Variability in Garden Plants. 7 
and so forth. Therefore we are not here dealing with the 
variable development of a single quality, but with the 
simultaneous operation, or rather with the conflict, of 
two qualities. For in proportion as the one or the other 
of them prevails the plant will be more or less variegated, 
double and so forth. One of the characters is the old, 
normal one, pertaining to the original species. The other 
is the new, abnormal one pertaining to the variety in pro- 
cess of formation, in fact the anomaly. And the conflict 
of these two antagonistic types affords at least a partial 
explanation of this extraordinary variability. 
The green color itself is only very slightly variable, 
and the pure yellow or golden varieties, in which the 
green is entirely absent, are equally uniform (varietates 
anreae, for example Pyrcthnim Partlicniuin aureum). 
Of "double" forms there are two types ; the ordinary 
highly variable more or less double sorts, and on the 
other hand the sterile varieties which exhibit this peculiar- 
ity to its full extent in all their flowers (see Ranunculus 
acris petalomana, Vol. I, Fig. 40, p. 194). In this case 
the types with a high degree of fluctuating variability 
might be considered as a connecting link between two 
almost invariable forms, the normal single and the pet- 
alomanous types. 
If we regard this principle as an explanation of the 
case in point we arrive at the conception of intermediate 
forms with two antagonistic characters strking for the 
mastery, and possessing a remarkably high degree of vari- 
ability as a result of this struggle. The extent of this 
variability differs from case to case : in the most extreme 
examples whole organs or even whole individuals can 
come exactly to resemble one of the types between which 
they oscillate. Pure green or, on the other hand, pure 
