No. 523] ARE FLUCTUATIONS INHERITED! 421 



second or middle third, or those near the mean, and the 

 third third, or those in which the average for the parents 

 was the highest. The average was obtained for the dif- 

 ferent characters in the offspring produced from these 

 different lots of parents and the results tabulated and 

 shown in Table III. 



TABLE III 

 Averages for the Different Characters 



























Height, untreated 



" treated 



28.7 

 39.2 



64.1 

 75.1 



36.8 

 46.6 



65.4 

 77.1 



48. 

 56.8 



59.6 

 77.5 



Internodes, untreated 



treated 



12.1 

 12.1 



16.2 

 17.7 



14.1 

 14.6 



16.8 



16.4 

 17.2 



16.4 

 17.8 



'• ' " treated 



3!l 



3.3 

 3.9 



3.1 

 4.1 





2.8 

 4.0 



8.8 



Number peas, untreated.... 



5.6 

 8.9 



5.6 

 8.5 





14.2 



25.5 



^ d ' treatetU.""."' 



1.311 





2.100 



3.335 



.972 

 1.468 



3.343 

 5.688 



.889 



We see that there is no general increase for the value 

 of the different characters as we pass from the lower 

 half to the upper half, or from the lower third to the 

 middle or upper third. In some instances there is an 

 increase, in others a decrease. That is, the individuals 

 resulting from the parents above the mean do not possess 

 the character to any greater degree than those resulting 

 from parents below the mean. We see then that these 

 data answer the question in the negative; or to take a 

 concrete case, the number of peas per plant on the un- 

 treated plot show that plants resulting from the upper 

 half of the parents do not produce any more peas per 

 plant than those coming from the lower half. The re- 

 sults are as follows: 



The two tables show very clearly that as f 

 data are concerned, there is no difference in tin 

 resulting from high or low averaging parents. 



