Nutrition Favors the Anoniaty. 311 



known example. In the case of the Conifers Beissner 

 has also shown that insufficient nutrition, for instance 

 l)y cultivation in puts, can lead to a protracted reten- 

 tion of the embryonic form.^ In Eucalyptus Globulus 

 and Acacia cornigera stems which have been cut down 

 produce branches which repeat the embryonic form of 

 leaves, which are sessile in the one species and thornless 

 and destitute of the so-called ant-bread appendages in the 

 other.- 



Exactly the same general conditions obtain in the 

 development of anomalies, that is to say of those char- 

 acters which are only exceptionally or never developed 

 in the normal life of the species. Here again their pre- 

 cise nature seems to be a matter of indifference, that is 

 to say, whether they are harmful or harmless; in either 

 case they are under the influence of external conditions. 

 Instances of deleterious characters are furnished bv varie- 

 gated leaves and by flowers and flowerheads which have 

 become sterile b}^ doubling (see §§ 19 and 24). The 

 same is also true of real monstrosities, such as fascia- 

 tion and twisting, as we shall see in the next chai)ter ; 

 and of new characters, reversionary phenomena, pro- 

 gressive and retrogressive variations of which I shall 

 give a series of instances in the following section (§ 27). 

 It is true both of half races and of middle races : in both 

 it is the older or specific character which is intensified 

 by unfavorable conditions, whilst the anomaly or the 

 vouni>er character is intensified bv favorable ones. Ob- 

 \iously there is only a small step from these two races 

 characterized by the semi-latency of the former or the 



^L. Betssner, Handbuch der NadelhoJzhuiidc. See also Bot. 

 Zeitung, 1890, p. 539. 



'F. HiLDEBRAND, BotilU. Zcituilg, 1892, p. 5. 



