282 The Ohio Journal of Science [Vol. XVII, No. 8, 



by hastening coagulation. Killing the tissues also causes 

 softening. But while these explanations may be partially 

 independent of seed production they are not completely so since 

 the rate of the process of becoming non-astringent is greatly 

 hastened in the region of a large growing seed. 



Another example that is more striking in certain ways, is 

 set forth in an interesting paper by Close (15) on the immediate 

 effect of cross pollination in apples. As a result of a certain 

 cross he obtained a difference in the outline of the fruit and a 

 brighter red color. "Even the fruit stems showed a variation, 

 for out of 25 fruits taken at random from the general group, 

 19 had fleshy stems. Of the 23 crosses one had a fleshy stem, 

 two slightly fleshy stems and the rest were slender." This 

 experimental work has not, in the writer's knowledge been 

 repeated, nor have checks been made by other observers whose 

 results serve as a comparison with these just quoted, there is 

 no reason to doubt this evidence though the data are meager. 

 The point to be borne in mind is that these are influences 

 removed some distance from the region of fertilization and not 

 expressed as the result of any hereditary factors brought in 

 by a male cell. That at once classes them apart from xenia. 



How Are These Influences to be Described? 



The writer proposes ectogony, (Gr., ectos, outside + o-gony, 

 the fertilization product), as a convenient word for properly 

 describing those influences which follow fertilization but are 

 remote from it. Ectogony covers a whole field of influences 

 that are the result of an increasing metabolism, or the effect of 

 some chemical substance, or the response to some influence 

 other than that brought in by hereditary factors. It would not 

 be limited as xenia has necessarily been shown to be in the light 

 of morphological researches, to an effect appearing only in 

 triple fusion endosperm tissue. 



There is a sharp contrast in thought between ectogony and 

 telegony, a word derived from the same roots. Ectogony deals 

 with real influences though scarcely intimate ones following 

 fertilization. Telegony means the alleged influence of a father 

 on offspring, subsequent to his own. No cases of telegony 

 are known to exist, or to have ever existed, for in order for the 

 thing to be possible, the father, or the growing embryo begotten 

 by him would have to bring about a change in the unfertilized 



