190 



Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



of S. Carolinense is quite variable, and, while for the list of 

 1048 the flowers were selected perfectly at random, for the 

 following table the material was necessarily confined to the 

 simple racemose type of inflorescence. 



The results have been expressed in the accompanying fre- 

 quency curve in which the fifteen vertical lines represent the 

 relative position of the flowers on the central axis, while the 

 percentage of perfect flowers present in that number is shown on 

 these lines by the percentage curve. Beginning with 98 per 

 cent, of the flowers perfect in the first two flowers in the one 



I -. ^ 



Pistil reduction in Solanum Carolinknse. 



hundred clusters examined, it runs down to zero in the 

 fifteenth, both of the terminal flowers in the two cases in 

 which fifteen were produced being sterile. In the fourteenth 

 place, there are present three staminate and one perfect 

 flower, 25 per cent., and in the thirteenth, three staminate and 

 three perfect, 50 per cent. Cases are frequent enough in 

 which all of the flowers are perfect, even where as many as 

 fifteen are produced, so that the table does not necessarily 

 represent the average condition. It does, however, show the 

 condition of one hundred individuals, selected as nearly as 



