76 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
because of the pressure of other work at the fruiting season, 
I have never been able to complete fully the study as 
planned in 1905 and 1906. At present, I see no opportun- 
ity of returning to it. It seems worth while, therefore, to 
put on record the data collected and analyzed, together with 
suggestions toward further work along these lines. 
Summarily stated, our problems are:— 
(a) To describe certain series of material in terms of 
biometric constants and their probable errors. These, besides 
being necessary to the solution of the following problems, 
may serve as a basis of comparison for fertility characters 
in other species. 
(b) To determine, by comparison with constants for 
other forms, whether the morphological characters of the 
reproductive organs in C. longifolium can be considered to 
have any influence upon their variability. 
(c) To determine whether the capacity of the inflo- 
rescence for maturing its ovaries into fruits is in any degree 
dependent upon the absolute number of flowers which it 
produces. 
(d) 'To determine whether the capacity of the ovary for 
maturing its ovules into seeds is in any degree dependent 
upon the number of fruits per inflorescence. 
(e) To obtain some measure of the differences in the 
capacity of the inflorescences for maturing ovaries into 
fruits, ovules into seeds, or for forming large seeds. 
II. MATERIAL. 
All of the material came from a fine row of C. longifoliwm 
in the Missouri Botanical Garden!, which is yearly loaded 
with the characteristic fruits. In the spring of 1905, I (a) 
1Dr. Trelease has kindly called my attention to the following 
point: “The type form is somewhat tinged with red and most of our 
collection is of this form, but here and there occur white-flowered 
plants of the var. album. I do not believe that you differentiated these 
when your collections were made and yet I do not believe that they 
will in any way affect your general results.” 
