INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 99 



motion pictures have been taken; making sepa- 

 rate exposures, one every three minutes instead 

 of fifteen or sixteen to the second, so that the 

 reel would cover a period of fifteen days; then, 

 with a fifteen-day history recorded on the film, to 

 run it through the projecting lantern at the rate 

 of fifteen or sixteen pictures to the second, thus 

 showing in seven or eight minutes the motions 

 of growth which actually took fifteen days to 

 accomplish; on the screen before us, with quick 

 darting motions, we should see the sweet pea 

 wriggle and writhe and squirm — we should see 

 it wave its tendrils around in the air, feeling out 

 every inch within its reach for possible supports 

 on which to twine. 



We should see, by condensing half a month of 

 its life into an eight-minute reel, that this sweet 

 pea has inherited an actual intelligence — slow in 

 its operation, but positive, certain — an inherited 

 intelligence which would be surprising even in 

 an animal. 



Throughout all plant life we find these unde- 

 niable evidences of environment having affected 

 heredity. 



Here, for example, are two tiny seedlings 

 which look almost alike. They are distinctly 

 related. One is the acacia {A. molUssima) and 

 the other the sensitive plant {Mimosa pudica). 



