Article ID: CBB704610076

Darwin at Orchis Bank: Selection after the Origin (2016)

unapi

Darwin's first publication after the Origin of Species was a volume on orchids that expanded on the theory of adaptation through natural selection introduced in his opus. Here I argue that On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects (1862) is not merely an empirical confirmation of his theory. In response to immediate criticisms of his metaphor of natural selection, Darwin uses Orchids to present adaptation as the result of innumerable natural laws, rather than discrete acts analogous to conscious choices. The means of selection among polliniferous plants cannot be neatly classed under the Origin's categories of artificial, natural, or sexual selection. Along with Darwin's exploration of sexual selection in his later works, Orchids serves to undo the restrictive metaphor so firmly established by the Origin and to win over those of Darwin's contemporaries who were committed advocates of natural law but suspicious of evolution by natural selection.

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Authors & Contributors
Ruse, Michael
Hoquet, Thierry
Hollier, John
Hollier, Anita
Wilmot, Sarah
White, Paul S.
Concepts
Evolution
Natural selection
Biology
Darwinism
Naturalists
Controversies and disputes
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
18th century
21st century
20th century, early
Places
Great Britain
England
Netherlands
Geneva (Switzerland)
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