208 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 
very hairy then become glabrous, or almost so; many 
of those which were creeping and trailing, then be- 
come erect ; others lose their spines or their prickles ; 
others still, from the woody and perennial condition 
which their stem possesses in a warm climate, pass, 
in our climate, into an herbaceous condition, and 
among these several are nothing more than annual 
plants; finally, the dimensions of their parts them- 
selves undergo very considerable changes. These 
effects of changes of circumstances are so well known 
that botanists prefer not to describe garden plants, at 
least only those which have been newly cultivated. 
“Ts not cultivated wheat (77ztccum sativum) only 
a plant brought by man into the condition in which 
we actually see it? Whocan tell me in what coun- 
try such a plant lives in a state of nature—that is to 
say, without being there the result of its culture in 
some neighboring region? 
“‘ Where occur in nature our cabbage, lettuce, etc., 
in the condition in which we see them in our kitchen- 
gardens? Is it not the same as regards a number of 
animals which domestication has changed or con- 
siderably modified ? 
‘What very different races among our fowls and 
domestic pigeons, which we have obtained by raising 
them in different circumstances and in different coun- 
tries, and how vainly do we now endeavor to re- 
discover them in nature! 
‘“Those which are the least changed, without doubt 
by a more recent process of domestication, and be- 
cause they do not live in a climate which is foreign to 
them, do not the less possess, in the condition of 
some of their parts, great differences produced by the 
habits which we have made them contract. Thus our 
ducks and our domestic geese trace back their type 
to the wild ducks and geese; but ours have lost the 
power of rising into the high regions of the air, and 
of flying over extensive regions; finally, a decided 
