906 The American Naturalist. [October, 
grown each year under the same conditions, but always from 
ripe seed gave only 14 pounds of fruit for each pound of the 
vine. In this case we have an enormous relative increase of 
fruitage from unripe seed, which in fact was quite apparent to 
VI—Tomators FROM RIPE AND UNRIPE SEEDS. 
Experiment conducted by Arthur. 
: Weight of | Weight of | Ratio of vine 
Degree of ripeness. vine. fruit. to fruit. 
Jb, 02, 1b, OZ. i 
es series. i 2 10 9 2 1 : 3.475 (34) 
ature se E id 6... 9.:| 154497, 
the casual observer npon looking at the plants of the two se- 
ries as they grew in the garden, although it required the scales 
to disclose how surprisingly great the difference really was. 
With this increased fruitfulness i also associated an increase 
in the number of fruit, although they are individually smaller, 
as also are theseeds. It is stated that von Mons,” of Belgium, 
has applied this method of using green seed to the raising of 
apples, in order to check too vigorous growth and to increase 
the fruitfulness. 
In connection with the increase of the number of fruit borne 
by a plant, there is also a tendency to increased earliness in 
ripening the fruit. In the cumulative trials with tomatoes by 
Goff, which have just been referred to, the strain from green 
seed ripened from ten days to four weeks earlier in different 
years, than the corresponding series from ripe seed. In an- 
other experiment with tomatoes by Goff,” seed saved from 
fruit of the same variety, in different stages of maturity, de- 
scribed as very green, pale green, tinged red, light red, deeper 
red, and fully ripe (see table VII), gave an advantage in earli- 
ness of nearly three weeks for the plants from the very green 
seed compared with those from the fully ripe seed, and of two 
* Williams, E., Rural New-Yorker, 1890, p. 798. 
a L, c., iii (1884), p. 224. 
