362 EVOLUTION [CHAP. V 



Letter 271 thought that you would desire my open opinion. Frank is 

 away, otherwise he should have copied my scrawl. 



I have got a good stock of pods of sweet peas, but the 

 autumn has been frightfully bad ; perhaps we may still get 

 a few more to ripen. 



Letter 272 To T. H. Huxley. 



Down, Nov. 1 2th [1875]. 



Many thanks for your Biology^ which I have read. It 

 was a real stroke of genius to think of such a plan. Lord, 

 how I wish I had gone through such a course ! 



Letter 271 To Francis Gal ton. 



Dec. i8th [1875]. 



George has been explaining our differences. I have 

 admitted in the new edition 2 (before seeing your essay) that 

 perhaps the gemmules are largely multiplied in the repro- 

 ductive organs ; but this does not make me doubt that each 

 unit of the whole system also sends forth its gemmules. 

 You will no doubt have thought of the following objection to 

 your views, and I should like to hear what your answer is. 

 If two plants are crossed, it often, or rather generally, 

 happens that every part of stem, leaf, even to the hairs, and 

 flowers of the hybrid are intermediate in character ; and this 

 hybrid will produce by buds millions on millions of other 

 buds all exactly reproducing the intermediate character. I 

 cannot doubt that every unit of the hybrid is hybridised and 

 sends forth hybridised gemmules. Here we have nothing to 

 do with the reproductive organs. There can hardly be a 

 doubt from what we know that the same thing would occur 

 with all those animals which are capable of budding, and 

 some of these (as the compound Ascidians) are sufficiently 

 complex and highly organised. 



1 A Course of Practical Instruction in Elementary Biology, by 

 T. H. Huxley and H. N. Martin, 1875. For an account of the book 

 see Life and Letters of T. H. Huxley, Vol. I., p. 380. 



' In the second edition (1875) f tne Variation of Animals and 

 Plants, Vol. II., p. 350, reference is made to Mr. Galton's transfusion 

 experiments, Proc. R. Soc., XIX., p. 393 ; also to Mr. Galton's letter to 

 Nature, April 27th, 1871, p. 502. This is a curious mistake ; the letter 

 in Nature, April 27th, 1871, is by Darwin himself, and refers chiefly to 

 the question whether gemmules may be supposed to be in the blood. Mr. 

 Galton's letter is in Nature, May 4th, 1871, Vol. IV., p. 5. See Letter 235. 



