Chap. I. METHODICAL SELECTION. 33 



kind of selection is, in fact, also followed ; for hardly any- 

 one is so careless as to allow his worst animals to breed. 



In regard to plants, there is another means of observ- 

 ing the accumulated effects of selection — namely, by 

 comparing the diversity of flowers in the different varie- 

 ties of the same species in the flower-garden ; the diversity 

 of leaves, pods, or tubers, or whatever part is valued, in 

 the kitchen-garden, in comparison with the flowers of the 

 same varieties ; and the diversity of fruit of the same 

 species in the orchard, in comparison with the leaves and 

 flowers of the same set of varieties. See how different 

 the leaves of the cabbage are, and how extremely alike 

 the flowers ; how unlike the flowers of the heartsease are, 

 and how alike the leaves ; how much the fruit of the 

 different kinds of gooseberries differ in size, colour, shape, 

 and hairiness, and yet the flowers present very slight 

 differences. It is not that the varieties which differ 

 largely in some one point do not differ at all in other 

 points ; this is hardly ever, perhaps never, the case. 

 The laws of correlation of growth, the importance of 

 which should never be overlooked, will ensure some dif- 

 ferences; but, as a general rule, I cannot doubt that 

 the continued selection of slight variations, either in the 

 leaves, the flowers, or the fruit, will produce races 

 differing from each other chiefly in these characters. 



It may be objected that the principle of selection has 

 been reduced to methodical practice for scarcely more 

 than three-quarters of a century ; it has certainly been 

 more attended to of late years, and many treatises have 

 been published on the subject; and the result, I may 

 add, has been, in a corresponding degree, rapid and 

 important. But it is very far from true that the prin- 

 ciple is a modern discovery. I could give several refer- 

 ences to the full acknowledgment of the importance of 

 the principle in works of high antiquity. In rude and 



c3 



