vi Preface 



have had general training in the fundamentals of botany. 

 Such students, for example, are commonly found in the 

 last undergraduate year or first graduate year of their 

 work with no distinct purpose to become geneticists, but 

 wishing to be able to appreciate the important current 

 work in plant genetics. 



Such a group of young botanists became evident at 

 the University of Chicago. In their attack upon current 

 botanical literature they frequently encountered papers 

 dealing with plant genetics, but through lack of prepa- 

 ration were unable to grasp their significance. This 

 type of literature seemed too important to be relegated 

 entirely to the specialist, and therefore the authors of the 

 present text organized a course of lectures to meet the 

 need. The purpose of the lectures was not to develop 

 professional geneticists, but merely to initiate students 

 of botany into the point of view of working geneticists, 

 so that they could appreciate an important phase of 

 botanical literature. With such a purpose there was 

 no attempt to give a complete presentation of modern 

 genetics, but rather to introduce the student to genetics 

 in the simplest way. As a consequence, for pedagogical 

 reasons, certain perplexing facts were omitted, while 

 others were slightly adjusted so as to convey the funda- 

 mental ideas without confusion. The result of the 

 course was so successful as to suggest the desirability of 

 putting the lectures into text form for the benefit of 

 teachers who wish to profit by this experience. As a 

 reference book it is entirely inadequate, much represen- 

 tative material having been omitted and only enough 

 bibliography given to put the student upon the trail. 

 As a textbook also it has two disadvantages: (i) it 



