

Observatlons on the Physlology of Seed 

 Development in Staphylea. 



By 

 J. Arthur Harris. 



Carnegie Institution of Washington. Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, U. S. A. 

 With 1 figure in the text. 



I. Introductory remarks. 



In most species of plants an ovule which does not receive a 

 sperm ceases its developmeut. Beyond this, we can hardly venture 

 in a discussion of the causes which determine whether an ovule 

 shall develop into a seed. Goebel in his "Organographie der 

 Pflanzen" has frankly pointed out our almost complete ignorance 

 of these matters, and I believe that most broadly informed botanists 

 would agree with his Statements. Yet the problem of the factors 

 which determine the fate of an ovule seems to be of considerable 

 interest, and definite knowledge perhaps of practical importance 

 as well. 



The logical method of approaching the problem seems to be 

 to make a beginning somewhere, it does not matter much where, 

 and to get quantitative approximations of the influence of individual 

 factors until finaUy researches of a monographic character can be 

 undertaken. 



In a study of the factors influencing the length of the pod 



in Staphylea.^) I have had occasion to determine the correlation 



^' -between the number of seeds per locule and the position of the 



er> fruit on the inflorescence and between the number of seeds per 



locule and the number of fruits per inflorescence for a Single series 



of 2059 pods of Staphylea trifoMa from the Missouri Botanical 



I 



ZD» 1) Harris, J. Arthur, The Influence of the Seed upon the Size of the 



<i Fruit in Staphylea. (Bot. Gaz. In Press.) 



Beihefte Bot. Centralbl. Bd. XXVIII. Abt. I. Heft 1. 1 



