328 JOUBNAL OF THE KOYAL HOKTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



By relying upon the inheritance of an acquired character, cows yielding 

 1200 gallons of milk in one lactation period are being produced in 

 considerable numbers. At a cattle show recently held at Fenwick, in 

 Ayrshire, five cows competed in a class for which the necessary 

 qualification was that the competitor had produced 1200 gallons of milk 

 in one year. 



Almost equally interesting has been the development of "utility" 

 poultry breeds. No wild jungle fowl would lay eggs after the fashion 

 expected of White Wyandottes and Leghorns. Chickens from a " good 

 laying strain " are exceedingly valuable, for it is known by practical men 

 that they will probably turn out to be excellent layers. But the number 

 of eggs to be obtained also depends very much on judicious feeding and 

 skilful management. 



Against such obvious instances of the inheritance of an artificial 

 character, the theory of a peculiar germplasma is still maintained, and 

 even by good authorities. 



Now it has long been known that a complete flowering plant may be 

 raised from pieces cut out of a Begonia leaf. It has recently been proved 

 that the epidermis cells of such a leaf are sufficient for this purpose. 

 Professor Copeland, in an interesting paper lately published in the 

 "Botanical Gazette," describes a very peculiar method of reproduction 

 adopted by certain Habenarias when growing in meadow land. In these 

 orchids, it is the growing point or cells near it of, apparently, the 

 adventitious roots which differentiate leaf and stem rudiments, so forming 

 a new plant which may no doubt produce pollen and egg-cells. 



Now if the germplasma is cc-extensive with ordinary protoplasm from 

 the epidermis of the leaves to the tips of the roots, it is surely absurd to 

 draw any distinction between the two. As Professor Henslow insisted 

 long ago, there is no use for the idea of a germplasma at all, and the 

 theory and everything deduced from it is quite meaningless. 



In Dr. Francis Darwin's Dublin address there is an interesting 

 allusion to inheritance in honey bees. The queen bee gains nothing by 

 experience of the world or exercise within it. Yet if her workers are good 

 and industrious, preferring sound honey and using their intelligence, the 

 whole hive will be vigorous and able to get through a critical period 

 without serious loss. The younger generation also will have been care- 

 fully and firmly brought up, so that when one of them first issues into 

 the sunshine, it will be certain to imitate its excellent foster-mothers in 

 the practice of intelligence and laborious virtue. Such a hive will have 

 every chance of keeping up a high standard of excellence. 



It is tempting to use such a hive as an illustration of some organism 

 such as a living plant. The leaves and roots have of course to battle 

 with the world ; whatever booty they acquire, from the sunshine and the 

 rain, is ultimately devoted to the nourishment of the young pollen and 

 egg cells, which last remain sheltered in the peaceful seclusion of the 

 anther and the ovary. Conquering leaves will furnish rich stores of 

 sugars and proteids to the young ovules, and the developing seeds will be 

 fat and well nourished. 



Now, after the experiments of Engler and Cieslar, one can hardly deny 

 that the largest and best equipped seeds of pines and sycamores produce 



