For these three cases I have made the crosses of the variety with the
parent-species, and in each case the hybrid was like the species, and
not like the variety. Nor was it intermediate. Here it is proved that
the older character dominates the younger one.
In most cases of wild, and of garden-varieties, the relation between
them and the parent-species rests upon comparative evidence. Often the
variety is known to be younger, in other cases it may be only of local
occurrence, but ordinarily the historic facts about its origin have
never been known or have long since been forgotten.
The easiest and most widely known varietal crosses are those between
varieties with white flowers and the red- or blue-flowered species. Here
the color prevails in the hybrid over the lack of pigment, and as a rule
the hybrid is as deeply tinted as the species itself, and cannot be
distinguished from it, without an investigation of its hereditary
qualities. Instances may be cited of the white varieties of the
snapdragon, of the red clover, the long-spurred violet (_Viola_ [282]
_cornuta_) the sea-shore aster (_Aster Tripolium_), corn-rose
(_Agrostemma Githago_), the Sweet William (_Silene Armeria_), and many
garden flowers, as for instance, the _Clarkia pulchella_, the
_Polemonium coeruleum_, the _Veronica longifolia_, the gloxinias and
others.
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