of the Permanence of Varieties. lil.'j 



presumption has been raised under wliicli tlic evidence would 

 take a bias the otlier way. There is now in the minds of scien- 

 tific men some reason to expect that certain varieties would 

 die out in the long run ; and this might have an important 

 influence upon the interpretation of the facts that would be 

 brought forward. Curiously enough, however, the recent dis- 

 cussions to which our attention has been called seem, on both 

 sides, to have overlooked this matter. 



But, first of all, the question needs to be more specifically 

 stated if any good is to come from a discussion of it. There 

 are varieties and varieties. Tliey may, some of them, disap- 

 pear or deteriorate, but yet not wear out — not come to an end 

 from any inherent cause. One might even say, the younger 

 they are the less the chance of survival unless well-cared for. 

 They may be smothered out by the adverse force of superior 

 numbers ; they are even more likely to be bred out of exist- 

 ence by unprevented cross-fertilization, or to disappear from 

 mere change of fashion. The question, however, is not so much 

 about reversion to an ancestral state, or the falling off of a high- 

 bred stock into an inferior condition. Of such cases it is enough 

 to say that, when a variety or strain, of animal or vegetable, 

 is led up to unusual fecundity, or size or product of any 

 organ, for our good, and not for the good of the plant or ani- 

 mal itself, it can be kept so only by high feeding and excej> 

 tional care — and that with high feeding and artificial appliances 

 come vastly increased liability to disease, which may practically 

 annihilate the race. But then the race, like the burst boiler, 

 could not be said to wear out ; while if left to ordinary condi- 

 tions, and allowed to degenerate back into a more natural, if 

 less useful state, its hold on life would evidently be increased 

 rather than diminished. 



As to natural varieties or races under normal conditions, sex- 

 ually propagated, it could readily be shown that they are neither 

 more nor less likely to disappear from any inherent cause than 

 the species from which they originated. Whether species wear 

 out, i. e. have their rise, culmination, and decline from any 

 inherent cause, is wholly a geological and very speculative 

 problem, upon which, indeed, only vague conjectures can be 

 offered. The matter actually under discussion concerns culti- 

 vated domesticated varieties only, and, as to plants, is covered 

 by two questions. 



First, will races propagatedhy seed^ being so fixed that they 

 come true to seed, and purely bred (not crossed with any other 

 sort), continue so indefinitely, or loill they run out in time — not 

 die out, perhaps, but lose their distinguishing characters? Upon 

 this, all we are able to say is that we know no reason why they 



