C()01>ERATIVE INVESTIGATIONS ON PLANTS. 



IL VARIATION AND CORRELATION IN LESSER 

 CELANDINE FROM DIVERS LOCALITIES. 



(1) In view of the dat;i t'or F. nniancaloides published by Dr F. Ludwig* 

 and Prof. MacLeodf and the Statistical coiistants detenuiiied für theni| it seemed 

 desirablc to obtaiu rather iiiore Statistical inaterial and a more comprehensive 

 series of constauts for the purposes of a coniparative study. There wcre two 

 points to be cousiderod, naniely : (i) the infiuence of locality aud (ii) the influence 

 of the tinie during the flowering season at which the Üowers were gathered. 

 Unfortunately we wcre in the present season in no case able to obtain from our 

 collectors two series from the same locality with a nionth's interval between the 

 gatherings. All the collecting except in one case had to be done during the 

 brief Easter vacation of our workers, and this did not adniit of a double gathering 

 in the same locality at a suitable interval. The one exceptiou is that of the 

 Bordighera collection. Mr Francis Galton most kindly offered, as he was wintering 

 on the Mediterraucan, to provide a double series of Lesser Celandine flowers. 

 The first series was gathered about Fcbruary 19th aud at once dispatched to 

 England. On arrival it was fouud that practically every sepal, overy petal, and 

 nearly overy stamcn had fallen Irom the flowcr-heads. This lost us our earlier 

 series, but we learnt a most valuable lesson, namely : that transit of any kind, 

 even by hand, will cost the flower if nearly fuU-blown one or more sepals, petals or 

 stamens. Our plans had thercfore to be chauged ; each celandine flower was 

 now gathered as a bud and wrajiped up in a small piece of tissue papei". This 

 involved a great increase in the labour of gathering and a much greater one in 

 that of counting, a good deal of which had to be done under a leus, but we were 

 thus certain of preserving all the parts of the flower intact. Mr Francis Galton 

 suggested and carricd out this arrangement in a second series gathered between 

 March 4th and 7th which reached England safely, but three or four weeks later 

 than this there were no flowering celandines to be obtained in Bordighera. 



Mr Galton's plan was carried out in the further collections inade in Guernsey, 

 Dorset and Sun-ey, the collectors gathering the buds, and wrapping them up 



* Biometrikü, Vul. I. pp. 11—20. + Ihiil., pp. 1-2.5-128. 



J Ibid., pp. 31fi— 31<). 



Biumctnka ii 19 



