| → so in some 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| been so in several 1872 |
|
| → — I speak after careful observation, — perhaps 1866 1869 1872 |
| perhaps 1859 1860 |
| I speak after careful observation, perhaps 1861 |
|
|
We have proofs that this
not
→so in some
in which exact records have been kept; thus, to give a very trifling instance, the steadily-increasing size of the common gooseberry may be quoted. We see an astonishing improvement in many
flowers, when the flowers of the present day are compared with drawings made only twenty or thirty years ago. When a race of plants is once pretty well established, the seed-raisers do not pick out the best plants, but merely go over their seed-beds, and pull up the "rogues," as they call the plants that deviate from the proper standard. With animals this kind of selection is, in fact,
followed; for hardly any one is so careless as to
his worst
|
|
| In regard to plants, there is another means of observing the accumulated effects of selection — namely, by comparing the diversity of flowers in the different varieties of the same species in the flower-garden; the diversity of leaves, pods, or tubers, or whatever part is valued, in the kitchen-garden, in comparison with the flowers of the same varieties; and the diversity of fruit of the same species in the orchard, in comparison with the leaves and flowers of the same set of varieties. See how different the leaves of the cabbage are, and how extremely alike the flowers; how unlike the flowers of the heartsease are, and how alike the leaves; how much the fruit of the different kinds of gooseberries differ in size, colour, shape, and hairiness, and yet the flowers present very slight differences. It is not that the varieties which differ largely in some one point do not differ at all in other points; this is hardly ever,
→— I speak after careful observation, — perhaps
never, the case. The
of
the importance of which should never be overlooked, will ensure some differences; but, as a general rule,
cannot
that
|
