INHERITED SEED-GHARACTERS 57 



was seen as soon as the pod which developed from the 

 flower of the former plant was opened. The seeds 

 in it, instead of being green like those on all the other 

 pods on the plant, were yellow ; or, more accurately 

 stated, the cotyledons within the seed- coats in this 

 pod were yellow, instead of green as they would be in 

 all the other pods. Stated in the most general, but 

 also the most simple and the most correct, terms, the 

 result which we have hitherto observed is that when 

 a plant whose first two " leaves " are yellow is crossed 

 with a plant whose first two " leaves " are green 

 the result is a plant whose first two " leaves " are 

 yellow. Such a " plant " constitutes the first hybrid 

 generation, and though the fact that it bears the 

 dominant character can be observed in the year in 

 which the cross was made, the "plant" does not, of 

 course, become mature until sown in the following 

 year, 1911. 



The yellow peas in the pod which developed from 

 the flower on which the cross between the yellow- 

 seeded and the green-seeded variety had been made, 

 would be taken from the pod in the autumn of the 

 same year in which the cross was made (1910), and 

 sown in the following spring. Let us suppose there 

 were five seeds in the pod, and that five plants were 

 produced from them during the summer of 1911. 



These five plants, growing in 1911, belong, as 

 already indicated, to the first hybrid generation 

 produced by crossing, in 1910, a yellow-seeded (as 

 defined above) with a green-seeded pea ; just as the 

 tall plants growing in 1911 belonged to the first 



