384 Ever-sporting Varieties 



no exact similarity between the two lots may be 

 expected. Such differences as may be seen in 

 these cases are therefore never to be considered 

 of value when comparing two lots of seeds of 

 different origin, or under varying conditions. 

 No amount of accuracy in the estimation of the 

 results of a trial, or in the counting out of the 

 several degrees of the anomaly, is adequate to 

 overcome the inaccuracy resulting from these 

 differences. 



It is certainly of great importance to have a 

 correct conception in regard to the influence of 

 the surrounding conditions on the growth of a 

 plant and on the development of the attribute we 

 are to deal with. No less important is the ques- 

 tion of the sensibility of the plants to these fac- 

 tors. Obviously this sensibility must not be 

 expected to remain the same during the entire 

 life-period, and periods of stronger and of 

 weaker responses may be discerned. 



In the first place it is evident that external or 

 inner influences are able to change the direction 

 of the development of an organ only so long as 

 this development is not yet hiMj finished. In 

 the young flower-bud of the pistilloid poppy 

 there must evidently be some moment in which 

 it is definitely decided whether the young 

 stamens will grow out normally or become meta- 

 morphosed into secondary pistils. From this 



