228 
W. G. Freeman . 
There occasionally occur among the offspring of hybrids 
between round and wrinkled types, seeds of a dubious shape which 
it is difficult on superficial examination to classify as round or 
wrinkled. Microscopically examined, each can be referred imme¬ 
diately, from the character of the starch grains, to the “ round ” or 
“ wrinkled ” type. 
The existence of such seeds and types of dubious shape was 
taken by Professor Weldon 1 as indicating irregularities in Mendelian 
segregation or dominance. No seed has, however, been found 
which, upon histological examination, allowed of any doubt as to its 
true character. Consequently occasional pitting or spurious 
wrinkling must be distinguished from the true wrinkling of 
“wrinkled” types, and the shrinking which causes it must be the 
expression of a distinct physiological process. 
R. P. GREGORY. 
1 Biometrika; Vol. I.. 1902 , p. 246 , &c. 
SOME OBJECTS AND USES OF A MUSEUM OF 
ECONOMIC BOTANY . 1 
By W. G. Freeman, B.Sc., 
Superintendent of the Colonial Collections , Imperial Institute. 
I TCONOMIC BOTANY is a broad subject whose scope it is not 
j easy to state in a few words, but for practical purposes we 
may say that: Economic Botany comprises the study of the plants 
and plant products, which directly or indirectly are of service to 
man, including their source, distribution, collection and preparation, 
and their properties and uses. 
The student of economic botany requires for the pursuit of 
these aims a thorough grasp of, at any rate, the general principles 
and important facts of systematic botany, vegetable anatomy and 
physiology, and of plant distribution ; in addition he should possess 
a general knowledge of chemistry, physics, geology and zoology and 
would find an acquaintance with the principles of commerce and 
the use of statistics of service. 
1 Based on a paper read before the London Botanical Society 
on October 30th, the portions relating directly to exhibited 
specimens being omitted. 
