Ranunculus Biilbosus Seniiplenns. 
259 
on those plants which opened their first flower in Sep- 
tember, than on those which had already begun to flower 
in July and August. The number of individuals of the 
former group was 77; they produced 1134 flowers du- 
ring the period ending with the beginning of November, 
when I stopped recording. In the other group there were 
295 plants which flowered, and they produced 4425 flow- 
ers. The distribution was as follows: 1 
Petals: 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16-31 
Oldest plants. 409 532 638 690 764 599 414 212 80 29 18 20 
September plants: 40 52 126 165 204 215 177 104 35 8 4 
Fig. 53. Ranunculus bulbosus sctniplcinis. A, curve of the 
plants flowering in August ; S, curve of those flowering 
in Septemher. The figures at the base refer to the num- 
ber of petals per flower. 
These figures are exhibited graphically in Fig. 53 ; 
they have been reduced for convenience of comparison 
so that the numbers in the two groups are about the same. 
The apex of the curve of the early flowering plants is 
over the 9 ; it is the same curve which has already been 
given in Fig. 51 on page 249 for the year 1892. The 
other curve has its apex over the 10, and also remains 
above the other curve in the right half of its course. 
The cause of this difference can only lie in the re- 
tarded germination. Either the seeds which germinate 
later are intrinsically more productive of pleiopetalous 
1 See above, p. 250 ywd Fig. 5: v 1892). 
