reversion, revercion

[Fr. réversion, from Lat. reversionem, acc us. of reversio =a turning back, from revers us, pa. par. of reverto =to revert (q. v.); Sp. revercion.] IMG:content-0578.png:[blocks in formation] (q. v.). 2. Biol .: The tendency of an animal or a plant to revert to long-lost characters. Darwin ( Orig . of Species , ch. i.) contends that it is by no means so potent as is generally believed. It is easy to breed cart or race-horses, long and short-horned cattle, and esculent vegetables without their reverting to the characters of the aboriginal stock. He also believes (ch. v.) that reversionary and analogous characters can be easily confounded. In the Descent of Man, pt. i., ch. ii., he gives more prominence to reversion, showing that seven abnormal variations of muscles in man resemble the typical ones in apes, and dark-colored stripes suddenly reappear on the legs and shoulders of horses, a es, and mules, derived, he believes, from a striped ancestor hundreds, if not even you sands, of generations ago. [BLACK-SHEEP.] 3. Law : The returning of an estate to the grantor or his heirs after a particular estate is ended. An estate in reversion is the residue of an estate left in the grantor, to commence in po e ion after the determination of some particular estate granted out by him. The term is sometimes improperly extended to any future estate in reversion or remainder. Reversion of series : Math.: When one quantity is expre ed in terms of another, by means of a series, the operation of finding the value of the second in terms of the first, by means of a series, is called the reversion of the series. rě-ver-sion-a-ry, a . [Eng. reversion; -ary.] Pertaining to or involving a reversion; enjoyable by reversion or after the determination of a particular estate. "Quitting the king of his promised reversionary officers."- Wotton : Remains , p. 26.