Chap. I.] VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION. H 



laws are which determine the reproduction of animals 

 under confinement, I may mention that carnivorous ani- 

 mals, even from the tropics, breed in this country pretty 

 freely under confinement, with the exception of the 

 plantigrades or bear family, which seldom produce 

 young; whereas carnivorous birds, with the rarest ex- 

 ceptions, hardly ever lay fertile eggs. Many exotic 

 plants have pollen utterly worthless, in the same con- 

 dition as in the most sterile hybrids. When, on the 

 one hand, we see domesticated animals and plants, 

 though often weak and sickly, breeding freely under 

 confinement; and when, on the other hand, we see 

 individuals, though taken young from a state of nature 

 perfectly tamed, -long-lived and healthy (of which I 

 could give numerous instances), yet having their re- 

 productive system so seriously affected by unperceived 

 causes as to fail to act, we need not be surprised at this 

 system, when it does act under confinement, acting 

 irregularly, and producing offspring somewhat unlike 

 their parents. I may add, that as some organisms breed 

 freely under the most unnatural conditions (for instance, 

 rabbits and ferrets kept in hutches), showing that their 

 reproductive organs are not easily affected; so will Some 

 animals and plants withstand domestication or cultiva- 

 tion, and vary very slightly — perhaps hardly more than 

 in a state of nature. 



J^ Some naturalis ts have maintained th at all variations 

 are connected with t he act of sexual r ep-od uction; but 

 this i s certainly a n errorj for I have given in another 

 ■work along list of " sporting plants," as they are called 

 by gardeners; — that is, of jlants which have suddenly 

 produced a single bud with a new and sometim^sjddely 

 different character from that of tTie other buds on the 



