The Endosperm in Inheritance 155 



cross (corneous pollen and floury ovule), the Fj genera- 

 tion was all floury. This result certainly suggests 

 maternal inheritance, for in both cases it is the character 

 of the ovule parent that is transmitted, while the pollen 

 parent seems to have no effect. If it is assumed that 

 this is a case of maternal inheritance, similar to the 

 four-o'clocks of CORRENS, with their diseased cytoplasm, 

 two problems are encountered: (i) to prove that this 

 behavior is not due merely to parthenogenesis; (2) to 

 discover the mechanism to explain maternal inheritance 

 in this case. 



In the first place EAST established the fact that there 

 was no possibility of parthenogenesis. Continuing his 

 investigation he inbred the F z generation in each case 

 and examined the F 2 progeny. If we are dealing with a 

 case of maternal inheritance, what should the F 2 genera- 

 tion show? It should be exactly the same as the F x 

 generation, for in true maternal inheritance a race will 

 go on forever breeding true to the maternal character, 

 whether it is self-pollinated or cross-pollinated. If this 

 had been a case of true maternal inheritance EAST 

 should have obtained the following situation: 



Floury X Corneous Corneous X Floury 



Fj Corneous Floury 



w w 



F 2 Corneous Floury 



etc. etc. 



Actually, however, he obtained the following result: 

 Floury X Corneous Corneous X Floury 



FI Corneous Floury 



F 2 \ Floury \ Corneous \ Corneous \ Floury 



