HEREDITY 193 



have found some inconsistencies and have caught glimpses of 

 other principles which, when finally grasped, will undoubtedly 

 considerably limit the application of Mendel's laws, but will, 

 almost certainly, not detract from their importance, nor lessen 

 in any degree the high place in science that belongs to the 

 patient, persistent, clear-minded Augustinian monk of the 

 cloister gardens of Brunn. 



One of the modifications of the Mendelian behavior of 

 hybrids which has been shown to exist in certain cases, is that 

 the young of the cross-mated parents may not all exhibit in 

 the same degree the dominant characteristic, although in the 

 subsequent generations the regular Mendelian three-to-one 

 splitting up into dominant and recessive appearance may 

 occur. The young of the first generation may include a very 

 few individuals showing the recessive character, as de Vries found 

 in mating two varieties of Papaver somniferum (ninety-seven 

 per cent showed the dominant character, three per cent the re- 

 cessive). Or the first generation may show a sort of pseudo- 

 blend condition, approaching but not duplicating exactly the 

 dominant characteristic, as occurs when Hyoscyamus pallidus 

 is crossed with H. niger (de Vries, "Die Mutationstheorie," 

 Bd. II., p. 162.) 



When silkworm moths of the race Shanghai, with white 

 cocoons, are crossed with moths of the race Yellow Var. with 

 rose-yellow cocoons, the hybrid offspring make straw-yellow 

 cocoons of a tint just between the two parent tints. The color- 

 ing matter of the grapevine Aramon has the chemical formula 

 C4eH36O20j and the coloring matter of the race Teinturier has 

 the formula C44H 4 oO2o" the hybrid- offspring called Petit- 

 Bouschet, of a crossing of these two, has coloring matter of the 

 formula C4 5 H 38 O2o, exactly intermediate. Mendel himself got 

 as the result of a crossing between two pea races, one one foot 

 in height and the other six feet, hybrids measuring from six 

 to seven and one half feet high. These are specific cases of 

 blended inheritance and there are many others known. 



Also when the plant Mirabilis jalapa 9 , with red flowers, 

 is crossed with a male variety with white flowers the hybrid 

 offspring exhibit red flowers (maternal type), white flowers 

 (paternal type), and flowers streaked with the two colors. So 

 when corn with blue kernels is crossed with corn with white 

 kernels, a hybrid is obtained exhibiting on a single ear blue 



