68 F. Keeble , Miss C. Pellew and W. N. Jones. 
THE INHERITANCE OF PELORIA AND FLOWER- 
COLOUR IN FOXGLOVES (.DIGITALIS PURPUREA). 
By Frederick Keeble, Miss C. Pellew and W. N. Jones. 
(Botanical Laboratory, University College, Reading). 
[Text-Fig. 2]. 
SERIES of experiments was commenced in 1907 in order to 
investigate the mode of inheritance of peloria and of colour 
in the Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). The experiments are being 
continued; but, owing to the biennial nature of the plant, it must 
be some years before they are completed. We propose therefore 
to publish such results as we have already obtained, to indicate 
the conclusions to which they point, and to supplement the present 
paper by another when the behaviour of the next generation of 
plants shall have been determined. The mode of inheritance of 
peloria has a special interest owing to the fact that Darwin (1868), 
working with the snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus), obtained statistics 
which, as Bateson (1901) has pointed out, indicate for this pheno¬ 
menon a simple Mendelian mode of inheritance. Darwin’s 
experiments ( lac. cit.) may be summarised briefly :— 
1. Peloric flowers, selfed, yielded plants, all peloric. 
2. Peloric X non-peloric and the reciprocal cross gave Fj all 
non-peloric. “ I thus raised two great beds of seedlings and not 
one was peloric.” The dominance of non-peloric over peloric was 
almost, but apparently not quite, complete, for “ in a few instances 
the minute rudiment of a fifth stamen, which is always present, was 
more fully or even completely developed.” 
8. Darwin left the plants of F T to seed themselves (without 
precautions against crossing) and obtained an F 2 composed of 127 
plants, of which 88 were non-peloric, 2 intermediate, and 37 perfectly 
peloric. The experiments indicate dominance of non-peloric and 
precise segregation in F 2 . Darwin’s numbers contrasted with the 
numbers expected on a simple Mendelian 3 : 1 ratio are:— 
Darwin’s ... non-peloric 90 ... peloric 37 
Calculated ... non-peloric 95’25 ... peloric 31-75 
whence it is evident that the experimental results are in close 
agreement with those expected by Mendelian theory. 
