240 Noii-Isolablc Races. 



At this point they were recorded and, if the first leaf 

 was single, were usually pulled up. Those which were 

 saved were usually weaker, more stunted and backward 

 in growth. Several had not yet unfolded their first 

 leaves, and amongst them a great number of the anom- 

 alies were found when the examination was repeated a 

 few days afterwards. 



I then convinced myself by a very simple experiment 

 of the correctness of these conclusions. All that was 

 necessary was to isolate the large and the small seeds in 

 a sample and to sow them separately. But as there is 

 no absolute limit between the two it was necessarv to 

 know how many seeds should be separated out, as the 

 smallest. And this can only be done by the number of 

 anomalies, i. e., compound primary leaves, they produce. 

 I therefore selected a sample of seed whose capacity for 

 producing anomalies I already knew. This was 15%; 

 the sample was derived from a single seed-parent. I 

 separated the seeds into three categories, small, inter- 

 mediate and large. All in all there were 217 seeds of 

 which 17 did not germinate. The characters of those 

 which did are as follows : 



Number of divisions in the primary leaf. 



169 13 18 15.5 % 



It will be seen that almost all the abnormal seedlings 

 are derived from the smallest seeds. The seedlings from 

 the large seeds had, with a single exception which was an 

 abnormal one, unfolded their primary leaves in May, and 

 fourteen days after the seed had been sown ; the same 



