On the Origin of Species (sixth edition) 19 – Darwin · Verses Across
Literature · Animals
On the Origin of Species (sixth edition) 19Recapitulation and Conclusion (part 2)
18
Literature · Animals
On the Origin of Species (sixth edition) 19
Recapitulation and Conclusion (part 2)
DarwinEnglish
It can hardly be supposed that a false theory would explain, in so satisfactory a manner as does the theory of natural selection, the several large classes of facts above specified. It has recently been objected that this is an unsafe method of arguing; but it is a method used in judging of the common events of life, and has often been used by the greatest natural philosophers. The undulatory theory of light has thus been arrived at; and the belief in the revolution of the earth on its own axis was until lately supported by hardly any direct evidence. It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin of life. Who can explain what is the essence of the attraction of gravity? No one now objects to following out the results consequent on this unknown element of attraction; notwithstanding that Leibnitz formerly accused Newton of introducing “occult qualities and miracles into philosophy.”
I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of any one. It is satisfactory, as showing how transient such impressions are, to remember that the greatest discovery ever made by man, namely, the law of the attraction of gravity, was also attacked by Leibnitz, “as subversive of natural, and inferentially of revealed, religion.” A celebrated author and divine has written to me that “he has gradually learned to see that it is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe that He created a few original forms capable of self-development into other and needful forms, as to believe that He required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of His laws.”
Why, it may be asked, until recently did nearly all the most eminent living naturalists and geologists disbelieve in the mutability of species? It cannot be asserted that organic beings in a state of nature are subject to no variation; it cannot be proved that the amount of variation in the course of long ages is a limited quantity; no clear distinction has been, or can be, drawn between species and well-marked varieties. It cannot be maintained that species when intercrossed are invariably sterile and varieties invariably fertile; or that sterility is a special endowment and sign of creation. The belief that species were immutable productions was almost unavoidable as long as the history of the world was thought to be of short duration; and now that we have acquired some idea of the lapse of time, we are too apt to assume, without proof, that the geological record is so perfect that it would have afforded us plain evidence of the mutation of species, if they had undergone mutation.
But the chief cause of our natural unwillingness to admit that one species has given birth to other and distinct species, is that we are always slow in admitting any great changes of which we do not see the steps. The difficulty is the same as that felt by so many geologists, when Lyell first insisted that long lines of inland cliffs had been formed, and great valleys excavated, by the agencies which we still see at work. The mind cannot possibly grasp the full meaning of the term of even a million years; it cannot add up and perceive the full effects of many slight variations, accumulated during an almost infinite number of generations.
Although I am fully convinced of the truth of the views given in this volume under the form of an abstract, I by no means expect to convince experienced naturalists whose minds are stocked with a multitude of facts all viewed, during a long course of years, from a point of view directly opposite to mine. It is so easy to hide our ignorance under such expressions as the “plan of creation,” “unity of design,” &c., and to think that we give an explanation when we only restate a fact. Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of a certain number of facts will certainly reject the theory. A few naturalists, endowed with much flexibility of mind, and who have already begun to doubt the immutability of species, may be influenced by this volume; but I look with confidence to the future, to young and rising naturalists, who will be able to view both sides of the question with impartiality. Whoever is led to believe that species are mutable will do good service by conscientiously expressing his conviction; for thus only can the load of prejudice by which this subject is overwhelmed be removed.
Several eminent naturalists have of late published their belief that a multitude of reputed species in each genus are not real species; but that other species are real, that is, have been independently created. This seems to me a strange conclusion to arrive at. They admit that a multitude of forms, which till lately they themselves thought were special creations, and which are still thus looked at by the majority of naturalists, and which consequently have all the external characteristic features of true species—they admit that these have been produced by variation, but they refuse to extend the same view to other and slightly different forms. Nevertheless, they do not pretend that they can define, or even conjecture, which are the created forms of life, and which are those produced by secondary laws. They admit variation as a vera causa in one case, they arbitrarily reject it in another, without assigning any distinction in the two cases. The day will come when this will be given as a curious illustration of the blindness of preconceived opinion. These authors seem no more startled at a miraculous act of creation than at an ordinary birth. But do they really believe that at innumerable periods in the earth’s history certain elemental atoms have been commanded suddenly to flash into living tissues? Do they believe that at each supposed act of creation one individual or many were produced? Were all the infinitely numerous kinds of animals and plants created as eggs or seed, or as full grown? and in the case of mammals, were they created bearing the false marks of nourishment from the mother’s womb? Undoubtedly some of these same questions cannot be answered by those who believe in the appearance or creation of only a few forms of life or of some one form alone. It has been maintained by several authors that it is as easy to believe in the creation of a million beings as of one; but Maupertuis’ philosophical axiom “of least action” leads the mind more willingly to admit the smaller number; and certainly we ought not to believe that innumerable beings within each great class have been created with plain, but deceptive, marks of descent from a single parent.
As a record of a former state of things, I have retained in the foregoing paragraphs, and elsewhere, several sentences which imply that naturalists believe in the separate creation of each species; and I have been much censured for having thus expressed myself. But undoubtedly this was the general belief when the first edition of the present work appeared. I formerly spoke to very many naturalists on the subject of evolution, and never once met with any sympathetic agreement. It is probable that some did then believe in evolution, but they were either silent or expressed themselves so ambiguously that it was not easy to understand their meaning. Now, things are wholly changed, and almost every naturalist admits the great principle of evolution. There are, however, some who still think that species have suddenly given birth, through quite unexplained means, to new and totally different forms. But, as I have attempted to show, weighty evidence can be opposed to the admission of great and abrupt modifications. Under a scientific point of view, and as leading to further investigation, but little advantage is gained by believing that new forms are suddenly developed in an inexplicable manner from old and widely different forms, over the old belief in the creation of species from the dust of the earth.
It may be asked how far I extend the doctrine of the modification of species. The question is difficult to answer, because the more distinct the forms are which we consider, by so much the arguments in favour of community of descent become fewer in number and less in force. But some arguments of the greatest weight extend very far. All the members of whole classes are connected together by a chain of affinities, and all can be classed on the same principle, in groups subordinate to groups. Fossil remains sometimes tend to fill up very wide intervals between existing orders.
Organs in a rudimentary condition plainly show that an early progenitor had the organ in a fully developed condition, and this in some cases implies an enormous amount of modification in the descendants. Throughout whole classes various structures are formed on the same pattern, and at a very early age the embryos closely resemble each other. Therefore I cannot doubt that the theory of descent with modification embraces all the members of the same great class or kingdom. I believe that animals are descended from at most only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number.
Analogy would lead me one step further, namely, to the belief that all animals and plants are descended from some one prototype. But analogy may be a deceitful guide. Nevertheless all living things have much in common, in their chemical composition, their cellular structure, their laws of growth, and their liability to injurious influences. We see this even in so trifling a fact as that the same poison often similarly affects plants and animals; or that the poison secreted by the gall-fly produces monstrous growths on the wild rose or oak-tree. With all organic beings, excepting perhaps some of the very lowest, sexual reproduction seems to be essentially similar. With all, as far as is at present known, the germinal vesicle is the same; so that all organisms start from a common origin. If we look even to the two main divisions—namely, to the animal and vegetable kingdoms—certain low forms are so far intermediate in character that naturalists have disputed to which kingdom they should be referred. As Professor Asa Gray has remarked, “the spores and other reproductive bodies of many of the lower algæ may claim to have first a characteristically animal, and then an unequivocally vegetable existence.” Therefore, on the principle of natural selection with divergence of character, it does not seem incredible that, from some such low and intermediate form, both animals and plants may have been developed; and, if we admit this, we must likewise admit that all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth may be descended from some one primordial form. But this inference is chiefly grounded on analogy, and it is immaterial whether or not it be accepted. No doubt it is possible, as Mr. G.H. Lewes has urged, that at the first commencement of life many different forms were evolved; but if so, we may conclude that only a very few have left modified descendants. For, as I have recently remarked in regard to the members of each great kingdom, such as the Vertebrata, Articulata, &c., we have distinct evidence in their embryological, homologous, and rudimentary structures, that within each kingdom all the members are descended from a single progenitor.
When the views advanced by me in this volume, and by Mr. Wallace or when analogous views on the origin of species are generally admitted, we can dimly foresee that there will be a considerable revolution in natural history. Systematists will be able to pursue their labours as at present; but they will not be incessantly haunted by the shadowy doubt whether this or that form be a true species. This, I feel sure and I speak after experience, will be no slight relief. The endless disputes whether or not some fifty species of British brambles are good species will cease. Systematists will have only to decide (not that this will be easy) whether any form be sufficiently constant and distinct from other forms, to be capable of definition; and if definable, whether the differences be sufficiently important to deserve a specific name. This latter point will become a far more essential consideration than it is at present; for differences, however slight, between any two forms, if not blended by intermediate gradations, are looked at by most naturalists as sufficient to raise both forms to the rank of species.
Hereafter we shall be compelled to acknowledge that the only distinction between species and well-marked varieties is, that the latter are known, or believed to be connected at the present day by intermediate gradations, whereas species were formerly thus connected. Hence, without rejecting the consideration of the present existence of intermediate gradations between any two forms, we shall be led to weigh more carefully and to value higher the actual amount of difference between them. It is quite possible that forms now generally acknowledged to be merely varieties may hereafter be thought worthy of specific names; and in this case scientific and common language will come into accordance. In short, we shall have to treat species in the same manner as those naturalists treat genera, who admit that genera are merely artificial combinations made for convenience. This may not be a cheering prospect; but we shall at least be freed from the vain search for the undiscovered and undiscoverable essence of the term species.
The other and more general departments of natural history will rise greatly in interest. The terms used by naturalists, of affinity, relationship, community of type, paternity, morphology, adaptive characters, rudimentary and aborted organs, &c., will cease to be metaphorical and will have a plain signification. When we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as something wholly beyond his comprehension; when we regard every production of nature as one which has had a long history; when we contemplate every complex structure and instinct as the summing up of many contrivances, each useful to the possessor, in the same way as any great mechanical invention is the summing up of the labour, the experience, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen; when we thus view each organic being, how far more interesting—I speak from experience—does the study of natural history become!
A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will be opened, on the causes and laws of variation, on correlation, on the effects of use and disuse, on the direct action of external conditions, and so forth. The study of domestic productions will rise immensely in value. A new variety raised by man will be a far more important and interesting subject for study than one more species added to the infinitude of already recorded species. Our classifications will come to be, as far as they can be so made, genealogies; and will then truly give what may be called the plan of creation. The rules for classifying will no doubt become simpler when we have a definite object in view. We possess no pedigree or armorial bearings; and we have to discover and trace the many diverging lines of descent in our natural genealogies, by characters of any kind which have long been inherited. Rudimentary organs will speak infallibly with respect to the nature of long-lost structures. Species and groups of species which are called aberrant, and which may fancifully be called living fossils, will aid us in forming a picture of the ancient forms of life. Embryology will often reveal to us the structure, in some degree obscured, of the prototypes of each great class.
When we can feel assured that all the individuals of the same species, and all the closely allied species of most genera, have, within a not very remote period descended from one parent, and have migrated from some one birth-place; and when we better know the many means of migration, then, by the light which geology now throws, and will continue to throw, on former changes of climate and of the level of the land, we shall surely be enabled to trace in an admirable manner the former migrations of the inhabitants of the whole world. Even at present, by comparing the differences between the inhabitants of the sea on the opposite sides of a continent, and the nature of the various inhabitants of that continent in relation to their apparent means of immigration, some light can be thrown on ancient geography.
The noble science of geology loses glory from the extreme imperfection of the record. The crust of the earth, with its embedded remains, must not be looked at as a well-filled museum, but as a poor collection made at hazard and at rare intervals. The accumulation of each great fossiliferous formation will be recognised as having depended on an unusual occurrence of favourable circumstances, and the blank intervals between the successive stages as having been of vast duration. But we shall be able to gauge with some security the duration of these intervals by a comparison of the preceding and succeeding organic forms. We must be cautious in attempting to correlate as strictly contemporaneous two formations, which do not include many identical species, by the general succession of the forms of life. As species are produced and exterminated by slowly acting and still existing causes, and not by miraculous acts of creation; and as the most important of all causes of organic change is one which is almost independent of altered and perhaps suddenly altered physical conditions, namely, the mutual relation of organism to organism—the improvement of one organism entailing the improvement or the extermination of others; it follows, that the amount of organic change in the fossils of consecutive formations probably serves as a fair measure of the relative, though not actual lapse of time. A number of species, however, keeping in a body might remain for a long period unchanged, whilst within the same period, several of these species, by migrating into new countries and coming into competition with foreign associates, might become modified; so that we must not overrate the accuracy of organic change as a measure of time.
In the future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be securely based on the foundation already well laid by Mr. Herbert Spencer, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Much light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.
Authors of the highest eminence seem to be fully satisfied with the view that each species has been independently created. To my mind it accords better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator, that the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should have been due to secondary causes, like those determining the birth and death of the individual. When I view all beings not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings which lived long before the first bed of the Cambrian system was deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled. Judging from the past, we may safely infer that not one living species will transmit its unaltered likeness to a distinct futurity. And of the species now living very few will transmit progeny of any kind to a far distant futurity; for the manner in which all organic beings are grouped, shows that the greater number of species in each genus, and all the species in many genera, have left no descendants, but have become utterly extinct. We can so far take a prophetic glance into futurity as to foretell that it will be the common and widely spread species, belonging to the larger and dominant groups within each class, which will ultimately prevail and procreate new and dominant species. As all the living forms of life are the lineal descendants of those which lived long before the Cambrian epoch, we may feel certain that the ordinary succession by generation has never once been broken, and that no cataclysm has desolated the whole world. Hence, we may look with some confidence to a secure future of great length. And as natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection.
It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone circling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.
GLOSSARY OF THE PRINCIPAL SCIENTIFIC TERMS USED IN THE PRESENT VOLUME.*
* I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. W.S. Dallas for this Glossary, which has been given because several readers have complained to me that some of the terms used were unintelligible to them. Mr. Dallas has endeavoured to give the explanations of the terms in as popular a form as possible.
ABERRANT.—Forms or groups of animals or plants which deviate in important characters from their nearest allies, so as not to be easily included in the same group with them, are said to be aberrant.
ABERRATION (in Optics).—In the refraction of light by a convex lens the rays passing through different parts of the lens are brought to a focus at slightly different distances—this is called spherical aberration; at the same time the coloured rays are separated by the prismatic action of the lens and likewise brought to a focus at different distances—this is chromatic aberration.
ABNORMAL.—Contrary to the general rule.
ABORTED.—An organ is said to be aborted, when its development has been arrested at a very early stage.
ALBINISM.—Albinos are animals in which the usual colouring matters characteristic of the species have not been produced in the skin and its appendages. Albinism is the state of being an albino.
ALGÆ.—A class of plants including the ordinary sea-weeds and the filamentous fresh-water weeds.
ALTERNATION OF GENERATIONS.—This term is applied to a peculiar mode of reproduction which prevails among many of the lower animals, in which the egg produces a living form quite different from its parent, but from which the parent-form is reproduced by a process of budding, or by the division of the substance of the first product of the egg.
AMMONITES.—A group of fossil, spiral, chambered shells, allied to the existing pearly Nautilus, but having the partitions between the chambers waved in complicated patterns at their junction with the outer wall of the shell.
ANALOGY.—That resemblance of structures which depends upon similarity of function, as in the wings of insects and birds. Such structures are said to be analogous, and to be analogues of each other.
ANIMALCULE.—A minute animal: generally applied to those visible only by the microscope.
ANNELIDS.—A class of worms in which the surface of the body exhibits a more or less distinct division into rings or segments, generally provided with appendages for locomotion and with gills. It includes the ordinary marine worms, the earth-worms, and the leeches.
ANTENNÆ.—Jointed organs appended to the head in Insects, Crustacea and Centipedes, and not belonging to the mouth.
ANTHERS.—The summits of the stamens of flowers, in which the pollen or fertilising dust is produced.
APLACENTALIA, APLACENTATA or Aplacental Mammals.—See mammalia.
ARCHETYPAL.—Of or belonging to the Archetype, or ideal primitive form upon which all the beings of a group seem to be organised.
ARTICULATA.—A great division of the Animal Kingdom characterised generally by having the surface of the body divided into rings called segments, a greater or less number of which are furnished with jointed legs (such as Insects, Crustaceans and Centipedes).
ASYMMETRICAL.—Having the two sides unlike.
ATROPHIED.—Arrested in development at a very early stage.
BALANUS.—The genus including the common Acorn-shells which live in abundance on the rocks of the sea-coast.
BATRACHIANS.—A class of animals allied to the Reptiles, but undergoing a peculiar metamorphosis, in which the young animal is generally aquatic and breathes by gills. (Examples, Frogs, Toads, and Newts.)
BOULDERS.—Large transported blocks of stone generally embedded in clays or gravels.
BRACHIOPODA.—A class of marine Mollusca, or soft-bodied animals, furnished with a bivalve shell, attached to submarine objects by a stalk which passes through an aperture in one of the valves, and furnished with fringed arms, by the action of which food is carried to the mouth.
BRANCHIÆ.—Gills or organs for respiration in water.
BRANCHIAL.—Pertaining to gills or branchiæ.
CAMBRIAN SYSTEM.—A series of very ancient Palæozoic rocks, between the Laurentian and the Silurian. Until recently these were regarded as the oldest fossiliferous rocks.
CANIDÆ.—The Dog-family, including the Dog, Wolf, Fox, Jackal, &c.
CARAPACE.—The shell enveloping the anterior part of the body in Crustaceans generally; applied also to the hard shelly pieces of the Cirripedes.
CARBONIFEROUS.—This term is applied to the great formation which includes, among other rocks, the coal-measures. It belongs to the oldest, or Palæozoic, system of formations.
CAUDAL.—Of or belonging to the tail.
CEPHALOPODS.—The highest class of the Mollusca, or soft-bodied animals, characterised by having the mouth surrounded by a greater or less number of fleshy arms or tentacles, which, in most living species, are furnished with sucking-cups. (Examples, Cuttle-fish, Nautilus.)
CETACEA.—An order of Mammalia, including the Whales, Dolphins, &c., having the form of the body fish-like, the skin naked, and only the fore limbs developed.
CHELONIA.—An order of Reptiles including the Turtles, Tortoises, &c.
CIRRIPEDES.—An order of Crustaceans including the Barnacles and Acorn-shells. Their young resemble those of many other Crustaceans in form; but when mature they are always attached to other objects, either directly or by means of a stalk, and their bodies are enclosed by a calcareous shell composed of several pieces, two of which can open to give issue to a bunch of curled, jointed tentacles, which represent the limbs.
COCCUS.—The genus of Insects including the Cochineal. In these the male is a minute, winged fly, and the female generally a motionless, berry-like mass.
COCOON.—A case usually of silky material, in which insects are frequently enveloped during the second or resting-stage (pupa) of their existence. The term “cocoon-stage” is here used as equivalent to “pupa-stage.”
CŒLOSPERMOUS.—A term applied to those fruits of the Umbelliferæ which have the seed hollowed on the inner face.
COLEOPTERA.—Beetles, an order of Insects, having a biting mouth and the first pair of wings more or less horny, forming sheaths for the second pair, and usually meeting in a straight line down the middle of the back.
COLUMN.—A peculiar organ in the flowers of Orchids, in which the stamens, style and stigma (or the reproductive parts) are united.
COMPOSITÆ or COMPOSITOUS PLANTS.—Plants in which the inflorescence consists of numerous small flowers (florets) brought together into a dense head, the base of which is enclosed by a common envelope. (Examples, the Daisy, Dandelion, &c.)
CONFERVÆ.—The filamentous weeds of fresh water.
CONGLOMERATE.—A rock made up of fragments of rock or pebbles, cemented together by some other material.
COROLLA.—The second envelope of a flower usually composed of coloured, leaf-like organs (petals), which may be united by their edges either in the basal part or throughout.
CORRELATION.—The normal coincidence of one phenomenon, character, &c., with another.
CORYMB.—A bunch of flowers in which those springing from the lower part of the flower stalks are supported on long stalks so as to be nearly on a level with the upper ones.
COTYLEDONS.—The first or seed-leaves of plants.
CRUSTACEANS.—A class of articulated animals, having the skin of the body generally more or less hardened by the deposition of calcareous matter, breathing by means of gills. (Examples, Crab, Lobster, Shrimp, &c.)
CURCULIO.—The old generic term for the Beetles known as Weevils, characterised by their four-jointed feet, and by the head being produced into a sort of beak, upon the sides of which the antennæ are inserted.
CUTANEOUS.—Of or belonging to the skin.
DEGRADATION.—The wearing down of land by the action of the sea or of meteoric agencies.
DENUDATION.—The wearing away of the surface of the land by water.
DEVONIAN SYSTEM or FORMATION.—A series of Palæozoic rocks, including the Old Red Sandstone.
DICOTYLEDONS, or DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS.—A class of plants characterised by having two seed-leaves, by the formation of new wood between the bark and the old wood (exogenous growth) and by the reticulation of the veins of the leaves. The parts of the flowers are generally in multiples of five.
DIFFERENTATION.—The separation or discrimination of parts or organs which in simpler forms of life are more or less united.
DIMORPHIC.—Having two distinct forms.—DIMORPHISM is the condition of the appearance of the same species under two dissimilar forms.
DIOECIOUS.—Having the organs of the sexes upon distinct individuals.
DIORITE.—A peculiar form of Greenstone.
DORSAL.—Of or belonging to the back.
EDENTATA.—A peculiar order of Quadrupeds, characterised by the absence of at least the middle incisor (front) teeth in both jaws. (Examples, the Sloths and Armadillos.)
ELYTRA.—The hardened fore-wings of Beetles, serving as sheaths for the membranous hind-wings, which constitute the true organs of flight.
EMBRYO.—The young animal undergoing development within the egg or womb.
EMBRYOLOGY.—The study of the development of the embryo.
ENDEMIC.—Peculiar to a given locality.
ENTOMOSTRACA.—A division of the class Crustacea, having all the segments of the body usually distinct, gills attached to the feet or organs of the mouth, and the feet fringed with fine hairs. They are generally of small size.
EOCENE.—The earliest of the three divisions of the Tertiary epoch of geologists. Rocks of this age contain a small proportion of shells identical with species now living.
EPHEMEROUS INSECTS.—Insects allied to the May-fly.
FAUNA.—The totality of the animals naturally inhabiting a certain country or region, or which have lived during a given geological period.
FELIDÆ.—The Cat-family.
FERAL.—Having become wild from a state of cultivation or domestication.
FLORA.—The totality of the plants growing naturally in a country, or during a given geological period.
FLORETS.—Flowers imperfectly developed in some respects, and collected into a dense spike or head, as in the Grasses, the Dandelion, &c.
FOETAL.—Of or belonging to the foetus, or embryo in course of development.
FORAMINIFERA.—A class of animals of very low organisation and generally of small size, having a jelly-like body, from the surface of which delicate filaments can be given off and retracted for the prehension of external objects, and having a calcareous or sandy shell, usually divided into chambers and perforated with small apertures.
FOSSILIFEROUS.—Containing fossils.
FOSSORIAL.—Having a faculty of digging. The Fossorial Hymenoptera are a group of Wasp-like Insects, which burrow in sandy soil to make nests for their young.
FRENUM (pl. FRENA).—A small band or fold of skin.
FUNGI (sing. FUNGUS).—A class of cellular plants, of which Mushrooms, Toadstools, and Moulds, are familiar examples.
FURCULA.—The forked bone formed by the union of the collar-bones in many birds, such as the common Fowl.
GALLINACEOUS BIRDS.—An order of birds of which the common Fowl, Turkey, and Pheasant, are well-known examples.
GALLUS.—The genus of birds which includes the common Fowl.
GANGLION.—A swelling or knot from which nerves are given off as from a centre.
GANOID FISHES.—Fishes covered with peculiar enamelled bony scales. Most of them are extinct.
GERMINAL VESICLE.—A minute vesicle in the eggs of animals, from which the development of the embryo proceeds.
GLACIAL PERIOD.—A period of great cold and of enormous extension of ice upon the surface of the earth. It is believed that glacial periods have occurred repeatedly during the geological history of the earth, but the term is generally applied to the close of the Tertiary epoch, when nearly the whole of Europe was subjected to an arctic climate.
GLAND.—An organ which secretes or separates some peculiar product from the blood or sap of animals or plants.
GLOTTIS.—The opening of the windpipe into the œsophagus or gullet.
GNEISS.—A rock approaching granite in composition, but more or less laminated, and really produced by the alteration of a sedimentary deposit after its consolidation.
GRALLATORES.—The so-called wading-birds (storks, cranes, snipes, &c.), which are generally furnished with long legs, bare of feathers above the heel, and have no membranes between the toes.
GRANITE.—A rock consisting essentially of crystals of felspar and mica in a mass of quartz.
HABITAT.—The locality in which a plant or animal naturally lives.
HEMIPTERA.—An order or sub-order of insects, characterised by the possession of a jointed beak or rostrum, and by having the fore-wings horny in the basal portion and membranous at the extremity, where they cross each other. This group includes the various species of bugs.
HERMAPHRODITE.—Possessing the organs of both sexes.
HOMOLOGY.—That relation between parts which results from their development from corresponding embryonic parts, either in different animals, as in the case of the arm of man, the fore-leg of a quadruped, and the wing of a bird; or in the same individual, as in the case of the fore and hind legs in quadrupeds, and the segments or rings and their appendages of which the body of a worm, a centipede, &c., is composed. The latter is called serial homology. The parts which stand in such a relation to each other are said to be homologous, and one such part or organ is called the homologue of the other. In different plants the parts of the flower are homologous, and in general these parts are regarded as homologous with leaves.
HOMOPTERA.—An order or sub-order of insects having (like the Hemiptera) a jointed beak, but in which the fore-wings are either wholly membranous or wholly leathery, The Cicadæ, frog-hoppers, and Aphides, are well-known examples.
HYBRID.—The offspring of the union of two distinct species.
HYMENOPTERA.—An order of insects possessing biting jaws and usually four membranous wings in which there are a few veins. Bees and wasps are familiar examples of this group.
HYPERTROPHIED.—Excessively developed.
ICHNEUMONIDÆ.—A family of hymenopterous insects, the members of which lay their eggs in the bodies or eggs of other insects.
IMAGO.—The perfect (generally winged) reproductive state of an insect.
INDIGENES.—The aboriginal animal or vegetable inhabitants of a country or region.
INFLORESCENCE.—The mode of arrangement of the flowers of plants.
INFUSORIA.—A class of microscopic animalcules, so called from their having originally been observed in infusions of vegetable matters. They consist of a gelatinous material enclosed in a delicate membrane, the whole or part of which is furnished with short vibrating hairs (called cilia), by means of which the animalcules swim through the water or convey the minute particles of their food to the orifice of the mouth.
INSECTIVOROUS.—Feeding on insects.
INVERTEBRATA, or INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS.—Those animals which do not possess a backbone or spinal column.
LACUNÆ.—Spaces left among the tissues in some of the lower animals and serving in place of vessels for the circulation of the fluids of the body.
LAMELLATED.—Furnished with lamellæ or little plates.
LARVA (pl. LARVÆ).—The first condition of an insect at its issuing from the egg, when it is usually in the form of a grub, caterpillar, or maggot.
LARYNX.—The upper part of the windpipe opening into the gullet.
LAURENTIAN.—A group of greatly altered and very ancient rocks, which is greatly developed along the course of the St. Laurence, whence the name. It is in these that the earliest known traces of organic bodies have been found.
LEGUMINOSÆ.—An order of plants represented by the common peas and beans, having an irregular flower in which one petal stands up like a wing, and the stamens and pistil are enclosed in a sheath formed by two other petals. The fruit is a pod (or legume).
LEMURIDÆ.—A group of four-handed animals, distinct from the monkeys and approaching the insectivorous quadrupeds in some of their characters and habits. Its members have the nostrils curved or twisted, and a claw instead of a nail upon the first finger of the hind hands.
LEPIDOPTERA.—An order of insects, characterised by the possession of a spiral proboscis, and of four large more or less scaly wings. It includes the well-known butterflies and moths.
LITTORAL.—Inhabiting the seashore.
LOESS.—A marly deposit of recent (Post-Tertiary) date, which occupies a great part of the valley of the Rhine.
MALACOSTRACA.—The higher division of the Crustacea, including the ordinary crabs, lobsters, shrimps, &c., together with the woodlice and sand-hoppers.
MAMMALIA.—The highest class of animals, including the ordinary hairy quadrupeds, the whales and man, and characterised by the production of living young which are nourished after birth by milk from the teats (Mammæ, Mammary glands) of the mother. A striking difference in embryonic development has led to the division of this class into two great groups; in one of these, when the embryo has attained a certain stage, a vascular connection, called the placenta, is formed between the embryo and the mother; in the other this is wanting, and the young are produced in a very incomplete state. The former, including the greater part of the class, are called Placental Mammals; the latter, or Aplacental Mammals, include the Marsupials and Monotremes (Ornithorhynchus).
MAMMIFEROUS.—Having mammæ or teats (see MAMMALIA).
MANDIBLES.—in insects, the first or uppermost pair of jaws, which are generally solid, horny, biting organs. In birds the term is applied to both jaws with their horny coverings. In quadrupeds the mandible is properly the lower jaw.
MARSUPIALS.—An order of Mammalia in which the young are born in a very incomplete state of development, and carried by the mother, while sucking, in a ventral pouch (marsupium), such as the kangaroos, opossums, &c. (see MAMMALIA).
MAXILLÆ.—in insects, the second or lower pair of jaws, which are composed of several joints and furnished with peculiar jointed appendages called palpi, or feelers.
MELANISM.—The opposite of albinism; an undue development of colouring material in the skin and its appendages.
METAMORPHIC ROCKS.—Sedimentary rocks which have undergone alteration, generally by the action of heat, subsequently to their deposition and consolidation.
MOLLUSCA.—One of the great divisions of the animal kingdom, including those animals which have a soft body, usually furnished with a shell, and in which the nervous ganglia, or centres, present no definite general arrangement. They are generally known under the denomination of “shellfish”; the cuttle-fish, and the common snails, whelks, oysters, mussels, and cockles, may serve as examples of them.
MONOCOTYLEDONS, or MONOCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS.—Plants in which the seed sends up only a single seed-leaf (or cotyledon); characterised by the absence of consecutive layers of wood in the stem (endogenous growth), by the veins of the leaves being generally straight, and by the parts of the flowers being generally in multiples of three. (Examples, Grasses, Lilies, Orchids, Palms, &c.)
MORAINES.—The accumulations of fragments of rock brought down by glaciers.
MORPHOLOGY.—The law of form or structure independent of function.
MYSIS-STAGE.—A stage in the development of certain crustaceans (prawns), in which they closely resemble the adults of a genus (Mysis) belonging to a slightly lower group.
NASCENT.—Commencing development.
NATATORY.—Adapted for the purpose of swimming.
NAUPLIUS-FORM.—The earliest stage in the development of many Crustacea, especially belonging to the lower groups. In this stage the animal has a short body, with indistinct indications of a division into segments, and three pairs of fringed limbs. This form of the common fresh-water Cyclops was described as a distinct genus under the name of Nauplius.
NEURATION.—The arrangement of the veins or nervures in the wings of insects.
NEUTERS.—Imperfectly developed females of certain social insects (such as ants and bees), which perform all the labours of the community. Hence, they are also called workers.
NICTITATING MEMBRANE.—A semi-transparent membrane, which can be drawn across the eye in birds and reptiles, either to moderate the effects of a strong light or to sweep particles of dust, &c., from the surface of the eye.
OCELLI.—The simple eyes or stemmata of insects, usually situated on the crown of the head between the great compound eyes.
ŒSOPHAGUS.—The gullet.
OOLITIC.—A great series of secondary rocks, so called from the texture of some of its members, which appear to be made up of a mass of small EGG-LIKE calcareous bodies.
OPERCULUM.—A calcareous plate employed by many Molluscæ to close the aperture of their shell. The OPERCULAR VALVES of Cirripedes are those which close the aperture of the shell.
ORBIT.—The bony cavity for the reception of the eye.
ORGANISM.—An organised being, whether plant or animal.
ORTHOSPERMOUS.—A term applied to those fruits of the Umbelliferæ which have the seed straight.
OSCULANT.—Forms or groups apparently intermediate between and connecting other groups are said to be osculant.
OVA.—Eggs.
OVARIUM or OVARY (in plants).—The lower part of the pistil or female organ of the flower, containing the ovules or incipient seeds; by growth after the other organs of the flower have fallen, it usually becomes converted into the fruit.
OVIGEROUS.—Egg-bearing.
OVULES (of plants).—The seeds in the earliest condition.
PACHYDERMS.—A group of Mammalia, so called from their thick skins, and including the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, &c.
PALÆOZOIC.—The oldest system of fossiliferous rocks.
PALPI.—Jointed appendages to some of the organs of the mouth in insects and Crustacea.
PAPILIONACEÆ.—An order of plants (see LEGUMINOSÆ), The flowers of these plants are called papilionaceous, or butterfly-like, from the fancied resemblance of the expanded superior petals to the wings of a butterfly.
PARASITE.—An animal or plant living upon or in, and at the expense of, another organism.
PARTHENOGENESIS.—The production of living organisms from unimpregnated eggs or seeds.
PEDUNCULATED.—Supported upon a stem or stalk. The pedunculated oak has its acorns borne upon a footstool.
PELORIA or PELORISM.—The appearance of regularity of structure in the flowers of plants which normally bear irregular flowers.
PELVIS.—The bony arch to which the hind limbs of vertebrate animals are articulated.
PETALS.—The leaves of the corolla, or second circle of organs in a flower. They are usually of delicate texture and brightly coloured.
PHYLLODINEOUS.—Having flattened, leaf-like twigs or leafstalks instead of true leaves.
PIGMENT.—The colouring material produced generally in the superficial parts of animals. The cells secreting it are called pigment-cells.
PINNATE.—Bearing leaflets on each side of a central stalk.
PISTILS.—The female organs of a flower, which occupy a position in the centre of the other floral organs. The pistil is generally divisible into the ovary or germen, the style and the stigma.
PLACENTALIA, PLACENTATA.—or PLACENTAL MAMMALS, See MAMMALIA.
PLANTIGRADES.—Quadrupeds which walk upon the whole sole of the foot, like the bears.
PLASTIC.—Readily capable of change.
PLEISTOCENE PERIOD.—The latest portion of the Tertiary epoch.
PLUMULE (in plants).—The minute bud between the seed-leaves of newly-germinated plants.
PLUTONIC ROCKS.—Rocks supposed to have been produced by igneous action in the depths of the earth.
POLLEN.—The male element in flowering plants; usually a fine dust produced by the anthers, which, by contact with the stigma effects the fecundation of the seeds. This impregnation is brought about by means of tubes (pollen-tubes) which issue from the pollen-grains adhering to the stigma, and penetrate through the tissues until they reach the ovary.
POLYANDROUS (flowers).—Flowers having many stamens.
POLYGAMOUS PLANTS.—Plants in which some flowers are unisexual and others hermaphrodite. The unisexual (male and female) flowers, may be on the same or on different plants.
POLYMORPHIC.—Presenting many forms.
POLYZOARY.—The common structure formed by the cells of the Polyzoa, such as the well-known seamats.
PREHENSILE.—Capable of grasping.
PREPOTENT.—Having a superiority of power.
PRIMARIES.—The feathers forming the tip of the wing of a bird, and inserted upon that part which represents the hand of man.
PROCESSES.—Projecting portions of bones, usually for the attachment of muscles, ligaments, &c.
PROPOLIS.—A resinous material collected by the hivebees from the opening buds of various trees.
PROTEAN.—Exceedingly variable.
PROTOZOA.—The lowest great division of the animal kingdom. These animals are composed of a gelatinous material, and show scarcely any trace of distinct organs. The Infusoria, Foraminifera, and sponges, with some other forms, belong to this division.
PUPA (pl. PUPÆ).—The second stage in the development of an insect, from which it emerges in the perfect (winged) reproductive form. In most insects the pupal stage is passed in perfect repose. The chrysalis is the pupal state of butterflies.
RADICLE.—The minute root of an embryo plant.
RAMUS.—One half of the lower jaw in the Mammalia. The portion which rises to articulate with the skull is called the ascending ramus.
