Ranunculus Bulbosus Scniipicnus. 203 



out the plants which iiiaiiifcst the anuiualy most abun- 

 dantly and most strongly ; these must, however, according 

 to the facts given, as a rule, ])e the l)est nourished ones, 

 i. e., the most faxored In' their en\ironment. For on 

 the same l)ed, even if it has been uniformly prepared with 

 the greatest care, the conditions under which neighboring 

 plants grow are often very different. One seed may 

 germinate in a place in wdiich moisture is better retained ; 

 another may germinate in almost dry soil. Some germi- 

 nate on warm and tine days and are in consecjuence ahead 

 of their less favored brothers for their whole li\-es; and 

 so on.^ And so it is that the several plants from seeds 

 of the same seed-parent sown on the same day and on 

 the same bed, are necessarily exposed to diverse condi- 

 tions of life. Amongst them selection picks out the best 

 and therefore, at least as a general rule, the most highly 

 nourished ones. Selection, so to speak, only precipitates 

 the operation of these external factors ; as we have pointed 

 out before in connection wkh Papavcr soninifciinn poly- 

 ccphalunir 



Selection and cultivation have, therefore, worked in 

 the same direction in my experiment for four genera- 

 tions. They have about doubled the mean number of 

 l)etals per flower, having brought it, in fact, to 9-10; 

 they have produced, amongst several hundred plants and 

 several thousand flowers, no more than three flow^ers with 

 more than twenty petals (C 21. C 23 and C 31), i. e., 

 not essentially more than w^ould be expected according to 

 Ouetelet'.s law^ from the actual mean and the am])litude 

 of variation. These flow^ers occurred perfectly fortui- 

 touslv on plants which were not particularly favored oth- 

 erwise, the means of the curves being only 10 for each 



' See Vol. T, p. 138. ' See Vol. T. p. 140. 



