Fritz Müller’s observation affords a beautiful confirmation of this view, for if the flower itself transmitted the hexamerous condition to its germ-cells, we could not understand why some of the extremely rare hexamerous flowers were produced by the crossing of two pentamerous flowers, in the control experiment. An explanation of this fact can only be found in the assumption that the germ-plasm contained in the mother plant, during its growth and consequent distribution through all the branches of the colony, became arranged into a combination of idioplasms, which, whenever it predominated (as it did at certain places), necessarily led to the formation of hexamerous flowers. I will not consider here the question as to whether this combination is to be looked upon as an instance of reversion, or whether it represents something new. Such a question is of no importance for our present purpose; but the hexamerous flowers of the control experiment prove, in my opinion, that germ-plasm containing the requisite combination was distributed in the mother plant and also existed, but in insufficient amount, in shoots which did not produce any hexamerous flowers.
Appendix V. On the Origin of Parthenogenesis[[227]].
The transformation of heterogeny into pure parthenogenesis has obviously been produced by other causes as well as by those mentioned in the main part of this paper. Other and quite different circumstances have also had a share in its production. Pure parthenogenesis may be produced without the intermediate condition of heterogeny. Thus, for example, the pure and exclusive parthenogenesis with which the large Phyllopod crustacean, Apus, is reproduced at most of its habitats, has not arisen from the loss of previously existent sexual generations, but simply from the non-appearance of males, accompanied by the simultaneous acquisition of the power, on the part of the females, of producing eggs which do not require fertilization. This is proved by the fact that males occur in certain scattered colonies of this species, and sometimes they are even present in considerable numbers. But even if we were not aware of these facts, the same conclusions might nevertheless have been drawn from the fact that Apus produces eggs of only one form—viz. resting eggs with hard shells. In every case in which parthenogenesis has been first introduced in alternation with sexual reproduction, the resting eggs are produced by the latter generations, while the parthogenetic generations produce eggs with thin shells, in which the embryo developes and hatches very rapidly. In this way parthenogenesis leads to a rapid increase of the colony. In Apus such increase in the number of individuals is gained in an entirely different manner, viz. by the fact that all the animals become females, which produce eggs at a very early age, and continue producing them in increasing fertility for the whole of their life. In this manner an enormous number of eggs collects at the bottom of the pool inhabited by the colony, so that after it has dried up, in spite of loss from various destructive agencies, there will still remain a sufficiency of eggs to reproduce a numerous colony, as soon as the pool has filled again.
This form of parthenogenetic reproduction is especially well suited to the needs of species inhabiting small pools which entirely depend upon rain-fall, and which may disappear at any time. In these cases the time during which the colony can live is often too short to permit the production of several generations even from rapidly developing summer-eggs. Under these circumstances the pool would often suddenly dry up before the series of parthenogenetic generations had been run through, and hence before the appearance of the sexual generation and resting eggs. In all such cases the colony would be exterminated.
This consideration might lead us to think that Crustacea, such as the Daphnidae, which develope by means of heterogeny, would hardly be able to exist in small pools filled by the rain; but here also nature has met the difficulty by another adaptation. As I have shown in a previous paper[[228]], the heterogeny of the species of Daphnidae which inhabit such pools is modified in such a manner, that only the first generation produced from the resting eggs consists of purely parthenogenetic females, while the second includes many sexual animals, so that resting eggs are produced and laid, and the continuance of the colony is secured a few days after it has been first founded; viz. after the appearance of the first generation.
But it is also certain that in the Daphnidae, heterogeny may pass into pure parthenogenesis by the non-appearance of the sexual generations. This seems to have taken place in certain species of Bosmina and Chydorus, although perhaps only in those colonies of which the continuance is secured for the whole year; viz. those which inhabit lakes, water-pipes, or wells in which the water cannot freeze. In certain insects also (e. g. Rhodites rosae) pure parthenogenesis seems to be produced in a similar manner, by the non-appearance of males.
But the utility which we may look upon as the cause of parthenogenesis is by no means so clear in all cases. Sometimes, especially in certain species of Ostracoda, its appearance seems almost like a mere caprice of nature. In this group of the Crustacea, one species may be purely parthenogenetic, while a second reproduces itself by the sexual method, and a third by an alternation of the two methods: and yet all these species may be very closely allied and may frequently live in the same locality and apparently with the same habit of life. But it must not be forgotten that it is only with the greatest difficulty that we can acquire knowledge about the details of the life of these minute forms, and that where we can only recognize the appearance of identical conditions, there may be highly important differences in nutrition, habits, enemies and the means by which they are resisted, and in the mode by which the prey is captured—circumstances which may place two species living in the same locality upon an entirely different basis of existence. It is not merely probable that this is the case; for the fact that certain species have modified their modes of reproduction is in itself a sufficient proof of the validity of the conclusions which have just been advanced.
The fact that different methods of reproduction may obtain in different colonies of the same species, although with thoroughly identical habits, may depend upon differences in the external conditions (as in Bosmina and Chydorus mentioned above), or upon the fact that the transition from sexual to parthenogenetic reproduction is not effected with the same ease and rapidity in all the colonies of the same species. As long as males continue to make their appearance in a colony of Apus, sexual reproduction cannot wholly disappear. Although we are unable to appreciate, with any degree of certainty, the causes by which sex is determined, we may nevertheless confidently maintain that such determining influences may be different in two widely separated colonies. As soon, however, as parthenogenesis becomes advantageous to the species, securing its existence more efficiently than sexual reproduction, it will not only be the case that the colonies which produce the fewest males will gain advantage, but within the limits of the colony itself, those females will gain an advantage which produce eggs that can develope without fertilization. When the males are only present in small numbers, it must be very uncertain whether any given female will be fertilized: if therefore the eggs of such a female required fertilization in order to develope, it is clear that there would be great danger of entire failure in this necessary condition. In other words:—as soon as any females begin to produce eggs which are capable of development without fertilization, from that very time a tendency towards the loss of sexual reproduction springs into existence. It seems, however, that the power of producing eggs which can develope without fertilization is very widely distributed among the Arthropoda.
Appendix VI. W. K. Brooks’ Theory of Heredity[[229]].
The only theory of heredity which, at any rate in one point, agrees with my own, was brought forward two years ago by W. K. Brooks of Baltimore[[230]]. The point of agreement lies in the fact that Brooks also looks upon sexual reproduction as the means employed by nature in order to produce variation. The manner in which he supposes that the variability arises is, however, very different from that suggested in my theory, and our fundamental conceptions are also widely divergent. While I look upon the continuity of the germ-plasm as the foundation of my theory of heredity, and therefore believe that permanent hereditary variability can only have arisen through some direct change in the germ-plasm effected by external influences, or following from the varied combinations which are due to the mixture of two individually distinct germ-plasms at each act of fertilization, Brooks, on the other hand, bases his theory upon the transmission of acquired characters, and upon the idea which I have previously called ‘the cyclical development of the germ-plasm.’