Alfred Russel Wallace 



also argues that, as a corollary, " acquired modifications 

 are barely if at all inherited in the correct sense of the 

 word." He shows the imperfection of the evidence on this 

 point, and admits, just as Weismann does, the heredity of 

 changes in the parent like alcoholism, which, by permeating 

 the whole tissues, may directly affect the reproductive ele- 

 ments. In fact, all the main features of Weismann's views 

 seem to be here anticipated, and I think he ought to have 

 the credit of it. 



Being no physiologist, his language is not technical, 

 and for this reason, and the place of publication perhaps, 

 his remarkable paper appears to have been overlooked by 

 physiologists. 



I think you will find the paper very suggestive, even 

 supplying some points overlooked by Weismann. — Yours 

 faithfully, A. R. Wallace. 



To Prof. Poulton 



Hamilton House, The Croft, Hastings. February 19, 1889. 



Dear Mr. Poulton, — Do you happen to have, or can you 



easily refer to. Grant Allen's small books of collected 



papers under such titles as " Vignettes from Nature," 



''The Evolutionist at Large," ''Colin Clout's Calendar," 



and another I can't remember ? In one of them is a paper 



on the Origin of Wheat, in which he puts forth the theory 



that the grasses, etc., are degraded forms which were once 



insect-fertilised, summing up his views in the phrase, 



" Wheat is a degraded lily," or something like that. Now 



Henslow, in his "Floral Structures,"^ adopts the same 



theory for all the wind-fertilised or self-fertilised flowers, 



and he tells me that he is alone in the view. I believe the 



view is a true one, and I want to give G. Allen the credit 



* " The Origin of Floral Structures through Insect and Other Agencies." 

 Internat. Sci. Series. 1888. 



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