90 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



survive as any other, and here man's 

 selection interferes ; he prefers the 

 white form, breeds from it, and in a 

 generation or two has made it permanent. 

 The domestic rabbit is used for food, 

 and the largest individuals are selected 

 to breed from ; thus the size increases 

 while they have no need to be swift of 

 foot for they are safe. Other points 

 take the attention of the fancier. At 

 large, a rabbit pricks up its ears to catch 

 the sound ©f an approaching foe ; in 

 domestication this is not needed, and 

 the muscles by which it erects its ears 

 fall into disuse and the ears drop over 

 the sides of its head. This change is 

 marked, and "lop-eared" rabbils are 

 valued higher than others, Now these 

 pendulous ears are no advantage 

 to the rabbit at all, but they are en- 

 couraged by the "fancier," and thus 

 increase in size and assume various 

 ''lops,*' each of which has its admirers. 

 It is thus shown that almost at the will 

 of man the rabbit changes in colour, 

 increases in size, and a particular organ 

 becomes so altered that even the muscles 

 are disused. Had we taken pigeons for 

 an illustration still more wonderful 

 changes could have been shown. 



Nor is it only in the animal kingdom 

 these variations occur. It is exactly 

 the same in the vegetable kingdom. 

 Compare any of the plants used for 

 food with the same in a wild state. 

 Take the cabbage as an example. From 

 Brassica oleracea^ the wild cabbage, 

 such strangely different forms have been 

 produced as the cauliflower, the Brussels 

 sprout, and the ordinary cabbage. Think 



for a moment of our fruit and foliage i , 

 trees, and you will see they are plastic 

 in the hands of man, as clay under the * 

 manipulation of the potter. Compare 

 the wild gooseberry with the garden 

 sorts. The fruit is increased in size, 

 varied in colour, improved in flavour ; , 

 the leaf has remained unchanged. Of ; 

 the currant the same thing may be said, i i 

 but if we take the flowering currant ■ 

 that is cultivated not for its fruit but ; i - 

 its flower, we find there variety of colour. ; 

 The beech tree is grown neither for its 

 fruit nor flower, and the hue of the 

 leaves seem to change at will, and we □ 

 have copper beeches, purple beeches, and F 

 so on. Look for a moment at other trees f' 

 grown for foliage. How the holly, the 

 elder, &c., are changed and varied. In 

 garden flowers still more wonderful 

 changes are produced. Flowers become 

 double or single, their colours change, ^ 

 their size increases, their scent becomes 

 more intense or more delicate at the 

 will of the grower. All this is done 

 merely by careful selection of those 

 forms that vary in the desired direction. 

 It is not all accomplished at once, nor j. 

 by one man. The natural restrictions 

 being withdrawn, and the grower being 

 ever on the watch for new forms, every 

 trifling change is taken advantage of^| 

 and the accumulated variation of yearsJW 

 guided by the intelligent mind of manJ& 

 produces quickly, for his own gratifica-^B 

 tion or advantage, changes that coul^H 

 only have obtained in nature in immens^H 

 spaces of time, and then only on con^| 

 dition that the surroundings were 

 harmony with it. HP 



