By prepotent we mean having unusual power to transmit characters to offspring.
The breeder should keep the prepotentsire and his offspring rather than the more perfect male, who fails to stamp his traits upon his get.
On the other hand, the mother's traits, prepotent in the development of daughters, will inhibit in these and diminish the strength and stature of their paternal inherences.
With one highly-prepotent bull we can raise a high-class herd, even if we start with second-rate females; while a bad bull will ruin the best herd in the county.
Of the original stock, that order in which Dominant traits are prepotent is differentiating toward a male genus, however.
Hence the women--who although depleted likewise by the increased demands upon them, are less vitally exhausted than the men are--become relatively prepotentin parental potential.
We have here, therefore, either almost complete sterility between varieties of different colours, or a prepotent effect of pollen from a flower of the same colour, bringing about the same result.
When two species are crossed, one has sometimes a prepotent power of impressing its likeness on the hybrid; and so I believe it to be with varieties of plants.
With animals one variety certainly often has this prepotent power over another variety.
When distinct species are crossed the case is directly the reverse, for a plant's own pollen is alwaysprepotent over foreign pollen; but to this subject we shall return in a future chapter.
Moreover, of the young birds hatched from the eggs of the common geese, only four were pure, the other eighteen proving hybrids; so that the Chinese gander seems to have hadprepotent charms over the common gander.
The result would generally be the production either of a mongrel piebald lot, or more probably the speedy and complete loss of the pale-blue colour, for the primordial slaty tint would be transmitted with prepotent force.
Thus the famous bull Favourite is believed to have had a prepotent influence on the short-horn race; and the improved short-horns possess great power in impressing their likeness on other breeds.
Unless, therefore, some cause be shown why the negative variations should be prepotent over the positive variations, we must, I think, allow that unaided panmixia cannot affect any great amount of reduction.
One may fairly suppose that prepotent characters have unusual stability; but to what causes this stability is due we are at present ignorant.
Pearson the elder was hardly more prepotent than Mr. Lusk, the banker at home.
The simplest and best known case of prepotent action in pollen, though it does not bear directly on our present subject, is that of a plant's own pollen over that from a distinct species.
We have hitherto considered only the prepotent fertilising power of pollen from a distinct variety over a plants' own pollen,--both kinds of pollen being placed on the same stigma.
In these two cases flowers were fertilised with pollen from a distinct variety, and this was shown to be prepotent by the character of the offspring.
With ordinary plants the pollen of another variety or merely of another individual of the same variety is often strongly prepotent over its own pollen, when both are placed at the same time on the same stigma.
The effects of pollen from the same plant are obliterated by the prepotent influence of pollen from another individual or variety, although the latter may have been placed on the stigma some hours afterwards.
If two varieties are treated in the same manner, the result is analogous, though of directly opposite nature; for pollen from any other variety is often or generally prepotent over that from the same flower.
We may infer from our previous discussion that a tree bearing numerous hermaphrodite flowers would rarely intercross with another tree, except by means of the pollen of a distinct individual being prepotentover the plants' own pollen.
The pollen from a distinct form is strongly prepotent over that from the same form, although the former may have been placed on the stigma many hours afterwards.
An apparently blended character or a prepotent character may on analysis turn out to be due to the inheritance of a certain proportion of minuter characters derived exclusively from either parent.
When individuals of the same family which differ somewhat, and when races or species are crossed, the one is often prepotent over the other in transmitting its character.
Sheep have a similar latent tendency to become dark-coloured, and we have seen with what prepotent force a ram with a few black spots, when crossed with white sheep of various breeds, coloured its offspring.
As, however, this does not occur, it appeared to me probable that the pollen of each variety was prepotent on its own stigma over that of all other varieties, but I have no evidence on this point.
In making reciprocal crosses between pouter and fantail pigeons, the pouter- race seemed to be prepotentthrough both sexes over the fantail.
When one parent alone displays some newly-acquired and generally inheritable character, and the offspring do not inherit it, the cause may lie in the other parent having the power of prepotent transmission.
With animals, the jackal is prepotent over the dog, as is stated by Flourens, who made many crosses between these animals; and this was likewise the case with a hybrid which I once saw between a jackal and a terrier.
We can seldom tell what makes one race or species prepotent over another; but it sometimes depends on the same character being present and visible in one parent, and latent or potentially present in the other.
But this is by no means the invariable rule; for in many cases it is found that certain individuals, races, and species, are prepotent in transmitting their likeness.
When two species are crossed, one has sometimes a prepotent power of impressing its likeness on the hybrid.
So I believe it to be with varieties of plants; and with animals, one variety certainly often has this prepotent power over another variety.
Thirdly, prepotency of transmission, which may be confined to one sex, or be common to both sexes of the prepotent form.
With animals, the jackal is prepotent over the dog, as is stated by Flourens who made many crosses between these animals; and this was likewise the case with a hybrid which I once saw between a jackal and terrier.
But this is by no means the invariable rule; for in many cases it is found that certain individuals, races, and species are prepotent in transmitting their likeness.
From certain breeds being prepotent over others, it does not follow that the interblended progeny would be strictly intermediate in character.
And the more prepotent the variety's own pollen could be rendered through natural selection, the greater the advantage would be.
It is obvious, that a purely-bred form of either sex, in all cases in which prepotency does not run more strongly in one sex than the other, will transmit its character with prepotent force over a mongrelized and already variable form.
Why is it that the longings, the hopes, the disappointments, the desperate aspirations, and the passionate loves of little human hearts should cause to their possessors such prepotent commotions, such poignant qualms?
Since Beauty is much, and grace is much, and mien and demeanor and wit; but a prepotent and psychic essence there is transcending the power of these.
The first faint marginal contraction was confined to the immediate vicinity of the prepotent lithocyst, and all subsequent contractions continued to be so for the next three minutes.
I divided the animal so as to leave one of these two prepotent lithocysts in each of the eighth-part segments, and the next most powerful lithocysts in the quadrant segment.
As previously mentioned, one or more lithocysts may often be observed to be permanently prepotent over the others; and I may here observe that the segmentation experiments just described have shown the converse to be true, viz.
And this I find to be generally the case; for it may usually be observed that one or more of the lithocysts are either temporarily or permanentlyprepotent over the others, i.
In one minute the feeble impulses emanating from the prepotent lithocyst failed to spread far through the contractile tissue, appearing to encounter a growing resistance.
The result would generally be the production either of a mongrel piebald lot, or more probably the speedy and complete loss of the pale-blue tint; for the primordial slaty colour would be transmitted with prepotent force.
Wild animals are frequently thought to be prepotent over tame ones, but of the eleven zebra-hybrids bred at Penycuik only two took markedly after their sire, the zebra Matopo.
Breeders claim to be able to produce cattle so prepotent that they will produce their like, however mated.
A well-known dealer in highly-bred ponies used to boast that he had a filly so prepotent that, though she were sent to the best Clydesdale stallion in Scotland, she would throw a colt showing no cart-horse blood.
The women wept quietly, but Jeff's eyes were dry, though his face was discharged of all its prepotent impudence.
Westover decided that Mrs. Durgin's prepotent behavior toward Mrs. Marven the summer before had not hurt her materially, with the witnesses even.
