An Onagraceous Stem without Internodes. 53 
tendency to continue permanent rosettes and thus build up a “ leaf- 
base area” as in Plate II. 
Observations of this nature, dealing with characters which are 
most evident in their physiological manifestations, and showing the 
reactions of these characters under varying environmental conditions, 
emphasize the view that heredity and variation are but the two 
phases of a single process, namely, the interaction between the 
organism and its environment in every stage of its ontogeny. On 
the other hand, the cases now known from breeding experiments 
with plants and animals in which the same character may exhibit 
an inherited variation or mutation in certain cases and a similar 
non-inherited fluctuation in others, shows that there is a fundamental 
distinction between germinal and non-germinal variations. 
Royal College of Science, 
South Kensington. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATES II and III. 
Illustrating Dr. R. R. Gates’ Paper on “ An Onagraceous 
Stem without Internodes.” 
Plate II. Lancashire CEnotheras. No. 6 of a culture kept growing for 
two years under tropical conditions. The rosette stage persists, thus producing 
a stem without internodes. 
Plate III. Lancashire CEnotheras. No. 25 of tropical culture. After 
fifteen months’ growth as a rosette it finally formed a shoot. See text. 
