ii.] PROCESSES IN HEREDITY. 11 



spending variety in the results. In some islets one 

 plant would prevail, in others another ; nevertheless 

 there would be many traits of family likeness in the 

 vegetation of all of them, and no plant would be found 

 that had not existed in one or other of the islands. 



Though family likeness and individual variations are 

 largely due to a common cause, some variations are so 

 large and otherwise remarkable, that they seem to 

 belong to a different class. They are known among 

 breeders as " sports " ; I will speak of these later on. 



Latent Characteristics. Another fact in heredity 

 may also be illustrated by the islands and islets ; 

 namely, that the child often resembles jm ancestor in 

 some feature or character that neither of his parents 

 personally possessed. \Ve are told that buried seeds 

 may lie dormant for many years, so that when a 

 plot of ground that was formerly cultivated is again 

 deeply dug into and upturned, plants that had not been 

 known to grow on the spot within the memory of man, 

 will frequently make their appearance. It is easy to 

 imagine that some of these dormant seeds should find 

 their way to an islet, through currents that undermined 

 the island cliffs and drifted away their debris, after the 

 cliffs had tumbled into the sea. Again, many plants on 

 the islands may maintain an obscure existence, being 

 hidden and half smothered by successful rivals ; but 

 whenever their seeds happened to find their way to any 

 one of the islets, while those of their rivals did not, 

 they would sprout freely and assert themselves. This 



