THE EVOLUTION OF LIVING BEINGS. 85 



the dominant one, the others prove to be recessives 

 in regard to this type. 



And as we find always that the type in the majority 

 in nature, as the dominant one, this dominant type 

 has proved — on our contention that its frequency is 

 due to selection of the most resistant type — to be 

 stronger than the recessives. 



Now although „most resistant" and „strongest" are 

 rather vague expressions, we all know that when we 

 are dealing with organisms from the same region in 

 which our experiment gardens are situated, — which 

 is essential for comparison, because what is most resis- 

 tant in our climate may prove to be least resistant say 

 in the tropics — the recessives usually are b}' far the 

 weaker forms. 



And this also supports Darwin's contention of con- 

 siderable selection taking place in nature. 



But the effect of changed conditions may also 



be the survival of recessives. 



We saw that free intercrossing within the Linneon 

 in nature, must finally cause an impression of unifor- 

 mity, because the hybrids are indistinctible from 

 the favored dominant form and thus are mistaken 

 for the latter. The hybrids among the apparently 

 pure dominants throw recessives only, if they pair with 

 another hybrid, while if they pair with a pure domi- 

 nant, all children have again the aspect of the domi- 

 nants. Even without selection this causes, as we all 

 know, already a considerable majority of the type 

 exhibiting the dominant cahracters, compared to the 

 frequency in which the recessive type occurs; this 



