50 



INHERITANCE. 



Chap. xin. 



hybrid plants raised from species which have not been cultivated 

 whilst, with those which have been long cultivated, they are of 



frequent 



This conclusion expl 



curious dis 



ln- 



crepancy : Max Wichura, 50 who worked exclusively 

 which had not been subjected to culture, never saw an 

 stance of reversion ; and he goes so far as to suspect that the 

 careful Gartner had not sufficiently protected his hybrids from 

 the pollen of the parent-species: Naudin, on the other hand 

 who chiefly experimented on cucurbitaceous and other cultivated 

 plants, insists more str< 



tendency to reversion in all hybrids. The conclusion 



nuously than any other author on the 



condition of the parent- species 



affected by 



one 



of the proximate causes leading to reversion, agrees fairly well 

 with the converse case of domesticated animals and cultivated 

 plants being liable to reversion when they become feral; for 

 in both cases the organisation or constitution must be dis- 

 turbed, though in a very different way. 



Finally, we have seen that character 



often 



reappear in 



purely-bred races without our being able to assign any proximate 



cause ; but when they become feral 



indirectly 



directly induced by the change in their conditions of life. With 

 crossed breeds, the act of crossing in itself certainly leads to 

 the recovery of long-lost characters, as well as of those derived 



from 



par 



Changed conditions, 



quent on 



and the relative position of buds, flowers, and 



on the plant, all apparently aid in giving this same tendency. 

 .Reversion may occur either through seminal or bud generation, 

 generally at birth, but sometimes only with an advance of age. 

 Segments or portions of the individual may alone be thus 

 affected. That a being should be born resembling in certain 

 characters an ancestor removed by two or three, and in some 

 cases by hundreds or even thousands of generations, is assuredly 



wonderful fact. In these 



the 



commonly 



to inherit such characters directly from its grandp 



or 



t ♦ 



more remote 



But this 



hardly conceivable 



If, however, we suppose that every character is derived 



50 



Q 



Weiden 



For Gartner's 



remarks on this head, see ' Bastarderzeugung/ s. 474, 582. 





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51 



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53 



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