Divergence of Character 
that in the course of evolution, species have 
not been transmuted in linear series instead of 
ramifying into branches? This ramification of 
a species into branches has been termed by 
Romanes Zolytyfic evolution. It is easy to see 
how natural selection can bring about monotypic 
evolution, but how can it have effected polytypic 
evolution? To use Darwin’s phraseology, how 
is it that divergence of character has come about ? 
Darwin’s reply to this question is (Origin of 
Species, p. 136), “from the simple circumstance that 
the more diversified the descendants from any 
one species become in structure, constitution, and 
habits, by so much will they be better enabled to 
seize on many and widely diversified places in the 
polity of nature, and so be enabled to increase in 
numbers. 
“We can clearly discern this in the case of 
animals with simple habits. Take the case of a 
carnivorous quadruped, of which the number that 
can be supported in any country has long ago 
arrived at its full average. If its natural power 
of increase be allowed to act, it can succeed in 
increasing (the country not undergoing any 
change in its conditions) only by its varying 
descendants seizing on places at present occupied 
by other animals: some of them, for instance, 
being enabled to feed on new kinds of prey, 
either dead or alive; some inhabiting new 
stations, climbing trees, frequenting water, and 
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