Trifoliiim Pratcnsc Qnuiqucfoliiun. 43 



be remarked that in previous years seedlings with a com- 

 pound primordial leaf had either been entirely absent or 

 at any rate very rare.^ 



In the summer of 1894 I only bred offspring from 

 the plant with 55% of abnormalities in its seedlings, and 

 of these only the twenty best, with compound primordial 

 leaf and the next leaf tetra-pentamerous. These only 

 did I allow to flower and to bear seed. The result was 

 recorded by means of the same characters in the following 

 spring. For eleven plants it was 70-90%, for five others 

 91-967c, and for the two best 98-99% seedlings with 

 compound primary leaf. And the higher the number the 

 greater was the percentage of trifoliate, as opposed to 

 bimerous, primordial leaves. 



The same high percentage was obtained in the culture 

 of the next year, 1895, in the seventh generation of my 

 experiment. Since then the race has remained constant 

 imder the same conditions of selection. 



I have employed this constant and highly abnormal 

 race for a series of observations and experiments, to the 

 more important of which I shall now refer,- for thev are 

 well qualified to afford us some insight into the nature 

 of such a race. This race exhibits a high degree of var- 

 iability, which is due to the possession of a semi-latent 

 character besides that which it has obviously inherited 

 from the parent species. The extent to zvhich this paren- 

 tal heritage, the normal trifoliate leaf, is developed de- 

 pends on the conditions of life of the plant. And, speak- 



^ See the remarks in § 22 relating to the size of the seed in Tri- 

 folium incarnatum. In the five-leaved clover, especially in later 

 years, practically all the seedlings had compound primordial leaves, 

 so that this character had nothing to do with the size of the seed. 



^For a detailed account see the oft-cited paper in Kruidkiindig 

 Jaarboek, Vol. X. 



