520 Varietäten, Descendenz, Hybriden. 



"The dependence of the cellular Organization upon the specific 

 Organization continues and becomes more apparent as we ascend in 

 the Scale of the structural complexity, and is shown by the need of 

 crossing of lines of descen^ through sexual reproduction. The species 

 and the individual are morphological facts, and sexuality the phy- 

 siological function that connects them. The species is a network of 

 interwoven lines of descent and has as real an existence in nature 

 as an individual animal or plant. The species produces the indivi- 

 dual and the individual adds its share to the network of descent 

 of the species. To think of the individual as producing itself without 

 reference to the specific Organization is like assuming the spontaneous 

 generation of a complex cellular structure." 



"There is no structural Organization without underlying specific 

 Organization. Organisms maintain their existence and make evolu- 

 tionary progress only in species. It is the species, rather than the 

 individual, that has a truly biological existence. Instead of disre- 

 garding species, students of general biological problems should con- 

 sider the association of all plants and animals in species, in other 

 words, the speciet}' of living matter, as one of the most significant 

 and fundamental fa-cts." 



"That categories of Classification of species are artificial is not 

 an indicalion that the groups themselves have no real existence. As 

 well might we say that continents and islands have no real existence 

 because their shore-lines are not definitely fixed." 



"It is true that the boundaries of species often appear less 

 definite in nature than in books, but the same is true of islands. 

 The members of each species are bound together by a network of 

 lines interbreeding into a physiological unity, quite independent of 

 morphological similarities or diversities inside the species. It is 

 Organization, that constitutes the species, not the characters that 

 may be ascribed to it." M. J. Sirks (Haarlem). 



Gilbert, A, W., The science ofgenetics. (Journ. of Heredity. 

 V. p. 235-243. 1914.) 



The paper gives a brief review of evolutionary ideas of Anaxi- 

 mander, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Aristoteles, the retro- 

 gress in the middle ages tili the reviving first by the natural phi- 

 losophers and rashly speculative writers and finally by the working 

 and observing naturalists. The climax then was reached in the work 

 of Lamarck and finally of that greatest of naturalists and philo- 

 sophers, Charles Darwin. 



The influence of Darwin and de Vries, the present position 

 of genetics, the influence of Gregor Mendel's laws of heredity, 

 the principle of Alexis Jordan, the question of "pure lines'', the 

 problem of inheritance of acquired characters, the commercial value 

 of genetics for scientific breeding and the chance for practical man, 

 all these subjects are discussed in more or lesser detail. New facts 

 or new ideas fail. M. J. Sirks (Haarlem). 



Gravatt, F., A rad ish-cabbage hybrid. (Journ. of Heredity. 

 V. p. 269—272. 1914.) 



The writer describes in this paper a peculiar hybrid, obtained 

 by him in pollinating emasculated flowers of the radish-variety 

 "Long Scarlet Short Top" with pollen of a first generation cabbage- 



