THE EELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE WEIGHT OF THE 
SEED PLANTED AND THE CHARACTERISTICS OF 
THE PLANT PRODUCED. 11. 
By J. ARTHUR HARRIS, Ph.D., Carnegie Institution of Washington, U.S.A. 
I. Introductory Remarks. 
1. In Biometrika, Vol. ix. pp. 11 — 21, March 1913, were published constants 
showing the relationship between the weight of tlie seed planted and the number 
of pods on the plants produced iu twenty experimentally grown series of Phaseolus 
vulgaris. From the economic view point, number of pods is the most important 
character which could have been chosen, total weight of seed matured only 
excepted. But to the student of morphogenesis, or of the physiology of seed 
production, other characters are of equal interest, while the comparison of the 
correlations for various features must yield results of significance. 
The purpose of the present communication is the presentation of the constants 
measuring the influence of the weight of the seed planted upon the number of 
ovules formed and the number of seeds developing in the pods of the matured 
plant. 
These various relationships have now been worked out for a relatively large 
bulk of material. Altogether there are 29 individual series belonging to 5 
varieties, involving 17,953 plants, from which 119,192 determinations of the 
number of ovules and seeds per pod have been made. The reply to the possible 
suggestion that the expenditure of effort in the collection and analysis of such 
masses of data is quite unjustifiable is twofold. First, a major portion of the 
labour involved was necessary for investigations not touched upon here. Secondly, 
there are many problems of morphogenesis and physiology which can only be 
solved by the amassing of large series of accurately determined biometric constants 
which when sufficiently numerous may themselves be the materials for statistical 
analysis. The data here contained are recorded in partial fulfilment of such 
requirements for certain definite morphological and physiological problems. 
The present paper is limited strictly to matters of fact ; general discussions are 
reserved until further data— much of which is already available in a raw state — 
are reduced. 
