202 



J. A. HARRIS AND R. A. GORTNER 



fruits show 6.52% abnormality while the immature fruits show 

 5.31%.^ Thus taken as a whole the results of the comparison 

 of the mature and the immature fruits tend to confirm the con- 

 clusions drawn from fruits taken at different dates. 



Table 3 gives the results from another culture made in a some-* 

 what different manner from the same strain of seed as the two 

 just described. The results agree with the preceding in all but 

 numerical details. 



TABLE 3 



DATE OF COLLECTION 



August 19-20 



August 29 



September 12-20 



October 14-16 



NUMBER OF FRDITS 



NUMBER 

 OF ABNORMAI.S 



235 



140 

 1,748 

 1,349 



PERCEXTAfiE 

 OF ABNORMAI.S 



58.17 



18.23 



10.84 



5.71 



Comparing mature and immature fruits with respect to the oc- 

 currence of abnormality it appears that whereas in the mature 

 fruits of the collection of September 12-20 there were 1748 ter- 

 atological out of 16,131, or 10.84%, among the immature fruits 

 there were 390 abnormals out of a total of 5443, or 7.179^. For 

 the large collection of October 14-16, in which it was not so easy 

 as in some other cases to distinguish between mature and imma- 

 ture fruits, there were 11,951 immature fruits among which were 

 242 or 2.02% abnormal as compared with 23,643 mature fruits 

 among which there were 1349 teratological, or 5.71%. 



The same condition is also illustrated by two cultures made 

 from seeds imported from a German firm, although here only the 

 mature and the immature fruits can profitably be compared. 



' For the collection of September 23-25 there are for the immature fruits 84 

 out of 808 or 10.40% abnormal as compared with 6.55% in the mature fruits. Here 

 the production of abnormals in the immature collection is apparently higher than 

 it is in the mature series. Possibly the number of abnormal fruits is too small to 

 give a trustworthy percentage. Possibly the difference between the proportion of 

 abnormals in the mature and in the immature series is statistically trustworthy 

 and attributable to some unknown factor — perhaps to variations in temperature 

 or soil moisture. For the final collection, October 4, the immature fruits have 

 (151 X 100)73618 - 4.17% of abnormality as compared with 6.4.5%, in the mature 

 fruits. 



