678 



THE AMEBIC AN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIX 



related character "y" has in close-bred forms, appar- 

 ently rests on a Mendelian basis. Its importance in 

 evolution, beyond the idea that more pronounced tempo- 

 rary combinations are thus allowed in the trial and error 

 plan of nature, is conjectural. 



4. Amphimixis and Death 



With the assumption that the results obtained in the 

 preceding investigation, together with the data presented 

 by other writers, when correctly analyzed, strongly sup- 

 ports the view that asexually produced organisms tend to 

 be more variable than those produced by the union of two 

 gametes, there is furnished evidence for the interpreta- 

 tion of the origin of sex — amphimixis and also for the 

 origin of death that would seem to rest upon a much more 

 secure basis than the purely speculative theories of Weis- 

 mann, Nageli, Hatscheck, Metschnikoff, Minot, etc., which 

 have previously been advanced. 



The chief advantage gained in the reduction of varia- 

 bility, while somewhat conjectural, would appear to be 



