The Significance of the Atavists. 
521 
vists, 1 the nine plants with cylindrical stems and slight 
broadening at the top; whilst 2-20 denote the breadth 
of the stems in centimeters. 
The curve is seen to have two peaks, one of which is 
formed by the atavists (a), the other by the fasciations 
of mean breadth, i. e., of about nine centimeters. Ex- 
pressed in words, the result is that transitions between 
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 
Fig. 118. Crepis biennis fasciata. A curve representing the 
breadth of the main stems of all the individuals of my 
culture of 1895. The numbers under the base line indi- 
cate the breadth of the stems in centimeters, o, stem 
round; I, stems only flattened at the upper end; 2-20, 
stems flattened along their whole length. The height of 
the ordinates gives the number of individuals. Total 
number of individuals 150. a, the peak of the atavists; 
b, that of the fasciated individuals. 1 
the fasciated individuals and the atavists do occur, but are 
relatively rare. The race produces by preference the 
two pure types, and the same thing is seen to happen in 
chance fasciations and in many other monstrosities. I 
call to mind the relative rarity of hemi-tncotyls and hemi- 
syncotyls, both in the wild state and in the tricotylous 
1 Bull Sdcntif., loc. dt., Vol. XXVII, p. 397. 
