E. H. CoMPTON 65 



or (c). (See Diagram 4 in which one is supposed to be looking at 

 the distal end of the seed in situ, the shaded semilunar area repre- 

 senting the position of the embryo.) The three classes were sown 

 separately and the ofifspring counted, the results being as follows : — 



Total 111 109 



Thus the three classes of seeds gave precisely similar results, the ratio 

 being equality in each case — i.e. the same ratio as given by the whole 

 number of Maize seeds studied. 



Diagram 4. 



Though this experiment failed to give a positive result, it cannot be 

 considered as conclusive evidence against the theory it was designed to 

 test. It seems probable a priori that a variation in symmetry of the 

 seedling should be produced by asymmetry of the space within which 

 the embryo develops, and that this asymmetry should be produced by 

 the pressure of neighbouring seeds: in fact that asymmetry in the 

 parent should directly produce asymmetry in the offspring'. Several 

 examples are indeed given by Macloskie- showing that the seeds from 

 opposite sides of a bilateral fruit (silicle or legume) are " antidromic " — 

 a word which he uses very broadly to cover many different kinds of 

 asymmetry. 



' An essentially similar hypothesis has been suggested by van Biervliet to account for 

 the apparent inheritance of human right- and left-handedness (see footnote to p. 68). 

 He remarks, " Nous savons que la femme droiti^re a la hanche di'oite plus developp^e, la 

 gauchere la hanche plus forte a gauche. La structm'e du bassin ue pourrait-elle influer 

 BUT la position de I'embryon ? ou du moins favoriser le developpement preponderant 

 du c6t6 gauche?" ("L'homme droite et I'homme gauche," Revue philosophique de la 

 France et de VEtranger, XLvn. p. 385, 1899). The existence of left-handedness among 

 the children of a LH father and a RH mother, as recorded by Jordan, tends to cast doubt 

 on this hypothesis but does not destroy it altogether. The collection of a greater number 

 of pedigrees is the most obvious method of solving the problem. 



2 Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xxn. p. 879, 1895. 

 Journ. of Gen. ii S 



