6 ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



sons have assured me that they have seen some as big as 

 their Fist." 



This conception of the transformation of barnacles into 

 geese, remarkable as it was recognized to be, was still 

 accepted among scientific men for a long time. And why 

 should not we gather figs from thistles ? why should not 

 plants give rise to animals as the Greek philosophers be- 

 lieved? That they do not do so is really a remarkable 

 fact which no one without experience of nature could safely 

 have predicted. 



We, however, have had sufficient experience of nature 

 to affirm with confidence that animals and plants do breed 

 true. The statement needs no proof to our minds. 



We can go farther and say that not only do plants and 

 animals, when they reproduce, give rise to young which 

 belong to the same species as their parents; the young 

 resemble usually the particular individuals from which 

 they have sprung. This is a fact perfectly familiar to 

 breeders. Among domestic cattle, for example, the off- 

 spring resemble their parents in such qualities as size, form, 

 color, amount and quality of milk, in disposition, in fact in 

 all features which we can observe. The same is true of 

 all our domestic animals, and no less true of cultivated 

 plants, and of both plants and animals in their natural 

 habitat. 



We can accept, then, without further discussion, the 

 statement that plants and animals (all living things) breed 

 true; that offspring tend to resemble their parents in both 

 specific characters and individual peculiarities. This rela- 

 tion between parent and offspring we have named heredity. 



