Stability and Real Atavism 161 



over thirty years with the white variety of the 

 yellow foxglove (Digitalis parviflora) . 



White-flowered varieties of perennial garden- 

 plants were used in my own experiments. I 

 bought the plants, flowered them under isolation 

 in the way described above, gathered the seeds 

 from each individual separately and sowed them 

 in isolated groups, keeping many hundreds and 

 in some cases above a thousand plants up to 

 the time of flowering. Among them I found 

 only one inconstant variety, the white form of 

 the yellow columbine, Aquilegia chrysantha. It 

 evidently belonged to the group of sporting va- 

 rieties already referred to. All others came ab- 

 solutely true to type without any exception. The 

 species experimented with, were Campanula 

 persicifolia, Hyssopus offlcinalis, Lobelia syphil- 

 itica, Lychnis chalcedonica, Polemonium dissec- 

 tum, Salvia sylvestris and some others. Tested 

 in the same way I found the white varieties of 

 the following annual plants also quite true: 

 Chrysanthemum coronarium, Godetia amoena, 

 Linum usitatissimum, Phlox drummondi, and 

 Silene Armeria. To these may be added the 

 white hemlock stork's-bill (Erodium cicutarium 

 album) which grows very abundantly in some 

 parts of my fatherland, and is easily recogniz- 

 able by its pure green leaves and stems, even 

 when not flowering. I cultivated it in large num- 



