ON VARIEGATION IN PRIMULA SINENSIS. 



By R. p. GREGORY, M.A. 



Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge; University Lecturer in 



Botany. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Introduction . . 305 



The plastids of the green aucl of the yellow (yellowish-yreen) cells . . 307 



The variegated and yellow-leaved plants ....... 308 



Breeding Experiments 311 



Discussion of an hypothesis ......... 313 



Description of Plates 320 



Introduction. 



The purpuse of this paper is to describe some observations upon 

 a race of Primula sinensis, in which it has been found that the alter- 

 native characters of normal green, variegated or pale yellowish-green 

 leaves (and other organs containing chloroplasts) are transmitted from 

 parent to offspring through the egg-cells only, the male gamete playing 

 no part in determining the nature of the zygote in respect of these 

 characters. 



The experimental results which have been obtained are similar to 

 those which have already been described by Correns' in Mirabilis 

 Jalapa albomaculata, and by Baur- in Antirrhinum majus alhomacu- 

 latum, the principal diflerence being that, whereas in Mirabilis and 



' " Vererbungsversuohe mit blass (gelb) griineu und buntblattrigen Sippen bei Mirabilis 

 Jalapa, Urtica pilulifera und Lunaria annua," Zeitschr. /. Induktive Abstammungs- u. 

 Vererbungslehre, i. p. 291, 1909 ; " Zur Kenntnis der RoUe von Kern und Plasma bei der 

 Vererbung," Ibid. n. p. 331, 1909. 



- "Untersuchungen iiber die Vererbung von Chromatophorenmerkmalen bei Melan- 

 clrium. Antirrhinum und Aquilegia," Zeitschr./. Induktive Abstammungs- u. Vererbungs- 

 lehre, IV. p. 81, 1910. In this paper (p. 99) Baur records the fact that he has observed 

 the maternal inheritance of variegation in Primula sinensis, without, however, studying 

 it fully. 



20—3 >M 



