Chap. XIV. SEXUAL LIMITATION. 71 



and thirty-seven were perfectly peloric, having reverted to the 

 structure of their one grandparent. This case seems at first sight 

 to offer an exception to the rule formerly given, namely, that a 

 character which is present in one form and latent in the other is 

 generally transmitted with prepotent force when the two forms 

 are crossed. For in all the Scrophulariacese, and especially in the 

 genera Antirrhinum and Linaria, there is, as was shown in the last 

 chapter, a strong latent tendency to become peloric ; and there 

 is also, as we have just seen, a still stronger tendency in all 

 peloric plants to reacquire their normal irregular structure. 

 So that we have two opposed latent tendencies in the same plants. 

 Now, with the crossed Antirrhinums the tendency to produce 

 normal or irregular flowers, like those of the common Snap- 

 dragon, prevailed in the first generation ; whilst the tendency 

 to pelorism, appearing to gum strength by the intermission of 

 a generation, prevailed to a large extent in the second set of 

 seedlings. How it is possible for a character to gain strength 

 by the intermission of a generation, will be considered in the 

 chapter on pangenesis. 



On the whole, the subject of prepotency is extremely intri- 

 cate, — from its varying so much in strength, even in regard to 

 the same character, in different animals, — from its running either 

 equally in both sexes, or, as frequently is the case with animals, 

 but not with plants, much stronger in the one sex than the 



other, — from the existence of secondary sexual characters, 



from the transmission of certain characters being limited, as we 

 shall immediately see, by sex,— from certain characters not 

 blending together,— and, perhaps, occasionally from the effects 

 of a previous fertilisation on the mother. It is therefore not 

 surprising that every one hitherto has been baffled in drawing 

 up general rules on the subject of prepotency. 



Inheritance as limited by Sex. 



New characters often appear in one sex, and are afterwards 

 transmitted to the same sex, either exclusively or in a much 

 greater degree than to the other. This subject is important, 

 because with animals of many kinds in a state of nature, both 

 high and low in the scale, secondary sexual characters, not in 



