1012 
flower and seed which have been studied is, as the figures show, 
such that in general the development of all characters in one plant 
is in the same direction, since, for example, a long petal shows a 
distinct tendency to be coupled with a broad petal, with darker 
shade of flower and with a greater length and breadth of the seed. 
From this it might be deduced that here it is only a question of 
ordinary consequences of slight differences in external conditions in 
consequence of which the best nourished plants develop more strongly 
and form larger deeper-coloured flowers and larger seeds, in other 
words that the relation observed may only be the usual correlation 
phenomenon of fluctuating varying characters, just as met with in 
homogeneous material that is in pure forms. 
There indeed cecurs, as the observations showed, a correlation 
between the characters in the parent forms and also in the first gene- 
ration, of the same kind as the relation here described. 
In #, also this correlation will play a more certain part, but 
only in a subsidiary way and the phenomenon is chiefly due to 
another cause. This is already clear from my earlier investigations. 
Moreover I have also traced the relationships in the offspring. 
When the relation observed is a phenomenon of correlative variability, 
then the offspring of each individual of the second generation must 
exhibit again the same correlationfigure as the whole second generation 
or at least the offspring of a plant which is extreme for one or more 
characters must in general deviate much less from the average type 
than this plant itself. Now this was not the case, for it was found 
that the relationships as they appeared in the /’,-plant were in the 
main handed on to the offspring. Some examples having reference 
to the length, breadth, and colour of the petal will make this clear. 
The values for four different /’,-plants and their offspring are given 
in the following table. The first /’,-plant possesses the three characters 
in an extreme degree, the fourth has extremely small values for 
them all, the two others show different combination. 
F, F, 
Length of petal | 13.2 mm | 12.1—148 mm 
Breadth 3 i LO. ie IDE Ee 
Colour a AN 8 | i—9 
Length of petal | 13.0 mm | 12.1—14.0 mm 
Breadth f 8.6% ge IJ did 5 
5 
Colour is 3 | 2 
