( 805 ) 



supremacy, in which combat now one, tiien the other gains an 

 advantage. 



But if of a species wiiicli is ricii in forms we mutually compare 

 a fairly complete series of anilro-monoecious forms, we are struck 

 by the circumstance that between these and the ever-sporting varieties 

 known until now, there is this important difference that while 

 with other ever-sporting varieties the original specific character is 

 always more conspicuous than the I'acial cliaracter, here xery often 

 the opposite takes place. 



We met in what precedes plants like ^fyrrhis odorata, Meum 

 athamanticum or forms of Pastinaca saliva, Heradeum Sphondylhtm 

 and Daucus Carota, where the speciiic character had been entirely 

 superseded by' the racial character, and this raises the question whether 

 the andro-monoecious Umbelliferae, looked upon as races originated 

 by mutation, must be placed on a line with the above-mentioned 

 gyno-nionoecious Satureja Iwrtens'u and other ever-sporting \-arieties. 



We know from the theory of mutation that the interaction of two 

 antagonistic characters may show itself in more than one way and 

 that a character originated by mutation may be inherited in a different 

 degree in various plant-species, iiy wliich process various races are 

 formed. 



To a race in which the anomaly comes only little to the front, 

 much less than the normal character, and which consequently is 

 hereditary in a small degree only, de Vries has given the name of 

 a half- race, and the abnormal character he has called semi-latent. 

 That, ho\ve\er, among these half-races important differences may 

 occur in the measure in which the character is semi-latent, clearly 

 appeared from the statistical investigation of the half-races, e.g. of 

 Trifoliiim incnrnatum quadrifoliuin and Trifolium pratense. qidnque- 

 folium. 



It may be imagined tiiat there exist races in which the two antago- 

 nistic characters possess nearly the same degree of heredity so that 

 then it is often difïicult, under favourable circumstances, to settle 

 whether the specific or the racial character is more prominent and 

 sometimes even, when the conditions of life are very favourable, 

 the anomaly gets the upper hand. In such a race as well the specific 

 character as the anomaly are then to be considered as semi-active. 

 The statistical investigation of the anomalies has not yet re\'ealed 

 that such races really exist. 



But it may be further imagined that between these latter races 

 which DE Vries called middle-races and the constant varieties, in 

 which the specific character is latent and the anomaly active, there 



