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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: measured by years, must have been very long; and when we remember over what
vast spaces some naturalised plants and animals have spread within a few
centuries, this period will have been ample for any amount of migration.
As the cold came slowly on, all the tropical plants and other productions
will have retreated from both sides towards the equator, followed in the
rear by the temperate productions, and these by the arctic; but with the
latter we are not now concerned. The tropical plants probably suffered
much extinction; how much no one can say; perhaps formerly the tropics
supported as many species as we see at the present day crowded together at
the Cape of Good Hope, and in parts of temperate Australia. As we know
that many tropical plants and animals can withstand a considerable amount
On the Origin of Species |
