142 Atavism. 



pale with no more than tlie faintest indication of the 

 hlac color. Hie seeds were sown in pans in the autumn, 

 the seedlings were pricked out in Xoveml^er and planted 

 out in April 1898 on a large bed. In June 250 individ- 

 uals flowered, and the percentage composition of the 

 color, as given above, was determined. Then the four 

 lilac individuals falling into the group L2 were taken 

 up and transplanted with all possible care to the metal 

 gauze greenhouse. Before doing so all open flowers 

 and vouuiT fruits were of course removed. It mav be 

 noted that in this experiment the lilac flowered individ- 

 uals began to flower conspicuously later than the pale 

 and violet ones. 



The seeds of these four plants were sown partly in 

 October and partly in November, separately for each 

 parent. Only one of the four resultant groups flowered 

 in the following year (1899) ; the rest remained in the 

 rosette stage and flowered in 1900. The proportions 

 of the various colors were very mucli the same in the 

 four groups. I recorded them separately but did not 

 find any significant difl^erences. The numbers in the 

 first column (Ist Experiment, 5th Gen.) on the table 

 on page 140 give the composition of the whole culture. 



I transplanted some lilac plants of the first crop 

 (1895), btit only kept one of them which caught my eye 

 with its beautifully striped flowers. It grew up into a 

 sturdy plant, flowered in 1898 in an isolated spot and 

 set an abundance of seed. From this 219 flowering 

 plants were raised in 1899, and their colors are recorded 

 in the last column of the tabic on page 140 (2d Experi- 

 ment. 3d Gen. ). 



If we consider the results of these experiments, ex- 



