ned throughout life. Some naturalists look at all
such abnormal structures as a return to the ideal state of the group to
which the affected being belongs; but it is difficult to conceive what is
meant to be conveyed by this expression. Other naturalists maintain, with
greater probability and distinctness of view, that the common bond of
connection between the several foregoing cases is an actual, though
partial, return to the structure of the ancient progenitor of the group. If
this view be correct, we must believe that a vast number of characters,
capable of evolution, lie hidden in every organic being. But it would be a
mistake to suppose that the number is equally great in all beings. We know,
for instance, that plants of many orders occasionally become peloric; but
many more cases have been observed in the Labiatae and Scrophulariaceae
than in any other order; and in one genus of the Scrophulariaceae, namely
Linaria, no less {61} than thirteen species have been described in a
peloric condition.[135] On this view of the nature of peloric flowers, and
bearing in mind what has been said with respect to certain monstrosities in
the animal kingdom, we must conclude that the progenitors of most plants
and animals, though widely different in structure, have left an impression
capable of redevelopment on the germs of their descendants.

The fertilised germ of one of the higher animals, subjected as it is to so
vast a series of changes from the germinal cell to old age,--incessantly
agitated by what Quatrefages well calls the _tourbillon vital_,--is perhaps
the most wonderful object in nature. It is probable that hardly a change of
any kind affects either parent, without some mark being left on the germ.
But on the doctrine of reversion, as given in this chapter, the germ
becomes a far more marvellous object, for, besides the visible changes to
which it is subjected, we must believe that it is crowded with invisible
characters, proper to both sexes, to both the right and left side of the
body, and to a long line of male and female ancestors separated by hundreds
or even thousands of generations from the present time; and these
characters, like those written on paper with invisible ink, all lie ready
to be evolved under certain known or unknown conditions.

* * * * *

{62}

CHAPTER XIV.

INHERITANCE _continued_--FIXEDNESS OF CHARACTER--PREPOTENCY--SEXUAL
LIMITATION--CORRESPONDENCE OF AGE.