i'l-diii //-. Or 



CHROMATIN OF REDWOOD TREE AND TRILLIUM 



It is tliought that each species remains constant in tlii' l)\ilk of its lu-redity-chromiitin ; l>ut tliis bulk 

 may bear little relation to the size of the organism. The chromatin (black rods, magnified about one 

 thousand diameters) of the embryo of the redwood tree is somewhat less in bulk than that of the low 

 woods flower, trillium — the former nevertheless carrying heredity determiners for an organism two hun- 

 dred or more feet tall and of very long life (two thousanil or more years), the latter for a relatively 

 minute, short-lived form. 



Profound interest in the study of the chromatin lies in the bare fact that it carrii-s the heredity 

 dfti-rmincrs and. distributing itself throughout the given organism, controls it to take on not only its 

 normal species form but also its inherited individual variations and to maintain liotli ofti'ii through mai\y 

 decades of radical iliange in the actual mattfr composing it. 



It is remarkable that in plants, all of which, even the largest redwood tn-e, lack a nervous sy^ti-ni. 

 there is perfect and sometinn-s rapid coordination of parts and response to stimuli. This is probably 

 brought about by physicochemii-al interactions, resulting in the circulation through the tissues of invisible 

 "chemiial messengers." corresponding willi certain ft-rini'iits and secretions of ilucth-ss glands in the 

 animal body 



197 



