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of the basal position are uniformly remarkably light, the lightest 

 of all the pods, while those at the tip are next heavier, and those 

 at the middle exceed all others in weight. In other words, the 

 extreme in weight of all the positions is found adjoining in the 

 3-seeded pod, with a difference of 10.26 per cent. 



Omitting the single-seeded pods which have the seeds neither 

 base nor tip, it is observed that the basal seeds of both the 2- 

 and 3-seeded pods are the lightest respectively in the order 

 here given, and the tip seeds, in a similar manner, have the next 

 higher weights, leaving the 3-seeded middle seeds with the 

 heaviest rank. 



Soybeans, in which selfing is the rule, should yield strains 

 with marked uniformity of structural units, but among the pure 

 lines the results in seed weight are as shown. It goes without 

 writing that the hope of so standardizing leguminous plants 

 that their seeds will be uniform in weight is groundless. Differ- 

 ences in weight, and somewhat in shape, must be accepted as 

 due in part to environment within the plant and the deter- 

 mination of the relation of seed-position in the pod to crop- 

 production becomes a significant economic problem. Sufficient 

 results have been obtained to warrant the opinion that the loca- 

 tion of the seeds upon, and in, the plant is a factor worthy of 

 serious consideration in connection with its bearing upon field 

 and garden culture. 



The chief object of the present note is to call attention to a 

 phase of botanical study that is within the reach of many, and 

 to suggest that persons in widely separated regions may make 

 substantial contributions to a knowledge of the seed-weights of 

 wild plants that, like the soybean, have their seeds borne in pods. 

 Of such one might name the lupines, crotolaria, genista, baptisia, 

 wild-beans, amorpha, vicia, lathyrus, etc. 



To some students the wild plants are more appealing than 



the cultivated kinds and for the present purpose may be superior 



because of the relative freedom from pod and seed diseases that 



often modify the records of subjects from the field and garden. 



New Jersey College Experiment St.a.tion 



