DR. R. N. SALAMAN ON MALE STERILITY IN POTATOES. 301 
Male Sterility in Potatoes, a dominant Mendelian character ; with Remarks 
on the Shape of the Pollen in Wild and Domestic Varieties. Ву 
Dr. ВерсыееЕ №. SALAMAN. (Communicated by Mr. ARTHUR W. 
Зоттох, F.L.S.) 
` Head 18th June, 1910.) 
Darwin *, in considering the origin of sterility, describes a condition of anther 
not uncommonly found amongst the Caryophyllaceæ, Liliaceæ, and Ericacez. 
The anther in this condition is more or less shrivelled up or aborted and 
contains no pollen. Darwin gave the condition the name “ contabescence,” 
and he described how it might be propagated by “layers,” “cuttings,” etc., 
and even perhaps by seed. 
C. F. Gärtner t first observed the condition and considered it due to an 
inherent tendency in the species to become diœcious ; he also describes the 
sudden appearance of sterility in the female organs. 
Bateson { observed the same phenomenon in the Sweet Pea, and found it 
was associated with coloured axils in certain families and was recessive to 
fertile anthers. Working for some time on the heredity of colour and other 
characters in Potatoes, I have met the phenomenon of contabescence and have 
been able to show that it is in the Potato a dominant hereditary character. 
No association has been clearly established between this condition and any 
other feature ; but so far I have not met with a pale heliotrope potato-flewer, 
such as seen in “ Up-to-date,” that bears pollen in its anthers, and, further, 
such heliotrope flowers as I have been able to analyse have been always 
heterozygotes as regards “ sterility.” 
The evidence for the dominance and segregation of this type of sterility is 
as follows :-- 
Record x Flourball.—The former has empty anthers, the latter abundant 
pollen. In F1, 28 plants were raised in 1909, of which 21 bore flowers, all 
of which were sterile. 1n 1910, 26 of the F! plants flowered and they were 
all sterile. Two of these latter were fertilized by a derivative of “ Flour- 
ball? possessing abundant pollen. 
* í Animals and Plants,’ 1890, vol. ii, pp. 149. 
T * Versuche d. Beobachtungen über Befruchtungsorgane,’ Stuttgart, 1844, p. 97. 
ў Bateson, Saunders, and Punnett: Вер. Evol. Comm. Roy. Soc. 1904, vol. ii. p. 91. 
