96 VARIATIONS, DUE TO REVERSION. 



If characters may thus lie latent, "without our being 

 able to detect the least signs of their presence," where- 

 in consists the force of the only objection to ascribing 

 characters to Reversion? namely, that the species, 

 under nature, was "never known, by man, to have 

 had characters, similar to those arising by variation? 



On page 67, Vol. ii, Animals and Plants, &c, he 

 says: 



"Finally, we have seen that characters often reap- 

 pear in purely-bred races, without our being able to 

 assign any proximate cause; but when they become 

 feral, this is either indirectly or, directly induced by 

 the change in their conditions of life. With cross- 

 breeds, the act of crossing, in itself certainly leads to 

 the recovery of long-lost characters, as well as of 

 those derived from either parent form. Changed 

 conditions, consequent on cultivation, and the rela- 

 tive position of buds, flowers, and seeds on the plant, 

 all apparently aid in giving this same tendency. Re- 

 version may occur, either through seminal or bud 

 generation, generally at birth, but sometimes only 

 with an advance of age. Segments, or portions of 

 the individual, may alone be thus affected. That a 

 being should be born resembling in certain charac- 

 ters, an ancestor removed by two or three, and in 

 some cases, by hundreds or even thousands of gen- 

 erations, is assuredly a wonderful fact. In these cases, 

 the child is commonly said to inherit such characters 

 directly from its grandparents, or more remote an- 

 cestors. But, this view is hardly conceivable. If, 

 however, we suppose that every character is derived 

 exclusively from the father or mother, but that many 

 characters lie latent in both parents, during a long 

 succession of generations, the foregoing facts are in- 

 telligible." 



