[Vor. 11 
. 438 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 
seems reasonable to assume that development of fruit makes a 
certain demand upon the organism for plastic materials. If this 
demand is higher than the available supply in any case, it seems 
quite possible that the more proximal ovaries, which are the first 
to have their seeds fertilized, would develop into fruits in larger 
proportions, since they are in a position to make the first demand 
upon the plastie materials. 
If, on the other hand, the organism is so exactly coordinated 
that the quantities of plastic materials available for the formation 
of fruits and seeds is proportional to thenumber of flowers formed,! 
one might expect that the position of the fruits would be little in- - 
fluenced by the number of flowers per inflorescence. 
To solve this problem we may proceed in the following manner. 
We may determine the relation between the number of flowers per 
inflorescence and the position of the fruits which develop to 
maturity. In doing this we weight the number of flowers per in- 
florescence with the number of fruits produced, and consider the 
position of each fruit on the axis a deviation from the standard 
(proximal) position. We must expect this relation to be large, 
since it is evident that on the average the fruits on large inflores- 
cences, which produce more fruits, will be inserted higher than 
those which produce few fruits. It is possible, however, to deter- 
mine the true physiological relationship between these 2 char- 
acters by the use of the formula measuring the relation between а 
variable and the deviation of a dependent variable from its 
probable value cited above. The position of any fruit must 
always represent some fraction, or component, of the maximum 
possible position on the inflorescence to which it belongs. This 
formula, therefore, seems quite applicable. 
The correlation between the number of flowers per inflorescence 
and the position of the fruits on the inflorescence, and between 
the number of flowers on the inflorescence and the deviation of the 
position of the fruits fromits probable position appear in table хуп. 
! One may, if he chooses, look upon the number of flowers formed as very closely 
proportional to the quantities of plastic substances which are to be available for 
maturing these ovaries into fruit. А 
? The full data for the determination of these constants are rather too voluminous 
for publication here. ; 
