III. THE INCONSTANCY OF FASCIATED 
RACES. 
14. THE INHERITANCE OF FASCIATIONS. 
Fasciations are amongst the commonest anomalies 
which occur in the vegetable kingdom. 1 Until about ten 
years ago the prevailing opinion concerning them, as in- 
deed in regard to monstrosities in general, was that they 
were not heritable but owed their origin to external in- 
fluences only. The coxcomb, Cclosia cristata, was con- 
sidered an exception to this rule. It was, however, well 
known that the phenomenon occurred more frequently 
among certain species than among others ; but the con- 
ception that some plants possessed a greater tendency 
to the production of such anomalies than others was 
taken for a sufficient explanation of this fact. 
But since I have succeeded, in the case of a series of 
apparently fortuitous fasciations, in establishing, by iso- 
lation and selection, races in which the deviation is re- 
peated regularly and in a considerable number of indi- 
viduals, it has become evident that we are concerned here 
with heritable qualities which are handed on from one 
generation to another in certain strains of individuals, 
and which really differ from the characters of ordinary 
varieties only in the fact that they are always accom- 
panied by reversions. It never happens that every branch 
1 See A. GALLARDO, Fasciacion, Proliferation y Sinantia. Anales 
del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires, Vol. VI, pp. 37-45. 
