170 A Defence of Menders 



has investigated laws of heredity in Stocks on a large 

 scale and an account of her results is included in our 

 forthcoming Report. Here it must suffice to say that the 

 cross hoary ? x glabrous <$ always gave offspring all hoary 

 except once : that the cross glabrous ? x hoary $ of several 

 types gave all hoary ; but the same cross using other 

 hoary types did frequently give a mixture, some of the 

 offspring being hoary, others glabrous. Professor Weldon 

 might immediately decide that here was the hoped for 

 phenomenon of " reversed " dominance, due to ancestry, 

 but here again that hypothesis is excluded. For the 

 glabrous (recessive) cross-breds were pure, and produced 

 on self-fertilisation glabrous plants only, being in fact, 

 almost beyond question, "false hybrids" (see p. 34), a 

 specific phenomenon which has nothing to do with the 

 question of dominance. 



Professor Weldon next suggests that there is discrepancy 

 between the observations as to flower-colour. He tells us 

 that Correns found violet Stocks crossed with "yellowish 

 white" gave violet or shades of violet flaked together. 

 According to Professor Weldon 



" On the other hand Nobbe crossed a number of varieties of 

 M. annua in which the flowers were white, violet, carmine- 

 coloured, crimson or dark blue. These were crossed in various 

 ways, and before a cross was made the colour of each parent was 

 matched by a mixture of dry powdered colours which was pre- 

 served. In every case the hybrid flower was of an intermediate 

 colour, which could be matched by mixing the powders which 

 recorded the parental colours. The proportions in which the 

 powders were mixed are not given in each [any] case, but it is 

 clear that the colours blended*." 



* The original passage is in Landwirths. Versuchstationen, 1888, 

 xxxv. [not xxxiv.], p. 151. 



