448 Stout: The Origin of Dwarf Plants 



cerned the evidence is clear that they possess different potencies 

 and belong to quite different categories, or else that they undergo 

 quite different sorts of changes not only in different species but in 

 the same species, variety, strain or even pure line. 



The accumulation of evidence from all lines of plant breeding 

 shows that sporadic and irregular expression and inheritance of 

 characters are frequent and are widely distributed among plants, 

 and that ordinary stable characters and combinations become split 

 up and modified in processes of both mutation and hybridization, 

 giving variability not conforming to the usual laws of fluctuating 

 variability. 



Summary 



A dwarf form of Hibiscus oculiroseus has appeared in a pedi- 

 greed culture as a sporadic variation. It differs from the robust 

 form in possessing a smaller stature, shorter internodes, smaller 

 leaves, many crinkled leaves and in the development of lateral 

 branches from the base of the main stem. 



Plants intermediate between the dwarf and the robust forms 

 appear. These possess one or more of the characters of the dwarf 

 type in some degree of development. 



All the dwarf plants thus far obtained are the progeny of a 

 single plant (0 No. i). No dwarf plants appeared among the 103 

 plants grown as progeny of four sister plants of plant No. i. 



The parent plant of this dwarf (0 No. i) possessed already in 

 slight degree the characteristics of crinkled leaves and shortened 

 internodes. 



The dwarf plants appeared in varying numbers along with 

 robust and intermediate types. One series (Series No. I) was 

 composed of one dwarf, eleven robust and three intermediate plants; 

 another series (Series VI) was composed of forty-five dwarf plants. 



There is a strong tendency for the dwarf form to breed true. 

 In a total of eighty-one plants grown from seed of a dwarf there 

 were seventy-two dwarf plants, eight classed as intermediates, and 

 one that was robust (Series VII and VIII). 



It is difificult to describe the dwarf type in terms of characters 

 that have been lost or gained. The smaller and crinkled leaves and 

 the shortened internodes are evidences of r^uced or arrested 



