ON THE TOMATO 



the case of the currant tomato, rather than singly 

 or in small groups as with the ordinary tomato. 



Attention is called to these diversities because 

 it is well to emphasize anew that the phenomena 

 of the clear segregation of "unit" characters, with 

 the exhibition of dominance and recessiveness — 

 which the pea with which Mendel experimented 

 manifests so beautifully, and which we have seen 

 manifested in the characteristics of numerous 

 other plants — is not a universal phenomenon that 

 the plant experimenter may confidently expect 

 always to discover and use as an easy and simple 

 guide along the path of plant development. Dif- 

 ferent species of plants, different varieties, even 

 different individuals show diversity as to the 

 extent to which the so-called unit characters are 

 segregated and mutually combined or antagonized, 

 as the reader who has followed the story of various 

 plant developments already outlined is clearly 

 aware. 



We shall have occasion to revert to this subject 

 more than once, and to point out various possible 

 interpretations of the phenomena, various under- 

 lying harmonies that do not appear on the surface. 

 But for the moment we are concerned with the 

 story of the new tomato, and may be content to 

 put forward the facts regarding it without great 

 insistance on their theoretical interpretation. 



[117] 



