38 Latent and Semi-Latent Characters. 
few generations, further improvements are only to be 
expected from a corresponding amelioration of the con- 
ditions of cultivation. In this way I succeeded in the 
beginning in improving my four-leaved clover, but after 
1895, in spite of continuous and stringent selection, no 
further improvement has been observed. I shall there- 
fore confine myself to a description of the first seven 
generations. 
These were : 
1st Generation. 1886-89. Two plants from Loosdrecht , 
2nd 1890. Four plants with some four- and five-leaved 
leaves. 
3rd " 1891. 36 % abnormal leaves per plant. 
( S With isolated abnormal seedlings. 
4th 1 " 1892. ] C With 60% seedlings of which the first. 
second or third leaf was tetramerous. 
5th " 1893. C With 55% seedlings with compound pri- 
mary leaf. 
6th " 1894. C With 96-98% seedlings with compound 
primary leaf. 
7th " 1895. C With 95-97% seedlings with compound 
primary leaf. 
To proceed to a more detailed account I begin with 
the examples collected in the field. 2 I found them near 
Loosdrecht on the edge of a road which was covered with 
grass. They bore several tetramerous and one pentam- 
erous leaf and seemed therefore to afford better oppor- 
tunities than the usual find which often is only a single 
four-leaved clover leaf in a meadow. I transplanted 
them to my garden, where they lived for another three 
years. Here the anomaly not only reappeared but in- 
'The result for this year is a double one. vS" (spring) refers to 
the crop of 1892 itself. C (crop) to the record of the seedparents in 
terms of the seedlings raised from their seeds (see p. 40) : Similarly 
with the subsequent years. 
2 Over het omkcercn van halve Galton-curven, Kruidkundig Jaar- 
boek, Gent, Vol. X, 1898, pp. 27-54 with Plate I. 
