244 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MARCH 
example, bg bg should be fertile, but in the tabular data one finds some bg 
plants giving “alle gut,’’ some giving “‘alle nichts,” and some “3 nichts, 3 gut” 
in crosses, and, so far as the reviewer can ascertain, no g plant was fertile to 
its own pollen, each attempt invariably resulting in “alle nichts.” The testing 
out of the 60 F, plants (BXG, GX B) with the parents gave similar results. 
Type dgXB and XG gave satisfactory evidence of complete fertility in only 
about a fourth of the cases, the others varying in proportions of “nichts” and 
“gut”? on each plant tested. CoRRENS recognizes these difficulties and only 
advances his interpretation as a crude, but helpful, working hypothesis. He 
believes there are many different lines of C. pratensis, and that these differ mu 
in genotypical constitution, so that the various irregularities whereby his actual 
data differ from the theoretical expectation are assignable to this cause, that 
is to say, there were still other inhibitors at work of which he took no notice. 
In support of this conclusion, he points out that “keines der 60 Geschwister 
war einem anderen oder den Eltern véllig gleich”; also, the results secured by 
crossing these F, sisters with the two foreign races. Another complication 
encountered by CorRENS was the reaction of the same plant toward the same 
pollen at different times, at one time pollinations resulting in “gut,” at other 
times “‘nichts,” the result possibly of obscure environmental changes. 
ORRENS is to be congratulated on again being a pioneer in opening up 4 
new field to a new viewpoint. 
(e) N? in two papers has also contributed to the elucidation of self- 
sterility phenomena. Darwtn’s observations on the existence of self-fertile 
sterile X self-sterile gave only self-sterile offspring. Certain self-fertile plants 
when self-fertilized gave only self-fertile offspring; when crossed with sell- 
sterile plants, the same result was obtained. Other self-fertile plants when 
In his second paper, Compton critically reviews the work of MORGAN; 
Jost, CORRENS, and other earlier investigators of this phenomenon. Until eg 
investigations of these men, the term self-sterility was a veritable “catch-all. 
The general notion was extant that a self-sterile plant was fertile with the pollen 
of every plant of that particular species or race, a condition which all ahs 
investigators have shown to be untrue. Many records of self-sterility in species 
rest on faulty observation; in some cases no evidence was at hand to show that 
7 Compron, R. H., Preliminary note on the inheritance of self-sterility in Reseda 
odorata. Proc. Cambridge Phil. Soc. 17:7. 1913. 
———, Phenomena and problems of self-sterility. New Phytologist 12:197-205- 
IgI3. 
