154 LATHYBUS ODORATUS. CHAP. V. 



of the five well-known varieties occasionally gives birth to another, 

 which exhibits all its usual characters. Owing to this curious 

 fact, and to the darker-coloured varieties being the most pro- 

 ductive, these increase, to the exclusion of the others, as I was 

 informed by the late Mr. Masters, if there be no selection. 



In order to ascertain what would be the effect of crossing two 

 varieties, some flowers on the Purple sweet-pea, which has a 

 dark reddish-purple standard-petal with violet-coloured wing- 

 petals and keel, were castrated whilst very young, and were 

 fertilised with pollen of the Painted Lady. This latter variety 

 has a pale cherry-coloured standard, with almost white wings 

 and keel. On two occasions I raised from a flower thus crossed 

 plants perfectly resembling both parent-forms ; but the greater 

 number resembled the paternal variety. So perfect was the 

 resemblance, that I should have suspected some mistake in the 

 label, had not the plants, which were at first identical in appear- 

 ance with the father or Painted Lady, later in the season produced 

 flowers blotched and streaked with dark purple. This is an in- 

 teresting example of partial reversion in the same individual 

 plant as it grows older. The purple-flowered plants were thrown 

 away, as they might possibly have been the product of the 

 accidental self-fertilisation of the mother-plant, owing to the 

 castration not having been effectual. But the plants which 

 resembled in the colour of their flowers the paternal variety or 

 Painted Lady were preserved, and their seeds saved. Next 

 summer many plants were raised from these seeds, and they 

 generally resembled their grandfather the Painted Lady, but 

 most of them had their wing-petals streaked and stained with 

 dark pink ; and a few had pale purple wings with the standard 

 of a darker crimson than is natural to the Painted Lady, so 

 that they formed a new sub-variety. Amongst these plants 

 a single one appeared having purple flowers like those of the 

 grandmother, but with the petals slightly streaked with a paler 

 tint : this was thrown away. Seeds were again saved from the 

 foregoing plants, and the seedlings thus raised still resembled 

 the Painted Lady, or great-grandfather; but they now varied 

 much, the standard petal varying from pale to dark red, in a 

 few instances with blotches of white ; and the wing-petals varied 

 from nearly white to purple, the keel being in all nearly white. 



As no variability of this kind can be detected in plants raised 

 from seeds, the parents of which have grown during many suc- 

 cessive generations in close proximity, we may infer that they 



