22 METHODS OF EVOLUTION [CHAP. n. 



The question of the heredity of acquired 

 characters he here appears to leave open, but 

 he had previously summed up Darwin's and 

 Weismann's views by saying: 



" The question, in fact, is not whether direct 

 environmental action may occur or not, nor 

 whether it may be inherited or not, but simply 

 how soon the influence may so saturate through 

 the organism, as to become, by affecting the 

 reproductive elements, transmissible." : 



Indeed the author observes that 



"He (Weismann) allows indeed that in the 

 course of generations, if the conditions of change 

 persist, the variations will become more deeply 

 rooted, the reproductive elements will somehow 

 come to feel the change, and the modification 

 will be transmitted and, for a time at least, 

 stereotyped." 



My object is to prove that these hypothetical 

 admissions are positive facts, as far as plants 

 are concerned. 



1 Op. tit., p. 465. 



