No. 546] INFLUENCE OF STARVATION 



315 



further biological problems of the nature and permanence 

 of this influence will be open for investigation. 



Finally it may be said in passing that the work on these 

 beans was so carried out that data for many other prob- 

 lems besides those discussed here were secured. That of 

 the pure line, that of the relationship between the size of 

 the seed planted and the characteristics of the plant 

 produced, that of the relationship* between the size of 

 the plant and the fertility of its pod and the size of the 

 seeds which it produces, that of the relationship between 

 the ovule characters of the pod and its fertility, may be 

 mentioned. These will shortly be made ready for publi- 

 cation; hence if the reader encounters these series of 

 beans in several different places he must not assume du- 

 plicate publication. The mass of data in hand is so great 

 that it is either necessary to scatter the material in this 

 way or to withhold it all for several months or years until 

 it can be presented in one volume. The former scheme 

 for several reasons seems the most expedient. 



II. Statement of Problems and Description of Mate- 

 rials and Methods 



A. Limitation of the Problem 



The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a 

 series of experiments to determine whether plants whose 

 ancestors have been starved differ from those whose an- 

 cestors have been well fed. 



It might seem to the reader that the first step in such a 

 problem would be to define starvation and feeding, to list 

 the factors underlying these conditions, and to ascertain 

 the weight of each of these factors in determining the 

 characteristics of a series of plants subjected to them. 



This seemed to me in undertaking these particular ex- 

 periments precisely the course which one should not fol- 

 low. Physiologists, especially those concerned with plant 

 nutrition in the agricultural stations, have devoted a 

 quarter of a century or more to these very problems. 



