To appreciate the meaning of these facts we must go back to what was said above on the nature of compound characters. We can perceive that, as Mendel showed, the integral characters of the varieties can be dissociated and re-combined in any combination. More than that; certain integral characters can be resolved into further integral components, by _analytical_ variations. What is taking place in this process of resolution we cannot surmise, but we may liken the consequences of that process to various phenomena of analysis seen elsewhere. To continue the metaphor we may speak of return to the vetch-like type as a _synthetical_ variation: well remembering that we know nothing of any _substance_ being subtracted in the former case or added in the latter, and that the phenomenon is more likely to be primarily one of alteration in arrangement than in substance. A final proof that nothing is to be looked for from an appeal to ancestry is provided by the fact--of which the literature of variation contains numerous illustrations--that such newly synthesised forms, instead of themselves producing a large proportion of the high class variety which may have been their ancestor for a hundred generations, may produce almost nothing but individuals like themselves. A subject fraught with extraordinary interest will be the determination whether by crossing these newly synthesised forms with their parent, or another pure form, we may not succeed in reproducing a great part of the known series of components afresh. The pure parental form, produced, or extracted, by “analytical” breeding, would not in ordinary circumstances be capable of producing the other components from which it has been separated; but by crossing it with the “synthesised” variety it is not impossible that these components would again reappear. If this can be shown to be possible we shall have entirely new light on the nature of variation and stability. CONCLUSION. I trust what I have written has convinced the reader that we are, as was said in opening, at last beginning to move. Professor Weldon declares he has “no wish to belittle the importance of Mendel’s achievement”; he desires “simply to call attention to a series of facts which seem to him to suggest fruitful lines of inquiry.” In this purpose I venture to assist him, for I am disposed to think that unaided he is--to borrow Horace Walpole’s phrase--about as likely to light a fire with a wet dish-clout as to kindle interest in Mendel’s discoveries by his tempered appreciation. If I have helped a little in this cause my time has not been wasted.