264 Non-I salable Races. 
of the three plants. We are thus justified in concluding 
that by the selection of these plants as seed-parents the 
mean of the race might further be slightly improved 
during the course of some years, but that these extreme 
variants afforded no more hope than did the others, of 
the attainment of the double race. 
Cultivation and selection cooperate in the direction of 
the desired end; they lead the half race measurably fur- 
ther on this line, but it is not through them that the 
object can be attained. The half race remains a half 
race, in spite of every effort and care, the semi-latent 
character expresses itself oftener and oftener, but it does 
not succeed in becoming the equal of the normal active 
characters, i. e., in constituting the mean character of a 
new race, independent of the continuance of selection 
and favorable cultural conditions. 
To arrive at this result a process of an entirely differ- 
ent nature is evidently required. According to the cur- 
rent theory of selection the goal would be reached if the 
experiment could be continued for tens or hundreds of 
years. But the course of the experiment we have de- 
scribed does not support this view ; it shows, on the con- 
trary, that all that can ever be gained by nutrition and 
selection has already been secured in these five genera- 
tions. The actual result is the production of an elite 
race which has a mean number of 9 petals in the flowers, 
under the favorable conditions of culture which obtained ; 
and gives rise, according to environmental conditions, on 
the one hand, to better variants (with a mean of about 
11-13, or perhaps a few more, petals) while, on the other, 
it throws off atavists with a half GALTON curve (see 
Fig. 52 on page 252). 
It is my opinion, howeve r , that if the culture of the 
