April, 1921] Reversal of the Sexual State 195 



of the ovulary wall above. Fig. 43 shows a similar flower with 

 two stamens below and three microsporangia on the ovulary 

 below the imperfect stigmas. Fig. 44 shows an abnormal flower 

 containing a complex of abnormal stamens, ovulary and stig- 

 mas. Figs. 45, 46, and 47, are three other similar types from 

 the transition zone. Fig. 48 represents an abnormal carpellate 

 flower with two sessile anthers and an imperfect stigma. Fig. 49 

 represents a carpellate flower from the top of the transition 

 zone with a nearly normal ovulary but with two small micro- 

 sporangia from its w^all near the top and with three imperfect 

 stigmas. Fig. 50 represents a nearly normal gynecium but from 

 the side of the ovulary a short-stalked stamen, an imperfect 

 stigma, and a very small stamen have developed. Finally, 

 Fig. 51 shows a partly matured ovulary with seeds and the 

 remains of two anthers. It will be noted that the side of the 

 ovulary from which the anthers developed failed to enlarge 

 while the opposite side passed thru the normal growth of an 

 ovulary in which seeds are maturing. 



What can be said to a series of facts as recounted above? 

 Hundreds, even thousands of pictures might be published each 

 one showing a distinct type or peculiarity of sexual expression 

 with the accompanying confusion of staminate and carpellate 

 characters. The examples given show one thing conclusively, 

 that sexuality is something fundamentally different from the 

 ordinary Mendelian hereditary factors, and that sex deter- 

 mination and sex reversal take place in small contiguous areas 

 of vegetative cells with absolutely no relation to segregation or 

 association of Mendelian factors. It behooves those botanists 

 who have been carried away into an ultra-simple explanation 

 of sexual phenomena as being due to the segregation and 

 association of homozygous or heterozygous sex factors or 

 homozygous or heterozygous "sex chromosomes" to reconsider 

 the foundations of their faith and adopt an explanation that 

 will, at least, not contradict the great body of complex phe- 

 nomena of sexual expressions as they actually occur in plants, 

 and in animals also. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



The foregoing study shows that in plants sex is due to a 

 state or condition; that in the same general tissue system some 

 cells may be in the female state ( + ), some in the male state ( — ), 



