A NOTE ON XENIA 159 



The she-cat (F) was then crossed with an unblemished German 

 tom, but she still produced abnormal kittens in each litter. Thus 

 a strong suggestion of telegony arose. 



Further inquiries showed, however, that a normal daughter 

 of F, crossed with a normal German tom, had borne a red male 

 with rudimentary left ear and rudimentary tail. Inquiries as 

 to the pedigree of F and M showed that /, the mother of F, had 

 a rudimentary tail, but no rudimentary ear, and was like F in 

 colour. This / had been crossed with a red tom (R), who had 

 a rudimentarj^ ear and tail ; there was but one litter, which was 

 destroyed, and R soon afterwards died. Then / was paired 

 with a normal black younger brother (S) of the deceased (R). 

 From this normal S and from this / with a rudimentary tail, 

 F sprang. But the two parents of / and the two parents of 

 R and S were relatives, belonging to a family in which a rudi- 

 mentary ear and tail were common — all springing from a pair 

 which the owner of F and M had found in a hollow tree near 

 Tunis. 



Dr. vom Rath has more to tell, but enough has been quoted 

 to show the correctness of his conclusion that there was no tele- 

 gony at all. There was a strong family tendency to having a 

 rudimentary ear and tail. But it is evident that if Vom Rath 

 had not had patience to search out the family history, the case 

 for the occurrence of telegony would have been fairly good — at 

 least as good as many others. 



§ 10. A Note on Xenia 



The mysterious name "xenia," which seems to mean " guest- 

 gifts," was applied by the botanist Focke to cases where the 

 pollen from the " male " parent seemed to affect the tissue of the 

 maternal ovary — the substance of the seed, or even the fruit, 

 as distinguished from the embryo itself. 



Correns has made careful experiments with maize and estab- 



