No. 546] INFLUENCE OF STARVATION 



337 



(a) and (b) are facts to be expected from the common 

 experience of all those who have occupied themselves ex- 

 tensively with the growing of plants; they are sum- 

 marized here merely because it is idle to discuss (c) 

 unless the results for (a) are clean cut. 1 " 



Turn now from diagrams to physical constants. Con- 

 sider first the intra-ramal comparisons, those cases in 

 which individuals whose ancestors have been starved for 

 a longer period are contrasted with individuals in the 

 same line of descent whose ancestors have been starved 

 for a shorter period of time. The necessary constants 

 appear in Table IV. 



TABLE IV 



Two of these means seem to be significant in compar- 

 ison with their probable errors, and both of these indicate 

 that starvation of the ancestry for two as compared with 

 one generation, increases the number of pods on the off- 

 spring plant. But, it must be remembered that the seed 

 is necessarily a year older for a single generation of 

 starvation only. Furthermore, the series are too few 

 and the differences are entirely too small— only 1.6 pods 

 — to lay particular stress upon it. 



The second set of comparisons, the inter-ramal, those 



"Those noted under (6) may be treated more fully later. 



