Sex and Sex-Determination in the Light of Observations and Experiments on Diecious Plants

ORDINARtY hereditary phenomena, as exhibited in both the plant and animal kingdoms, resolve themselves into a multitude of physiological and morphological characters of the most diverse nature. In each group and in each species peculiar characters appear and are handed on from generation to generation. Thus when one comnpares the peculiarities of a dog and a hemp plant there is little correspondence after one passes beyond the most fundamental cell structures and the fundamental physiological processes that they may have in common. These fundamental structures and functions, as protoplast, nucleus, chromosomes, respiration, assimilation, cell division, etc., are not in themselves considered as special categories, but are assumed to be necessary bases and primary properties which at least all the higher organisms have in common. When one attempts to compare the calyx of the hemp with any corresponding part of a dog one is immediately confronted with the fact that there is no correspondence. The same is true in respect to an enormous number of organs, tissues, chemical bodies and functions of the two organisms. It is thus evident that although they are alike in many ways, each one has a multitude of hereditary peculiarities which can not be duplicated in the other. But when we compare the two organisms as to their sexual natures we again find a most remarkable agreement although the secondary sexual characters expressed