Z JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOClPyrY. 



upon the question of the difference or similarity of the substances in 

 seed and seed-parent depend all theories of inheritance. 



I know of nothing which could be taken to prove that there is any 

 essential difference between the material of the germ and that of the 

 mother plant. 



On the other hand, there is much indirect evidence which goes to 

 show that there cannot be any interference with the freest transference 

 of material between the two. 



The difficult experiments in Mendelian inheritance which have been 

 so brilliantly carried out by Professor Bate son and his pupils, and by 

 many others, surely show that those enzymes or physical states, or 

 whatever it is that produces a colouring material, must be regularly 

 transferred both by pollen and by ovule. 



Those experiments would be quite unsatisfactory if there were the 

 slightest doubt on this point. 



The fact that it is quite possible to grow a plant from small pieces 

 of a root or of a stem or even possibly of the endosperm, and that the 

 plants so formed are normal and bear flowers and fruit, tends to show 

 that the cells of a plant have, up to a certain point, all things in 

 common. 



There are well-known facts of selection and propagation which point 

 to similar conclusions. Take, for example, Mr. East's experiments in 

 Illinois. In testing the relative production of large and small potato 

 tubers, he discovered such interesting results as the following: — ' ^ 



The large tubers of a particularly prolific individual yielded 319; 

 small tubers of the same plant gave only 220. 



On the other hand, tubers of a plant which was found to have given 

 a very poor crop, showed for large tubers 113 and for small tubers 

 only 80. 



Now, whatever it was that brought about the difference in produc- 

 tion between these two individuals, it does not seem possible to deny 

 that the quality or material was inherited. 



A similar result has been found by others with, for 'example, sugar- 

 cane. KoBUS found that heavy plants had heavy offsprings, and that 

 those canes which were themselves richest in sugar produced suckfefs 

 which were also rich in sugar. 



It would be easy to quote many other experiments which' all go to 

 show that the enzymes or proportionate mixture of enzymes and also 

 that whatever constitutes vigour or fertility are not specially limited to 

 one part of the plant, but are common to all parts of it. If so, it would 

 be very dif&cult to prove that the germ-cell or the ovule is in any way 

 debarred from participating in this common holding. 



If, for instance, a particular plant has withstood some fuDgus 

 disease or insect attack, that is due perhaps to a specially vigorous con- 

 stitution, perhaps to some specially evolved ferment, or it may be to an 

 accidental balance in the proportion of its ferments. But whatever 

 the ferments or their " anlage " may be, they cannot be excluded from 

 the developing' germ-cell. 



