142 A Defence of Mendel's 



capacity they have served two generations of naturalists. 

 The ground nowadays may be unfamiliar, but others have 

 travelled it before and recorded their impressions. Darwin, 

 for example, has the following passage* : 



"These statements led Gartner, who was highly sceptical on 

 the subject, carefully to try a long series of experiments ; he 

 selected the most constant varieties, and the results conclusively 

 showed that the colour of the skin of the pea is modified when 

 pollen of a differently coloured variety is used." (The italics are 

 mine.) 



In the true spirit of inquiry Professor Weldon doubtless 

 reflected, 



"'Tis not Antiquity nor Author, 

 That makes Truth Truth, altho' Time's Daughter" ; 



but perhaps a word of caution to the reader that another 

 interpretation exists would have been in place. It cannot 

 be without amazement therefore that we find him appro- 

 priating these examples as referring to cotyledon-colour, 

 with never a hint that the point is doubtful. 



Giltay, without going into details, points out the 

 ambiguity t. As Professor Weldon refers to the writings 

 both of Darwin and Giltay, it is still more remarkable 

 that he should regard the phenomenon as clearly one of 

 cotyledon-colour and not coat-colour as Darwin and many 

 other writers have supposed. 



* Animals and Plants, 2nd ed. 1885, p. 428. 



t " Eine andere Frage ist jedoch, ob der Einfluss des Pollens auf 

 den Keim schon dusserlich an diesen letzteren sichtbar sein kann. 

 Darwin fiihrt mehrere liierlier gehorige Falle an, und wahrscheinlich 

 sind auch die Resultate der von Gartner ilber diesen Gegenstand aus- 

 gefuhrten Experimente hier zu erwahnen, wenn es auch nicht ganz 

 deutlich ist, ob der von Gartner erwdhnte directs Einfluss des Pollens 

 sich nur innerhalb der Grenzen des Keimes merklich macht oder nicht." 

 p. 490. 



