(urth) fifth head of cerberus and doubled chromosomes (long delayed)

[Marc Aramini]

I was re-reading Fifth Head of Cerberus a long time ago and there were two things that really struck me in terms of how I think the dynamic between trees / Silkhorn / life on Blue or Green works.

"They mated with trees and drowned the children to honor their rivers" (pg 11 of  old ace copy) and  "I told her about my experiments (I was stimulating unfertilized frogs' eggs to asexual development and then DOUBLING THE CHROMOSOMES by a chemical treatment so that a further asexual generation could be produced)" (pg 23)

As you know, I thought the eucharist scene in which "they" are watching in the forest involves the trees (vanished gods), and that the new species on Blue or Green are "hybrids" or old ones with that tree stock, which would double the genetic information before sex segregation in the hybrids.  I felt good reading that in Fifth Head, as it at least indicates to me that Gene has thought about this process for asexual reproduction before, especially since hybridization DOES double the chromosomes.

I am aware Fifth Head is about cloning, but interesting to me nonetheless.