The Effects of Chance 



in Plants : " As the whole of the animal kingdom 

 ultimately lives upon the vegetable, plants must 

 supply the entire quantity of food supplied, not 

 to add innumerable vegetable parasites as well, 

 for both young and old. Myriads of germinating 

 seeds perish accordingly, being destroyed by slugs 

 and other mollusca, and 'mildews/ etc. But far 

 more seeds and spores about 50,000.000 of 

 these it is calculated can be borne in a single 

 male-fern never germinate at all. They fall 

 where the conditions of life are unfavourable 

 and perish. This misfortune is not due to 

 any inadaptiveness in themselves, but to the 

 surrounding conditions which will not let them 

 germinate. Thus thousands of acorns and other 

 fruits, as of elder, drop upon the ground in and 

 by our hedges, road-sides, copses, and elsewhere ; 

 but scarcely any or even no seedlings are to be 

 seen round the trees." 



Every year thousands of birds perish in the 

 great migratory flight, others succumb in a 

 cyclone, a fierce tropical storm, a prolonged 

 drought, a severe frost. Here death overtakes 

 multitudes, all that dwell in a locality, the weak 

 and the strong, the swift and the slow alike. 



This objection may be met by saying that in 

 the long run it is the fittest that will survive. 

 This is true. The objection is nevertheless of 

 importance in showing how exceedingly uncertain 

 must be the action of natural selection if it have but 

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