XI, C, 4 
Copeland: Natural Selection 
163 
Likewise, among the Rubiaceae, any method of reaching a new 
habitat is an advantage to the group as a whole, because it is 
of advantage to the members that acquire the method. Some 
may be specialized to scatter their seeds by means of the wind, 
some by floods, some by the use of various quadrupeds, others 
by the help of birds or even insects ; each one of these methods, 
and each added method that may be developed, is an advantage. 
The structures adapted to each method or to the employment 
of a common method under varying conditions all survive and 
become numerous in the individuals that possess them, because 
they are advantageous ; but it is not to be expected that any one 
of these will enable the plants that exhibit it to become more 
numerous than the plants that propagate themselves by some 
other equally desirable but different method. There are many 
families that have some members with dry fruits and others 
with fleshy fruits. Each of these methods is an adaptation to a 
common and wide range of natural conditions. 
Doctor Willis’s second paper against individual selection 
[Annals 4 (1907) 17] is chiefly devoted to the point that — 
While the characters that distinguish species and genera are largely 
characters of the floral organs, the struggle for existence is almost entirely 
among the seedlings and young plants, in which these organs are not yet 
present. 
By the same argument, in a government school where expenses 
of every kind are paid by the state and only the brightest 
students are selected for promotion, the wealth of the parents 
cannot be a factor in determining who will graduate. Yet, every- 
body knows that, in schools of this type, it is often impossible 
for a poor man’s son to graduate, simply because he can never 
be admitted. Flower and fruit structures surely do not take 
an active part in the competition between seedlings, but they 
determine the entries for this competition; and no one will 
claim that this is likely to be without influence on the result. 
The struggle between old trees probably is not keen. By the time 
the tree is grown, the fight is settled, so far as it is concerned, 
and is carried over to the next generation. The essential strug- 
gle of any individual is not to survive in itself but in its progeny. 
Tennyson knew all about this. 
Quoting from page 323 (Philosophical Transactions), 
But we may go further yet, and take the two genera, Doona and Stemono- 
porus, which have 11 and 15 species respectively, and on the theory of 
natural selection would therefore be supposed to be especially suitable to 
the local conditions. They show: 
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