296 REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON GENETICS. 
a Phalenopsis, seeds of Vanda with the fungus of an Odontoglossum. 
The seedlings so obtained frequently differ a little from those cultivated 
with the fungus of the parent plant. With all due reserve necessary 
in so complex a subject, I believe it is possible that the mere change 
of the fungus may result in a variation of the species of orchid in 
question, a result which the experimenter should be able to control. 
I might add that orchids are not by any means the only plants which 
live with fungi. The extension of the researches which I have instituted, 
whilst restricting myself to a single case, will possibly one day indicate, new 
methods to patient experimenters in search of rational methods of culture 
applicable to a large number of plants. 
The President: This is a most interesting question. The point is 
that, without these fungi, the orchids cannot germinate. It is not merely 
a mechanical case where it is necessary to break the covering, but the 
presence of the fungus seems to be essential to the process of germination. 
Another remarkable thing is that if the seeds are sown in the presence of 
the fungus when it has been long cultivated apart from the orchid, 
no effect is produced. The fact seems to be that the fungus has become 
weakened by long absence from the orchid; but if you can anyhow get it 
to recover its power it is able to act like a normal fungus. 
From some of the papers we have heard to-day it appears as if we 
might hope to connect the visible facts of heredity with the microscopical 
facts, and when that is done we shall have reached a new era. 
