HEREDITY AND FORESTRY. 3 



wish to suggest that the results obtained either in Switzerland 

 or Austria can be immediately applied to our own conditions. 

 My whole object in bringing the work to your notice is to 

 stimulate interest, and to suggest that there is room for further 

 research along similar lines, which, however, shall have strict 

 regard to our peculiar insular conditions. 



The examination of the seed showed that there was a gradual, 

 though by no means regular, reduction in size according as it 

 was obtained from low or high elevations, looo seeds usually 

 weighing more than 6 grammes when obtained from an altitude 

 under 3000 feet, and less than 6 grammes when the altitude 

 was 3000 to 6000 feet. The percentage germination followed 

 the same order, being about 70 to 80 for lower altitudes, 

 50 to 60 for higher altitudes. When the seed was kept over 

 from year to year, the germinating capacity, of course, in 

 every case declined ; but the reduction in germinating power 

 was much more marked in the case of high-grown seed than 

 in the case of seed from low elevations. As a rule, seed from 

 a high elevation did not germinate at all six years after being 

 gathered, whereas seed from a low elevation would still 

 germinate about 20 per cent. 



When the seedlings had reached an age of two years, many 

 were lifted and subjected to examination in various ways, when 

 it was found, amongst other things, that the proportion of root 

 to stem was greater in the case of plants from high-grown seed 

 than where the seed had been procured at a low elevation. 

 This character has doubtless been acquired by trees at a high 

 altitude in order better to resist the violent gales to which they 

 are subjected, and it is a character that has been transmitted 

 through the seed. 



But by far the most important result of these experiments is 

 that which is concerned with the relationship between the rate 

 of growth of the seedlings and the elevation at which the seed 

 was gathered. Up to a certain altitude above sea-level trees 

 grow as well as they do lower down ; but as one gets higher 

 a point is reached when the height-growth begins to be affected, 

 and at the upper reaches of growth for any particular species, 

 the trees are more or less stunted. Now, this reduction in the 

 stature of trees is a character that is inherited ; that is to say, it 

 is transmitted to the progeny. It has already been mentioned 

 that the seed of the spruce is smaller in size at high than at 



