ON PEAS AND BEANS 



fourth generation plants will appear that show 

 the pods and beans of one of the original parents 

 combined with the leaves and vine of the other, in 

 all possible combinations. 



As I have operated with about forty varieties 

 of beans in tlie course of these experiments, it will 

 readily be surmised that the number of new com- 

 binations that have been presented is almost infi- 

 nite. Among the hybrid stock can be found beans 

 of almost every color and combination of colors, 

 black, brown, blue, slate, yellow, green, and white; 

 mottled, striped, and otherwise variously marked 

 and shaded. Moreover, if beans of one color are 

 selected and planted, as a rule all the other colors 

 appear in the progeny. 



One finds the offspring bearing beans that are 

 speckled, spotted, striped, and shaded in every 

 conceivable way. 



Yet beans that show this diversity of color may 

 be quite uniform as to size of the beans and time 

 of ripening, as well as in regard to the size and 

 general appearance of the plants on which they 

 grow. 



In other words, a certain number of characters 

 may have become fixed while other characters are 

 still variable. And here the obvious explanation 

 is supplied, at least provisionally, by the supposi- 

 tion that the plants in question are unmixed as to 



[107] 



