410 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 
being grown, both at the Botanic Garden, Cambridge, and also at the 
University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. This species was selected as 
it seemed in some respects especially likely to throw light on the problem 
under investigation. 
Experimental Studies in the Physiology of Heredity.—Report of the 
Committee, consisting of Mr. Francis Darwin (Chairman), Mr. 
HarotD WaGER (Secretary), Professor J. B. FarMER, and Mr. 
R. P. GREGORY. 
THE Committee have adopted as their report the following statement by 
Mr. Bateson :— 
The experiments on heredity undertaken in conjunction with Mr. 
R,. C. Punnett have been continued during the past year. The subjects 
most used were sweet peas and fowls. 
Tn the case of sweet peas we have chiefly investigated the phenomenon 
of gametic coupling between certain colours and various structural pecu- 
liarities. The results arrived at are too complex for brief description, but 
we hope to prepare a report on them shortly. 
In regard to poultry we have been mainly occupied with questions of 
colour inheritance. We have succeeded in distinguishing two classes 
of birds, both having white plumage, which, when crossed together, uni- 
formly produce fully coloured F,. This colour thus depends on the 
co-existence of two complementary factors, as in flowers. 
The dominant whites, previously described, evidently owe their domi- 
nance to the presence of a third and distinct factor. The evidence 
strongly suggests that any combination of these three factors (or their 
allelomorphic absences) may exist. 
Another principal subject of investigation is the pigmentation of con- 
nective tissues in silky fowls and its hereditary transmission. The 
development of this peculiarity is in some way dependent on sex, and 
experiments are in progress for elucidating the interrelation between the 
two phenomena. 
Several minor inquiries are also in progress. 
It is not proposed to apply for a reappointment of the Committee. 
Lhe Peat Moss Deposits in the Cross Fell, Caithness, and Isle of Man 
Districts.—Report of the Committee, consisting of Professor R. J. 
Harvey Gipson (Chairman), Professor R. H. Yapp (Secretury), 
Professor J. REYNOLDS GREEN, and Mr. CLEMENT RED. (Drawn 
up by Mr. Francis J. Lewis.) 
Tur Committee were appointed with the object of ascertaining, by means 
of excavations, the succession of plant remains in the extensive area of 
peat in the basins of the rivers Halladale, Strathy, and Armadale Burn, 
flowing out to the north coast of Scotland, and on the Cross Fell Range 
in Cumberland, and to compare these areas with others previously investi- 
gated by one of the Committee in various parts of Scotland.! 
** Plant Remains in the Scottish Peat Mosses, Part 1. rans. Royal Soe. 
Hdin., vol. xli.; Part IIL, No. 28, ‘ Plant Remains in the Scottish Peat Mosses’ ; 
Part II., Zrans. Royal Soc. Edin., vol. xlv.; Part II., No. 13. 
