The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication

Charles Darwin

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511709500

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) first published this work in 1868 in two volumes. The book began as an expansion of the first two chapters of On the Origin of Species: 'Variation under Domestication' and 'Variation under Nature', and it developed into one of his largest works; Darwin referred to it as his 'big book'. Volume 1 deals with the variations introduced into species as a result of domestication, through changes in climate, diet, breeding and an absence of predators. He began with an examination of dogs and cats, comparing them with their wild counterparts, and moved on to investigate horses and asses; pigs, cattle, sheep, and goats; domestic rabbits; domestic pigeons; fowl; and finally cultivated plants. The work is a masterpiece of nineteenth-century scientific investigation; it is a key text in the development of Darwin's own thought and of the wider discipline of evolutionary biology.

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The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-ii

Contents
pp iii-vi

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
pp vii-viii

INTRODUCTION
pp 1-14

CHAPTER I - DOMESTIC DOGS AND CATS
pp 15-48

CHAPTER II - HORSES AND ASSES
pp 49-64

CHAPTER III - PIGS — CATTLE — SHEEP — GOATS
pp 65-102

CHAPTER IV - DOMESTIC RABBITS
pp 103-130

CHAPTER V - DOMESTIC PIGEONS
pp 131-179

CHAPTER VI - PIGEONS—continued
pp 180-224

CHAPTER VII - FOWLS
pp 225-275

CHAPTER VIII - DUCKS — GOOSE — PEACOCK — TURKEY — GUINEA-FOWL — CANARY-BIRD — GOLD-FISH — HIVE-BEES—SILK-MOTHS
pp 276-304

CHAPTER IX - CULTIVATED PLANTS: CEREAL AND CULINARY PLANTS
pp 305-331

CHAPTER X - PLANTS continued — FRUITS — ORNAMENTAL TREES — FLOWERS
pp 332-372

CHAPTER XI - ON BUD-VARIATION, AND ON CERTAIN ANOMALOUS MODES OF REPRODUCTION AND VARIATION
pp 373-411

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