Seite - 456 - in The Origin of Species
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Text der Seite - 456 -
456 ORIGIN OF SPECIES
be the true one
; and by none more clearly than by that ex-
cellent botanist, Aug. St. Hilaire. If several trifling char-
acters are always found in combination, though no apparent
bond of connection can be discovered between them, especial
value is set on them. As in most groups of animals, impor-
tant organs, such as those for propelling the blood, or for
aerating it, or those for propagating the race, are found
nearly uniform, they are considered as highly serviceable in
classification
; but in some groups all these, the most impor-
tant vital organs, are found to offer characters of quite sub-
ordinate values. Thus, as Fritz Miiller has lately remarked,
in the same group of crustaceans, Cypridina is furnished with
a heart, whilst in too closely allied genera, namely Cypris
and Cytherea, there is no such organ ; one species of Cypri-
dina has well-developed branchiae, whilst another species is
destitute of them.
We can see why characters derived from the embryo
should be of equal importance with those derived from the
adult, for a natural classification of course includes all ages.
But it is by no means obvious, on the ordinary view, why
the structure of the embryo should be more important for
this purpose than that of the adult, which alone plays its full
part in the economy of nature. Yet it has been strongly
urged by those great naturalists, Milne Edwards and Agassiz,
that embryological characters are the most important of all;
and this doctrine has very generally been admitted as true.
Nevertheless, their importance has sometimes been exag-
gerated, owing to the adaptive characters of larvae not hav-
ing been excluded; in order to show this, Fritz MuUer
arranged by the aid of such characters alone the great class
of crustaceans, and the arrangement did not prove a natural
one. But there can be no doubt that embryonic, excluding
larval characters, are of the highest value for classification,
not only with animals but with plants. Thus the main di-
visions of flowering plants are founded on differences in the
embryo,—on the number and position of the cotyledons, and
on the mode of development of the plumule and radicle. We
shall immediately see why these characters possess so high a
value in classification, namely, from the natural system being
genealogical in its arrangement.
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Buch The Origin of Species"
The Origin of Species
- Titel
- The Origin of Species
- Autor
- Charles Darwin
- Verlag
- P. F. Collier & Son
- Ort
- New York
- Datum
- 1909
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 10.5 x 16.4 cm
- Seiten
- 568
- Schlagwörter
- Evolutionstheorie, Evolution, Theory of Evolution, Naturwissenschaft, Natural Sciences
- Kategorien
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Biologie
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 5
- AN HISTORICAL SKETCH of the Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species 9
- INTRODUCTION 21
- Variation under Domestication 25
- Variation under Nature 58
- Struggle for Existence 76
- Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest 93
- Laws of Variation 145
- Difficulties of the Theory 178
- Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection 219
- Instinct 262
- Hybridism 298
- On the Imperfection of the Geological Record 333
- On the Geological Succession of Organic Beinss 364
- Geographical Distribution 395
- Geographical Distribution - continued 427
- Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs 450
- Recapitulation and Conclusion 499
- GLOSSARY 531
- INDEX 541