VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION 65 



served durmg Amines and other accidents, to wliijh 

 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 individ- 

 uals, whether or not sufficiently distinct to be ranked 

 at their first appearance as distmct varieties, and whether 

 or not two or more species or races have become blended 

 together by crossing, may plainly be recognized in the 

 increased size and beauty which we now see in the 

 varieties of the heart's-ease, 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 heart's-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 culti- 

 vated 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 

 concerned, has been followed almost unconsciously. It 

 has consisted in always cultivating the best known 

 variety, sowing its seeds, and, when a slightly better 



