102 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [ill. 



fore, contain germ -plasm, they must have derived it out 

 of the asexual or vegetative or soma -plasm. And I will 

 ask where the germ -plasm is in ferns. These plants are 

 fertilized in the prothallic stage, the plant enjoys only 

 one brief sexual state, and then the sex -organs die and 

 wholly disappear. The fern, as the layman knows the 

 plant, is wholly asexual, and the spores are as sexless as 

 buds; yet these spores germinate and give rise to another 

 brief prothallic or sexual stage, and if there is any germ- 

 plasm at all in these fleeting sexual organs, it must have 

 come from the sexless spores. (See pages 66 to 74.) It 

 is interesting to note, in this connection, that this bud- 

 variation is as frequent in ferns as in other plants. Or, 

 if the Weismannians can locate the germ -plasm in all 

 these instances, pray tell us where it is in the myriads of 

 sexless fungi! There is no such thing as continuous 

 localization of germ - plasm in plants ! 



Weismann himself admits that the germ -plasm must 

 be distributed in "minute fraction" in all "somatic 

 nuclei ' ' of the begonia leaf, be(^ause that leaf is capable 

 of giving rise to new plants by means of cuttings, and 

 all the plants may produce good flowei*s, which, if they 

 are sexual at all, are so only by virtue of containing 

 soaie of this elusive germ -plasm. There is no other 

 way \'()]- these plants to get their germ-plasm, except 

 from tli(^ somatic leaf from which they came. It would 

 seem that this admission undermines the whole tlieory of 

 the localization of the germ-plasm in ])l;mls. toi- one 

 exception in the hypothesis nnist argue that there are 

 others. But not so! There are no insurmountable dif- 

 ficulties before the Weismannians. It is the begonia 

 which is the exception, for it is abnormal for plants to 

 propagate by any such means! The answer which has 



