PANGENESIS 113 



If you think this a possible experiment, now 

 would be the time of year to try it. Therefore I write 

 to ask whether you do think it possible, and if so, what 

 plants you may think it would be best to try it with. 

 All the cats 1 I have hitherto let out of their 

 respective bags have shown themselves exceedingly 

 stupid, not one having found her way back. 



Very sincerely and most respectfully yours, 



GEO. J. EOMANES. 



From C. Darwin, Esq., to G. J. Romanes. 



Down, Beckenham, Kent : March 26, 1881. 



You are very plucky about Pangenesis, and I 

 much wish that you could have any success. I do 

 not understand your scheme. Do you intend to 

 operate on an ovarium with a single ovule, and to 

 bisect it after being fertilised? I should fear that 

 this was quite hopeless. If you intend to operate on 

 ovaria with many seeds, whether before or after 

 fertilisation, I do not see how you could possibly 

 distinguish any effect from the union of the two 

 ovaria. Any operation before fertilisation would, I 

 presume, quite prevent the act ; for very few flowers 

 can be fertilised if the stem is cut and placed in 

 water. Gartner, however, says, that some Liliacea? 

 can be fertilised under these circumstances. 



If Hooker is correct, he found that cutting off or 



1 Mr. Romanes used to describe with much amusement the ludicrous 

 nature of the experiment as seen by passers-by. He drove in a cab well 

 into the country, released the cats, and mounted the roof of the cab in 

 order to get a good view of the cats speeding away in different directions. 



I 



