40 Latent and Semi-Latent Characters. 
very best of all, 36% of its leaves being composed of more 
than 3 leaflets. 
In the spring of 1892 I sowed the seed in pans in the 
greenhouse attached to my laboratory instead of in the 
beds as before. The advantages of this were (1) that 
more seeds germinated and (2) that the examination of 
the seedlings was greatly facilitated. They stayed in the 
pans until the unfolding of the third leaf, were then 
looked through, and the best ones transplanted into pots 
with manured garden soil. Amongst the several hundred 
seedlings there were 18 in which the quadruplicity was 
already manifest among the first leaves. Only these 
specimens were planted out; during the summer they 
bore a large number of tetra- and pentamerous leaves ; 
and some 6- and 7-foliate ones, which appeared now for 
the first time in considerable numbers. 
With this, the isolation of the five-leaved race of clo- 
ver was brought to an end. The elaboration of the ordi- 
narily latent or semi-latent character had been fully ac- 
complished. The race could, like any other, be improved 
by selection but it could not be expected to change its 
character any further in the process. 
Of course I did not omit to effect this further im- 
provement. But there was no point in paying further 
attention to the characters of the adult plants, since dif- 
ferences could now only be found in them by a statistical 
examination of all their leaves. And it was found to be 
practically impossible to carry out this scrutiny with the 
necessary detail, for the plants soon become too big to 
be grown in pots. Therefore in order to make curves 
it is necessary to defoliate the plants, and this can not 
be done until after the choice of the seed-parents, whose 
