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Different genes participate in the effort to produce the resulting plant or plant 
organ. Different plants or plant organs on the other hand are found to share 
in the work of certain genes, or combination of genes; or perhaps we may say 
that the word “ participation ” points to the future, while the word “ sharing ” 
points to the work accomplished in the past. Thus, different genes participate in 
the work of producing a certain result, while different plants share with one 
another the work of certain genes. It must be admitted, however, that my 
theory does not necessarily agree with that used in genetics*, but is rather to 
be regarded as the latter theory broadened to the utmost limit. 
Now, in order to help my readers to understand my theory, it is necessary 
to insist on the law of substance, i. e. the conservation of energy and the 
indestructibility of matter ; that the universe in its real entity is ever the same 
—the same now as in the past and as in the future; that it is only the 
phenomena which change from time to time; and that there can be neither 
increase nor decrease in its real entity. 
All individuals in the universe have close relations with the whole (i. e. 
the universe), and their real entities are something like the threads of a net 
extending in all directions through the universe; some of the threads being 
represented by chemical affinities or physical gravity. To divide the whole 
into parts is something like moving the interwoven threads hither and thither 
with one’s fingers; for, though the whole is divisible into parts as it seems, 
these parts are still connected one with another by the threads. Individuals 
though they be called, they are not by any means in a condition of isolation, 
but rather ave closely related to the whole. Thus, as a part moves, so moves 
the whole itself — that assemblage of many parts. 
All individuals alike possess innumerable genes or factors**. The former 
present various phenomena according as, on the one hand, the latter are 
* Morean, T. H.— The theory of the gene, in Am. Nat. (1917) vol. 51, pp. 513-520. 
** My idea is somewhat comparable to Visxs’ opinion that “the ultimate members, root, 
stem, leaf, may in this view be looked upon as potentially present even in the unicellular plant, 
just as man is potentially in the Amoeba; and their gradual unfolding is but a matter of time 
and the realisation of their inherent tendency to complexity, much as we have in the spore or 
the ovum the potentialities which we see realised as it grows into a plant.”........ [Greeny, J. 
R. — A History of Botany, (Oxford 1909) p. 83]. 
