16 



BULLETIN 306, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



rich stage was reached, and consequently the second picking, Sep- 

 tember 5, corresponds very closely to the first picking at Arlington 



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Fig. 9.— Diagram showing the alkaloidal content of the leaves of second-generation belladonna plants 

 from cross-pollinated parents at two stages of growth at Arlington, Va., and Madison, Wis., and at one 

 stage of growth at Timmonsville, S. O, during the first season, 1914. 



in so far as the stage of growth is concerned. It is evident from the 

 results obtained that at all three stations these second-generation 

 plants show the characteristics of the parents as 

 regards their alkaloidal content. Naturally, there 

 are individual variations, and the plants at one 

 station may be uniformly lower in alkaloidal con- 

 tent than at another station, but the point to 

 be observed here is that at all the stations it is 

 true in a general way that the plants selected 

 originally from parents of high alkaloid-yielding 

 tendencies show generally a greater percentage of 

 alkaloids than those from parents of the opposite 

 tendency. Table VI and figures 9 and 10 show 

 this very plainly. It must be pointed out, how- 

 ever, that only a few plants were included under 

 lot 7w 5 , and this must be borne in mind when 

 studying the averages. 



In order to gather some information regarding 

 the influence of climatic conditions upon alkaloid 

 production, a tabulation was made of the principal weather characteris- 

 tics at or near the three stations for the four months, May to August, in- 

 clusive, of the year 1914. This compilation is shown in Table VII. 



7W 6W 



Fig. 10. — Diagram show- 

 ing the average alka- 

 loidal content of all the 

 individual second-gen- 

 eration belladonna 

 plants from each par- 

 ent at Arlington, Va., 

 Madison, Wis., and 

 Timmonsville, S. C, 

 . during the first season, 

 1914. 



