SUMMARY OF THE WORK 343 



of these peas — tallness versus shortness of stem, 

 purpleness versus whiteness of flower, yellow- 

 ness versus greenness of pod, and so on. 



But the peculiar manner in which these 

 antagonistic pairs of qualities are given repre- 

 sentation m the offspring of parents having 

 the opposite traits is precisely duplicated when 

 the cross-fertilization is similarly effected be- 

 tween allied species that show corresponding 

 diversities. 



In each case the essential fact is that certain 

 minor characters or groups of characters tend 

 to assume prepotency or dominance in hybrids 

 of the first generation; and that both the domi- 

 nant and the submerged (or recessive) charac- 

 ters appear in the hybrids of the second genera- 

 tion segregated and variously recombined, so 

 that where several pairs of qualities are under 

 consideration the offspring of the second gen- 

 eration constitute a most heterogeneous lot, in 

 which the diversified traits of their grandparents 

 are mixed and blended and mosaicked together 

 in every conceivable combination. 



Not only were these essential facts clearly 

 revealed by my early hybridizing experiments, 

 but they were succinctly expressed in the text 

 of "Xew Creations," and the diversities of forms 

 among second generation hybrids were illus- 



