Abstract
THE object of Prof. Henslow's book is “to prove that evolution—so far as plants are concerned—depends upon the inheritance of acquired characters.” “This was Darwin's contention.” See, for instance, the summary statement on p. 424 of the sixth edition of the “Origin of Species”! “Present-day ecologists who study plants in nature are all at one in accepting the fact that evolution in plants is the result, not only of a natural response to the direct action of changed conditions of life, by means of which they evolve new structures in adaptation to their new environments, but that these acquired characters can become hereditary.” The author calls this, for some strange reason, “the true Darwinism.” His general argument, which is backed up by many very interesting facts, may be illustrated by taking the following instance:—“A certain plant of a Trichosanthes, happening to have its tendrils touching the wall of the glass frame in which it grew, instantly developed a number of minute pads which adhered to the wall, though such a structure is not known to exist in the cucumber family at all.” A common sea-weed, Plocamium coccineum, makes similar pads if a tip happen to press against another sea-weed. Mere mechanical force produces through response hereditary structures. In the American Virginia creeper the tendrils form adhesive tips when they touch the wall. These are not hereditary, but the power to form them is. In the Japanese Virginia creeper they are partially developed before there is any contact with the wall. “They are hereditary, but quite useless until contact has taken place, when they at once begin to develop into perfectly adaptive structures. Such is obviously a result of a response with adaptation to a purely mechanical contact of the soma with the wall, and before any reproductive germ-cells exist.” As the author says, “botanists have this great advantage; they have facts to deal with, and no theories whatever to maintain.”
The Heredity of Acquired Characters in Plants.
By the Rev. Prof George Henslow. (London: John Murray, 1908.) Pp. xii + 107; 24 illustrations. Price 6s. net.
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The Heredity of Acquired Characters in Plants . Nature 80, 93 (1909). https://doi.org/10.1038/080093a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/080093a0