On the other hand, Lederbaur found that a common weed, _Capsella_, when transplanted from an Alpine habitat to the lowlands did not return to the lowland type of the weed, but retained certain of its Alpine characteristics. It is not clear, however, that this particular species during its long sojourn of many generations in Alpine conditions may not have undergone a series of germinal variations and have developed into a new variety or species quite independently of changes wrought in the germ by reflected somatic effects. Indeed, in face of the preponderance of other cases to the contrary, this interpretation would seem to be the more plausible one. =Experiments on Vertebrates.--=In the vertebrates we may also find examples of various somatic modifications experimentally produced, but evidence of their inheritance is as difficult to establish as in the invertebrates. Let us examine a few of the more significant of these which are alleged by some to bear evidence of such inheritance. By decreasing the amount of water in an aquarium Marie von Chauvin was able to transform the aquatic, gill-breathing salamander _Axolotl_ into the gill-less land form _Ambystoma_, heretofore regarded by systematists as a different species. Either of these forms when sexually mature produces its like. The salamanders in question have both lungs and gills, but after a time the ones which are to be land forms lose their gills and become exclusively lung-breathers. What seems to have been accomplished then is the accelerating or forcing of normal natural tendencies already inherent in the organism instead of introducing something new into the inheritance by way of the soma. _Axolotl_ is in all probability merely a larval form of _Ambystoma_ which with high temperature and an abundance of water reproduces without advancing to the final possible stage of its life cycle.