348 Ever-sporting Varieties 



tlier selection. According to the general rule 

 of pedigree-culture, the seeds of each individual 

 plant are always saved and sowed separately. 

 This is done even with such species as the 

 clover, which are infertile when self-pollinated, 

 and which are incapable of artificial pollina- 

 tion on the required scale, since each flower pro- 

 duces only one seed. My clover was always 

 left free to be pollinated by insects. Obviously 

 this must have led to a diminution of the differ- 

 entiating characters of the individual plants. 

 But this does not go far enough to obliterate the 

 differences, and the selection made among the 

 seedlings will always throw out at least a large 

 part of those that have suffered most from the 

 cross. 



Leaving this discussion, we may inquire 

 closer into the nature of the new criterion af- 

 forded by the seedlings. Two methods present 

 themselves. First, the choice of the best seed- 

 lings. In the second place it becomes possible 

 to compare the parent-plants by counting the 

 number of deviating seedlings. This leads to 

 the establishment of a percentage for every 

 single parent, and gives data for comparisons. 

 Two or three hundreds of seeds from a parent 

 may easily be grown in one pan, and in this 

 way a sufficiently high degree of accuracy 

 may be reached. Only those parents that give 



