552 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. LIII 



Darwin recognized, as did most of the breeders before 

 Mendel, tbat 



iiiteniiodiate between tlieii- p.-ireiils, hut the grandchildren and succeed- 



Vrom cases of interniediacy, Darwin proceeds to dis- 

 cuss wliat we should call cases of dominance, and finally 

 cases in w^hich the offspring in the first generation are 

 neither intermediate nor uni-parental in type, but in 

 which there is vegetative splitting, or somatic segre- 

 gation : 



In which differently colored tlowers borne on the same root resemble 

 both parents, . . . and those in Avhich the same flower or fruit is striped 



(le, 2:69). 



It is interesting to see how Darwin now undertook, in 

 tlu* al)sence of experimental evidence, to devise a scien- 

 tific solution for the reappearance of parental characters 

 ill the second generation of the oiTspring. Taking Naii- 

 (liirs idea of segregation or "disjunction" of the ele- 

 ments of the species, he eonclndes as follows: 



The al»()\-e parau'ra|)li conies iiKtre neai'ly being a state- 

 ment of the true nature of the iiybrid or lieterozvgote con- 

 dition a^ Mendel^ analvM^ l,a^ n'vealed it. than" anv other 



areount llither1(» pilhli.^ited. 



Conibinin- tliis with tiie I'nlh.wiim' ^taleinent^. we liavc 

 v.-r> Mearlx [Ur ^anir ide;, whirh MetidelV theorx ill^ 



