IN THE TROPICS. 
363 
began to flower at half the usual height* and produced almost no 
seed. 
Plants from seeds sown in February or March rarely reached the 
flowering stage at all, owing to the excess of sun and lack of 
moisture. 
(3) Offspring of crosses, both F 1 and F 2 , were next sown on the 2nd 
and 5th of May. Twelve inches of rain fell between the 2nd and 21st 
of May, and this was followed by a drought until June 4th. At the 
beginning of June the plants were found to have been attacked by a 
mildew which subsequently became very serious. Practically all the 
seeds that were sown germinated and very few of the plants died ; as 
a consequence the plants grew too close together (allowance having 
been made for a certain number of casualties) and the fungus was 
thus enabled to spread rapidly. The plants were also damaged by 
an alternation of showers and bright sunshine, which occurred 
frequently in June and caused a blistering of the young leaves and 
stipules, f The seeds were gathered at the beginning of August and 
the crop was a particularly poor one. 
(3 a) A series of the original strains which was sown early in 
April grew moderately well, and some further crosses were made 
upon them. 
(4) The seeds from these last were sown immediately they were 
ripe, that is to say on the 9th of July. These fared even worse 
than the previous series, meeting with dry weather in August, when 
rain was much needed, and ripening in very wet weather at the 
beginning of October. They were somewhat mildewed and yielded 
hardly any seeds or useful result, and none of their progeny were 
reared. 
(5) The next series—F 2 and F 3 , the offspring of (3)—were sown 
on October 26th, 1903. A very large number failed to germinate 
{i.e., about 80 per cent, of those sown, a state of things which is 
doubtless to be explained by the bad conditions to which the plants 
* I.e., of plants sown in November. 
f Showing very clearly by contrast the protection afforded the older foliage 
by its thick epidermal covering of wax. 
