However, in order to recognize this principle it is necessary to limit
the term variety, to those propagating themselves by seed and are of
pure and not of hybrid origin.
But the principle as stated here, does not involve an absolute contrast
between two groups of characters. It is more a difference in our
knowledge and appreciation of them than a difference in the things
themselves. The characters of elementary species are, as a rule, new to
us, while those of varieties are old and familiar. It seems to me that
this is the essential point.
And what is it that makes us familiar with them? Obviously the
continuous recurrence of the same changes, because by a constant
repetition they must of course lose their novelty.
[129] Presently we shall look into these characters more in detail and
then we shall find that they are not so simple as might be supposed at
first sight; but precisely because we are so familiar with them, we
readily see that their different features really belong to a single
character; while in elementary species everything is so new that it is
impossible for us to discern the unities of the new attributes.
If we bear in mind all these difficulties we cannot wonder at the
confusion on this question that seems to prevail everywhere. Some
authors following Linnaeus simply call all the subdivisions of species,
varieties; others follow Jordan and avoid the difficulty by designating
all smaller forms directly as species.
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