. 5.] PEA AND NASTURTIUM SEEDS. 219 



a full-grown dwarf plant is smaller than a full-grown normal 

 plant, as is shown by the nine-weeks stage of Table II. 



The effect, it would seem, of removing a part of its food 

 supply from the seed is not merely a transient one, but is one 

 that can be traced through the whole life of the plant, and 

 even increases as the plant grows older. The amount of food 

 supply in the cotyledons influences, perhaps, the early stages 

 of growth, while as the plant increases in size it becomes more 

 and more vigorous and tends to grow more and more rapidly; 

 so that a plant that is given an advantage over its fellow 

 at the start will increase this advantage during subsequent 

 development. 



