Amongst these
plants a single one appeared having purple flowers like those of the
grandmother, but with the petals slightly streaked with a paler tint:
this was thrown away. Seeds were again saved from the foregoing plants,
and the seedlings thus raised still resembled the Painted Lady, or
great-grandfather; but they now varied much, the standard petal varying
from pale to dark red, in a few instances with blotches of white; and
the wing-petals varied from nearly white to purple, the keel being in
all nearly white.
As no variability of this kind can be detected in plants raised from
seeds, the parents of which have grown during many successive
generations in close proximity, we may infer that they cannot have
intercrossed. What does occasionally occur is that in a row of plants
raised from seeds of one variety, another variety true of its kind
appears; for instance, in a long row of Scarlets (the seeds of which had
been carefully gathered from Scarlets for the sake of this experiment)
two Purples and one Painted Lady appeared. Seeds from these three
aberrant plants were saved and sown in separate beds. The seedlings from
both the Purples were chiefly Purples, but with some Painted Ladies and
some Scarlets. The seedlings from the aberrant Painted Lady were chiefly
Painted Ladies with some Scarlets. Each variety, whatever its parentage
may have been, retained all its characters perfect, and there was no
streaking or blotching of the colours, as in the foregoing plants of
crossed origin.
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