216 Observation of the Origin of Varieties. 
in those individuals from the seeds of which the 
mutation arises the latent character is not more 
highly or more often developed than in the rest 
of the race. 
4. The mutation is repeated in successive genera- 
tions. I observed it for two years, but did not 
follow it further. 
5. The mutation occurred in about \ c /c of the indi- 
viduals. 
6. The new character was exhibited by the mutants, 
in a full state of development, in all their flowers ; 
although it was subject to considerable fluctuating 
variability. 
7. The mutants are to a large extent, perhaps even 
perfectly, constant from seed. The intensity of 
inheritance observed was about 90%, but it is 
probably more. 
* * * 
Let us next see how these results can be applied to 
the explanation of the occurrence of the Peloria in the 
free state. Wholly peloric plants have been found wild 
by numerous botanists and in the most diverse localities ; 
but, so far as the published information extends, always 
as rarities. They maintained themselves during a larger 
or shorter period of years by means of their radical buds, 
perhaps produced some scanty seed but could not spread 
nor reach new localities by this means. They must there- 
fore have originated in each case in the spot where they 
were found. 
I imagine that this origin is determined everywhere 
by the same general laws, and thence conclude that it 
occurs in the wild state in the same manner as in the 
particular case observed by me, i. e., from Linaria i'itl- 
