222 
G. Udny Yule. 
quarter that this journal might become a “cockpit” of botanical 
controversy lias certainly not been realised. The botanists of this 
country have shewed no tendency whatever to excessive combative¬ 
ness, and it may well he doubted whether a little less reticence 1 
would not prove stimulating; it would certainly give a greater 
liveliness to the pages of the New Phytologist. 
In spite of these shortcomings the reception accorded to the 
journal during the first year of its existence has been distinctly- 
encouraging, and the Editor has every reason to congratulate 
himself on the quality of the original papers and reviews which 
he has received. 
A further increase in the number of subscribers and a regular 
supply of notes and correspondence would enable the journal to be 
enlarged, and, while retaining its present satisfactory features, to 
acquire a better balance between matter of different kinds. 
To all the contributors during the past year, as well as to the 
subscribers, the Editor desires to offer his very hearty thanks for 
their support, and he trusts that as a result of the present appeal 
the New Phytologist may be enabled to increase its usefulness 
and establish itself on a firmer basis. 
MENDEL’S LAWS AND THEIR PROBABLE RELATIONS 
TO INTRA-RACIAL HEREDITY. 
By G. Udny Yule. 
(Continued from page 207 .) 
On passing from the Law of Ancestral Heredity to Mendel’s 
Laws, we are passing from a law of intra-racial individual heredity 
to a series of laws based solely on hybridisation-experiments, and 
clearly stated by their discoverer as laws of hybridisation only. The 
experimental plants must, Mendel states (I quote from Mr. Bateson’s 
translation, “ Mendel’s Principles ’’ p. 42 ) “ possess constant differ¬ 
entiating characters. ” After trying thirty-four varieties of peas he 
found that while one exhibited some aberrant individuals, “ all the 
other varieties yielded perfectly constant and similar offspring ; at 
any rate, no essential difference was observed during two trial years. ” 
The thirty-three “ constant ” varieties being obtained “ for fertili¬ 
sation, twenty-two of these were selected and cultivated during the 
