114 PJnjsiological Prc-determmation 



That the environmental conditions of the parent plant and the 

 position of the seeds on the parent plant affect the capacity of the 

 seeds and produce obvious results in the course of their subsequent 

 development has often been stated, but so far as we have been able to 

 discern amongst the literature, no decisive investigation has been 

 carried out on this subject. A number of indications are to be found, 

 however, which make it clear that the question is one which would 

 repay critical examination. 



As is well known, traditions, of which we need not quote examples 

 in detail, are common among farmers and seedsmen to the effect that 

 the seed obtained from certain localities can be relied upon to produce a 

 vigorous crop under normal conditions. Turning to experimental results, 

 an interesting paper was read in 1904 before the Botanical Club of 

 Washington by W. W. Tracy (70). He speaks first of leguminous plants. 

 After stating that " Seedsmen commonly believe that, in the case of peas, 

 the character of the soil has a marked influence over the character of 

 the plant, and that this influence extends to and is carried by the seed, 

 but that such soil influence is decidedly cumulative in its effects," he goes 

 on to describe an actual experiment of his own, as follows: "In the case 

 of garden beans, the tendency of rich, moist, heavy soil is to produce 

 thick, fleshy pods slow to mature, while that of warm sandy land is to 

 the production of flatter, less fleshy and quicker maturing pods. I can 

 best illustrate this by experience. Some ten years ago I sent each of 

 two growers living within a mile of each other, seed of 'Valentine' 

 bean of precisely the same stock grown the previous year in the same 

 field, which was a rich clay loam. One of these, whom I will call C, 

 planted on rather heavy, rich soil, the other, S., on a light warm, but 

 rich sandy one. The next season C. received seed grown by S. and S. 

 seed grown by C, while a third man, M., some five miles away, on rich 

 loam soil, received equal parts of both. When T visited the fields I 

 noticed that in C.'s field, which I supposed was planted wholly with 

 seed grown by S., there were ten rows which differed from the rest and 

 were such as I would expect if seed from C. was planted, and 1 tried to 

 account for them by extra manure, etc., but I learned that as there 

 was not quite enough of the seed from S. sent him, he had filled out 

 with some of his own, and I had detected the exact row where the seed 

 was used. I then visited M. on loam soil, and while 1 could tell that one 

 part of the field was planted with C. stock and the other with S., I could 

 not detect the line between them." 



Do Vrios(7i) has emphasised as a result of liis many years of ex})eri- 



