious Stones~; + their History, Value, and Properties; with Simple Tests for + ascertaining their Reality. By HARRY EMANUEL, F.R.G.S. With + numerous Illustrations, Tinted and Plain. + + +Demy 4to, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 36_s._ + + ~Emanuel and Grego.--A History of the Goldsmith's and Jeweller's Art + in all Ages and in all Countries.~ + By E. EMANUEL and JOSEPH GREGO. With numerous fine Engravings. + + [_In preparation._ + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Englishman's House, The:~ + A Practical Guide to all interested in Selecting or Building a + House, with full Estimates of Cost, Quantities, &c. By C. J. + RICHARDSON, Third Edition. With nearly 600 Illustrations. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth boards, 6_s._ per Volume. + + ~Early English Poets.~ + Edited, with Introductions and Annotations, by Rev. A. B. + GROSART. + + "_Mr. Grosart has spent the most laborious and the most + enthusiastic care on the perfect restoration and preservation of + the text.... From Mr. Grosart we always expect and always receive + the final results of most patient and competent + scholarship._"--EXAMINER. + + 1. ~Fletcher's (Giles, B.D.) Complete Poems:~ + Christ's Victorie in Heaven, Christ's Victorie on Earth, + Christ's Triumph over Death, and Minor Poems. With + Memorial-Introduction and Notes. One Vol. + + 2. ~Davies' (Sir John) Complete Poetical Works~, + including Psalms I. to L. in Verse, and other hitherto + Unpublished MSS., for the first time Collected and Edited. + Memorial-Introduction and Notes. Two Vols. + + 3. ~Herrick's (Robert) Hesperides, Noble Numbers, and Complete + Collected Poems.~ + With Memorial-Introduction and Notes, Steel Portrait, Index + of First Lines, and Glossarial Index, &c. Three Vols. + + 4. ~Sidney's (Sir Philip) Complete Poetical Works~, + including all those in "Arcadia." With Portrait, + Memorial-Introduction, Essay on the Poetry of Sidney, and + Notes. Three Vols. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with nearly 300 Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Evolution (Chapters on)~; + A Popular History of the Darwinian and Allied Theories of + Development. By ANDREW WILSON, Ph.D., F.R.S. 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COMYNS CARR. + + "_It would not be easy to meet with a more sumptuous, and at + the same time a more tasteful and instructive drawing-room + book._"--NONCONFORMIST. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 6_s._ + + ~Fairholt's Tobacco:~ + Its History and Associations; with an Account of the Plant and + its Manufacture, and its Modes of Use in all Ages and Countries. + By F. W. FAIRHOLT, F.S.A. With Coloured Frontispiece and + upwards of 100 Illustrations by the Author. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 4_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Faraday's Chemical History of a Candle.~ + Lectures delivered to a Juvenile Audience. A New Edition. Edited + by W. CROOKES, F.C.S. With numerous Illustrations. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 4_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Faraday's Various Forces of Nature.~ + New Edition. Edited by W. CROOKES, F.C.S. Numerous Illustrations. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Finger-Ring Lore:~ + Historical, Legendary, and Anecdotal. By WM. JONES, + F.S.A. With Hundreds of Illustrations of Curious Rings of all + Ages and Countries. + + "_One of those gossiping books which are as full of amusement as + of instruction._"--ATHENAEUM. + + +_NEW NOVEL BY JUSTIN McCARTHY._ + + ~Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1881~, + Price One Shilling, contains the First Chapters of a New Novel, + entitled "THE COMET OF A SEASON," by JUSTIN MCCARTHY, M.P., + Author of "A History of Our Own Times," "Dear Lady Disdain," &c. + SCIENCE NOTES, by W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS, F.R.A.S., will also be + continued Monthly. + +[asterism] _Now ready, the Volume for_ JULY _to_ DECEMBER, _1880, +cloth extra, price 8s. 6d.; and Cases for binding, price 2s. each._ + + +_THE RUSKIN GRIMM._--Squire 8vo, cloth extra, 6_s._ 6_d._; gilt edges, +7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~German Popular Stories.~ + Collected by the Brothers GRIMM, and Translated by EDGAR + TAYLOR. Edited with an Introduction by JOHN RUSKIN. With 22 + Illustrations after the inimitable designs of GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. + Both Series Complete. + + "_The illustrations of this volume ... are of quite sterling and + admirable art, of a class precisely parallel in elevation to the + character of the tales which they illustrate; and the original + etchings, as I have before said in the Appendix to my 'Elements of + Drawing,' were unrivalled in masterfulness of touch since Rembrandt + (in some qualities of delineation, unrivalled even by him).... To + make somewhat enlarged copies of them, looking at them through a + magnifying glass, and never putting two lines where Cruikshank has + put only one, would be an exercise in decision and severe drawing + which would leave afterwards little to be learnt in + schools._"--_Extract from Introduction by_ JOHN + RUSKIN. + + +Post 8vo. cloth limp, 2_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Glenny's A Year's Work in Garden and Greenhouse:~ + Practical Advice to Amateur Gardeners as to the Management of + the Flower, Fruit, and Frame Garden. By GEORGE GLENNY. + + "_A great deal of valuable information, conveyed in very simple + language. The amateur need not wish for a better guide._"--LEEDS + MERCURY. + + + +New and Cheaper Edition, demy 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, +7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Greeks and Romans, The Life of the, Described from Antique + Monuments.~ + By ERNST GUHL and W. KONER. Translated from the Third German + Edition, and Edited by Dr. F. HUEFFER. With 545 Illustrations. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Greenwood's Low-Life Deeps:~ + An Account of the Strange Fish to be found there. By JAMES + GREENWOOD. With Illustrations in tint by ALFRED CONCANEN. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Greenwood's Wilds of London:~ + Descriptive Sketches, from Personal Observations and Experience, + of Remarkable Scenes, People, and Places in London. By JAMES + GREENWOOD. With 12 Tinted Illustrations by ALFRED CONCANEN. + + +Square 16mo (Tauchnitz size), cloth extra, 2_s._ per volume. + + ~Golden Library, The:~ + + ~Ballad History of England.~ + By W. C. BENNETT. + + ~Bayard Taylor's Diversions of the Echo Club.~ + + ~Byron's Don Juan.~ + + ~Emerson's Letters and Social Aims.~ + + ~Godwin's (William) Lives of the Necromancers.~ + + ~Holmes's Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.~ + With an Introduction by G. A. 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CRUIKSHANK. + + "_The Irish Sketches of this lady resemble Miss Mitford's + beautiful English sketches in 'Our Village,' but they are far + more vigorous and picturesque and bright._"--BLACKWOOD'S + MAGAZINE. + + +Post 8vo, cloth extra, 4_s._ 6_d._; a few large-paper copies, +half-Roxb., 10_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Handwriting, The Philosophy of.~ + By Don FELIX DE SALAMANCA. With 134 Facsimiles of Signatures. + + ~Haweis (Mrs.), Works by:~ + + ~The Art of Dress.~ + By Mrs. H. R. HAWEIS, Author of "The Art of Beauty," &c. + Illustrated by the Author. Small 8vo, illustrated cover, + 1_s._; cloth limp, 1_s._ 6_d._ + + "_A well-considered attempt to apply canons of good taste to the + costumes of ladies of our time.... Mrs. Haweis writes frankly and + to the point, she does not mince matters, but boldly remonstrates + with her own sex on the follies they indulge in.... We may + recommend the book to the ladies whom it + concerns._"--ATHENAEUM. + + ~The Art of Beauty.~ + By Mrs. H. R. HAWEIS, Author of "Chaucer for Children." + Square 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, gilt edges, with Coloured + Frontispiece and nearly 100 Illustrations, 10_s._ 6_d._ + +[asterism] _See also_ CHAUCER, _pp. 5 and 6 of this Catalogue._ + + +Complete in Four Vols., demy 8vo, cloth extra, 12_s._ each. + + ~History Of Our Own Times~, + from the Accession of Queen Victoria to the General Election + of 1880. By JUSTIN MCCARTHY, M.P. + + "_Criticism is disarmed before a composition which provokes little + but approval. 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With Two Portraits and + Facsimile of a Page of the "Essay on Roast Pig." + + "_A complete edition of Lamb's writings, in prose and verse, + has long been wanted, and is now supplied. The editor appears + to have taken great pains to bring together Lamb's scattered + contributions, and his collection contains a number of pieces + which are now reproduced for the first time since their original + appearance in various old periodicals._"--SATURDAY REVIEW. + + +Demy 8vo, cloth extra, with Maps and Illustrations, 18_s._ + + ~Lamont's Yachting in the Arctic Seas~; + or, Notes of Five Voyages of Sport and Discovery in the + Neighbourhood of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. By JAMES + LAMONT, F.R.G.S. With numerous full-page Illustrations by + Dr. LIVESAY. + + "_After wading through numberless volumes of icy fiction, + concocted narrative, and spurious biography of Arctic voyagers, + it is pleasant to meet with a real and genuine volume.... He + shows much tact in recounting his adventures, and they are so + interspersed with anecdotes and information as to make them + anything but wearisome.... The book, as a whole, is the most + important addition made to our Arctic literature for a long + time._"---ATHENAEUM. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6_s._ + + ~Lares and Penates~; + or, The Background of Life. By FLORENCE CADDY. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth, full gilt, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Latter-Day Lyrics:~ + Poems of Sentiment and Reflection by Living Writers; selected + and arranged, with Notes, by W. DAVENPORT ADAMS. With a Note on + some Foreign Forms of Verse, by AUSTIN DOBSON. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth, full gilt, 6_s._ + + ~Leigh's A Town Garland.~ + By HENRY S. LEIGH, Author of "Carols of Cockayne." + + "_If Mr. Leigh's verse survive to a future generation--and there + is no reason why that honour should not be accorded productions so + delicate, so finished, and so full of humour--their author will + probably be remembered as the Poet of the Strand._"--ATHENAEUM. + + +Second Edition.--Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 6_s._ + + ~Leisure-Time Studies, chiefly Biological.~ + By ANDREW WILSON, F.R.S.E., Lecturer on Zoology and Comparative + Anatomy in the Edinburgh Medical School. + + "_It is well when we can take up the work of a really qualified + investigator, who in the intervals of his more serious professional + labours sets himself to impart knowledge in such a simple and + elementary form as may attract and instruct, with no danger of + misleading the tyro in natural science. Such a work is this little + volume, made up of essays and addresses written and delivered by + Dr. Andrew Wilson, lecturer and examiner in science at Edinburgh + and Glasgow, at leisure intervals in a busy professional life.... + Dr. Wilson's pages teem with matter stimulating to a healthy love + of science and a reverence for the truths of + nature._"--SATURDAY REVIEW. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Life in London~; + or, The History of Jerry Hawthorn and Corinthian Tom. With the + whole of CRUIKSHANK'S Illustrations, in Colours, after the + Originals. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6_s._ + + ~Lights on the Way:~ + Some Tales within a Tale. By the late J. H. ALEXANDER, B.A. + Edited, with an Explanatory Note, by H. A. PAGE, Author of + "Thoreau: A Study." + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Longfellow's Complete Prose Works.~ + Including "Outre Mer," "Hyperion," "Kavanagh," "The Poets + and Poetry of Europe," and "Driftwood." With Portrait and + Illustrations by VALENTINE BROMLEY. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt, with Illustrations, 7_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Longfellow's Poetical Works.~ + Carefully Reprinted from the Original Editions. With numerous + fine Illustrations on Steel and Wood. + + +Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 5_s._ + + ~Lunatic Asylum, My Experiences in a.~ + By a SANE PATIENT. + + "_The story is clever and interesting, sad beyond measure though + the subject be. There it no personal bitterness, and no violence + or anger. Whatever may have been the evidence for our author's + madness when he was consigned to an asylum, nothing can be clearer + than his sanity when he wrote this book; it is bright, calm, and + to the point._"--SPECTATOR. + + +Demy 8vo, with Fourteen full-page Plates, cloth boards 18_s._ + + ~Lusiad (The) of Camoens.~ + Translated into English Spenserian verse by ROBERT FFRENCH + DUFF, Knight Commander of the Portuguese Royal Order of + Christ. + + + ~Macquoid (Mrs.), Works by:~ + + ~In the Ardennes.~ + By KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. With 50 fine Illustrations by + THOMAS R. MACQUOID. Uniform with "Pictures and Legends." + Square 8vo, cloth extra, 10_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Pictures and Legends from Normandy and Brittany.~ + By KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. With numerous Illustrations by + THOMAS R. MACQUOID. 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The book is full of good things, + and contains passages and episodes that are equal to the funniest + of those that have gone before._"--ATHENAEUM. + + +Post 8vo, cloth limp. 2_s._ 6_d._ per vol. + + ~Mayfair Library, The:~ + + ~The New Republic.~ + By W. H. MALLOCK. + + ~The New Paul and Virginia.~ + By W. H. MALLOCK. + + ~The True History of Joshua Davidson.~ + By E. LYNN LINTON. + + ~Old Stories Re-told.~ + By WALTER THORNBURY. + + ~Thoreau: His Life and Aims.~ + By H. A. PAGE. + + ~By Stream and Sea.~ + By WILLIAM SENIOR. + + ~Jeux d'Esprit.~ + Edited by HENRY S. LEIGH. + + ~Puniana.~ + By the Hon. HUGH ROWLEY. + + ~More Puniana.~ + By the Hon. HUGH ROWLEY. + + ~Puck on Pegasus.~ + By H. CHOLMONDELEY-PENNELL. + + ~The Speeches of Charles Dickens.~ + With Chapters on Dickens as a Letter-Writer, Poet, and Public + Reader. + + ~Muses of Mayfair.~ + Edited by H. CHOLMONDELEY-PENNELL. + + ~Gastronomy as a Fine Art.~ + By BRILLAT-SAVARIN. + + ~Original Plays.~ + By W. S. 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Vol. I. contains + the Plays complete, including the doubtful ones; Vol. II. the + Poems and Minor Translations, with an Introductory Essay by + ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE. Vol. III. the Translations of the + Iliad and Odyssey. + + ~Marlowe's Works.~ + Including his Translations. Edited, with Notes and Introduction, + by Col. CUNNINGHAM. One Vol. + + ~Massinger's Plays.~ + From the Text of WILLIAM GIFFORD. With the addition of the + Tragedy of "Believe as you List." Edited by Col. CUNNINGHAM. One + Vol. + + +Crown 8vo, red cloth extra, 5_s._ each. + + ~Ouida's Novels.--Library Edition.~ + ~Held in Bondage.~ By OUIDA. + ~Strathmore.~ By OUIDA. + ~Chandos.~ By OUIDA. + ~Under Two Flags.~ By OUIDA. + ~Idalia.~ By OUIDA. + ~Cecil Castlemaine.~ By OUIDA. + ~Tricotrin.~ By OUIDA. + ~Puck.~ By OUIDA. + ~Folle Farine.~ By OUIDA. + ~Dog of Flanders.~ By OUIDA. + ~Pascarel.~ By OUIDA. + ~Two Wooden Shoes.~ By OUIDA. + ~Signa.~ By OUIDA. + ~In a Winter City.~ By OUIDA. + ~Ariadne.~ By OUIDA. + ~Friendship.~ By OUIDA. + ~Moths.~ By OUIDA. + +[asterism] Also a Cheap Edition of all but the last, post 8vo, +illustrated boards, 2_s._ each. + + +Post 8vo, cloth limp, 1_s._ 6_d._ + + ~Parliamentary Procedure, A Popular Handbook of.~ + By HENRY W. 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Illustrated by Sir J. + GILBERT and ALFRED CONCANEN. + + ~BASIL.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by Sir JOHN GILBERT and + J. MAHONEY. + + ~HIDE AND SEEK.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by Sir JOHN GILBERT + and J. MAHONEY. + + ~THE DEAD SECRET.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by Sir JOHN + GILBERT and H. FURNISS. + + ~QUEEN OF HEARTS.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by Sir JOHN + GILBERT and A. CONCANEN. + + ~MY MISCELLANIES.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. With Steel Portrait, + and Illustrations by A. CONCANEN. + + ~THE WOMAN IN WHITE.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated + by Sir J. GILBERT and F. A. FRASER. + + ~THE MOONSTONE.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by G. + DU MAURIER and F. A. FRASER. + + ~MAN AND WIFE.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illust. by WM. + SMALL. + + ~POOR MISS FINCH.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by G. + DU MAURIER and EDWARD HUGHES. + + ~MISS OR MRS.?~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by S. L. + FILDES and HENRY WOODS. + + ~THE NEW MAGDALEN.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by + G. DU MAURIER and C. S. REINHART. + + ~THE FROZEN DEEP.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by G. + DU MAURIER and J. MAHONEY. + + ~THE LAW AND THE LADY.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated + by S. L. FILDES and SYDNEY HALL. + + ~THE TWO DESTINIES.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~THE HAUNTED HOTEL.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. Illustrated by + ARTHUR HOPKINS. + + ~THE FALLEN LEAVES.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~JEZEBEL'S DAUGHTER.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~DECEIVERS EVER.~ By Mrs. H. LOVETT CAMERON. + + ~JULIET'S GUARDIAN.~ By Mrs. H. LOVETT CAMERON. + Illustrated by VALENTINE BROMLEY. + + ~FELICIA.~ By M. BETHAM-EDWARDS. Frontispiece by W. + BOWLES. + + ~OLYMPIA.~ By R. E. FRANCILLON. + + ~GARTH.~ By JULIAN HAWTHORNE. + + ~ROBIN GRAY.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~FOR LACK OF GOLD.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~IN LOVE AND WAR.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~WHAT WILL THE WORLD SAY?~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~FOR THE KING.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~IN HONOUR BOUND.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~QUEEN OF THE MEADOW.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. Illustrated + by ARTHUR HOPKINS. + + ~UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE.~ By THOMAS HARDY. + + ~THORNICROFT'S MODEL.~ By Mrs. A. W. HUNT. + + ~FATED TO BE FREE.~ By JEAN INGELOW. + + ~CONFIDENCE.~ By HENRY JAMES, Jun. + + ~THE QUEEN OF CONNAUGHT.~ By HARRIETT JAY. + + ~THE DARK COLLEEN.~ By HARRIETT JAY. + + ~NUMBER SEVENTEEN.~ By HENRY KINGSLEY. + + ~OAKSHOTT CASTLE.~ By HENRY KINGSLEY. With a Frontispiece + by SHIRLEY HODSON. + + ~PATRICIA KEMBALL.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. With a Frontispiece + by G. DU MAURIER. + + ~THE ATONEMENT OF LEAM DUNDAS.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. With + a Frontispiece by HENRY WOODS. + + ~THE WORLD WELL LOST.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. Illustrated + by J. LAWSON and HENRY FRENCH. + + ~UNDER WHICH LORD?~ By E. LYNN LINTON. + + ~WITH A SILKEN THREAD.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. + + ~THE WATERDALE NEIGHBOURS.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + ~MY ENEMY'S DAUGHTER.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + ~LINLEY ROCHFORD.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + ~A FAIR SAXON.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + ~DEAR LADY DISDAIN.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + ~MISS MISANTHROPE.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. Illustrated by ARTHUR + HOPKINS. + + ~DONNA QUIXOTE.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. Illustrated by ARTHUR + HOPKINS. + + ~QUAKER COUSINS.~ By AGNES MACDONELL. + + ~LOST ROSE.~ By KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. + + ~THE EVIL EYE, and other Stories.~ By KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. + Illustrated by THOMAS R. MACQUOID and PERCY MACQUOID. + + ~OPEN! SESAME!~ By FLORENCE MARRYAT. Illustrated by F. A. FRASER. + + ~TOUCH AND GO.~ By JEAN MIDDLEMASS. + + ~WHITELADIES.~ By Mrs. OLIPHANT. With Illustrations by A. HOPKINS + and H. WOODS. + + ~THE BEST OF HUSBANDS.~ By JAMES PAYN. Illustrated by J. MOYR SMITH. + + ~FALLEN FORTUNES.~ By JAMES PAYN. + + ~HALVES.~ By JAMES PAYN. With a Frontispiece by J. MAHONEY. + + ~WALTER'S WORD.~ By JAMES PAYN. Illust. by J. MOYR SMITH. + + ~WHAT HE COST HER.~ By JAMES PAYN. + + ~LESS BLACK THAN WE'RE PAINTED.~ By JAMES PAYN. + + ~BY PROXY.~ By JAMES PAYN. Illustrated by ARTHUR HOPKINS. + + ~UNDER ONE ROOF.~ By JAMES PAYN. + + ~HIGH SPIRITS.~ By JAMES PAYN. + + ~HER MOTHER'S DARLING.~ By Mrs. J. H. RIDDELL. + + ~BOUND TO THE WHEEL.~ By JOHN SAUNDERS. + + ~GUY WATERMAN.~ By JOHN SAUNDERS. + + ~ONE AGAINST THE WORLD.~ By JOHN SAUNDERS. + + ~THE LION IN THE PATH.~ By JOHN SAUNDERS. + + ~THE WAY WE LIVE NOW.~ By ANTHONY TROLLOPE. Illust. + + ~THE AMERICAN SENATOR.~ By ANTHONY TROLLOPE. + + ~DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND.~ By T. A. TROLLOPE. + + +Post 8vo, illustrated boards, 2_s._ each. + +~Popular Novels, Cheap Editions of.~ + + [WILKIE COLLINS' NOVELS and BESANT and RICE'S NOVELS may also + be had in cloth limp at 2_s._ 6_d._ _See, too, the_ PICCADILLY + NOVELS, _for Library Editions_.] + + ~Maid, Wife, or Widow?~ By Mrs. ALEXANDER. + + ~Ready-Money Mortiboy.~ By WALTER BESANT and JAMES RICE. + + ~The Golden Butterfly.~ By Authors of "Ready-Money Mortiboy." + + ~This Son of Vulcan.~ By the same. + + ~My Little Girl.~ By the same. + + ~The Case of Mr. Lucraft.~ By Authors of "Ready-Money Mortiboy." + + ~With Harp and Crown.~ By Authors of "Ready-Money Mortiboy." + + ~The Monks of Thelema.~ By WALTER BESANT and JAMES RICE. + + ~By Celia's Arbour.~ By WALTER BESANT and JAMES RICE. + + ~'Twas in Trafalgar's Bay.~ By WALTER BESANT and JAMES RICE. + + ~Juliet's Guardian.~ By Mrs. H. LOVETT CAMERON. + + ~Surly Tim.~ By F. H. BURNETT. + + ~The Cure of Souls.~ By MACLAREN CORBAN. + + ~The Woman in White.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~Antonina.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~Basil.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~Hide and Seek.~ By the same. + + ~The Queen of Hearts.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~The Dead Secret.~ By the same. + + ~My Miscellanies.~ By the same. + + ~The Moonstone.~ By the same. + + ~Man and Wife.~ By the same. + + ~Poor Miss Finch.~ By the same. + + ~Miss or Mrs.?~ By the same. + + ~The New Magdalen.~ By the same. + + ~The Frozen Deep.~ By the same. + + ~The Law and the Lady.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~The Two Destinies.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~The Haunted Hotel.~ By WILKIE COLLINS. + + ~Roxy.~ By EDWARD EGGLESTON. + + ~Felicia.~ M. BETHAM-EDWARDS. + + ~Filthy Lucre.~ By ALBANY DE FONBLANQUE. + + ~Olympia.~ By R. E. FRANCILLON. + + ~Robin Gray.~ By CHAS. GIBBON. + + ~For Lack of Gold.~ By Charles Gibbon. + + ~What will the World Say?~ By Charles Gibbon. + + ~In Love and War.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~For the King.~ By CHARLES GIBBON. + + ~In Honour Bound.~ By CHAS. GIBBON. + + ~Dick Temple.~ By JAMES GREENWOOD. + + ~Under the Greenwood Tree.~ By THOMAS HARDY. + + ~An Heiress of Red Dog.~ By BRET HARTE. + + ~The Luck of Roaring Camp.~ By BRET HARTE. + + ~Gabriel Conroy.~ By BRET HARTE. + + ~Fated to be Free.~ By JEAN INGELOW. + + ~Confidence.~ By HENRY JAMES, Jun. + + ~The Queen of Connaught.~ By HARRIETT JAY. + + ~The Dark Colleen.~ By the same. + + ~Number Seventeen.~ By HENRY KINGSLEY. + + ~Oakshott Castle.~ By the same. + + ~Patricia Kemball.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. + + ~The Atonement of Leam Dundas.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. + + ~The World Well Lost.~ By E. LYNN LINTON. + + ~The Waterdale Neighbours.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + ~My Enemy's Daughter.~ Do. + + ~Linley Rochford.~ By the same. + + ~A Fair Saxon.~ By the same. + + ~Dear Lady Disdain.~ By the same. + + ~Miss Misanthrope.~ By JUSTIN MCCARTHY. + + ~Lost Rose.~ By KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. + + ~The Evil Eye.~ By the same. + + ~Open! Sesame!~ By FLORENCE MARRYAT. + + ~Whiteladies.~ By Mrs. OLIPHANT. + + ~Held in Bondage.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Strathmore.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Chandos.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Under Two Flags.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Idalia.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Cecil Castlemaine.~ By Ouida. + + ~Tricotrin.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Puck.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Folle Farine.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Dog of Flanders.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Pascarel.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Two Little Wooden Shoes.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Signa.~ By OUIDA. + + ~In a Winter City.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Ariadne.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Friendship.~ By OUIDA. + + ~Fallen Fortunes.~ By J. PAYN. + + ~Halves.~ By JAMES PAYN. + + ~What He Cost Her.~ By ditto. + + ~By Proxy.~ By JAMES PAYN. + + ~Less Black than We're Painted.~ By JAMES PAYN. + + ~The Best of Husbands.~ Do. + + ~Walter's Word.~ By J. PAYN. + + ~The Mystery of Marie Roget.~ By EDGAR A. POE. + + ~Her Mother's Darling.~ By Mrs. J. H. RIDDELL. + + ~Gaslight and Daylight.~ By GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA. + + ~Bound to the Wheel.~ By JOHN SAUNDERS. + + ~Guy Waterman.~ By J. SAUNDERS. + + ~One Against the World.~ By JOHN SAUNDERS. + + ~The Lion in the Path.~ By JOHN and KATHERINE SAUNDERS. + + ~Tales for the Marines.~ By WALTER THORNBURY. + + ~The Way we Live Now.~ By ANTHONY TROLLOPE. + + ~The American Senator.~ By ANTHONY TROLLOPE. + + ~Diamond Cut Diamond.~ By T. A. 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There is in both painter and writer the same + magical combination of idealism and realism, and the same hearty + appreciation for all that is sublime and pathetic in natural + scenery. That there is an undue share of travel to the number of + trout caught is certainly not Mr. Senior's fault; but the + comparative scarcity of the prince of fishes is adequately atoned + for, in that the writer was led pretty well through all the + glorious scenery of the antipodes in quest of him.... So great is + the charm and the freshness and the ability of the book, that it + is hard to put it down when once taken up._"--HOME NEWS. + + + ~Shakespeare:~ + + ~Shakespeare, The First Folio.~ + Mr. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. + Published according to the true Original Copies. London, Printed + by ISAAC IAGGARD and ED. BLOUNT, 1623.--A Reproduction of the + extremely rare original, in reduced facsimile by a photographic + process--ensuring the strictest accuracy in every detail. Small + 8vo, half-Roxburghe, 10_s._ 6_d._ + + "_To Messrs. Chatto and Windus belongs the merit of having done + more to facilitate the critical study of the text of our great + dramatist than all the Shakespeare clubs and societies put + together. A complete facsimile of the celebrated First Folio + edition of 1623 for half-a-guinea is at once a miracle of cheapness + and enterprise. Being in a reduced form, the type is necessarily + rather diminutive, but it is as distinct as in a genuine copy of + the original, and will be found to be as useful and far more handy + to the student than the latter._"--ATHENAEUM. + + ~Shakespeare, The Lansdowne.~ + Beautifully printed in red and black, in small but very clear + type. With engraved facsimile of DROESHOUT'S Portrait. 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