Chap. I. UNDER DOMESTICATION. 9 



this curious subject ; but to show how singular the laws 

 are which determine the reproduction of animals under 

 confinement, I may just mention that carnivorous animals, 

 even from the tropics, breed in this country pretty 

 freely under confinement, with the exception of the 

 plantigrades or bear family ; whereas, carnivorous birds, 

 with the rarest exceptions, hardly ever lay fertile eggs. 

 Many exotic plants have pollen utterly worthless, in the 

 same exact condition as in the most sterile hybrids. 

 When, on the one hand, we see domesticated animals 

 and plants, though often weak and sickly, yet breeding 

 quite 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 reproductive system so seriously affected by un- 

 perceived causes as to fail in acting, we need not be 

 surprised at this system, when it does act under con- 

 finement, acting not quite regularly, and producing off- 

 spring not perfectly like their parents or variable. 



Sterility has been said to be the bane of horticulture ; 

 but on this view we owe variability to the same cause 

 which produces sterility ; and variability is the source of 

 all the choicest productions of the garden. I may add, 

 that as some organisms will breed most freely under 

 the most unnatural conditions (for instance, the rabbit 

 and ferret kept in hutches), showing that their repro- 

 ductive system has not been thus 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. 



A long list could easily be given of " sporting plants;" 

 by this term gardeners mean a single bud or offset, 

 which suddenly assumes a new and sometimes very dif- 

 ferent character from that of the rest of the plant. 



b3 



