Origin of Species Variorum

→ such as the cardoon and a tall thistle, now most numerous 1860 1861

now most numerous 1859

such as the cardoon, and a tall thistle, now most numerous 1866 1869

such as the cardoon and a tall thistle, which are now the commonest 1872

→ In such cases the 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

Their 1872

→ of naturalised productions 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

OMIT 1872

→ plant 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

full-grown plant annually 1872

→ forget 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

do not keep in mind 1872

introduced plants which have become common throughout whole islands in a period of less than ten years. Several of the

plants

plants,

→such as the cardoon and a tall thistle, now most numerous over the wide plains of La Plata, clothing square leagues of surface almost to the exclusion of

every

all

other

plant,

plants,

have been introduced from Europe; and there are plants which now range in India, as I hear from Dr. Falconer, from Cape Comorin to the Himalaya, which have been imported from America since its discovery. In such cases, and endless

others

instances

could be given, no one

supposes,

supposes

that the fertility of

the

these

animals or plants has been suddenly and temporarily increased in any sensible degree. The obvious explanation is that the conditions of life have been

highly

very

favourable, and that there has consequently been less destruction of the old and young, and that nearly all the young have been enabled to breed. →In such cases the geometrical ratio of increase, the result of which never fails to be surprising, simply explains

their

the

extraordinarily rapid increase and wide diffusion →of naturalised productions in their new homes.

In a state of nature almost every →plant produces seed, and amongst animals there are very few which do not annually pair. Hence we may confidently assert, that all plants and animals are tending to increase at a geometrical

ratio,— that

ratio,—that

ratio, that

all would

~~most~~

most

rapidly stock every station in which they could any how

exist,— and

exist,—and

exist, and

that

this

the

geometrical tendency to increase must be checked by destruction at some period of life. Our familiarity with the larger domestic animals tends, I think, to mislead us: we see no great destruction falling on them,

but

and

we →forget that thousands are annually slaughtered for food, and that in a state of nature an equal number would have somehow to be disposed of.

The only difference between organisms which annually