26 



INHEKITANCE. 



Chap. XII 



perfectly to 



m 



ble the parent-form; and th 



may be accounted for by 



tantly 



duced by 



ditions of life. I bel 



I believe, 



lability in- 



this, becaus 



has been observed that certain fruit-trees truly propagate tl 



rowing on their own roots, but when grafted 



kind whilst 

 other stock 



:1 by this pr 



their natural 



festly affected, they produce seedlings which vary greatlv, de 

 parting from the parental type in many characters. 65 



Met 



stated in the ninth chapter, found that certain kinds of 



zger 



brought from Spain and cultivated in Germany, failed dur 

 many years to reproduce themselves truly; but that at 1 

 when accustomed to their new conditions, they ceased to 



o 



be 



iable 



th 



is, they became amenable to the power of 



heritance. Nearly all the plants which cannot be propagated 

 with any approach to certainty by seed, are kinds' which have 

 long been propagated by buds, cuttings, offsets, tubers, &c, and 

 have in consequence been frequently exposed during their indi- 



Plants 



vidual lives to widely diversified conditions of life, 

 thus propagated become so variable, that they are subject, a 

 we have seen in the last chapter, even to bud-variation. Ou 

 domesticated animals, on the other hand, are not exposed durin 

 their individual lives to such extremely diversified condition 

 and are not liable to such extreme variability ; therefore they d 



featur 



the power of transmitting most of their chara 

 In the foregoing remarks on non-inheritance 



breeds are of course excluded, as their diversity mainly depends 

 on the unequal development of characters derived from either 

 parent, modified by the principles of reversion and prepotency. 



- 



Conclusion. 



It has, I think, been shown in the early part of this chapter 

 how strongly new characters of the most diversified nature, 

 whether normal or abnormal, injurious or beneficial, whether 



affecting organs of the 



highest 



or most trifling importance 



are inherited. Contrary to the common opinion, it is often 

 sufficient for the inheritance of some peculiar character, that one 

 parent alone should possess it, as in most cases in which the rarer 



65 Downing, ' Fruits of America/ p. 5 ; Sageret, ' Pom. Phys./ pp. 43, 72. 



&± 



an° 



is 



t 



froi 



disj 



qui 



In 



are 



effe 

 tail 

 the 

 tra 



wo: 



■ 



be 



fai 

 fir 



til 



T( 



\ 



sc 

 tli 



or 



Th 





