ON FLOWER POSSIBILITIES 



factors, inasmuch as no two plants are precisely 

 alike. 



But in the case of our heuchera, the flowers 

 were self-fertilized or at most the pollen from one 

 flower was transferred by an insect to the pistil of 

 a neighboring flower on the same stalk, and thus 

 it was arranged that both hereditary strains should 

 be as nearly identical as is possible. 



In the essential matter of the form of leaf, the 

 hereditary factors brought by the pollen grains 

 called for a leaf with crinkled edges; and the 

 hereditary factors carried by the ovules had the 

 same specifications. So there was the best possible 

 chance that the offspring would reproduce or 

 accentuate the parent character. 



And yet the results show that there must have 

 been a certain amount of diversity among the 

 various pollen grains and ovules even of the single 

 plant, inasmuch as the plants that grew from its 

 seed were diversified in character. 



About half of them, it will be recalled, did not 

 present the crinkled leaf to any extent and were 

 at once eliminated. 



And the other half showed the character in 

 varying degree. 



Indeed, no two of them were precisely identical, 

 so we are justified in the conclusion that no two 

 pairs of pollen grains and ovules brought precisely 



[17] 



