Tricotyls, Hemi-tricotyls, and Tefracotyls. 357 



rare amongst the hybrids as in other cuhures. The hy- 

 brids are ahiiost without exception dicotylous, although 

 of course occasional hemi-tricotyls and tricotyls occur 

 amongst them, just as they do in the half races. There 

 is therefore no ground for the supposition that seedlings 

 with cleft leaves should be of a hybrid nature. 



They are simply variants of the tricotylous type. The 

 occurrence of seedlings in which both the cotyledons are 

 cleft or doubled, favors this view. They cannot possibly 

 be regarded as hybrids ; they occur so regularly and abun- 



Fig. 68. Silene odontipetala. A, a hemi-tricotylous, B, 

 a tricotylous, and C, a tetracotylous seedling", 1900. 



dantly in tricotylous intermediate races that they must 

 be simply regarded as plus variants of the same character. 

 Moreover the fact that one or the other of the seed leaves 

 in a tetracotyl may be cleft also, supports this view. 

 Such a cleavage results in the origin of pentacotyls and 

 hexacotyls which, however, will be, obviously, very rare. 

 True pentacotyls, arisen by such a cleavage, I have seen, 

 for instance, in Scrophularia nodosa, Aniarantus spcci- 

 osns, Oenothera Laniarekiana and Papaver Rlweas (Fig. 

 69. ) 



