→on my theory,
is simply inheritance, that cause which alone, as far as we positively know, produces organisms quite
→or,
as we see in the case of
nearly
→like each other. The dissimilarity of the inhabitants of different regions may be attributed to modification through
→natural
selection, and
→in a quite
subordinate degree to the
influence of different physical conditions. The
of dissimilarity will depend on the migration of the more dominant forms of life from one region into another having been
more or less
at periods more or less remote;— on the nature and number of the former
and on
action
→and reaction, in their mutual struggles for life;—
the relation of organism to organism
→being,
as I have already often remarked, the most important of all relations. Thus the high importance of barriers comes into play by checking migration; as does time for the slow process of modification through natural selection. Widely-ranging species, abounding in individuals, which have already triumphed over many competitors in their own widely-extended
will have the best chance of seizing on new places, when they spread into new countries. In their new homes they will be exposed to new conditions, and will frequently undergo further modification and improvement; and thus they will become still further victorious, and will produce groups of modified descendants. On this principle of inheritance with modification, we can understand how it is that sections of genera, whole genera,
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