372 Ever-sporting Varieties 



ties regularly and abundantly. In this respect 

 they are however very variable and dependent 

 on external circumstances. Such a regularity 

 is not met with in other instances. Often pedi- 

 gree-experiments lead to poor races, betraying 

 their tendency to deviate only from time to time 

 and in rare cases. Such instances constitute 

 what we have called in a former lecture, ' ' half- 

 races," and their occurrence indicates that the 

 casual observation of an anomaly is not in itself 

 adequate to give an opinion as to the chance of 

 repetition in sowing experiments. A large 

 number of species seem to belong to this case, 

 and their names may be found in the above 

 mentioned work by Masters and elsewhere. 

 But no effort has yet been made to separate 

 thoroughly the pistilloid half-races from the 

 corresponding ever-sporting varieties. Some 

 plants are recorded as being more liable to this 

 peculiarity than others. 



Stamens are sometimes replaced by open 

 carpels with naked ovules arising from their 

 edges and even from their whole inner sur- 

 faces. This may be seen in distinct strains of 

 the cultivated bulbous Begonia, and more rarely 

 in primroses. Here the apex of the carpellary 

 leaf is sometimes drawn out into a long style, 

 terminated by a flattened spatulate stigma. 



The pistillody of the stamens is frequently 



