Origin of Species Variorum

will it be with each subordinate branch of descendants, at each successive stage. If, however, we suppose any descendant of A or of I to have been so much modified as to have lost all traces of its parentage, in this case, its place in the natural system will likewise be lost,— as seems to have occurred with some few existing organisms. All the descendants of the genus F, along its whole line of descent, are supposed to have been but little modified, and they .. form a single genus. ↑ But this genus, though much isolated, will still occupy its proper intermediate position. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. This natural arrangement is shown in the diagram as far as is possible on paper, ... but in much too simple a manner. If a branching diagram had not been used, and only the names of the groups had been written in a linear series, it would have been still less possible to have given a natural arrangement; and it is notoriously not possible to represent in a series, on a flat surface, the affinities which we discover in nature amongst the beings of the same group. Thus, on the view which I hold, the natural system is genealogical in its arrangement, like a pedigree; but the amount of modification which the different groups have undergone has to be expressed by ranking them under different so-called genera, sub-families, families, sections, orders, and classes.

It may be worth while to illustrate this view of classification, by taking the case of languages. If we possessed a perfect pedigree of mankind, a genealogical arrangement of the races of man would afford the best classification of the various languages now spoken throughout the world; and if all extinct languages, and all intermediate and slowly changing dialects, had to be included, such an arrangement would .. be the only possible one. Yet it might be that some ancient languages had altered very little and had given rise to few