Origin of Peloric Toadflax 481 



main, the peloric mutations must be assumed to 

 proceed. 



This conception may still be broadened. We 

 may include in it all similar occurrences, in 

 allied and other species. There is hardly a 

 limit to the possibilities which are opened up by 

 this experience. But it will be well to refrain 

 from hazardous theorizing, and consider only 

 those cases which may be regarded as exact 

 repetitions of the same phenomenon and of 

 which our culture is one of the most recent in- 

 stances on record. We will limit ourselves to 

 the probable origin of peloric variations at 

 large, of which little is known, but some evi- 

 dence may be derived from the recorded facts. 

 Only one case can be said to be directly analo- 

 gous to our observations. 



This refers to the peloric race of the common 

 snapdragon, or Antirrhinum majus of our gar- 

 dens. It is known to produce peloric races from 

 time to time in the same way as does the toad- 

 flax. But the snapdragon is self-fertile and so 

 is its peloric variety. Some cases are rela- 

 tively old, and some of them have been recorded 

 and in part observed by Darwin. Whence they 

 have sprung, and in what manner they were 

 produced, seems never to have been noted. 

 Others are of later origin, and among these one 

 or two varieties have been accidentally pro- 



