Evcrsporting Varieties. 25 



know it has not as yet arisen anywhere else. It consti- 

 tutes an eversporting variety hke a number of other 

 double composites which are analogous to it ; and arose 

 in my experimental garden, not from the original species, 

 but from a variety known in the trade as C. s. grandi- 

 floriiui, which forms a first step towards it in respect of 

 the number of its tongue florets, and is therefore to be 

 regarded as a half race.-^ 



Let us now briefly summarize the foregoing dis- 

 cussion : 



1. There exist both in the cultivated state and in 

 nature a series of forms which are either not constant 

 or highly variable, a state of affairs which is probably 

 due to the interaction of two antagonistic characters. 



2. Of these two characters one is to be regarded as 

 normal, that is to say, as belonging to the parent species ; 

 the other as the abnormal. 



3. Where the former preponderates, teratological half 

 races with their half curves are the result. 



4. If the two maintain an equilibrium, there are 

 formed what I have called middle races, intermediate 

 races, or eversporting varieties, of which many examples 

 are to be found amongst garden varieties and ''heritable" 

 teratological races. 



5. The high degree of fluctuating variability of the 

 eversporting variety, its occasional discovery in nature 

 and in cultivation, and the possibility which it affords 

 of the working up of striking novelties by means of iso- 

 lation and selection, afford an explanation of the major- 



* The numerous apices of the curves describing variation in the 

 number of rays in composites, which have received no explanation 

 so far, tend however to make the apphcation of this conception diffi- 

 cult. 



See also the origin of Dahlia variabilis fistulosa in my cultures 



(§ II, p. 100. 



