266 
REV. J. T. GULICK ON DIVERGENT EVOLUTION 
thus raised may be called the Colchester-crossed great-grand- 
children. In my anxiety to see what the result would be, I 
unfortunately planted the three lots of seeds (after they had 
germinated on sand) in the hothouse in the middle of winter, 
and in consequence of this the seedlings (twenty in number of 
each kind) became very unhealthy, some growing only a few 
inches in height, and very few to their proper height. The 
result, therefore, cannot be fully trusted ; and it would be 
useless to give the measurements in detail. In order to strike 
as fair an average as possible, I first excluded all the plants 
under 50 inches in height, thus rejecting all the most unhealthy 
plants. The sis self-fertilized thus left were on an average 66 - S6 
inches high, the eight intercrossed plants 63‘2 high, and the 
seven Colchester-crossed 65’37 high ; so that there was not 
much difference between the three sets, the self -fertilized plants 
having a slight advantage. Nor was there any great difference 
when only the plants under 36 inches in height were excluded. 
Nor, again, when all the plants, however much dwarfed and 
unhealthy, were included. 
“ In this latter case the Colchester-crossed gave the lowest 
average of all; and if these plants had been in any marked 
manner superior to the other two lots, as from my former 
experience I fully expected they would have been, I cannot but 
think that some vestige of such superiority would have been 
evident, notwithstanding the very unhealthy condition of most 
of the plants. No advantage, as far as we can judge, was 
derived from intercrossing two of the grandchildren of Hero , 
any more than when two of the children were crossed. It 
appears therefore that Hero and its descendants have varied 
from the common type, not only in acquiring great power of 
growth and increased fertility when subjected to self-fertilization, 
but in not profiting from a cross with a distinct stock ; and this 
latter fact, if trustworthy, is a unique case, as far as I have 
observed in all my experiments.” # 
Let us now consider for a moment what must be the result 
when such a variation occurs in a wild species subject to the 
ordinary conditions of competition. In the first place, it would 
gradually prevail over other representatives of the same local 
stock, both by its more vigorous growth and by its greater 
* ‘ Cross- and Self-Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom,’ pp. 50, 61. 
