Five-leaved Clover 359 



sidered as an exception, but as a widely occur- 

 ring type of phenomenon, occurring perhai)s in 

 all sorts of teratologic deviations, and in wide 

 ranges of species and genera. Hence it may be 

 considered worth while to give some more de- 

 tails of this extended experiment. 



Ten years ago (1894-5) I bought and sowed 

 about a pound of seed of the crimson clover. 

 x\mong many thousands of normal seedlings I 

 found two with three and one with four cotyle- 

 dons. Trusting to the empirical rules of corre- 

 lation, I transplanted these three individuals in 

 order to isolate them in the flowering period. 

 One of them produced during the ensuing sum- 

 mer one four-bladed and one five-bladed leaf. 

 The seeds were saved separately and sown the 

 following spring and the expected result could 

 soon be seen. Among some 250 individual 

 plants I counted 22 with one or two deviations, 

 and 10 with from three to nine four- or five- 

 bladed leaves. Proportions nearly similar have 

 been observed repeatedly. Better nourished in- 

 dividuals have produced more deviating leaves 

 on one plant, partly owing to the larger number 

 of stems and branches, and poor or average 

 specimens have mostly been without any aber- 

 ration or with only one or two abnormal leaves. 

 No further improvement could be attained. 

 Quadrifoliolate leaves were always rare, never 



