r.] HEREDITARY MONSTROSITIES 89 



This fact shows how the changes wrought by 

 cultivation so completely upset primitive arrange- 

 ments of cells and tissues, that they though 

 entirely due to the direct action of a prepared 

 garden soil are hereditary and fixed. 



Mr Reid says with regard to " monsters," 

 which so often appear under cultivation, that, 

 "lacking adaptation to the environment invari- 

 ably perish." 1 This may be true with animals, 

 yet it is by no means the case with plants. 

 Monstrosities, as they are called, are common 

 in flowers, such as double flowers, in which the 

 sexual organs may be entirely suppressed, yet 

 they thrive well. Or they may be " multifold " 

 flowers, in which the number of the parts is 

 increased, as in the " campanulate " foxglove 

 and the garden variety " Victoria " of forget-me- 

 not, as well as the old form of tomato. Yet 

 these monstrous flowers are hereditary, and the 

 plants grow in as perfect adaptation to the 

 environment as the normal species do. Similarly 

 " fasciated " stems, which are allied to multifold 

 flowers in the multiplication of the fibre-vascular 

 bundles, are not infrequently hereditary. 



1 Op.cit., p. 86. 



M 



