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TERATOLOGY AND VARIATION 43 
Sturdy plants bearing pistillate spikes have been transplanted to 
beds of gravel and of Sphagnum, receiving only such food as was 
carried by the tap water with which they were abundantly supplied 
during the growing season. These plants continue to produce 
pistillate spikes after two years of such treatment. In the mean- 
time the corms of these plants show a marked decrease in size as 
a result of their failure to store up as much food as is required for 
the year’s growth. 
The writer cannot agree with Gow’s statement that there is 
an alternation of sex characters. Several old vigorous plants 
under observation in favorable situations for five years have not 
failed to produce pistillate spikes each year. To this it may be 
added that in cultures of plants grown from seed, the first flowers 
produced have been staminate. The time of the first change from 
staminate to pistillate is not fixed although it usually occurs in 
vigorous plants two or three years after the first flower spike is 
produced. Subsequent changes in sex may be accomplished 
without noticeable checking of the vegetative increase of the plant. 
For example, the early transplanting of corms, while changing 
the sex for the next year, need not reduce the size or number of 
leaves produced. 
From the observations given above, the following conclusions 
seem warranted. There is not an alternating or cyclic change in 
sex in A. triphyllum. The amount of food stored in the corm 
does not determine the sexual condition. The amount of solid 
food does not determine the sexual condition, but a shortage of 
water and consequent checking of growth at the time of the 
beginning of flower formation produces staminate flowers. The 
checking of growth at that critical time is the important factor 
introduced by the early transplanting, by the removal of the corms 
for mutilation by Atkinson and the writer, and by the early 
drought of 1913, The influences effecting change of sex are not 
the same as those producing changes in the vigor of vegetative 
growth. 
TERATOLOGY AND VARIATION 
Rennert (21) in 1901 gave a brief account of the teratological 
phenomena recorded for A. triphyllum. The notes referred 
principally to the dedoublement in the case of flowers and leaves 
