Nor let it be supposed
that differences in the constitution of seedling kidney-beans never appear,
for an account has been published how much more hardy some seedlings are
than others; and of this fact I have myself observed striking instances.
On the whole, we may conclude that habit, or use and disuse, have, in some
cases, played a considerable part in the modification of the constitution
and structure; but that the effects have often been largely combined with,
and sometimes overmastered by, the natural selection of innate variations.
CORRELATED VARIATION.
I mean by this expression that the whole organisation is so tied together,
during its growth and development, that when slight variations in any one
part occur and are accumulated through natural selection, other parts
become modified. This is a very important subject, most imperfectly
understood, and no doubt wholly different classes of facts may be here
easily confounded together. We shall presently see that simple inheritance
often gives the false appearance of correlation. One of the most obvious
real cases is, that variations of structure arising in the young or larvae
naturally tend to affect the structure of the mature animal. The several
parts which are homologous, and which, at an early embryonic period, are
identical in structure, and which are necessarily exposed to similar
conditions, seem eminently liable to vary in a like manner: we see this in
the right and left sides of the body varying in the same manner; in the
front and hind legs, and even in the jaws and limbs, varying together, for
the lower jaw is believed by some anatomists to be homologous with the
limbs.
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