This must have happened in a
prehistoric era, thus affording time enough for the subsequent
development of the fifty and more known varieties. But the possibility
that at least some of them have originated before culture and have been
deliberately chosen by man for distribution, of course remains
unsettled.
Coconuts are not very well adapted for natural dispersal on land, and
this would rather induce us to suppose an origin within the period of
cultivation for the whole group. There are a large number of cultivated
varieties of different species which by some peculiarity do not seem
adapted for the conditions of life in the wild state. These last have
often been used to prove the origin of varietal forms during culture.
One of the oldest instances is the variety or rather subspecies of the
opium-poppy, which lacks the ability to burst open its capsules. The
seeds, which are thrown out by the wind, in the common forms, through
the apertures underneath [90] the stigma, remain enclosed. This is
manifestly a very useful adaptation for a cultivated plant, as by this
means no seeds are lost. It would be quite a disadvantage for a wild
species, and is therefore claimed to have been connected from the
beginning with the cultivated form.
The large kernels of corn and grain, of beans and peas, and even of the
lupines were considered by Darwin and others to be unable to cope with
natural conditions of life.
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