Variation occurring in Biscuteila laevigata. 



17 



The nature and extent of these individual variations will be seen 

 on reference to Tables IV, V, and VI. 



Exceptions to the foregoing statements are rare, yet now and again 

 a plant may be found exhibiting an appearance strikingly suggestive 

 of a bud variation. The development of accessory crowns of leaves, 

 sometimes crowded together, sometimes borne on runners, is com- 

 paratively common, and as a rule the character of the leaves in such 

 cases is uniform throughout the plant ; but in these exceptional indi- 

 viduals the leaves of a secondary crown may differ widely from the 

 original type. In one instance I found a pi ant bearing a crown of twenty 

 leaves, with the hairs confined to the margin, which had produced a 

 second cluster borne on a runner 3 — 4 inches long, and composed of 

 eleven leaves, all with a very hairy surface. In another example, 

 a young plant bearing a crown of seventeen leaves, belonging to 

 intermediate types, developed another so close to the first that their 

 leaves intermingled ; those of the latter (four in number at the time 

 of observation) were all very hairy. 



A few other cases lend themselves less readily to so simple an 

 explanation ; in them the tendency to " sport " (if such it be) mani- 

 fests itself not in a bud but in a single leaf. In such plants a leaf 

 may appear showing a marked access of hairiness which is fre- 

 quently asymmetrical ; so that on one side of the midrib both the 

 npper and under surfaces may be hairy, on the other the hairs may 

 be confined to the margin ; or again the hairs may be continuous 

 along the margin of one side, and be entirely absent from the other ; 

 in these cases the succeeding leaves show a return to the normal 

 symmetrical type. 



Postponing for the present further reference to these exceptional 

 cases, I pass on to a consideration of the results summarised in the 

 following tables. 



The total number of seedlings obtained from the three sowings 

 was 280 ; seventy-two of these were not classified owing to the early 

 death of the plant, or to the want of a continuous record of the leaf 

 character, or in a few cases to the " mixed " character of the plant to 

 which allusion has been made above. The distribution of types 

 among the remaining 208 was as follows : — 



Table I. 



Analysis of 208 Plants obtained from Seeds sown in August, 1895, 

 and March and April, 1896. 





No. ef 



Surface 



Surface 



Surface 





plants. 



hairy. 



intermediate. 



smoo:h. 





47 



35 



4 



8 







27 



9 



23 







65 



23 



14 



Totals .... 208 127 36 45 



VOL. LXII. C 



