Its bearing on natural selection--The term used in a wide sense--Geometrical powers of increase--Rapid increase of naturalised animals and plants--Nature of the checks to increase--Competition universal--Effects of climate--Protection from the number of individuals--Complex relations of all animals and plants throughout nature--Struggle for life most severe between individuals and varieties of the same species; often severe between species of the same genus--The relation of organism to organism the most important of all relations 60-79 CHAPTER IV. NATURAL SELECTION. Natural Selection--its power compared with man's selection--its power on characters of trifling importance--its power at all ages and on both sexes--Sexual Selection--On the generality of intercrosses between individuals of the same species--Circumstances favourable and unfavourable to Natural Selection, namely, intercrossing, isolation, number of individuals--Slow action--Extinction caused by Natural Selection--Divergence of Character, related to the diversity of inhabitants of any small area, and to naturalisation--Action of Natural Selection, through Divergence of Character and Extinction, on the descendants from a common parent--Explains the Grouping of all organic beings 80-130 CHAPTER V. LAWS OF VARIATION. Effects of external conditions--Use and disuse, combined with natural selection; organs of flight and of vision--Acclimatisation--Correlation of growth--Compensation and economy of growth--False correlations--Multiple, rudimentary, and lowly organised structures variable--Parts developed in an unusual manner are highly variable: specific characters more variable than generic: secondary sexual characters variable--Species of the same genus vary in an analogous manner--Reversions to long-lost characters--Summary 131-170 {vii} CHAPTER VI. DIFFICULTIES ON THEORY. Difficulties on the theory of descent with modification--Transitions--Absence or rarity of transitional varieties--Transitions in habits of life--Diversified habits in the same species--Species with habits widely different from those of their allies--Organs of extreme perfection--Means of transition--Cases of difficulty--Natura non facit saltum--Organs of small importance--Organs not in all cases absolutely perfect--The law of Unity of Type and of the Conditions of Existence embraced by the theory of Natural Selection 171-206 CHAPTER VII. INSTINCT. Instincts comparable with habits, but different in their origin--Instincts graduated--Aphides and ants--Instincts variable--Domestic instincts, their origin--Natural instincts of the cuckoo, ostrich, and parasitic bees--Slave-making ants--Hive-bee, its cell-making instinct--Difficulties on the theory of the Natural Selection of instincts--Neuter or sterile insects--Summary 207-244 CHAPTER VIII. HYBRIDISM.