Intracellular Pangenesis. 641 



But it is (luite true that tliese elcuicMits arc usuallv 

 united into smaller and larger groups,^ and tliat tliese 

 then behave as units; in such cases the individual coni])()- 

 nents of the group are either manifestly associated with 

 one another or are influenced in the same way by external 

 conditions of life, in the manner of their expression. 

 The inPl(^rescences of moncrcious plants are tvi)ical in- 

 stances of such groups of characters; other instances are 

 furnished by stolons, and in general the development of 

 organs may be dependent on causes which bring whole 

 groups of characters into activity as such, keeping other 

 groups in the latent condition. 



With regard to the hypothesis of a transportation of 

 the vehicles of the elementary characters, or the pan- 

 genes- as I call them, I agree with the view, expressed 

 by Galton and Brooks, that this theory should 1)e con- 

 siderably limited, and I think that it would even be best 

 to drop it altogether. 



It is only within the cells that the assumption of such 

 a transportation is necessary and only so far as regards 

 the extrusion of the pangenes from the nuclei and their 

 distribution through the protoplasm." 



According to my view the whole proto])lasm consists 

 of pangenes; and these alone constitute the li\ing ele- 

 ments {Intracellular Pangenesis [Engl, ed.], p. 105). 

 Following- Hertwig we assume that the hereditarv char- 



'^Intracellular Pangenesis (Engl, cd.), p. 24 and elsewhere. 



" Tn German there are ahnost as many names for these niaterial 

 vcliiclcs as there are authors wlio have deah with the suhject : for 

 instance, Mikrophiste, Archiplaste, Biomoleciile. Protohionten. \V\o- 

 blaste, Elementarorganismen (Altm.\nn). Plasome (Wiesnkk). 

 Funktionstriigcr, Idioblaste (Hektwig), Chonder (Sch.neiuek). etc. 



'Where cells are mutually united by jirotoplasmic strinps. the 

 possibility of a transportation of pangenes from one cell to another 



seems still to be open. 



