346 CRESSWELl; SHEAREli, WALTER EE MOKGAN, H. JI. EUCHS. 
larvae developed quite healthily, but their characters Avere 
paternal (PI. 18, hg. 9). The posterior ciliated epaulettes 
were developed, but the green pigment was totally absent. 
On p. 345 is given in tabular form a summary of the inheri- 
tance of the late larval characters investigated. The difference 
l)etween the inheritance this year and that in previous years 
can be seen at a glance. The crosses between E. miliaris 
and E. acut us gave the same results as those between E. 
miliaris and E. esculentus. 
III. Discussion. 
In a comparison of the general results of hybridisation 
among Echinoderms with that in other divisions of the animal 
and vegetable kingdoms it is striking that the products of 
reciprocal crosses are, in the former case, so frequently unlike 
one another. In the species of Echinus with which we have 
experimented, the characters investigated have, until this 
year, always been inherited through the maternal parent. 
Such behaviour seems to be of quite a different order from 
that of pairs of characters which follow the usual Mendelian 
law, in which cases the hybrids of one cross resemble those of 
its reciprocal, irrespective of the sex of the parent forms. 
Prof. Punnett has pointed out to us a case among plant hybrids 
which would seem to be parallel with this parental inheritance 
in Echinoderms. In crossing two species of Oenothera, de 
^T•ies ( 15 ) found that the hybrids were always strongly 
paternal. Hybrids of the cioss OH . biennis $ X CE. muri- 
cata d' resembled CE . muricata while those of the reciprocal 
resembled CE. biennis; so that in this case the hybrids showed 
an inheritance through the male germ-cells. It is interest- 
ing to note here that he kept each of the hybrid strains for 
four generations without observing any alteration in their 
characters. 
If data could be obtained of inheritance through more than 
one generation in Echinoderms, it might be found that the 
facts could be interpreted on Mendelian lines. As, however. 
