He experimented on five forms which are commonly
reputed to be varieties, and which he tested by the severest trial, namely,
by reciprocal crosses, and he found their mongrel offspring perfectly
fertile. But one of these five varieties, when used either as the father
or mother, and crossed with the Nicotiana glutinosa, always yielded hybrids
not so sterile as those which were produced from the four other varieties
when crossed with N. glutinosa. Hence the reproductive system of this one
variety must have been in some manner and in some degree modified.
>From these facts it can no longer be maintained that varieties when crossed
are invariably quite fertile. From the great difficulty of ascertaining
the infertility of varieties in a state of nature, for a supposed variety,
if proved to be infertile in any degree, would almost universally be ranked
as a species; from man attending only to external characters in his
domestic varieties, and from such varieties not having been exposed for
very long periods to uniform conditions of life; from these several
considerations we may conclude that fertility does not constitute a
fundamental distinction between varieties and species when crossed. The
general sterility of crossed species may safely be looked at, not as a
special acquirement or endowment, but as incidental on changes of an
unknown nature in their sexual elements.
HYBRIDS AND MONGRELS COMPARED, INDEPENDENTLY OF THEIR FERTILITY.
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