Origin of Species Variorum

There is, also, some reason to believe from geological evidence that organisms low in the scale within each great class, generally change at a slower rate than the higher forms; and consequently the lower forms will have had a better chance of ranging widely and of still retaining the same specific character. This fact, together with the seeds and eggs of many low forms being very minute and better fitted for distant transportation, probably accounts for a law which has long been observed, and which has lately been admirably discussed by Alph. de Candolle in regard to plants, namely, that the lower any group of organisms is, the more widely it is apt to range.

The relations just discussed,— namely, low and slowly-changing organisms ranging more widely than the high,— some of the species of widely-ranging genera themselves ranging widely,— such facts, as alpine, lacustrine, and marsh productions being related (with the exceptions before specified) to those on the surrounding low lands and dry lands, though these stations are so different,— the very close relation of the distinct species which inhabit the islets of the same archipelago,— and especially the striking relation of the inhabitants of each whole archipelago or island to those of the nearest mainland,— are, I think, utterly inexplicable on the ordinary view of the independent creation of each species, but are explicable on the view of colonisation from the nearest or readiest source, together with the subsequent modification and better adaptation of the colonists to their new homes.

Summary of last and present Chapters .—

In these chapters I have endeavoured to show, that if we make due allowance for our ignorance of the full effects of all the