60 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



The late Professor James Buckman raised a number of different 

 forms of cabbage from seed gathered from wild plants in North Wales. 

 He observed that the "tendency" to vary is "much increased by 

 transplantation." On the other hand, he remarks that " experiments 

 with seeds of plants showing any particular tendency, especially if 

 repeatedly grown in the same soil, will ever result in an increase of the 

 peculiarity."* This tendency to heredity has long been known. Thus 

 M. E. A. Carriere wrote in 1865 f • " Faisons remarquer que les 

 diverses combinaisons faites pour perpetuer les varietes, ou pour en 

 obtenir de nouvelles, reposent sur cette loi generale que, dans la nature, 

 tout tend a se reproduire et meme a s'etendre, que par consequent les 

 modifications peuvent non-seulement devenir hereditaires, mais qu'elles 

 peuvent encore servir de moyen pom* arriver a d'autres modifications, 

 a etendre et a multiplier de plus en plus les series typiques." 



Speaking of " Crosses," Professor Bateson says : "The allotment 

 of characteristics among offspring is accomplished by a process of 

 cell-division, in which the factors upon which they depend are sorted 

 out among the resulting germ-cells in an orderly fashion. What these 

 factors are we do not know." 



Are they not an assumption to account for the appearance of 

 segregated characters out of a complex mixture ? 



It may be necessary to presuppose some such aid in the cases 

 of crosses and hybrids ; but the origination of new characters in nature 

 requires nothing of the sort. The general property of Life is to 

 respond adaptively to new external conditions. Of course, it is im- 

 possible to say how response is effected, but the results are perfectly 

 obvious. Thus similar results arise under like conditions, and plant- 

 mimicry is the result even among the members of the most widely 

 different orders, as Cactaceae and Euphorbiaceae and others, while 

 the effect of water is to make submerged leaves dissected in several 

 families alike. 



Recognize this principle ot Directivity of Life and the origination 

 of varieties and species becomes obvious, especially in perpetually 

 self-fertilizing plants, which admit of, or secure no, cross-fertilization. 



Professor Bateson says : " The appearance of contemporary 

 variability proves to be an illusion. Varieties from step to step in the 

 series must occur, either by addition or loss of a factor." 



But the question forces itself on our attention : How did the first 

 variations arise when there had been no possibility of crossing ? Why 

 is it that so many inland plants have produced maritime forms ? 

 Induction says, because all have been equally influenced by salt. 

 Experiment verifies this inference by producing the same results. The 

 obvious external differences are loss of hair, reduction in the size and 

 form of the leaf, great fleshiness : all being associated with well- 

 marked, internal anatomical changes. 



Were all these differences previously inherent in the germ-cells 



* Treasury of Botany, s.v. " Brassica." 



j Production et Fixation des VarieUs (1865). 



