32 Nebraska Agricultural Exp. Station, Research BuL'7. 
be disregarded since the same habit is common to both parents. 
It has, therefore, seemed wise to consider growth habit as some- 
thing entirely apart from the other factors for height. This 
procedure greatly simplifies our problem — a fact that does not 
seem to have been recognized by some investigators. Up to 
this point we have been concerned largely with habit of growth. 
We come now to a consideration of other factors affecting height. 
Number of internodes plays perhaps an equal part with inter- 
node length in determining height of plants. It is a character 
that is obviously very closely related to habit of growth. Plants 
of determinate growth habit have a rather definite number of 
internodes, while those of indeterminate growth habit may have 
from comparatively few to very many internodes. It is true that 
certain races of bush beans show rather constant differences in 
number of internodes, but the fluctuation within a particular 
race — 2-4 internodes — is greater than the average difference 
between the most diverse strains that have come under my 
observation. Some races of pole beans also commonly have 
more internodes than others, but number of internodes is here so 
greatly influenced by the weather and other external conditions 
that its investigation is beset with many difficulties. Under 
the comparatively uniform conditions that can be maintained 
in a greenhouse the difficulties are lessened, but it has been im- 
possible for me to make use of sufficient greenhouse room for 
studies of this sort. Not the least difficulty met, in carrying out 
an investigation of this kind in the garden, has been the breaking 
of the main axis of tall plants by winds. The taller pole beans, 
moreover, become so badly tangled that it is extremely difficult to 
make accurate counts. Some observations of number of nodes 
have been made, however, and they are presented here with a 
full realization of their unsatisfactory nature. 
The races used in these crosses were: Red Marrow, a tall 
bush bean; Triumph, a short bush bean; July, a tall pole bean; 
and Snowflake, a short pole bean. The two races of bush beans 
were chosen for crossing on account of the great difference in 
their height. This difference, it is true, is largely one of internode 
length, but the number of internodes of these races is of interest 
for comparison with the bush beans occurring in F2 of bush-pole 
crosses. 
In Table 1 are shown the variations in number of nodes of 
the two bush races, of the Fi and Fo generations of crosses between 
them, and of the bush plants that occurred in F2 of crosses be- 
tween these bush races and the pole races July and Snowflake. 
All these plants were grown in the garden in 1912. The plants 
representing the parent races were directly descended from the 
