CHAPTER XIV. 



Heredity (continued) — Influence of the Male Element upon the Female 

 Organism — Inheritance of Acquired Structural Characters. 



Influence of the Male Element upon the Female 

 Organism. — It is well known that the sperm not only affects 

 the germ or the female element, impressing upon it the power 

 of growing up into a more or less mean parental likeness, but 

 that it likewise influences the mother organism. This holds 

 good both of plants and animals. Thus, in plants, the ovarium 

 and the contents of the ovule, which " are obviously parts of 

 the female organism,"* and quite distinct from the embryo, 

 are frequently affected by the male element — the most common 

 alteration being one of colour. This is best shown by fer- 

 tilizing the flowers of one species with the pollen of a different 

 species or variety, when it is found that " sometimes the whole 

 ovarium, or all the seeds, are thus affected, sometimes only a cer- 

 tain number of the seeds If we could imagine the same 



flower to yield seeds during successive years, then it would not 

 be very surprising that the flower of which the ovarium had 

 been modified by foreign pollen, should next year produce, 

 when self-fertilized, offspring modified by the previous male 

 influence." Similarly in the case of animals. The mother is 

 in some way influenced by the male element, so that future 

 progeny by another father tend to partake of the characters of 

 the former sire. Thus, a thoroughbred mare was crossed with 

 a quagga, and bore to it a hybrid animal ; this same mare was 

 afterwards crossed with a black Arabian horse, and produced 

 two colts, which were more plainly striped than the quagga ; 

 " but what makes the case still more striking is the fact that in 

 these two colts the hair of the mane resembled that of the 



* See ''Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i. p. 428, second edit. 



