The following paper was then read by Will W. Tracy, of Detroit, Michigan! 



VARIANT TENDENCY AND INDIVIDUAL PREPOTENCY 

 IN GARDEN VEGETABLES 



W. W. Tracy. 



SYNOPSIS. 



The examination of a great number of plants will sometimes reveal what 

 would not appear from a more careful study of a few. 



1. Different plants of the same natural order tend to vary along parallel 



lines. 



2. The natural orders are distinctly but differently influenced by con- 



ditions of soil and climate. 



3. Cultural and climatic conditions are cumulative in their influence 



and affect the whole species. 



4. The variant tendency in a race is common to different stocks and 



peculiar to each season. 



5. Seed of the same stock and equally well grown, under precisely the 



same conditions, differ in adherence to type in different seasons. 



6. Seed of individual plants of the same pedigree, grown under the same 



conditions and equally adherent to type, differ in prepotency or 

 ability to reproduce themselves. 



I do not claim to be a scientist, or that any investigations I may have 

 made have been conducted in a strictly scientific manner, particularly as to 

 their records, and my only excuse for occupying your time is that I have had 

 exceptional opportunities to observe a vast number of plants of different 

 garden races, both as to their variant tendencies and the influence of condi- 

 tions of heredity and environment. For the past twenty years I have annually 

 examined, for the purpose of detecting variation and the influence of heredity 

 and environment, some 400 acres of tomatoes, 1,000 acres of cucumbers, 5,000 

 acres of garden beans, 200 acres of cabbage, and corresponding quantities of 

 other garden vegetables and flowers. These crops have been grown in widely 

 separated fields, under different conditions of soil and climate, and most of 

 them from seed with whose pedigree I have been familiar, in some cases, 

 back for ten or more generations. It seems to me that such extensive obser- 

 vation of an immense number of individuals, developed under varying con- 

 ditions, might give hints of certain facts which would not be revealed in a 



