| → OMIT 1861 1866 1869 1872 |
| on my theory, 1859 1860 |
|
| → from each other far less 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| far less from each other 1872 |
|
| → species and species of the same 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
| OMIT 1869 1872 |
|
| → let us seek 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
| I have sought 1869 1872 |
|
| → variations of a similar character 1861 1866 1869 |
| similar variations 1872 |
|
|
these "were swept away by the short-horns" (I quote the words of an agricultural writer) "as if by some murderous pestilence." |
|
|
| The principle, which I have designated by this term, is of high
→OMIT
and explains, as I believe, several important facts. In the first place, varieties, even strongly-marked ones, though having somewhat of the character of species— as is shown by the hopeless doubts in many cases how to rank them— yet certainly differ
→from each other far less
than do good and distinct species. Nevertheless, according to my view, varieties are species in the process of formation, or are, as I have called them, incipient species. How, then, does the lesser difference between varieties become augmented into the greater difference between species? That this does habitually happen, we must infer from most of the innumerable species throughout nature presenting well-marked differences; whereas varieties, the supposed prototypes and parents of future well-marked species, present slight and ill-defined differences. Mere chance, as we may call it, might cause one variety to differ in some character from its parents, and the offspring of this variety again to differ from its parent in the very same character and in a greater degree; but this alone would never account for so habitual and large
of difference as that between
of the same
→species and species of the same
genus. |
|
| As has always been my practice,
→let us seek
light on this head from our domestic productions. We shall here find something analogous. It will be admitted that the production of races so different as short-horn and Hereford cattle, race and cart horses, the several breeds of pigeons, &c., could never have been effected by the mere chance accumulation of
→variations of a similar character
|
