All tJie Articles of i\e Darwin FaitJt. 5 



any one species of plant is a proof that permanent so-called 

 species are thus produced, although I see that the varieties 

 if left for many generations in a poor soil would to a large 

 extent by degrees, and in the end wholly, revert to the 

 form of the wild aboriginal stock. 



I believe that I am using an able and sensible argument 

 in saying that the misletoe may metaphorically be said to 

 struggle with other fruit-bearing plants in order to tempt 

 birds to devour and thus disseminate its seeds rather than 

 those of other plants. 



I believe that the eye of every living creature was 

 produced by natural selection, although in some species 

 it consists of 4,000 lenses, in others 12,000, 17,000, or 

 25,000, and in others of various other vast numbers. 



I believe that my theory is right, although I allow that 

 according to it " all nature " ought to be " in confusion " 

 instead of the species being, as we see them, "well 

 defined." (Darwin). 



I believe "there seems to me no great difficulty in believ- 

 ing " (Darwin) that the swim-bladder in fishes " though 

 originally constructed for one purpose," has been " actually 

 converted " " into a lung or organ used exclusively for 

 respiration." 



