"I. M. I." on " Plants—Their Origin." TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2527, 20 August 1902, Page 10

"I. M. I." on " Plants— Their Origin." TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,— l notice in the current issue of the Witiiosh a peculiar article entitled, "Plants — Their Origin." A promising title certainly, but in this ca&e with nothing to its name, as the writer starts out with the words: "It is not proposed to enter into an inquiry as to the origin of plant existence," a resolution for which, after reading his paper, one feok profoundly grateful to tho author of it. All the same, he should have given his easay eoin-e other name instead of chocsing one to express the very opposite of h»9 intention In itself the article i.s a marvel of tangled thought and rnazeel expression. The oppning sentence of the third paragraph is as curious in its way a? the one abovrs quoted. It iea'ls: "Protoplasm is consider! d tho phjhlcal basis of all life, both plant and animal" Strange to s»v, in not a hinglo subsequent sentence is 'There the slightest fmther reference to this statement. Tlioro arc rorao other queer items, such as a delightfully vague one referring to tho "nut" free and its genders, and another whciein it is admitted that, left to themselves, the tultivated varieties of applo would jc\ert to the primitive crab, which is- quite triie, but when the writer further dtc'area t'nt with turnips and such plants '"it w ihtU'f nt " and that they would not deo enei.ito similarly, I fear he is wofully at '.'a.. Tho < ommonest of common ob.->er-\ation serves to show how utterly wretched things turnips run wild become. Judging by tho famplo under notice, "L M. T. would peftn to be. the la&t person lik< ly to give anything like a well-infoi-Tned account of " Plants — Their Origin." His fer\id faith in the long sinceexploded be-lief as to tho fixity of suecioa j£ hardly c<ofi£ij|tft)&* Jft

view of tho existence of those endless varieties which, as lie says, "skill has en> abled the grower to produce," If Omnipotence created species as we find them Hx Nature, they must have been meant to remain as created. To tamper with them a 9 gardeners do and produce such abortions and monstrosities as most "florists' flowers'* are must he looked upon as a kind of biasphemy in that view. However, close studjl* of Nature in the immediate past and at present furnishes us with an altogether wider, truer, and more rational interpretation of! Nature than "I. M. I." dreams of. Tho evolution of all existing complex organisms (excepting the parasitic and degenerate) from, less highly developed ancestors is now sufficiently demonstrated, and is universally admitted. Plant 3 show as clear evidences aa do animals of evolutionary change, but there are none so blind as those who will not see, For the benefit of '"I. M. I." let me quota the words of Sir Joseph Hooker, one of the most celebrated botanists and gardeners o£ our time. Referring to the origin o£ specie*, he says : —

There are two methods of accounting for this: one, that of independent creation, that species were created under their present forms, singly or in pairs, or in numbers; the other, that of evolution, that aJI are the descendants of one or a few originally created simpler forms'. The first method is purely speculative, incapable from it 9 very nature of proof ; teaching nothing, and -suggesting nothing, it is the despair of investigators and inquiring minds 1 . The other, whether true wholly or in part only, is gaining adherents rapidly, because moat of the phenomena of plan* life may ba explained by it; because it has taught much* that is indisputably proved; because ifev&osi suggested a multitude of prolific inquiries, and! because it has directed many investigators. Cos tho discovery of new facts in all departments of botany. It regards as proved — (1) That tho descendants of every plant depart (vary) mora or less in character from its parents. (2) That of theso variations soma are better fitted than others, and even sometimes than their parent was, to survive in tho area the plant inhabits. (3) That the conditions of the area are, like the individuals, variable. (4) That the number of deaths, previous to maturity, amongst the descendants is enormously greater than, that of auivivors, and that these deatli3 are due to the conditions of the area not having suited them. " (5) That tho descendants (variations) best fitted to thrive under the conditions of the area will be the survivors. (6) That these variations will hence ultimately, in certain places, supplant tho parent form. (7) That the difference between a species and a variety being one of degree only, the variations accumulated through successive generations will becom-a specific, and these, again, by a like process generic, and so on. The great objection to the acceptation of tin's method of 'explaining tho origin of species ia the difficulty of accounting for the apparent fixity of a species during -even a limited period-* i This difficulty is met by the consideration that) no individual which differs widely front its parental form (which has itself survived) can, as a rule, bo suited to the conditions oi the area it inhabits, au<l will consequently not increase and multiply; and that variation can have but narrow limits during aiiy one or U few generations, just aa the changes in natural conditions are slight during short periodß. — I am, etc., A. M.

"I don't ., understood why girls go into factories at 4b per week. When they might earn JU or 10a per week at domestic servioe," remarked Mr Justice Cooper in the Arbitration Court at Christchurch on Tuesday. During tho progress of the torohlight pro* cession in Gore on Saturday nighr, Mr A. Wallis, a member of the Gore Fire Brigade, met with a nasty accident. He was distributing coloured fire in the procession, when some falling sparks got into his bag and set fire to the contents. The blaze flared up around his face, burning him rathen severely. It is not thought, however, thaf. there will be any permanent disfigurement.

Siberia is not without ita unemployed 7 . According to intelligence from Irkutsk, enormous numbers of psople out of employment wece flocking into that town. Their position was rendered all tho more critical by tike facb that the cost of living in Irkutsk and in the surrounding country has never beea so high as at prr-senr. The refugeos, clad in rags, camp night and day in the open air.