156 Explanation of P articulate Inheritance 



we repeat, different to such a degree that the activation 

 of one prevents that of the other, the two formative 

 actions will be likewise different for all the points of the 

 soma upon which their action would be perferably or 

 exclusively directed, and they would be able thus either to 

 combine and thus unite into a single resultant formative 

 action, or, by developing their respective characters 

 separately, to bring about an intimate interlacing of 

 them, in such a way as to cause the appearance of a com- 

 mingled intermediate character, or finally the paternal 

 character developed by one of the formative actions can 

 at a given point prevail over the maternal to such an ex- 

 tent as to appear in all its purity, while perhaps the reverse 

 appears in a neighboring point of the soma, and the 

 maternal character comes alone to development. 



A characteristic example of this interlacement of pa- 

 ternal and maternal characters remaining in part distinct 

 but in part fused, is shown us by the hybrid arising from 

 the spontaneous crossing of Vitis aestivalis and Vitis 

 labrusca, the epidermis of whose leaves is formed like a 

 mosaic, the cells of which belong either to the purely 

 paternal type or to the purely maternal type, or to an 

 intermediate form. 126 



If now after considering the phenomena of particulate 

 inheritance due to sexual reproduction, we consider the 

 phenomena of this particulate inheritance in its broadest 

 extent and most general significance in order to be able to 

 answer the question ; how can the simple fact be explained 

 that two individuals can be altogether alike except for a 

 single definite peculiarity at a single given point of the 



""Strasburger : t)ber periodische Reduktion der Chromosomen- 

 zahl im Entwicklungsgang der Organismen. Biol. Centralbl., Bd., 

 XIV. No. 23 and 24, Dec. i. and 15, 1894. P. 850. 



