338 GEOEGB JOHN ROMANES 1894 



discussed the matter of definite and indefinite 

 variability in ' Darwin and after Darwin.' 



(d) I will let the question of Use-Inheritance in 

 relation to seemingly Passive Organs, go by default 

 against me, as it is rather a side issue and would 

 need much writing to discuss. The same applies to 

 your remarks on Teleology. As regards both points 

 I agree with your observations. 



(e) Touching varieties as found in different areas 

 from parent types, I suppose you heard how carefully 

 Nageli has gone into the subject, with the result that 

 after making allowances for defects of isolation, 

 change of environment, &c., only ahout five per cent, 

 of species of plants seem to have originated on distant 

 areas, while Wallace has shown that some such pro- 

 portion applies to animals. 



(f) As regards plants having been brought under 

 cultivation, and yielding variations that prove 

 heredity, I knew there were innumerable cases 

 where artificial selection had been brought into play. 

 But of course they are all out of court until the 

 question on which you are engaged has been de- 

 cided in your favour, i.e. until you have succeeded 

 in disproving natural selection as analogous or 

 parallel to artificial. It was for this reason I men- 

 tioned the case of parsnips, where the hereditary 

 variations seem to have taken place in the first 

 generation after transplanting, and therefore without 

 leaving time for selection of any kind to have come 

 into play. 



