No. 448.] NOTES AND LITERATURE. 



results are hard to follow ; some were clearly Mendelian, others clearly 

 not ; and some of these aberrant cases seem to be examples of what 

 Millardet has called "false hybridism where the second and sub- 

 sequent filial generations show no trace of one of the parents. 



The poultry experiments were made with Indian Game, White 

 Leghorns, Brown Leghorns, White Dorking, and White Wyandotte. 

 The pea comb and single comb when crossed followed Mendel's law, 

 the pea being dominant. The extra (Dorking) and normal toe 

 followed the law approximately, the extra toe being dominant. In 

 other cases the results were non-Mendelian. Thus it may hap])en 

 that when a usually dominant character is crossed with a pure 

 recessive the first filial generation is not purely dominant, l)ut a 

 mixture of dominants and recessives. It appears that a usually 

 recessive character may sometimes dominate. The mixed result in 

 the first filial generation may also be due to the fact that the "domi- 

 nant " used in the cross was not a pure bred dominant but gave off 

 " recessive " gametes. 



The last 35 pages of the work are devoted to an invaluable dis- 

 cussion of " The Facts of Heredity in the Light of Mendel's Dis- 

 covery." Here some new terms are introduced. In experiments in 

 hybridization two forms exhibiting antagonistic characters are 

 crossed. There may be one pair or many pairs of these antagonistic 

 qualities. The antagonistic qualities are called allelomorphs. The 

 zygote produced by the union of gametes with allemorphs is called 

 a heterozygote to distinguish if from a zygote formed of similar 

 gametes (homozygote). Allelomorphs may be either smiple like 

 hairiness or smoothness; or they may be compound, as the varie- 

 gated color of some flowers. When a compound allelomorph is 

 crossed with a simple the second filial generation may show not two 

 forms only but several — the compound allelomorph has broken up 



The relation of Mendel's Law to "skipping a generation," to pre- 

 potency, to sex (since elaborated by Castle) and to Galton's Law 

 are discussed. The whole work closes with an eloquent "outlook" 

 over the future of experimental breeding. 



C. B. D. 



Walks in New England ^ is a series of lay sermons which appeared 

 in the Springfield Republican a year or two ago ; they are the records 



