OTHER MENDELIAN CHARACTERS 27 



We now leave the characters of the pods and pass 

 on to the colour of the seed coats, which is the last 

 of the characters dealt with by Mendel which we 

 shall consider at present. The two colours that 

 Mendel worked with were white and " grey " — or, 

 more strictly speaking, a grey-green that becomes 

 brown with age. They were recognised in the 

 sixteenth century by Thomas Tusser, who refers to 

 them in his remarks on February in his " Hundred 

 Points of Good Husbandrie," which is printed on 

 p. iii of this book. 



*'Sowe runcival* timelie and all that be gray, 

 but so we not the white till S. Gregories day." 



The white seed-coat is characteristic of the majority 

 of peas commonly grown in the kitchen-garden. A 

 plant that has white seed-coats always has white 

 flowers. The grey colour of the seed-coat is charac- 

 teristic of many but by no means of all field peas. In 

 addition to the plain grey of the seeds there is very 

 often a greater or lesser amount of purple colour in 

 the form of minute spots distributed uniformly over 

 the seed-coat. This purple colour is left out of 

 account in considering the result of crossing white 

 with grey. A plant with a grey seed-coat always 

 has purple flowers. 



A grey-skinned pea is shown in Fig. 11. This 

 particular race, which was given to me by Mr. R. H. 

 Lock, does not exhibit the purple spots. An ordinary 

 white-skinned culinary pea is illustrated in Fig. 12. 



* A kind of pea, figured by Gerarde. 



