Origin of Species Variorum

Comparison with 1861

at the same time, he justly asks how it is that all the forms of life do not present a fluctuating and inextricably confused body? but it is sufficient for us if some few forms at any one time are variable, and few will dispute that this is the case. He asks, how can it be on the principle of natural selection that a variety should live in abundance side by side with the parent species; for the variety during its formation is supposed to have supplanted the intermediate forms between itself and the parent species, and yet it has not supplanted the parent species itself, for both are supposed now to live side by side? If the variety and parent species have become fitted to slightly different habits of life, they might live together; though in the case of animals which freely cross and move about, varieties seem to be almost always confined to distinct localities. But is it the case that varieties of plants and of the lower animals are often found in abundance side by side with the parent forms? Laying aside the polymorphic species in which the innumerable variations that occur seem neither advantageous nor disadvantageous to the species, and have not been fixed; laying aside also temporary variations, such as albinism, &c., my impression is that varieties and the supposed parent species are generally found, inhabiting either distinct stations, high land or low land, dry or moist districts, or distinct regions.

Again, Professor Bronn truly remarks, that distinct species do not differ from each other in single characters alone, but in many; and he asks, how it comes that natural selection should always have simultaneously affected many parts of the organisation? Probably the whole amount of difference has not been simultaneously effected; and the unknown laws of correlation will certainly account for, but not strictly explain, much simultaneous modification. Anyhow, we see in our domestic varieties the very same fact: though our domestic

at the same time, he justly asks how it is that all the forms of life do not present a fluctuating and inextricably confused body? but it is sufficient for us if some few forms at any one time are variable, and few will dispute that this is the case. He asks, how, ... on the principle of natural selection, can a variety .. live in abundance side by side with the parent-species; for a variety during its formation is supposed to .. supplant the intermediate forms between itself and the parent-species, and yet it has not supplanted even the parent-species, for both now live together? If the variety and parent-species have become fitted for slightly different habits of life, they might live together; though, in the case of animals which freely cross and move about, varieties seem to be almost always confined to distinct localities. But is it the case that varieties of plants and of the lower animals are often found in abundance side by side with the parent-forms? Laying aside .. polymorphic species, in which .. innumerable variations .. seem neither advantageous nor disadvantageous to the species, and have not been fixed; laying aside also temporary variations, such as albinism, &c., my impression is that varieties and the supposed parent-species are generally found inhabiting .. distinct stations, high land or low land, dry or moist districts, or distinct regions.