THE 



AMERICAN NATURALIST 



Vol. L. June, 1916 No. 594 



NEW LIGHT ON BLENDING AND MENDELIAN 

 INHERITANCE 



Professor W. E. CASTLE 

 Busset Institution, Harvard University 



The- question whether blending or intermediate inheri- 

 tance involves Mendelian principles is of prime interest 

 to every student of genetics. The further question 

 whether Mendelian characters are constant or variable is 

 not less important. New light is shed on both these ques- 

 tions by a recent and valuable investigation by Y. Ho- 

 shino, ' ' On the Inheritance of the Flowering Time in Peas 

 and Rice." 



The investigation is to be most highly commended for 

 its thoroughness. It has involved the raising of over 30,- 



000 plants extending over a period of 8 years. F 2 and F 3 

 generations have been raised three times and F 4 twice. 

 The publication contains a careful summary and analysis 

 of the facts observed. Above all it contains facts with a 

 minimum of speculation, not facts so marshalled as to 

 prove a particular theory and otherwise useless, but facts 

 which the reader may study from any angle he chooses. 



1 propose to exercise the privilege which our author's 

 commendable method of publication makes possible, of 

 utilizing his facts for testing a slightly different theo- 

 retical interpretation from that which he adopts, for I am 

 acquainted with no material equally valuable in rela- 

 tion to the two questions stated above, though I have been 

 engaged for many years in studying these same questions. 



Hoshino crossed two varieties of peas which differed in 

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