Variability in the Number of Follicles in Caltha

Abstract

IT is easy to understand, supposing a tendency to variability, that characters of little value (as the colours of certain domesticated animals) might vary considerably, because not kept in check by natural selection. If it does not matter to a species whether it is unicolorous or spotted, for instance, one can see how both varieties may coexist without any tendency to the formation of a new species, and it might be rather an advantage than otherwise that individuals should differ from one another. But those parts connected with so important a function as the reproduction of the species would, one might suppose, be rigidly guarded over by the survival of the fittest, and any great variability in the number of offspring would hardly be expected within the limits of a species.