198 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 
The figure here shown is one of the four chromosomes 
of a ripe ovum of the fruit fly, Drosophila ampelophila. 
If the figure is a faithful chart of a chromosome then 
much can be read into it in the light of a large amount of 
data which has accumulated in the last ten or twelve years. 
First, the chromosome is a product (an offspring) of the 
chromosomes of the parent. Second, the factors for charac- 
ter are contributed by the father and mother, and lastly, 
the factors are definitely spaced in definite chromosomes. 
Thus the offspring is a composite of the parental character- 
istics and therein is the modernized conception of prefor- 
mation. 
