Note 68 — A DEFENCE OF MENDEL’S PRINCIPLES OF HEREDITY.

Cotyledon-colour is not nearly so sensitive to ordinary changes in conditions as coat-colour, provided the coat be uninjured. But even in monomorphic green varieties, a seed which for any cause has burst on ripening, has the exposed parts of its cotyledons yellow. The same may be the case in seeds of green varieties injured by Bruchus or birds. These facts make one hesitate before denying the effects of conditions on the cotyledon-colour even of uninjured seeds, and the variation described above may have been simply weathering. The seeds were gathered very late and many were burst in Laxton’s Alpha. I do not yet know they are alive.