But the subject is surrounded by difficulties, for, looking to varieties
produced under nature, if two forms hitherto reputed to be varieties be
found in any degree sterile together, they are at once ranked by most
naturalists as species. For instance, the blue and red pimpernel, which
are considered by most botanists as varieties, are said by Gartner to be
quite sterile when crossed, and he consequently ranks them as undoubted
species. If we thus argue in a circle, the fertility of all varieties
produced under nature will assuredly have to be granted.
If we turn to varieties, produced, or supposed to have been produced, under
domestication, we are still involved in some doubt. For when it is stated,
for instance, that certain South American indigenous domestic dogs do not
readily unite with European dogs, the explanation which will occur to
everyone, and probably the true one, is that they are descended from
aboriginally distinct species. Nevertheless the perfect fertility of so
many domestic races, differing widely from each other in appearance, for
instance, those of the pigeon, or of the cabbage, is a remarkable fact;
more especially when we reflect how many species there are, which, though
resembling each other most closely, are utterly sterile when intercrossed.
Several considerations, however, render the fertility of domestic varieties
less remarkable. In the first place, it may be observed that the amount of
external difference between two species is no sure guide to their degree of
mutual sterility, so that similar differences in the case of varieties
would be no sure guide.
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