HORTICULTURE. 537 



gravity, tlie viability of the starchy >;rains is very uuiforuily higher, as are 

 also the weights of the seedlings. Plantiugs were made at depths of 1. 2, and 

 3 in. The uiesocotyl for the starchy grains was shorter for the 1-in. plantings 

 and nearly the same for the 2 and 3 in. depths. The range of variation in 

 length of the mesocotyl was usually less with the starchy than with the sweet 

 grains. 



In the work with pepi>ers some 14.000 plants were grown, a large proportion 

 of which were of the second generation. Tabular data are given for the fruit 

 of a large number of these crosses showing average weight, volume, length, and 

 breadth, as well as the range in length and breadth, the average number of 

 locules. and the range in number of locules. Data are also given showing the 

 averages of weights, lengths, and breadths of Fx and F- fruits and the rehition 

 of number of locules to size in Fa fruits. Observations on pendency and up- 

 rightness in pepper fruits suggest that the position of the fruits follows the 

 ordinary Mendelian segregation, with pendency dominant. With reference to 

 the inheritance of deciduousness of pepper fruits it appears that deciduousness 

 is dominant to persistency in Fi, the latter appearing again as a recessive in F-. 

 Observations on the inheritance of shape in the calyx for a number of crosses 

 indicate that there is no well-defined segregation in the form of the calyx. 

 Some general observations are given on pepper crosses with reference to 

 spotted leaved, sterile, and dull fruited plants, plants with peculiar maturing 

 colorations and with yellow foliage, and the best crosses commercially con- 

 sidered. 



Report of progress, P.. H. A. Groth (Neio Jersey Stas. Rpt. 1913, pp. 615- 

 621, pis. 5).— In continuation of previous work (E. S. R.. 30, p. 343), about 

 4,500 plants of the third generation of tomato crosses were grown in 1913. All 

 of the lots had been selected from F- generation plants in order to shed further 

 light on the heredity of characters of size and shape. The results in detail are 

 to appear in a subsequent bulletin. 



The work has not demonstrated thus far a strict Mendelian inheritance of 

 size or shape characters. It has been found that the size characters of the 

 fruits behave differently in the first generation from those of the leaves and 

 stems. In certain crosses the greater vigor of the Fi plants is lacking in all 

 of the F- plants, while in other crosses it is maintained even in the F3 plants. 

 The average fruit size of a F- generation agrees fairly well with the average of 

 the parent Fi generation, except in the crosses with long fruits. In one 

 "Pear" cross the vegetative parts of F2 plants averaged smaller than those of 

 Fi while the fruits averaged much larger. 



A strong correlation has been found to exist between shape and the larger 

 number of locules in the fruit. In crosses of flat fruits with long ones there 

 was a correlation between absolute size and shape. Likewise the slaty foliage 

 color of "Peach" tomatoes and the dull surface of their fi'uit skins were 

 correlated with flabby interior of the fruit and invariably accompanied by a 

 poor filling of the locules, although this latter condition may exist independently 

 of the other characters. 



In some crosses it was easy to reproduce the absolute size of the parent fruits 

 in F: and F3; in others the fruits of the lai'ger parent were not even approxi- 

 mated. Some of the Fs lots of " Ponderosa " crosses bred true to a very light- 

 green foliage color. One Fo block of " Peach-Pear " crosses bred true to a pear 

 shape of greater relative and absolute length than was found in either parent. 

 Other F3 blocks bred true to a factor for simultaneous ripening and cessation of 

 flowering after this riiTening period. Among the F3 lots of " Currant " crosses 

 some seemed to be heterozygous and some homozygous for an exceedingly tough 



