from the regular shape, or form, will be mercilessly proscribed; and, if the leaves, or other portions of the plant (the flowers, for instance), should attempt to improve, and to revert to the original type, subsisting before the degeneration, under nature, occurred; the agriculturist would be almost transfixed with horror, at such audacity. He adheres most religiously, to the belief that plants were made for his use; but the trouble is, that he, on the whole, defeats such use, by the manner in which he uses the bounty vouchsafed him.

Darwin says (p. 242, Vol. ii):

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"The finest shades of difference, in wheat, have been discriminated, and selected with much care."

The seeds only, in this species, are attended to. The leaves, flowers, &c., are all disproportionately developed. In fact, the further the exclusive improvement of the seed is carried, the more the true, normal relation of the parts, is violated. Darwin may well assert that "Sterility is the bane of horticulture," when all plants are cultivated upon a vicious system, entailing a most abnormal coordination of the parts of the species."

"Compare," says Darwin (p. 34, Origin of Species), "the diversity of Flowers, in the different varieties of the same species, in the flower-garden; the diversity of leaves, pods, or tubers, or whatever part is valued, in comparison with the flowers of the same varieties; and the diversity of the fruit of the same species in the orchard, in comparison with the leaves and flowers of the same set of varieties. See how different the leaves of the Cabbage are, and how extremely alike the

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flowers; how much the fruit of the different kinds of gooseberries differ in size, color, and hairiness; and yet, the flowers present very slight differences. It is not that the varieties which differ largely, in some one point, do not differ at all in other points. The laws of correlation of growth, the importance of which should not be overlooked, will ensure some differences, but the leaves, the flowers, or the fruit will produce races differing from each other, chiefly in these characters."

(It is these slight differences which, when united in mongrel offspring, effect the good which is occasioned by Crossing.)

The above cases represent the formation of varieties, by the development of one character only, of the species; and, by the retention of such character, at each stage of reversion. Each part, itself, is composed of several characters; and the different development of these characters, constitute varieties formed of the various developments of the one part. Thus, the leaves in different varieties of a species, may be of many different sizes, and of many different shapes (the same being modifications of the one normal shape), or, they may be more or less fleshy, and variously reticulated; or, they may be of several degrees of smoothness, or of several degrees of hairiness. The stems also may be variedly herbaceous, or variedly woody. The branches also may be more or less drooping, or more or less erect. In the flowers of each, or of several varieties, the stamens, pistils, calyx, corolla, anthers, ovules, ovaries, seed vessels, &c., may be of a different ratio with each other; or, some of these characters may even

be greatly reduced or wholly suppressed, represented by mere rudiments, or having not a vestige left. The capacity for reversion, in the parts not valued, is not encouraged, but, rather, suppressed, by every possible

means.

"No one supposes," says Darwin (p. 48, Origin of Species), "that all the individuals of the same species, are cast in the same actual mould."

No one supposes that they are actually cast in the same mould; but, he who would understand the developments, arising under domestication, must hold that there is but one, normal mould for all the individuals of the same species, and that all of the varieties and races, under domestication, and under nature, are but various modifications of such original, true mould. All of the individuals of a species, are, originally, from the same mould. The mould, however, has been bent and distorted (by the adverse conditions of nature, and by man's misguided policy of selection), into every conceivable, diminished shape, and size. Those individuals only, which answer, in their structure, to the true mould of their species, are physiologically perfect. The true, normal mould is capable of covering all the positive differences of the varieties, and of the individuals of the same species. Given, the modification which, in any individual, the true mould of its species has undergone; and, the evil effects which constitute the penalty for such departure from such mould, will be observed to be in proportion. In proportion also, as the individuals return to the size, and shape of the original mould, will the evil, attendant

upon their modification of such mould, abate. It is evident, upon Darwin's own showing of the manner in which varieties of a species are formed, that each variety, when not distinguished from the others of the same species, merely by a negative character, has in it an element, which, if joined to another variety, would measurably advance the development, of such other variety, towards the original type or mould of the given species; and, that the combination of all the positive characters of many and widely distinct varieties of a species, in a single, or in each, individual, would realize the true mould, which is the sum of all the positive developments, possible in such species.

CHAPTER VII.

EVILS CAUSED BY A DEPARTURE FROM THE ORIGINAL TYPE OF A SPECIES; AND GOOD OCCASIONED BY A RETURN TO SUCH ORIGINAL TYPE: OR, CROSSING AND CLOSE-INTERBREED

ING.

The principle of Reversion implies, that all the positive characters, of any given species, were originally, fully and proportionately developed, in each member of such species, and that such type alone is perfect, physiologically, as well as anatomically. Hence, it follows, that any modification of such type, must be injurious. It also follows, that the physiological state, of individuals, previous to their developing variations under domestication, should be a defective one, owing to the then absence or reduction, in them, of the characters, which they subsequently develop, and which are assumed to be essentially necessary to their physiological as well as structural integrity. It equally follows that, in proportion as such individuals regain these lost or reduced characters, should there be an abatement of the physiological evil occasioned by such loss or reduction ; and it follows that, when all the positive variation possible for an individual of a given species, has been effected, there should exist a perfect, physiological condition in such individual.

To this, it may be answered, that such results are