81 



The pure bred progenies of this albino ear gave seeds that were 

 dark yellow, light yellow, very light yellow, and white. Most of 

 the seeds showed at least some trace of yellow, and apparently 

 pure white seeds, from an ear bearing these classes, produced 

 under further self fertilization, seeds with the yellow endosperm 

 fully developed. The author points out that the segregation 

 is incomplete, that the dominant character is not absent from 

 certain of the recessives and that the "results appear as evidence 

 against the idea of gametic purity and alternative inheritance." 



A. B. Stout 



Recent Reports on the "Qualitative Studies of Inheritance in 

 Nicotiana Hybrids"* by Dr. T. H. Goodspeed are especially 

 interesting on account of the results obtained and the interpreta- 

 tion which is given to them. 



One phase of the investigation pertains to the relation between 

 the weight of hybrid tobacco seed and the inheritance of char- 

 acters in the F2 generation, the cross being between two varieties 

 of Nicotiana Tahacum, which have among other contrasting 

 characters differences in the weight of the seed. The seed 

 produced by the Fi generation was separated into various grades 

 according to weight by an improved "grader." On the basis 

 of weight twenty-two grades were made, ranging in weight per 

 hundred seeds from 0.0041 to o.oiii grams. 



The data show a marked correlation of heavy seed with the 

 vegetative characters of the original parent having the heavier 

 seed, and of light seed with the characters of the other parent. 

 In other words the fluctuations in the weight of the seed pro- 

 duced by the Fi generation are correlated with certain 

 fluctuations in the vegetative characters of the F2 generation. 

 The heavy seed germinated more quickly and gave seedlings 

 that were at the start more vigorous, but as the season advanced 

 a larger percentage of plants matured from the seedlings derived 

 from the light and medium weight seed. It is pointed out that 

 these studies indicate that in investigating the heredity of plants 

 greater attention should be paid to the physical characteristics 



* University of California Publications in Botany, Vol. 5, Nos. 2 and 3. 



