The Significance of I he Atavists. 519 



Six plants had a terminal spike at the top of the main 

 stem with a small comh ; in six others this comb was ab- 

 sent, althongh small fasciations occurred here and there 

 amongst the lateral branches. These six plants were 

 selected as seed-parents, and from their seeds 1 obtained 

 the second generation (1894), in which about half the 

 individuals bore terminal spikes without a comb. There 

 were 41 of these. The remaining 55 had combs ranging 

 from 1-3 centimeters broad and were thrown away. Of 

 the selected atavists, several produced lateral combs later, 

 and each one of these plants was destroyed as soon as 

 I discovered the anomaly, until at the end of the harvest 

 period there were left only five plants which, though 

 profusely branched, manifested no trace of fasciation. 

 In the following year there were 29 plants wnth small 

 combs and 6 without any at all ; these latter were again 

 isolated as seed-parents. In 1896 I had 38 individuals, 

 all of which, without exception, produced combs, the 

 length of which ranged between 2 and 8.5 cer.timeters 

 with a mean of 4.5. Only one plant had no comb at the 

 apex of the stem ; but had a much flattened lateral branch 

 instead. This, and the plants with the smallest terminal 

 combs, were selected as seed-parents. Again, in the 

 following year (1897), no progress was made, inasmuch 

 as only a single weakly individual failed to produce a 

 comb. Therefore I gave up the experiment and I con- 

 clude that complete atavists are very rare in Celosia 

 crisfafa and that even under repeated selection in the 

 minus direction they will only be obtained in very small 

 quantities. At present at least there seems not to be any 

 prospect of obtaining a pure atavistic strain. 



The experiments I have described show that, as a rule, 

 there is no sharp limit between the fasciated individuals 



