I cultivated it, in large numbers [162] during five
succeeding generations, but was never able to find even the slightest
indication of a reversion to the red prototype. The scarlet pimpernel or
_Anagallis arvensis_ has a blue variety which is absolutely constant.
Even in Britton and Brown's "Flora," which rarely enumerates varieties,
it is mentioned as being probably a distinct species. Eight hundred
blooming seedlings were obtained from isolated parents, all of the same
blue color. The New Zealand spinage (_Tetragonia expansa_) has a
greenish and a brownish variety, the red color extending over the whole
foliage, including the stems and the branches. I have tried both of them
during several years, and they never sported into each other. I raised
more than 5,000 seedlings, from the different seeds of one lot of the
green variety in succeeding years, but neither those germinating in the
first year, nor the others coming into activity after two, three or four
years of repose gave any sign of the red color of the original species.
It is an old custom to designate intermediate forms as hybrids,
especially when both the types are widely known and the intermediates
rare. Many persons believe that in doing so, they are giving an
explanation of the rarer forms. But since the laws of hybridism are
coming to be known we shall have to break with [163] all such usages.
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