The Significance of the Atavists. 561 
were saved separately from each plant. In the spring of 
1901 I sowed the seeds of two decussate, three ternary 
and four twisted seed-parents and recorded the main 
stems produced by each parent in 1902, just before the 
flowering period; but since the numbers from the indi- 
vidual seed-parents of each group did not differ to any 
considerable extent amongst themselves, I shall give the 
total result only. 
OFFSPRING, IN PERCENTAGES. 
SEED-PARENTS NUMBER 
DECUSSATE TERNARY TWISTED 
Decussate 48 8 44 201 
Ternary 39 24 37 136 
Twisted 45 14 41 155 
Total 492 
We see that the offspring of the atavists produced 
just as large a proportion of twisted stems as the offspring 
of the twisted individuals. On the other hand the choice 
of decussate or of ternary atavists seems to have exerted 
some influence in the direction of ternary offspring. 
The twisted stems of Dipsacus are partly right-hand 
and partly left-hand spirals; and about equal numbers 
of the two sorts are always found. 1 
A very curious question thus presents itself, viz., 
whether this equilibrium can be disturbed by selection 
and whether the balance can be upset in a given direc- 
tion. 2 According to the view laid down in this book, 
that it is not true that with selection all things are pos- 
sible, we might expect that this would not be a fixable 
character and that selection would have no influence on 
1 Annals of Botany, loc. cit., p. 404. 
2 R. M. YERKES, Variation in the Fiddler Crab, Gelasimus pugi- 
lator, Proceed. Amer. Ac. of Arts and Sciences, 1901, Vol. XXXVI, 
No. 24, p. 417. On page 441 this author states that right- and left- 
handed animals occur in approximately equal numbers. 
