But it is easily
seen that this appearance is only a fallacious one.
The variety of snapdragon chosen was of medium height and with the
yellow ground-color, and is known by horticulturists as _A. majus luteum
rubro-striatum_. As the yellow tinge showed itself to be invariable; I
may limit my description to the red stripes.
Some flowers of this race are striped, others are not. On a hasty survey
there seem to be three types, pure yellow, pure red, and stripes [316]
with all their intermediate links of narrower and broader, fewer and
more numerous streaks. But on a close inspection one does not succeed in
finding pure yellow racemes. Little lines of red may be found on nearly
every flower. They are the extreme type on this side of the range of
variability. From them an almost endless range of patterns passes over
to the broadest stripes and even to whole sections of a pure red. But
then, between these and the wholly red flowers we observe a gap, which
may be narrower by the choice of numerous broad striped individuals, but
which is never wholly filled up. Hence we see that the red flowers are a
separate type within the striped variety.
This red type springs yearly from the striped form, and yearly reverts
to it. This is what in the usual descriptions of this snapdragon, is
called its sporting.
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