﻿Characters, Hereditary and Acquired. 127 



qualities of the seed (as this was afterwards formed), 

 that the augmented changes were transmitted to the 

 next generation, part for part, as the lesser changes had 

 occurred in the preceding generation. " This experi- 

 ment, therefore, like Professor Buckman's, shows that 

 the alteration of the tissues was carried on in the 

 second generation from the point gained in the first. 

 In both cases no germ-plasm (in the germ-cells) 

 existed at the time during which the alterations 

 arose, as they were confined to the vegetative system; 

 and in the case of the parsnips and carrots, being 

 biennials no germ-cells are produced till the second 

 year has arrived V 



Once more, Professor Bailey remarks: — 



"Squashes often show remarkable differences when grown 

 upon different soils ; and these differences can sometimes be per- 

 petuated for a time by seeds. The writer has produced, from 

 the same parent, squashes so dissimilar, through the simple 

 agency of a change of soil in one season, that they might readily 

 be taken for distinct varieties. Peas are known to vary in the 

 same manner. The seeds of a row of peas of the same kind, 

 last year gave the writer marked variations due to differences 



of soil Pea-growers characterize soils as 'good' and 



'viney.' Upon the latter sort the plants run to vine at the 

 expense of the fruit, and their offspring for two or three 

 generations have the same tendency V 



I think these several cases are enough to show 

 that, while the Weismannian assumption as to the 

 seeming transmission of somatogenetic characters 

 being restricted to the lowest kinds of plants is 



1 I am indebted to the Rev. G. Henslow for the references to 

 these cases. This and the passages which follow are quoted from his 

 letters to me. 



2 Gardener's Chronicle, May 31, 1890, p. 677. 



