6. The Second Generation From the Hybrids
Those forms which in the first generation exhibit the recessive character do not further vary in the second generation as regards this character; they remain constant in their offspring.
It is otherwise with those which possess the dominant character in the first generation. Of these two-thirds yield offspring which display the dominant and recessive characters in the proportion of 3:1, and thereby show exactly the same ratio as the hybrid forms, while only one-third remains with the dominant character constant.
The separate experiments yielded the following results:
Expt. 1: Among 565 plants which were raised from round seeds of the first generation, 193 yielded round seeds only, and remained therefore constant in this character; 372, however, gave both round and wrinkled seeds, in the proportion of 3:1. The number of the hybrids, therefore, as compared with the constants is 1.93:1.
Expt. 2: Of 519 plants which were raised from seeds whose albumen was of yellow color in the first generation, 166 yielded exclusively yellow, while 353 yielded yellow and green seeds in the proportion of 3:1. There resulted, therefore, a division into hybrid and constant forms in the proportion of 2.13:1.
For each separate trial in the following experiments 100 plants were selected which displayed the dominant character in the first generation, and in order to ascertain the significance of this, ten seeds of each were cultivated.
Expt. 3: The offspring of 36 plants yielded exclusively gray-brown seed-coats, while of the offspring of 64 plants some had gray-brown and some had white.
Expt. 4: The offspring of 29 plants had only simply inflated pods; of the offspring of 71, on the other hand, some had inflated and some constricted.
Expt. 5: The offspring of 40 plants had only green pods; of the offspring of 60 plants some had green, some yellow ones.
Expt. 6.: The offspring of 33 plants had only axial flowers; of the offspring of 67, on the other hand, some had axial and some terminal flowers.
Expt. 7: The offspring of 28 plants inherited the long axis, of those of 72 plants some the long and some the short axis.
In each of these experiments a certain number of the plants came constant with the dominant character. For the determination of the proportion in which the separation of the forms with the constantly persistent character results, the two first experiments are especially important, since in these a larger number of plants can be compared. The ratios 1.93:1 and 2.13:1 gave together almost exactly the average ratio of 2:1. Experiment 6 gave a quite concordant result; in the others the ratio varies more or less, as was only to be expected in view of the smaller number of 100 trial plants. Experiment 5, which shows the greatest departure, was repeated, and then in lieu of the ratio of 60:40, that of 65:35 resulted. The average ratio of 2:1 appears, therefore, as fixed with certainty. It is therefore demonstrated that, of those forms which posses the dominant character in the first generation, two-thirds have the hybrid-character, while one-third remains constant with the dominant character.
The ratio 3:1, in accordance with which the distribution of the dominant and recessive characters results in the first generation, resolves itself therefore in all experiments into the ratio of 2:1:1, if the dominant character be differentiated according to its significance as a hybrid-character or as a parental one. Since the members of the first generation spring directly from the seed of the hybrids, it is now clear that the hybrids form seeds having one or other of the two differentiating characters, and of these one-half develop again the hybrid form, while the other half yield plants which remain constant and receive the dominant or the recessive characters in equal numbers.