SELECTION BY MAX. **t 



br 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, color, 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 law of corre- 

 lated variation, the importance of which should never be 

 overlooked, will insure some differences ; but, as a general 

 rule, it cannot be doubted that the continued selection of 

 slight variations, either in the leaves, the flowers, or the 

 fruit, will produce races differing from each other chiefly in 

 these characters. 



It may be objected that the principle of selection has 

 been reduced to methodical practice for scarcely more than 

 three-quarters of a century ; it has certainly been more 

 attended to of late years, and many treatises have been pub- 

 lished on the subject ; and the result has been, in a corre- 

 sponding degree, rapid and important. But it is very far 

 from true that the principle is a modern discovery. I could 

 give several references to works of high antiquity, in which 

 the full importance of the principle is acknowledged. In 

 rude and barbarous periods of English history choice animals 

 were often imported, and laws were passed to prevent 

 their exportation : the destruction of horses under a cer- 

 tain size was ordered, and this may be compared to the 

 " roguing " of plants by nurserymen. The principle of 

 selection I find distinctly given in an ancient Chinese ency- 

 clopaedia. Explicit rules are laid down by some of the 

 Roman classical writers. From passages in Genesis, it is 

 clear that the color of domestic animals was at that early 

 period attended to. Savages now sometimes cross their 

 dogs with wild canine animals, to improve the breed, and 

 they formerly did so, as is attested by passages in Pliny. 

 The savages in South Africa match their draught cattle by 

 color, as do some of the Esquimaux their team of dogs- 

 Livingstone states that good domestic breeds are highly 

 valued by the negroes in the interior of Africa who have 



