LAW OP VARIATIONS. 41 



in illustrating the many phenomena of variation, has 

 adduced a multitude of facts, showing reversion, cor- 

 relation, crossing, close interbreeding, reproduction, 

 and generation; yet the reader, the breeder, the fancier, 

 the horticulturist, the agriculturist will look in vain to 

 find any one of the facts under either of these heads, 

 explained, or the law of their operation resolved. His 

 theory is confessedly incompetent to explain any of 

 the facts, while numbers of them are irreconcilably at 

 variance with his theory. The sum of his knowledge 

 of them all and each is that they are "peculiar." The 

 facts of variation are "peculiar." The facts of cross- 

 ing are "peculiar." The facts of close interbreeding 

 are "peculiar," the facts of correlation are "peculiar," 

 and the facts of generation are "peculiar." 

 On page 327, Origin of Species, he says : 



" How ignorant we are of the precise causes of 

 sterility:" and, again, "in the presence of all the phe- 

 nomena" (of crossing and close interbreeding) "we 

 must feel how ignorant we are, and how little likely it 

 is that we should understand why certain forms are 

 fertile, and other forms are sterile when crossed." On 

 p. 330, he speaks of " how entirely ignorant we are on 

 the causes of both fertility and sterility." And of the 

 phenomena of Correlation, he says, "this is a very 

 important subject" (p. 170, Origin of Species) "most 

 imperfectly understood." And "the nature of the 

 bond of Correlation" (p. 171, Origin of Species) "is 

 very frequently quite obscure." 



On p. 231, Vol. 2, he says, of the phenomena of 

 Crossing and close interbreeding : 

 "We are far from precisely knowing the cause; nor 



