LIFE AND DEATH. 283 



e.g. in hybridisation that in such cases a fusion 

 of the nuclei of stock and scion has occurred during 

 the grafting, and a graft-hybrid has resulted e.g. 

 Cytisus Adavii. 



It is not impossible however that the nuclear 

 protoplasm has in such graft-hybrids been sub- 

 sequently modified by the differences in nutrition 

 to which it has been subjected, in the modified 

 cell-protoplasm affected by the mingling of the 

 juices, etc., of scion and stock ; for it is quite 

 conceivable that such materials may affect the 

 protoplasm far more profoundly than anything 

 derived directly from the environment. 



If Daniel's researches are confirmed, however, 

 it appears that in some cases, at any rate, the nuclear- 

 protoplasm is so altered by the grafting that when 

 the new embryo is developed, after fusion with 

 nuclear substance from another plant of the same 

 species, the results are apparent only in the pro- 

 geny, and the effects of alteration ift the cell- 

 protoplasm have been transmitted to the nuclear 

 protoplasm of the germ-cells i.e. acquired characters 

 have been transmitted and fixed by hereditw 

 Should this prove true the importance of the 

 results can hardly be over-estimated. The matter 

 is too problematical for further discussion here, 

 but we see that any such action may profoundly 

 affect the " constitution " of the resulting plant. 



Turning now to the case of fungi or other organ- 

 isms which obtain access to the cell-protoplasm. 

 At the one extreme we have cases where the proto- 

 plasm of the diseased plant is rapidly and directly 



