No. 501] 



NOTES AND LITERATURE 



61 I 



characters form an alternative pair in the plants with which he 

 dealt. Bateson calls attention to the interesting fact that both 

 are characters of the wild sweet pea. Assuming that in the wild 

 species these characters are transmitted together, we must further 

 assume complete correlation between them; the complex pair 

 thus being blue flowers and erect standard paired with blue 

 flowers and erect standard. The cultivated forms have thus 

 arisen by the loss of erect standard in one member and of the 

 blue factor in the other, leaving the pair consisting of blue flowers 

 on the one side and erect standard on the other. This may be 

 clearer if we express it in formulae. Let B = the blue flower 

 factor, and E the erect standard. In the wild pea we have 

 BE — BE as the pair of correlated characters, while Be — bE is 

 the form assumed by this pair in the cultivated forms. 



The next case of spurious allelomorphism was also found by 

 Bateson, 4 while studying some extraordinary results obtained by 

 Doncaster and Raynor in breeding certain moths (Abraxas 

 gross ulariata and its var. lacticolor) . If we let G stand for the 

 character in which the species differs from the variety, and L 

 for the corresponding character in the variety, the results to be 

 explained may be stated as follows: 



1. $L X <$G gives only ?G and ^G (No L). 



2. $G X c?L gives only ?L and <?G. 



Furthermore, when the male used is a product of either of the 

 above crosses, then 



3. ?G X c?G gives $L, $G, JQ> no <$h. 



4. $L X c?G gives ?L, ?G, Jb and JQ. 



The following explanation of these phenomena is not given in 

 Bateson 's terminology, which seems to the writer to be needlessly 

 involved, but it is based on Bateson 's explanation. 



Let F = the female character and f its absence. 



Let G — (/ross)ihiri(i/<i character and «>• its absence and assume 

 that F and G are allelomorphic to each other. 



Result No. 1 above now becomes Fg X GG = FG + GG, or 

 female G and male G. 



No. 2 becomes FG X gg = Fg + Gg, or female L and (hetero- 

 zygote) male G. 



No. 3. FG X Gg = FG + Fg + GG + Gg, or female G, 

 female L, and male G. 



No. 4. Fg X Gg = FG + Fg -f- Gg + gg, or female G, female 

 L. male G. and male L. 



