324 Darwin, and after Darwin. 



advantage of, and still further modified, for the good of 

 species under new conditions of life." Obviously, there- 

 fore, the inutility in such cases is taken to have been prior 

 to any utility subsequently acquired; and genera are not 

 historically prior to the species in which they originate. 

 Here is another quotation: 



" Thus, as I am inclined to believe, morphological differences, 

 which we consider as important such as the arrangement of 

 the leaves, the divisions of the flower or of the ovarium, the 

 position of the ovules, &c. first appeared in many cases as 

 fluctuating variations, which sooner or later became constant 

 through the nature of the organism and of the surrounding 

 conditions, as well as through the intercrossing of distinct in- 

 dividuals, but not through natural selection ; for as these 

 morphological characters do not affect the welfare of the 

 species, any slight deviations in them could not have been 

 governed or accumulated through this latter agency. It is a 

 strange result which we thus arrive at, namely, that characters 

 of slight vital importance to the species, are the most im- 

 portant to the systematist ; but, as we shall hereafter see when 

 we treat of the genetic principle of classification, this is by 

 no means so paradoxical as it may at first appear V 



Clearly the view here expressed is that characters which 

 are now distinctive of higher taxonomic divisions "first 

 appeared " in the parent species of such divisions ; for 

 not only would it be unreasonable to attribute the rise and 

 preservation of useless characters to " fluctuating variations " 

 affecting a number of species or genera similarly and simul- 

 taneously ; but it would be impossible that, if such were the 

 case, they could be rendered "constant through the nature 

 of the organism and of the surrounding conditions, as well as 

 through the intercrossing of distinct individuals V 



1 Descent of Man, p. 176. 



' The passage to which these remarks apply is likewise quoted, 

 in the same connexion as above, in my paper on Physiological Selection. 



