212 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MARCH 
it should be possible to develop a race of hemp which would show 
monoeciousness under ordinary field conditions. The genetic 
change from a dioecious to a monoecious condition would be 
caused by some change in one or more hereditary factors or one 
or more mutative additions or losses. Such factors, of course, 
may be present in any number of species, but the point to be 
emphasized is that such factors or states have no fundamental 
relation to the sexual nature of the plant, but are only causes which 
determine more or less definitely at what stage of the ontogeny the 
sexual state is established. Whether there are special factors in 
chromosomes for monoeciousness and dioeciousness appears not 
to be definitely known. In any event, the monosporangiateness 
or bisporangiateness must not be confused with the sexual state. 
The one condition or the other simply determines at what stage of 
the life history a definite sexual state is established, depending on 
a certain metabolic level, a certain degree of senility of the tissues, 
or a certain differentiation of the cells. Whether the bisporangiate 
monoecious and dioecious conditions are due to definite factors or 
simply to a difference in general constitution, the sexual state in 
either case could be changed by external causes. There is no 
fundamental difference between an organism with bisporangiate 
flowers and one with monoecious flowers as regards sex. The 
main difference is simply an earlier or later stage of vegetative 
growth at which the one or the other sexual state is established in 
a given cell, tissue, or organ. Since it is plain that this is the case, 
it is not reasonable to suppose that any new principle is involved 
in passing from a monoecious to a dioecious species, since we know 
that there is every gradation between bisporangiateness and 
dioeciousness. The experiments on hemp show that even in a 
dioecious species with marked dimorphism the male state or the 
female state is possible in any tissue of a sexual organism, the 
readiness or difficulty of inducing a change from the one condition 
to the other depending on various internal and external causes. 
Several seeds were obtained from decidedly intermediate 
plants, but none of them sprouted. This does not necessarily 
imply any constitutional defect, since many of the seeds from the 
