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We have seen that it is the common, the
and
species, belonging to the larger
→within each class, which
vary most; and these
tend to transmit to their modified offspring that superiority which now makes them dominant in their own countries. Natural selection, as has just been remarked, leads to divergence of character and to much extinction of the less improved and intermediate forms of life. On these principles,
the nature of the
→and the generally well-defined distinctions of the innumerable
organic beings
→in each class throughout the world, may
be explained. It is a truly wonderful fact— the wonder of which we are apt to overlook from familiarity— that all animals and all plants throughout all time and space should be related to each other in
subordinate to
in the manner which we everywhere behold— namely, varieties of the same species most closely
species of the same genus less closely and unequally
forming sections and sub-genera, species of distinct genera much less closely related, and genera related in different degrees, forming
families, orders, sub-classes, and classes. The several subordinate groups in any class cannot be ranked in a single file, but seem
→rather to be
clustered round points, and these round other points, and so on in almost endless cycles.
→If each species has
been independently created,
→OMIT
no explanation
→can be given of this great fact in the classification of all organic beings; but
it is explained through inheritance and the complex action of natural selection, entailing extinction and divergence of character, as we have seen illustrated in the diagram. |
