Other buds on the same tree reverted to the purple
parent, with its solitary small flowers, its dense shrublike branches
and very small leaves. These too are fertile, though not producing their
seeds as abundantly as the _C. Laburnum_ reversions. Many a botanist has
sown the seeds of the latter and obtained only pure common _C. Laburnum_
plants. I had a lot of nearly a hundred seedlings [272] myself, many of
which have already flowered, bearing the leaves and flowers of the
common species. Seeds of the purple reversions have also been sown, and
also yielded the parental type only.
Why this most curious hybrid sports so regularly and why others always
remain true to their type is as yet an open question.
But recalling our former consideration of this subject the supposition
seems allowable that the tendency to revert is not connected with the
type of the hybrid, but is apt to occur in some rare individuals of
every type. But since most of the sterile hybrids are only known to us
in a single individual and its vegetative offspring, this surmise offers
an explanation of the rare occurrence of sports.
Finally, we must consider some of the so called hybrid races or strains
of garden-plants. _Dahlia_, _Gladiolus_, _Amaryllis_, _Fuchsia_,
_Pelargonium_ and many other common flowers afford the best known
instances.
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