[{172}] In the male florets of certain Compositæ the style functions merely as a piston for forcing out the pollen.
[{173}] «On the back of the page is the following.» If abortive organs are a trace preserved by hereditary tendency, of organ in ancestor of use, we can at once see why important in natural classification, also why more plain in young animal because, as in last section, the selection has altered the old animal most. I repeat, these wondrous facts, of parts created for no use in past and present time, all can by my theory receive simple explanation; or they receive none and we must be content with some such empty metaphor, as that of De Candolle, who compares creation to a well covered table, and says abortive organs may be compared to the dishes (some should be empty) placed symmetrically!
[{174}] The author doubtless meant that the complex relationships between organisms can be roughly represented by a net in which the knots stand for species.
[{175}] Between the lines occurs:—“one «?» form be lost.”
[{176}] The original sentence is here broken up by the insertion of:—“out of the dust of Java, Sumatra, these «?» allied to past and present age and «illegible», with the stamp of inutility in some of their organs and conversion in others.”
[{177}] Between the lines occur the words:—“Species vary according to same general laws as varieties; they cross according to same laws.”
[{178}] “A cross with a bull-dog has affected for many generations the courage and obstinacy of greyhounds,” Origin, Ed. i. p. 214, vi. p. 327.
[{179}] The simile of the savage and the ship occurs in the Origin, Ed. i. p. 485, vi. p. 665.
[{180}] In the Origin, Ed. i. p. 486, vi. p. 665, the author speaks of the “summing up of many contrivances”: I have therefore introduced the above words which make the passage clearer. In the Origin the comparison is with “a great mechanical invention,”—not with a work of art.
[{181}] See a similar passage in the Origin, Ed. i. p. 487, vi. p. 667.