You have doubtless observed the very remarkable case given in the 'Gardener's Chronicle' for January 2--I mean the vine in which the _scion_ appears to have notably affected the _stock_. Altogether vines seem very promising; and as their buds admit of being planted in the ground, it would be much more easy to try the bisecting plan in their case than in others, where one half-bud, besides requiring to be fitted to the other half, has also to have its shield fitted into the bark. All one's energies might then be expended in coaxing adhesion, and if once this were obtained, I think there would here be the best chance of obtaining a hybrid; for then all, or nearly all, the cells of the future branch would be in the state of gemmules. I am very sanguine about the buds growing under these circumstances, for the vigour with which bisected seeds germinate is perfectly astonishing. Very sincerely and most respectfully yours, GEO. J. ROMANES. P.S.--I have been to see Dr. Hooker, and found his kindness and courtesy quite what you led me to expect. Such men are rare. April 21, 1875. In returning you ----'s papers, I should like to say that the one on 'Inheritance' appears to me quite destitute of intelligible meaning. It is a jumble of the same confused ideas upon heredity about which I complained when you were at this house. How in the world can 'force' act without any material on which to act? Yet, unless we assume that it can, the whole discussion is either meaningless, or else assumes the truth of some such theory as 'Pangenesis.' In other words, as it must be 'unthinkable' that force should act independently of matter, the doctrine of its persistence can only be made to bear upon the question of heredity, by supposing that there is a material connection between corporeal and germinal cells--_i.e._ by granting the existence of _force-carriers_, call them gemmules, or physiological units, or what we please.