266 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [xiV. 



over again, de novo, each year. Tlierefore, the en- 

 vironment must affect the annual plant in some one 

 generation or not at all. It seems to me to be mere 

 sophistry to say that in plants which start anew 

 from seeds each year, the effect of environment is 

 not felt until after a lapse of several generations, 

 for if that were so the plant would simply take up 

 life at the same place every year. This philosophy is 

 equivalent to saying that characters which are acquired 

 in any one generation are not hereditary until they 

 have been transmitted at least once ! 



My contention then, is this : plants may start equal, 

 either from seeds or asexual parts, but may end un- 

 equal ; these inequalities or unlikenesses are largely 

 the direct result of the conditions in which the plants 

 grow ; these unlikenesses may be transmitted either 

 by seeds or buds. Or, to take a shorter phrase, con- 

 genital variations in plants may have received their 

 initial impulse either in the preceding generation or 

 in the sexual compact from which the plants sprung. 



