in some cases {360} frequently, become developed into perfect beings,
without the concourse of the male element. J. Mueller and others admit that
ovules and buds have the same essential nature. Certain bodies, which
during their early development cannot be distinguished by any external
character from true ovules, nevertheless must be classed as buds, for
though formed within the ovarium they are incapable of fertilisation. This
is the case with the germ-balls of the Cecidomyide larvae, as described by
Leuckart.[878] Ovules and the male element, before they become united,
have, like buds, an independent existence.[879] Both have the power of
transmitting every single character possessed by the parent-form. We see
this clearly when hybrids are paired _inter se_, for the characters of
either grandparent often reappear, either perfectly or by segments, in the
progeny. It is an error to suppose that the male transmits certain
characters and the female other characters; though no doubt, from unknown
causes, one sex sometimes has a stronger power of transmission than the
other.

It has been maintained by some authors that a bud differs essentially from
a fertilised germ, by always reproducing the perfect character of the
parent-stock; whilst fertilised germs become developed into beings which
differ, in a greater or less degree, from each other and from their
parents. But there is no such broad distinction as this. In the eleventh
chapter, numerous cases were given showing that buds occasionally grow into
plants having new and strongly marked characters; and varieties thus
produced can be propagated for a length of time by buds, and occasionally
by seed. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that beings produced sexually
are much more liable to vary than those produced asexually; and of this
fact a partial explanation will hereafter be attempted. The variability in
both cases is determined by the same general causes, and is governed by the
same laws. Hence new varieties arising from buds cannot be distinguished
from those arising from seed. Although bud-varieties usually retain their
character during {361} successive bud-generations, yet they occasionally
revert, even after a long series of bud-generations, to their former
character. This tendency to reversion in buds is one of the most remarkable
of the several points of agreement between the offspring from bud and
seminal reproduction.

There is, however, one difference between