VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION 61 



foll)wed; fcT hardly a.xxy cne is lio careless as to breed 

 from his worst animals. 



In regard to plants, there is another means of observ- 

 ing the accumulated effects of selection — namely, by com- 

 paring the diversity of flowers in the different varieties 

 of the same species in the flower-garden; the diversity of 

 leaves, pods, or tubers, or whatever part is valued, in the 

 kitchen-garden, in comparison with the flowers of the 

 same varieties; and the diversity of fruit of the same 

 species in the orchard, in comparison with the leaves and 

 flowers of the same set of varieties. See how different 

 the leaves of the cabbage are, and how extremely alike 

 the flowers; how unlike the flowers of the heart's-ease are, 

 and how alike the leaves; how much the fruit of the 

 different kinds of gooseberries differ in size, color, shape 

 and hairiness, and yet the flowers present very slight dif- 

 ferences. It is not that the varieties which differ largely 

 in some one point do not differ at all in other pointsj 

 this is hardly ever — I speak after careful observation — 

 perhaps never, the case. The law of correlated variation, 

 the importance of which should never be overlooked, will 

 insure some differences; but, as a general rule, it cannot be 

 doubted that the continued selection of slight variations, 

 either in the leaves, the flowers, or the fruit, will produce 

 |] races differing from each other chiefly in these characters. 



It may be objected that the principle of selection has 

 been reduced to methodical practice for scarcely more 

 than three-quarters of a century; it has certainly been 

 more attended to of late years, and many treatises have 

 been published on the subject; and the result has been, 

 in a corresponding degree, rapid and important. But it 

 is very far from true that the principle is a modern dis- 



