NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



393 



character of the inflorescence or by the position of the fruit on the 

 inflorescence as might have been, a priori, expected. The author gives 

 twelve tables, 2 correlation tables, and has apparently counted 

 189,923 ovules and 19,827 seeds.— G. F. S. E. 



Seed Production in Western Yellow Pine, The Influence of 

 Age and Condition of the Tree upon. By G. A. Pearson (U.S.A . 



Dep. Agr., Forest Service, Circ. 196; Jan. 13, 1912). — The conditions 

 affecting the germinative quality of seed of the Yellow Pine are fully 

 discussed in this paper, and are of particular interest to the nurseryman 

 or others who raise trees from &eed. 



Seed from young trees show a higher germination than seed from 

 old, mature, or over-mature trees. — A. D. W. 



Seeds, Long-evity of [Rev. Hort. p. 170, April 16, 1912).— Seeds 

 of Acaciw lophantha sown by Sir "William Herschel, and which had 

 been sent to him by his father in 1843, germinated and produced seven 

 plants, of which one has flowered abundantly. The seeds were thus 

 sixty-eight years old when sown. — C. T. D. 



Sex Inheritance in Lychnis. By G. H. Shull (Bot. Gaz. 



pp. 329-368, Nov. 1911; 15 figs.). — The author used fourteen herma- 

 phrodite individuals of Lychnis dioica for Mendelian experiments. He 

 found that some of these behaved exactly like normal males, whilst 

 others, when used as pollen parents, produced hermaphrodite and not 

 m^ale offspring, and describes the first set as " somatic " and the 

 second as " genetic." The results of his experiments were as follows : 



1. Genetic hermaphrodite mutants with females produced 586 

 female, 446 hermaphrodite, and 2 male. 



2. Genetic hermaphrodite mutants self- fertilized, 143 120 5. 



3. Hermaphrodites formed in second series and self-fertilized, 

 147 ? , 101 5 , 3 . 



4. Crossing hermaphrodites from second series with an unrelated 

 female 1382 $,867 § , 3 



5. Crossing females of second series with unrelated male, 471 $ , 

 305 a^, 4 5. 



6. Daughters of a self-fertilized hermaphrodite crossed with one of 

 their hemaphrodite " sibs," 429 ? , 155 ^. 



7. Hermaphrodite offspring of an outcrossed hermaphrodite mutant 

 crossed with unrelated females, 428 ? , 292 § , 1 a' . 



8. Hermaphrodites pollinated by normal males, 29 ? , 12 ^ , 2 5. 



9. Hermaphrodite offspring of a hermaphrodite mother and 

 normal male crossed upon unrelated female, 89 . ? , 71 5 . 



10. The same crossed with " sibs " (females of their own descent), 

 127 ? , 73 g , 2 ^ . 



11. Daughters of a hermaphrodite Juother and male father crosse(i 

 with unrelated male, 50 ? , 34 <^ . 



12. Male mutants crossed with unrelated females, 83 ? , 84 ^ . 



