ON HEREDITY 



motion pictures liave been taken; making our 

 separate snapshots one every three minutes 

 instead of fifteen or sixteen to the second, so tliat 

 the reel would cover a period of fifteen days; then, 

 with a fifteen day history recorded on our film, to 

 run it through the projecting lantern at the rate 

 of fifteen or sixteen pictures to the second, thus 

 showing in seven or eight minutes the motions 

 of growth which actually took fifteen days to 

 accomplish; on the screen before us, with quick, 

 darting motions, we should see the sweet pea 

 wriggle and writhe and squirm — we should see it 

 wave its tendrils around in the air, feeling out 

 every inch within its reach for possible supports 

 on which to twine. 



"We should see, by condensing half a month 

 of its life into an eight minute reel, that this sweet 

 pea has inherited an actual intelligence — slow in 

 its operation, but positive, certain — an inherited 

 intelligence which would be surprising, even, in 



an animal." 



***** 



"All through plant life we find these undeniable 

 evidences of heredity. 



"I have here, for example, two tiny seedlings 

 which look almost alike. They are distantl}' 

 related. One is the acacia and the other the 

 sensitive plant. 



[43] 



