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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIV 



inflorescences noted are to some extent to be referred to 

 age differences in the individuals producing them. 



The number of flowers developing may now be tabu- 

 lated for each of the three classes of inflorescences. The 

 results are given in Table VI. 



Here the bimodal condition in the number of flowers 

 per inflorescence found in the 1905 series does not appear, 

 although the frequency of inflorescences with one flower is 

 about as great as that of those with two. Doubtless the 

 reason for this difference would be clear if we had as 

 complete information concerning the 1905 series as is 

 available for the 1909 material. 



The purpose of the present note will have been fulfilled 

 if in addition to the recording of a mass of definite quanti- 

 tative data concerning the form of the inflorescence in 

 Syndesmon, it convinces students of variation of the im- 

 portance of a critical consideration of purely morpholog- 

 ical features before concluding that an empirical multi- 

 modal polygon indicates the existence of biotypes. 



