1895.] Deviation in Development Due to the use of Unripe Seeds. 905 
V.—Tomators FROM RIPE AND UNRIPE SEEDS. 
Experiment conducted by Arthur. 
Degree of ripe- | Number of | Number of ee hv ieg gi og serge of 
ness. plants. ripe fruit. of fruit in singie ruit in 
gra grams. 
| | = on 
Frait green......-+- Ree T 18304 17.5 
Fruit half ripe..... 5 439 7858 17.9 
Frait fully ripe...|- -24 | 1889 36622 19.4 
| | 
The experiment with wheat, conducted by Nowacki, and 
already referred to (see table III), shows a larger number of 
stalks from ripe than from green seed; and although not so 
tall, the total growth of stalks in length is greater for the plants 
from ripe than from green seed. Without going into further 
details, the general principle may be stated, that plants from 
green seed will, asa rule, attaina smaller development in both 
vegetative and reproductive parts than those from ripe seed. 
It is furthermore to be pointed out in this connection, that 
not only are all parts of the plant smaller and less vigorous, 
but that the different organs bear a different reciprocal pro- 
portion. We may classify plant organs roughly as reproduc- 
tive (fruit, seed, etc.) and vegetative (leaf, stem and root.) The 
use of immature seed increases the reproductive parts at the 
expense of the vegetative, and thus it comes about, that there 
is more fruit formed in proportion to the amount of foliage 
than normal. In an experiment, or rather a series of experi- 
ments originated by Goff,” and continued by the originator 
and the writer, in which the changes due to the use of unripe 
seed have been made more than ordinarily prominent by the 
cumulative effect of repetition through several generations, it 
was found by the writer (see table VI) that a tomato plant, se- 
lected as representative of the series grown from unripe seed, 
bore 34 pounds of fruit to one pound of the vine (leaves, stems 
and roots taken together), while a plant of the same variety 
% For history of these experiments, see Bot. Gaz., xii (1887), pp. 41-42; Rep. 
Wis. Exper. Sta., viii (1891), pp. 152-159. i 
