CHAPTER II 



ON SUPPOSED METHODS OF EVOLUTION; AND 

 THE HEREDITY OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS 



SINCE zoological writers strictly limit " acquired 

 characters " to certain kinds of structure and 

 habits of animals, 1 of which only a portion can 

 apply to plants, it is necessary to explain the 

 usage of these words in the vegetable kingdom. 

 I would, therefore, venture to define them as 

 the results of any change of structure (morpho- 

 logical and anatomical) from the normal 

 characters of any part or parts of the plant 

 (i.e., in comparison with others of the same 

 species or genus which have not changed at all) 

 through the means of a response to some new 

 and direct action of the external influences of 

 the environment, or " changed conditions of life" 

 To take an example in illustration. The adhesive 



1 "All the effects of exercise are acquirements for example, 

 the enlargement which exercise causes in muscles. The effects 

 of lack of exercise are also acquirements for example, the wasting 

 of a disused muscle. The effects of injury are acquirements for 

 example, the changes in a diseased being or an injured arm." " The 

 Principles of Heredity," G. A. Reid, p. 5, note. These scarcely 

 apply to plants, but Mr Reid does admits that "No doubt, to a 

 limited extent some use acquirements are made by plants " (note, 

 p. 32). To this further allusion will be made. 



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