108 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



more and more pollen, and had larger anthers, would 

 be selected. 



When our plant, by the abore process long continued, 

 had been rendered highly attractive to insects, they Tould, 

 unintentionally on their part, regularly carry poUen from 

 flower to flower. 



DIVEKaENCB OF CHABACTER. 



According to my view, varieties are species 

 ° ' in the process of formation, or are, as I have 

 called them, incipient species. How, then, does the 

 lesser difference between varieties become augmented into 

 the greater difference between species ? That this does 

 habitually happen, we must infer from most of the in- 

 numerable species throughout nature presenting well- 

 marked differences ; whereas varieties, the supposed pro- 

 totypes and parents of future well-marked species, pre- 

 sent slight and ill-defined differences. Mere chance, as 

 we may call it, might cause one variety to differ in some 

 character from its parents, and the offspring of this va- 

 riety again to differ from its parent in the very same 

 character and in a greater degree ; but this alone would 

 never account for so habitual and large a degree of 

 difference as that between the species of the same 

 genus. 



As has always been my practice, I have sought light 

 on this head from our domestic productions. We shall 

 here find something analogous. It will be admitted that 

 the production of races so different as short-horn and 

 Hereford cattle, race and cart horses, the several breeds 

 of pigeons, etc., could never have been effected by the 

 mere chance accumulation of similar variations during 

 many successive generations. In practice, a fancier is. 



