] ALL THE FEATURES, HEREDITARY 103 



with modern ecological views, though stated 

 thirty-six years ago. 



The reader will find many more coincidences 

 between monocotyledons and aquatic dicoty- 

 ledons in my paper, and I repeat there are 

 many more not therein mentioned. Now their 

 significance, from the present point of view, is 

 that all the characters of existing monocoty- 

 ledons are, of course, hereditary. It is upon 

 them that the entire class is based, being taken 

 from the roots, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds. 

 The amount of evidence for the heredity of 

 acquired characters would be considered ample 

 to support the argument in any other branch 

 of science. It is insuperably greater than the 

 probabilities upon which Huxley founded his 

 belief in the evolutionary history of the horse, 

 and in the many other lines of descent dis- 

 covered since of extinct animals. 



General Conclusions. The reader must clearly 

 perceive that the amount of evidence given in 

 this book is a mere fraction of the inductive 

 and experimental proofs that could be supplied ; 

 as Darwin said in his letter to Professor 

 Wagner in 1876 of the evidence of the " direct 

 action of the conditions of life" "Now the 

 proofs are plentiful." That is, he then realised in 

 his own mind that these were so. I would only 

 change the word " plentiful " into " universal." 



I will, in conclusion, quote the last paragraph 



