464 INHERITANCE. Chap. XII. 



With many flowers, especially perennials, nothing can be more 

 fluctuating than the colour of the seedlings, as is notoriously the 

 case with verbenas, carnations, dahlias, cinerarias, and others. 48 I 

 sowed seed of twelve named varieties of Snapdragon {Antirrhinum 

 majus), and utter confusion was the result. In most cases the 

 extremely fluctuating colour of seedling plants is probably in chief 

 part due to crosses between differently-coloured varieties during 

 previous generations. It is almost certain that this is the case with 

 the polyanthus and coloured primrose (Primula veris and vulgaris), 

 from their reciprocally dimorphic structure ; 49 and these are plants 

 which florists speak of as never coming true by seed : but if care be 

 taken to prevent crossing, neither species is by any means very 

 inconstant in colour; thus I raised twenty-three plants from a 

 purple primrose, fertilised by Mr. J. Scott with its pollen, and 

 eighteen came up purple of different shades, and only five reverted 

 to the ordinary yellow colour : again, I raised twenty plants from a 

 bright-red cowslip, similarly treated by Mr. Scott, and every one 

 perfectly resembled its parent in colour, as likewise did, with the 

 exception of a single plant, 72 grandchildren. Even with the 

 most variable flowers, it is probable that each delicate shade of 

 colour might be permanently fixed so as to be transmitted by seed, 

 by cultivation in the same soil, by long-continued selection, and 

 especially by the prevention of crosses. I infer this from certain 

 annual larkspurs (Delphinium consolida and ajacis), of which common 

 seedlings present a greater diversity of colour than any other plant 

 known to me; yet on procuring seed of five named German varieties 

 of D. conso/ida, only nine plants out of ninety-four were false ; and 

 the seedlings of six varieties of D. ajacis were true in the same 

 manner and degree as with the stocks above described. A dis- 

 tinguished botanist maintains that the annual species of Delphinium 

 are always self-fertilised ; therefore I may mention that thirty-two 

 flowers on a branch of D. consolida, enclosed in a net, yielded twenty- 

 seven capsules, with an average of 17'2 seed in each ; whilst five 

 flowers, under the same net, which were artificially fertilised, in the 

 same manner as must be effected by bees during their incessant 

 visits, yielded five capsules with an average of 35*2 fine seed ; and 

 this shows that the agency of insects is necessary for the full 

 fertility of this plant. Analogous facts could be given with respect 

 to the crossing of many other flowers, such as carnations, &c, of 

 which the varieties fluctuate much in colour. 



As with flowers, so with our domesticated animals, no character is 

 more variable than colour, and probably in no animal more so than 

 with the horse. Yet, with a little care in breeding, it appears that 

 races of any colour might soon be formed. Hofacker gives the result 

 of matching two hundred and sixteen mares of four different colours 



48 See ' Cottage Gardener,' April 49 Darwin, in ' Journal of Proc. 



10, 1860, p. 18, and Sept. 10, 1861, Linn. Soc. Bot.' 1862, p. 94. 

 p. 456 ; ' Gard. Chron.,' 1845, p. 102. 



