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A quantitative study of the factors influencing 
the weight of the bean seed. — I. Intra-ovarial 
correlations. 
By 
J. Arthur Harris, 
Carnegie Institution of Washington, U. S. A. 
With plate I to IY (figures 1—4). 
I. Introductory remarks. 
It is one of the functions of the Science of vegetable physiology 
to discover and record the factors which infiuence the size, form, 
rate of development, etc., of the individual or its parts. Various 
names have been applied to this field of research and the most 
diverse methods have been called into use for the solution of the 
Problems with which it abonnds. No apology is needetl, therefore, 
for considering any problem of the factors which underlie the form 
or magnitude of the structural elements of the organism. Nor 
should a defense of any method of attack, involving accurately 
determined facts and logically sound methods of analysis, be ne- 
cessary. The general problem set in the present paper is, „What 
. factors determine the weight of the seed in the garden bean, 
Phaseohis vulgaris , and what, quantitatively, is the significance of 
each?“ 
This question has the interest of any problem in „Ent¬ 
wicklungsmechanik“. In addition, it has a very real pertinence 
in evolutionary studies. The size of the bean seed is the character 
dealt with in some of the most discussed evolutionary questions 
of the present time; some writers have been most dogmatic con- 
cerning the physiological factors to which the Variation curve in 
the weight of the bean seed is due. The results of this study 
show, if we may anticipate, that however probable they may seem 
on the surface such Statements as have been made require checking 
against actual data. 
Beihefte Bot. Centralbl. Bd. XXXI. Abt. I. Heft 1. 
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