80 Cooperative Investigations on Plauts 



results. The weighting of 30,000 to 50,000 pairs of brother plants is not, however, 

 a task to be lightly iindertakcn*. 



Accordingly it is of interest to be able to turn to \V. F. R. Weldoii's Oxford 

 observations on the fi7-st flowers of 320 odd plants. He observed the foUowing 

 characters on these first or principal flowers : 



(a) the number of stigmatic bands, 



(b) the number of petals, 



(c) the petal length, 



(d) the breadth of the margin, when coloured differently from the body of 

 the petal, 



(e) the extent of basal patch, 



(/) the intensity of wrinkling on the petal, 

 (g) the colouring on the middle part of petal. 



For (b), (d), (e), (/) and (g) Alice Lee worked out the fraternal eorrelation by 

 the methods of the memoir on the inheritancc of characters not qnantitatively 

 measurablef. (a) and (c) were worked out in the usual way by the long form of 

 eorrelation table. 



Under (6) the classes were four petals, four petals + one or more petaloid 

 stamens and more than four petals. The ultimate divisiou of the table for 

 purposes of calculation being made at the normal four petals, and the second group 

 containing everything from a single additional petaloid stamen up to cases of 20 

 to 28 petals. The classe-s under breadth of niargin were : broad (b) ; broad-slight 

 (bs), — one petal pair broad, the other siight, one case only ; slight (s) ; slight-none 

 (ns), one petal pair slight, the other none, five cases only ; and none (n). The 

 resulting eorrelation table was worked out for two divisions and the average taken. 



The extent of basal patch was perhaps a less satisfactory character to estimate ; 

 the groupings were : none (n) ; none to slight (ns) ; slight (s) ; slight to well- 

 defined (sd) ; well-defined (d) ; well-defined to large (dl) ; and large (/), under- 

 standing by this last category a large indefinite patch passing right up into the 

 body of the petal. The wrinkling of the petals judged about the same period in 

 each case after opening, twelve hours, was divided into : frilled (/); wriukled (w): 

 slightly wrinkled {»iv) ; slight to no wrinkling {sw to nw) ; and no ^vrinkling (nw), 

 the intermcdiate class being chiefly duc to flowers with diversity between the two 

 pairs of petals. Lastly the colour appreciation was based on the niiddlo third of 

 the petal and the classes adopted in grouping AV. F. R. Wcldou's mach more 

 detailed dcscriptions were: red (r); red-pink (rp) ; pink (;)) ; pink-white (pw) ; 

 pink-white-white (pw. w) and white (w), the intermcdiate classes {rp) and (pw. w) 



' The Enfield I crop gave 34,486 pairs of brother-plants and the Eidderminster crop must havc 

 had between 50,000 and 60,000 pairs. 

 t Phil. Trans. Vol. 19.5, A, p. 1. 



