106' THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [ill. 



as a whole, to make a simple functional adaptation to 

 environment. If there is a continuity of germ -plasm in 

 plants, this element must of necessity be intimately 

 associated with every particle of the plant body, even to 

 its very periphery, and it must directly receive external 

 impressions; and this concept of Weismann — the con- 

 tinuity of the germ -plasm — becomes one of the readiest 

 means of explaining the transmission of acquired char- 

 acters. All these conclusions prove the unwisdom of 

 endeavoring to account for the evolution of all the forms 

 of life upon any single hypothesis ; and they illustrate 

 with great emphasis the complexity of even the funda- 

 mental forces in the progression of organic nature. 



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