ads, then the average would be only 4.6
per genus.

But here comes, as it appears to me, an odd thing (I hope I shall not
quite weary you out). There are 29 other orders, each with 2 genera,
and these 58 genera have on an average 15.07 species: this great number
being owing to the 10 genera in the Smilaceae, Salicaceae (with 220
species), Begoniaceae, Balsaminaceae, Grossulariaceae, without which the
remaining 48 genera have on an average only 5.91 species.

This case of the orders with only 2 genera, the genera notwithstanding
having 15.07 species each, seems to me very perplexing and upsets,
almost, the conclusion deducible from the orders with single genera.

I have gone higher, and tested the alliances with 1, 2, and 3 orders;
and in these cases I find both the genera few in each alliance, and the
species, less than the average of the whole kingdom, in each genus.

All this has amused me, but I daresay you will have a good sneer at me,
and tell me to stick to my barnacles. By the way, you agree with me that
sometimes one gets despondent--for instance, when theory and facts will
not harmonise; but what appears to me even worse, and makes me despair,
is, when I see from the same great class of facts, men like Barrande
deduce conclusions, such as his "Colonies" (41/3. Lyell briefly refers
to Barrande's Bohemian work in a letter (August 31st, 1856) to Fleming
("Life of Sir Charles Lyell," II., page 225): "He explained to me on the
spot his remarkable discovery of a 'colony' of Upper Silurian fossils,
3,400 feet deep, in the midst of the Lower Silurian group. This has made
a great noise, but I think I can explain away the supposed anomaly by,
etc." (See Letter 40, Note.) and his agreement with E. de Beaumont's
lines of Elevation, or such men as Forbes with his Polarity (41/4.
Edward Forbes "On the Manifestation of Polarity in the Distribution of
Organised Beings in Time" ("Edinburgh New Phil. Journal," Volume LVII.,
1854, page 332). The author points out that "the maximum development
of generic types during the Palaeozoic period was during its earlier
epochs; that during the Neozoic period towards its later periods." Thus
the two periods of activity are conceived to be at the two opposite
poles of a sphere which in some way represents for him the system of
Nature.); I have not a doubt that before many months are over I shall
be longing for the most dishonest species as being more honest than the
honestest theories. On