COULTER— INHERITANCE THROUGH SPORES. 347 



To indicate that this is not a visionary programme, I wish to 

 say that such experimental work has been begun, and that the initial 

 results indicate that the stage of promise is merging into the stage 

 of performance. It is demanding not merely the technique of plant- 

 breeding, but it involves also the technique of cytology to discover 

 the structural changes, and the technique of physics and physiolog- 

 ical chemistry, to determine the conditions and substances that are 

 factors in the various processes. Perhaps of largest significance is 

 the fact that just as the doctrine of evolution broke up a static 

 taxonomy, so this experimental work with inheritance is breaking 

 up a static morphology, encrusted with rigid definitions, and is 

 making this great field dynamic. 



