THE 



VARIATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



UNDER DOMESTICATION. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



INHERITANCE continued — REVERSION OR ATAVISM. 



DIFFERENT FORMS OF REVERSION — IN PURE OR UNCROSSED BREEDS, AS IN 

 PIGEONS, FOWLS, HORNLESS CATTLE AND SHEEP, IN CULTIVATED PLANTS 



REVERSION IN FERAL ANIMALS AND PLANTS — REVERSION IN CROSSED 



VARIETIES AND SPECIES — REVERSION THROUGH BUD-PROPAGATION, AND 

 BY SEGMENTS IN THE SAME FLOWER OR FRUIT — IN DIFFERENT PARTS 

 OF THE BODY IN THE SAME ANIMAL — THE ACT OF CROSSING A DIRECT 

 CAUSE OF REVERSION, VARIOUS CASES OF, WITH INSTINCTS — OTHER 



PROXIMATE CAUSES OF REVERSION LATENT CHARACTERS SECONDARY 



SEXUAL CHARACTERS — UNEQUAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TWO SIDES OF 

 THE BODY — APPEARANCE WITH ADVANCING AGE OF CHARACTERS DERIVED 

 FROM A CROSS — THE GERM, WITH ALL ITS LATENT CHARACTERS, A 

 WONDERFUL OBJECT — MONSTROSITIES — PELORIC FLOWERS DUE IN SOME 

 CASES TO REVERSION. 



The great principle of inlieritance to be discussed in this 

 chapter has been recognised by agriculturists and authors of 

 various nations, as shown by the scientific term Atavism, de- 

 rived from atavus, an ancestor; by the English terms of 

 Meversion, or Throidng-hach ; by the French Pas-en-Arriere ; 

 and by the German MiXckschlag, or Muckschritt. When the 

 child resembles either grandparent more closely than its 

 immediate parents, our attention is not much arrested, though 

 in truth the fact is highly remarkable ; but when the child 

 resembles some remote ancestor or some distant member in a 

 collateral line, — and in the last case we must attribute this to 

 the descent of all the members from a common progenitor, — 

 we feel a just degree of astonishment. When one parent 

 alone displays some newly-acquired and generally inheritable 



