Here, it will be observed, there was no selection; and therefore the increased hereditary effect in the second generation must apparently be ascribed to a continuance of influence exercised by somatic tissues on germinal elements; for at the time when the changes were produced no seed had been formed. In other words, the accumulated change, like the initial change, would seem to have been exclusively of somatogenetic origin; and yet it so influenced the qualities of the seed (as this was afterwards formed), that the augmented changes were transmitted to the next generation, part for part, as the lesser changes had occurred in the preceding generation. "This experiment, therefore, like Professor Buckman's, shows that the alteration of the tissues was carried on in the second generation from the point gained in the first. In both cases no germ-plasm (in the germ-cells) existed at the time during which the alterations arose, as they were confined to the vegetative system; and in the case of the parsnips and carrots, being biennials no germ-cells are produced till the second year has arrived[77]." [77] I am indebted to the Rev. G. Henslow for the references to these cases. This and the passages which follow are quoted from his letters to me. Once more, Professor Bailey remarks:-- "Squashes often show remarkable differences when grown upon different soils; and these differences can sometimes be perpetuated for a time by seeds. The writer has produced, from the same parent, squashes so dissimilar, through the simple agency of a change of soil in one season, that they might readily be taken for distinct varieties. Peas are known to vary in the same manner. The seeds of a row of peas of the same kind, last year gave the writer marked variations due to differences of soil.... Pea-growers characterize soils as 'good' and 'viney.' Upon the latter sort the plants run to vine at the expense of the fruit, and their offspring for two or three generations have the same tendency[78]." [78] _Gardener's Chronicle_, May 31, 1890, p. 677. I think these several cases are enough to show that, while the Weismannian assumption as to the seeming transmission of somatogenetic characters being restricted to the lowest kinds of plants is purely gratuitous, there is no small amount of evidence to the contrary--or evidence which seems to prove that a similar transmission occurs likewise in the higher plants. And no doubt many additional cases might be advanced by any one who is well read in the literature of economic botany.