ii8 BREEDING 



purple spotting of the wild ancestor of our culinary 

 peas depends on the co-existence in one individual 

 of two characters, the purple spotting itself and a 

 grey seed-coat. At some period, probably after the 

 pea had been domesticated, these two characters 

 became separated; how, we cannot do more than 

 guess. And the reappearance of the ancestral 

 character on crossing is due to the union of two 

 individuals one of which has one, and the other has 

 the other, of the two characters necessary for the 

 production of the ancestral character. 



Another instance of reversion is afforded by the 

 colour of the flower of the culinary pea. The three 

 colours known are shown on Plate IV. On the 

 right is shown the commonest type, the pure 

 white flower ; on the left is what may be called the 

 pink flower ; the flower is not however, as a matter 

 of fact, equally pink over its whole extent, the outer 

 single petal, the " standard," is nearly white, and 

 the paired inner ones, the " wings," are salmon pink, 

 the keel, enclosed by the " wings," is white with 

 green veins. 



Between these two flowers, and above them, is the 

 so-called furfle flower, which approximates most 

 closely in its colour to that of the wild ancestor of 

 garden peas. The standard is a pale purple in which 

 the blue is in excess of the red ; the wings are a dense 

 purple in which the red preponderates over the blue. 



When a pink-flowered variety is crossed with a 

 white-flowered one, the result is a purple-flowered 

 plant. The pink and the white flowers on Plate IV. 



