No. 546] 



INFLUENCE OF STARVATION 



317 



and those which are " productive " — for what reason we 

 do not know — do. 2 



The solution of our problem is to be sought by means 

 of a series of comparisons which fall into two classes. 

 The first is designed to test the influence of the environ- 

 ment upon the characteristics of the individual ; the sec- 

 ond is intended to show what influence, if any, the treat- 

 ment of the ancestors has had upon the offspring. 



The first series of comparisons is essential in that it 

 brings out clearly the extent to which the ancestors were 

 modified by the environment to which they were sub- 

 jected. It affords no evidence whatever as to the factors 

 to which these effects are due. The second set of com- 

 parisons is the important one. Our problem, the reader 

 must distinctly understand, is not to determine why some 

 individuals are depauperate and others luxuriant, but 

 whether the rendering of individuals depauperate 

 through the environment to which they are subjected has 

 any influence upon the measurable characteristics of their 

 offspring. 



B. Material 



The materials upon which this study was based were 

 furnished by five series of garden beans, Phaseolus vul- 

 garis. Two of these were the common white Navy. The 

 third was a strain of Burpee's Stringless first grown 

 from commercial seed at the Missouri Botanical Garden 

 in 1905. The other two were from the seed of the White 

 Flageolet and Ne Plus Ultra which Dr. Shull had used in 

 his hybridization experiments. 3 



2 Our great ignorance of the problem ot >•< il lrrti .. * ' ^« • 1 > >' 

 ing of the British Association (Science, N. S., Vol. 32, p. 364, 1911). He 



