David Starr Jordan 



into the nature of the plant in time. We may 

 refer to Emerson's remark on the * baking into 

 the picture of the pigment laid down by environ- 

 ment/ Selection is 'cumulative environment.' 

 Fortuitous variations occur everywhere. They 

 come up all the time, from past environments, 

 past heredity and present opportunity. No two 

 individuals are alike. Where there is a marked 

 tendency in one direction, we have the case of a 

 persistent efFect of environment. Monstrosities 

 are engorgements of force. They are generally 

 a thousand times more likely to develop another 

 sort of monstrosity than normal individuals are. 

 You are likely to get from sports and monstrosities 

 either extremes of variance. They do not, however, 

 maintain themselves , because heredity pulls back their 

 descendants. A wide variance is more easily pulled 

 back than a slight variance. There are cases where 

 the monstrosity might pull back its species. This 

 is more likely to happen if the forces of natural 

 or artificial selection were in its favor. There are 

 many cases where the variant in minor points is 



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