PLANNING A NEW PLANT 211 



ters Professor Biffin produced a new race of 

 wheat in two or three generations, and this new 

 race of wheat breeds true. 



We shall see this principle illustrated over 

 and over in connection with the long series of 

 my plant experiments. 



In case of the wheat, as in that of the white 

 blackberry, the process was relatively simple 

 because we were dealing only with two pairs of 

 unit characters. Moreover, the case of wheat is 

 further simplified by the fact that this plant is 

 self -fertilized and under conditions of cultiva- 

 tion has become a very fixed race, little subject 

 to variation. 



When we deal with races of fruits that tend 

 to vary almost indefinitely, and when further we 

 are concerned with ten or a dozen unit charac- 

 ters, the matter becomes vastly more involved, as 

 we have previously seen illustrated. 



But the amateur will do well to begin his ex- 

 periments with simple cases, dealing with only 

 a single quality, say a particular color of flower, 

 that he may thus learn to distinguish the prin- 

 ciples here enunciated. In due course he may go 

 on to apply these principles to more complicated 

 experiments in plant combinations. But unless 

 he learns at the outset that certain characters 

 that are submerged in the first hybrid generation 



