154 Atavism. 



rise to two cultures in 1900. They had the following 

 composition : 



Ears of seed-parent Extent of culture Atavists With branched ears 

 Branched 44 individuals 52 % 48 % 



Unbranched 206 individuals 92 % 8 % 



The rosettes with hranchecl ears gave rise to rather 

 more atavists than the seed of the branched inflorescences 

 of the same plant in the first year (52% as against 40% ), 

 which was probably due to the fact that it had a less 

 sunny position in 1899 than in 1897. But the rosettes 

 with unbranched ears, although they were in a good po- 

 sition in 1899 and grew very healthily, gave a progeny 

 dissimilar to that hitherto produced by any of the branched 

 plants of this race (see Table on page 149 which gives 

 the results of more than 25 individual sowings from 

 separate seed-parents). 



The four lateral rosettes with unbranched ears, there- 

 fore, formed in this case a clear instance of bud-variation, 

 producing a race poor in branched ears. 



The question of the constancy of the atavists in my 

 race is a point of considerable interest. Hitherto I ha\e 

 found them completely constant, ^^'ith a view to test- 

 ing this I did not weed out the atavists in the fifth gen- 

 eration in 1894, l)ut simply cut off all their ears before 

 the branched plants flowered, and repeated this 0])era- 

 tion from time to time when new ears appeared before 

 they could protrude their stamens. After the harvest 

 I weeded out all the branched individuals ; most of the 

 atavists survived the winter and flowered luxuriantlv 

 in 1895 in isolation. The majority of them produced 

 over one hundred ears per individual. I harvested the 

 seeds separately for each seed-parent. 



The sowings took place in 1896 and in 1897. They 



