Note 163 — A DEFENCE OF MENDEL’S PRINCIPLES OF HEREDITY. (continued 2)

Another practical point of the same nature arises from the great variability which these peas manifest in plant- as well as seed-characters. Mr Hurst of Burbage tells me that in e.g. William the First, a pea very variable in seed-characters also, tall plants may be so common that they have to be rogued out even when the variety is grown for the vegetable market, and that the same is true of several such varieties. It seems by no means improbable that it is by such roguing that the unstable mosaic or blend-form is preserved. In a thoroughly stable variety such as Ne Plus Ultra roguing is hardly necessary even for the seed-market.

Mr N. N. Sherwood in his useful account of the origin and races of peas (Jour. R. Hort. Soc. XXII. 1899, p. 254) alludes to the great instability of this class of pea. To Laxton, he says, “we are indebted for a peculiar type of Pea, a round seed with a very slight indent, the first of this class sent out being William the First, the object being to get a very early blue-seeded indented Pea of the same earliness as the Sangster type with a blue seed, or in other words with a Wrinkled Pea flavour. This type of Pea is most difficult to keep true on account of the slight taint of the Wrinkled Pea in the breed, which causes it to run back to the Round variety.”