THE EVOLUTION OF LIVING BEINGS. 149 



The question of rudimentary organs is of no special 

 significance to us; it only states the fact of the exis- 

 tence of organs which evidently lack something to be- 

 come completely developed, just as the white flowe- 

 red sweetpeas lack a substance, the presence of which 

 would allow them to develop color, and can therefore 

 be described as to be rudimentary colored. 



When we look back on what has been said, it results 

 that it is very difficult to say in a given case whether 

 a form is primitive in its class or reduced, in other 

 words whether it is near to the original hybrid which 

 initiated the group, or further removed from it, because 

 as we have seen, a F 2 generation already can contain 

 types of very different constitution, so that the desig- 

 nation primitive or derived, looses much of its mea- 

 ning. 



In a very general way however, we can say that 

 there is evidence of the non-primitiveness of most 

 of the simpler types, in this sense that the sim- 

 pler types usually are recessive segregates and 

 consequently unable to give rise to new forms, unless 

 crossed. 



It certainly speaks volumes for the genius of Char- 

 les Darwin, that although differing completely from 

 him in my opinion as to the way in which evolution 

 takes place, I can nevertheless conclude this chapter 

 with the very words with which he concluded his 

 corresponding chapter: 



,,Finally the several classes of facts which have been 

 ,,considered in this chapter, seem to me to proclaim so 

 ,,plainly, that the innumerable species, genera and 



