482 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 928 



to correspond to a number and kept on special 

 blanks; collaterals to be registered on separate 

 blanks) . 



Blanks for haby records (growth, develop- 

 ment, etc., complete in physical and psycho- 

 logic features, but not too exacting — extra data 

 to be inscribed on special pages provided). 



Blanks for personal history (of each individ- 

 ual of over one year of age, from birth to time 

 of writing — later occurrences to be placed 

 under "special happenings")- 



Blanks for phenomena of attach of illness, 

 injury or operation (when they occur — to be 

 filled in by physicians). 



Charts for weight and height (also tables of 

 standard weights and heights). Blanks for 

 ohservations and findings of specialists; charts 

 for special clinical data (eye, ear, nose, throat, 

 etc.) ; blanks for laboratory findings (urine, 

 feces, blood, sputum, etc.) ; pictorial charts 

 for anatomical m,emoranda; blanks and 

 charts for dental memoranda; special blank 

 for photographs (interesting to preserve 

 photographs at different ages, of children 

 and adults) ; and, among the most important, 

 pages for special happenings, notable occur- 

 rences of personal history, including memora- 

 bilia of tendencies, trends of thought, genesis 

 and course of purpose, cherished or revealed 

 potentialities, ideals, conduct, self-discipline, 

 lines of development, of capacities, education, 

 achievements, distinctions, renunciations, 

 conservations, etc., constituting a picture of 

 the evolution of personality. 



The whole to afford accurate data, whereon 

 alone can be based many present and fu- 

 ture determinations, mental and voluntary 

 processes, decisions and economies in health, 

 mental and physical, legal and insurance pre- 

 cisions, inheritance, etc. 



The author will be grateful for any com- 

 ments, criticism and especially for encourage- 

 ment. J. Madison Taylor 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



hermaphrodite females in lychnis dioica 

 Some years ago Strasburger" reported that 

 female specimens of Melandrium rubrum 

 ^ Biologisclies Centralhlatt, XX., 657 et seq., 

 1900. 



Garcke (a form of Lychnis dioica L.) growing 

 in his experimental garden at Bonn, were 

 changed to apparent hermaphrodites as a 

 result of infection with the anther-smut, 

 Ustilago violacea. The infected plants had 

 fully developed stamens, but the sporogenous 

 tissue of the anthers was completely replaced 

 by the spores of the smut. Strasburger sug- 

 gested that all the cases of hermaphroditism 

 which had been occasionally reported in this 

 species were probably due to infection by 

 Ustilago. 



When I discovered functional hermaphro- 

 dite mutants in Lychnis dioica and demon- 

 strated by numerous genetic experiments^ that 

 these functional hermaphrodites are modified 

 males, I believed that Strasburger had misin- 

 terpreted his material and that his hermaph- 

 rodites which resulted from infection by 

 Ustilago were produced by the development of 

 female organs in the male, and not as he sup- 

 posed by the development of male organs in the 

 female. Strasburger was correct, however, as 

 to the nature of his apparent hermaphrodites, 

 as demonstrated by two facts which he has re- 

 cently pointed out," namely, (a) that the fe- 

 males are not always completely infected, in 

 which case the uninfected branches bear nor- 

 mal female flowers, and (h) that infected 

 males show no development of the female or- 

 gans. 



Professor Doneaster, of the University of 

 Cambridge, England, has tested the influence 

 of Ustilago violacea upon Lychnis dioica by 

 artificial infections, and his results completely 

 corroborate the conclusions of Strasburger. 

 He sends for publication in Science the fol- 

 lowing brief account of his experiments : 



It is well known that Lychnis vespertina is 

 dicecious, but that all plants infected with the 

 fungus Ustilago have well-developed stamens. 

 Some of these plants have the typical male form, 

 without trace of ovary; others have a vestigial 

 ovary and styles in addition to the stamens and 

 anthers filled with Ustilago spores. This suggests 

 that when a female plant is affected by the para- 



' Botanical Gazette, XLIX., 110, 1910. 

 ^ Jahriuch fUr tvissenschaftlichen Botanik, 

 XLVIII., 427, 1910. 



