78 Mr Bateson & Miss D. F. M. Pertz, Notes on the inheritance 



Notes on the inheritance of Variation in the Corolla of Veronica 

 Buxbaumii. By W. Bateson, M.A., and D. F. M. Pertz. 



In a former paper 1 an account was given of certain variations in 

 the form of the corolla of Veronica Buxbaumii. It was shewn that 

 abnormal flowers were of common occurrence and that certain 

 symmetrical forms of variation were especially frequent. Flowers 

 taken at random on heavy clay arable land near Cambridge shewed 

 about 6 per cent, of flowers with 3 petals, and about 1 per cent, of 

 flowers with 2 petals. Occasional 5-petalled flowers having either 

 2 posterior petals or 2 anterior petals were also seen. Various 

 irregular forms were found, but these were of comparatively rare 

 occurrence. 



Further observation shewed that in garden ground the 

 5-petalled forms were by no means rare, that with 2 posterior 

 petals being especially common. As indicated above, there 

 appears to be considerable differences between the variations 

 found in different localities. These differences may possibly be 

 connected with the nature of the soil, but this aspect of the 

 matter has not been further examined. 



It was pointed out that though the 2 posterior-petalled form 

 may reasonably be regarded as of the nature of reversion, the 

 other forms cannot be so regarded, though they are no less per- 

 fectly formed, and are much more common than those imperfectly 

 formed flowers which may be described as intermediate between 

 the type and the perfect variations. 



The experiments described in this paper were undertaken to 

 test whether there is any difference between offspring raised 

 from abnormal flowers, and the offspring of normal flowers borne 

 by the same plant. The possibility that there may be a differ- 

 ence in inheritance in such cases is referred to by some writers, 

 especially by practical horticulturists, and the theoretical im- 

 portance of the question is of course considerable. Apart however 

 from a few cases (like that of the Peach and the Nectarine) in 

 which seed from a sporting branch has been observed to transmit 

 the peculiarities of the branch, it does not appear that much 

 evidence bearing on the question exists. 



It should be noticed that the analogy between the present 

 case and that of the sporting branches is not in all respects 

 precise, and in particular that the variations we are about to 

 describe are essentially meristic. In the absence of evidence 



1 "On Variations in the Floral Symmetry of certain Plants having Irregular 

 Corollas," by W. Bateson and A. Bateson. Jour. Linn. Soc. Bot., xxviii. 1892, 

 p. 386. 



