FIG. 35.—Transformation of Artemia salina to A. Milhausenii; 1, tail-lobe of A. salina, and its transition through 2,3,4,5, to 6, into that of A. Milhausenii; 7, post-abdomen of A. salina; 8, post-abdomen of a form bred in brackish water; 9, gill of A. Milhausenii; 10, gill of A. salina. (From Schmankewitsch.)
Semper on the Direct Influence of the Environment.
Another eminent naturalist, Professor Karl Semper of Würzburg, also adopts the view of the direct transforming power of the environment, and has brought together an immense body of interesting facts showing the influence of food, of light, of temperature, of still water and moving water, of the atmosphere and its currents, of gravitation, and of other organisms, in modifying the forms and other characteristics of animals.[207] He believes that these various influences produce a direct and important effect, and that this effect is accumulated by inheritance; yet he acknowledges that we have no direct evidence of this, and there is hardly a single case adduced in the book which is not equally well explained by adaptation, brought about by the survival of beneficial variations. Perhaps the most remarkable case he has brought forward is that of the transformation of species of crustaceans by a change in the saltness of the water (see Fig. 35). Artemia salina lives in brackish water, while A. Milhausenii inhabits water which is much salter. They differ greatly in the form of the tail-lobes, and in the presence or absence of spines upon the tail, and had always been considered perfectly distinct species. Yet either was transformed into the other in a few generations, during which the saltness of the water was gradually altered. Yet more, A. salina was gradually accustomed to fresher water, and in the course of a few generations, when the water had become perfectly fresh, the species was changed into Branchipus stagnalis, which had always been considered to belong to a different genus on account of differences in the form of the antennae and of the posterior segments of the body (see Fig. 36). This certainly appears to be a proof of change of conditions producing a change of form independently of selection, and of that change of form, while remaining under the same conditions, being inherited. Yet there is this peculiarity in the case, that there is a chemical change in the water, and that this water permeates the whole body, and must be absorbed by the tissues, and thus affect the ova and even the reproductive elements, and in this way may profoundly modify the whole organisation. Why and how the external effects are limited to special details of the structure we do not know; but it does not seem as if any far-reaching conclusions as to the cumulative effect of external conditions on the higher terrestrial animals and plants, can be drawn from such an exceptional phenomenon. It seems rather analogous to those effects of external influences on the very lowest organisms in which the vegetative and reproductive organs are hardly differentiated, in which case such effects are doubtless inherited.[208]
FIG. 36. a. Branchipus stagnalis. b. Artemia salina.
Professor Geddes's Theory of Variation in Plants.
In a paper read before the Edinburgh Botanical Society in 1886 Mr. Patrick Geddes laid down the outlines of a fundamental theory of plant variation, which he has further extended in the article "Variation and Selection" in the Encydopaedia Britannica, and in a paper read before the Linnaean Society but not yet published.
A theory of variation should deal alike with the origin of specific distinctions and with those vaster differences which characterise the larger groups, and he thinks it should answer such questions as—How an axis comes to be arrested to form a flower? how the various forms of inflorescence were evolved? how did perigynous or epigynous flowers arise from hypogynous flowers? and many others equally fundamental. Natural selection acting upon numerous accidental variations will not, he urges, account for such general facts as these, which must depend on some constant law of variation. This law he believes to be the well-known antagonism of vegetative and reproductive growth acting throughout the whole course of plant development; and he uses it to explain many of the most characteristic features of the structure of flowers and fruits.