104 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VoL. XXXII. 
tion of partial or complete stability. It was suggested that possibly 
the difference between uniform and polymorphic hybrids of thẹ first 
generation is due to a more complete intermingling of the hereditary 
particles in case of polymorphic hybrids (offspring of closely related 
organisms), whereby many differing combinations would be possible, 
and, in case of uniform hybrids (mostly offspring of distinct species 
or very different races of the same species), to greater or less aversion 
to commingling between the two more diverse sorts of particles, 
whereby but one uniform and stable configuration would result, 
allowing both sorts of hereditary substance to act equally. 
Xenia, or the communication of the paternal characters to parts of 
the mother plant in the immediate neighborhood of the developing 
embryo, was held to be well established in case of some races of 
maize by the work of Dudley, Savi, de Vilmorin, Hildebrand, 
Kornicke, Sturtevant, Burrill, Kellerman and Swingle, McCluer, 
Tracy, Hays, and others, and in case of some races of peas by the 
work of Wiegmann, Gartner, Berkeley, Laxton, and Darwin. The 
converse phenomena of the mother plant influencing the characters 
of the developing embryo is occasionally reported; for instance, in 
hybrids of Digitalis, by Gartner, and in hybrids of Nymphza, by 
Caspary. E sE 
These phenomena are inexplicable by the current theories of 
heredity, and perhaps in consequence have been neglected. They 
necessitate the assumption that hereditary influences can be trans- 
ported from cell to cell for some distance. It was suggested that this 
transport may occur either along the intercellular filaments which 
pass through the walls, or by means of diffusible substances capable 
of acting on the hereditary particles of distant cells. Townsend’s 
proof of the conduction of the stimulus which results in wall forma- 
tion over long, slender threads of protoplasm in plasmolyzed cells 
may be considered as hinting the possibility of the former explana- 
tion, while Beijerinck’s claim that the developing larvæ of some gall 
insects secrete substances which diffuse into and control the ontogeny 
of neighboring meristematic or partially developed tissue cells of the 
host plant foreshadows the latter hypothesis. 
Dr. G. E. Stone: Jnfluence of Electricity on Plants. Read by 
title. 
ALBERT F. Woops: Variable Reaction of Plants and Animals to 
Hydrocyanic Acid. Experiments cover a period of three years. The 
plants and animals were exposed in air-tight chambers of known cubic 
