PLANNING A NEW PLANT 



blackberry, the process was relatively simple 

 because we were dealing only with two pairs of 

 unit characters. Moreover, the case of wheat is 

 further simplified by the fact that this plant is 

 self-fertilized and under conditions of cultivation 

 has become a very fixed race, little subject to 

 variation. 



When we deal with races of fruits that tend 

 to vary almost indefinitely, and when further we 

 are concerned with ten or a dozen unit characters, 

 the matter becomes vastly more involved, as we 

 have previously seen illustrated. 



But the amateur will do well to begin his 

 experiments with simple cases, dealing with only 

 a single quality, say a particular color of flower, 

 that he may thus learn to distinguish the prin- 

 ciples here enunciated. In due course he may go 

 on to apply these principles to more complicated 

 experiments in plant hybridization. But unless 

 he learns at the outset that certain characters 

 that are submerged in the first hybrid generation 

 will inevitably reappear in the second, he will 

 constantly blunder in his interpretation of tenta- 

 tive results. 



On the other hand, when he has learned to 

 gauge his second-generation hybrids correctly, 

 he is on the highway to success as a plant experi- 

 menter. 



[29] 



