Progeny 71 



red cabbage and to his surprise finds not only red 

 cabbage but some green. His argument is that the 

 green cabbage of the previous year influenced the 

 ground and caused it the following year to produce 

 green cabbage as well as red, and he bases his argu- 

 ment on the fact that it is impossible for the green 

 cabbage to have fertilized the ground with green 

 cabbage seed for he ate every green cabbage before 

 it came to seed. 



"It does not strike him that this phenomenon 

 might be the outcome of some seeds lying dormant 

 through abnormal circumstances, such as delayed 

 vitality or that he placed them too deep in the 

 ground. But if he asked any practical gardener, 

 he would at once be informed that it is not an un- 

 common thing for seeds to lie dormant for a year, 

 and if he were a man of an inquii'ing nature, he 

 would learn before long that in the making of rail- 

 ways a flora appeared in certain spots which was 

 never known to exist in the memory of man. I 

 ask Dr. Mills if he can deny such a statement as 

 this, and if it is not a fact that, in the sudden and 

 abnormal appearance of such flora as I allude to, 

 we have not the answer to the question, what is the 

 cause of the phenomenon? Undoubtedly we have, 

 for in it we see an instance of the power of a fer- 

 tilized ovum to lie dormant for vears under abnor- 



