The Saturday Review. 241
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August 25, 1877.] The Saturday Review. 241 heart; Cheriff Pasha, “an indispensableman in Egyptian admini cardinal doctrine of the Darwinian creed. It is in the recogni stration,” only leaving one office to hold another; and the late tion of this great truth that teleology,once the ruling principle Mouffetish, who, after attaining a degree of power which the of the schools,but banishedfor awhile from the domain of physics, Khedive has concededto no one else,came to such a tragical has found for itself anew a place among the logical powers of during end the recent visit of Mr. Goschen. Those who philosophy. Even amongthe purists of Positivism, owing in great are interested in the future of Egypt will read with especial measure,we cannot doubt, to the influence of Mr. Darwin, it has pleasure Mr. de Leon's description of Tewfik Pasha, the heir become in nowise a matter of scoffing to talk of an end or purpose to , the throne. “Less politic and plausible than his father, in nature,and the blind sequence of facts or phenomenareceives Prince Tewfik inspiresyou with belief in his sincerity, and that light from the revelation of a beneficentpower pervading time he meanswhat he says. You feel that here is a man whom you and spaceand life. The fertilization of plants with the maximum can trust.” of benefit to each species,and with the minimum of effort, ex Of Egyptian products, Egyptian education,the Egyptian army, penditure, or waste,has been thus established, as it were, as the the debt, the new Courts, the Suez Canal,and the great unfinished basis of the new philosophy of botany. That plants have had barrage of the Nile, both authors have much to say, and the their structure modified and developedfor this specialpurpose is reader may consult either; but for statistics and well-arranged the thesis which Mr. Darwin has set himself for years *. task of details he will always gain most by turning to the pages of Mr. expoundingand illustrating. And that the productionand modi McCoan. Many readers will probably find no part of either fication of the forms of flowers havebeensubsidiary to the same volume more interesting than that in which two writers who beneficent end is what seems to us to form the moral of the is, of both know Egypt so well foreshadowwhat in their opinion, the interesting volumebefore us. Why are differentforms flowers , probable future of the country. To estimatethis it is necessary, as found upon plants of the same species P. By what process , a beginning, to understandthe relations of Egypt to the Porte. The or owing to what law are flowers, varying not only in size, by account given Mr. McCoan of these relations is very ample richness, or complexity,but in structural type or figure,engendered he to and lucid, and especiallydraws attention the final Firman from plants identical in origin and in order,and, to all appearance by at to of 1872, which all the restrictions on the Khedive's sovereignty least, subject the sameconditions? which up to that time still remained were abrogated,except the Now to this question we cannot say that Mr. Darwin has an he duty of paying tribute and the inability to have diplomatic repre furnished more than approximateanswer. Nor does him profess to an at or sentatives. It must be rememberedthat this, and also the pre self have furnished answer all full exact. His by of of to a eedingFirman which the descent of thesovereignty of Egypt was treatment the wide class phenomenaindispensable solu altered from the eldest male descendantof Mehemet to the Ali tion can be describedonly as tentative. He has brought together, by an of eldestson of the Khedive, were communicated to and accepted with his wonted industry and patience, immensearray facts in of he be the Powers; and although, according to the arrangement of 1841, proof the natural law under discussion; and may held Halim Pasha, a son of MehemetAli's old age,who, it is said, is to to havesatisſactorilyestablishedthe preliminary truth that diffe be at Vienna, is heir, yet the new Turkish Ambassador the next rently formed flowers are actually produced upon plants of the right of has, it may be said, accepted as the Tewfik Pasha been samestock. ... But he has hardly shown his habitual grasp of the ofan by in its of or part arrangementacquiesced in Europe. That the absurd problem bearingupon the generallaw evolution, upon specific of arrangement he taught rule of the Mahomedan successionshould be abrogated in favour that law beneficent which has is, of a son of the reigning Viceroy, whose character in the lan us to read in nature. With characteristicmodesty he disclaims to as a it is to guage of Mr. de Leon, that of a man to be trusted, is an obviousgain the right speak professionalbotanist. But not of be to to Egypt. It is also tolerably certain that the Khedive will live, technicalknowledge botany that we should inclined look and that this son will live after him, under the protectionand care for the solution of a problem so wide in its philosophicalrelations; of England and France. What shape this protectionwill hence nor evenamongspecialistscould we hopefor a keenerperception of forth take is necessarily a matter of pure conjecture; but the con natural facts, or a more exhaustivesurvey of the whole province of is jectures of well-informed guessersare always worth listening to. plant life. Mr. Darwin not concernedwith more than the of as What Mr. de Leon anticipates or hopes is that, under theguidance acceptedclassification flowers, which, imperfectand artificial is, it of Western Europe, Egypt may become a constitutional country, the groups often passing into one another,sufficiently serves of finance, of with sound views law and and that the shadow the the purpose of his inquiry. As far as their sexual relationsare involved, he is of Linnaeus, strangermay be ultimately altogether withdrawn. Mr. McCoan content with the fourfold division chiefly dwells on the probability, or, as he seems to say, the treating in turn of hermaphrodite,monoecious,dioecious,and poly gamousspecies of plants. certainty, that before long the last ties that bind Egypt to the Passing important of Porte will be broken, and this he appears to think the main point over the less subdivisions the herma is, to be gained. “Egypt for the Egyptians” in his opinion, the phrodite class, our author first concentrateshis attention upon of main and the legitimate cry of the country; and he thinks that, the two sub-groups heterostyledandcleistogamic plants, which prominent interesting of whatever may be the result of the presentTurkish war, Egypt will are the most and their order. When first brought to of years ago, of be broughtnearerthedesiredend,beingable to ask for independence the notice botanistsfifteen the former by as or in return for assistancefrom successfulTurkey, and to seize on it thesegroupswas distinguished him dimorphic trimorphic, of “heterostyled" having given it by from unsuccessfulTurkey. If this independence of Turkey is the better name since been it to obtained, seems Mr. McCoan almost immaterial whether its Hildebrand. The commonlyreceivedtest of the specificcharacter of in blessingsareenjoyed under the rule of a native prince uncontrolled theseplants—their pistils andstamensdifferinggreatly length by by to be it he any foreignPower or under“the fosteringand disinterestedpro —is shown Mr. Darwin insufficient. To adds the in of of tection of England.” The views of the two writers are in some difference size the pollen grains and the state the stigma. ; it is to respectsdifferent but what is really important to notice is that All are adaptedfor reciprocal cross-fertilization, and the of of they both agree in ascribing to Egypt a much greater inherent evidence enhancedfertility the plants under this processthat Mr. Darwin's researchesare directed:— vitality and much more energythan she is usually credited with. may plants heterostyledto Let us hope they are right, and that there are Egyptians in Egypt We feelsurethat havebeenrendered ensure cross-fertilisation,for we now know that a crossbetweendistinctindi capable of making of Egypt a nation independentandself-sufficing, viduals of thesamespecies is highly importantfor thevigourandfertility if not absolutelygreat. Modesty is the failing at present of these of theoffspring. The sameend is gainedby dichogamy or thematuration men, they so retiring to they and are that the casual observer seem of thereproductiveelementsof the sameflower at differentperiods,--by But, if they themselves,they may non-existent. will but show dioeciousness—self-sterility—theprepotency of pollenfromanotherindi a of count on receivingfrom Western Europethe welcomewhich would vidualover plant'sownpollen, andlastly,by thestructure theflower be their due. in relation to thevisits of insects. Thewonderfuldiversity of the means for gainingthesameend in thiscase,and in manyothers,dependson the nature of all thepreviouschangesthroughwhich the specieshaspassed, and on themore or lesscompleteinheritance of the successiveadaptations DARWIN'S FORMS OF FLOWERS.* of eachpart to thesurroundingconditions.Plantswhicharealreadywell by by adapted thestructure of theirflowersfor cross-fertilisation theaid of insectsoftenpossessan irregularcorolla,which has been modelled in R. DARWIN'S latest contribution to vegetablephysiology relation to theirvisits; and it wouldhavebeen of little or nouse to such is manifestly the result of the important generalizations plants to havebecomeheterostyled.We can thus understandwhy it is he lately to upon process of which had announce the cross-fertili that not a single species is heterostyled in suchgreatfamilies as the Leguminosae,Labiatae,Scrophulariaceae,Orchideae,&c., of zation in plants. His whole series of works may be said in some all whichhave irregular Every heterostyledplant,however,depends sense to follow and fit into eachother as parts of one organic flowers. known on fertilisation, wind; so it is a whole, the ruling idea being throughout the enforcement and insectsfor its and not on the that rather fact that only onegenus,Pontederia,has a plainly irregular illustration of the great natural law of evolution whether in Coltolia.ºng vegetable or animal life.