668 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 516. 



blasted, though it is often small and ir- 

 regular in shape, perhaps as a result of 

 deficient pollination. The stigma some- 

 times projects from the injured flower and 

 might be fertilized normally, but in other 

 instances the withered staminal tube and 

 corolla remain closely wrapped about it, 

 so that pollen could scarcely have entered. 

 It would not be surprising if the more rapid 

 and persistent growth which favors the 

 new protective tissue were also accompan- 

 ied by a tendency toward parthenogenesis. 

 Or it may be that the irritation resulting 

 from the presence of the larva stimulates 

 the ovary as well. Moreover, prolifera- 

 tion is not confined to the bud; the same 

 or a closely similar formation of tissue 

 sometimes appears in the boUs, when these 

 have been attacked by the weevils. 



It is thus not merely a coincidence that 

 the proliferation is most frequent in the 

 quick-growing early varieties of cotton 

 which are now prized in Texas as the best 

 means of securing a crop. The weevil has 

 conducted, as it were, a selection for rapid- 

 ity of growth and early fruiting, and a 

 further accentuation of vegetative energy 

 has introduced the new protective habit. 

 The destructive insect has, in effect, over- 

 reached itself, and induced a condition 

 which with man's assistance may accom- 

 plish its own destruction. 



It is not easy to conjecture any means 

 by which the weevil could survive the gen- 

 eral planting of a variety of cotton having 

 proliferation as a constant character. If 

 only the squares would 'gelatinize' the 

 weevil might develop an instinct of post- 

 poning the egg-laying period until the 

 young bolls could develop. The advantage 

 might be partly temporary, though it would 

 take many years for the weevil to meet the 

 new demand, and it could never reach its 

 present destructiveness because the delay 

 of the breeding season, even for a week or 

 two, would be an eifeetive handicap, par- 



ticularly if the weevils should continue to 

 waste most of their ammunition on the 

 squares, as they probably would. 



How long it will take to secure a com- 

 pletely resistant cotton by selection can 

 only be conjectured, since it is not known 

 as yet how constant a character prolifera- 

 tion is in the plants which possess it. To 

 lose no unnecessary time is, of course, of 

 the greatest practical importance, not only 

 for the industry at large but especially for 

 the sake of the growers of the long staple 

 cotton in South Carolina and Georgia. 

 The longer season required by the Sea 

 Island cotton will render entirely ineffect- 

 ive the cultural expedients by which a part 

 of the crop of the upland varieties can be 

 saved from the weevil ; if the insect be per- 

 mitted to reach the Atlantic coast Sea 

 Island cotton will soon become an agricul- 

 tural tradition. 



This change of view regarding the na- 

 ture of 'gelatinization' greatly alters the 

 prospect of finding in tropical America a 

 variety of cotton resistant to the weevil, a 

 hope which seemed to be lessened by the 

 discovery of the kelep or Guatemalan cot- 

 ton-protecting ant. It is by no means 

 impossible that varieties already exist in 

 which proliferation has become a fixed 

 character, and if not it will still be highly 

 desirable to secure those in which the tend- 

 ency is most strongly pronounced. In the 

 ant-protected variety of eastern Guatemala, 

 proliferation takes place very frequently, 

 at least in the bolls, and the plant has other 

 desirable features of quick, determinate 

 growth and early bearing which may make 

 it of value in Texas. It has the good quali- 

 ties of King and other related varieties in 

 accentuated form, though with a longer 

 staple. 



The dwarf Guatemalan cotton repre- 

 sents, as it were, the highest known devel- 

 opment of the upland type. Even the 

 annual character which has been looked 



