Origin of Peloric Toadflax 477 



called, of some hidden tendency. The real 

 nature of this state of the hereditary qualities 

 is as yet wholly unknown. It would not be safe 

 to formulate further conclusions before the evi- 

 dence offered by the evening-primroses is 

 considered. 



Thirdly, the question arises, whether the 

 mutation is complete, not only as to the mor- 

 phological character, but also as to the hered- 

 itary constition of the mutated individuals. 

 But here unfortunately the high degree of ster- 

 ility of the peloric plants, as previously noted, 

 makes the experimental evidence a thing of 

 great difficulty. During the course of several 

 years I isolated and planted together the 

 peloric individuals already mentioned, all in all 

 some twenty plants. Each individual was nearly 

 absolutely sterile when treated with its own 

 pollen, and the aid of insects was of no avail. 

 I intercrossed my plants artificially, and 

 pollinated more than a thousand flowers. Not 

 a single one gave a normal fruit, but some small 

 and nearly rudimentary capsules were pro- 

 duced, bearing a few seeds. From these I had 

 119 flowering plants, out of which 106 were 

 peloric and 13 one-spurred. The great major- 

 ity, some 90^, were thus shown to be true to 

 their new type. "Whether the 10^ reverting 

 ones were truly atavists, or whether they were 



