1892 
1893 
1892 
1893 
No. 1 
25 
14 
11 
9 
No. 2 
43 
19 
9 
5 
No. 3 
9 
14 
10 
6 
No. 4 
44 
5 
8 
5 
No. 5 
12 
18 
10 
8 
No. 6 
16 
21 
9 
8 
262 Non-Isolablc Races. 
previous summer. I have a record, which has been al- 
ready alluded to, of the number of petals of all the 
flowers of each of the plants of 1892 ; these were recorded 
in the same way in 1893. But I only give here the mean 
numbers of petals per flower. 
PLANTS NUMBER OF MEAN NUMBER OF nwwKVKCV* 
FLOWERS PETALS PER FLOWER 
2 
4 
4 
3 
2 
1 
The anomaly was thus diminished on every single 
plant as the result of transplanting to dry earth. 
The results of all these experiments prove that the 
production of more than five petals in a flower is inde- 
pendent of the position of this flower on the plant, but 
on the other hand is dependent in a high degree on the 
external conditions under which the particular flower 
passes its early stages, i. e., the most susceptible period 
of its existence. The number of petals varies directly 
with the vigor of the plant, the moisture and richness 
of the soil, the warmness of the weather and even the 
amount of sunshine during this susceptible period. 
Cultivation in the garden is therefore bound to con- 
vert the steep half curve of the wild locality (Fig. 51 
for 1887) into a flatter one which will gradually extend 
to higher numbers of petals and will ultimately develop 
a new apex. 
This process, however, takes place more conveniently 
and more certainly, if the cultivation is combined with 
selection (see the same figure). The latter process picks 
