RELATION OF GENES TO CHARACTER 357 



that is really meant in the case under discussion by the 

 expression " gene for red " is that red flowers are pro- 

 duced by a combination of genes that differs, in respect 

 to a single pair of genes, from that which produces white. 

 Thus this single gene is responsible for the difference 

 between red and white but it is not by any means solely 

 responsible for red or white flowers. 



Are Genes the Sole Bearers of Heredity? — This 

 question will receive adequate answer in later chapters 

 but it seems desirable to point out here that the present 

 state of knowledge of heredity recognizes only two means 

 of transmitting characters from parent to offspring. The 

 great majority of characters which have been investigated 

 belong to the class which are transmitted through genes 

 in the chromosomes. A very few characters in plants, 

 having to do with the green color, are now known to be 

 transmitted from the ovule parent directly to the off- 

 spring by means of the chloroplasts which are contained 

 in the cytoplasm of the egg. There are many popular 

 ideas about the influence of the mother on her unborn 

 child which, if true, would not fall in either of these two 

 classes. Most of these beliefs are obviously fanciful and 

 have no basis in fact at all. All such ideas as that the. 

 mother can control the moral or intellectual character 

 of the child by directing her own thoughts along similar 

 lines are in all probability mere figments of the imagina- 

 tion. 



Are Acquired Characters Inherited? — An acquired 

 character is one which the organism has acquired during 

 its own lifetime as a result of its own activities or the ac- 

 tion on it of external influences. The chief difficulty in 

 answering the above question lies in distinguishing genu- 

 ine acquirements. So long as one experiments with char- 

 acters about which there is no doubt the answer is always 

 in the negative. For example the small feet of the high- 

 class Chinese woman are certainly acquired. Her imme- 

 diate ancestors and her remote ones have regularly bound 



