DARWIN AND WALLACE 37 



dividuals, favored by being a little stronger, a little 

 more cunning, a little more attractively colored than 

 their mates, survive to carry on the race. 



The skillful gardener, looking over his flowers, finds 

 a plant of more than ordinary beauty and thrift of 

 growth. When it comes to maturity he keeps its seeds 

 separate from those of the rest and next year plants 

 them by themselves. As they come up he weeds out 

 all unthrifty plants, only allowing the strongest to 

 come to maturity. As they break into bloom he plucks 

 away all whose flowers do not come up to the high 

 standard he has set for himself. After a while he 

 has but a few plants left, but these are the thriftiest 

 and bear the most beautiful flowers. Again he allows 

 these to mature and selects the seed of the very finest. 

 Next year the process is repeated. After a few gen- 

 erations, usually three if the man is skillful enough, 

 he has a definite strain of flowers that will thereafter 

 come true. This is the process of artificial selection 

 as carried on by man. 



Darwin saw that Nature is constantly carrying on 

 a similar process. She produces seeds enough on al- 

 most any plant to clothe the world in a few years if 

 all of them could fall into proper ground and thrive 

 like their parents. A friend of mine found a mullein 

 stalk that bore more than seven hundred seed pods 

 and averaged more than nine hundred seeds to the 



