Your obedient servant,
A. M.



DARWIN ON SPECIES: [From the Press, March 14th, 1863.]



To the Editor of the Press.

Sir--A correspondent signing himself "A. M." in the issue of February
21st says: --"Will the writer (of an article on barrel-organs) refer
to anything bearing upon natural selection and the struggle for
existence in Dr. Darwin's work?" This is one of the trade forms by
which writers imply that there is no such passage, and yet leave a
loophole if they are proved wrong. I will, however, furnish him with
a passage from the notes of Darwin's Botanic Garden:-

"I am acquainted with a philosopher who, contemplating this subject,
thinks it not impossible that the first insects were anthers or
stigmas of flowers, which had by some means loosed themselves from
their parent plant; and that many insects have gradually in long
process of time been formed from these, some acquiring wings, others
fins, and others claws, from their ceaseless efforts to procure their
food or to secure themselves from injury. The anthers or stigmas are
therefore separate beings."

This passage contains the germ of Mr. Charles Darwin's theory of the
origin of species by natural selection:-