242 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [Cha^ 



continuous absence of certain <]jenimules through so many 

 centuries and so many generations. Yet it is not at all so, 

 and this fact seems to amount almost to an experimental 

 demonstration that the liypothesis of pangenesis is an 

 insufftcient explanation of individual evolution. 



Two exceedingly good criticisms of Mr. Darwin's hypo- 

 thesis have appeared. One of these is hy !Mr. G. H. Lewes,^ 

 the other by Professor Delpino of Florence.- The latter 

 gentleman gives a report of an observation made by him 

 upon a certain plant, which observation adds force to what 

 has just been said about the Jewish race. He says : ^ "If 

 we examine and compare the numerous species of the 

 genus Salvia, commencing with Salvia officinalis, which 

 may pass as the main state of the genus, and concluding 

 with Salvia verticillata, which may be taken as the most 

 highly developed form, and as the most distant from the 

 type, we observe a singular phenomenon. The lower cell 

 of each of the two fertile anthers, which is much reduced 

 and different from the superior even in Salvia ojficinalis, 

 is transmuted in other salvice into an organ (nectarotheca) 

 having a very different form and function, and finally dis- 

 appears entirely in Salvia verticillata" 



" Xow, on one occasion, in a flower belonging to an indi- 

 vidual of Salvia verticillata, and only on the left stamen, 

 I observed a perfectly developed and pollinigerous lower 

 cell, perfectly homologous with that which is normally 

 developed in Salvia officinalis. This case of atavism is 



' See Fortnightly Fcvicw, New Series, vol. iii. April 1868, p. 352. 



- Tliis appeared in tlie Rivista Contcmporavca Nazionalc Ilaliana, and 

 was translated and given to the Knglish public in Scientific Opinion of 

 S.'pU'mber 29, October 6, and Or tobcr 1.3, 1869, pp. 365, 391, and 407. 



•* Seo Scientific Opinion of October 13, 1869, p. 407. 



