On the inheritance of heterostylism in Primula

Abstract

In view of the results obtained by Darwin, Hildebrand and others, it seemed likely that the characters long-style and short-style, well known in Primulaceæ and other orders, might have a Mendelian inheritance. Our experiments have shown that this is the case in P. sinensis , the short style being dominant, the long recessive. The inheritance is usually of the simplest type. In one case (p. 584) there was considerable divergence from the expected proportions, and it is no doubt possible that this case was one of real abnormality; but we incline to think that the irregularity was due to accident or error. But besides the cases which can be regarded as normal one individual short-styled plant gave an entirely aberrant result (p. 584); and as the offspring of this plant gave results similarly aberrant, there can be little question that we are here concerned with an inheritance of a special type. Further experiments with this family are in progress.