III. THE INCONSTANCY OF FASCIATED 



RACES. 



§ 14. THE INHERITANCE OF FASCIATIONS. 



Fasciations are amongst the commonest anomalies 

 which occur in the vegetable kingdom.^ Until about ten 

 years ago the prevailing opinion concerning them, as in- 

 deed in regard to monstrosities in general, was that they 

 were not heritable but owed their origin to external in- 

 fluences only. The coxcomb, Celosia cristata, was con- 

 sidered an exception to this rule. It was, however, well 

 known that the phenomenon occurred more frequently 

 among certain species than among others ; but the con- 

 ception that some plants possessed a greater tendency 

 to the production of such anomalies than others was 

 taken for a sufficient explanation of this fact. 



But since I have succeeded, in the case of a series of 

 apparently fortuitous fasciations, in establishing, by iso- 

 lation and selection, races in which the deviation is re- 

 peated regularly and in a considerable number of indi- 

 viduals, it has become evident that we are concerned here 

 with heritable qualities which are handed on from one 

 generation to another in certain strains of individuals, 

 and which really differ from the characters of ordinary 

 varieties only in the fact that they are always accom- 

 panied by reversions. It never happens that every branch 



^ See A. Gallardo, Fasciaci'on, Proliferacion y Sinantia. Anales 

 del Mnseo Nacional de Buenos Aires, Vol. VI, pp. 37-45. 



