The naturalist, Charles Torrey Simpson by his own conclusion, believed himself to be, "to some extent, a Pantheist." In Out of Doors in Florida, he wrote, "There is no chance, no haphazard; nothing happens. The universe is governed by law; no power can change or set it aside for a moment. Whenever and wherever life can fit itself to its domination it will survive and flourish; if it does not it perishes and becomes extinct.
I cannot believe either in a loving or hating diety who sits on a throne somewhere in the universe and watches over his creatures, who listens to and answers prayers, who orders the suns and planets on their courses, who makes the rains, the wind storms and earthquakes. Yet I cannot be a mere materialist. I am sure there is not only matter and law but that there is intelligence, spirit. I constantly find the lower forms of life doing just what I would do with their environment, sometimes with less intelligence, sometimes with more. I can only believe that in a wat these things think. I believe I must be, to some extent, a Pantheist."
Simpson was a more astute observer than Darwin and a rabid collector of plants and shells. His evolution began as a boy raised on a poor farm (a log cabin no less) that was awed by the world about him. Nothing escaped his attention and he drew conclusions as to the way the environment shaped the current world (it hasn't changed all that much since he wrote the book in the early 1920's.) His tracking of the fate of plants and shells as they evolved to adjust to their environment and to carve out a niche in which they could survive is evolutionary. When the competition became too much, the plants adapted, finding their place in Earth's history. If they failed, so be it - that's the lesson of survival of the fittest, much touted as Charles Darwin's contribution to science. He observed that "slum plants and animals which are no better than vermin must devote their entire energies to reproduction while the aristocrats breed sparingly."
Is he right? Could not these same plant parents have produced multiple offspring some of which (to use a human analogy) go on to be successful and others are hanger-ons. Yet even the hanger-ons find their place and by adaptation become successful, perhaps not in their own time. A vacuum in a vessel is meant to be filled, whereas the evolutionary body sees the vessel as being filled to overflowing and some species are lost in the competition. Perhaps those that became dominant did so in their time and place and the others finding an area that was less hospitable to the dominant ones, established it as their own. There is hope for the future even for the vermin!
Simpson would be a "tree-hugger's companion and inspiration, except that he saw that in this imperfect world, change was inevitable. He bemoaned the loss of habitat for the flora, but at the same time "collected" all that he could when given the opportunity and introduced foreign plants into Florida. He criticized developers who drained the marshes and cut the trees, yet accepted the need for man to share the space and use the resources.
Charles Torrey Simpson would be right at home and be a principal character in The Orchid Thief or Orchid Fever. He wrote of the Flatwoods, an area above the flooded plains and swamps, of orchids growing in profusion. pp 97. "One may go for miles through the low pine woods of Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties among an almost endless bed of handsome lilies (Lilium catesbei) and around the depressions or ponds in these forest will be spread a mantle of Calopogon, one of the loveliest of terrestrial orchids whose royal purple blossoms fairly dazzle the eye, while in similar situations in Dade County they re replaced by the equally beautiful Bletia."
Of the hammocks, he wrote; "The trees, especially in our younger hammocks, become aerial gardens, carrying such loads of various epiphytes that their branches sometimes break because of the burden. Among these forms are about twenty-three species of orchids, all of which are most curious plants and have remarkable life histories."
And of the aquatic orchids, he wrote: "In a pool two feet deep, dug out along the road, that crossed the swamp, I saw a floating branch of an orchid that was crowned with a long spike of bloom. At first I thought that some one had thrown it into the water but when I apttempted to take it out I found that it was attached to the muddy battom by a mass of long white roots. Undoubtedly this was Habeharia repens and truly aquatic." pp 358.
Almost as a summary on his observations of orchids, Simpson wrote; "In the chapter on the vagaries of vegetation I have said that many plants are doubtless driven from favorable locations by stronger species and are forced to take up with such accommodations as they can find. It is probable that the earliest orchids were terrestrial in open ground of good quality and that wen the crowding began some were forced to ascend trees in the warmer parts of the earth and became true epiphytes. Others such as the Calopogons and Bletias were driven into damp and even muddy soil and here is one actually forced into water to become an aquatic. The pressure on this group of plants has been so strong that it has driven them to the greatest heights and lowest depths." pp358.
Perhaps Simpson doesn't give the orchid its due. Could not it be the other way around? Orchids being an amazingly adaptative species, mutate to take advantage of any niche that remains in the environment and while retaining their basic characteristics for reproduction change vegetative form to go forth and be fruitful. So instead of "retreating" into less desirable areas, they are aggressively taking a foot hold.
Charles Torrey Simpson was an observer, a collector and a writer that provided documentation of the Florida Wilds. Not unlike his American predecessors, Raffinesque, Bartrum, Catlin and Audubon he provides a view and viewpoint well worth a new appraisal, independent from today's environmentalist who are opposed to any and all changes. Unlike social activist, as example the Huxley family, he respected the order of the world that he observed and offered no apologies for the existence of a plan in which man is a part. He got it right, he was a Pantheist.
Out of Doors in Florida, Charles Torrey Simpson, E. B. Douglas Co. Miami, Florida, 1923
Also by Simpson; In Lower Florida Wilds, Florida Wild Life
There is lots more to read about Florida, then and now. Here's a few from my websites:
Applachicola bay oysters,
Indian mounds,
A fictional account of indians and their mounds,
Warm Mineral Springs,
There for the Taking, by James E. Moore,
The Everglades,
Bartram's aligator,
Sarasota's Phillipi creek,
Florida's gopher turtles,
Frogs,
River,
William Bartram,
Cooter (turtles),
Egrets,
Pelicans
Voyage to Matecumbe
In addition here are a group of web pages that are about animals and plants:
Mosquitoes and other bugs,
Ants,
Paddlefish,
Crows,
Stone crabs,
Darwin's fish,
Darwin's goats,
Capons,
Snakes
And a bit more on evolution:
Moths,
Evolution,
Ashfall Nebraska,
Erasmus Darwin,
Vestiges,
Robert Chambers,
Fothergill
And the rest of the United States:
Carolina,
George Catlin,
The Missouri River,
Up the Missouri,
,
,
,
jsw/wp
July 29, 2004
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