ORGANIC POLARITY AND MUTATION 109 



tives of 0. Lamarchana from which they were descended. De 

 Vries arranges them in seven distinct species, viz., i of 0. gigas, 56 

 of 0. albida, 350 of O. oblonga, 32 of 0. rubrinervis, 158 of 0. 

 Uanella, 221 of 0. lata, and 8 of 0. scintillans." ^ 



Then, again, the representatives of these new species produced 

 descendants the majority of which unmistakably belonged to the 

 same species as itself. Some of the new species like 0. gigas are 

 very stable forms. Thus from the one specimen of this plant " were 

 obtained 450 plants, all of which, with one exception, were 0. gigas 

 — the one exception not being a return to 0. Lamarckiana, but 

 belonging to a new variety." On the other hand, 0. sciniillans is 

 " extremely unstable, i.e., possesses the property of mutation to a 

 high degree, a large proportion of its descendants belonging to 

 other species, especially 0. oblonga and Lamarckiana itself." 



All these facts concerning the " black-shouldered " Peacock, the 

 Ancon sheep, the tall American maize, and the various species of 

 CEnothera, are so many examples of transformations more or less 

 rapidly brought about, not of course due to internal changes alone 

 but to the conjoint influence of internal tendencies and external 

 conditions operating at the time — the latter being an aspect of the 

 problem which Weismann ignores, or he would never have made 

 such a statement as this : " When by germinal metamorphosis a 

 new form has arisen, this, from the first moment of its existence 

 must be adapted to the new conditions of life or it mush perish." 

 The cases above referred to would doubtless be regarded by him as 

 cases of ' germinal ' metamorphosis, and yet they have been so far 

 adapted to their conditions of life, that instead of perishing they 

 have increased, multiplied and perpetuated their kind. 



Again, Prof. Weismann writes "the abrupt transformation of 

 species implies sudden change in the conditions of life," to which 

 one can only reply that it has not always been so ; as evidence of 

 which there has been on different occasions amidst the old condi- 

 tions the appearance of the " black-shouldered " Peacock, and the 

 appearance of new species of CEnothera. And when he goes on to 

 say, " if such abrupt transformation takes place it must produce the 

 new form instantly equipped for the struggle for existence, and 

 adapted in all its organs and systems of organs to the special con- 

 ditions of its new life," I rejoin that this does not in the least apply 



' See " Nature," June 27, 1901, p. 208. 



