202 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



known species of animals and plants differ 

 from one another because of inherited peculi- 

 arities, because they have come from differ- 

 ent kinds of germ cells. 



2. Individual Characters. — Many charac- 

 ters which are peculiar to certain individuals 

 are known to be inherited, and in general use 

 the word "inheritance" refers to the repetition 

 in successive generations of such individual 

 peculiarities. Among such individual charac- 

 ters are the following: 



(a) Morphological Features. — Hereditary 

 resemblances are especially recognizable in the 

 gross and minute anatomy of every organism, 

 in the form, structure, location, size, color, etc., 

 of each and every part. The number of such 

 individual peculiarities which are inherited is 

 innumerable and only a few of the more strik- 

 ing of these can be mentioned. 



It is a matter of common knowledge that 

 unusually great or small stature runs in cer- 

 tain families, and Galton developed a formula 

 for determining the approximate stature of 

 children from the known stature of the parents 

 and from the mean stature of the race. How- 



