422 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol.XLIV 



As peas are self-fertilized, it will be of interest to 

 note some results obtained with a cross-fertilized crop. 

 The writer lias obtained data from selection experiments 

 in corn which are very interesting in this connection. 

 While selecting for yield and earliness data have been 

 obtained which tend to show that corn is not different 

 from peas and that in general fluctuations are not in- 

 herited, but that certain individuals reproduce to a high 

 degree. The results obtained with yield are shown in 

 the following table. 



TABLE IV 



While making these studies the effect of the size of 

 seed planted on the offspring was determined. In plant- 

 ing the second generation plants, unfortunately, the seeds 

 were not weighed, but an average seed from each parent 

 was taken and planted. The chances are that by select- 

 ing in this manner an average sized seed would be ob- 

 tained, and since the average weight seed for eaeli parent 



sion tableVwere arranged fo Abe two plots in which the 

 height of plant for the offspring was correlated with the 

 average weight of seed for the parent plants. These 

 tables show that as the average weight of seed planted 

 increases, the height or size of the resulting plant also 

 increases. Although the coefficient is not high in either 

 case, yet it is higher on each of the plots taken than that 

 determined for any character. This seems to show that 

 the size of seed, regardless of the plant from which it 



