9HMKJM - The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 33
ence that probably no organic being self-fertilizes in-
definitely ;
but that a cross with another individual is
occasionally — perhaps at very long intervals— indis-
pensable. We refer the reader to the section on the
intercrossing of individuals (pp. 96-101), and also to an
article in the Gardeners' Chronicle a year and a half
ago, for the details of a very interesting contribution
to science, irrespective of theory.
In domestication, this intercrossing may be pre-
vented ; and in this prevention lies the art of producing
varieties. But " the art itself is Mature," since
the whole art consists in allowing the most universal
of all natural tendencies in organic things (inheritance)
to operate uncontrolled by other and obviously inci-
dental tendencies. !N"o new power, no artificial force,
is brought into play either by separating the stock of
a desirable variety so as to prevent mixture, or by
selecting for breeders those individuals which most
largely partake of the pecularities for which the breed
is valued. 1
We see everywhere around us the remarkable
results which Nature may be said to have brought
about under artificial selection and separation. Could
she accomplish similar results when left to herself ?
Variations might begin, we know they do begin, in a
wild state. But would any of them be preserved and
carried to an equal degree of deviation \ Is there anything
in Nature which in the long-run may answer to
1 The rules and processes of breeders of animals, and their results,
are so familiar that they need not be particularized. Less is popularly
known about the production of vegetable races. We refer our readers
back to this Journal, vol. xxvii., pp. 440-442 (May, 1859), for an ab-
stract of the papers of M. Vilmorin upon this subject.