with inadequate photosynthetic apparatus would be incapable of survival seems on a priori grounds quite probable.[1] He found that in the snap dragon, Antirrhinum majus, a variegated or "aurea" form could not be bred true, but on self fertilization gave a progeny of "aurea" and green plants. The inbred green plants produced only green offspring, while the variegated individuals again gave two types of offspring in the ratio of two variegated to one green.
Evidence which need not be detailed here pointed to the conclusion that the variegated was the hybrid form, segregating on self-fertilization according to the simple Mendelian formula into one fourth green, one half variegated (heterozygous) and one fourth lacking chlorophyll—and consequently unfit for survival. Subsequent studies proved that the seeds incapable of forming chlorophyll are actually formed, but that they die in the early stages of germination, or before. Confirmatory results were obtained with a geranium, Pelargonum zonale "verona" where the seedlings lacking chlorophyll died at an early stage.
The preliminary results of a series of investigations on the struc-
- ↑ De Vries ("The Mutation Theory," I., 229–230, 347–353, 1909; "Species and Varieties," 2d ed., pp. 537–538, 553) finds that albida mutants of Œnothera are very weak—exceedingly difficult to raise when appearing in the seed pan, and never found in nature.
Among large numbers of bean seedlings which I have grown in the greenhouse those with white, yellow or variegated primordial leaves have occasionally appeared. It has never been possible to grow these for any considerable time.
Ges., 25: 442–454, 1907. Also, "Die Aurea-Sippe von Antirrhinum majus," Zeitschr. f. Ind. Abst. u. Vererbungsl., 1: 124–125, 1909. Cf. also Bateson, "Mend. Princip. Her.," p. 253, 1909.
