CHAP. L] UNCONSCIOUS SELECTION. 25 



from the original stock of Mr. Bakewell for upwards of fifty years. 

 There is not a suspicion existing in the mind of any one at all 

 acquainted with the subject, that the owner of either of them has 

 deviated in any one instance from the pure blood of Mr. Bakewell's 

 flock, and yet the difference between the sheep possessed by these 

 two gentlemen is so great that they have the appearance of being 

 quite different varieties." 



If there exist savages so barbarous as never to think of the 

 inherited character of the offspring of their domestic animals, yet 

 any one animal particularly useful to them, for any special pur- 

 pose, would be carefully preserved during famines and other acci- 

 dents, to which savages are so liable, and such choice animals 

 would thus generally leave more offspring than the inferior ones ; 

 so that in this case there would be a kind of unconscious selection 

 going on. We see the value set on animals even by the barbarians 

 of Tierra del Fuego,by their killing and devouring their old women, 

 in times of dearth, as of less value than their dogs. 



In plants the same gradual process of improvement, through the 

 occasional preservation of the best individuals, whether or not 

 sufficiently distinct to be ranked at their first appearance as dis- 

 tinct varieties, and whether or not two or more species or races 

 have become blended together by crossing, may plainly be recog- 

 nised in the increased size and beauty which we now see in the 

 varieties of the heartsease, rose, pelargonium, dahlia, and other 

 plants, when compared with the older varieties or with their 

 parent-stocks. No one would ever expect to get a first-rate hearts- 

 ease or dahlia from the seed of a wild plant. No one would expect 

 to raise a first-rate melting pear from the seed of the "wild pear, 

 though he might succeed from a poor seedling growing wild, if it 

 had come from a garden-stock. The pear though cultivated in 

 classical times, appears, from Pliny's description, to have been a 

 fruit of very inferior quality. I have seen great surprise expressed 

 in horticultural works at the wonderful skill of gardeners, in 

 having produced such splendid results from such poor materials ; 

 but the art has been simple, and, as far as the final result is con- 

 cerned, has been followed almost unconsciously. It has consisted 

 in always cultivating the best-known variety, sowing its seeds, and, 

 when a slightly better variety chanced to appear, selecting it, and 

 so onwards. But the gardeners of the classical period, who culti- 

 vated the best pears which they could procure, never thought what 

 splendid fruit we should eat ; though we owe our excellent fruit in 

 some small degree, to their having naturally chosen and preserved 

 the best varieties they could anywhere find. 



A large amount of change, thus slowly and unconsciously ac- 

 cumulated, explains, as I believe, the well-known fact, that in a 

 number of cases we cannot recognise, and therefore do not know, 



