ain this power of adaptation to the environment for an
indefinite period of time, must act in each case upon an
unconscious memory based upon past experience. Many other cases
might be cited.

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physiologically dependent on the former, must be of such a nature
from its origin to its completion in death, that the condition is
realized of the most economical rate of expenditure at each
period of life.[1] The rate of expenditure of energy at any
period of life is, of course, in such a curve defined by the
slope of the curve towards the axis of time at the period in
question; but this particular slope _must be led to by a previous
part of the curve, and involves its past and future course to a
very great extent_.

{Fig. 7}

There will, therefore, be impressed upon the
organism by the factors of evolution a unified course of
economical expenditure completed only by its death, and which
will give to the developmental progress of the individual its
prophetic character.

In this way we look to the unified career of each organic unit,
from its commencement in the ovum to the day

[1] See _The Abundance of Life_.

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when it is done with vitality, for that preparation for momentous
organic events which is in progress throughout the entire course
of development; and to the economy involved in the welding of
physiological processes for the phenomenon of physiological
memory, wherein we see reflected, as it were, in the development
of the organism, the association of inorganic restraints
occurring in nature which at some previous period impressed
itself upon the plastic organism. We may picture the seedling at
Upsala, swayed by organic memory and the inherited tendency to an
economical preparation for future events, gradually developing
towards the aesthetic climax of its career. In some such manner
only does it appear possible to account for the prophetic
development of organisms, not alone to be observed in the alpine
flowers, but throughout nature.

And thus, finally, to the effects of natural selection and to
actions defined by general principles involved in biology, I
would refer for explanation of the manner in which flowers on the
Alps develop their peculiar beauty.

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MOUNTAIN GENESIS

OUR ancestors regarded mountainous regions with feelings of
horror, mingled with commiseration for those whom an unkindly
destiny had condemned to dwell therein. We, on the other hand,
find in the contemplation of