RELATION BETWEEN PARENTS AND OFFSPRING. 2^ 



time rapidly through the whole ontogeny, at another 

 only the remainder or a part of it (the latter in alter- 

 nation of generations and in asexual propagation of 

 phanerogams). 



In sexual (digenic) reproduction the formation 

 of the germ cell is brought about by the union 

 in equal parts of both parental idioplasms. 

 The offspring is the organism resulting from the 

 union of the force and matter of the parents, and 

 represents in its nature the united continuation of 

 their ontogenies. The characteristics of develop- 

 ment of the child depend however on the viability 

 of the determinants of the mingled idioplasms in 

 which a new equilibrium has been formed. Hence 

 if the child bears more resemblance to the father or 

 to the mother, it follows that some of the inherited 

 determinants develop while the others remain latent. 

 If the child has certain visible characteristics more 

 marked than either parent, it becomes possible only 

 by the development of determinants which had pre- 

 viously been latent. The fact that the mother furn- 

 ishes the germ cell with nutritive plasm and that 

 she nourishes it for a considerable time does not 

 increase the number of maternal determinants nor 

 their capability of development. 



If two corresponding characters, one derived from 

 the father, the other from the mother, come into 

 conflict in sexual reproduction, the one or the other, 

 or even a third alternative characteristic, which here- 



