1870— 1SS2] GRAFT HYBRIDS 359 



the ears being sensitive and provided with nerves. I Letter 269 

 presume he made fine sections : if you are accustomed 

 to such histological work, would it not be worth while 

 to examine hairs of tail of mice? At p. 189 I quote 

 Henslow (confirmed by Giinther) on Mhs messorius (and 

 other species?) using tail as prehensile organ. 



Dr. Kane in his account of the second Grinnell 

 Expedition says that the Esquimaux in severe weather carry 

 a fox-tail tied to the neck, which they use as a respirator 

 by holding the tip of the tail between their teeth. 1 



He says also that he found a frozen fox curled up 

 with his nose buried in his tail. 



N.B. It is just possible that the latter fact is stated 

 by M'Clintock, not by Dr. Kane. 



The final passage is a postscript by Mr. W. E. Darwin bearing on 

 Mr. Lawson Tait's idea of the respirator function of the fox's tail. 



* 

 To G. J. Romanes. Letter 270 



Down, July 12th, 1S75. 



I am correcting a second edition of Variation under 

 Domestication, and find that I must do it pretty fully. 

 Therefore I give a short abstract of potato graft-hybrids, and 

 I want to know whether I did not send you a reference about 

 beet. Did you look to this, and can you tell me anything 

 about it ? 



I hope with all my heart that you are getting on pretty 

 well with your experiments. 



I have been led to think a good deal on the subject, and 

 am convinced of its high importance, though it will take 

 years of hammering before physiologists will admit that the 

 sexual organs only collect the generative elements. 



The edition will be published in November, and then you 

 will sec all that I have collected, but I believe that you gave 

 all the more important cases. The case of vine in Gardeners* 

 Chronicle, which I sent you, I think may only be a bud- 

 variation not due to grafting. I have heard indirectly of 

 your splendid success with nerves of medusa?. We have 



1 The fact is stated in Vol. II., p. 24, of E. K. Kane's Arctic 



Explorations : The Second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John 

 Franklin. Philadelphia, 1856. 



