INHERITANCE OF SEX IN MERCURIALIS ANNUA 419 
necessary to continue studies on the preceding lines any further. The 
j<57 seeds produced ii8 offspring all of which were prevailingly female. 
F4 Generation from Female Plants 
No effort was made to count the seeds of these plants, of which only 
a few were kept. The seed secured from them, when germinated, pro- 
duced as before prevailingly female offspring. 
The evidence, it seems to me, is clear that the offspring of selfed female 
Table 5. Germination of Seeds from F2 Female Plants 
Plant 
Number of 
Number Ger- 
Percentage 
Seeds 
minated 
Sex 
nil 
50 
0 
1 2 
0 
11I2 
8 
3 
37-5 
9 
11I3 
7 
I 
14-3 
9 
Xi 
3 
0 
X2 
12 
I 
8.3 
9 
Vi 
109 
21 
19.2 
9 
V4 
10 
0 
X4 
4 
0 
Xs 
20 
2 
10 
9 
X7 
I 
0 
Ll 
10 
2 
20 
9 
III4 
8 
0 
III5 
43 
10 
23.2 
9 
Ve 
39 
13 
33-3 
9 
XXI 1 
3 
2 
66.6 
9 
XXI2 
2 
0 
XXI4 
2 
I 
50 
9 
XXVI 1 3 
I 
0 
£1 
I 
0 
1 1 
25 
0 
Total 
358 
62 
17.3 
9 
Vlluto VII27 (table 4) 
147 
42 
28.6 
9 
1 505 
104 
20.1 
9 
plants tend in the main to be like the parents. It is to be noted that 
there was marked variation in flower and seed production among them, 
not occasioned, however, by the influence of pollen from male plants of 
varying male tendencies since they were all selfed. 
Male Cultures of Mercurialis annua 
In October, 1914, through the courtesy of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 
12 male plants of M. annua were secured. The plants were then growing 
in beds, and when they were transplanted to pots continued to grow vigor- 
ously. They kept on producing pollen. The pollen was viable, as shown 
by the fact that when they were placed among females seed was set profusely. 
The plants were examined at least every three days, and sometimes more 
often. Male flowers were continually produced. In April, 1915, a female 
