Tlie Kudos perm iji TfiJfcritance 149 



tion was all corneous. When he made the reciprocal 

 cross (corneous pollen and lloury 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. If it is assumed 

 that this is a case of maternal inheritance, 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 Fi generation in each case 

 and examined the F2 progeny. If he were dealing with 

 a case of maternal inheritance, what should the F2 genera- 

 tion show? It should be exactly the same as the Fi 

 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 results: 



Floury X Corneous Corneous X Floury 



(ovule parent) n|/ (ovule parent) i' 



Fi Floury Corneous 



Fa Floury Corneous 



etc. etc. 



Actually, however, he obtained the following results : 



Floury X Corneous Corneous X Floury 



(ovule parent) ^ (ovule parent) \1^ 



Fi Floury Corneous 



^ Floury : I Corneous h Corneous : ^ Floury 



