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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: gradually become winged through natural selection, except in fruits which
opened; so that the individual plants producing seeds which were a little
better fitted to be wafted further, might get an advantage over those
producing seed less fitted for dispersal; and this process could not
possibly go on in fruit which did not open.
The elder Geoffroy and Goethe propounded, at about the same period, their
law of compensation or balancement of growth; or, as Goethe expressed it,
'in order to spend on one side, nature is forced to economise on the other
side.' I think this holds true to a certain extent with our domestic
productions: if nourishment flows to one part or organ in excess, it
rarely flows, at least in excess, to another part; thus it is difficult to
 On the Origin of Species |