tendencies in the same plants. Now, with the crossed Antirrhinums the
tendency to produce normal or irregular flowers, like those of the common
Snapdragon, prevailed in the first generation; whilst the tendency to
pelorism, appearing to gain strength by the intermission of a generation,
prevailed to a large extent in the second set of seedlings. How it is
possible for a character to gain strength by the intermission of a
generation, will be considered in the chapter on pangenesis.

On the whole, the subject of prepotency is extremely intricate,--from its
varying so much in strength, even in regard to the same character, in
different animals,--from its running either equally in both sexes, or, as
frequently is the case with animals, but not with plants, much stronger in
the one sex than the other,--from the existence of secondary sexual
characters,--from the transmission of certain characters being limited, as
we shall immediately see, by sex,--from certain characters not blending
together,--and, perhaps, occasionally from the effects of a previous
fertilisation on the mother. It is therefore not surprising that every one
hitherto has been baffled in drawing up general rules on the subject of
prepotency.

_Inheritance as limited by Sex._

New characters often appear in one sex, and are afterwards transmitted to
the same sex, either exclusively or in a much greater degree than to the
other. This subject is important, because with animals of many kinds in a
state of nature, both high and low in the scale, secondary sexual
characters, not in {72} any way directly connected with the organs of
reproduction, are often conspicuously present. With our domesticated
animals, also, these same secondary characters are often found to differ
greatly from the state in which they exist in the parent-species. And the
principle of inheritance as limited by sex shows how such characters might
have been first acquired and subsequently modified.

Dr. P. Lucas, who has collected many facts on this subject, shows[160]
that when a peculiarity, in no manner connected with the reproductive
organs, appears in either parent, it is often transmitted exclusively
to the offspring of the same sex, or to a much greater number of them
than of the opposite sex. Thus, in the family of Lambert, the horn-like
projections on the skin were transmitted from the father to his sons
and grandsons alone; so it has been with other cases