The Origin of Spo

The naming of plants started in the Garden; one of the first jobs therein. Putting botanicals in some sort of order has always been of great psychological importance to human beings. I majored in biology as it appealed to my need to makes lists and put this and that with others of its ilk. Nowadays the sorting of plants, bugs, and animals is done via DNA; in my college days it was based on form and similarities. Several things got put together that should not have; pandas and bears for example. It remains interesting; I still want to know the genus and species and varieties of every plant I grow.

I just finished reading the “Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin. Ever since it came out, people have made a lot of fuss about what he said – or allegedly said. I thought it best to go to the source. Nothing supports an argument like “did you read it yourself? No? Well I have, and ….”.

“The Origin of Species” is 650 pages long. The contents are basic biology 101, but the read felt more like history. It had a historical form to its writing; Victorian (Translation; very wordy). Novels from this period tax my ADHD mind and I wanted to skip ahead to get to the point; but I persevered. It took months to go from cover to cover.

The word ‘evolution’ appears 3 times in 650 pages, and all three times are in the context of mankind selectively breeding new lines of pigeons. The rest is about natural selection. He states a few times that he feels his work and the “Creator” are compatible and complimentary:

”I see no good reason 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 gravity, was also attacked as subversive. A celebrated author and divine has written to me that 'he has gradually learnt to see that it is 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."

Well!

Meanwhile, there is an unidentified plant growing in the backyard. I am not at familiar with the flora of the area, so I am unable to give it its proper name.

So I will call it Nero. The cats are named Tiberius and Claudius, it seems apt.