Origination of Varieties 221 



A hybrid may be inferior to the parents in foHage, 

 flower, constitution or in all respects; or it may be 

 slightly or greatly superior to them in some or all 

 respects. Hybrids from varieties of the same species 

 are, as a rule, uncommonly vigorous, especially if the 

 varieties are not very closely related; but hybrids from 

 very different species are sometimes weak. See under 

 Hardiness, page 155. 



Each seed in the first generation (result of first 

 crossing) is likely to produce a plant differing in one 

 or more respects not only from each of its parents 

 but also from all other plants from seeds from the same 

 pod.* 



Hybrids sometimes display in the first generation, 

 in the case of parents with contrasting characters 

 (as, tallness and dwarfness, white flowers and colored 

 flowers), some characters of one parent exclusively. 

 Characters not at first appearing but remaining latent 

 in the hybrid sometimes appear in subsequent genera- 

 tions — cases of atavism (breeding back). Some hy- 

 brids display side by side some characters of both 

 parents. Thus in the flowers of certain varieties the 

 colors of both parents are sometimes developed in 

 streaks or patches, as in Victorine. In the Botanic 

 Gardens at Innsbruck a hybrid from Florentina (see 

 Fig. XXXIII, page 138), and Kochi (see -Fig. XXXV, 

 page 139), produced flowers having some segments 



*Explanation of theories as to how this is brought about, may be found in 

 "Plant-Breeding" (igiS; reprinted 1920) by L. H. Bailey and A. W. Gilbert; 

 "Plant Anatomy" (1916) by William Chase Stevens; "Mendalism" (1919) 

 by Reginald Crundall Punnett. 



