520 The Inconstancy of Fasciafed Races. 



and the atavists. This fact can be illustrated by statistical 

 examination of the material, provided it can be made 

 sufficiently large by cultivation. As an example of this 

 I may again cite my race of Crepis biennis fasciataA 



In order to obtain a pure curve, I sowed the seeds 

 of a single broadly fasciated individual of the third gene- 

 ration of my race (1890) in March 1894. The plant 

 had flowered together with two other fasciated individ- 

 uals of the same ancestry, but this little group had been 

 completely isolated. The seeds were sown in pans in the 

 greenhouse and afterwards planted out at suitable dis- 

 tances in the bed. Whilst still in the rosette stage many 

 of them produced in the first year a comb-shaped heart. 

 Others did not exhibit fasciation until the stem began to 

 develop in the second year. Still others had not produced 

 a single comb at the time when all their branches were 

 fully developed. The external conditions had been as 

 favorable as possible, so that I obtained a relatively high 

 proportion of fasciated individuals. When I examined 

 the plants in June of the second year, I obtained the fol- 

 lowing result : 



Stems without fasciation 33 



" with slight fasciation at the top . 9 

 " fasciated along their whole length 108 



Total 150 



The breadths of the stems of these latter 108 plants 

 were distributed as follows : 



The numbers are plotted in Fig. 118 in the form of 

 a curve. In this curve indicates the group of 33 ata- 



Sur les courhes Galtoniennes des monstruosites, Bull. Scientif., 

 public par A. Giard, XXVII, 1896, p. 396. 



