Monstrosities 413 



est fasciated stems. It strengthens our conclu- 

 sion as to the innermost constitution of the 

 double races or ever-sporting varieties. 



Twisted stems and f asciations are very strik- 

 ing monstrosities. But they are not very good 

 for further investigation. They require too 

 much space and too much care. The calculation 

 of a single percentage requires the counting of 

 some hundreds of individuals, taking many 

 square meters for their cultivation, and this, as 

 my best races are biennial, during two years. 

 For this reason the countings must always be 

 very limited, and selection is restrained to the 

 most perfect specimens. 



Now the question arises, whether this mark 

 is the best upon which to found selection. This 

 seems to be quite doubtful. In the experiments 

 on the heredity of the atavists, we have seen 

 that they are, at least often, in no manner 

 inferior to even the best inheritors of the race. 

 This suggests the idea that it is not at all certain 

 that the visible characters of a given individual 

 are a trustworthy measure of its value as to the 

 transmission of the same character to the off- 

 spring. In other words, we are confronted with 

 the existence of two widely different groups of 

 characters in estimating the hereditary tend- 

 ency. One is the visible quality of the indi- 

 viduals and the other is the direct observation 



