10 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the green colouring has no connection with the hybrid character of the 

 plants, as it likewise occurs in the parental variety. This peculiarity is 

 also confined to the individual and is not inherited by the offspring. In 

 luxuriant plants this appearance was frequently noted. Seeds which are 

 damaged by insects during their development often vary in colour and form, 

 but with a little practice in sorting errors are easily avoided. It is almost 

 superfluous to mention that the pods must remain on the plants until 

 they are thoroughly ripened and have become dried, since it is only then 

 that the shape and colour of the seed are fully developed. 



Trial 3. Colour of the seed-coats. — Among 929 plants 705 bore 

 violet-red flowers and grey-brown seed-coats ; 224 had white flowers and 

 w^hite seed-coats. Thence results the proportion 8'15 to 1. 



Trial 4. Form of pods. — Of 1,181 plants 882 had them simply 

 inflated, and in 299 they were constricted. Resulting proportion, 2'95 to 1. 



Trial 5. Colour of the unripe pods. — The number of trial plants 

 was 580, of which 428 had green pods and 152 yellow ones. Conse- 

 quently these stand in proportion as 2*82 to 1. 



Trial 6. Position of flowers. — Among 858 cases 651 blossoms were 

 axial and 207 terminal. Proportion, 3*14 to 1. 



Trial 7. Length of stem. — Out of 1,064 plants, in 787 cases the stem 

 w^as long, and in 277 short. Hence a mutual proportion of 2*84 to 1. 

 In this trial the dwarfed plants were carefully lifted and transferred to a 

 special bed. This precaution was necessary, as otherwise they would 

 have perished through being overgrown by their tall relatives. Even in 

 their quite young state they can be easily picked out by their compact 

 growth and thick dark-green foliage. 



If now the results of the whole of the trials be brought together, 

 there is found, as between the number of forms with the dominant and 

 recessive characters, an average proportion of 2 '98 to 1, or 3 to 1. 



The dominant character can have here a double significance — viz. 

 that of the parental character, or the character of the hybrid. In which 

 of the two significations it appears in each separate case can only be 

 determined by the following generation. As a parental character it must 

 be transmitted unchanged to the whole of the offspring ; as a hybrid 

 character, on the other hand, it must observe the same proportion as in 

 the first generation. 



The Second Generation feom the Hybrids. 



Those forms which in the first generation maintain the recessive 

 character do not further vary in the second generation as regards this 

 character ; they remain constant in their offsjDring. 



It is otherwise with those which possess the dominant character in 

 the first generation. Of these ^zro-thirds yield offspring which disjilay 

 the dominant and recessive characters in the proportion of 3 to 1, and 

 thereby show exactly the same ratio as the hybrid forms, while only 07ie- 

 third remains with the dominant character constant. 



The separate trials yielded the following results : — 



Trial 1. — Among 565 plants which were raised from round seeds of 

 the first generation, 193 yielded round seeds only, and remained therefore 



