Monstrosities 425 



dren and thereby evidently betraying the na- 

 ture of a rich or double race. Likewise the mer- 

 cury was rich in such deviations. But the best 

 of all was the Russian sunflower, and this was 

 chosen for closer experiments. 



In the year of 1888 I had the good luck to 

 isolate some syncotylous seedlings and of find- 

 ing among them one with 19^ of inheritors 

 among its seeds. The following generation at 

 once surpassed the ordinary average and came 

 up in three individuals to 76, 81 and even 89^. 

 My race was at once isolated and ameliorated by 

 selection. I have tried to improve it further 

 and selected the parents with the highest per- 

 centages during seven more generations; but 

 without any remarkable result. I got figures of 

 90^ and above, coming even in one instance up 

 to the apparent purity of 100^. These, how- 

 ever, always remained extremes, the averages 

 fluctuating yearly between 80-90,*^ or there- 

 abouts, and the other extremes going nearly 

 every year downwards to 50^, the value which 

 would be attained, if no selection were made. 



Contra-selection is as easily made as normal 

 selection. According to our present principle it 

 means the choice of the parents with the smallest 

 hereditary percentage. One might easily im- 

 agine that by this means the dicotylous seed- 

 lings could be rendered pure. This, how- 



