| → somewhat unlike 1869 1872 |
| not perfectly like 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
|
| → far from rarely 1869 |
| are far from rare 1872 |
|
| → under uniform conditions on the same tree, 1869 |
| on the same tree under uniform conditions, 1872 |
|
|
I could give numerous instances), yet having their reproductive system so seriously affected by unperceived causes as to fail
we need not be surprised at this system, when it does act under confinement, acting
and producing offspring
→somewhat unlike
their
I may add, that as some organisms breed freely under the most unnatural conditions (for instance, rabbits and ferrets kept in hutches), showing that their reproductive organs are not
so will some animals and plants withstand domestication or cultivation, and vary very slightly — perhaps hardly more than in a state of nature. |
|
| Some naturalists have maintained that all variations are connected with the act of sexual reproduction; but this is certainly an error; for I have given in another work a long list of "sporting
as they are called by gardeners; — that is, of plants which have suddenly produced a single bud with a new and sometimes widely different character from that of the other buds on the same plant. These
as they may be named, can be propagated by grafts, offsets, &c., and sometimes by seed. They occur rarely under nature, but
→far from rarely
under culture. As a single bud out of
many
produced year after year
→under uniform conditions on the same tree,
has been known suddenly to assume a new character; and as buds on distinct trees, growing under different conditions, have sometimes yielded nearly the same variety — for instance, buds on peach-trees producing nectarines, and buds on common roses producing moss-roses — we clearly see that the nature of the conditions is of
subordinate importance in comparison with the nature of the organism in determining each particular form of variation; —
not more importance than the nature of the
by which a mass of
|
