1875 PANGENESIS 21 



18 Cornwall Terrace, Regent's Park, N.W.: 

 January 14, 1875. 



Dear Mr. Darwin, I should very much like to 

 see the papers to which you allude. A priori one 

 would have thought the bisecting plan the more 

 hopeful, but if the other has yielded positive results, 

 in the case of an eye and tubers, I think it would be 

 worth while to try the effect of transplanting various 

 kinds of pips into the pulps of kindred varieties of 

 fruit ; for the homological relations in this case would 

 be pretty much the same as in the other, with the 

 exception of the bud being an impregnated one. If 

 positive results ensued, however, this last-mentioned 

 fact would be all the better for ' Pangenesis.' 



You have doubtless observed the very remarkable 

 case given in the ' Gardener's Chronicle ' for January 2 

 -I mean the vine in which the scion appears to have 

 notably affected the stock. Altogether vines seem 

 very promising ; and as their buds admit of being 

 planted in the ground, it would be much more easy 

 to try the bisecting plan in their case than in others, 

 where one half-bud, besides requiring to be fitted to 

 the other half, has also to have its shield fitted into 

 the bark. All one's energies might then be expended 

 in coaxing adhesion, and if once this were obtained, 

 I think there would here be the best chance of 

 obtaining a hybrid ; for then all, or nearly all, the 

 cells of the future branch would be in the state 

 of gemmules. I am very sanguine about the buds 

 growing under these circumstances, for the vigour 



