336 LEAVES FROM MY NOTE-BOOK. 



bility does not depend on sexual generation. . . . We have 

 seen that bud variation is not solely dependent upon reversion or 

 atavism to long-lost characters, or to those formerly acquired from 

 a cross, but appear often to be spontaneous. But when we ask 

 ourselves the cause of any particular variation, we are lost in 

 doubt." In chap. xii. Darwin goes at great length into the ques- 

 tion of the capriciousness of the inheritance of variations. For 

 instance, he mentions some seedlings of a peculiarly coloured 

 balsam, which all resembled their parent; but of these seedlings 

 some failed to transmit the new character, whilst others transmitted 

 it to all their descendants during several successive generations. 

 The " weeping " or pendulous growth of trees is strongly inherited 

 in some cases, and without any assignable reason feebly in other 

 cases. A weeping, or rather a prostrate, yew was found in a 

 hedge in Shropshire. It was a male, but one branch bore female 

 flowers and produced berries ; these, being sown, produced seven - 

 teen trees, all of which inherited the peculiar habit of their parent. 

 On the other hand, seeds of the weeping beech, sown by Mr. 

 MacNab, produced only common beeches. Mr. Rivers, at 

 Darwin's request, raised a number of seedlings from three distinct 

 varieties of the weeping elm ; . . but none of the young 



trees showed the least signs of weeping. Mr. Rivers had sown 

 above twenty thousand seeds of the weeping ash, and not a single 

 seedling was in the least pendulous. Other weeping ashes have 

 faithfully transmitted their characteristic quality, so that the appa- 

 rent capriciousness of inheritance could not be better exemplified. 

 I think I have quoted enough on this subject to induce any- 

 one who is interested in it to examine all the instances given by 

 Darwin for himself, and if so my object in making these notes 

 will have been attained. 



As Leaves from a Note-book may be allowed to be a little dis- 

 cursive, I will conclude this paper with some Notes taken from 

 the Spectator relating to the instincts and habits of birds. 



Peculiar Mode of Hatching. 

 Mr. Edmund Tregear,* writing from Wellington, New Zealand, 

 says : — " The great penguin of the Antarctic Circle, standing with 



*"The Problem of Arctic Life," Spectator, Jan. l8th, 1896. 



