Now students of this department of natural history will know that these same observations of Gärtner’s, whether rightly or wrongly, have been doing duty for more than half a century as stock illustrations of xenia. In this capacity they have served two generations of naturalists. The ground nowadays may be unfamiliar, but others have travelled it before and recorded their impressions. Darwin, for example, has the following passage[84]: [84] _Animals and Plants_, 2nd ed. 1885, p. 428. “These statements led Gärtner, who was highly sceptical on the subject, carefully to try a long series of experiments; he selected the most constant varieties, and the results conclusively showed _that the colour of the skin of the pea_ is modified when pollen of a differently coloured variety is used.” (The italics are mine.) In the true spirit of inquiry Professor Weldon doubtless reflected, “’Tis not _Antiquity_ nor _Author_, That makes _Truth Truth_, altho’ _Time’s Daughter_”; but perhaps a word of caution to the reader that another interpretation exists would have been in place. It cannot be without amazement therefore that we find him appropriating these examples as referring to cotyledon-colour, with never a hint that the point is doubtful. Giltay, without going into details, points out the ambiguity[85]. As Professor Weldon refers to the writings both of Darwin and Giltay, it is still more remarkable that he should regard the phenomenon as clearly one of cotyledon-colour and not coat-colour as Darwin and many other writers have supposed. [85] “_Eine andere Frage ist jedoch, ob der Einfluss des Pollens auf den Keim schon äusserlich an diesen letzteren sichtbar sein kann. Darwin führt mehrere hierher gehörige Fälle an, und wahrscheinlich sind auch die Resultate der von Gärtner über diesen Gegenstand ausgeführten Experimente hier zu erwähnen, wenn es auch nicht ganz deutlich ist, ob der von Gärtner erwähnte directe Einfluss des Pollens sich nur innerhalb der Grenzen des Keimes merklich macht oder nicht._” p. 490. Without going further it would be highly improbable that Gärtner is speaking solely or even chiefly of the cotyledons, from the circumstance that these observations are given as evidence of “_the influence of foreign pollen on the female organs_”; and that Gärtner was perfectly aware of the fact that the coat of the seed was a maternal structure is evident from his statement to that effect on p. 80.