508 The Inconstancy of Fasciated Races. 



race the anomaly is obviously in the latent condition and 

 only to a slight extent heritable. 



N. IMezzana records an instance of a fasciated stem 

 of Ciicurbita Pcpo, the upper part of which gradually be- 

 came broader over about a meter of its length, and was 

 thickly set with leaves and flowers. The phenomenon 

 was observed on a number of specimens which had been 

 raised from seed of the same fruit and Mezzana con- 

 cludes from this fact that the anomaly is inherited.-^ The 

 fact that I have frequently observed such fasciations in 

 my own cultures of Cnciirbita supports this conclusion. 

 In Artcniisia Absynthinin also, fasciations are sometimes 

 very common as I observed in 1883 (Fig. 115), 1887, 

 1888, 1889 and 1890, and the phenomenon was repeated 

 from seed in 1889 and 1891.- The remarkable forms 

 which the fasciated branches of this species so frequently 

 assume offer a profitable subject for future inquiry. 



§ i6. EVERSPORTING VARIETIES WITH HERITABLE 



FASCIATION. 



Some wild species produce, in certain districts at least, 

 a much higher proportion of fasciated examples than 

 others do. According to my experience, such cases sug- 

 gest the occurrence of heritable races, the individuals 

 of which are mixed with those of the normal species or 

 occasionally occur by themselves alone. So far as I am 

 aware, such races do not consist exclusively of fasciated 

 plants, but partly of these and partly of normal ones. 

 Without cultivation the latter cannot be distinguished 

 from the normal plants of the species in question, and 



^ N. Mezzaxa, Sopra nn caso d'l fasciacione ncl fusto di Ciicur- 

 bita Pepo, Bull. d. Soc. Bot. Italiana, Florence, 1899, pp. 268-273. 



^ Botan. Jaarh. Gent, 1894, p. 97. 



