Origin of Species Variorum

the common rule throughout nature is that the same end is gained, even sometimes in the case of beings closely related to each other, by the most diversified means. How differently constructed is the feathered wing of a bird and the membrane-covered wing of a bat with all the digits largely developed; and still more so the four wings of a butterfly, the two wings of a fly, and the two wings of a beetle, together with the elytra. Bivalve shells are made to open and shut, but on what a number of patterns is the hinge constructed, from the long row of neatly interlocking teeth in a Nucula to the simple ligament of a Mussel! Seeds are disseminated by their minuteness,—by their capsule being converted into a light balloon-like envelope,—by being embedded in pulp or flesh, formed of the most diverse parts, and rendered nutritious, as well as conspicuously coloured, so as to attract and be devoured by birds,—by having hooks and grapnels of many kinds and serrated awns, so as to adhere to the fur of quadrupeds,—and by being furnished with wings and plumes, as different in shape as elegant in structure, so as to be wafted by every breeze. I will give one other instance; for this subject of the same end being gained by the most diversified means well deserves attention. Some authors maintain that organic beings have been formed in many ways for the sake of mere variety, almost like toys in a shop, but such a view of nature is incredible. With plants having separated sexes, and with those in which, though hermaphrodites, the pollen does not spontaneously fall on the stigma, some aid is necessary for their fertilisation. With several kinds this is effected by the pollen-grains, which are light and incoherent, .. being blown by the wind through mere chance on to the stigma; and this is the simplest plan which can well be conceived. An almost equally simple,