Trifoliimi Pralcnsc Omnque folium. 43 
be remarked that in previous years seedlings with a com- 
pound primordial leaf had either been entirely absent or 
at any rate very rare. 1 
In the summer of 1894 I only bred offspring from 
the plant with 55% of abnormalities in its seedlings, and 
of these only the twenty best, with compound primordial 
leaf and the next leaf tetra-pentamerous. These only 
did I allow to flower and to bear seed. The result was 
recorded by means of the same characters in the following 
spring. For eleven plants it was 70-90%, for five others 
91-96%, and for the two best 98-99% seedlings with 
compound primary leaf. And the higher the number the 
greater was the percentage of trifoliate, as opposed to 
bimerous, primordial leaves. 
The same high percentage was obtained in the culture 
of the next year, 1895, in the seventh generation of my 
experiment. Since then the race has remained constant 
under the same conditions of selection. 
I have employed this constant and highly abnormal 
race for a series of observations and experiments, to the 
more important of which I shall now refer, 2 for they are 
well qualified to afford us some insight into the nature 
of such a race. This race exhibits a high degree of var- 
iability, which is due to the possession of a semi-latent 
character besides that which it has obviously inherited 
from the parent species. The extent to which this paren- 
tal heritage, the normal trifoliate leaf, is developed de- 
pends on the conditions of life of the plant. And, speak- 
1 See the remarks in 22 relating to the size of the seed in Tri- 
foliuin incarnatum. In the five-leaved clover, especially in later 
years, practically all the seedlings had compound primordial leaves, 
so that this character had nothing to do with the size of the seed. 
2 For a detailed account see the oft-cited paper in Kniidkundig 
Jaarboek, Vol. X. 
