‘ I'J
XVI FLOKA OF NEM’ ZEALAND,
These considerations lead us to others still more elusive of the naturalist’s grasp. The reference
of all varieties to a species^ and of its indiridnals to a single parent, argues the existence at some
epoch of a type or form around which all varieties may be grouped. I t has been observed th a t two
or more created or induced types or species may resemble one another so closely, that, amid the multitude
of varieties of each, the naturalist shall seek in vain for tliat which best demonstrates the
species. No one can deny the possibility of such creations, nor perhaps their probability, when he
considers the infinite varieties of climates, how insensibly they pass into one another, and how nicely
the functions of some plants appear to be adapted to certain modifications of these, and to no others.
Had, moreover, every climate its own species, and were there any difficulty in propagating the majority
of the plants of one climate in a very different one, such creations would appear to be indispensable
: b u t the facts of botanical geogi-aphy assure us, th a t it is by far the smaller half of the
^■egetable kingdom th a t is confined to narrow geographical or climatic areas, and th a t very few plants
indeed ai’e absolutely local; wliilst the operations of the gardener and agriculturist prove, th a t a A'ast proportion
of the plants of the two temperate zones are capable of growing in any moderate climate. I do
not think th a t those who argue for narrow Kmits to the distribution and variation of species, can have
considered a garden in a philosophical spirit, or have weighed such facts as th a t there have been cultivated,
within the last seventy years, in the open air of England (at Kew) upwards of twenty thousand
species of plants from aU quarters of the globe, and this within a space that, had it been left to
natui’e, would not have contained two hundred indigenous species ! The fact th a t an overwhelming
proportion of these have come up true to their parent, and have continued so under every possible
disadvantage of transportation and transplantation, of altered seasons, and amount and distribution
of temperature and humidity, of unsuitable soil and exposure, and of the multitude of errors in
management which unavoidable ignorance of their natural locality and habit engenders. Such
appeal’s to me the most forcible argument in favour of the power of plants to retain their original
characters under altered circumstances.
To re turn however to the idea of a type, I must remind the New Zealand reader th a t the word
is often used in a vague and imphilosophical m a n n e r: in the too frequent sense of the term it denotes
th a t individual of a species which was first cultivated, described, figured, or collected, or that
form which is most abundant in the neighbourhood of the w rite r; w’hereas all the individuals thus
referred to may represent anomalous or exceptional states of the true type. The fact is, th a t we have
no clue whatever to the originally created typical form of any plant, consistent with the view of its
origin in a single parent, and its powers of varying. I f we take a species of universal distribution,
a cai’eful examination of all its variations, and a contrast between these and those of its allies, may
lead to the detection of a form, which for various reasons may be assumed as the real or ideal
standard; for we have no reason to suppose th a t the whole globe is so altered th a t the circumstances
under which the assumed type originally appeared do not now exist anywhere. But with local
plants the case is different; they may have originated where they are now found, but it is more
consistent with geological truths to assume th a t many did not, and that, however slight tlic induced
changes have been, and however powerless to obliterate specific character, they may still mask the
original form.
Practically, then, the type is a phantom; what was once the typical state may no longer be the
spring by altered circumstances have become unisexual, and, what is of more practical importance, upon the possi-
biUty of the chance transport of one sex of a dicecious plant proving sufficient to effect the propagation of the
species.
common one, or th a t which now fulfils the office the species did a t an earlier epoch*. For practical
purposes we must assume the most common form to be the most tyxiical, for it is th a t which is best
known. In doing this, however, there is extreme difficulty in combating local prejudices; the general
botanist cannot give a higlicr place in the great scheme of N ature to a natural object on account
of its beauty, rarity, or local associations, any more than he can call a doubtful plant a native because
it looks well ill his flora or he rb a rium ; but there are local observers who cannot he brought to see
things in such a light, and who take the exclusion of plants accidentally introduced into the flora of
their ncighbom-hood, and the reduction of supposed local types to varieties of better known and
wider spread plants, as Uttle short of an insult to thoii- understandings, and a slight upon the natural
history of their village or island, and suppose th a t because the systematist cannot see with their eyes
he therefore takes a less true interest in what he observes.
§ 3.
Species are more widely diffused than is usually supposed.
This is a point upon which my owm views differ materially from those of many of my fellow
botanists, and which, if borne out by facts, leads to a widely different estimate of the number and
variety of the members of the vegetable kingdom tliaii th a t which is at present entertained. As with
the affinities and variation of spooies, so is it ivith their dis trib u tio n ; an extensive knowledge of tlie
subject is only to be obtained by actual observation over large areas, and many of them, or by the
study and comparison of the contents of many museums. I t has been my singular good fortune to
have visited many regions of the globe, and to have entered into some details upon the dispersion of
living species, which has always boon a favourite pursuit of mine. I have further had the advantage
of collatmg my results -with the largest and best-named botanical collections in th e world, and have
received a greater amount of assistance from my fellow naturalists than has fallen to the lot of m o s t:
facts which in ordinary cases are the rosnlt of long study and much consultation have been placed at
my disposal rather tlian worked out by myselff- A very extended examination of these materials
has only tended to confirm the riew which originated in my personal experience, \iz. th a t the esti-
* Thus the few remaining native Cedars of Lebanon may be abnormal states of the tree which was once
spread over the whole of the Lebanon, for there are now growing in England varieties of it that have no existence
in a wild state. Some of these closely resemble the Cedars of the Atlas and of the Himalayas (Deodar), and the absence
of any valid botanical differences between these three forms tends to prove that all, though generally supposed
to be different species, are one. The characters by which these Cedars are distinguished reside in habit, colour, and
length of leaf, and are in process of change and obliteration under cultivation ; if we find, then, these plants to be
varieties of one wliich is dispersed from the Atlas Mountains to Northern India, which of the three can we assume as
the type, but that which retains its characters over the greatest area, viz. the Cedar (Deodar) of the Himalaya?
whether or not that was the originally created state, or whether the species was created there or in the Atlas or in
Lebanon, or in some intermediate area whence it is now banished. It will be difficult to disconnect the idea of the
common Cedar from that of the type of its race, but the systematist may have to do so. What thus happens with
large trees may likewise occur with smaller plants. I have given the most conspicuous illustration with which I
am familiar, but in the eyes of a naturalist it is not in the least more significant than one drawn from the study of
the varieties and distribution of a Moss or Grass.
t It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of a well-studied and named herbarium for such purposes, a
simple inspection of mauy species often giving their geographical range, and in the numerous cases in which widely
distributed genera have been worked up by competent authorities, the results are obtained with great accuracy.
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