164 A Defence of Mendel's 



peared to vary most*. The violet-coloured seeds again produced 

 almost invariably purplish, grey, or maple peas, the clear violet 

 colour only now and then appearing, either wholly in one pod or 

 on a single pea or two in a pod. All the seeds of the purple- 

 flowered plants were again either round or only partially in- 

 dented ; and the plants varied as to height and earliness. In 

 no case, however, does there seem to have been an intermediate- 

 coloured flower; for although in some flowers I thought I found 

 the purple of a lighter shade, I believe this was owing to light, 

 temperature, or other circumstances, and applied equally to the 

 parent maple. I have never noticed a single tinted white flower 

 nor an indented white seed in either of the three years' produce. 

 The whole produce of the third sowing consisted of seeds of the 

 colours and in the approximate quantities in order as follows, 

 viz. : 1st, white, about half ; 2nd, purplish, grey, and violet 

 (intermediate colours), about three-eighths; and, 3rd, maple, 

 about one-eighth. 



From the above I gather that the white-flowered white- 

 seeded pea is (if I may use the term) an original variety well 

 fixed and distinct entirely from the maple, that the two do not 

 thoroughly intermingle (for whenever the white flower crops out, 

 the plant and its parts all appear to follow exactly the characters 

 of the white pea), and that the maple is a cross-bred variety 

 which has become somewhat permanent and would seem to 

 include amongst its ancestors one or more bearing seeds either 

 altogether or partly violet- or purple-coloured; for although 

 this colour does not appear on the seed of the " maple," it is 

 very potent in the variety, and appears in many parts of the 

 plant and its offspring from cross-fertilised flowers, sometimes 

 on the external surface or at the sutures of the pods of the 

 latter, at others on the seeds and stems, and very frequently on 

 the seeds; and whenever it shows itself on any part of the 

 plant, the flowers are invariably purple. My deductions have 

 been confirmed by intercrosses effected between the various 

 white-, blue-, some singularly bright green-seeded peas which I 

 have selected, and the maple- and purple-podded and the purple- 

 flowered sugar peas, and by reversing those crosses. 

 * Being heterozygotes exclusively. 



