The Oriyin of Luiaria Vulgaris Pcloria. 215 



filled an entire bed of over 3 square meters in extent, 

 with hundreds of vigorous spikes which bore exclusively 

 peloric flowers. 



I again obtained only a very small harvest from this 

 bed (0.3 cc) ; it was the result partly of artificial and 

 partly of insect pollination, the plants flowering in suffi- 

 cient isolation. Very few of the seeds germinated (1899) 

 and only Z2 plants flowered; 28 of them were peloric 

 but 4 were normal. 



The progeny of the peloric race was therefore a mixed 

 one, in the three experiments which were continued over 

 two generations. It consisted altogether of 3 -|- 75 -f- 28 

 ^106 peloric and 5 + 4 + 4=13 normal (including 

 hemipeloric) individuals, a total of 119 with about 10% 

 atavists. Willdenow (see p. 206) also found the peloria 

 character inherited, though incompletely. As already 

 stated, however, insufficient isolation may have played 

 some part in bringing about this result, but hardly to 

 such a degree that we might infer from our experiments 

 that the peloria comes true. 



If we now look back over this experiment, which 

 occupied 13 years, its result may be summarized as fol- 

 lows : 



1. Uiiaria Tulgaris hcinipclona is a race with an in- 

 herited semi-latent character, which manifests it- 

 self from time to time among thousands of flow- 

 ers, but seldom in more than one instance on a 

 plant. It is widely distributed in the wild state. 



2. From it the Liuaria vulgaris pcloria may arise 

 but the conditions under which this happens are 

 not yet understood. 



3. This origin is a mutation : it takes place suddenly, 

 and without any visible preparation. Especially 



