THE GENOTYPICAL RESPONSE OF THE PLANT 245 
The distribution in nature of the different types of branching is 
very interesting. The erect type of branching so characteristic of the 
types of the Sound has not been found in any of the series of young 
plants and seed collections obtained from the Halland-Bohuslan coast. 
The tall and erect branching type, if not entirely lacking, must be but 
sparsely distributed in that region. Extensive series from Kristineberg 
and Marstrand in Bohuslän and from Varberg, Falkenberg, Halmstad, 
Bastad and other places along the Halland coast have upon cultivation 
only given plants belonging to the ascending, procumbent and prost- 
rate types of rather low stature. A few of these types are still being 
kept.in pure cultures (see the table). There is another characteristic 
of these types. They have been found to flower earlier than most of 
the types occurring along the Sound. The difference in the time of 
flowering for in- 
stance, between 
field no. 169 from 
the Sound and list 
no. 173 from Bo- 
huslän (see the 
table) amounts to 
about 14 days. As 
has been remar- 
ked this difference 
in flowering-time 
may become less Fig. 18. Atriplex litorale, field no. 160. 
distinct in certain 
years, but in years with normal weather conditions the difference is 
always seen. The difference in flowering-time between the Sound 
types and the Halland-Bohuslän types is generally less than 14 days; 
there is usually about a week’s difference between the two groups. 
The tall, erect types are the most common in the Sound region, 
the ascending ones are somewhat less frequently distributed, while the 
procumbent and prostrate types are very rare. The gigantic dimensions 
attained by the A. litorale vegetation along sheltered sea-weed banks of 
the Sound, both as to height and as to extent, are thus seen to be due 
not only to the occurrence of more favourable localities for the plant 
in this region as compared with the more exposed northern coast strip 
but also to the occurrence of hereditarily more robust and taller types 
than are found in the populations to the north. 
The limited number of cultivated types from the eastern coast 
