10S NOTES AND COMMENTS [fee. 1899 



More Misunderstandings of Weismann's Position. 



It seems as if we should do well to stereotype this heading. For the 

 name of these misunderstandings is indeed legion, though Weismann's 

 position is as clear as sunlight. In Haeckel's little book, entitled 

 " The Lost Link," Dr. Hans Gadow returns to the charge against those 

 who find themselves unable to discover any evidence of modification- 

 inheritance. In his notes, which form almost half of the book, and 

 no small part of its interest, the erudite morphologist of Cambridge 

 champions Lamarckism. "The inheritance of acquired characters 

 becomes very obvious," we read, "in the following example"; and 

 being most open to conviction we hurry on breathlessly, to find that 

 the offspring of Protomyxa aurantiaca (one of the simplest of the 

 Myxomycetes, or slime-organisms) is as orange as its parent. Does 

 Dr. Gadow really believe that this " example " has any bearing what- 

 ever on the problem at issue ? Why not also cite the case of the 

 orange-tree ? There is no evidence that the orange colour is an 

 acquired character, and it is only with great difficulty that the con- 

 ception can be applied to any unicellular organisms, where the dis- 

 tinction between soma and germ-plasm is only incipient. 



Variation in Sea- Anemones. 



In continuation of our note in last number (p. 12) on variation in a 

 sea-anemone (Metridium marginatum), it is of interest to record Mr. 

 H. B. Torrey's observations (Proc. California Ac. Sci., 1898, i. pp. 345- 

 360, 1 pi.) on M. fimhriatum, which is " practically identical " with the 

 first-named species. Among 1971 specimens collected at random 48 

 showed asexual reproduction (monogenesis), some being at the same 

 time sexually mature. Three modes occur — longitudinal fission, basal 

 fragmentation, and budding from oesophageal and foot regions. 

 Parker's suggestion that the monoglyphic and diglyphic types of 

 Metridium may be of the value of varieties, " the products one of the 

 sexual, the other of the asexual mode of reproduction," is not corrobo- 

 rated, for both types reproduce by fission, and both may result from 

 fission. Indeed, of two buds which arose independently from a single 

 basal fragment, one was monoglyphic, the other diglyphic. The 

 variants are not varieties. 



