Plantago Lanccolata Ramosa. 155 
gave rise respectively to three and six cultures derived 
from the nine seed-parents. Each culture consisted of 
from 35 to 100 plants, making together 600 flowering 
individuals bearing 4000 inflorescences. These were un- 
branched without exception. 
The question suggests itself, whether the seed-atavists 
and the bud-atavists belong to the same type. On the 
one hand it is possible that the constancy of the former 
is not always so absolute as it appeared in my experiment. 
On the other hand, branched bud-variants might occa- 
sionally appear in the race derived from the atavistic 
bud-variants, and such might have been the cause of the 
occurrence of branched individuals (8%) in my culture 
of 1900. But further investigations are necessary to 
provide a satisfactory answer to this question. 
Plantago lanccolata ramosa, therefore, gives rise to 
atavistic individuals, cither by seed (about 50%) or by 
buds (very seldom) which are either absolutely, or at 
least in a high degree, constant from seed. 
It still remains to describe briefly the fluctuating vari- 
ability of our race of plantains. This is considerable, 
and conforms to the common laws; especially is it de- 
pendent to a large extent on external conditions and, 
within certain limits, capable of being altered by selec- 
tion. The observations, which I now shall give, refer 
to true ramosa-plants, and not to atavists and bud-varia- 
tions. 
The variability of this race corresponds with that 
of other monstrous races inasmuch as the curve describ- 
ing it is dimorphic. 1 During July and August 1893 I 
1 Sur Ics courbes galtoniennes dc.: monstruosites, Bull. Scientif. 
de la France et de la Belgiqne, public par A. GIARD, XXVII, 1896, 
P- 397- 
