Variability in Garden Plants. 7 



and so forth. Therefore we are not here deahng with the 

 variable development of a single quality, but with the 

 simultaneous operation, or rather with the conflict, of 

 two qualities. For in proportion as the one or the other 

 of them prevails the plant will be more or less variegated, 

 double and so forth. One of the characters is the old, 

 normal one, pertaining to the original species. The other 

 is the new, abnormal one pertaining to the variety in pro- 

 cess of formation, in fact the anomaly. And the conflict 

 of these two antagonistic types affords at least a partial 

 explanation of this extraordinary variability. 



The green color itself is only very slightly variable, 

 and the pure yellow or golden varieties, in which the 

 green is entirely absent, are equally uniform {varictatcs 

 aureae, for example Pyrcthruin Parthcniiun aurcuni). 

 Of ''double" forms there are two types; the ordinary 

 highly variable more or less double sorts, and on the 

 other hand the sterile varieties which exhibit this peculiar- 

 ity to its full extent in all their flowers (see Ranunculus 

 acris petaloniana, Vol. I, Fig. 40, p. 194). In this case 

 the types with a high degree of fluctuating variability 

 might be considered as a connecting link between two 

 almost invariable forms, the normal single and the pet- 

 alomanous types. 



If we regard this principle as an explanation of the 

 case in point we arrive at the conception of intermediate 

 forms zvith tzvo antagonistic characters striving for the 

 mastery, and possessing a remarkably high degree of vari- 

 ability as a result of this struggle. The extent of this 

 variability differs from case to case : in the most extreme 

 examples whole organs or even whole individuals can 

 come exactly to resemble one of the types between Avhich 

 they oscillate. Pure green or, on the other hand, pure 



