Principles of Heredity 181 



thenceforth fixed [produced by union of similar gametes ?] 

 that it takes longer to select some forms [dominants?] 

 than others [recessives ?], that there may be "mule" 

 forms* or forms which cannot be fixed at allt [produced 

 by union of dissimilar gametes ?]. 



But Laxton tells us more than this. He shows us that 

 numbers of varieties may be obtained hundreds "in- 

 calculable numbers." Here too if Professor Weldon had 

 followed Mendel with even moderate care he would have 

 found the secret. For in dealing with the crosses of 

 Phaseolus Mendel clearly forecasts the conception of 

 compound characters themselves again consisting oj definite 

 units, all of which may be separated and re-combined in 

 the possible combinations, laying for us the foundation of 

 the new science of Analytical Biology. 



How did Professor Weldon, after reading Mendel, fail 

 to perceive these principles permeating Laxton's facts ? 

 Laxton must have seen the very things that Mendel saw, 

 and had he with his other gifts combined that penetration 

 which detects a great principle hidden in the thin mist of 

 "exceptions," we should have been able to claim for him 

 that honour which must ever be Mendel's in the history of 

 discovery. 



When Laxton speaks of selection and the need for it, 

 he means, what the raiser of new varieties almost always 

 means, the selection of definite forms, not impalpable 

 fluctuations. When he says that without selection there 

 will be utter confusion, he means to use Mendelian terms 



* For instance the tails produced by crossing dwarfs are such 

 " mules." Tschermak found in certain cases distinct increase in 

 height in such a case, though not always (p. 531). 



t "The remarkably fine but unfixable pea Evolution." Laxton, 

 p. 37. 



