332 Nutrition and Selection. 



down the main stem; and by this means we can often 

 obtain the desired variations, as Goebel has shown, 

 unless the anomaly is too much favored by a very vig- 

 orous growth. 



§ 29. THE CHOICE OF SEEDS IN SELECTION. 



From the periodical changes in the tendency of the 

 plant to produce anomalies, we might expect a corre- 

 sponding periodicity in the seeds. ^ The seeds of flowers 

 which have bloomed under favorable circumstances should 

 produce more anomalous individuals, those of the weaker 

 branches, on the other hand, more atavistic ones. This 

 expectation, however, is only to a slight extent fulfilled, 

 and the latent capacity of the seeds seems to be regulated 

 much more by factors other than those determining the 

 periodicity of the parent plant. Our knowledge of this 

 subject is, however, still in its infancy. 



Nevertheless there is a whole series of facts which 

 are worth collating because they are likely to serve as a 

 stimulus to further investigation. In doing so, it should 

 be emphasized that in the selection of seeds we are con- 

 cerned with variability and not with mutability, and in 

 most cases, in fact, with the extreme fluctuating varia- 

 bility of semi-latent characters. 



It is only a strong, well-developed seed, furnished 

 with a healthy germ and richly supplied with food mate- 

 rial that can give rise to the very strongest plant in a 

 healthy culture. Doubtless, of course, the differences 

 between the individual seeds are to a large extent levelled 

 down during the first weeks after sowing; but this is not 

 always the case. Obviously the most favorable condi- 



^ C. Fruwtrth, Die Ziichfung dcr JandzvirthschaftUchen Ciiltur- 

 t^Hanacn, 1901, p. 102. 



