14 Mutual Independence of Hereditary Characters 



producing from their leaves the necessary mixture of an 

 enzyme, and of an acid which is needed for dissolving 

 protein bodies/ The agreement, emphasized by Darwin, 

 of this mixture with the gastric juice of the higher ani- 

 mals justifies even the supposition that those plants and 

 the animal kingdom have some hereditary qualities in 

 common. 



The indigenous creeping and climbing plants, the trop- 

 ical lianas, the tuberous and bulbous plants, the fleshy, 

 leafless stems of the Cactacese and Euphorbiacese, the 

 pollinia of the Orchidaceae and Asclepiadaceae, and num- 

 berless other instances show us parallel adaptations. Very 

 beautiful pictures are furnished on the one hand by the 

 desert plants, which all have to protect themselves in some 

 way against the disadvantages of evaporation, and whose 

 anatomical relations have been so thoroughly described 

 by Volkens.^ On the other hand are the ant-plants, into 

 the adaptations of which to harmful and useful species of 

 ants Schimper has given us an insight.^ 



Everywhere we see how one and the same hereditary 

 character, or definite small groups of the latter, can com- 

 bine with other most diverse hereditary characters, and 

 how, through these exceedingly varied combinations, the 

 individual specific characters are produced. 



^This statement is now known to hold true only in the case of 

 Nepenthes (Vines, Attn. Bot. 11: 563. 1897. 12: 545. 1898) and of 

 Drosera (see Fr. Darwin's articles). Schimper found no proteolytic 

 enzyme secreted by Sarracenias. {Bot. Zeit. 40: 225. 1882). His 

 results were confirmed by Miss Robinson, but she demonstrated the 

 secretion, by Sarracenia purpurea, of a starch-digesting enzyme. 

 {Torreya 8: 1908). Tr. 



^Volkens, G. Die Flora der Aegyptisch-Arabischen Wuste. 



^Schimper, A.F.W. Die Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Pflanzen 

 und Ameisen im tropischen Amerika. Bot. Mittheil. aus den Tropen. 

 Band I, Heft 1, 1888. 



