350 Tricotylous Races. 
of commercial seed the application of this term would 
not, of course, be justified; but in my cultures, which, 
almost without exception, were started by the selection 
of tricotylous individuals, this term is obviously fully 
justified. Moreover, in this way, the word dicotyl is 
left to its pure systematic signification. And, as in some 
other cases, atavism is here seen to be an oscillation be- 
tween two empirically known extremes. 1 
So far as my experience goes, tricotylous seedlings 
are much commoner amongst cultivated species than 
amongst wild ones, and even amongst the latter they 
usually occur from seeds saved in botanical gardens and 
very seldom from those collected in the field. Amongst 
cultivated plants, again, they are commoner amongst spe- 
cies which are grown on a large scale than on a small 
one. 
Thus I have obtained my intermediate races from 
amongst the former, partly from agricultural and partly 
from horticultural species. As an instance of the former 
I may mention the hemp and of the latter the snap-dragon 
and the wild poppy. But besides these I discovered a 
rich tricotylous race in my Ocnothcra hirtella, an entirely 
new species which was found quite by chance in my 
garden. It is not impossible that cultivation on a large 
scale favors the origin of new races. 
A profusion of instances of some anomaly in a species 
either in the field or in cultivation, suggests the presence 
of an intermediate race ; 2 a scarcity, however, that of a 
half race, as is especially well known to be true in the 
case of fasciations. Tricotyly conforms strictly to this 
rule. From seeds obtained from the trade or by exchange 
1 See page 108. 
* See page 32. 
