No. 556] DEVELOPMENT IN NICOTIAN A 



209 



genetically pure race. Even though he had been able to 

 do this, doubt could still be cast upon the belief that he 

 was dealing with a strictly heritable character, because 

 the only method that seems to preclude doubt is crossing 

 with the normal and securing the F 2 ratio. This method 

 would eliminate the suspicion that minute bacterial or 

 even ultra-microscopic organisms were acting as causal 

 agents. 



Emerson and East in their maize studies have ob- 

 tained races breeding constant for fasciated ears. I 

 have myself examined such a race in Emerson's cultures. 

 Hus, on the other hand, with the same sort of an ab- 

 normality in the same plant species, Zea mays, secured 

 results similar to those of De Vries. 14 Is the difference 

 in results due to methods or to the nature of the plant 

 abnormality itself? I shall consider the results of De 

 Vries and others holding similar opinions in greater de- 

 tail in a later paper, as such results entail an extended 

 review. 



The Pkoblem and the Material 

 The problem to be discussed briefly in this paper is the 

 relation of the cytological phenomena in the reduction 

 divisions to certain segregating Mendelian characters, 

 and the nature of these characters in development and 

 inheritance. 



The material upon which the study is largely based is 

 a fasciated variety of Nicotiana tabacum. Although 

 fasciations are very common in many genera and not 

 infrequent in others, they have never been recorded (so 

 far as I can determine) in Nicotiana. The present race 

 was obtained from the selfed seed of a mutant found 

 growing in a field of Cuban tobacco in the district of 

 Partidos, near the town of Alquiza, Cuba, in 1907. I am 

 indebted to Dr. E. M. East and to Mr. J. S. Dewey 15 for 



"Hus, EL, and Murdock, A. W., "Inheritance of Fasciation in Zea 

 mays," Pl ant World, 14: 88-96, 1911. 



"Mr. J. S. Dewey is superintendent of the United States tobacco planta- 

 tion belonging to the same company that controls the Cuban plantation near 



