" Now it is to be remarked that neither in these
passages nor in any of the other less distinct expressions of opinion on
this question, does Darwin ever admit that "specific characters"--that
is, the particular characters which serve to distinguish one species
from another--are ever useless, much less that "a large proportion of
them" are so, as Mr. Romanes makes him "freely acknowledge." On the
other hand, in the passage which I have italicised he strongly expresses
his view that much of what we suppose to be useless is due to our
ignorance; and as I hold myself that, as regards many of the supposed
useless characters, this is the true explanation, it may be well to give
a brief sketch of the progress of knowledge in transferring characters
from the one category to the other.
We have only to go back a single generation, and not even the most acute
botanist could have suggested a reasonable use, for each species of
plant, of the infinitely varied forms, sizes, and colours of the
flowers, the shapes and arrangement of the leaves, and the numerous
other external characters of the whole plant.
Pages:
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249