34 ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



old women, in times of dearth, as of less value thau 

 their dog's. 



In plants the same gradual process of improvement, 

 through the occasional preservation of the best indi- 

 viduals, whether or not sufficiently distinct to be ranked 

 at their first appearance as distinct varieties, and whethei 

 or not two or more species or races have become 

 blended together by crossing, may plainly be recognised 

 in the increased size and beauty which we now see in the 

 varieties of the heartsease, rose, pelargonium, dahlia, and 

 other plants, when compared with the older varieties or 

 with their parent-stocks. No one would ever expect to 

 get a first-rate heartsease or dahlia from the seed of a 

 wild plant. No one would expect to raise a first-rate 

 melting pear from the seed of the wild pear, though 

 he might succeed from a poor seedling growing wild, 

 if it had come from a garden-stock. The pear, though 

 cultivated in classical times, appears, from Pliny's de- 

 scription, to have been a fruit of very inferior quality. 

 I have seen great surprise expressed in horticultural 

 works at the wonderful skill of gardeners, in having 

 produced such splendid results from such poor materials; 

 but the .art, I cannot doubt, has been simple, and, as 

 far as the final result is concerned, has been followed 

 almost unconsciously. It has consisted in always 

 cultivating the best known variety, sowing its seeds, 

 and, when a slightly better variety has chanced to 

 appear, selecting it, and so onwards. But the 

 gardeners of the classical period, who cultivated the 

 best pear they could procure, never thought what 

 splendid fruit we should eat ; though we owe our 

 excellent fruit, in some small degree, to their having 

 naturally chosen and preserved the best varieties they 

 could anywhere find. 



A large amount of change in our cultivated plants, 

 thus slowly and unconsciously accumulated, explains, 

 as I believe, the well-known fact, that in a vast number 

 of cases we cannot recognise, and therefore do not 

 know, the wild parent-stocks of the plants which have 

 been longest cultivated in our flower and kitchen 



