Keeping this rule in view, it will be easy to calculate what may be
expected from spontaneous crosses for a wide range of occurrences, and
thus to find an explanation of innumerable cases of apparent variability
and reversion in the principle of vicinism. Students have only to
recollect that specific characters prevail over varietal ones, and that
every character competes only with its own antagonist. Or to give a
sharper distinction: whiteness of flowers cannot be expected to be
interchanged with pubescence of leaves.
In concluding I will point out another danger which in the principle of
vicinism may be avoided. If you see a plant in a garden with all the
characteristics of its species, how can you be sure that it is truly a
representative of the species, and not a hybrid? The prevailing [214]
characters are in either case the same. Perhaps on close inspection you
may find in some cases a slight difference, some character being not as
fully developed in the hybrid as in the species. But when such is not
the case, or where the opportunity for such a closer examination is
wanting, a hybrid may easily be taken for a specimen of the pure race.
Now take the seeds of your plant and sow them. If you had not supposed
it to be hybrid you will be astonished at finding among its progeny some
of a wholly different type.
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