LIBRARY 

 AL 



A quantitative study of the factors influencing 

 the weight of the bean seed. — I. Intra-ovarial 



correlations. 



By 

 J. Arthur Harris, 



Carnegie Institution of Washington, U. S. A. 



With plate I to IV (figures 1—4). 



L Introductory remarks. 



It is one of the functions of the science of vegetable physiology 

 to discover and record the factors which influence the size, form, 

 rate of development, etc., of the individual or its parts. Various 

 names have been applied to this field of research and the most 

 diverse methods have been called into use for the Solution of the 

 Problems with which it abounds. No apology is needed, therefore, 

 for considering any problem of the factors which underlie the form 

 or magnitude of the structural elements of the organism. Nor 

 should a defense of any method of attack, involving accurately 

 determined facts and logically sound methods of analysis, be ne- 

 cessary. The general problem set in the present paper is, „What 

 factors determine the weight of the seed in the garden bean, 

 Phaseollis vulgaris, and what, quantitatively, is the signin'cance of 

 each?'' 



This question has the interest of any problem in „Ent- 



^ wicklungsmechanik". In addition, it has a very real pertinence 



in evolutionary studies. The size of the bean seed is the character 



dealt with in some of the most discussed evolutionary questions 



i of the present tinie; some writers have been most dogmatic con- 



i>. cerning the physiological factors to which the Variation curve in 



ej the weight of the bean seed is due. The results of this study 



3 shovv, if we may anticipate, that however probable they may seem 



■ on the surface such Statements as have been made require checking 



against actual data. 



Beihefte Bot. Centralbl. Bd. XXXI. Abt. I. Heft 1. 1 



