GENETICS 1W 



Bunyan's counsel, " Do well, better, best," seems to have 

 been the motto, the "leitmotiv" of organic life for all these 

 ages. 



The antagonism between the better and the good is, of 

 course, less pronounced than and of a different nature from 

 that between the good and the bad. In the former case it is of 

 a relative kind ; in the latter it may be of an absolute kind. 

 The former ends in mutual (symbiotic) accommodation; the 

 latter in mutual destruction. 



The slightly better organism in the normal course of 

 evolution failing to find a perfect mate, frequently does not 

 hesitate to unite with and to raise the slightly inferior mate, 

 thus ending the mild antagonism, if any may be said to have 

 existed. But the good cannot blend in the same way with that 

 which is bad nor the symbiotic with the totally anti-biotic 

 the divergence is too wide for an abiding union. The 

 antagonism must persist until all can be made in their various 

 diversified ways to conduce to the common good. 



In other words there is a difference of antagonism which 

 is one of degree and has its rationale in values. The problem 

 is to achieve a degree of diversification which is bio- 

 economically wholesome, and to obviate a degree being reached 

 which would become dangerous to the balance of life. 



In the Scientific American, Supplement No. 2,036 

 (Jan. 9th, 1915), Dr. W. P. Jenny describes the method 

 followed whereby the hybrid Japanese morning glory (Ipomcea 

 Chincensis + Calonyction Speciosum, i.e., flowers of different 

 genera of Convolvulacece) is made to reproduce itself true from 

 seed, the Mendelian second generation being ingeniously 

 avoided by repollenating the hybrid with the pollen of a male 

 parental form (pollen from the white moonflower, Calonyction 

 Speciosum), whereby no true "second generation" occurs; 

 but only a series of progressive "first generations," on which 

 the Mendelian law has no action. 



This method ("dual fertilisation"), then, contrives to 

 re-introduce an essential bio-economic stimulus obviating to 



