170 



STUDIES IX INDIAN SUGARL'ANK SEEDLINGS 



broad leafed plants. Taking the \vh(>le series of seedlings and selecting the 

 five best and five worst seedlings, we have the following : 



These figures are interesting in several respects and deserve careful con- 

 sideration. The average leaf width of the whole s?ries of Karun seedlings 

 is 2 4:" and, if we exclude, in selection, all seedlings with wider leaves than 

 this we may lose a very good one, for instance No. 1033. On the other hand, 

 the seedling with narrowest leaves in these ten has only 10-81% sucrose. The 

 glucose in the low sucrose class is much higher than in the high sucrose class, 

 as might have been expected, but it is a question whether some of the 

 former have not been hardly treated, in that they may have been unripe 

 at crop time. Lastly, the seedling which had the widest leaves in the 

 whole 322 seedlings, No. 952. and which had received marked attention 

 throughout its growth because of this, was lowest of all but one in 

 sucrose, and all the seedlings with widths over 3"0'' were very poor. This 

 is an example of a fact not infrequently recurring in these studies, 

 namely, that a seedling which differs markedly from the rest is often of 

 very poor character as regards its juice. The extremes in any seiies, 

 chiefly such as are of uiuisually large dimensions are generally more oi' less 

 worthless. 



As I have stated above, the selection of this correlation in the Karun 

 seedlings for detailed analysis was made purely at random, and facts similar 

 to those here noted may be met with in any of tlie larger series dealt with in 

 the paper. It is hoped that discrepancies such as those noted may be ruled 

 out by more caref'ul selection, as regards growth and maturity, in the further 

 sets of seedlings as they reach the stage when chemical analysis is possible, 

 but there is no di.sguisiug the fact that iiicgnlarities are bound to occur, 

 however much care is thus taken. 



