F. KiDD AND C. West 237 



The relative degree of development of the experimental and control 

 plants at various stages was noted throughout the experiment. The 

 results obtained were as follows: 



XW = plants from seeds which were swollen and sown in the moist condition; 

 XD = „ ,, „ and quickly dried; 



C = controls (= plants from untreated seeds). 



(i) Beans. 



I Order in which seeds sprouted XW; C; XD 



I 1. XW=C = XD 



Comparative degrees of J 2. XW = C>XD 



development at differ- I 3. XAV>C>XD 



cnt periods 4. XW>XD>C 



Order in which plants ripened off C; XW; XD. 



(ii) Peas. 



, Order in which seeds sprouted XW; C; XD 



I 1. XW = C = XD 



Comparative degrees of ^ YW — P>Yr) 



development at differ- -| o XW>r = XD 



ent periods ^ XW>XD>C 



\ Order in which plants ripened off C; XW; XD. 



(iii) Lupins. 



■ Order in which seeds sprouted XW; XD; C 



1. XW = C = XD 



2. XW>C = XD 



3. XW>XD>C 

 'Order in which plants ripened off C; XW; XD. 



Comparative degrees of 

 development at differ- - 

 ent periods 



At the time of harvesting a very detailed analysis of every individual 

 plant of the crop was made of \\ hich Table VI is a summary. 



With reference to the yield it is to be noted in these experiments 

 that the untreated seed is strictly comparable with the seeds sown in 

 the swollen condition after soaking, but not with the seed sown after 

 re-drying, because while in the former case the number of plants is 

 the same per given area, in the latter case the plants are far fewer in 

 number and consequently much wider spacing per plant is allowed. 



Where a comparison therefore is legitimate, as between untreated 

 seeds and seeds soaked but sown in the moist condition, the treatment 

 clearly increased the yield in all three experiments; and this increase 

 was correlated w4th modifications in development at all stages, as 

 described above. 



In the case of a comparison between untreated seed and seed quickly 

 dried after soaking the yield jjer plant is markedly larger in the case 

 of the treated seed, but the total yield per given area is smaller. Any 

 conclusions drawn from the figures for the yield per plant are vitiated 



Ann. Biol, v 16 



