es raised
in the two countries would not in the course of ages assume a
distinctive character. Mr. Masters has recorded a striking fact[711]
bearing on this subject: he raised numerous plants of _Hybiscus
Syriacus_ from seed collected in South Carolina and the Holy Land,
where the parent-plants must have been exposed to considerably
different conditions; yet the seedlings from both localities broke into
two similar strains, one with obtuse leaves and purple or crimson
flowers, and the other with elongated leaves and more or less pink
flowers.

{287}

We may, also, infer the prepotent influence of the constitution of the
organism over the definite action of the conditions of life, from the
several cases given in the earlier chapters of parallel series of
varieties,--an important subject, hereafter to be more fully discussed.
Sub-varieties of the several kinds of wheat, gourds, peaches, and other
plants, and to a certain limited extent sub-varieties of the fowl,
pigeon, and dog, have been shown either to resemble or to differ from
each other in a closely corresponding and parallel manner. In other
cases, a variety of one species resembles a distinct species; or the
varieties of two distinct species resemble each other. Although these
parallel resemblances no doubt often result from reversion to the
former characters of a common progenitor; yet in other cases, when new
characters first appear, the resemblance must be attributed to the
inheritance of a similar constitution, and consequently to a tendency
to vary in the same manner. We see something of a similar kind in the
same monstrosity appearing and reappearing many times in the same
animal, and, as Dr. Maxwell Masters has remarked to me, in the same
plant.

We may at least conclude thus far, that the amount of modification which
animals and plants have undergone under domestication, does not correspond
with the degree to which they have been subjected to changed circumstances.
As we know the parentage of domesticated birds far better than of most
quadrupeds, we will glance through the list. The pigeon has varied in
Europe more than almost any other bird; yet it is a native species, and has
not been exposed to any extraordinary change of conditions. The fowl has
varied equally, or almost equally, with the pigeon, and is a native of the
hot jungles of India.