144 SYMBIOGENESIS 



The mere possibility of producing a cross at all between 

 two "allelomorph" characters does not in all cases prove the 

 existence of sufficient compatibility to overcome in the long 

 run the otherwise existing (bio-economic) antagonism that 

 really separates the two entities. Prof. A. Dendy states that 

 any two organisms sufficiently nearly related to be capable of 

 crossing are identical as regards the vast majority of their 

 characters; but though this be true, I would point out that, 

 nevertheless, the two organisms may have been tending too 

 long in bio-economically divergent lines to constitute fruitful 

 alternatives. Eventually as between cross-feeders and in- 

 feeders, for example a stage of biological antagonism may be 

 reached which is past reconciliation. In any case we must con- 

 sider that there are many gradations of " allelomorphism." 



We may say that though frequently (particularly in 

 artificial cases) many "characters " are called, few are chosen, 

 and that the perpetual union of certain " characters " is for 

 very good reasons "abhorred" by Nature. 



The last thing to be expected on my theory of biological 

 values would be to find that certain pairs or characters should 

 eventually behave otherwise than antagonistically, although by 

 virtue of community of descent they retain slight affinities and 

 a degree of compatibility sufficient for Mendelians to call them 

 " allelomorphs " ; but they are in reality quite different in con- 

 stitution and bio-economically (or symbio genetically) speaking 

 on widely divergent paths of evolution. 



Obviously Mendelism has failed to make the necessary 

 qualitative distinction between good or bad pairs of allelo- 

 morphs, as it also begs the question of (or has nothing to say on) 

 the origin and the significance of these " characters," as 

 Darwinism begs that of the origin of variations and of 

 progenitors. 



Just as Darwinism, although supposedly a theory of 

 evolution, has its deus ex macliind in the common progenitor, 

 so Mendelism, also by some believed to be a theory of evolu- 

 tion, speaks of an original hereditary "hold-all" an 



