DEVELOPING CHARACTERS 185 



less hardy; but cousins, beyond doubt, having 

 within them many parallel strains of heredity. 



Let us assume, then, that the orange of the 

 orange daisy is the heredity of ages of sunshine 

 and the white of the other daisy is the inheritance 

 of ages of shade; there are other indications in 

 the habits of these plants to verify this conclu- 

 sion; that both started from the same point, and 

 that one found itself growing in cleared fields, 

 while around the other developed a forest of 

 shade; so that, finally, as environment piled up 

 on environment and accumulated Into heredity, 

 each flower became so firmly fixed in its own 

 characteristics as to constitute a species, as man 

 has often chosen to call it, of its own. 



If we take the seeds of the African orange 

 daisy, and plant them in the shade, they will still 

 produce orange flowers. That is stored-up 

 heredity. No doubt, if we continued, year after 

 year, to replant them in the shade for a century 

 or so, they would begin to transform themselves 

 to white like the other daisy. 



If we plant the white African daisy in the sun- 

 shine, it will still give us flowers of white — the 

 heredity of ages overbalancing the pull of im- 

 mediate environment, and needing a long-con- 

 tinued repetition of environment to balance and 

 finally overcome it.; but if we were to keep it in 



