274 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTIONS TO THE [Chap. VII. 



this same power of selection. But when, from the nature 

 of the organism and of the conditions, modifications have 

 been induced which are unimportant for the welfare of 

 the species, they may be, and apparently often have 

 been, transmitted in nearly the same state to numerous, 

 otherwise modified, descendants. It cannot have been 

 of much importance to the greater number of mammals, 

 birds, or reptiles, whether they were clothed with hair, 

 feathers, or scales ; yet hair has been transmitted to 

 almost all mammals, feathers to all birds, and scales 

 to all true reptiles. A structure, whatever it may be, 

 which is common to many allied forms, is ranked by us 

 as of high systematic importance, and consequently is 

 often assumed to be of high vital importance to the 

 species. Thus* as I am inclined to believe, morpho- 

 logical differences, which we consider as important — 

 such as the arrangement of the leaves, the divisions of the 

 flower or of the ovarium, the position of the ovules, &c. 

 — first appeared in many cases as fluctuating variations, 

 which sooner or later became constant through the 

 nature of the organism and of the surrounding condi- 

 tions, as well as through the intercrossing of distinct 

 individuals, but not through natural selection; for as 

 these morphological characters do not affect the welfare 

 of the species, any slight deviations in them could not 

 have been governed or accumulated through this latter 

 jency. It is a strange result which we thus arrive at, 

 namely that characters of slight vital importance to the 

 species, are the most important to the systematist ; but, 

 as we shall hereafter see when we treat of the genetic 

 principle of classification, this is by no means so para- 

 doxical as it may at first appear. 



Although we have no good evidence of the existence 



