LUTHER BURBANK 
this conclusion; and obviously if this interpreta- 
tion of germ plasm be accepted, it is a mere quib- 
ble as to whether the change or modification of an 
individual plant involves primarily the germ plasm 
or whether it involves the body plasm of the same 
cell as well. 
Of course such mere incidental modifications of 
an individual as have to do with injury of its parts, 
the laceration of tissues, or the like, cannot be 
supposed to have any influence in heredity. 
If such accidental modifications are heritable, 
the entire scheme of inheritance would become 
chaotic. 
The modification that is heritable must be one 
that involves the constitution, so to speak, of the 
plant; such modification as would be brought 
about by changed conditions of nutrition, or by an 
altered temperature. A certain amount of experi- 
mental proof is already in hand that such modifi- 
cations as these may be inherited. And if the 
opponents of the theory of the transmission of 
acquired traits can get any comfort out of the 
claim that such modifications directly effect the 
germ plasm, we need not wish to rob them of that 
cold comfort. 
Details as to the special manner of inheritance 
aside, we may accept it, I think, as the only logical 
conclusion from a wide survey of the facts of her- 
[216] 
