Now, by what means does man produce this extraordinary difference or divergence of several forms which are proved to be descended from the same primary form? In order to answer this question, let us follow a gardener who desires to produce a new form of a plant, which is distinguished by the beautiful colour of its flowers. He will first of all make a selection from a great number of plants which are seedlings from one and the same parent. He will pick out those plants which exhibit most distinctly the colour of flower he desires. The colour of flowers is a very changeable thing. Plants, for example, which as a rule have a white flower, frequently show deviations into the blue or red. Now, supposing the gardener wishes to obtain the red colour in a plant usually producing white flowers, he will very carefully, from among the many different individuals which are the descendants of one and the same seed-plant, select those which most distinctly show a reddish tint, and sow them exclusively, in order to produce new individuals of the same kind. He would cast aside and no longer cultivate the other seedlings which show a white or less distinct red colour. He will propagate exclusively the individual plants whose blossoms show the red most markedly, and he will sow the seeds produced by these selected plants. From the seedlings of this second generation, he will again carefully select those in which the red, which is now visible in the majority of them, is most distinctly displayed. If such a selection is carried on during a series of six or ten generations, and if the flower which shows the deepest red is most carefully selected, the gardener in the sixth or tenth generation will obtain the desired plants with flowers of a pure red. The farmer wishing to breed a special race of animals, for example, a kind of sheep distinguished by particularly fine wool, proceeds in the same manner. The only process applied in the improvement of wool consists in this, that the farmer with the greatest care and perseverance selects from a whole flock of sheep those individuals which have the finest wool. These only are used in breeding, and among the descendants of these selected sheep, those again are chosen which have the finest wool, etc. If this careful selection is carried on through a series of generations, the selected breeding-sheep are in the end distinguished by a wool which differs very strikingly from the wool of the original parent, and this is exactly the advantage which the breeder desired.