Balanced Crosses 291 



instance, from 20 to 21i , but as a rule, the aver- 

 age is found nearly equal to 25;^. 



The sugary kernels, when separated, from the 

 hybrid spikes and sown separately, give rise to 

 a pure sugary race, in no degree inferior in 

 purity to the original variety. But the starchy 

 kernels are of different types, some of them 

 being internally like the hybrids of the first 

 generation and others like the original parent. 

 To decide between these two possibilities, it is 

 necessary to examine their progeny. 



For the study of this third hybrid generation 

 we will now take another example, the opium- 

 poppies. They usually have a dark center in 

 the flowers, the inferior parts of the four petals 

 being stained a deep purple, or often nearly 

 black. Many varieties exhibit this mark as a 

 large black cross in the center of the flower. In 

 other varieties the pigment is wanting, the cross 

 being of a pure white. Obviously it is only re- 

 duced to a latent condition, as in so many other 

 cases of loss of color, since it reappears in a 

 hybrid with the parent-species. 



For mv crosses I have taken the dark-centered 

 ^' Mephisto " and the *^ Danebrog," or Danish 

 flag, with a white cross on a red field. The sec- 

 ond year the hybrids were all true to the type of 

 ** Mephisto." From the seeds of each artifi- 

 cially self -fertilized capsule, one-fourth (22.5%) 



