In 1852 M. Naudin, a distinguished botanist, expressly stated, in an admirable paper on the Origin of Species ( Revue Horticole , page 102; since partly republished in the Nouvelles Archives du Museum , tom. i, page 171), his belief that species are formed in an analogous manner as varieties are under cultivation; and the latter process he attributes to man’s power of selection. But he does not show how selection acts under nature. He believes, like Dean Herbert, that species, when nascent, were more plastic than at present. He lays weight on what he calls the principle of finality, “