ABSTRACTS. 351 



or in case the returned egg meets its successor, a double- 

 yolked egg. 



15. If the backward movement of an egg in any stage does 

 not stop too soon the partly or fully formed egg will be expelled 

 from the funnel mouth into the body cavity. 



16. In case the oviduct is naturally or artificially closed the 

 eggs are regularly expelled by forcing them out of the funnel 

 mouth. 



17. A double egg is the result of a combination of normal 

 and abnormal processes which, when combined in other propor- 

 tions, result in other abnormal phenomena of egg production. 



18. An egg may move backward and forward several times 

 in the duct as is shown by the production of an egg enclosed 

 within a series of concentric egg membranes separated-by thick 

 albumen. 



A NOTE ON THE INHERITANCE OF EYE PATTERN 

 IN BEANS AND ITS RELATION TO TYPE OF 

 VINE.* 



This paper reports the results of some natural crosses be- 

 tween Improved and Old Fashioned Yellow Eye Beans.. When 

 these two types of Yellow Eye beans are crossed the seed of 

 the first generation plants are all very much spotted. This 

 type of bean has been called "piebald." When these piebald 

 beans are planted the progeny consist of plants with three dif- 

 ferent kind of beans. These are Piebald, Improved Yellow 

 Eye, and Old Fashioned Yellow Eye. These three types occur 

 in the proportion of 8 Piebald; 3 Improved Yellow Eye; 4 Old 

 Fashioned Yellow Eye. It is suggested that this ration is due 

 to the presence of two independent factors, one of which is of 

 such a nature that it causes the death of those zygotes which 

 are homozygous for both factors. In this way the usual 8:4:4 

 ratio is modified to the 8 :3 4 ratio found. This suggestion is 

 only tentative and may be modified when a larger number of 

 plants have been studied. 



In reference to the type of vine, it had been noted that with 

 few exceptions, all Old Fashioned Yellow Eye beans have a 



This is an abstract of a paper by Frank M. Surface, having the same 

 title and published in the American Naturalist, Vol. 50, pp. 577-586, 1916 



