42 



ESTABLISHMENT OF VARIETIES IN COLEUS 



increase of red. If we consider that the ability to produce yellow and 

 red are the more recently acquired characters of the cells, these data 

 would indicate a tendency toward loss rather than gain of these 

 characters. 



A summary of the data regarding the degree of constancy of the 

 various patterns and the nature of the variations which they exhibit 

 is of further interest in a consideration of the tendencies of the vari- 

 ations. In comparing bud variations which originate -in a bud the 

 comparison on the basis of the total buds produced seems quite ade- 

 quate. The comparison of fluctuating variations requires a different 

 treatment. On plants with irregular and mixed patterns it is not 

 practicable, if possible, to attempt a statistical determination of the 

 fluctuating branches. Only in few cases when such changes were 



TABLE 11. Summary of changes occurring in the principal patterns. 



limited to a branch could there by any degree of accuracy. Further- 

 more, fluctuations in number and size of the blotches of epidermal red, 

 although frequent and somewhat persistent, were not recorded. As 

 long as the pattern was blotched the plants were grouped together and 

 changes to solid red or to no-red for considerable areas of a leaf were 

 not considered as a bud variation unless a series of leaves showed that 

 the change was sectorial for a stem. For this reason the data given in 

 table 11 are summarized for fluctuations and bud variations involving 

 yellow and green in patterns with red blotched epidermis. 



The percentage of constant plants for yellow and green given in 

 table 11 is derived by dividing the number of plants which were con- 

 stant by the total grown of the pattern concerned. This gives an 

 index of the constancy of a type, although it does not take into account 

 the varying degrees of the fluctuations which appeared. 



