38 Latent ami Siiiii-Latoit Characters. 



few generations, further improvements are only to be 

 expected from a corresponding amelioration of the con- 

 ditions of cultivation. In this way I succeeded in the 

 beginning in improving my four-leaved clover, but after 

 1895, in spite of continuous and stringent selection, no 

 further improvement has been observed. I shall there- 

 fore con hue myself to a descrijjtion of the first seven 



Four plants with some four- and five-leaved 



leaves. 

 36^ abnormal leaves per plant. 

 [ S With isolated abnormal seedlings. 

 - C With 60 fc seedlings of which the first, 

 ' second or third leaf was tetramerous. 



C With 55*^ seedlings with compound pri- 

 mary leaf. 

 C With 96-98% seedlings with compound 



primary leaf. 

 C With 95-97% seedlings with compound 

 primary leaf. 



To proceed to a more detailed account I begin with 

 the examples collected in the held.- I found them near 

 Loosdrecht on the edge of a road which was covered with 

 grass. They bore several tetramerous and one pentam- 

 erous leaf and seemed therefore to afford better oppor- 

 tunities than the usual lind which often is only a single 

 four-leaved clover leaf in a meadow. I transplanted 

 them to my garden, where they lived for another three 

 years. Here the anomaly not only reappeared but in- 



^ The result for this year is a double one. .9 (spring) refers to 

 the crop of 1892 itself. C (crop) to the record of the seedparents in 

 terms of the seedlings raised from their seeds (see p. 40) : Similarly 

 with the subsequent years. 



' Over hot omkccren van halve GaUon-etirven, Kruidkundig Jaar- 

 boek, Gent, Vol. X, 1898, pp. 27-54 with Plate I. 



