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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



it would he difficult to overestimate the importance of the results cer- 

 tain to be obtained within the next fifty years. It has even been found 

 that Mendel's discovery lights up the way toward the improvement of 

 the human race, and it may well be that many of us now living will see 

 the day when Mendelian questions will enter the field of practical 

 politics. 



As experimental work progressed, it was found that many complica- 

 tions arose, so that it was often difficult to interpret the results. With- 

 out going into these matters in detail, we must note that frequently 

 the first cross " DE " is not like either parent, that is to say, domi- 

 nance is not complete. Indeed, experienced breeders say that they can 



Bed Sunflower. 



nearly always tell an impure form from a pure individual, although at 

 first sight they may look alike. Critics of Mendelism were at first in- 

 clined to think that the failure of strict " dominance " invalidated the 

 theory, but this is by no means the case, as the elements separate out 

 in the third generation, just as before. The only diiference is that as 

 one can tell the DD from the DE, in the third generation we have 

 three visible types instead of two, in the proportions 1, 1, 2. 



Now to return to the sunflower ; the first thing we were anxious to 

 know was, will the red be dominant? From analogy with other cases, 

 we thought it would. Being impatient, we obtained permission from 

 our friend Mr. Knudsen to grow a few plants during the winter of 



