TRANSMISSION OF MODIFICATIONS 



377 



Montpellier is situated in southern France on the Mediter- 

 ranean, within a few miles of the coast ; Geneva is at the head 

 of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The two points are, therefore, 

 separated by about two and a half degrees of latitude, with a 

 difference of about twelve hundred feet in altitude, and with 

 some possible differences in humidity. The main difference, 

 however, is one of temperature ; and although both the tulip tree 

 and the catalpa had been originally introduced from America, 

 they had evidently become so physiologically modified by their 

 new surroundings as to exhibit substantial diversity in their 

 reactions to the same temperatures. 



Bailey found that cuttings of Lombardy poplar from northern 

 Maine unfolded their buds two days earlier than similar cuttings 

 taken at Ithaca. He placed under the same conditions cuttings 

 of the Concord grape taken from Maine, New York, and southern 

 Louisiana, and found that they leafed out in the order of their 

 locality, beginning with the most northerly. He reports similar 

 results from potatoes. 



These were cuttings, and the experiments show that the indi- 

 vidual plants from which they were taken had become thoroughly 

 acclimated. Whether any selection had been involved in this 

 acclimatization we do not know, and we cannot tell, or even infer, 

 from these experiments whether or not the seeds grown from 

 these plants would have behaved in the same way. What is 

 shown is that the individual plants were so thoroughly acclimated 

 as not to respond in the same degree to identical temperature 

 conditions. 



The same behavior has been shown, however, with all seeds 

 that have been tried. Bailey found that corn (maize) grown in 

 New York germinated more readily than that grown in South 

 Carolina or (as shown by the following table) than that grown, 

 in Alabama : 



