50 Mendel 9 8 Experiments 



but nevertheless reappear unchanged in their progeny, as 

 will be demonstrated later on. 



It was furthermore shown by the whole of the experi- 

 ments that it is perfectly immaterial whether the dominant 

 character belong to the seed-bearer or to the pollen parent ; 

 the form of the hybrid remains identical in both cases. This 

 interesting fact was also emphasised by Gartner, with the 

 remark that even the most practised expert is not in a 

 position to determine in a hybrid which of the two parental 

 species was the seed or the pollen plant*. 



Of the differentiating characters which were used in the 

 experiments the following are dominant : 



1. The round or roundish form of the seed with or 

 without shallow depressions. 



2. The yellow colouring of the seed albumen [coty- 

 ledons]. 



3. The grey, grey-brown, or leather-brown colour of 

 the seed-coat, in connection with violet-red blossoms and 

 reddish spots in the leaf axils. 



4. The simply inflated form of the pod. 



5. The green colouring of the unripe pod in connection 

 with the same colour in the stems, the leaf- veins and the calyx. 



6. The distribution of the flowers along the stem. 



7. The greater length of stem. 



With regard to this last character it must be stated 

 that the longer of the two parental stems is usually exceeded 

 by the hybrid, which is possibly only attributable to the 

 greater luxuriance which appears in all parts of plants 

 when stems of very different length are crossed. Thus, for 

 instance, in repeated experiments, stems of 1 ft. and 6 ft. 

 in length yielded without exception hybrids which varied 

 in length between 6 ft. and 7j ft. 



* [Gartner, p. 223.] 



