HEREDITY 135 



The evidences of this dual origin are not always exhibited 

 in the same manner. In some individual offspring the 

 characters of one parent may predominate, in others 

 the parental characters seem to blend so successfully 

 that often the child differs from either parent, while in 

 still others the characters of both parents appear in the 

 offspring with apparently equal force but, instead of blend- 

 ing, the characteristics of the parents appear clearly as 

 distinct and easily recognizable qualities. These methods 

 of transmission were called by Galton, blending, alternate 

 and particulate inheritance. 



127. Blending inheritance. In this type of inherit- 

 ance the characters of the offspring represent a blending 

 or intermingling of the characters of the two parents. 

 Stature in man may and often does represent the blend- 

 ing of the statures of the two parents. The stature of 

 the son or daughter is taller than the shorter parent, but 

 falls short of that of the taller parent. When a rela- 

 tively small mare is mated with a heavy draft stallion, 

 the resulting offspring is never so large as the sire nor so 

 small as the dam, but represents an approach to a mean 

 between the two. Another example of blended in- 

 heritance is to be observed in the cross-bred lambs 

 resulting from the union of a sire of the coarse wool type 

 and a dam belonging to the fine wool or Merino breed. 

 The lambs of such a cross are covered with wool which in 

 respect to density, length of staple and fineness of fiber 

 represents a blending of the characters of the parents. 



In some cases of supposed blending inheritance, the 

 characters have been observed to follow the law of domi- 

 nance and segregation discovered by Mendel. 



128. Alternative inheritance. A character may be 

 transmitted intact from one parent directly to the off- 



