f 



ed 



i 



.f 



Ch. XXXVI.] ANTIQUITY OF AETIFICIALLY POEMED EACES. 285 



suing this course lie lias by no means confined liis attention 

 to plants and animals wliicli minister to liis wants, but lie lias 



& 



simply tor liis amuse 



ment, trying liow far lie could alter certain species — tlie pigeon, 

 for example, or some flowering plants such as the rose. 



The opponents of the doctrine of transmutation have 

 always objected to arguments founded on the results of such 

 experiments, that, in spite of tlie__ skill and perseverance of the 



o 



man 



giving origin to one new species. For however far some of 

 the new races may have diverged from the parent stock 

 or from each other, they have always continued to breed 

 freely together and produce fertile offspring, whereas the 

 hybrids which result from the unioii of two distinct species 

 in nature are always sterile. 



Before we can decide 



on the weight 



which we must 



attach to such an objection, we must consider not only the 

 nature and extent of the changes which have been effected in 

 species under domestication and culture, but also the facility 

 of obtaining hybrid plants and animals of wild species, and 

 the different degrees of sterihty of the hybrids when obtained. 

 The whole subject of the variation of domesticated animals 

 and cultivated plants has been lately treated of, with so much 



Mr 



in a new work 



ability and 



just published,-^ that I cannot do better than refer the 

 reader to his clear statements of the facts and of their bearing 

 on his theory of the ' Origin of Species.' In this chapter, 

 besides repeating much that I advanced in former editions,' 

 I shall allude briefly to some of the valuable observations 

 and experiments which he has made, and the theoretical 

 conclusions to which they point. 



)/ some artificially formed 



The ex- 



plorations so actively carried on within the last fifteen 

 years in the Swiss lake-dwellings, and an examination 

 o± the remains of animals and plants there preserved, have 

 shown that domesticated races of the dog, the ox, and the 



I oi many 



]SJ"eolithic 



* The Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication : 1867. 



