Nutrition Favors the Anomaly. 311 
known example. In the case of the Conifers BEISSNER 
has also shown that insufficient nutrition, for instance 
by cultivation in pots, can lead to a protracted reten- 
tion of the embryonic form. 1 In Eucalyptus Globulits 
and Acacia coring era stems which have been cut down 
produce branches which repeat the embryonic form of 
leaves, which are sessile in the one species and thornless 
and destitute of the so-called ant-bread appendages in the 
other. 2 
Exactly the same general conditions obtain in the 
development of anomalies, that is to say of those char- 
acters which are only exceptionally or never developed 
in the normal life of the species. Here again their pre- 
cise nature seems to be a matter of indifference, that is 
to say, whether they are harmful or harmless; in either 
case they are under the influence of external conditions. 
Instances of deleterious characters are furnished by varie- 
gated leaves and by flowers and flowerheads which have 
become sterile by doubling (see 19 and 24). The 
same is also true of real monstrosities, such as fascia- 
tion and twisting, as we shall see in the next chapter ; 
and of new characters, reversionary phenomena, pro- 
gressive and retrogressive variations of which I shall 
give a series of instances in the following section ( 27). 
It is true both of half races and of middle races; in both 
it is the older or specific character which is intensified 
by unfavorable conditions, whilst the anomaly or the 
younger character is intensified by favorable ones. Ob- 
viously there is only a small step from these two races 
characterized by the semi-latency of the former or the 
*L. BEISSNER, Handbuch der Nadelholzkunde. See also Bot. 
Zeitung, 1890, p. 539. 
' F. HlLDEBRAND, Botail. Zd'tllUg, l8()2, p. 5. 
