Origin of Species Variorum

→ characteristics. 1860 1861 1866 1869 1872

characteristics. This is represented in the diagram by the letter F 14 . 1859

→ F 14 . 1860 1866 1872

F 14 1861 1869

→ a 10 , 1872

a 10 , 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

→ m 6 , 1872

m 6 , 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

→ consider as intermediate 1872

call 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

→ OMIT 1872

together, intermediate in character, 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

→ partly justified, for 1872

justified, as 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

→ of the families (those 1866 1869 1872

families 1859 1860 1861

→ a 14 , 1859 1860 1861 1866 1872

a 14 , 1869

→ b 14 , 1859 1860 1861 1866 1872

b 14 , 1869

→ there would remain two families, which would be less distinct from each other than they were before the discovery of the fossils. 1866 1869 1872

the two other families (namely, a 14 to f 14 now including five genera, and o 14 to m 14 ) would yet remain distinct. 1859 1860 1861

→ ( a 14 1872

( a 14 1869

→ m 14 ), 1872

m 14 ), 1869

→ half-a-dozen 1872

half a dozen 1869

↑ 1 blocks not present in 1866 1869 1872; present in 1859 1860 1861

These two families, however, would be less distinct from each other than they were before the discovery of the fossils.

→ a greater or less 1872

some slight 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

on the descendants from a species being thus enabled to seize on many and different places in the economy of nature. Therefore it is quite possible, as we have seen in the case of some Silurian forms, that a species might go on being slightly modified in relation to its slightly altered conditions of life, and yet retain throughout a vast period the same general →characteristics. This is represented in the diagram by the letter → F 14 .

All the many forms, extinct and recent, descended from

(A),

make, as before remarked, one order; and this order, from the continued effects of extinction and divergence of character, has become divided into several sub-families and families, some of which are supposed to have perished at different periods, and some to have endured to the present day.

By looking at the diagram we can see that if many of the extinct

forms,

forms

supposed to be

embedded

imbedded

in the successive formations, were discovered at several points low down in the series, the three existing families on the uppermost line would be rendered less distinct from each other. If, for instance, the genera a 1 , a 5 , → a 10 , f 8 , m 3 , → m 6 , m 9 , were

distinterred,

disinterred,

these three families would be so closely linked together that they probably would have to be united into one great family, in nearly the same manner as has occurred with ruminants and

pachyderms.

certain pachyderms.

Yet he who objected to →consider as intermediate the extinct

genera

genera,

which thus

linked

link together

the living genera of three

families

families,

→OMIT would be →partly justified, for they are intermediate, not directly, but only by a long and circuitous course through many widely different forms. If many extinct forms were to be discovered above one of the middle horizontal lines or geological formations— for instance, above No. VI.— but none from beneath

his

this

line, then only

the

....

two →of the families (those on the left

hand

hand,

(namely,

....

→ a 14 , &c., and → b 14 , &c.) would have to be united into

one

one;

family;

....

and →there would remain two families, which would be less distinct from each other than they were before the discovery of the fossils. So

again,

again

if the three families formed of eight genera → ( a 14 to → m 14 ), on the uppermost line, be supposed to differ from each other by →half-a-dozen important characters, then the families which existed at the period marked VI. would certainly have differed from each other by a less number of characters; for they would at this early stage of descent have diverged in a less degree from their common progenitor. ↑ Thus it comes that ancient and extinct genera are often in →a greater or less degree intermediate in

cha- racter

character

between their modified descendants, or between their collateral relations.

Under

nature the

case

process

will be far more complicated than is