The Fcriodicity of Scmi-Latcnt Characters. ol^ 



result of heavier manuring and better treatment (1890- 

 1892). 



Of a kindred nature, proljaljly, is the well-known 

 fact that anomalies are more abundant in certain years 

 than in others. Munting records this for Liliiiin criien- 

 iiiui plciiinn'^ a.nd KiCKX for pitchers, of which there was 

 in the neighborhood of Gent, in Belgium, something like 

 an epidemic in 1848 in the tobacco fields, and in 1851 

 in Rosa Gallica and Rosa centifolia? In the neighbor- 

 hood of Freiburg there was an extraordinary abundance 

 of floral malformations in the summer of 1866.'"' In 

 France the hot and dry summer of 1893 brought out a 

 large number of these, and Gagnepain records a long 

 series of anomalies which he observed at that time."^ The 

 year 1845 was a great year for peloric Calceolarias, 1862 

 for central umbels in Auricula (in England). For ten 

 years I have observed the formation of pitchers in Mag- 

 nolia ohovata and that of hermaphrodite flowers in Salix 

 aurita. In both these cases the frequency varied greatly 

 with the year, although the specimens which were exam- 

 ined closely every year, were growing in our garden. I 

 sliall not extend this list which the reader may easily 

 c(3mplete either by personal observations or from the 

 alnindant literature on the subject. 



§ 28. THE PERTODTCTTY OE SEAII-LATENT CHARACTERS. 



The immediate external conditions which obtain dur- 

 ing the susceptible period of develoj^mcnt do not consti- 

 tute the sole factor which determines the greater or less 



^Hunting, loc. cif., p. 501. 



'J. KiCKX, Bull. Acad. Roy. Bclgiquc, Vol. XVHI, Pt. I, p. 591. 



' HiLDERKAND. Bot. ZcitUUg, 1866, p. 239. 



* Bull. Soc. Bot. France, Vol. XL, 1893, pp. 309-312. 



