Intracellular Pangenesis. 641 
But it is quite true that these elements are usually 
united into smaller and larger groups, 1 and that these 
then behave as units ; in such cases the individual compo- 
nents of the group are either manifestly associated with 
one another or are influenced in the same way by external 
conditions of life, in the manner of their expression. 
The inflorescences of monoecious plants are typical in- 
stances of such groups of characters ; other instances are 
furnished by stolons, and in general the development of 
organs may be dependent on causes which bring whole 
groups of characters into activity as such, keeping other 
groups in the latent condition. 
With regard to the hypothesis of a transportation of 
the vehicles of the elementary characters, or the pan- 
genes 2 as I call them, I agree with the view, expressed 
by GALTON and BROOKS, that this theory should be con- 
siderably limited, and I think that it would even be best 
to drop it altogether. 
It is only within the cells that the assumption of such 
a transportation is necessary and only so far as regards 
the extrusion of the pangenes from the nuclei and their 
distribution through the protoplasm. 3 
According to my view the whole protoplasm consists 
of pangenes ; and these alone constitute the living ele- 
ments (Intracellular Pangenesis [Engl. eel.], p. 195). 
Following HERTWIG we assume that the hereditary char- 
1 Intracellular Pangenesis (Engl. ed), p. 24 and elsewhere. 
2 In German there are almost as many names for these material 
vehicles as there are authors who have dealt with the subject; for 
instance, Mikroplaste, Archiplaste, Biomolecvile, Protobionten, Rio- 
blaste, Elementarorganismen (ALTMANN), Plasome (WIESNER). 
Funktionstrager, Idioblaste (HERTWIG), Chonder (SCHNEIDER), etc. 
3 Where cells are mutually united by protoplasmic strings, the 
possibility of a transportation of pangenes from one cell to another 
seems still to be open. 
