SUGGESTIONS FOR RELIABLE HYPOTHESES 165 



forms of the cabbage. As in ' evolution/ these altera- 

 tions can certainly hardly be directly considered, but 

 they show that the organism is no stubborn unchange- 

 able form. 



Observations were made and experiments confirmed 

 that the external conditions of existence such as 

 climate, particularly the temperature, and nutrition 

 could induce such transformations and fix them per- 

 manently in the organism, as would suffice to form 

 various ' species/ even if the origin of the changed 

 forms had not been known. 1 



Thus there resulted from seeds of one and the same 

 mother plant, which were sown partly at high elevations 

 and partly at lower and partly in the valley, plants 

 of fundamentally different external appearances. The 

 alpine forms were more congested, hairier as protec- 

 tion from cold the leaves smaller and darker green, the 

 flowers fewer and more intensely coloured, than those 

 of the valley. Were the alpine forms subjected for 

 a long period to the same conditions, these changes 

 could become permanent, but the tendency is im- 

 mediately shown to retain the new characters even if 

 their seed be sown again in the valley. 3 



In Angora not only the goats, but also cats and 

 dogs have fleecy wool. Pure-bred dogs cannot be 



1 See, particularly as regards the following remarks, R. Heffe : Abstain- 

 mungslehre und Darwinismus, Leipzig, 1904, p. 96. 



2 The author could convince himself of this in Innsbruck, where, in 

 the Botanical Garden, mountain and valley forms were shown as progeny 

 of one and the same mother plant (Brassica). From their appearance 

 no one would have presumed so close a relationship. 



