336 Nutrition and Selection. 



better than the upper ones/ and the same is true of other 

 species of cereals. 



Lastly some reference should be made to those cases 

 in which individual seeds possess the peculiarity of 

 germinating late, and of remaining one or more years in 

 the soil, as for instance the small seeds of various species 

 of clover. In Xanthium canadcnsc each fruit contains 

 two seeds, one of which germinates after the first win- 

 ter, the other not until after the second.- 



\Mien we are dealing with semi-latent or, in general, 

 with highly variable characters, a selection of seeds either 

 by their size and weight or by their place of origin on 

 the plant is to be recommended in many cases, and the 

 general rule seems to be that the place of origin of the 

 best seeds will also be that of the desired variants. There 

 are some cases in which this rule does not apply, such 

 as we have seen in Trifoliwn incarnatuin, where it is 

 the smallest late germinating seeds wdiich contain the 

 best representatives of the four-leaved half race. 



In Chelidoniuni majns plcmim the single flowers 

 bloom first, and the double ones later, as we have seen 

 in the preceding section (§ 28). I have harvested the 

 seeds of both and sown them separately; but found no 

 difference in respect of the doubling amongst the off- 

 spring. Bateson and Miss Pertz'^ also failed to find 

 any difference in respect of doubling amongst the off- 

 spring of nomial and abnormal flowers of the same 

 plant with Veronica Buxhaumii. In Oenothera Lamarck- 

 iana I found about the same percentage of annual and 



^ F. F. Bruyning, Proefnemingen met havervarieteitcn, Wage- 

 ningen, 1900. 



^T. C. Arthi'R, Proceedings Ann. Meeting Soc. Agric., Science. 

 August, 1895. 



' W. Bateson and Miss Pertz, loc. cit., p. 79. 



