ro11] MACDOUGAL—OVARIAL TREATMENTS 255 
tion from two species, in which some species are represented by 
two or more different treatments. 
The announcement was made in 1908 that some divergent 
characters were seen in a treated progeny of Cereus. The plant 
in question, by the incessant changes of nomenclature, is known 
at the time of this writing as Echinocereus Fendleri. The progeny 
is coming into bloom, and while one of the individuals diverges 
widely beyond the observed range of fluctuating variability, it 
cannot yet be definitely stated whether or not the characters dis- 
played are permanently heritable or not. The individual in which 
they are represented is of normal vigor, and is not in any ordinary 
sense monstrous or teratological. 
It may be readily apprehended that any theoretical interpreta- 
tion of the action of the reagents employed in this series of experi- 
ments is extremely difficult. The question as to whether the 
embryo sac or the generative nucleus of the pollen tube is acted 
upon is, withal, a purely mechanical consideration. The real 
problem is the nature of the alterations induced by the action of 
the compounds to which the test plants are subjected. 
Som* of the earlier results with Raimannia were obtained 
with solutions of cane sugar, not of tested purity, however, 
and applied with built-up metal syringes, and corrosion may 
have occurred to such an extent as to make the action similar 
to that in which solutions of metals and halogens were used in 
Proportions of 1 to 10,000 or 1 to 50,000 of distilled water. The 
application of zinc and iodine solutions in the more carefully 
guarded operations may have affected the reproductive protoplasts 
in various ways. The chief difficulties in the way of theoretical 
interpretations consist. in the fact that the direct action of the 
reagents cannot be followed in the deeply buried reproductive ele- 
ments. It can only be said that the reagents might alter the 
dissociations in the cell, while not entering it, or perhaps only in 
the minutest quantities, and the properties of an egg might well 
diverge with changes in the relative number of free ions of various 
kinds in its compounds. This assumes, of course, a direct connec- 
tion between the chemical constitution of the cell and the proper- 
ties it displays. The entire effect might be due simply to altered 
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