ALTERNATION OF GENERATIONS 247 



experiments, however, would appear to show that male 

 tadpoles can result from Loeb's experiment. If fully con- 

 firmed, this will upset many preconceived ideas. 



But to repeat ; " non-specific fertilisation " clearly 

 starts a new Individual, whereas Parthenogenesis never 

 does, in our opinion ; the parthenogenetically produced 

 organism being always part of an Individual. 



Parthenogenesis would appear to go hand in hand with 

 Alternation of " generations," as previously defined. All 

 gemmation is based on intermediate cell-division, and one 

 division-half may be said to bud the other just as a yeast 

 cell buds a small part of its substance. It is varying forms 

 of living Continuity which, in Individuals developing as 

 separate cell-multiples, confuse the recognition of the common 

 underlying principle. Thus, it is suggested that a succession 

 of unicellular organisms ending in gamete-formation has its 

 multiple expression in a succession of asexual zooids or 

 of neuter aphides ending in sexual forms. We regard 

 cell-division as fundamental Parthenogenesis. 



When the Individual is discontinuous and its cells inde- 

 pendent, or when we are dealing with the growth of a tissue, 

 Parthenogenesis is not obvious ; but when a division-result 

 leaves a tissue of an organism to repeat the organism's 

 structure the phenomenon is striking. Yet all is but a 

 matter of what form of Continuity is imposed on the pro- 

 ducts of cell-division. Tbus, while the Fern spore is in 

 many ways different from the parthenogenetic cell of an 

 aphis, still both are similar in that they are intermediate 

 cells on the evolutionary road leading to sex, and link 

 together cell-multiples of the Individual. 



The parthenogenetic cells of the queen bee are not, in 

 our opinion, ova in any sense, but rather " animal spores," 

 whose further development makes in the drone a male 

 gonophore of sorts ; just as the fern spore becomes a herma- 

 phrodite gonophore. The cells destined to become drones 

 could not, we believe, be fertilised by male elements even 

 if the queen bee allowed it. Are they not certain cells 

 evolving on roads to become male elements when others 

 have already evolved to become female elements ? Is it not 

 that the former have to finish the road outside the queen's 

 body, while the latter manage to do this inside her body ? 



