214 THE AMERICAN NATUBALIST [Vol. XLVII 



and in part on the innate nature of the character itself. 

 One may confuse this fluctuation to the arc made by a 

 swinging pendulum. The arc through which the pendu- 

 lum can swing is limited, but within those limits the arc 

 may be medium, large or small, depending on the agen- 

 cies that set the pendulum in motion. Agencies very dif- 

 ferent in nature may produce the same result. The pen- 

 dulum is the material body which makes the arc recog- 

 nizable as an entity, and in this simile may be compared to 

 the gene for fasciation. When the pendulum is motion- 

 less, there is no arc, and there would be no fasciation if 

 the gene remained potential. 



A more definite idea of the characters of the plant and 

 their variability may be secured by consulting the table 

 on page 212. It should be stated that plants have been 

 grown under many environments and with many varia- 

 tions in culture. But so far as our present interest goes, 

 no very great changes have resulted. The race has al- 

 ways been clearly distinguishable in the adult state from 

 the normal, whether grown under cramped greenhouse 

 conditions, or out-of-doors; whether surrounded by a 

 Cuban or a New England environment. No especial care, 

 such as De Vries prescribes, regarding culture and 

 transplantation has been given, and yet the anomaly has 

 always bred absolutely true and no "atavists" have ap- 

 peared. 



The normal Cuban variety from which the fasciated 

 strain arose is characterized by a normal round stem, 

 regular phyllotaxy, flowers with five petals, sepals, 

 stamens and a two-loculed ovary. The number of com- 

 mercial leaves varies between 20 and 25, all leaf counts 

 in the present investigation, being made by the commer- 

 cial method. 17 Fertility is practically 100 per cent. Oc- 

 casionally among hundreds of flowers examined a flower 

 is found with an extra sepal or petal, otherwise abnor- 

 malities are unknown in our cultures of the normal va- 

 riety. 



1T A11 leaves were recorded up to the first leafless branch ("bald sucker") 



