( "ii ) 



" Bcc. 18, [1862.] 

 " Do you mean to say that Gartner lied, after experiments 

 by the hundred (and he a hostile witness), when he showed 

 that this was the case with Verbascuni and witli maize (and 

 here you have selected races) : does Kolreuter lie when he 

 speaks about the varieties of tobacco 1 My God, is not the 

 case difficult enough, without its being, as I must think, 

 falsely made more difficult 1 1 believe it is my own fault — 



my d d candour : I ought to have made ten times more 



fuss about these most careful experiments." * 



"[Jan.] 10, [1863.] 

 *' In plants the test of first cross seems as fair as test of 

 sterility of hybrids, and this latter test applies, I will maintain 

 to the death, to the crossing of varieties of Verbascum, and 

 varieties, selected varieties, of Zea. You will say, Go to 

 the Devil and hold your tongue. No, I will not hold my 

 tongue ; for I must add that after going, for my present 

 book [Variation under Domestication], all through domestic 

 animals, I have come to the conclusion that there are almost 

 certainly several cases of two or three or more species blended 

 together and now perfectly fertile together. Hence I 

 conclude that there must be something in domestication, — 

 perhaps the less stable conditions, the very cause which 

 induces so much variability, — which eliminates the natural 

 sterility of species when crossed. If so, we can see how 

 unlikely that sterility should arise between domestic races. 

 Now I will hold my tongue." t 



Darwin made attempts to "produce physiological species 

 by selection," and thus meet his friend's criticism. He 

 thought out and suggested a plan of experiment to W. B. 

 Tegetmeier,! and gave a brief account of the scheme to 



Huxley, December 28, [1862] : — " I have given him 



[Tegetmeier] the result of my crosses of the birds which he 

 proposes to try, and have told him how alone I think the 

 experiment could be tried with the faintest hope of success — 

 namely, to get, if possible, a case of two birds which when 



* "More Letters," vol. i, p. 230, Letter 156. 



t Ibid. vol. i, pp. 231, 232, Letter 157. 



+ Ibid. vol. i, iip. 223, 224, Letter 153, [1862, Dec] 27. 



