DARWINISM. 15 



is clear from this, that all the remarkable changes have 

 taken place in those particular qualities which man 

 has valued, leaving the other qualities comparatively 

 unaltered. Let it be speed, size, taste, colour, form, 

 temper, the coat, the feathers, the flesh, the muscular 

 strength, the powers of endurance ; in a vegetable, let 

 it be the root, the stem/ the leaf, the flower, the fruit, 

 the seed, let it be what it will that is of value, that 

 part and that character have been in each case most 

 highly developed. To take a few examples : You are 

 fond of peas, and you sow in your garden what your 

 seedsman tells you are the finest new varieties ; you like 

 strawberries, you admire roses, you fancy a good cab- 

 bage, you are particular about having a mealy potato ; 

 so in each case you plant what you understand to be 

 the best new kinds. What will you say if it turns out 

 that the roses have improved in their roots but not in 

 the bloom, and the potatoes in the bloom but not in 

 their tubers ; that the strawberries have remarkably fine 

 leaves but very small fruit; that the peas and the 

 cabbages have indeed enormous stems, while the seed 

 of the one and the leaf of the other are insignificant 

 in size and tasteless to the palate? So, too, if you 

 purchase a race-horse and a pig from the most noted 

 breeders of those animals, will you not be disgusted 

 if it turns out that the horse has a remarkable pro- 

 pensity for fattening, while the pig is distinguished 

 by nothing but its extreme fleetness of foot? These 

 disappointments do not occur, because the variations 

 of domesticated plants and animals are selected by 



