306 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, — 1916. 



Experimental Studies in the Physiology of Heredity. — Report 

 of the Committee, consisting of Professor F. F. Blackman 

 (Chairman), Mr. E. P. Geegory (Secretary), Professors 

 W. Bateson a7id F. Keeble, and Miss E. E. Saunders. 



The experiments have been carried on during the present year in 

 spite of labour difficulties. 



The work on Primula sinensis has mainly devolved on Miss Killby, 

 Captain Gregory having been occupied with military duties. The seed 

 harvest in 1915 was a large one, and it has been necessary to hold over 

 some of the material to be dealt with in the coming season. The 

 results already obtained have added considerably to our knowledge of 

 the genetics and cytology of the peculiar (tetraploid) races which 

 contain doable the normal number of chi'omosomes. Some of these 

 races produce types which in the form of leaves and corolla and in 

 certain colour characters find no parallel among the races with the 

 normal number of chromosomes (' Proc. Eoy. Soc.,' December 1915). 

 Progress has been made with the work of fixing certain types which 

 have not as yet bred true, and in the course of the work a new 

 form has been produced, the existence of which had been predicted 

 though it had not previously been obtained. 



Miss Killby has also continued her work on beans and marrows, 

 but two unfavourable seasons have delayed the work, and a further 

 crop of plants will have to be raised before any definite statement can 

 be made. 



Miss Gaii'dner has continued her experiments with wallflowers, but 

 the work is not yet complete. 



Miss Saunders has carried out further work on stocks, foxgloves, 

 and lobelia. 



From the new stock, intermediate in surface character between the 

 ordinary fully hoary type and the wallflower-leaved variety obtained 

 last year, another new form has been bred, intermediate again between 

 its parent and the glabrous form. The gap between the two extreme 

 types is thus being gradually bridged, and it is hoped that the produc- 

 tion of these new forms may furnish a clue to the curious and un- 

 explained relation between surface character and sap colour. Progress 

 has been made with the attempt to synthesise an eversporting form, 

 but further generations will need to be raised before any definite result 

 can be expected. 



Of foxgloves a considerable number of first-year plants have been 

 grown, and it is hoped that they will yield important results next yegtr. 

 In the meanwhile they are being utilised as far as possible for the 

 supply of digitalin. 



It is expected that the results obtained this year with lobelia will 

 complete the work on the inheritance of doubleness in that form. 



It is hoped that it will be found possible to renew the grant, as a 

 number of the experiments are still in progress. 



