312 Variegation in Primula sinensis 



There is one further point in connexion with these experiments which 

 should be mentioned, namely, the fact that the flaked type of flower- 

 coloration was contributed to the original mating by the Ivy-leaf 

 parent, and this character appeared in each of the subsequent gene- 

 rations. In families containing green, variegated and yellow plants, 

 both self-coloured and flaked flowers occurred in each of the three 

 classes of offspring. The flaked character of the flowers is seen, there- 

 fore, to be quite independent of the variegation of the leaves, and 

 it is, in fact, a character of a different nature from that of variegation, 

 for it is inherited through the male, as well as through the female, 

 gamete'. 



The extracted variegated and yellow-leaved plants have been used 

 both as male and as female parents, in crosses with normal green 

 plants. The results of these experiments are shewn in Tables II and III. 

 It will be seen that when the yellow-leaved plant is used as the male 

 parent, both the Fi and the succeeding generations consist entirely of 

 normal green plants ; neither variegated nor yellow-leaved j^lants appear 

 among the progeny of these matings. When, on the other hand, the 

 yellow-leaved plant is used as the female parent, the Fi is yellow. 

 Owing to the slow growth of the yellow-leaved plants, and the con- 

 sequent lapse of time before they bear seed, I have only just obtained 

 the seedling i^i-plants from crosses in which the yellow-leaved plants 

 were the female parents ; but there can be no doubt, I think, that the 

 yellow-leaved plants can only give yellows in succeeding generations. 

 It will be noticed that matings between green and yellow, whichever 

 way they are made, do not lead to the production of variegated plants ; 

 the progeny are all either self-coloured green or self-coloured yellow, 

 according to the character of the mother. 



For the sake of simplicity, I have omitted from the Tables any 

 reference to characters other than those of green, variegated and yellow 

 leaves. Each of the F^'s was, however, heterozygous in respect of a 

 series of factors, some of which were derived from the male, some from 

 the female parent. All these factors underwent normal segregation in 

 the F.Js shewn in Table II. This result is quite in accordance with 

 anticipation and the only point upon which it is necessary to remark is 

 the fact that the flaked coloration of the flowers, observed in the families 

 106/18 and 107/13, was derived from the male parent used in the flrst 

 cross. 



' See also Correns, Zeitschr.f. Intl. Abst.- u. Vercrhungslehre, i. p. 322, 1909. 



