Chap. XL SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER. 405 



a choice female to an inferior male on account of the injury to 

 her subsequent progeny which may be expected to follow. 



Some physiologists have attempted to account for these re- 

 markable results from a first impregnation by the close attach- 

 ment and freely intercommunicating blood-vessels between the 

 modified embryo and the mother. But it is a most improbable 

 hypothesis that the mere blood of one individual should affect 

 the reproductive organs of another individual in such a manner 

 as to modify the subsequent offspring. The analogy from the 

 direct action of foreign pollen on the ovarium and seed-coats 

 of the mother-plant strongly supports the belief that the male 

 element acts directly on the reproductive organs of the female, 

 wonderful as is this action, and not through the intervention of 

 the crossed embryo. With birds there is no such close con- 

 nection between the embryo and mother as in the case of 

 mammals: yet a careful observer, Dr. Chapuis, states 139 that 

 with pigeons the influence of a first male sometimes makes itself 

 perceived in the succeeding broods ; but this statement, before it 

 can be fully trusted, requires confirmation. 



Conclusion and Summary of the Chapter —The facts given in 

 the latter half of this chapter are well worthy of consideration, 

 as they show us in how many extraordinary modes one organic 

 form may lead to the modification of another, and often without 

 the intervention of seminal reproduction. There is ample evi- 

 dence, as we have just seen, that the male element may either 

 directly affect the structure of the female, or in the case of 

 animals lead to the modification of her offspring. There is 

 sufficient evidence that the tissues of two plants may unite and 

 form a bud having a blended character ; or again, that buds in- 

 serted into a stock may affect all the buds subsequently produced 

 by this stock. Two embryos, differing from each other and 

 contained in the same seed, may cohere and form a single plant. 

 Offspring from a cross between two species or varieties may m 

 the first or in a succeeding generation revert in various degrees 

 by bud-variation to their parent-forms; and this reversion or 

 segregation of character may affect the whole flower, fruit, or 

 leaf-bud, or only the half or smaller segment, or a single organ. 

 189 < Le Pigeon Voyageur Beige,' 1865, p. 59. 



