The Monist, Vol. 1, 1890-1891 : $b A quarterly magazineVarious
Philosophy
The Monist, Vol. 1, 1890-1891 : $b A quarterly magazine
Various
Philosophy -- Periodicals
"One very obvious and probably frequent instance of what may
be termed collective variation in the reproductive system—or
a variation due to a common cause acting on many individuals
simultaneously—is actually quoted from my paper by Mr.
Wallace himself, namely, changes in the season of flowering
or of pairing, which insure that any section of a species
so affected shall be fertile only within itself. Collective
variation of this kind may be directly due to the incidence
of some common cause, such as changed conditions of life with
respect to food, climate, station, etc.; or, as in the case
of bud-variation, it may be due to a single "sport" affecting
all the blossoms growing upon the same branch. But besides
such direct action of a common cause, it is easy to see
that natural selection, use and disuse, etc., by operating
in the production of organic changes elsewhere, may not
unfrequently react on the sexual system indirectly, and so
induce the sexual change required in a number of individuals
simultaneously."
Now, in his _Darwinism_, Mr. Wallace again reproduces this
instance of "physiological selection," without even yet
appearing to perceive that both in my original paper upon the
subject and in my answer to his criticism as above quoted, I
adduce this particular instance of physiological selection
as a typical one. Therefore, when he now says:—"Another mode
of isolation is brought about by the variety—either owing
to habits, climate, or constitutional change—breeding at a
slightly different time from the parent species: this is known
to produce complete isolation in the case of many varieties of
plants": he is merely restating what I have repeatedly given
as an unquestionable case of physiological selection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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