268 Gates. 



and other characters are redistributed regularly during meiosis, then 

 we may look upon hybrid recombinations as the result of the meiotic 

 processes regularly carried through, while mutations result from irre- 

 gular or exceptional divisions, i. e., germinal changes, either during 

 meiosis, or, in some cases, at other stages in the life cycle. 



We are thus able for the first time to show that a definite and sharp 

 distinction exists between these two independant classes of phenomena. 

 Of course in one sense it might be said that lata, e. g., is "latent"^ 

 in all the 14-chromosome forms from which it may appear. But this 

 becomes mere verbiage in the light of the actual facts as to how the 

 new chromosome-number and the coincident external characters arise. 

 The cytological details regarding lata rubricalyx will be published 

 elsewhere. I am also growing the offspring of this plant as well as 

 the progeny from several crosses, and the results promise to be of 

 great interest. 



III. Discussion. 



The neo-Mendelian school have over-emphasized the notion that 

 the "characters" of organisms are mutually independent, to the ex- 

 clusion of the view that they are in varying degrees dependent upon each, 

 other for the manner of their expression in the organism. But I believe 

 that any sufficiently detailed study of any unit-character in its deve- 

 lopment and inheritance, will show that this extreme view of character- 

 independence is untenable. The current Mendelian supposition that 

 unit-characters can be shuffled and redistributed quite independently 

 of the organisms as a whole in which thoce characters are exhibited 

 and in which, they develope, is biologically and physiologically unsound. 



The great biological problems of phylogeny and ontogeny are 

 inextricably interwoven, and an understanding of individual deve- 

 lopment is a prime necessity for the comprehension of phylogenetic 

 problems. This is generally recognised in the fields of embryology and 

 morphogenesis, but the assertions of the neo-Mendelian school regarding' 

 the independence of imit-factors in development necessitates a re- 

 emphasis on the fact that after all the individual organism is the real 

 imit, from the fertilized egg onwards. To speak of the existence of 

 independent unit-characters witliin the organism requires an abstraction 

 which never occurs in actual living beings. Who ever saw a so-called 

 unit-character, except as a part of some organism? 



In breeding plants and animals it is possible to see the residuum 

 left when a given unit-character is "removed", and on this fact indeed 



