NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



reduced foliage surface, while in moist cli- 

 mates thorns are seldom seen, and foliage 

 is more abundant and not so often acrid 

 or distasteful. Similar environments produce 

 similar results on the life-forces, even with 

 the most distantly related plants or animals. 

 This fact alone should be proof enough, 

 if proof were still needed, that acquired 

 characters are transmitted, even though in 

 opposition to numerous popular theories. 

 All characters which are transmitted have 

 once been acquired. The life -forces are con- 

 stantly pressing forward to obtain any space 

 which can be occupied, and if they find 

 an open avenue, always make use of it, 

 as far as heredity will allow." 



In this new century the new man comes, 

 discarding the narrow canvases of the studios, 

 and, upon the great canvas of the earth 

 itself, he traces the supreme function of 

 Nature, the Crossing of Species; and with 

 this, the working of a vital Principle eternally 

 recording Heredity, that sum of all past 

 environments. He sees all Motion, all Life, 

 all Force, all so-called Matter, following the 

 same law of heredity in plant- and animal- 



350 



