Origin of Species Variorum

Comparison with 1859

pistil are essentially alike in nature. ↑

An organ serving for two purposes, may become rudimentary or utterly aborted for one, even the more important purpose; and remain perfectly efficient for the other. Thus in plants, the office of the pistil is to allow the pollen-tubes to reach the ovules protected in the ovarium at its base. The pistil consists of a stigma supported on the style; but in some Compositæ, the male florets, which of course cannot be fecundated, have a pistil, which is in a rudimentary state, for it is not crowned with a stigma; but the style remains well developed, and is clothed with hairs as in other compositæ, for the purpose of brushing the pollen out of the surrounding anthers. Again, an organ may become rudimentary for its proper purpose, and be used for a distinct object: in certain fish the swim-bladder seems to be rudimentary for its proper function of giving buoyancy, but has become converted into a nascent breathing organ or lung. Other similar instances could be given. ↑

Rudimentary organs in the individuals of the same species are very liable to vary in degree of development and in other respects. Moreover, in closely allied species, the degree to which the same organ has been rendered rudimentary occasionally differs much.

Text in this page (from paragraph 5500, sentence 101 to paragraph 5500, sentence 120, word 10) is not present in 1859

pistil are. .. .. .. .. ↑

An organ serving for two purposes, may become rudimentary or utterly aborted for one, even the more important purpose, and remain perfectly efficient for the other. Thus in plants, the office of the pistil is to allow the pollen-tubes to reach the ovules protected in the ovarium at its base. The pistil consists of a stigma supported on its style; but in some compositæ, the male florets, which of course cannot be fecundated, have a pistil, which is in a rudimentary state, for it is not crowned with a stigma; but the style remains well developed, and is clothed with hairs as in other compositæ, for the purpose of brushing the pollen out of the surrounding and conjoined anthers. Again, an organ may become rudimentary for its proper purpose, and be used for a distinct object: in certain fish the swim-bladder seems to be nearly rudimentary for its proper function of giving buoyancy, but has become converted into a nascent breathing organ or lung. Other similar instances could be given.

Organs, however little developed, if of use, should not be called rudimentary: they may be called nascent, and may hereafter be developed by natural selection to any further extent. Rudimentary organs, on the other hand, are essentially useless, as teeth which never cut through the gums. ↑ As they would be of still less use, when in a still less developed condition, they cannot under the present state of things have been formed by natural selection, which .. acts solely by the preservation of useful modifications. They relate to a former condition of their possessor, and have been .. retained, as we shall see, by inheritance. It is difficult to know what organs are nascent; looking to the future, we cannot of course tell how any part will be developed, and whether it is now in a nascent condition; looking to the past, creatures with an organ in a nascent