A REMARKABLE DAISY 315 



and are not propagated in that way. Yet, on 

 the other hand, we have seen that it is possible 

 to fix new races by careful selection, and the 

 principles according to which the experimenter 

 works in effecting such fixation have been 

 pointed out again and again. 



Making application of the knowledge thus 

 gained to the case of the Shasta daisy, we need 

 have no hesitancy in asserting that it would be 

 possible to fix races of this plant so that they 

 would reproduce their type with approximately 

 the certainty from the seed as do, for example, 

 the original parent forms from which they 

 spring. But this task is as unnecessary as would 

 be the task of fixing roses, carnations, or chrys- 

 anthemums. 



If inquiry is made as to the length of time 

 required to effect such fixation of type, the 

 answer can be given with a fair degree of cer- 

 tainty. Working along usual lines, by selecting 

 the best specimens in a large company and in 

 the successive years the best specimens among 

 their progeny extending, in other words, the 

 method of selection through which the new races 

 were originated it would probably require 

 from six to ten generations of selection to make 

 sure of securing a specimen from which the dis- 

 turbing hereditary factors had been eliminated 



