False Atavism 209 



The hybrid offspring will therefore, in the 

 main, have the character of the species and be 

 undistinguishable from it, or show only such 

 differences as escape from ordinary observa- 

 tion. When occurring in the seeds of the va- 

 riety they betray themselves as soon as the dif- 

 ferential characters are displayed. Between 

 the thousands of flowering plants of a white 

 variety the hybrids will instantly catch the eye 

 by their red or blue corollas. Quite the con- 

 trary effect results from the admixture of hy- 

 brids with the seeds of the species itself. Here 

 no difference will show itself, even in the full- 

 est bloom. The effect of the spontaneous 

 crosses will pass unobserved. The strain, if 

 pure in the first year, will seem to be still in the 

 same condition. Or in other terms, the una- 

 voidable spontaneous crosses will disturb the 

 purity of the variety in the second year, while 

 they do not seem to interfere at all with the uni- 

 formity of the species. The direct effect of the 

 visits of the insects is evident in the first case, 

 but passes unobserved in the latter. 



From this it would seem, that spontaneous 

 crosses are hurtful to varieties, but are in- 

 nocuous to true species. Certainly this would 

 be so, were there no selection. But it is easily 

 seen, that through this operation the effect be- 

 comes quite the opposite. For when the fields 



