Studies of Teratological Phenomena. 



65 



Take, for example, the investigations of de Vries upon this 

 anomaly, the results of which were partly responsible for his formulation 

 of the conception of "eversporting characters". This investigator defines 

 an eversporting race of plants as one in which the „character" under 

 observation is inherited by all the individual progeny, but only expressed 

 (somatically) in part of the individuals. In other words, some of the 



Fig. 5. Fasciated rosette of Crepis biennis. 

 (After de Vries.) 



progeny possess the character fasciation and some do not. This per- 

 centage could be and was increased by selection in a plus direction, 

 but the permanency of the increase was always subject to the caprice 

 of the environment. Even in a homozygous pure line, de Yries looks 

 upon this anomaly as inconstant, although its transmission to all the 

 progeny is said to be perfect. In some of de Vries' cultures, this 

 character was so inconstant that often over half the individuals of one 

 of these races were normal, although the race was held to bre edtrue 



Induktive Abstammungs- und Vererbungslehre. XVI. 5 



