HEREDITY OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS 321 
L. italicum and a mixture of ‘Trifoliums. On the peat the plant 
was very thick, and there was ‘‘no room tor weeds,” but on the 
clay it “has missed badly,” and its place was-taken by a fairly 
} The pasture had not been 
pasture weeds. 
The heredity of acquired characters I find to be most difficult 
of proof, for it is no child’s play to distinguish between acquire 
ific heritable ones. The 
d 
well known, but in seed-fields especially, and in other places 
where it is freely eaten by close-grazing stock such as sheep and 
i at (a 3 
in some cases, according to situation. 
Another plant which varies the form of its growth when found 
in seed-pastures is Caucalis nodosa. The rosette form is common 
enough. Alchemilla arvensis, in sheep pasture, is the same. On 
downs, too, where sheep bite very closely, Festuca ovina takes on 
a ball-like or rosette form. : 
ow why are these states so patent in temporary grazing 
mixtures? Because the plants referred to are highly ee it 
n 
ed. r 
for winter fodder and to be threshed as seeds for future crops. 
Th emain unstocked always. in them also both forms of 
m G. molle m 
members of the passing generation. : 
[A similar phenomenon may be noticed in Plantago major, 
which on a frequently mown lawn produces flower-stalks which 
bend down and spread just as those of Taraxacum are described 
