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The  American  naturalist 


Essex  Institute,  American 

Society  of  Naturalists,  JSTOR  (Organization) 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURAUST 


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THE 


AMERICAN  NATURALIST 


A  Monthly  Journal 

Devoted  to  the  Advancement  of  the  Biological  Sciences 

With  Special  Reference  to  the  Factors  of  Evolution 


VOLUME  XLVIII 


NEW  YORK 
THE  SCIENCE  PRESS 

1914 


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PRESS  OF 

THE  NEW  ERA  PRINTINO  COMPANY 

LANCASTER   PA. 


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roi.  zLTm,  10.  MS  jahiust,  i>i4 


THE 

AMERICAN 
NATURALIST 


A  M0HTEL7  JOXnUTAL 

Jtaroted  to  fhe  AdTaneement  of  the  Biological  Scienoot  witt 

Special  Beforence  to  the  Factors  of  Evolntioii 

OOVTBVTS 

Pa§€ 

I.    A  OeiMtte  Analysli  of  th»  Ohanf  m  produced  by  8«loetloa  la  BxptrlsiMiU 

wltli  TobMOO.    Proftnor  £.  M.  Eabt  and  H.  K.  Hatbs       ....     5 

n.    aynaadromorpboiu  AnU,  dMorlbod  dnring  tbe  Dtcade,  1908-1918 

ProfeMor  William  Morton  Whbelkb   49 

m.    Sliorler  ArttolM  and  Diiouitloa : 

On  tbe  Besnlts  of  Inbreeding  a  Mendellan  Population — ^A  Correction  and  Ex* 
tendon  of  Prerions  Conclusions.  Dr.  Batmomd  Pbarl— Isolati<m  and  Selec- 
tion allied  in  Principle.    Dr.  John  T.  Gulick -    07 


THE  80IEN0E  FBE88 

IiAHOASTEB,  PA.  OABBI80H.  H.  T. 

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THE 

AMERICAN  NATURALIST 


Vol.  XLVni  January,  19U  No.  566 

A  GENETIC  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  CHANGES  PRO- 
DUCED BY  SELECTION  IN  EXPERIMENTS 
WITH  TOBACCO* 

PROFESSOR  E.  M.  EAST  and  H.  K.  HAYES 
BussET  Institution  of  Habvard  Univebsitt 

The  Problem 

In  1903  Johannsen  announced  that  continued  selection 
of  the  extreme  values  of  certain  quantitative  characters 
in  successive  self-fertilized  generations  of  a  number  of 
strains  of  beans  had  produced  no  changes  in  the  mean 
values  of  the  characters.  He  concluded  that  these  par- 
ticular strains  were  homozygous  for  the  gametic  factors 
whose  interaction  resulted  in  the  characters  investigated, 
that  these  homozygous  characters  may  be  properly  de- 
scribed by  one  or  more  gametic  factors  nonvariable  in 
transmissible  qualities  and  properties,  and  that  the  varia- 
tions observed  in  the  characters  of  any  single  fraternity 
were  due  entirely  to  the  action  of  environmental  condi- 
tions during  ontogeny  and  were  not  inherited.  Funda- 
mentally, these  conclusions  were  a  recognition  of  the  gen- 
eral value  of  Mendelian  description  for  all  forms  of  in- 
heritance through  sexual  reproduction,  combined  with  an 

1  These  inyestigations  were  conducted  with  funds  furnished  by  the  Con- 
necticut Agricultural  Experiment  Station  from  their  Adams'  appropria- 
tions, bj  the  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  of  the  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture,  and  by  the  Bussey  Institution  of  Harvard  University,  and  the 
writers  desire  to  take  this  opportunity  of  expressing  their  sincere  appre- 
ciation of  this  hearty  cooperation  which  made  the  work  possible. 

5 


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6  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [V0L.XLVIII 

admission  of  disbelief  in  the  inheritance  of  ordinary 
adaptive  changes.  The  latter  conception  was  Weismann- 
ian  in  that  all  inherited  variations  were  held  to  be  changes 
in  the  germ  cells.  It  was  not  necessary  to  suppose  it  im- 
possible for  the  environment  to  produce  such  changes  and 
therefore  to  have  been  of  no  value  during  the  course  of 
evolution,  but  merely  to  suppose  that  during  the  compara- 
tively short  period  of  experimental  investigations  no  gam- 
etic variations  have  occurred  traceable  to  such  a  cause. 
For  his  first  conclusion  to  be  justified,  it  was  assumed  that 
the  changes  which  every  biologist  knows  do  follow  the 
continuous  selection  of  extremes  under  certain  conditions 
are  to  be  interpreted  entirely  by  the  segregation  and  re- 
combination of  hypothetical  gametic  factors  which  are 
constant  in  their  reactions  under  identical  conditions. 

Numerous  investigators  working  on  ''pure  lines"  with 
different  material  corroborated  Johannsen's  conclusions, 
and,  as  it  was  seen  to  be  possible  to  interpret  in  the  same 
manner  changes  made  by  selection  in  experiments  where 
self-fertilized  lines  were  not  used,  such  as  those  of  the 
Vilmorins  and  others  on  sugar  beets  and  those  of  the 
Illinois  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  on  maize,  many 
biologists  accepted  them  and  considered  them  a  great  ad- 
vance over  former  conceptions  of  the  mechanism  of 
heredity.  On  the  other  hand,  there  were  those  who  main- 
tained a  skeptical  attitude,  the  chief  criticism  directed 
against  the  conception  being  that  all  progress  due  to 
selection  must  have  a  limit,  which  in  many  of  these  ex- 
periments had  already  been  reached,  and  that  even  if  re- 
sults were  being  obtained  action  might  be  too  slow  to  be 
detected. 

The  Material 

These  criticisms  were  reasonable  when  applied  to  cer- 
tain specific  cases,  and  in  1908  the  experiments  reported 
in  this  paper  were  designed  with  the  hope  of  testing  their 
validity,  using  the  species  ordinarily  grown  for  commer- 
cial tobacco,  Nicotiana  tabacum,  as  the  material.  This 
plant  satisfies  the   conditions  which  are  requisite  for 


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No.  565]         CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  7 

material  used  in  pure  line  studies.  It  has  characters  that 
can  be  estimated  readily  and  accurately  and  which  are 
affected  only  slightly  by  external  conditions.  It  is  easily 
grown,  is  naturally  self -fertilized,  reproduces  prolifically, 
and  is  known  in  many  markedly  different  varieties.  In 
fact,  it  is  an  ideal  subject  for  work  of  this  kind. 

The  investigations  were  not  patterned  after  the  stand- 
ard type  set  by  Johannsen  wherein  the  constancy  of  suc- 
cessive generations  of  pure  lines  grown  from  selected 
extremes  were  tested,  since  even  if  it  were  possible  to 
gather  a  quantity  of  data  at  all  comparable  to  that  col- 
lected by  Johannsen  ( :09)  and  Jennings  ( :08)  in  their 
brilliant  investigations,  the  criticisms  mentioned  above 
might  still  be  made.  The  plan  chosen  was  that  of  cross- 
ing two  varieties  of  tobacco  which  differed  in  a  character 
complex  easily  and  precisely  determined,  and  of  selecting 
extremes  from  a  number  of  families  of  the  F2  generation. 
If  Johannsen 's  views  be  incorrect,  such  continued  selec- 
tion should  affect  each  family  in  the  same  degree.  If  his 
conclusions  be  justified,  selection  should  reach  an  end- 
poiat  in  different  generations  in  different  families,  and 
there  should  be  no  relation  between  the  number  of  genera- 
tions required  to  reach  this  end-point  and  the  progress 
that  is  possible. 

There  should  be  no  need  of  a  historical  summary  of  the 
previous  investigations  that  have  been  interpreted  as  cor- 
roborating or  refuting  Johannsen 's  conclusions.  Such 
summaries  have  been  made  in  other  papers.  It  should  be 
mentioned,  however,  that  the  classical  researches  of  Pearl 
(:11)  on  the  inheritance  of  fecundity  in  the  domestic 
fowl  have  been  so  planned  and  executed  that  certain  of 
the  criticisms  directed  against  Johannsen  mentioned  above 
are  not  justified,  yet  Pearl  finds  himself  thoroughly  in 
accord  with  the  Danish  physiologist's  position. 

Several  hundred  varieties  of  Nicotiana  tahacum  exist 
which  differ  from  each  other  by  definite  botanical  char- 
acters, yet  only  two  general  characters  suitable  for  our 
purpose  were  found.  We  desired  to  confine  our  observa- 
tions to  quantitative  characters  that  were  influenced  but 


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8 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 


little  by  environment,  and  number  of  leaves  and  size  of 
corolla  were  the  only  ones  that  satisfied  this  requirement. 
Such  character  differences  as  height  of  plant  and  size  of 
leaf,  while  undoubtedly  transmissible,  are  influenced  so 
strongly  in  their  development  by  nutrition  that  work  with 
them  is  exceedingly  diflBcult.  For  example,  if  a  certain 
variety  of  Nicotiana  tahacum  is  grown  under  the  best  of 
field  conditions,  the  longest  leaves  are  about  28  inches  and 
the  total  height  about  6  feet,  but  a  portion  of  the  same 
seed  fraternity  may  be  grown  to  maturity  in  4-inch  pots 
without  reaching  a  height  of  over  16  inches  or  having 
leaves  longer  than  4  inches.  On  the  other  hand,  several 
experiments  conducted  in  the  same  manner  have  shown 
no  difference  between  the  frequency  curves  of  variation 
in  number  of  leaves  or  of  size  of  corolla,  whether  starved 
in  small  pots  or  grown  under  optimum  conditions.  The 
character  complex  number  of  leaves  was  chosen  for  this 
investigation  rather  than  the  size  of  corolla  because  vari- 
eties that  differ  greatly  in  number  of  leaves  are  common. 

TABLE   I 

Frequency  Distribution  op  Number  op  Leaves  per  Plant  when 
Starved  in  Small  Pots 

(Compare  with  frequency  distribution  under  normal   field   conditions   at 
Forest  Hills,  Massachusetts,  in  Tables  VU  and  XI) 


No.  of  Lmtm  per  Plant 

Plant  No. 

22 

28 

24 

25 

28 

27 

28 

29 

80 

81 

82 

83 

84 

80 

86 

87 

(6-l)-l 

2 

1 

3 
6 

10 
8 

1 

15 

15 

0 

1 

12 

6 

8 
16 
8 
0 
6 
10 

7 
12 

7 

1 

7 

13 

1 
5 
14 
0 
2 
8 

(e-2) 
(6-2)-2 

(se-i) 

(66-2) 

15 
2 

14 
3 

8 
12 

3 
17 

3 
16 

8 

0 

1 

1 

4 

8 
4 

3 

1 

Previous  Work  of  the  '* Havana''  X  *' Sumatra''  Cross 

Several  crosses  have  been  made  between  varieties  of 
tobacco  that  had  a  mean  difference  of  seven  or  eight 
leaves,  but  the  majority  of  the  data  reported  here  were 
collected  from  the  descendants  of  a  cross  made  by  A.  D. 
Shamel  between  the  types  known  in  Connecticut  as 
'  *  Havana ' '  and  * '  Sumatra. ' '    The  '  *  Havana ' '  parent  was 


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No.  565]         CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  9 

from  a  variety  that  had  been  grown  for  a  number  of  years 
at  Granby,  Connecticut.  It  averages  about  20  leaves  per 
plant  although  ranging  from  16  to  25  leaves.  The  aver- 
age height  is  about  1.4  m.  and  the  average  leaf  area  about 
7  sq.  dm.  The  *' Sumatra''  parent  was  a  type  specimen 
of  a  variety  that  had  been  introduced  into  Connecticut  to 
be  grown  under  cloth  shade.  It  averages  between  26  and 
27  leaves  per  plant  with  a  range  of  from  21  to  32  leaves. 
The  average  height  is  nearly  2.0  m.,  but  the  average  leaf 
area  is  only  about  3  sq.  dm. 

According  to  Shamel,  the  first  hybrid  generation  of 
this  cross  developed  somewhat  more  vigorously  than  the 
parent  types  and  was  uniform  in  its  habit  of  growth. 
The  second  generation,  he  thought,  was  hardly  more  vari- 
able than  the  first.  Several  F3  families,  the  progeny  of 
inbred  F2  individuals,  were  grown  in  1906  and  proved  to 
be  a  variable  lot.  One  of  these  plants  produced  26  small, 
round-pointed  leaves  with  short  intemodes  between  them. 
This  plant  was  thought  by  Mr.  E.  Halladay,  upon  whose 
farm  the  experiment  was  conducted,  and  Mr.  J.  B.  Stewart, 
of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  to  be  worth  sav- 
ing from  its  promise  of  producing  a  desirable  commercial 
type. 

In  1907  the  Department  of  Agriculture  made  an  agree- 
ment with  Mr.  Halladay  to  grow  two  acres  of  tobacco  for 
experimental  purposes,  and  on  his  own  initiative  Mr. 
Halladay  grew  a  number  of  plants  from  inbred  seed  of 
the  one  that  bore  26  leaves.  This  selection,  numbered  2 
h-29  in  accordance  with  the  department  nomenclature, 
was  comparatively  uniform  in  appearance  and  several 
plants  were  selfed.  In  Mr.  Halladay 's  absence,  how- 
ever, all  of  the  plants  were  ** topped,''  except  one  that 
happened  to  be  rather  late.  This  plant  was  selfed.  It 
had  26  medium-sized,  round  leaves  and  grew  to  about  the 
same  height  as  the  Connecticut  Havana. 

In  view  of  Mr.  Halladay 's  high  opinion  of  the  type,  the 
seed  of  this  plant  and  the  remaining  seed  of  its  parent 
were  planted  in  1908.  The  plants  of  this  generation  pre- 
sented a  uniform  appearance  and  promised  a  high  grade 


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10  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVra 

of  wrapper  tobacco,  but  the  crop  when  cured  lacked  uni- 
formity. Some  leaves  of  exceptionally  high  quality  were 
produced,  but  the  crop  in  general  lacked  that  characteris- 
tic known  as  ^* grain''  and  had  too  large  a  proportion  of 
heavy  leaves — the  so-called  *'tops." 

From  this  1908  generation  100  seed  plants  were  selfed, 
their  leaves  harvested,  cured  and  fermented  separately, 
and  data  on  quality  recorded.  The  type  was  also  grown 
conunercially  on  a  large  scale.  The  commercial  results, 
however,  have  been  reported  in  another  paper.  We  are  to 
consider  only  the  results  gf  the  selection  experiment  that 
began  in  1908,  through  the  cooperation  between  the  U.  S. 
Department  of  Agriculture  and  the  Connecticut  Agricul- 
tural Experiment  Station,  a  joining  of  forces  that  in  1909 
included  the  Bussey  Institution  of  Harvard  University. 
Shamel  ( :07)  considered  the  strain  produced  by  this  cross 
to  be  the  result  of  a  mutation.  From  a  study  of  the 
data  from  the  previous  work  on  the  cross  it  seemed  to  the 
writers  that  a  different  interpretation  of  the  results  might 
be  made.  While  it  was  not  impossible  that  the  many- 
leaved  type  that  had  been  isolated  was  the  result  of  a 
mutation,  it  appeared  much  more  probable  that  it  had 
arisen  through  a  recombination  of  Mendelian  factors. 
The  type  had  the  habit  of  growth  and  size  of  leaf  of  the 
pure  '* Havana"  variety  and  the  number  of  leaves  of  the 
''Sumatra"  variety,  a  combination  that  might  reason- 
ably be  expected  to  be  the  result  of  the  Mendelian  law. 

Results  on  the  Reciprocal  Cross,  ''Sumatra" 
X  ^'Havana" 
To  test  the  hypothesis  that  the  new  tobacco  was  the 
result  of  such  recombination  and  could  be  reproduced 
whenever  desired,  the  reciprocal  of  the  original  cross  was 
made  in  1910.  The  female  parent,  "Sumatra,"  was  the 
direct  descendant  of  a  sister  of  the  plant  used  as  the 
male  parent  of  the  original  cross  by  Shamel  in  1903 
through  seven  generations  of  selfed  plants.  The  male 
parent,  "Havana,"  was  from  the  commercial  field  of  the 
Windsor  Tobacco  Growers'  Corporation  at  Bloomfield, 


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No.  566]         CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  1 1 

Connecticut.  It  was  a  descendant  in  a  collateral  line  of 
the  plant  used  by  Shamel  in  1903  as  the  female  parent  in 
his  cross. 

Table  n,  giving  the  frequency  distribution  for  the  num- 
ber of  leaves  of  the  two  parents  and  the  first  and  the 
second  hybrid  generations,  is  a  complete  justification  of 
our  prediction  as  to  how  the  hybrid  type  produced  by 
Shamel  originated.  The  ** Sumatra"  and  the  F^  genera- 
tion were  grown  at  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  in  1911,  the 
*' Havana"  was  grown  at  Bloomfield,  Connecticut,  in  1911 
from  conmaercial  seed  of  the  same  variety  as  the  plant 
used  for  the  male  parent,  while  the  Fg  generation  was 
grown  at  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  in  1912.  The  F,  gen- 
eration, producing  an  average  of  23.3  ±:  .14  leaves  per 
plant,  is  intermediate  in  leaf  number,  since  the  *  *  Havana ' ' 
variety  shows  an  average  leaf  number  per  plant  of  19.8 
±  .08  and  the  *^ Sumatra"  variety  26.5  ±:  .11.  The  varia- 
tion as  determined  by  the  coeflBcient  of  variability  is  some- 
what less  for  the  F^  than  for  either  parent.  The  value 
for  the  ** Sumatra"  variety  is  6.64  per  cent.  ±.28  per 
cent,  for  the  ** Havana"  variety  6.98  per  cent.  ±:  .27  per 
cent,  and  for  the  F^  generation  6.24  per  cent.  ±  .41  per 
cent.  Taking  into  consideration  the  probable  error  in 
each  case,  one  may  say  that  the  variability  of  the  three 
populations  is  almost  the  same. 

The  variability  of  the  F2  generation,  however,  is  greatly 
increased.  This  is  shown  by  the  high  coefficient  of  vari- 
ability, 10.29  ±:  .23  per  cent.,  although  a  glance  at  the  fre- 
quency distribution  with  its  range  of  from  18  to  31  leaves 
brings  home  the  point  without  recourse  to  biometrical 
calculation. 

The  appearance  of  the  plants  in  the  field  corroborated 
the  data  of  Table  II  in  other  characters.  The  Fi  genera- 
tion was  intermediate  in  the  various  leaf  characters,  such 
as  shape,  size  and  texture,  that  distinguish  '* Sumatra" 
from  *  *  Havana ' '  tobacco,  and  in  these  characters  it  seemed 
as  uniform  as  either  of  the  parental  varieties.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Fg  generation  was  extremely  variable.  Some 
plants  could  not  be  distinguished  from  the  pure  *'Suma- 


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12  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL-XLVm 

tra,''  others  resembled  ** Havana/'  although  of  course  the 
majority  were  intermediate  in  various  degrees.  Several 
plants  combined  the  leaf  size  and  habit  of  growth  of  the 
** Havana"  parent  with  the  leaf  number  of  the  ** Suma- 
tra'' parent.  In  other  words,  plcmts  were  produced  in 
the  F2  generation  by  the  recombination  of  Mendelian  fac- 
tors that  exactly  repeated  the  type  which  Shamel  had  ob- 
tained in  the  F^  generation  of  the  reciprocal  cross  made 
in  1903  and  which  he  thought  was  due  to  a  mutation. 
This  fulfilled  adequately  the  prediction  made  by  us  in 
1908. 

Results  of  Selecting  fob  High  Numbeb  and  Low  Num- 
ber OF  Leaves  in  the  ** Havana"  X  ** Sumatra" 

Cross 

Li  describing  the  reproduction  of  Shamel 's  hybrid  with 
numerous  large  leaves  by  a  reciprocal  cross,  there  has 
been  a  chronological  inversion.  This  was  done  simply  to 
show  that  the  original  hybrid  known  commercially  as 
**The  Halladay"  was  actually  a  recombination  of  Men- 
delian factors  in  which  the  ** Havana"  and  the  ** Suma- 
tra" varieties  differed.  We  will  now  describe  the  effects 
of  selection  on  the  original  '* Halladay  hybrid." 

It  wiU  be  recalled  that  the  selection  experiment  which 
is  the  principal  subject  of  this  paper  began  with  the  self- 
ing  of  100  seed  plants  of  Shamel's  Halladay  hybrid  in 
1908.  These  plants  were  the  F4  and  F^  generations  of  the 
cross  ''Havana"  X  ''Sumatra."  Plants  numbered  from 
1  to  49  were  the  F4  generation ;  those  numbered  from  50 
to  100  were  the  F5  generation.  They  were  apparently 
breeding  true  for  the  short  habit  of  growth  and  large- 
sized  leaf  of  the  "Havana"  parent  and  the  goodly  num- 
ber of  leaves  of  the  "Sumatra"  parent.  The  casual  ob- 
server either  would  have  said  with  Shamel  that  here  was 
a  mutation  breeding  as  true  as  any  tobacco  variety,  or 
that  a  fixed  hybrid,  a  hybrid  homozygous  in  all  of  its 
gametic  factors,  had  been  produced.  Accurate  data 
taken  on  the  progeny  of  those  of  the  F4  and  Fg  seed  plants 
which  it  was  possible  for  us  to  grow  in  our  limited  space, 


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No.  565]         CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  13 

however,  show  that  such  judgments  would  have  been 
superficial.  The  general  type  of  the  plant  did  appear  to 
be  fixed,  but  the  frequency  distribution  for  number  of 
leaves  of  the  F^  and  F^  populations  were  not  the  same. 
Strictly  speaking,  they  were  not  fixed.  What  would  be 
the  result  of  selecting  (and  selfing)  extremes  from  these 
ddflferent  families  for  a  number  of  years?  A  tentative 
answer  to  this  question  is  to  be  obtained  by  examining 
the  remainder  of  our  tables. 

The  tables  are  arranged  roughly  in  the  order  of  the 
effect  that  selection  has  had  in  changing  the  mean  of  the 
various  families  that  were  the  starting  points  of  this  part 
of  the  experiment.  The  selections  were  grown  near  Bloom- 
field,  Connecticut,  on  the  light  sandy  loam  of  that  region, 
soil  typical  of  that  which  produces  the  famous  Connecti- 
cut River  Valley  wrapper  tobacco.  Duplicate  experi- 
ments with  several  of  the  original  families  were  made  at 
New  Haven,  Connecticut,  however,  on  an  impoverished 
soil  not  fitted  to  grow  a  good  quality  of  tobacco  even  after 
supplying  large  quantities  of  tobacco  fertilizer,  and  in 
the  condition  used  not  fitted  to  grow  good  crops  of  any 
kind.  Two  families  were  also  grown  in  triplicate,  the 
third  selections  being  planted  at  Forest  Hills,  Massachu- 
setts, on  a  very  fine  type  of  rich  garden  land  which  brought 
out  maximum  luxuriance  of  growth,  but  which  did  not 
produce  good  tobacco  quality.  These  experiments  were 
not  true  repetitions  of  the  experiments  at  Bloomfield, 
Connecticut,  since  aliquot  portions  of  the  seed  from  the 
selfed  plant  grown  there  were  not  sent  to  the  other  places 
to  be  grown.  But  they  were  duplicates  in  that  each 
family  came  from  the  same  F4  or  Fg  mother  plant, 
although,  beginning  with  the  Fg  or  Fe  population,  differ- 
ent selfed  seed  plants  furnished  the  starting  point  of  selec- 
tions carried  on  independently.  In  this  way  there  were 
afforded  a  greater  number  of  chances  to  see  what  selec- 
tion could  do. 

Table  III  shows  the  results  obtained  from  family  No. 
77.  This  family  arose  from  an  F5  plant  having  23  leaves, 
one  below  the  modal  leaf  number  if  we  may  juTJge  from 


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14 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVTEI 


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16  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 

the  F2  generation  of  the  reciprocal  cross  where  the  mode 
was  at  24  to  25  leaves.  The  F^  fraternity  that  it  pro- 
duced was  somewhat  smaller  than  one  would  wish  if 
he  were  to  be  confident  of  the  calculations  made.  The 
mode  is  22  leaves  and  the  mean  nearly  the  same,  22.4 
±  .11  leaves.  From  among  these  plants,  a  minus  variant 
having  20  leaves  and  a  plus  variant  having  27  leaves  were 
selected  to  produce  the  F^  generation.  The  modes  in  this 
generation  are  21  and  25  leaves,  respectively,  a  difference 
of  4  leaves ;  and  the  means  are  21.9  ±  .08  and  24.9  ±  .11 
leaves,  respectively,  a  difference  of  3  leaves.  Progress  in 
both  directions  continued  when  a  20-leaved  plant  was 
selected  to  carry  on  the  minus  strain,  and  a  30-leaved 
plant  was  selected  to  carry  on  the  plus  strain.  The  modal 
classes  of  the  Fg  generation  are  21  leaves  in  the  minus 
selection  and  26  leaves  in  the  plus  selection,  while  the 
means  are  21.3  ±:  .05  leaves  and  26.6  ±  .07  leaves,  respect- 
ively. In  the  Fg  generation  the  plus  selection  was  lost, 
but  the  minus  selection  grown  from  a  20-leaved  plant  had 
the  mode  dropped  to  18  leaves  and  the  mean  to  18.4  ±  .08 
leaves.  In  order  not  to  lose  the  plus  selection  entirely, 
however,  more  of  the  Fg  generation  seed  was  grown  in 
1912.  The  mode  is  the  same  as  in  1911,  but  the  mean 
dropped  slightly  to  25.8  ±:  .08  leaves. 

Here  one  notices  what  is  very  common  throughout  the 
experiment ;  the  extremes  selected  for  mother  plants  were 
not  members  of  the  most  extreme  classes.  This  means 
simply  that  vigorous  healthy  specimens  were  always 
selected  as  the  mother  plants,  and  often  the  most  extreme 
variants  did  not  come  up  to  the  standard.  It  is  hardly 
just  to  criticize  this  procedure,  however,  for  with  the  best 
care  that  it  was  possible  to  give,  the  experiments  with 
several  families  were  terminated  on  account  of  non- 
germination  of  seed  or  for  some  similar  reason,  it  being 
impossible,  on  account  of  the  pressure  of  other  work,  to 
self  many  plants  in  each  selection.  Even  where  seed 
from  several  mother  plants  was  collected,  it  did  not  in- 
sure the  continuation  of  that  selection.  The  necessary 
space  and  care  involved  in  growing  so  many  seedlings  in 


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No.  565]        CHANGES  PBODUOED  BY  SELECTION 


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18  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Voi^XLVni 

isolated  seed  pans  filled  with  sterilized  soil  made  it  im- 
possible to  start  more  than  two  sets  of  plants  for  each 
plus  and  each  minus  selection.  Generally  both  sets  grew 
perfectly,  but  occasionally  both  failed,  and  in  that  case  it 
was  usually  too  late  in  the  season  to  start  a  third  set  even 
if  it  were  available. 

The  second  part  of  Table  III  shows  the  results  obtained 
on  the  poor  soil  of  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  with  the  same 
family.  There  was  continuous  progress  in  both  direc- 
tions. The  minus  selections  during  the  three  generations 
show  a  constant  reduction  of  mode,  the  figures  being  23, 
22  and  21;  the  plus  selections  show  an  even  greater  in- 
crease in  mode,  the  figures  being  25,  27  and  28.  The  same 
decrease  and  increase  occur  in  the  means  until  in  the  F^ 
generation  there  is  a  difference  of  nearly  9  leaves,  the  cal- 
culated means  being  20.9db.08  leaves  and  29.7±.14  leaves, 
respectively. 

Figs.  1  and  2  show  typical  plants  of  the  plus  and  minus 
strains  of  this  family  as  developed  by  3  years  of  selection. 
Fig.  3  illustrates  an  interesting  change  of  phyllotaxy  in 
some  plants  of  (77--2)-l-l  as  grownat  New  Haven  in  1912. 

Passing  to  the  data  on  Family  No.  76  (Table  IV)  there 
is  the  same  evidence  of  the  effectiveness  of  selection,  ex- 
cluding the  minus  strain  in  1910,  of  which  only  31  plants 
were  healthy.  This  effect  is  markedly  less  than  with  the 
other  family.  The  mode  of  the  minus  selection  remained 
at  24  leaves  and  the  mean  was  reduced  only  from  24.1 
±  .11  leaves  to  23.9  ±  .05  leaves, — hardly  a  significant 
figure.  The  mode  of  the  plus  selection  crept  up  to  26-27 
and  the  mean  to  26.9  ±  .07  leaves,  there  being  here  one 
more  generation  than  in  the  case  of  the  minus  strain. 

Table  V  gives  the  data  on  plus  and  minus  selections  of 
Family  No.  19  at  Bloomfield  for  two  generations.  The 
original  family  stock  of  the  Fg  generation  has  the  mode  at 
27  leaves  and  the  mean  at  about  26  leaves.  A  24-leaved 
plant  of  this  generation  became  the  parent  of  the  minus 
strain,  giving  in  the  Fe  generation  a  population  with  the 
same  mode  and  a  slightly  higher  mean  (26.9  ±  .08  leaves). 
Continuation  of  the  strain  through  a  24-leaved  plant  gave 


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No.  565]         CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION 


19 


an  F7  population  with  the  mode  one  class  lower  and  the 
mean  at  25.8  db  .09  leaves.  Whether  this  slight  reduction 
really  means  anything  we  are  unable  to  say.  At  least,  if 
it  yields  at  all  to  selection, 
the  progress  is  very  slow. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  con- 
siderable gain  has  been 
made  in  the  plus  selec- 
tions. The  mode  rose  im- 
mediately to  29  leaves 
when  the  progeny  of  a  29- 
leaved  plant  were  grown, 
and  went  up  to  30  leaves 
the  next  generation,  the 
modal  condition  being  the 
same  as  the  number  of 
leaves  of  the  parent  plant. 
The  means  are  26.3db.l0 
leaves,  28.7  d=  .10  leaves 
and  29.2  it  .08  leaves,  the 
amount  of  progress  being 
— as  may  be  seen — 2.4 
leaves  and  0.5  leaf  in  the 
two  successive  genera- 
tions. This  result  appar- 
ently indicates  a  slowing 
down  of  the  effect  of  selec- 
tion. 

The  continuation  of  the 
table  gives  the  results  ob- 
tained at  New  Haven  on 
this  same  family.  Here 
there  are  data  from  three 
generations,  and  these 
data  modify  the  conclu- 
sions based  on  the  results 

obtained  at  Bloomfield.     Both  plus  and  minus  strains 
nearly  parallel  the  Bloomfield  results  for  two  generations. 


Fig.  1.  Plant  op  Halladat  Ha- 
vana Tobacco  (77-2) -1-1,  which  Av- 
BBAOES  29.7  Leaves  Psb  Plant.  It 
IS  THB  Result  of  Three  Ybabs  of  Se- 
lection FOB  High  Leaf  Numbeb  in 
Family  77,  which  Averaged  22.4 
Leaves  Per  Plant  in  1909.  New 
Haven,   1912. 


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20  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [VoL.XLVra 

the  F7  generation  means  being  28.3  ±  .11  leaves  and  25.1 
±  .15  leaves,  respectively,  but  in  the  Fg  generations  they 
differ.    Selecting  minus  extremes  for  the  first  two  genera- 


no.  2.  Plant  or  Halladat  Havana  Tobacco  (77-1) -1-1,  which  Atbsaobs 
20.9  LSAYBS  PiB  Plant.  It  is  thb  Rbsui^t  of  Thbbb  Ybajis  or  Sblbction  fob 
Low  Lbat  Numbbb  in  Family  77.    Nbw  Havbn,  1912. 

tions  reduced  the  mean  of  that  line  from  26.3  ±  .10  leaves 
to  25.1  ±  .15  leaves,  but  the  third  selected  generation  (Fg) 
had  a  higher  mean  than  the  original  family  (27.3  ±  .08 
leaves) .    The  parent  plant  of  this  Fj  generation  produced 


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No.  666]         CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  21 

24  leaves,  and  as  the  strain  indicated  that  it  was  hetero- 
zygous for  a  number  of  factors  by  showing  a  coeflScient  of 
variability  of  8.29  d=  .42  per  cent-,  it  is  possible  that  the 
selected  parent  plant  may  have  belonged  gametically  to  a 
higher  class  than  was  indicated  somatically;  nevertheless, 
it  can  not  be  denied  that  three  generations  of  selected 
minus  extremes  have  produced  no  results.  This  conclu- 
sion is  not  valid  for  the  plus  strain.  Starting  with  26.3  ±. 
.10  as  the  mean  number  of  leaves  (Fg) ,  the  succeeding  gen- 
erations had  means  of  27.1  it  .07  leaves,  28.3  dz  .11  leaves 
and  30.0  it  .11  leaves.  The  differences  are  0.8, 12  and  1.7 
leaves,  respectively.  Progressive  change  has  certainly  f  ol- 


Fio.  8.    Chanob  of  Phyllotaxy  in  Some  Plants  of  (77-2) -1-1  Grown  in  New 

Haven  in  1912. 


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THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVin 


lowed,  and  unless  one  considers  that  the  results  of  1912  are 
somewhat  too  high  (probably  a  valid  assumption),  the 
change  has  increased  instead  of  decreased.  Naturally 
there  must  be  a  decreased  momentum  in  change  of  mean 
time,  but  this  decrease  is  not  yet  shown  by  the  figures. 


Pig.  4.  Plant  op  Halladay  Ha- 
TANA  Tobacco  (19-2) -1-2,  which  Av- 
BSAOBS  30  Lbaves  Peb  Plant.  It 
IS  THB  Rbsuivt  of  Thebb  Ybabs  of  Sb- 
lbction  fob  hloh  leaf  numbeb  in 
Family  19,  which  in  1909  Avebaqed 
26.3  Leaves  Peb  Plant.  New  Haven, 
1912. 


Fig.  5.  Plant  op  Halladat  Ha- 
vana Tobacco  (19-1) -1-1,  which  Av- 
BBAGES  27.3  Leaves  Peb  Plant.  Thbbb 
Ybabs  of  Selection  fob  Low  Lbaf 
Numbbb  Havb  Pbovbd  Unsuccessful. 
New  Haven,  1912. 


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No.  565]        CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  23 

Bepresentative  plants  of  the  plus  and  minus  strains  of 
family  19  as  obtained  by  three  years  of  selection  at  New 
Haven  are  shown  in  Figs.  4  and  5. 

Family  No.  5  (Table  VI)  shows  a  decrease  in  mode 
from  28  to  26  leaves,  and  a  similar  decrease  in  mean  from 
28.1  ±:  .06  leaves  to  26.6  ±  .09  leaves  as  a  result  of  the  first 
minus  selection.  A  second  minus  selection,  however,  in- 
dicates either  that  the  future  progress  is  to  be  very  slow 
or  that  the  entire  effect  of  selection  was  manifested  in  the 
first  selected  generation. 

With  the  three  parts  of  Table  VH  we  take  up  the  re- 
sults on  Family  No.  6  at  all  three  stations.  The  minus 
strain  was  carried  on  only  two  generations  at  Bloomfield, 
but  with  this  exception  there  are  data  upon  three  genera- 
tions. At  Bloomfield  the  two  generations  of  selected 
minus  extremes  resulted  in  0.6  leaf  decrease  in  the  mean, 
but  at  New  Haven  the  results  were  negative,  the  means 
advancing  from  25.8  ±:  .06  leaves  to  27.9  zt  .12  leaves  in 
three  generations,  while  at  Forest  Hill  the  mean  remained 
practically  the  same.  Surely  selection  was  unprofitable 
here. 

The  first  year  of  selection  from  the  other  end  of  the 
curve,  however,  resulted  in  marked  progress.  The  mean 
advanced  nearly  5  leaves  in  each  case.  The  original  F5 
mean  is  25.8  ±:  .06  leaves,  but  the  three  Fe  means  are  30.7 
dz  .09,  29.6  dt  .08  and  30.8  zt  .12  leaves.  This  is  a  remark- 
able concurrence  of  results.  The  means  in  the  two  suc- 
ceeding generations  were  about  the  same  in  the  Bloomfield 
and  New  Haven  experiments,  but  there  was  another  defi- 
nite advance  at  Forest  Hills.  Such  a  result  should  not 
be  unexpected.  If  the  Fe  generation  were  almost  but  not 
quite  a  homozygous  lot,  and  if  one  assumes  that  selection 
of  extremes  from  homozygous  population  has  no  effect 
in  shifting  the  mean,  it  would  frequently  happen  that 
some  individuals  selected  to  continue  the  line  would  be 
homozygous  in  all  factors  and  some  heterozygous  in  one 
or  more  factors. 

The  cause  of  the  peculiar  distribution  of  the  population 
(high  variability)  of  the  Fg  generation  grown  in  Bloom- 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLYin 


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No.  565]        CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION 


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No.  565]         CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  27 

field  is  not  clear.  It  is  possible  that  the  plants  having 
from  18  to  23  leaves  were  diseased,  but  no  such  condition 
could  be  recognized  in  the  field.  Again,  it  is  possible 
that  a  few  Havana  plants  were  mixed  in  by  mistake, 
although  as  the  leaves  of  the  selection  are  characteris- 
tically diflferent  from  Havana  and  as  the  plants  with  low 
leaf  numbers  resembled  the  remainder  of  the  row,  this 
supposition  is  improbable.  The  most  likely  explanation 
is  that  mutation  occurred  in  a  few  gametes  of  the  mother 
plant,  a  condition  that  did  arise,  or  that  we  assume  to 
have  arisen,  in  Family  41  (see  Table  X).  At  any  rate, 
the  change  did  not  follow  the  path  of  selection. 

In  Figs.  6  and  7  are  shown  typical  plants  of  Family  No. 
6  obtained  by  three  years  of  selection  in  the  effort  to  pro- 
duce strains  of  high  and  low  leaf  number,  respectively. 

Family  No.  34  (Table  VllI)  is  peculiar — although  this 
is  not  the  only  time  the  phenomenon  occurred — in  that 
the  Fg  population  grown  from  a  24-leaved  F4  plant  seems 
not  to  have  given  the  true  mean.  Plants  with  a  low  num- 
ber of  leaves  (22  and  20)  were  selfed  to  carry  on  the 
minus  strain,  but  both  gave  means  higher  than  was  shown 
by  the  Fg  generation.  Perhaps  further  selection  will 
produce  results,  but  the  case  is  not  a  hopeful  one.  The 
only  evidence  for  such  an  assumption  is  the  increased 
mean  of  the  F^  plus  strain.  If  it  is  assumed  that  24.0  is 
nearer  the  true  mean  of  the  F5  population  than  the  22.9 
actually  calculated,  then  the  jump  to  27.0  =t  .08  leaves  in 
the  F7  generation  gives  us  a  basis  for  expecting  results  in 
Fg  in  the  minus  strain. 

Nothing  can  be  said  as  yet  about  the  minus  strain  of 
Family  No.  12  (Table  IX),  for  it  happened  that  the  first 
selection  was  a  complete  failure.  Six  plants  were  ob- 
tained, but  the  lowest  number  of  leaves  was  29.  One  of 
these  plants  was  selfed  and  gave  an  F^  population  having 
a  mean  of  28.7  ±:  .09  leaves.  Unfortunately  the  selections 
from  this  fraternity  did  not  germinate  and  in  1912  we  had 
to  fall  back  on  the  reserve  seed  from  which  the  1911  crop 
came.  The  crops  of  1911  and  1912  are  therefore  dupli- 
cates.   The  plus  strain  made  an  advance  from  24.5  ib  .10 


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28  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VouXLVHI 

leaves  to  either  26.8  ±l  .07  or  29.0  ±  .08  leaves.    The  first 
advance  is  1.6,  the  second  0.7.    We  can  give  no  explana- 


FiG.  6.    Plant  op  Halladay  Havana  Tobacco  (6-2) -1-1,  which  AvERAass  80.2 
Lbaves  Pub  Plant.    It  is  the  Result  op  Thbeb  Years  op  Selection  fob  High 

LlAF  NUMBEB   in    FAMILT   6,    WHICH    AVERAGED  25.8    LEAVES    PEB  PLANT   IN    I909w 

Nbw  Haven,  1912. 


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No.  565]        CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  29 

tion  of  the  failure  of  the  results  of  1911  and  1912  to  dupli- 
cate. This  is  the  greatest  deviation  obtained  in  the  course 
of  our  experiments.  The  results  of  1912  are  probably 
too  high.    It  is  yet  too  early  to  say  whether  or  not  this 


FxQ.  7.  PLANT  ov  Haklapat  Hatana  Tobacco  (6-1) -1-1,  which  Atbbagu  27.9 
Lbatbs  Pbb  Plakt.    Thbbb  Ybabs  ov  Sblbction  to  Dbcrbase  the  Leaf  Numbbb 

OP  THIS  TTFB  HATB  PBOTBD  UNSDCCXSSFULb   NBW  HAYEN,  1912. 


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30  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

strain  is  decreasing  in  the  average  annual  shift  of  the 
mean. 

Family  No.  41  shown  in  Table  X  gave  perhaps  the  most 
peculiar  results  of  any  of  the  selections.  It  may  be  that 
no  great  shifting  of  the  mean  toward  the  minus  end  of  the 
curve  should  have  been  expected,  because  the  minus 
mothers  were  each  rather  high  in  number  of  leaves.  There 
was  one  with  25  leaves  and  one  with  24  leaves.  This  was 
unfortunate,  but  was  made  necessary  by  the  number  of 
late  and  diseased  (mosaic)  plants  in  the  selection.  Never- 
theless, each  of  these  plants  was  below  the  mean  of  the 
previous  generation  and  if  a  marked  change  would  have 
followed  the  selection  of  extreme  individuals,  some  change 
should  have  followed  the  selections  of  the  individuals  that 
were  the  actual  mothers.  But  in  spite  of  this  fact  the 
mean  persistently  rose  from  23.9  ±  .07  leaves  to  26.3  it  .08 
leaves,  then  to  28.1  zb  .07  leaves,  although  the  duplicate  of 
this  selection  grown  in  1912  went  down  slightly  to  27.4 
±  .07  leaves.  In  the  plus  strain  successive  generations 
of  mothers  having  28  and  30  leaves  caused  a  small  upward 
shift  of  the  mean ;  it  became  first  25.7  ±  .09  leaves  then 
25.6  it  .14  leaves,  although  the  1912  duplicate  of  the  last 
population  had  a  mean  of  26.9  db  .08  leaves. 

The  extraordinary  phenomenon  to  which  we  wish  to 
call  particular  attention,  however,  is  not  this  behavior  of 
the  minus  and  plus  strains  in  the  regular  selection  ex- 
periment, but  rather  the  origin  of  a  few-leaved  strain 
from  a  single  individual  that  appeared  in  the  Fe  genera- 
tion of  the  plus  strain.  Eeferring  to  the  table,  it  will  be 
seen  that  in  this  generation  a  12-leaved  plant  appeared. 
This  is  really  a  peculiar  phenomenon,  for  we  had  never 
before  observed  a  normal  12-leaved  plant  among  the  many 
thousands  that  have  come  under  our  observation.  They 
do  not  occur.  In  this  population  the  plant  with  the  next 
lowest  numbers  of  leaves  had  20  leaves,  and  in  classes  20 
and  21  there  was  only  a  single  plant  of  each.  This  12- 
leaved  plant  was  selfed  and  gave  rise  to  a  population 
ranging  from  8  leaves  to  30  leaves,  and  having  a  vari- 
ability of  23.50  per  cent.  ±  .11  per  cent.    The  mean  of  the 


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No.  565]         CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  31 

distribution  was  19.8  ±:  .28  leaves.  A  10-leaved  plant  of 
this  lot  was  selfed  and  gave  a  progeny  with  a  mean  of 
17.9  ±L  .08  leaves  and  a  variability  of  11.24  per  cent.  ±:  .33 
per  cent.    What  interpretation  can  be  given  these  facts! 

We  believe  a  distinct  mutation  occurred,  a  mutation 
different  from  those  of  DeVries.  At  least  DeVries  be- 
lieves that  the  mutations  that  he  has  observed  always 
breed  true.  If  the  following  hypothesis  as  to  the  origin 
of  the  12-leaved  plant  be  true,  it  is  unnecessary  to  sup- 
pose with  DeVries  that  mutations  always  breed  true  or 
even  that  they  often  breed  true.  Of  course  DeVries  be- 
lieves that  his  (Enothera  mutations  obey  laws  different 
from  those  of  whose  mechanism  we  know  a  little.  He  be- 
lieves that  species  crosses  always  breed  true;  that  they 
do  not  Mendelize.  This  belief  we  hold  to  be  unfounded. 
Species  crosses  have  never  been  shown  to  breed  true. 
There  have  been  statements  to  the  effect  that  crosses  be- 
tween Rubiis  species  breed  true,  but  no  good  evidence  has 
been  submitted  in  their  support ;  while  the  data  of  Tam- 
mes  ( :11)  on  Linum  species  crosses,  Davis  ( :21)  on  (Eno- 
thera  species  crosses,  and  of  East  ( :13)  on  Nicotiana 
species  crosses,  concur  in  showing  that  species  as  well  as 
varieties  obey  MendePs  Law  of  segregation  and  recom- 
bination. Furthermore,  we  think  that  Heribert-Nilsson's 
(:12)  beautiful  experiments  on  DeVries *s  own  material 
show  that  the  latter  did  not  collect  suflSciently  exact  data 
on  his  own  crosses  to  find  out  whether  they  bred  true  or 
not. 

If  one  is  to  believe  that  a  mutation  in  a  hermaphroditic 
plant  breeds  true  he  must  suppose  that  constitutional 
changes  occur  both  in  the  male  and  the  female  gam- 
etes, or  that  the  change  occurs  after  fertilization.  But  it 
seems  more  probable  that  such  a  change  will  take  place 
either  in  the  one  or  the  other  gamete  and  not  in  both.  This 
we  believe  to  be  the  explanation  of  the  appearance  of  the 
12-leaved  tobacco  plant.  A  mutation  occurred  in  either 
an  egg  cell  or  a  pollen  cell.  It  does  not  matter  in  which 
one  it  is  assumed  because  there  is  no  evidence  favoring 
either  case  to  the  exclusion  of  the  other.    This  cell  with 


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34  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVTEI 

a  changed  gametic  constitution, — a  loss  of  gametic  fac- 
tors,— was  fertilized  by  an  unchanged  cell.  The  un- 
changed cell  may  have  had  any  of  the  gametic  possibil- 
ities open  to  the  germ  cells  of  the  28-leaved  plant  of  the 
Fg  family  in  which  the  mutation  arose,  and  we  know  that 
certain  factors  in  this  plant  were  heterozygous,  for  pro- 
gressive change  followed  the  selection  of  a  plus  extreme 
in  the  next  generation.  The  12-leaved  plant  was  there- 
fore a  hybrid.  It  resulted  from  the  union  of  a  mutating 
germ  cell  of  the  mother  plant  that  furnished  the  F^  gen- 
eration with  an  unchanged  germ  cell.  We  can  even  as- 
sume that  the  mutating  germ  cell,  if  fertilized  by  another 
of  the  same  kind,  would  have  produced  a  plant  with  less 
than  12  leaves.  The  reasons  for  believing  this  are  simple. 
There  is  experimental  evidence  (Hayes,  1912)  that  the 
Fj  generation  of  a  cross  between  varieties  differing  in 
their  number  of  leaves  is  intermediate  in  character.  Our 
12-leaved  plant  is  the  lone  representative  of  such  an  Fj 
generation.  The  Fg  generation  therefore  should  give 
plants  with  less  than  12  leaves,  and  in  fact  such  plants 
did  occur.  The  distribution  marked  Fa  in  the  table  is 
the  F2  generation,  and  this  accounts  for  its  extreme  vari- 
ability. The  distribution  marked  Fb  is  the  Fg  generation, 
and  its  variability  is  less  than  half  that  of  the  preceding 
generation. 

Family  No.  56  was  the  second  family  to  be  grown  at  all 
three  of  the  experimental  statioiis  (Table  XI).  It  arose 
from  a  26-leaved  plant  of  the  F5  generation  which  pro- 
duced an  Fe  progeny  with  a  mean  of  24.2  ±  .06  leaves  and 
a  mode  at  24  leaves.  The  three  generations  of  the  minus 
strain  grown  at  Bloomfield  remained  practically  the  same. 
The  last  generation  did  indeed  show  a  mean  1.0  leaf 
higher  than  the  original  population,  but  no  dependence 
can  be  placed  in  data  from  only  25  plants.  The  data  on 
the  minus  selections  grown  at  New  Haven  are  for  this 
reason  a  little  more  dependable.  They  show  a  fluctuat- 
ing mean,  but  no  progress  due  to  selection,  the  F9  genera- 
tion having  a  little  higher  mean  than  the  F^  generations. 
The  three  minus  selections  grown  at  Forest  Hills  also 


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No.  565]         CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  35 

resulted  in  higher  means,  those  for  F^,  Fg  and  F^  being 
25.3  It:  .09,  26.0  ±  .06  and  25.9  it  .08  leaves,  respectively. 

This  peculiar  result  implies  only  that  the  mean  of  the 
original  F^  population  which  was  grown  at  Bloomfield 
was  lower  than  it  would  have  been  if  grown  on  the  Forest 
Hills  ^  soil.  This  is  not  a  direct  effect  of  environment  on 
the  growing  plant.  It  has  been  shown  conclusively  in 
our  pot  experiments,  as  stated  before,  that  starvation  or 
optimum  feeding  has  scarcely  any  effect  on  the  number  of 
leaves,  although  it  has  a  marked  effect  on  the  develop- 
ment of  many  other  characters.  On  the  other  hand,  en- 
vironment does  appear  to  have  a  marked  effect  on  the 
number  of  leaves  that  a  plant  is  to  develop,  if  it  acts 
during  the  development  of  the  seed.  It  is  well  known  by 
plant  physiologists  that  the  environment  produces  many 
of  its  effects  very  early  in  the  life  history  of  the  indi- 
vidual or  in  the  development  of  the  organ  concerned.  For 
example,  the  so-called  light  leaves  of  the  beech  with  two 
layers  of  palisade  cells  are  differentiated  from  the  shade 
leaves  with  only  one  row  of  palisade  cells  by  the  amount 
of  light  that  falls  on  a  branch  during  the  season  preceding 
the  development  of  the  leaves:  that  is,  it  is  determined 
during  the  laying  down  of  the  bud  from  which  the  next 
season's  growth  of  twig  and  leaves  comes.  This  period 
during  which  a  particular  change  is  possible  is  called  the 
critical  i)eriod  for  that  change  by  plant  physiologists. 
Thus  a  plant  may  have  hundreds  of  critical  periods  in  its 
ontogeny,  each  marking  an  end-point  of  development  be- 
yond which  a  certain  feature  is  irrevocably  fixed.  For 
example,  the  critical  period  for  that  cell  division  that  de- 
termines leaf  size  in  the  beech  is  much  later  than  that 
which  determines  the  number  of  layers  of  palisade  cells. 

Now  the  critical  period  for  influencing  the  number  of 
leaves  of  the  tobacco  plant  is  practically  at  an  end  when 
the  embryo  plant  goes  into  the  resting  stage  of  the  seed. 
Before  that  time  the  number  of  leaves  may  be  influenced 
by  the  external  and  the  internal  influences  that  form  the 
total  environment  of  the  mother  plant;  after  that  time 
environment  has  little  influence  on  the  number  of  leaves. 


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36  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL-XLVHI 

The  rise  in  the  mean  of  the  population  of  the  Fg  genera- 
tion of  Family  No.  56  is  due  partially  to  the  effect  of  en- 
vironment, therefore,  in  that  the  mother  plant  was  grown 
under  better  conditions,  but  is  probably  not  to  any  great 
extent  due  to  the  conditions  under  which  the  plants  them- 
selves were  produced. 

The  better  environment  of  the  mother  plants  does  not 
account  for  all  the  rise  in  the  means  in  populations  Fg 
and  Fg,  but  it  accounts  for  part  of  it.  It  will  be  noticed 
that  all  of  the  populations  grown  at  Forest  Hills  had 
higher  means  than  those  grown  at  Bloomfield  and  New 
Haven,  although  the  Fe  mother  plants  were  grown  at 
Bloomfield  and  not  at  Forest  Hills.  The  greatest  shift 
of  the  mean,  however,  comes  in  the  Fg  and  Fg  generations, 
for  the  mother  plants  of  both  of  these  populations  were 
grown  on  the  more  fertile  soil.  There  is  a  simple  ex- 
planation of  these  facts,  an  explanation  that  is  of  great 
economic  importance  to  practical  tobacco  growers.  A 
part  of  the  rise  in  mean  at  Forest  Hills  was  due  to  set- 
ting the  plants  in  the  field  there  when  they  were  in  an 
earlier  stage  of  development  than  those  at  Bloomfield  and 
New  Haven.  They  were  not  set  earlier  in  the  season  (at 
least,  one  year  they  were  set  early,  one  year  they  were  set 
at  the  average  time  and  the  third  year  they  were  set  late), 
but  they  were  set  as  small  plants.  When  small  plants 
(about  4  inches  high)  are  set  in  the  open  the  root  system 
is  equal  to  the  task  of  supporting  the  aerial  parts  and  the 
plants  start  right  in  to  growing  normally.  There  is  no 
period  of  passivity.  The  plants  produce  leaves  spaced 
with  normal  internodes  and  these  leaves  develop  suffi- 
ciently to  have  a  commercial  value.  But  when  the  plants 
reach  a  height  of  8  or  10  inches  in  the  seed  pans  or  seed 
beds  and  are  then  set  in  the  field,  the  normal  metabolism 
is  likely  to  be  upset  for  a  time.  The  plant  takes  some 
time  to  recover  its  equilibrium  and  start  a  normal  growth. 
During  this  period  basal  leaves  begin  to  develop,  but  the 
internodes  are  so  close  together  that  they  do  not  obtain 
their  aliquot  share  of  nutriment,  hence  they  grow  only  to 
one  quarter  or  one  third  their  normal  size  and  soon  wither 


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No.  565]         CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION 


37 


and  drop  off.  The  leaf  scars  are  left,  but  they  are  so 
close  together  that  it  is  difficult  to  make  a  correct  count  of 
the  number  of  leaves.    But  more  important  than  this, 


Fio.  8.  Plant  of  Hallaoat  Ha- 
TANA  Tobacco  (56-2) -1-1,  which  Av- 
■BAGBS  27.6  Leaves  Peb  Plant.  It 
IS  THE  Result  of  These  Yeabs  of  Se- 
lection FOB  High  Leaf  Numbbb  in 
Family  56,  which  in  1900  Atebagbd 
24.2  Leaves  Peb  Plant.  New  Haven, 
1012. 


Fig.  9.  Plant  of  Halladat  Ha- 
vana Tobacco  (56-1) -1-1,  which  Av- 
EBAOES  24.4  Leaves  Peb  Plant.  Thbee 
Ybabs  of  Selection  fob  Low  Leaf 
NuMBEB  Have  Pboved  Unsuccessful, 
New  Haven,  1912. 


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38 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL-XLVHl 


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No.  565]    CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  39 

the  tobacco  grower  loses  an  average  of  from  one  to  two 
of  his  most  valuable  leaves. 

The  pins  strain  of  Family  No.  56,  which  we  were  dis- 
cussing when  we  digressed  to  speak  of  the  critical  periods 
of  development,  did  show  a  considerable  shifting  of  the 
mean  following  the  selection  of  high-leaved  mother  plants. 
In  the  Bloomfield  selections  the  mean  went  from  24.2 
di  .06  to  26.7  ±z  .08  leaves,  then  to  26.8  ±  .07  leaves ;  in  the 
New  Haven  experiment  the  mean  shifted  to  27.4 ±.08 
leaves, — a  gain  of  3.2  leaves, — and  then  dropped  to  26.4 
±.11  leaves,  recovering  again  in  the  F^  generation  to 
27.5  ±  .11  leaves ;  in  the  Forest  Hills  experiment  the  suc- 
cessive means  were  27.2  ±  .08,  28.9  ±  .08  and  26.7  ±  .06 
leaves.  Summing  up  the  data  from  this  experiment,  it 
may  be  assumed  to  be  reasonably  certain  that  no  progress 
resulted  from  the  selection  of  minus  extremes,  but  that 
there  was  a  slight  effect  gradually  diminishing  in  quan- 
tity when  plus  extremes  were  selected. 

Bepresentative  plants  of  Family  56  obtained  by  three 
years  of  selection  in  the  effort  to  produce  strains  of  high 
and  low  leaf  number,  respectively,  are  shown  in  Figs. 
8  and  9. 

Family  No.  K  (Table  XH)  was  grown  on  a  farm  near 
the  Bloomfield  experiments,  in  1910.  The  records  of  the 
Fg  generation  consisted  of  the  number  of  leaves  of  only 
31  plants.  From  among  these  individuals  two  plants 
were  self ed  to  become  the  mothers  of  the  Fe  generation. 
Since  no  dependence  can  be  placed  on  the  Fj  distribution 
by  reason  of  the  few  plants  and  since  it  is  not  absolutely 
certain  that  the  mother  plants  of  Fe  had  20  leaves  each, 
the  selection  really  began  in  1911  with  theF^  generation. 
There  is  a  difference  between  the  minus  strain  and  the 
plus  strain  in  1911  and  1912, — 0.5  leaves  the  first  year  and 
1.3  leaves  the  second  year, — ^however,  so  that  one  may 
assume  the  possibility  of  a  slow  shifting  of  the  mean  in 
both  directions. 

The  data  on  Family  No.  73  are  shown  in  Table  XHI. 
This  family  came  from  a  28-leaved  plant,  one  of  the 
highest  of  the  Fg  generation.    The  Fe  progeny  of  this 


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40 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 


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No.  565]         CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  41 

individual  showed  a  mean  of  26.9  ±  .06  leaves,  and  from 
among  them  plants  having  25  and  29  leaves,  respectively, 
were  selected  to  start  the  minus  and  the  plus  lines.  These 
two  mother  plants  gave  F7  populations  alike  as  to  mean, 
but  differing  by  one  class  as  to  mode.  The  minus  line 
had  the  higher  mode.  The  extremes  of  this  generation 
used  in  carrying  on  the  experiment  differed  by  8  leaves, 
and  the  resulting  progenies  apparently  followed  the  selec- 
tion. The  means  are  25.6  it  .07  and  28.2  it  .09  leaves. 
Whether  these  shifted  means  represent  a  permanent 
change  or  not  we  are  not  prepared  to  say.  The  minus 
mean  is  probably  somewhere  near  the  correct  figure  for 
in  the  Fg  generation  it  was  practically  the  same,  but  in 
the  Fg  generation  of  the  plus  strain  the  mean  dropped 
from  28.2 ±.09  leaves  to  26.7 it .13  leaves.  This  is  a 
slightly  lower  point  than  that  of  the  original  Fg  distribu- 
tion, but  it  was  calculated  from  only  76  individuals.  A 
conservative  estimate  of  the  significance  of  the  results 
would  probably  be  as  follows:  the  mean  of  the  minus 
strain  has  shifted  slightly  but  permanently  and  is  now 
fixed,  while  the  mean  of  the  plus  strain  has  not  changed 
but  has  shown  evidence  of  some  heterozygosis  in  one  gen- 
eration. 

We  come  finally  to  consider  Families  No.  27  and  No.  82, 
the  data  on  which  are  listed  in  Tables  XIV  and  XV.  Two 
generations  of  both  plus  and  minus .  selection  were  re- 
corded for  Family  No.  27,  but  only  plus  selections  of 
Family  No.  82  were  grown.  There  is  no  necessity  for 
considering  either  in  detail  because  a  simple  inspection  of 
the  tables  shows  that  selection  has  accomplished  nothing. 

Conclusions 

The  cumbersome  and  no  doubt  dry  details  of  the  ex- 
periments to  the  close  of  the  year  1912  having  been  de- 
scribed, let  us  give  a  brief  resume  of  the  conclusions  that 
we  believe  may  reasonably  be  drawn  from  the  data  that 
have  been  offered.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  orig- 
inal *'Halladay"  type  of  tobacco,  isolated  and  propa- 


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42  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Voi^XLVin 

gated  by  Mr.  Shamel  and  Mr.  Halladay  from  the  cross 
between  ^^ Havana"  and  *' Sumatra"  tobaccos,  arose 
through  the  segregation  and  recombination  of  the  Men- 
delian  factorial  differences  of  the  two  plants,  and  not  as 
a  mutation.  It  is  simply  a  union  of  the  factors  that  stand 
for  leaf  size  and  height  of  plant  in  the  '^Havana"  variety 
with  the  factors  that  bring  about  leaf  shape  and  high 
number  of  leaves  in  the  ^^  Sumatra"  variety.  It  hap- 
pened that  the  somatic  characters  of  these  varieties  ac- 
count for  all  the  characters  of  the  hybrid.  At  the  same 
time  one  must  remember  that  strains  were  obtained  by 
selection  that  averaged  higher  in  number  of  leaves  than  did 
even  the  *  *  Sumatra  *  *  parent.  We  can  only  conclude  from 
this  fact  that  the  difference  between  the  ''Havana"  and 
the  ''Sumatra"  varieties  in  leaf  number  is  greater  fac- 
torially  than  somatically.  Besides  certain  factors  com- 
mon to  the  two  varieties,  the  factors  for  leaf  number  in 
"Havana"  tobacco  might  be  represented  by  the  letters 
AA,  and  those  of  "Sumatra"  tobacco  by  the  letters  BB, 
CC,  DD,  EE.  By  recombination,  this  would  give  plants 
with  a  smaller  number  of  leaves  than  the  "Havana" 
variety  and  plants  with  a  greater  number  of  leaves  than 
the  "Sumatra"  variety.  Both  combinations  were  ob- 
tained; and  further,  the  theory  has  been  shown  to  be  cor- 
rect by  the  results  of  other  crosses  where  both  types  ap- 
peared (Hayes,  *12).  It  is  probably  unwise  to  suggest  too 
concrete  a  factorial  analysis  of  the  cross,  yet  the  factorial 
difference  assumed  above  will  account  for  all  of  the  facts 
obtained,  by  simple  recombination.  We  assume  a  factor 
in  the  heterozygous  condition  to  account  for  the  produc- 
tion of  one  leaf  and  a  factor  in  the  homozygous  condition 
to  account  for  the  production  of  two  leaves.  The  mean 
of  the  "  Havana"  variety  is  about  20  leaves  and  the  mean 
of  the  "Sumatra"  variety  about  26  leaves.  Somatically 
there  is  a  difference  of  6  leaves  or  three  factorial  pairs 
for  which  to  account.  But  in  order  to  have  the  theory 
coincide  with  the  facts  there  must  be  at  least  one  (pos- 
sibly two  or  three)  factorial  difference  that  does  not  show 
in  the  two  varieties.    The  meaning  of  this  statement  can 


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No.  565]         CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  43 

be  shown  best  by  an  illustration.  The  20  leaves  of  the 
" Havana*'  variety  and  the  first  20  leaves  of  the  ** Suma- 
tra'*  variety  are  represented  by  10  pairs  of  factors,  of 
which  nine  are  the  same  and  one  different  in  the  two 
strains.  The  ** Havana'*  variety  is  nine  leaf  factors  plus 
A  A,  the  first  20  leaves  of  the  '^Sumatra"  variety  are  nine 
leaf  factors  (the  same  as  those  in  the  ** Havana")  plus 
BB.  The  additional  leaf  factors  of  the  **  Sumatra"  are 
CC,  DD.  EE.  With  these  assumptions,  the  recombina^ 
tions  of  a  tetra-hybrid  will  represent  our  facts  fairly 
accurately.  But,  as  was  stated  above,  it  does  not  seem 
wise  to  take  this  interpretation  of  the  facts  too  literally. 
That  some  such  factorial  combination  will  represent  our 
facts  superficially  there  can  be  no  doubt,  but  in  reality  if 
one  could  grow  hundreds  of  thousands  of  individuals  and 
follow  the  behavior  of  each  he  would  likely  find  himself 
constrained  to  represent  his  breeding  facts  by  a  much 
more  complex  system.  There  would  probably  be  gametic 
couplings  and  factorial  differences  whose  main  effect 
would  be  on  some  entirely  different  character  or  complex 
of  characters,  but  which  would  have  some  slight  jurisdic- 
tion over  leaf  determination.  To  become  diagrammatical, 
the  unit  characters  of  a  house  are  its  cornices,  its  win- 
dows, its  floors  and  what  not,  but  a  collection  of  these 
components  is  not  a  house.  We  may  even  exchange 
dormer  windows  with  our  neighbor,  but  we  can  exchange 
them  only  if  they  fit.  Again,  we  may  put  on  a  coat  of 
paint,  a  color  unit,  but  this  color  unit  affects  the  appear- 
ance of  many  other  parts  that  are  just  as  truly  units. 

The  essential  part  of  our  conception  of  the  origin  of 
this  hybrid  type  is  that  recombinations  of  characters 
quantitative  in  their  nature  can  be  expected  and  predicted 
in  crosses  in  exactly  the  same  manner  as  is  done  with 
qualitative  characters.  On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  here  was  a  hybrid  type  that  appeared 
to  be  breeding  true  to  the  general  characters  that  we  have 
described,  in  the  F4  generation.  That  it  was  not  breed- 
ing true  is  clear  from  the  results  of  the  selection  experi- 
ments, yet  out  of  the  small  number  of  Fg  and  Fe  families 


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44  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL-XLVHI 

taken  tinder  observation  at  least  two  were  found  to  be 
breeding  true  for  all  practical  purposes  in  the  Fg  and  F^ 
generations.  We  were  able  to  reproduce  the  ^*  Havana '^ 
type  by  continued  selection  in  Family  77  and  were  able 
to  produce  strains  breeding  approximately  true  to  30 
leaves  or  so  by  the  selection  of  mother  plants  in  several 
families.  But  can  we  say  that  any  of  our  families  are 
now  fixed  so  that  no  progress  can  be  made  by  selection? 
We  can  not.  But  we  can  say  that  some  of  them  are  so 
constant  that  it  would  be  a  loss  of  time  for  selection  to  be 
continued  for  economic  results.  It  is  important  to  know 
whether  plant  or  animal  populations  can  reach  such  a 
state  of  constancy  by  inbreeding  that  no  profitable  results 
can  afterwards  be  obtained  by  the  practical  breeder.  We 
believe  it  demonstrated  by  even  these  few  data  that  such 
a  state,  a  homozygous  condition,  occurs  in  a  definite  pro- 
portion of  Fa  offspring,  and  can  be  propagated  commer- 
cially at  once  if  a  suflBcient  number  of  families  are  grown 
to  be  relatively  certain  of  including  the  desired  com- 
bination. 

As  to  the  problem  of  theoretical  importance,  the  ques- 
tion of  the  true  constancy  of  homozygotes  generation 
after  generation,  we  believe  it  to  be  fair  to  conclude  that 
a  state  so  constant  is  reached,  that  even  for  the  theoret- 
ical purposes  of  experimental  genetics  it  may  be  assumed 
as  actually  constant.  Further  experiment  and  larger 
numbers  may  show  that  selection  can  always  cause  a  shift 
in  the  mean,  but  will  necessarily  be  a  shift  so  slight  that 
it  can  be  detected  only  by  a  long-continued  experiment 
and  enormous  numbers.  Assuming  for  the  purpose  of 
argument  that  this  is  the  case,  the  matter  would  affect 
only  the  question  of  the  trend  of  evolution.  It  may  come 
to  be  believed,  from  evidence  now  unknown,  that  evolu- 
tion may  progress  slowly  in  this  manner,  but  if  it  does, 
its  course  can  hardly  be  demonstrated  experimentally  be- 
yond a  reasonable  doubt.  The  problems  of  experimental 
genetics  can  be  attacked,  however,  from  the  standpoint 
that  experimental  evidence  of  the  shifting  of  the  mean  of 
a  homozygous  population  by  selection  is  negligible. 


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No.  565]         CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  45 

Mutations  may  occur.  We  have  shown  the  origin  of 
one  family  by  a  very  wide  mutation.  In  this  particular 
case  it  was  not  diflScult  to  show  that  a  constitutional 
change  took  place  in  a  single  germ  cell  of  the  mother 
plant.  It  was  only  by  a  lucky  chance  that  this  fact  could 
be  demonstrated,  for  with  smaller  changes  such  proof 
would  be  impossible ;  but  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that 
this  phenomenon  is  imique  or  even  rare.  It  is  much  more 
reasonable  to  assume  that  mutations  usually  arise  in 
single  gametes  than  that  the  same  change  occurs  simul- 
taneously in  many  germ  cells.  One  should  expect  the 
somatic  result  of  a  mutation  in  an  hermaphroditic  plant 
— ^the  sporting  plant  itself — ^not  to  breed  true,  therefore, 
but  to  behave  as  an  Fj  hybrid  between  a  mutating  and  an 
unchanged  germ  cell.  It  is  true  that  the  mutations  ob- 
served by  DeVries  in  (Enothera  Lamarckiana  are  sup- 
posed to  have  bred  true,  but  this  is  sometimes  question- 
able even  from  DeVries 's  own  data.  The  Lamarckiana 
'* mutants**  that  did  breed  true  are  much  more  reason- 
ably explained  as  segregates  from  complex  hybrids. 
They  can  be  interpreted  by  Mendelism  with  no  essential 
outstanding  facts,  but  if  they  are  to  be  interpreted  as 
mutations,  several  discrepancies  between  what  actually 
occurred  and  what  should  be  expected  on  DeVries 's  own 
theory  must  be  explained.  It  must  be  shown  why  the 
changes  took  place  in  numerous  germ  cells, — in  both  the 
male  and  the  female  gametes, — and  why  these  germ  cells 
always  fused  at  fertilization ;  for  the  changed  germ  cells 
must  have  fused  with  each  other  because  majiy  Lamarck- 
iana plants  were  produced  by  the  same  mother  plants  that 
produced  the  mutations,  while  the  mutations  are  sup- 
posed to  have  bred  true.  On  the  only  other  possible  theory 
of  mutation,  that  the  change  occurred  in  the  developing 
zygote  after  fertilization,  one  would  have  to  explain  why 
the  mutants  did  not  often  appear  as  bud  variations,  in- 
stead of  these  being  much  rarer  than  the  supposed  muta- 
tions, as  is  actually  the  case. 

We  do  not  deny  the  theory  of  mutation  as  modified  to 


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46  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XL VIII 

assume  only  that  constitutional  changes  usually  occur  in 
the  germ  cells,  but  on  this  belief  the  sporting  plants  must 
often  be  F^  hybrids,  and  the  plant  breeder  must  resort  to 
selection  to  isolate  his  pure  mutation.  And  by  the  same 
reasoning  one  gametic  change  may  produce  many  new 
creations,  for  there  is  a  chance  to  recombine  it  with  all  the 
known  gametic  differences  in  the  species. 

No  one  can  say  how  often  mutations  arise.  It  is  likely 
that  changes  other  than  the  one  observed  took  place  in 
our  tobacco  experiments,  but  it  is  not  likely  that  they 
are  suflBciently  numerous  to  base  a  system  of  selection 
within  a  pure  race  on  the  possibility  of  their  occurrence. 
The  fact  that  no  changes  ensued  that  could  be  detected  in 
several  of  our  selected  lines  is  an  argument  against  it. 
The  comparatively  large  jumps  are  the  ones  likely  to 
have  the  greatest  economic  importance,  and  these  are 
easily  detected  without  refined  methods  of  procedure. 
Small  jumps  can  be  economically  important  only  if  they 
are  numerous,  and,  as  there  are  absolutely  no  data  to 
show  either  that  they  are  numerous  or  that  changes  can 
be  produced  rapidly  within  homozygous  pure  lines  through 
any  other  cause,  it  seems  unwise  to  recommend  that  the 
practical  breeder  expend  time  and  money  to  bring  about 
results  that  either  can  not  be  expected  at  all  or  that  are 
so  slow  and  so  trifling  that  they  can  not  be  detected  in 
carefully  planned  and  accurately  executed  genetic  inves- 
tigations. On  the  other  hand,  the  results  of  the  last  de- 
cade show  that  important  economic  results  can  be  ob- 
tained easily  and  surely  by  selection  from  artificial  hy- 
brids or  from  the  natural  hybrids  that  occur  in  cross- 
fertilized  species  by  the  recombination  of  Mendelian 
factors.  We  believe,  therefore,  that  the  isolation  of  ho- 
mozygous strains  from  mixtures  that  are  either  mechan- 
ical or  physiological,  that  are  either  made  artificially  or 
are  found  in  nature,  offers  the  only  method  of  procedure 
that  the  practical  plant  breeder  will  find  financially 
profitable. 

Finally,  we  should  like  to  call  attention  again  to  the 


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No.  565]         CHANGES  PRODUCED  BY  SELECTION  47 

practical  importance  of  determining  the  duration  of  the 
period  in  the  course  of  which  particular  plant  characters 
are  responsive  to  the  action  of  environmental  influences. 
The  character  complex  that  has  been  the  basis  of  this 
study  is  a  striking  illustration  of  how  results  from  such 
investigations  may  be  applicable  to  farm  practise.  One 
may  plant  a  portion  of  the  seed  from  a  self-pollinated 
tobacco  plant  on  poor  soil  or  on  good  soil  and  the  average 
number  of  leaves  per  plant  and  the  general  variation  of 
the  plants  in  number  of  leaves  will  remain  nearly  the 
same  in  both  cases.*  But  seed  selected  from  mother 
plants  grown  on  the  good  soil  will  produce  plants  aver- 
aging slightly  higher  in  leaf  number  than  the  plants  com- 
ing from  seed  on  mother  plants  whose  environment  is 
poor.  Consequently,  it  is  better  to  select  seed  from  well- 
developed  mother  plants — smother  plants  whose  environ- 
ment has  been  good — ^than  from  mediocre  mother  plants. 
There  is  no  question  here  of  the  inheritance  of  an  acquired 
character  or  of  continuing  to  raise  the  number  of  leaves 
by  cultural  treatment.  One  simply  takes  advantage  of 
the  fact  that  during  seed  formation  there  is  a  period  of 
mobility  at  which  time  the  potential  number  of  leaves  of 
the  young  plant  are  practically  fixed.  Pending  the  end 
of  this  critical  period,  the  number  of  leaves  can  be  in- 
fluenced by  external  conditions  within  the  limit  of  fluctu- 
ating variability. 

In  the  same  connection,  the  effect  of  time  of  planting 
on  the  tobacco  plant  should  again  be  mentioned,  as  this 
also  emanates  from  environmental  change.  The  actual 
number  of  leaves  is,  of  course,  practically  fixed  at  the 
time  of  setting  the  plants  in  the  field,  but  this  is  not  true 
of  the  number  of  leaves  that  will  have  a  commercial 
value.  For  example,  a  seedling  with  26  potential  leaves 
is  planted.  If  it  is  planted  when  about  four  inches  high, 
the  general  physiological  disturbance  due  to  transplanta- 
tion is  negligible  and  the  plant  continues  its  normal  cycle 
of  development  without  a  pause,  bringing  to  maturity 

3  Gamer's  (:12)  results  on  Maryland  Mammoth  are  an  exception  to  this 
statement  because  this  variety  is  indeterminate  in  growth. 


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48  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol-XLVTEI 

about  22  leaves.  If  planting  is  delayed  until  the  seedling 
is  eight  or  ten  inches  high,  there  is  a  different  state  of 
affairs.  Development  is  arrested,  the  plant  pauses  to  ad- 
just itself  to  the  change.  It  soon  recovers  and  continues 
its  normal  ontogeny,  but  the  period  of  reduced  growth 
has  left  an  ineffaceable  record.  Several  of  the  leaves — 
among  them  the  more  valuable  leaves — ^have  been  so 
affected  during  this  readjustment,  that  they  develop  to 
only  a  fraction  the  size  that  they  should  attain  because 
the  intemodes  between  them  are  so  short,  due  to  the  con- 
stricted development  that  normal  metabolism  does  not 
occur.  Thus  there  is  a  loss  of  one  or  two  leaves,  which 
on  several  acres  of  tobacco  may  make  the  difference  be- 
tween profit  and  loss.  Hence,  the  grower  should  not  de- 
lay setting  his  plants  in  the  field  until  they  have  become 
overgrown  in  the  seed  bed. 

March,  1913 

LITERATURE  CITED 

Davis,  B.  M.    G«netical  Studies  in  CEnothera,  III.    Amsr.  Nat.,  46:  377- 

427.     1912. 
East,  E.  M.     Inheritance  of  Flower  Size  in  Crosses  between  Niootiana 

Species.    Bot,  Gae,,  55:  177-188.    1913. 
East,  E.  M.,  and  Hayes,  H.  K.    Inheritance  in  Maize.    Conn.  Agr.  Exp.  Sta. 

BuU.  167:  1-142.     1911. 
Garner,  W.  W.    Some  Observations  on  Tobacco  Breeding.    Ann.  Rpt.  Amer. 

Breed.  Assoc.,  8:  458-468.     1912. 
Hayes,  H.  K.     Correlation  and  Inheritance  in  Nicotiana  Tdbacum.     Conn. 

Agr.  Exp.  Sta.  BuU.  171:  1-45.    1912. 
Heribert-Nilsson,  N.    Die  Variabilitat  der  (Enothera  LamarcHana  und  das 

Problem  der  Mutation.    Ztschr.  Abstam,  u.  Vereh,,  8:  89-231.    1912. 
Jennings,  H.  S.     Heredity,  Variation  and  Evolution  in  Protozoa,  I.    Jour. 

Exp.  Zool.,  5:  577-632.    1908. 
.     Heredity,  Variation  and  Evolution  in  Protozoa,  II.    Proo.  Amer, 

Phil.  Soc,  47:  393-546.    1908. 

Assertive  Mating,  Variability  and  Inheritance  of  Size, 'in  the  Con- 


jugation of  Paramecvum.    Jour,  Exp.  Zool.,  11:  1-133.    1911. 
Johannsen,  W.     Uber  Erblichkeit  in  Populationen  und  in  reinen  Linien. 

Jena,  Gustav  Fischer,  pp.  1-615.    1903. 
Pearl,  Raymond.    Inheritance  of  Fecundity  in  the  Domestic  Fowl.     Ameb. 

Nat.,  45:  321-345.    1911. 
Shamel,  A.  D.    New  Tobacco  Varieties.    Yearbook  U.  S.  Dept.  Agr.,  1906: 

387-404.    1907. 
Tammes,  Tine.     Das  Verhalten  fluktuierend  variierender  Merkmale  bei  der 

Bastardierung.    Bee.  Trav.  Bot.  N^erl.,  8:  201-288.    1911. 


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GYNANDEOMOEPHOUS  ANTS  DESCEIBED  DUE- 
ING  THE  DECADE  1903-1913 

Pbofbssob  WILLIAM  MORTON  WHEELER 
BussiT  Institutiok,  Habvabd  Ukivxbsitt 

In  1903  I  described  six  gynandromorphous  ants  and 
reviewed  the  previously  recorded  cases,  seventeen  in 
number.  Although  many  thousand  ants  have  since  passed 
through  my  hands,  I  have  failed  to  find  any  additional 
cases.  Other  observers,  however,  have  been  more  for- 
tunate and  have  described  seven  within  the  past  decade. 
As  these  are  all  very  interesting,  it  seems  advisable  to 
give  a  brief  account  of  them  as  a  sequel  to  my  former 
paper. 

1.    Lateral.  Gynandbomobph  of  Cabdiocondyla  batesi 

FOBBL.  VAB.  NIGBA  FoBEL. SaNTSCHI   (1903,  p.  324, 

Fig.  5,  i) 

This  specimen  is  female  on  the  right  and  partly  male 
on  the  left  side.  The  male  portions  are  sharply  marked 
off  from  the  black  female  portions  by  their  testaceous  red 
color.  The  line  of  demarcation,  very  clear  in  front,  starts 
at  the  anterior  clypeal  border  and  divides  the  head  into  two 
nearly  equal  parts,  but  leaves  the  median  ocellus  on  the 
male  side.  It  then  divides  the  pronotum  down  the  middle 
and  the  three  anterior  quarters  of  themesonotum.  Thence 
the  line  fades  out  on  the  right  side  so  that  the  whole  pos- 
terior border  of  the  mesonotum  is  male.  Three  quarters 
of  the  prescutellum  and  the  anterior  half  of  the  scutel- 
lum  are  male.  The  epinotum  and  the  abdomen  are  female 
throughout,  but  the  female  genitalia  are  slightly  asym- 
metrical on  the  left  side.  The  fore  and  middle  legs  on 
this  side  and  a  portion  of  the  mesosternum  are  male. 
There  are  wings  on  both  sides,  but  the  anterior  one  on  the 
female  side  was  lost  after  capture.    Those  on  the  left 

49 


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50  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 

side  are  well-developed,  with  distinct  venation  and  pale 
pterostigma,  and  are  inserted  in  a  distinctly  male  area. 
The  specimen  was  not  dissected. 

Santschi  found  this  ant  in  a  nest  with  females  at  Kai- 
rouan,  Tunis,  but  without  males,  either  of  the  winged  or 
of  the  ergatomorphic  type,  which  is  peculiar  to  this  and 
some  of  the  other  species  of  Cardiocondyla.  His  atten- 
tion was  attracted  by  the  bizarre  movements  of  the  speci- 
men, as  it  turned  around  rather  quickly  in  circles  about 
10  cm.  in  diameter,  with  the  male  portion  inside.  In 
other  words,  owing  either  to  the  asymmetry  of  its  brain 
and  visual  organs  or  to  differences  in  the  length  of  the 
legs  on  the  two  sides  of  the  body,  it  made  circus  move- 
ments like  a  normal  insect  which  has  had  one  of  its  eyes 
or  optic  ganglia  injured. 

2.    Lateral  Gynandromorph  of  Anergates  atratulus 
ScHENCK. — ^Adlbrz  (1908,  p.  3,  Fig.  1,  a,  h,  c,  d  and  /) 

An  imperfect  lateral  gynandromorph,  with  the  head 
largely  male  on  the  left,  female  on  the  right  side,  the  light 
color  of  the  male  being  sharply  marked  off  from  the  dark 
color  of  the  female  only  anteriorly.  Thorax  in  front 
female,  with  wings  equally  developed  on  both  sides  (the 
male  Anergates  is  wingless  and  pupoid!),  but  with  pale 
(male)  coloration  on  the  left  and  dark  (female)  colora- 
tion on  the  right  side,  the  line  of  division  between  the 
two  neither  sharp  nor  straight  and  the  whole  postscutel- 
lum  blackish  brown.  Abdomen  with  irregular  arrange- 
ment of  color.  Petiole  black  on  the  right,  grayish  yellow 
on  the  left ;  postpetiole  mostly  blackish  brown,  but  with 
a  large  grayish  yellow  spot  on  the  left  side  of  its  anterior 
surface.  Third  dorsal  tergite  blackish  brown  on  the  right, 
grayish  yellow  on  the  left  side.  Remainder  of  gaster 
grayish  yellow,  tinged  here  and  there  with  pale  brown. 
Third  tergite  with  a  median  longitudinal  groove  which 
runs  back  on  to  the  succeeding  segment  as  in  the  virgin 
female.  The  left  side  of  the  abdomen  has  seven  com- 
plete segments  and  well-developed  genitalia;  the  right 


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No.  565]  QTNANDBOMOEPHOUS  ANTS  51 

side  has  only  six  complete  segments  and  a  membranous, 
incomplete  seventh^  The  genitalia  on  the  right  side  are 
imperfect,  the  volsella  being  represented  only  by  a  piece 
corresponding  to  its  dorsal  portion  and  the  stipes  is  com- 
pletely lacking.  The  legs  are  of  the  female  type,  except 
the  left  fore  leg,  which  is  male,  although  the  tibial  spur 
(strigil)  is  pectinate  as  in  the  female.  This  spur  is  known 
to  be  nonpectinate  in  male  Swedish,  but  pectinate  in  male 
Swiss  Anergates  specimens. 

On  dissecting  this  specimen,  which  he  took  from  a  large 
Anergaies-Tetramorium  colony  near  Arkosund  in  Oster- 
gotland,  Sweden,  Adlerz  found  on  the  left  side  a  well- 
developed  vesicula  seminalis,  receiving  a  vas  deferens 
half  as  long.  No  traces  of  female  reproductive  organs 
nor  of  the  poison  gland  and  vesicle  could  be  detected. 

Of  particular  interest  was  the  behavior  of  this  gynan- 
dromorph,  because,  as  Adlerz  says,  it  evidently  felt  itself 
to  be  a  male  but  was  treated  by  the  normal  males  in  the 
colony  as  a  female.  Its  movements  were  somewhat  live- 
lier than  those  of  normal  males,  and  it  at  first  made  feeble 
attempts  to  copulate  with  the  females  and  was  treated 
with  indifference  by  the  males.  A  few  days  later  it  be- 
came more  energetic  and  persistently  attempted  to  copu- 
late, especially  with  one  particular  female,  although 
always  unsuccessfully  while  it  was  under  observation. 
It  was  evidently  inflamed  with  the  insatiable  sexual  appe- 
tite so  characteristic  of  the  normal  Anergates  males, 
which,  being  wingless,  always  mate  with  their  sisters  be- 
fore they  fly  out  of  the  parental  nest.  On  the  following 
day,  however,  a  normal  male  made  the  most  persistent 
efforts  for  several  hours  to  mate  with,  this  same  gynan- 
dromorphous  individual.    Adlerz  concludes  that 

this  indicates  that  the  males  regarded  it  as  a  female.  Of  course,  we 
may  suppose  that  its  wings  made  it  seem  like  a  female  and  attracted  the 
male,  but  from  the  fact  that  males  attempt  to  mate  even  with  female 
pupae  and  therefore  with  a  stage  which  has  not  yet  developed  wings,  it 
is  more  probable  that  the  male  was  attracted  to  the  gynandromorph  by 
some  female  odor.    At  any  rate  the  double  nature  of  the  gynandromorph 


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62  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [VoL-XLVHI 

is  even  more  strongly  indicated  by  the  facts  just  recorded  than  by  its 
morphol6gical  peculiarities. 

3.  Latbbal  Gynandbomorph  of  Anbrgates  atbatulus 
ScHENCK. — Adlebz  (1908,  p.  5,  Fig.  2,  a,  6,  c,  d  and  e) 

An  imperfect  lateral  gynandromorph,  male  on  the  left, 
female  on  the  right  side,  resembling  the  preceding  speci- 
men, but  with  the  dark  female  color  more  pronotmced  on 
the  male  side  of  the  head  There  were  well-developed 
wings  on  both  sides  of  the  thorax,  which  was  of  the  female 
form  though  dark  on  the  right  and  pale  on  the  left  side, 
except  the  epinotum,  which  was  grayish  yellow  through- 
out. Abdomen  in  color  and  form  almost  typically  male, 
with  the  genitalia  well-developed  on  both  sides,  but  with 
a  feeble  mid-dorsal  impression  recalling  the  condition  in 
the  virgin  female.  Legs  of  the  female  type,  except  the 
left  fore  one,  which  is  somewhat  shorter  and  thicker  as  in 
the  male  and  with  the  tibial  spur  (strigil)  cleft  but  not 
pectinated. 

Dissection  showed  the  reproductive  organs  to  be  in  the 
same  condition  as  in  the  preceding  specimen;  i.  e,,  they 
were  present  only  on  the  left  side  and  consisted  of  a 
rather  large  vesicula  seminalis  with  its  vas  deferens.  No 
traces  of  female  reproductive  organs,  nor  of  a  sting  or 
poison  apparatus  were  to  be  found. 

This  specimen  was  taken  from  the  same  nest  as  the 
preceding. 

4.  Lateral    Gynandromorph    (Ergatandromorph)    of 
Formica  sanguinea  Latreille. — Donisthorpe  (1909, 

p.  464,  Fig.  1) 

A  nearly  complete  lateral  ergatandromorph,  with  the 
right  antenna,  mandible  and  eye,  and  right  and  median 
ocellus  male  and  the  left  antenna,  mandible,  eye  and  ocel- 
lus of  the  worker  type.  Head  black,  except  the  left 
mandible,  left  half  of  clypeus,  left  cheek  and  a  small  patch 
in  front  of  the  eye,  which  are  red.     Thorax  and  petiole 


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No.6e6]  GTNANDB0M0BPH0U8  ANTS  58 

male  on  the  right,  worker  on  the  left,  the  line  of  division 
running  to  the  left  of  the  median  line  so  that  the  black  of 
the  right  side  of  the  mesonotnm  encroaches  on  the  red 
color  of  the  left  side.  Petiole  and  gaster  sharply  divided 
into  black  right  and  red  left  halves,  the  right  half  of  the 
latter  also  with  male  pilosity  and  sculpture.  External 
male  genitalia  and  anal  stemite  on  the  right  side.  The 
red  and  black  coloration  is  sharply  divided  on  the  venter, 
but  the  C0X8B  are  all  black  and  red  as  on  the  male,  and  the 
legs  on  both  sides  are  somewhat  infuscated.  Tarsi  longer 
on  the  right  (male)  side.  Wings  well  developed,  on  the 
right  side  only,  with  pale  veins  and  stigma  and  more  like 
those  of  the  female.    Length  7  mm. 

This  specimen  was  taken  by  Mr.  Donisthrope  July  20 
or  21  from  a  large  colony  in  Bewdley  Forest,  England. 

5.    Latebal    Gtnakdbomobph    of    Fobmica    sakouinba 
Latbeille. — DoKiSTHOBPB  (1909,  p.  464,  Fig.  2) 

A  nearly  complete  lateral  gynandromorph,  male  on  the 
left,  female  on  the  right  side.  The  head  is  of  the  female 
type,  rather  small,  with  both  of  the  antennae  and  the  ocelli 
female  and  the  left  eye  a  little  larger  than  the  right. 
Head  black,  clypeus  and  right  mandible  red ;  thorax  evenly 
divided  into  a  black  left  and  red  right  half,  but  only  the 
upper  right  comer  of  the  epinotum  red.  A  piece  of  the 
scutellum  and  postscutellum  red  on  the  left  side  where 
the  wing  is  inserted.  Petiole  sharply  divided  into  a  red 
right  and  left  black  half.  Gaster  black,  the  pilosity  and 
sculpture  on  the  right  half  female,  on  the  left  half  male, 
the  color  being  sharply  defined  on  the  venter.  Legs  and 
coxaB  female  on  the  right,  male  on  the  left  side.  External 
genitalia  of  the  male  type  present  on  the  left  side.  Both 
pairs  of  wings  fully  developed,  but  the  stigma  and  veins 
darker  as  in  the  male.    Length  9  mm. 

This  specimen  was  taken  from  the  same  colony  as  the 
preceding. 


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64  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 

6.    Fbontal  Gynandbomobph  of  Solbnopsis  fugax 
Latreillb. — Santschi  (1910,  p.  649) 

The  head  and  thorax  in  this  specimen  are  female,  the 
pedicel  and  gaster  male.  The  head  is  somewhat  smaller 
than  in  normal  females.  The  copulatory  organs  are  those 
of  the  normal  male.  Santschi  remarks  that  it  **  would  be 
interesting  to  observe  the  sexual  behavior  of  such  an  indi- 
vidual possessing  a  female  brain  and  male  genitalia.*' 

7.    Lateral    Gynandbomobph    (Ebgatandbomobph)    of 

MyBMICA    SCABBINODIS    NyLANDBB. — DONISTHOBPE 

(1913,  p.  44,  PL  I) 

A  nearly  complete  lateral  ergatandromorph ;  worker  on 
the  right,  male  on  the  left  side,  the  former  being  blackish, 
the  latter  reddish  yellow.  Eight  half  of  head  larger  than 
the  left,  but  with  a  smaller  eye,  striatorugose;  right  an- 
tenna yellow,  with  a  three- jointed  club,  its  scape  with  the 
usual  strong  lateral  tooth  at  the  basal  flexure.  Bight 
half  of  thorax  yellow,  its  epinotal  half  with  a  strong  spine ; 
right  half  of  petiole  and  postpetiole  yellow,  rugose  and 
punctured ;  right  half  of  gaster  pale  fuscous  yellow.  Legs 
on  the  right  side  of  the  worker  type,  yellow.  Left  side  of 
head  blackish,  ptmctate,  not  striatorugose,  with  a  larger 
eye  and  the  median  and  left  ocellus ;  its  antenna  fuscous, 
with  four-jointed  club.  Left  half  of  thorax  blackish,  its 
epinotal  portion  unarmed ;  left  half  of  petiole  and  post- 
petiole  smooth,  fuscous  black.  The  greater  part  of  the 
left  half  of  the  gaster  had  been  eaten  away  but  the  re- 
mainder was  darker  fuscous  th€in  the  right.  Legs  on  left 
side  of  the  male  type,  fuscous ;  wings  on  the  left  side  only. 

Donisthorpe  remarks  that  this  specimen,  which  was 
picked  up  dead  by  Mr.  Dollman  at  Ditchling,  England,  ap- 
proaches the  var.  sabuleti  Meinert  in  having  the  left 
ant  ennal  scape  longer  than  in  the  typical  male  scabrinodis 
and  the  tooth  on  the  right  antenna  large. 

In  conclusion  I  would  call  attention  to  a  peculiar  ant 
described  by  Mayr  (1868,  p.  60)  from  the  Baltic  amber 


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No.  565]  GTNANDBOMOBPHOUS  ANTS  55 

and  designated  as  a  *'Zwitter**   (gynandromorph)    of 
Hypoclinea  constricta  Mayr,  or  Iridomyrmex  constrictits 
as  we  must  now  call  the  species.    Through  the  kindness 
of  Prof.  A.  Tornquist,  of  the  University  of  Konigsberg, 
I  have  been  able  to  examine  this  specimen  in  connection 
with  many  other  amber  FormicidsB.    The  general  struc- 
ture of  the  head,  thorax  and  gaster  is  that  of  a  worker, 
though  the  thorax  is  not  typical,  as  the  base  of  the  epino- 
tum  is  less  convex  and  less  abruptly  elevated,  so  that  the 
angle  between  it  and  the  declivity  is  less  pronounced  in 
profile.    Mayr  does  not  mention  that  the  eyes  are  decid- 
edly larger  and  more  convex  than  in  the  normal  worker 
and  therefore  more  like  those  of  the  male.    There  are  a 
few  small  white  spots  or  bubbles  on  the  vertex,  which  re- 
semble small  ocelli,  but  these  organs  seem  to  be  actually 
absent.    The  antennsB  are  13-jointed  and  very  long,  as  in 
the  male ;  the  scapes,  however,  are  like  those  of  the  worker, 
but  extend  well  beyond  the  posterior  borders  of  the  head, 
whereas  joints  2-11  of  the  funiculi  are  cylindrical,  sub- 
equal  and  fully  three  times  as  long  as  broad,  the  terminal 
joint  being  somewhat  longer  than  these,  the  first  shorter. 
In  the  gaster,  whioh  is  shaped  as  in  the  normal  worker, 
there  are  five  distinctly  visible  segments,  but  the  tip  shows 
•clearly  the  small,  hairy,  external  genital  valves  (stipes) 
of  the  male.    The  legs  are  also  more  slender  than  in  the 
normal  worker  and  therefore  more  like  those  of  the  male. 
At  first  sight  thissingular  insect  seems  to  be  a  gynandro- 
morph, as  Mayr  supposed,  or  more  specifically,  an  erga- 
tandromorph  of  the  blended  type,  with  worker  characters 
preponderating  in  the  trunk  and  those  of  the  male  pre- 
ponderating in  the  eyes,  appendages  and  genitalia.    It  is 
possible,  however,  to  regard  this  specimen  as  an  ergato- 
morphic  male,  like  those  which  occur  normally  in  certain 
species  of  Ponera,  Cardiocondyla,  Formicoxenus,  Sym- 
myrmica  and  Technomyrmex.    Unfortunately  we  are  not 
in  a  position  to  decide  between  these  alternatives,  because 
we  are  dealing  with  a  single  fossil  specimen  and  are  not 
even  sure  that  it  belongs  to  the  species  to  which  Mayr 


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56  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVni 

assigned  it.  Still  the  case  is  interesting  if  only  because 
it  suggests  the  further  question  as  to  whether  the  ergato- 
morphic  males  in  the  genera  above  cited  may  be  regarded 
as  originally  frontal  ergatandromorphs,  with  worker 
head  and  thorax  and  male  gaster,  that  have  become  the 
only  males  of  the  species.  If  this  is  true,  the  ergato- 
morphic  males  may  have  arisen  by  mutation  from  patho- 
logical or  teratological  forms  and  have  been  preserved  in 
certain  species  in  which  peculiarities  of  habit  rendered  the 
fecundation  of  the  virgin  females  in  the  nest  by  wingless 
males  more  advantageous  than  the  type  of  mating  ex- 
hibited by  the  nuptial  flight.  A  moment  *s  reflection  shows 
that  the  nuptial  flight  is  a  highly  advantageous  institu- 
tion in  common  ants  that  form  large  colonies,  but  must  be 
as  decidedly  disadvantageous  in  the  case  of  very  small, 
rare  ants  whose  colonies  are  very  sporadic  and  comprise 
only  a  few  individuals.  This  is  actually  the  condition 
seen  in  all  the  species  with  ergatomorphic  males  in  the 
genera  Ponera,  Cardiocondyla,  Formicoxenus,  Symmyr- 
mica  and  Technomyrmex,  and  may  be  supposed,  there- 
fore, to  accotmt  for  the  substitution  of  the  wingless,  erga- 
tomorphic for  the  normal  winged  males  in  these  species. 

LITERATURE 

1908.  Adlerzi  G.    Zwei  Gynandroinorpheii  von  Anergates  atratulus  Schenck. 

Arhiv.  for  ZooL,  V,  1908,  No.  2,  6  pp.,  2  pis. 

1909.  Donisthorpe,  H.  S.  J.  K.    Formica  sanguinea,  Ltr.,  at  Bewdley,  with 

an  Account  of  a  Slave-raid,  and  Description  of  two  Gynandro- 

morphs,  etc.    Zoologist,  1909,  pp.  463-466,  2  figs. 
1913.    Donisthorpe,  H.  S.  J.  K.    Some  Notes  on  tihe  Genus  Myrmica,    Ent. 

Becord,  XXV,  1913,  pp.  1-8,  42-51,  1  pi.,  10  text  figs. 
1868.    Mayr,  G.     Die  Ameisen  des  batischen  Bernsteins.     Beiir,  Naturk, 

Preussens,  1.    Konigsberg,  1868,  pp.  iv  +  102,  5  pis. 
1907.    Santschi,  F.     Fourmis  de  Tunisie  Captur^es  en  1906.     Bev.  Suisse 

Zool,  XV,  2,  1907,  pp.  305-334,  7  figs. 

1910.  Santschi,    F.    CJontributions    k    la    Faune    Entomologique    de    la 

Roumanie.     Formicides  Captur^es  par  Mr.  A.  L.  Montandon. 
Bull,  8oc.  8ci.  Bucharest,  XIX,  No.  4,  1910,  pp.  648-651. 
1903.    Wheeler,  W.  M.    Some  New  Gynandromorphous  Ants,  with  a  Review 
of  the  Previously  Recorded  Cases.    Bull,  Amer,  Mus,  Nat,  Hist^ 
XIX,  1903,  pp.  653-683,  11  figs. 


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SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION 

ON  THE   RESULTS   OP   INBREEDING   A  MENDELIAN 

POPULATION:   A   CORRECTION  AND   EXTENSION 

OP  PREVIOUS  CONCLUSIONS* 

In  a  recent  paper  by  the  present  writer  on  inbreeding,*  the  con- 
clusion was  reached  {loc,  cit.,  p.  608) 

that  no  increase  in  the  proportion  of  homozygotes  in  the  population 
follows  inbreeding  save  under  one  or  the  other  of  two  special  condi- 
tionsy  viz.: 

(a)  Continued  self-fertilization. 

(b)  Some  form  of  gametic  assortative  mating  which  increases  the 
natural  probability  of  like  gametes  uniting  to  form  zygotes. 

This  conclusion  is  entirely  correct  as  it  stands,  but  also  barren, 
for  it  overlooks  the  very  essential  fact  that  any  sort  of  inbreed- 
ing involves  in  greater  or  less  degree  ''gametic  assortative  mat- 
ing." The  mathematical  demonstration  on  page  608  of  the  paper 
referred  to  is  also  entirely  correct  so  far  as  it  goes,  but  it  stops 
too  soon.  Up  to  the  third  generation  of  brother  X  sister  mating 
starting  from  a  population  of  complete  heterozygotes  there  is  no 
increase  in  the  proportion  of  homozygotes  beyond  that  prevailing 
in  a  general  Mendelian  population.  In  the  fourth  and  later  gen- 
erations there  is,  however.  The  blunder,  kindly  pointed  out  to 
me  by  Professor  E.  M.  East,  which  in  retrospect  seems  altogether 
too  stupid  even  to  be  possible,  was  in  the  failure  to  recognize  that 
after  the  second  generation  the  constitution  of  the  family  would 
no  longer  be  the  same  as  that  of  the  population.  This  is  the  point 
which  makes  illegitimate  the  extension  by  induction  of  the  results 
up  to  the  third  generation  to  the  generations  beyond. 

The  genei|l  conclusion  of  the  former  paper  quoted  above, 
should  then  l^as  follows :  An  increase  in  the  proportion  of  homo- 
zygotes in  the  population  will  follow  inbreeding  of  any  sort, 
though  at  different  rates  for  different  types  of  inbreeding, 
because  any  inbreeding  involves  homogamy  (or  assortative  fnat- 
ing)  in  some  degree. 

Having  made  clear  the  location  and  nature  of  the  error  I  desire 
now  to  show  in  some  detail  exactly  what  results  follow  from  con- 

1  Papers  from  the  Biologieal  Laboratory  of  the  Maine  Agricultural  Ex- 
periment Station^  No.  54. 

1  <  <  A  Contribution  Towards  an  Analysis  of  the  Problem  of  Inbreeding,  * ' 
Ambucan  Naturalist,  Vol.  XLVn,  pp.  577-614,  1913. 

67 


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58  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [VoL-XLVHI 

tinued  brother  X  sister  mating  in  a  Mendelian  population.    To 
this  we  may  now  proceed. 

The  Distribution  op  a  Mendeuan  Population  in  Succbssivb 

Generations  with  Continued  Brother  X  Sister 

Mating 

Let  us  start  with  a  population  composed  entirely  of  complete 
heterozygotes.  We  shall  consider  a  single  character  pair,  A 
denoting  the  dominant  character,  and  a  the  recessive.  The  com- 
plete heterozygote  individual  will  then  be  Aa,  and  will  produce 
in  equal  numbers  A  and  a  gametes. 

In  making  an  analysis  of  the  effect  of  inbreeding  on  the  popu- 
lation it  will  be  necessary  to  deal  not  merely  with  the  distribu- 
tion of  individuals  in  each  generation,  but  also  with  the  distribu- 
tion of  families  of  the  several  types.  Each  mating  will  produce 
an  array  of  families,  as  well  as  an  array  of  individuals.  The 
standard  family  throughout  this  discussion  is  taken  as  including 
32  individuals,  of  which  16  are  males  and  16  females.  It  is 
further  assumed  that  there  is  no  sex-linkage  of  characters,  and 
that  in  any  family  there  will  be  an  equal  number  of  brothers  and 
sisters  of  each  zygotic  constitution  represented.  One  family  of 
16  pairs  of  brothers  and  sisters  will  make  16  matings  and  pro- 
duce 16  families  of  32  individuals  each.  This  constant  rate  of 
fertility  is  assumed  throughout  the  discussion. 

Every  mating  made  is  of  a  brother  with  his  sister. 

With  so  much  by  way  of  preliminary  definition  of  the  limita- 
tions of  this  investigation,  let  us  proceed  to  the  actual  analysis. 

First  Oeneration 

Constitution  of  the  Population. — ^By  hyi)othesis  all  individuals 
are  Aa. 

Proportion  of  Homozygotes  in  this  Oeneration. — 0  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  population. 

Matings  to  Produce  the  Second  Oeneration. — Start  with  one 
brother  X  sister  pair  of  individuals  from  this  population.  The 
mating  will  be  Aa  X  Aa.  This  will  produce  one  family,  8AA 
+  8Aa  +  8aA  +  8aa. 

Second  Generation 

Constitution  of  the  Population. — 8-4.-4.  +  SAa -f- 8-4.a -f- 8aa. 
Proportion  of  Homozygotes  in  this  Oeneration. — 50  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  population. 


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No.  565]       8H0BTEB  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION 


59 


Matings  io  Produce  the  Third  Oeneration. — ^The  matmgs  of 
the  one  family  of  this  generation  will  be  as  follows: 


cfo" 

99 

d'd' 

99 

(1)  AA 

(1)  AA 

(9)  oA 

(3)  oA 

(2)  AA 

(5)  AA 

(10)  o4 

(7)  oA 

(3)  AA 

(9)  AA 

(11)  aA 

(11)  a4 

(4)  AA 

(13)  AA 

(12)  oA 

(15)  oA 

(5)  Aa 

(2)  .ia 

(13)  aa 

(4)  «a 

(6)  Aa 

(6)  Aa 

(14)  ao 

(8)  aa 

(7)  Aa 

(10)  4a 

(15)  aa 

(12)  aa 

(8)  Aa 

(14)  4a 

(16)  aa 

(16)  oa 

TfctVd  Oeneration  Families  Produced. — (Note:  the  numbers 
in  parenthesis  are  to  identify  matings  and  their  consequent 
families.) 


AA 

Aa 

aA 

ma 

(1) 

33 
16 
16 

(2) 

16 
16 
32 

(3) 

(4) 

(5) 

Vft 

8 
8 

16 
8 
8 

(«) 
(7) 
(8) 

8 

8 

16 

8 

8 

16 

(9) 

16 

8 
8 

16 
8 
8 

(10) 
(11) 
(12) 

8 

8 

16 

8 

8 

16 

(13) 

32 
16 
16 

(14) 

16 

(15) 

16 

(16) 

82 

Third  Oeneration 
Constitution  of  the  Population. — 

128AA  +  1284a  + 12804  +  128aa. 

Proportion  of  Homozygotes  in  this  Oeneration. — 50  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  population. 

Fourth  Oeneration  Families  Produced. — The  third  generation 
families,  when  mated,  will  produce  families  as  follows: 

Summarized  this  gives  the  following  fourth  generation  families 
produced : 

(1)4  86  families  like    (1), 
(2)4  24  families  like    (2), 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 


(3)4  4  famiUes 
(4)4  24  families 
(5)4  80  families 
(6)4  24  families 
(7)4  4  families 
(8)4  24  families 
(9)4  36  families 


like  (4), 
like  (5), 
like  (6), 
like  (8), 
like  (13), 
like  (14), 
like  (16), 


AA 

Aa     '     Aa 

aa 

Family  (l)t  will  produce  . .  16  families  of  constitution 

32 
32 
16 
16 

8 
8 

Families  (2)t  will  produce    4  families  of  constitution 

(3)i,  (5)i  will  produce. . . .  +4  families  of  constitution 

16 

"s" 

8 

and  (9)i  will  produce +4  families  of  constitution 

each  will  produce +4  families  of  constitution 

and  (13)i 

16 

8 
8 

"s" 

8 

each 

Families  (6)i  will  produce .   1  family    of  constitution 

32 
16 

"ie  * 

8 

1             1 

(7)i,  (10)t  will  produce. . .  +2  families  of  constitution 

16 

and  (ll)l  will  produce  t  ,  -  +1  family    of  constitutinn 

32 

***8  " 
16 

+2  families  of  constitution 
+4  families  of  constitution 
+2  families  of  constitution 
+1  family    of  constitution 

16 
8 

**32   * 
16 

"s" 

16 

+2  families  of  constitution 

16 

+1  family    of  constitution 

32 

Families  (8)1  will  produce    4  families  of  constitution 
(12)i,  (14)i  will  produce. .  +4  families  of  constitution 
and  (15)t  will  produce. . .  +4  families  of  constitution 
each  will  produce -{'4  families  of  constitution 

8 

8 
16 

8 
'16  ' 

8 
16 
16 

32 

Fftmily  (lft)t  Will  produce  16  fftmiliAif  of  constitution 

32 

Fourth  Oeneraiion 
Constitution  of  the  Population. — 

2560  AA  +  1536Aa  +  1536aA  +  2560aa. 

Proportion  of  Hotnozygotes  in  this  Generation. — 62.5  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  population. 

Fifth  Generation  Families  Produced. — The  third  generation 
families,  when  mated,  will  produce  families  as  follows : 


(1). 

will  produce  36  X  16  = 

576  families  like 

(1). 

(2). 

will  prodDce  24  X    4  = 

96  families  like 

(1). 

+  96 

families  like 

(2). 

+  96 

families  like 

(5). 

+  96 

families  like 

(6). 

(3). 

will  produce    4  X  16  = 

64  families  like 

(6). 

(4), 

wiU  produce  24  X    4  = 

96  famiUes  like 

(1). 

+  96 

families  like 

(2). 

+  96 

families  like 

(5). 

+  96 

families  like 

(6). 

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Ko.665]       8H0BTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  61 

(5)4  will  produee  80  families  like    (l)t 

+  80  X  2  =  160  familiee  like    (2). 

+  80  families  like    (4), 

+  160  families  like    (5). 

+  80  X  4  =  320  families  like    (6), 

+  160  families  like    (8). 

+  80  famines  like  (13), 

+  160  families  like  (14), 

+  80  families  like  (16), 

(6)4  will  produce  24  X  4  =    96  families  like    (6), 

+  96  families  like    (8), 

+  96  familiee  like  (14), 

+  96  families  like  (16), 

(7)4  will  produce    4  X  16  =   64  families  like    (6), 

(8)4  will  produce  24  X  4=   96  families  like    (6), 

+  96  families  like    (8), 

+  96  families  like  (14), 

+  96  families  like  (16), 

(9)4  will  produce  36  X  16  =  576  families  like  (16), 

Summarized  this  gives  the  following  fifth  generation  families 
produced : 

(1),  848  families  like  (1), 
(2),  352  families  like  (2), 
(3),  80  families  like  (4), 
(4),  352  families  like  (5), 
(5),  832  families  like  (6), 
(6),  352  famUies  like  (8), 
(7),  80  families  like  (13), 
(8),  352  families  like  (14), 
(9),  848  families  like  (16), 

4096  (=16X256). 

Fifth  Oeneration 

Constitution  of  the  Population, — 

44,73644  +  20,4804a  +  20,48004  +  44,736aa. 
Proportion  of  Homozygotes  in  This  Oeneration. — 68.75  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  population. 
Sixth  generation  families  produced: 

17,216  families  like    (1), 

4,480  famiUes  like    (2), 

832  families  like    (4), 

4,480  families  like    (5), 

11,520  families  like    (6), 

4,480  families  like    (8), 

832  families  like  (13), 

4,480  famities  like  (14), 


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62 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 
17,216  families  like  (16), 


65,636  (=16X4,096). 

Sixth  Oeneration 
Constitution  of  the  Population, — 

786,43244  +  262,1444a  +  262,144a4  +  786,432aa. 


Proportion  of  Homozygotes  in  This  Oeneration. — ^75  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  population. 

From  this  point  on  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  carry  out  the 
work  in  detail.  The  final  results  are  given  in  Table  I  for  four 
more  generations. 

TABLE   I 

Showing  the  Constitution  of  the  Population  After  7  to  10 
Generations  of  Brother  x  Sister  Mating 


Gener- 
fttion 

AA 

Aa 

aA 

<Ul 

Percentage 
of  Homozj- 

gotesin 
Whole  Pop- 
ulation 

7 

8 

9 

10 

13,369,344 

224.395,264 

3.724,541,952 

61,337.501,696 

3,407,872 

44,040,192 

570,425,344 

7,381,975.040 

3,407,872 

44.040,192 

570,425,344 

7,381,975.040 

13,369,344 

224,395,264 

3.724,541,952 

61,337.601,696 

79.69 
83.59 
86.72 
89.26 

It  is  evident  that  the  proportion  of  homozygotes  is  approaching 
100  per  cent,  in  the  same  manner  as  in  the  case  of  self-fertiliza- 
tion, worked  out  by  East,  Jennings  and  others,  but  at  a  slower 
rate. 

In  a  later  paper  I  hope  to  take  up  the  problem  of  the  general 
formulae  for  finding  the  constitution  of  a  Mendelian  population 
after  n  generations  of  inbreeding  of  the  different  types,  and  at 
the  same  time  discuss  the  relation  of  these  results  to  the  coeffi- 
cients of  inbreeding  described  in  my  former  paper.  It  should  be 
specifically  mentioned  that,  in  the  light  of  the  data  here  set  forth, 
those  criticisms  of  the  conclusions  of  East  and  Hayes  made  in  my 
former  paper^  which  were  based  on  the  erroneous  assumption  of 
a  fundamental  difference  between  self-fertilization  and  all  other 
forms  of  inbreeding  in  respect  to  homozygosis,  have  no  validity 
whatever.  It  scarcely  needs  to  be  said  that  the  blunder  on  the 
theoretical  side  here  corrected  in  no  wise  affects  thS  usefulness  of 
inbreeding  coefficients.  Raymond  Peabl 

«  Cf.  Pearl,  loc.  cit.,  p.  606,  609  and  610. 


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ISOLATION  AND  SELECTION  ALLIED  IN  PRINCIPLE 

There  are  those  who  folly  recognize  the  influence  of  natural 
selection  in  transforming  the  hereditary  characters  of  a  species, 
but  are  unable  to  see  how  isolation  should  have  any  effect  of  that 
kind.  They  say  that  you  may  divide  a  species  into  two  branches 
between  which  all  possibility  of  crossing  is  completely  prevented, 
but  if  the  environment  surrounding  each  branch  is  the  same,  the 
natural  selection  to  which  each  is  subjected  will  be  the  same,  and 
no  divei^nce  of  character  will  take  place.  They  forget  that  the 
separate  branches,  if  prevented  from  crossing  for  many  genera- 
tions, are  sure  to  develop  different  types  of  variation,  and  in  due 
time  different  methods  of  using  the  same  environment,  and  are 
therefore  liable  to  subject  themselves  to  different  foims  of  selec- 
tion. Again  they  forget  that  when  the  power  of  dispersal  is 
highly  developed  in  a  species  it  may  be  exposed  to  diverse  en- 
vironments and  therefore  to  diversity  of  selecting  influences,  and 
still  remain  one  harmonious  species,  because  free  crossing  is 
maintained  between  all  parts  of  the  species.  As  long  as  there  is 
no  isolation  of  different  branches,  that  is,  while  free  crossing  con- 
tinues, there  is  no  permanent  divergence  resulting  in  diverse 
races  or  species,  even  though  the  one  species  is  exposed  to  differ- 
ent forms  of  selection  in  different  parts  of  its  habitat. 

Diversity  of  evolution,  producing  many  divergent  forms  of 
animals,  could  never  have  arisen  without  continuous  isolation  be- 
tween the  different  forms. 

Again  there  are  those  who  maintain  that  selection  unaided  by 
isolation  can  not  produce  transformation.  It  is  true  that  diver- 
gent groups  can  not  be  produced  and  intensified  without  isola- 
tion; but  a  given  race  may  be  transformed  by  selection  without 
being  divided  into  two  groups  by  isolation. 

Heredity  with  variation  is  the  active  cause  of  transformation ; 
isolation  and  selection  are  the  conditions  that  shape  the  f6rms  of 
heredity  and  variation. 

It  is  a  law  of  heredity,  that,  if  those  of  a  given  stock  that  are 
most  alike  in  hereditary  characters  mate  with  each  other,  there 
will  be  a  tendency  in  their  offspring  to  a  stronger  emphasis  of 
that  character. 

63 


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64  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.XLVHI 

Another  law  of  heredity  is  that  as  long  as  free  crossing  is  main- 
tained between  the  different  forms  of  a  species  these  forms  can 
not  become  widely  divergent.  The  elephant  and  the  mouse  could 
never  have  been  developed  from  one  original  stock  while  free 
crossing  continued. 

Now  there  are  many  ways  by  which  the  free  crossing  of  one 
variation  with  others  of  the  same  species  may  be  prevented,  but 
they  all  come  under  two  groups. 

Under  selection  are  classed  all  the  influences  enabling  certain 
variations  to  reproduce  more  successfully  than  other  variations, 
and  80  preventing  free  crossing  between  the  successful  and  the 
unsucessful.  Under  isolation  are  classed  all  the  influences  that 
prevent  living,  and  sexually  reproducing  creatures,  from  freely 
crossing. 

Under  normal  conditions  there  is  no  crossing  between  the  ass 
and  the  horse,  though  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  early 
ancestors  of  each  were  of  one  stock  freely  interbreeding  and  pro- 
ducing fertile  offspring.  If  isolation  had  not  existed  for  ages  be- 
tween them,  they  could  not  have  become  the  separate  creatures 
that  they  now  are.  Heredity  can  combine  only  compatible  char- 
acters. In  some  cases,  incompatible  characters  arise  between 
creatures  of  the  same  race  preventing  any  crossing  between  them, 
as  when  a  dextrally  twisted  moUusk  produces  a  sinistrally  twisted 
one;  but,  in  most  cases,  such  incompatibility  arises  only  after 
isolation,  through  geographical  separation,  for  many  generations. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  is  it  not  plain,  that,  in  the  case  of  a 
variable  and  plastic  organism,  races  more  or  less  divergent  will 
be  produced,  if  for  many  generations  the  organism  is  divided 
into  branches  that  are  prevented  from  crossing!  Is  not  such  a 
result  just  as  sure  as  the  gradual  transformation  of  the  race 
under  a  slow  change  of  climate,  when  the  successful  variations 
are  prevented  from  crossing  with  the  unsuccessful  variations! 

John  T.  Guuck 

Honolulu,  T.  H. 


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Editor:  EDWARD  8. DANA. 
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ZI.     ** Dominant"  and'* RecesBlye"  Bpottlnf  In  lUoe.    C.  C.  Little       -       -      T4 
m.     On  DUforentlal  Mortality  with  respect  to  Seed  Weight  occurring  In  Fl«ld 

Onltnres  of  Plsnm  sativum.    Dr.  J.  Artuub  Hakbis     -       .       -       -      83 
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66  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

race  and  as  a  mutation  or  unit-character  variation,  retro- 
gressive in  nature  (i.  e.,  due  to  loss  of  some  normal  con- 
stituent from  the  germplasm).  Each  is  a  simple  Mende- 
lian  recessive  character  in  crosses  with  wild  race,  and 
with  certain  at  least  of  the  tame  varieties.  The  two  varia- 
tions have  not  as  yet  been  combined  by  intercrossing,  but 
this  will  be  attempted  soon  and,  I  doubt  not,  with  entire 
success. 

My  first  information  about  the  new  variations  was 
obtained  from  Fur  cmd  Feather,  the  oflScial  organ  of  the 
English  fanciers,  in  which  appeared  advertisements  of 
*Hhe  new  variety*'  of  black-eyed  yellow  rat.  Now  as 
long  ago  as  1903  Bateson  had  commented  on  the  singular 
absence  of  a  ** yellow'*  variety  among  rats,  noteworthy 
because  nearly  all  mammals  kept  in  captivity  have  such 
varieties ;  and  I  have  since  been  bold  enough  to  publish 
some  speculations  as  to  why  this  variation  had  not  made 
its  appearance.  Consequently  I  was  mudh  excited  to 
learn  that  it  actually  had  appeared.  Miss  M.  Douglas, 
one  of  the  editors  of  Fur  and  Feather,  and  secretary  of 
the  National  Mouse  and  Eat  Club  (of  England)  very 
kindly  answered  my  inquiries  about  the  new  varieties  and 
put  me  in  communication  with  the  ** originators,'*  who 
have  given  so  clear  and  full  accounts  of  their  procedure 
in  establishing  the  new  varieties  that  even  the  genetic  be- 
havior of  the  variations  is  fairly  certain,  though  I  pur- 
pose to  confirm  this  fully  with  experiments  which  are 
already  in  progress. 

The  pink-eyed  variation  made  its  appearance  first,  so 
far  as  known,  about  1910  or  1911,  but  it  had  probably 
been  in  existence  for  some  time  and  become  rather  widely 
diflFused  throughout  the  central  part  of  England,  for  at 
about  the  same  time  pink-eyed  wild  rats  were  caught  at 
or  near  Preston  and  at  Chesterfield,  cities  some  65  miles 
apart.  I  am  informed  that  Mr.  T.  Eobinson  at  Preston 
and  Mr.  W.  E.  Marriott  at  Chesterfield  independently 
established  the  ** pink-eyed  fawn"  variety,  or  what  would 
better  be  called  the  pink-eyed  agouti  variety,  since  appar- 


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No.  566]   NEW  VARIETIES  OF  EATS  AND  GUINEA  P1Q8       67 

ently  it  differs  from  the  wild  gray  (or  agouti)  variety  by 
the  pink-eyed  variation  alone.  It  is  not  a  true  yellow 
variety  at  all  genetically,  though  (like  the  pink-eyed  gray 
mouse)  it  resembles  one  superficially  because  of  the  yel- 
low ticking  of  the  agouti  fur. 

It  is  also  quite  distinct  genetically  from  the  albino 
variation  seen  in  white  rats,  yet  its  *  *  dirty  white' '  color  is 
enough  like  the  appearance  of  the  albino  to  permit  mis- 
taking one  for  the  other.  Possibly  this  is  why  the  pink- 
eyed  variation  may  have  been  for  some  time  overlooked. 

Mr.  Robinson  has  not  answered  my  inquiries,  but  Mr. 
Mariott  writes  in  detail  about  his  observations  and  ex- 
periments. 

Under  date  of  October  11, 1913,  he  says : 

The  first  rat  with  any  semblance  of  fawn  in  it  that  I  had  was  canght 
in  a  trap  on  a  provision  merchant's  premises  in  Chesterfield.  Yon  conld 
searcely  call  it  a  fawn,  bnt  more  of  a  cream  or  dirty  white.  I  have  also 
had  fonr  others  similar  to  this  one,  2  caught  at  the  same  place  and  2 
caught  at  a  malt-house  in  close  proximity  to  the  other  premises,  [in  aU] 
3  bucks  and  2  does,  but  the  only  one  that  I  was  able  to  get  to  breed  was 
the  first  brought  to  me,  which  was  a  buck.  When  first  caught  it  was 
very  wild,  in  fact  it  appeared  to  me  to  be  more  wild  than  an  ordinary 
wild  rat.  It  was  a  source  of  trouble  getting  it  to  mate,  killing  no  less 
than  20  does  before  mating.  I  eventually  got  it  mated  to  2  does,  one  a 
pure  white  for  at  least  10  generations,  and  one  black-and-white  hooded- 
and-striped,  or  Japanese  rat.  The  result  of  the  pure  white  cross  was  2 
young,  a  buck  and  a  doe,  wMch  were  agoutis  with  no  white  at  all,^  The 
result  from  the  Japanese  cross  was  7  young,  5  does  and  2  bucks,  which 
were  the  color  of  Irish  agoutis  being  agouti  color  with  a  white  stripe 
running  underneath.  These  results  naturaUy  caused  me  great  disap- 
I>ointment  as  I  was  expecting  a  fawn  colored  young  one.  When  the 
young  were  old  enough  I  mated  father  and  daughter,  result  nil;  mother 
and  son,  result  ntl;  brother  and  sister.  The  brother  and  sister  mating 
from  the  pure  white  cross  produced  2  fawn  colored  rats,  a  buck  and  a 
doe,  and  5  agoutis.^  The  brother  and  sister  mating  from  the  Japanese 
cross  produced  2  f  awn-and-white  Japanese,  1  cream-and-white  Japanese, 

1  Italics  mine.  Note  the  reversion  to  full  wild  color.  This  shows  the 
pink-eyed  variation  to  be  entirely  different  in  nature  from  the  ordinary 
albino  variation. 

sNote  the  return  of  "fawn"  (pink-eyed  &gouti)  as  a  recessive  character 
in  approximately  1  in  4  young. 


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68  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

1  black-and-white  Japanese,  and  4  agoutis.^  The  fawns  and  fawn-and- 
whites  resulting  from  these  crosses  were  much  deeper  in  color  than  the 
wild  grandsire.  Mated  one  with  another  they  gave  a  proportion  of 
about  2  fawn  colored  or  fawn-and-white  in  7  young.*  I  may  say  in 
conclusion  that  the  original  wild  rat  was  in  shape  of  body,  skull,  etc., 
as  the  ordinary  brown  or  agouti  rat  that  we  have  running  wild  in 
this  district. 

Mr.  Marriott  sold  a  ** fawn-and-white"  (pink-eyed 
hooded  agouti)  bnck  to  Mr.  E.  F.  Tilling,  of  Hessenford, 
who  also  **  originated '^  the  second  variation,  the  **  black- 
eyed  yellow,"  or  true  yellow  variation.  His  results  from 
the  pink-eyed  variation  confirm  those  of  Mr.  Marriott. 

Mr.  Tilling  writes  under  date  of  October  18, 1913 : 

I  see  by  Fur  and  Feather  this  week  that  you  are  interested  in  the 
yellow  and  cream  varieties  of  rats.  I  am  also  much  interested  in  these 
and  have  produced  the  latter  variety  within  the  last  few  months.  We 
have  2  kinds  over  here,  the  yellow-and-white  hooded  with  pink  eyes  and 
the  self  yellow  (and  cream)  with  black  eyes.  Both  are  quite  distinct. 
The  first  mentioned  was  produced  some  2  or  3  years  ago.  Mr.  Harriott, 
of  Chesterfield;  bred  the  first  I  heard  of  from  a  wild  caught  fawn.  He 
bred  a  couple  of  yellow  and  white  hooded  bucks  of  which  Miss  Douglas 
bought  one  and  I  the  other.  I  mated  miae  to  about  15  does  of  various 
colors  and  definite  strains.  He  was  a  splendid  breeder  and  got  some  very 
fine  youngsters,  but  not  one  of  his  own  color  from  the  first  cross^  I 
subsequently  mated  him  to  some  of  his  daughters  and  they  produced  a 
good  proportion  of  yellow-and-white  young.'  These  are  now  fairly 
plentiful  over  here  and  are  in  the  hands  of  several  fanciers. 

Of  the  other  kinds,  black-eyed  fawns  and  creams,  the  first  one  ex- 
hibited and  from  which  all  mine  are  descended,  was  a  very  fine  wild 
caught,  deep  colored,  fawn  specimen.  I  got  her  partly  tame  and  ex- 
hibited her  at  the  National  Mouse  and  Rat  Club's  annual  show  at  Bristol 
on  November  27  and  28,  1912,  where  she  won  first  in  the  self  class  and 

8  "  Fawn-  and  white  Japanese'*  means  (to  me)  pink-eyed  agouti  with  the 
"Japanese"  color  pattern  (hooded).  The  formation  of  this  class  of  young 
shows  the  hooded  pattern  ("Japanese")  to  be  independent  in  transmission 
of  the  pink-eyed  variation.  *  *  Cream-and-white  Japanese,"  I  interpret  as 
pink-eyed  hlack  (non-agouti)  hooded.  "Black-and-white  Japanese"  is  the 
familiar  black  hooded.  We  should  expect  this  mating  to  produce  also  self 
pink-eyed  agouti  and  self  pink-eyed  black  which  are  not  mentioned. 

4  The  Mendelian  expectation  is  2  in  8. 

5  Italics  mine.    Note  again  the  recessive  nature  of  the  variation. 

*Not  real  yellow-and-white,  as  already  explained^  but  pink-eyed  agouti- 
and-white  or  black-and-white. 


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No.  566]    NEW  VARIETIES  OF  RATS  AND  GUINEA  PIGS       69 

was  well  commented  upon  in  the  fanciers'  papers.  From  this  doe  I  have 
built  up  my  strain  of  black-eyed  creams.  I  mated  her  to  a  self  black 
buck  and  she  bred  8  youngsters  all  wild  colored.^  This  is  the  only 
litter  I  had  from  her,  as  shortly  afterward,  during  my  illness,  my  man 
while  transferring  her  from  one  cage  to  another  let  her  get  away  and 
was  unable  to  recapture  her.  However,  I  have  bred  from  her  young- 
sters, mating  brother  and  sister,  and  the  litters  have  invariably  con- 
tained at  least  1  fawn  or  cream^  each  time.  I  have  now  just  bred  for 
the  first  time  from  the  3  first  does  so  produced,  again  mating  them  to 
their  brother  and  the  result  is  litters  of  7,  5  and  7,  respectively,  all  self 
creams.® 

From  the  statements  of  Messrs.  Marriott  and  Tilling, 
it  is  evident  that  the  two  variations,  which  they,  respect- 
ively, have  introduced  into  the  rat  fancy,  are  both  reces- 
sive in  heredity,  as  are  also  the  three  previously  known 
Mendelizing  color  variations  of  rats,  viz.,  (1)  the  albino 
variation  (with  uncolored  coat  and  eyes) ;  (2)  the  black 
variation  (lacking  the  agouti  ticking  of  the  fur) ;  and  (3) 
the  piebald  ** hooded^'  pattern  of  white  and  colored  fur. 
Each  of  these  is  known  to  be  an  independent  Mendelizing 
tmit-character.  If  the  new  variations  are  as  supposed  in- 
dependent of  each  other  and  of  those  previously  known, 
they  will  make  possible  the  immediate  four-fold  increase 
in  number  of  the  previously  known  color  varieties  of  rats. 
If  for  the  present  we  adopt  a  simplified  terminology  (as  I 
have  elsewhere  suggested)  for  the  different  color  varia- 
tions, employing  small  letters  for  such  as  are  recessive 
in  heredity,  we  may  use  the  following  set  of  symbols : 

White  (albino)  =w, 

Black  =  h, 

Hooded  =  h, 

Pink-eyed  =  p, 

Yellow  =  tf, 

7  This  shows  that  the  original  yellow  animal  was  potentially  an  agouti. 
A  pair  of  yellows  which  Mr.  Tilling  has  sent  me  have  light  bellies  and  I 
presume  are  also  potentially  agoutis. 

8 "Cream"  here  probably  means  yellow  not  transmitting  agouti.  It 
probably  lacks  the  lighter  belly  as  do  yellow  rabbits  which  do  not  transmit 
agouti. 

9  This  shows  that  extracted  yellows  breed  true  to  yellow.  Hence  the 
Tariation  is  recessive,  as  in  rabbits  and  guinea-pigs,  not  dominant  as  in  mice. 


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70  TRE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VOL-XLVHI 

By  various  combinations  of  these  variations,  if  each  is 
independent  of  all  the  others,  32  varieties  become  possi- 
ble. Half  of  these  varieties  will  be  albinos,  white  and  so 
visibly  indistinguishable.  The  other  16,  we  have  reason 
to  suppose,  will  look  different  from  each  other.  Pre- 
viously we  had  but  four  of  these,  the  first  four  in  the  fol- 
lowing list  of  the  theoretically  possible  16. 

1.  Normal  or  wUd agouti, 

2.  h black, 

3.  h hooded, 

4.  hh black  hooded, 

5.  p pink-eyed, 

6.  pb pink-eyed  black, 

7.  ph pink-eyed  hooded, 

8.  pbh pink-eyed  black  hooded, 

9.  y yellow, 

10.  yh yellow  black  (t.  e,,  non  agouti  yellow), 

11.  yh yellow  hooded, 

12.  yp yellow  pink-eyed, 

13.  yhh yellow  black  hooded, 

14.  yph yellow  pink-eyed  black, 

15.  yph yellow  pink-eyed  hooded, 

16.  ypbh    yellow  pink-eyed  black  hooded. 

Varieties  1-4  have  been  known  for  some  time;  they 
have  constituted  the  fancier's  entire  repertoire  up  to  the 
present  time.  Varieties  5  and  9  have  apparently  arisen 
as  wild  sports  obtained  by  Marriott  and  Tilling,  respect- 
ively. By  crosses  these  gentlemen  have  apparently  ob- 
tained varieties  6,  7,  8,  and  probably  10.  Varieties  11-16 
are  as  yet  unknown,  but  will  doubtless  soon  be  produced. 
Corresponding  with  each  of  the  16  colored  varieties,  an 
uncolored  one  should  be  possible  of  production,  which 
would  transmit  in  crosses  with  any  colored  variety  the 
characteristics  indicated  by  its  formula.  Albinos  cor- 
responding to  colored  varieties  1-4  are  positively  known 
to  occur ;  their  symbols  would  be  w,  wb,  wh  and  wbh,  re- 
spectively. Symbols  for  the  remaining  12  expected  varie- 
ties may  be  formed  in  like  fashion,  by  prefixing  w  to  the 
combinations  already  given. 

All  the  five  unit-character  variations,  which  in  different 
combinations  are  responsible  for  the  color  varieties  of 


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No.  566]    NEW  VARIETIES  OF  BATS  AND  GUINEA  PIGS       71 

rats,  have  their  parallels  in  other  mammals.  Albinism 
and  white-spotting  (which  in  rats  takes  the  form  of  the 
hooded  pattern)  are  among  the  commonest.  They  occur 
in  practically  all  mammals  from  mice  to  men.  Albinism 
appears  to  consist  in  such  a  modification  of  metabolism 
that  the  process  of  pigment-formation  can  take  place  only 
feebly  or  not  at  all.  That  particular  process  which  seems 
chiefly  affected  is  the  production  of  yellow  pigment. 
Albinos,  so  far  as  I  know,  never  produce  genuine  yellow 
pigment,  though  they  may  produce  considerable  quanti- 
ties of  black  or  brown  pigment,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Himalayan  rabbit.  An  undescribed  variety  of  guinea- 
pig,  which  I  obtained  about  two  years  ago  in  Peru,  may 
bear  as  much  black  pigment  in  its  coat  as  wild  cavies  do, 
yet  it  forms  no  yellow  pigment  at  all.  Further  this  varia- 
tion behaves  as  the  allelomorph  of  ordinary  albinism,  in- 
dicating that  it  is  probably  of  the  same  genetic  character. 
For  this  reason  we  may  provisionally  consider  the  albin- 
ism of  mammals  as  due  to  a  loss  of  the  ability  to  form 
yellow  pigment.  This  usually,  if  not  always,  involves  a 
lessened  capacity  to  form  other  pigments  also,  so  that  it 
seems  probable  that  the  same  chemical  process,  which 
produces  yellow  pigment  as  an  end-product,  is  ordinarily 
involved  also  in  producing  the  higher  oxidation  stages 
seen  in  brown  and  black  pigment.  In  albinos  this  process 
would  seem  to  be  omitted,  or  to  be  accomplished  by  some 
step  which  does  not  involve  the  production  of  yellow 
pigment. 

The  yellow  variation  is  extremely  common  in  mammals. 
Yellow  varieties,  which  at  opposite  extremes  of  intensity 
of  pigmentation  are  known  as  cream  and  red,  occur 
among  horses,  cattle,  hogs,  cats,  dogs,  rabbits,  guinea- 
pigs,  mice  and  human  beings.  In  this  variation  pigment 
oxidation  stops  at  the  yellow  stage,  usually  throughout 
the  coat  but  not  in  the  eye.  Described  in  negative  terms 
a  yellow  variety  is  one  in  which  black  and  brown  are  sup- 
pressed or  restricted.  Black  and  brown,  though  usually 
restricted  to  the  eye  in  yellow  varieties,  may  occur  also  in 


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72  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

small  quantities  in  the  fur.  Examples  are  found  among 
horses  (bay  and  dun  varieties),  cattle  (the  Jersey  breed), 
dogs  (the  common  dirty  yellow  variety),  rabbits  (the 
* 'tortoise-shell''  variety),  mice  and  guinea-pigs,  and 
probably  red-haired  human  beings  also. 

Black  varieties  of  mammals  arise  in  two  genetically 
distinct  ways.  One  is  a  quantitative  increase  or  exten- 
sion of  black,  the  reverse  of  what  happens  in  yellow  varie- 
ties, so  that  black  encroaches  on  regions  normally  yellow 
or  may  even  obliterate  them  altogether.  Examples  are 
found  in  black  squirrels,  in  which  the  agouti  yellow  tick- 
ing of  the  fur  is  almost,  but  not  quite,  obliterated  by  black 
pigment.  But  the  ''black''  variation  of  rats,  mice, 
guinea-pigs  and  ordinary  rabbits  results  from  a  total 
loss,  not  a  covering  up,  of  the  yellow  ticking  of  the  fur 
seen  in  agouti  varieties.  Genetically  it  is  quite  distinct 
from  the  other  kind  of  black.  It  is  a  recessive  variation 
and  so  breeds  true. 

The  pink-eyed  variation  is  the  rarest  of  all  the  five 
enumerated  as  occuring  in  rats.  It  has  been  known  here- 
tofore only  in  mice,  though  I  have  recently  obtained  it 
also  in  guinea-pigs  from  Peru,  where  it  seems  to  be  well 
established. 

In  this  variation  the  capacity  to  form  yellow  pigment 
is  unimpaired,  but  only  traces  of  black  or  brown  pigment 
are  produced.  Consequently  varieties  which  possess  the 
other  genetic  factors  of  normal  yellow  animals  have  fully 
pigmented  (yellow)  fur,  but  with  very  faintly  pigmented 
(pink)  eyes,  when  they  possess  this  factor.  If,  however, 
they  possess  the  other  genetic  factors  of  black,  brown,  or 
agouti  varieties,  along  with  this  pink-eyed  variation,  then 
both  the  fur  and  the  eyes  are  very  faintly  pigmented. 
From  this  results  the  seeming  paradox  that  pink-eyed 
blacks  are  less  heavily  pigmented  than  pink-eyed  yellows, 
so  that  in  rats  the  fanciers  have  called  the  former 
"creams,"  the  latter  ''fawns." 

When  pink-eyed  animals  are  crossed  with  albinos,  off- 
spring fully  colored  (eyes  and  all)  result,  as  was  first 


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No.  566]   NEW  VARIETIES  OF  BATS  AND  GUINEA  PIGS       73 

shown  by  Darbishire  some  ten  years  ago.  This  indicates 
that  the  two  variations  are  not  only  genetically  distinct, 
bnt  are  physiologically  complementary.  The  albino  has 
defective  metabolism  for  producing  yellow  (and  in  conse- 
quence brown  and  black  also) ;  the  pink-eyed  animal  has 
the  full  mechanism  for  forming  yellow,  but  its  brown  and 
black  producing  mechanism  is  defective.  Together  they 
possess  the  full  mechanism  of  normal  color  production. 
Hence  the  reversion  on  crossing. 

White  spotting  is  clearly  due  to  neither  of  the  above 
modifications,  but  to  a  different  change  in  the  metabolism 
so  that  no  pigment  at  all  is  produced.  For  an  albino  rab- 
bit or  guinea-pig  may,  as  already  observed,  bear  consider- 
able black  or  brown  pigment,  but  a  white  spot  either  on 
an  albino,  on  a  pink-eyed  animal,  or  on  a  fully  colored 
animal  is  entirely  devoid  of  pigment.  The  paradox  of  a 
white  spot  on  an  albino  is  obtainable  by  crossing  a  white- 
spotted  colored  race  with  an  albino  race,  which  develops 
some  pigment  in  the  fur,  as  for  example  the  Himalayan 
race  of  rabbits  and  guinea-pigs.  In  this  way  English- 
marked  Himalayan  rabbits  and  spotted  albino  guinea- 
pigs  have  been  produced  in  my  laboratory. 

Postscript:  While  this  paper  was  in  press,  Mr.  Tilling, 
in  reply  to  a  further  inquiry,  wrote  that  his  original  black- 
eyed  yellow  rat  was  caught  on  a  ship  at  Liverpool.  The 
fact  that  the  pink-eyed  variety  was  found  in  the  same  gen- 
eral region  leads  him  to  believe  that  both  variations  were 
introduced  on  ships  from  some  foreign  country.  It  would 
be  of  much  interest  to  know  from  what  country  or  coun- 
tries. Any  information  on  this  point  obtainable  from 
rat-catchers  or  others  would  be  welcome. 


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*^ DOMINANT"  AND  ^'EECESSIVE"  SPOTTING  IN 

MICE 

C.  C.  LITTLE, 
BussEY  Institution,  Habvahd  University 

Intboductoby 

The  inheritance  of  spotting  has  long  proved  of  interest 
to  animal  geneticists.  The  nature  of  spotting  is  snch 
as  to  afford  an  excellent  chance  to  observe  quantitative 
fluctuation  and  variations  of  very  minute  size.  Further- 
more, the  fact  that  spotted  varieties  are  found  in  all  the 
rapidly  breeding  smaller  domesticated  mammals  has  led 
to  a  widespread  investigation  of  its  phenomena  of  in- 
heritance. 

One  of  the  most  clean-cut  and  constant  types  of  spot- 
ting which  has  been  studied  is  that  of  the  ** hooded*'  pat- 
tern in  rats.  This  character  was  studied  independently 
by  Doncaster  (1905)  and  by  Castle  and  McCurdy  (1907). 
All  these  observers  agree  that  this  form  of  spotting  is 
due  to  a  recessive  Mendelizing  unit  which  gives  a  1:3 
ratio  in  crosses  with  self-colored  races. 

In  mice  there  has  been  no  such  well-localized  pattern 
recorded  and  a  series  of  spotted  forms  has  been  described 
which  vary  from  black-eyed  whites  on  one  end  of  the 
series  to  heavily  colored  animals  having  only  a  few 
white  hairs  on  the  forehead  or  on  the  belly  at  the  other 
extreme. 

Cuenot,  who  did  considerable  work  on  the  inheritance 
of  spotting  in  mice,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  spotting 
is  due  to  a  group  of  recessive  spotting  factors  which  he 
describes  as  pl,,p2,  p3,  p4,  etc.  His  figures,  however, 
show  a  single  unit  character  difference  as  3 : 1  and  1 : 1 
ratios  prove. 

Up  to  1908  all  the  spotting  in  mice  was  classed  as  re- 
cessive to  solid-colored  coat.    At  that  time,  however, 

74 


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No.  566]  SPOTTING  IN  MICE    ^  76 

Miss  Dnrham  described  the  appearance  of  dominant  spot- 
ting in  addition  to  the  recessive  form  which  she  also  had 
experimented  with*  Such  a  dominant  form  of  spotting 
is  supposed,  by  Bateson,  to  be  due  to  the  addition  of  some 
factor  for  restriction  of  pigment  formation  in  certain 
areas.  This  produces  a  dominant  form  of  spotting  as 
contrasted  with  the  recessive  type,  which,  he  holds,  is  due 
merely  to  the  loss  of  the  **self  ^*  factor. 

Hagedoom  (1912)  gives  data  to  show  that  the  domi- 
nant form  of  spotting  occurs  in  mice  and  in  addition  con- 
siders it  as  produced  by  a  factor  analogous  to  that  which 
produces  the  dominant  ** English'*  spotting  in  rabbits. 

The  object  of  this  paper  is  to  present  certain  evidence 
concerning  the  nature  of  dominant  and  recessive  spot- 
ting in  mice ;  to  discuss  in  its  light  the  results  of  the  above- 
mentioned  investigations ;  and  to  criticize  one  additional 
point  in  Hagedoom 's  work  with  mice. 

EXPEBIMENTAL 

Materials. — ^Among  several  wild  mice  caught  during 
the  spring  of  1911  was  one  individual  with  a  white  spot 
'  or  ** blaze**  on  the  forehead  between  the  eyes.    This  spot 

3  or  ** blaze**  was  about  one  quarter  of  an  inch  in  length 

and  one  eighth  of  an  inch  in  width.    This  mouse,  an  adult 
j^  male,  was  transferred  to  a  breeding  cage  and  a  series  of 

/  experiments    was    started    to*  determine    whether    the 

''blaze**  character  was  inherited  and,  if  so,  in  what  way. 
As  at  that  time  no  adult  wild  females  were  available 
from  unrelated  stock  the  wild  ''blaze**  male  (SI)  was 
crossed  with  a  female  from  a  dilute  brown  race.  In 
many  ways  this  dilute  brown  race  was  the  best  possible 
material  for  such  a  cross.  It  was  very  closely  inbred, 
being  descended  from  a  single  pair  of  animals,  progeny  of 
which  had  been  free  from  out-crossing  for  naore  than  a 
year.  Further,  it  had  never  given,  nor  has  it  ever  given 
in  hundreds  of  young,  an  animal  with  the  slightest  trace 
of  a  spot,  even  on  the  tail,  where  white  bands  are  fre- 
quently seen  in  wild  mice.  Besides  this  the  race  was  vig- 
orous and  active  and  yet  easy  to  handle. 


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76 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


Results 

As  a  result  of  mating  SI  ** blaze"  with  a  female  of  this 
dilute  brown  race,  two  litters,  totalling  eight  young,  were 
produced.  All  these  young  were  self-colored  without  a 
trace  of  white,  and,  as  expected,  all  resembled  the  male  in 
coat  color. 

The  Fi  generation  self  s  were  then  crossed  in  two  ways, 
(1)  inter  se  and  (2)  with  animals  of  the  dilute  brown  self 
race  to  which  their  mother  belonged.  It  is  hoped  that  a 
detailed  account  of  all  the  matings  made  may  be  pub- 
lished later,  but  for  the  present  purposes  certain  of  the 
crosses  under  the  first  heading  will  suflSce. 

When  Fi  was  crossed  inter  se,  two  sorts  of  young  were 
produced,  namely,  those  with  white  and  those  without. 
While  all  of  the  latter  tyi>e  may  be  classed  as  self,  the 
former  were  of  two  general  sorts:  (1)  those  with  a 
*' blaze '^  as  large  or  larger  than  that  of  81,  these  we  may 
call  ** blaze''  animals;  and  (2)  those  with  only  a  few 
white  hairs  on  the  forehead,  which  we  may  call  few  white- 
haired  (f.w.h.)  animals. 

The  exact  numbers  in  this  cross  were 


0/ftpriDg 

Ptrents 

Self 

F.W.H. 

Blase 

56    X  55— 58 

11 

10 

3 

3 

13 

1 

3 

519  X58 

6 

518  X  58 

2 

24 

17 

11 

When  the  Fj  few  white-haired  animals  were  bred  to- 
gether they  produced  three  types  of  young:  few  white- 
haired,  blaze  and  self,  as  follows. 


. 

Oflbpring 

Parents 

Self 

F.W.H. 

Blaze 

3,030  X  3,028 

11 
5 

6 
6 

3,043  X  3.028 

1 

16               1               11 

1 

One  further  fact  is  also  of  interest.    Various  descendants 
of  F2  ** blaze"  animals,  which  should  breed  as  recessives, 


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No.  566] 


SPOTTING  IN  MICE 


77 


have  given  the  following  resnlts.  The  generation  num- 
bers may  be  disregarded  as  they  refer  to  another  method 
of  classification.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  parents 
in  the  tabulation  given  below,  are  all  ** blaze'*  in 
character. 


Yoaog  Prodooed 

Genention 

BUM 

BlaMMdVeo-i 
tnl  White     j        F.W.H. 

Mf 

ToUl 

F^ 

F4B 

F»B 

F.B 

33 

157 

70 

9 

6 
60 
53 

6 

4 

27 
5 
0 

1 
3 
0 
0 

44 

247 

128 

16 

Total '          269 

125          1           36 

4 

434 

If  the  **  blaze '*  is  a  true  Mendelian  recessive  we  should 
expect  all  434  offspring  to  have  some  white  on  them. 
The  figures  show  that  430  of  the  434  are  of  this  type; 
that  is  to  say,  approximately  1  per  cent,  are  self. 

It  is  possible  to  account  for  the  occasional  production 
of  selfs  even  if  the  ** blaze'*  character  is  a  true  recessive, 
if  we  supposed  that  there  are  supplementary  factors 
which  may  influence  color  development;  and  it  is  quite 
conceivable  that  such  is  the  case. 

The  chief  point  of  interest  in  the  crosses  given  above 
is  that  while  spotting  behaves  in  F^  as  a  recessive,  certain 
of  the  F2  spotted  individuals  fulfil  the  requirements  of 
dominant  spotting  by  producing  self  offspring. 

The  spotting  came  from  a  single  individual  and  can 
scarcely  be  considered  to  be  of  two  distinct  types. 

We  may  now  consider  the  bearing  of  these  results  on 
the  work  of  Miss  Durham  and  Hagedoom. 

Miss  Dukham's  Results 
Miss  Durham  (1908)  gives  a  detailed  account  of  a  re- 
cessive type  of  spotting  in  mice.  The  numbers  she  ob- 
tained are  extensive,  and  the  case  seems  well  established, 
coming  as  it  does  in  corroboration  of  the  work  of  Cuenot, 
Darbishire  and  others.  In  the  same  papers  she  records 
the  occurrence  of  a  dominant  spotted  type  of  mice.  Bate- 
son  (1909),  commenting  on  the  case,  compares  it  with  the 


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78  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

dominant  ^^ English''  spotting  in  rabbits  but  also  agrees 
that,  in  the  case  of  mice,  there  is  no  criterion  to  enable  one 
to  distinguish  somatically  between  the  dominant  and  re- 
cessive forms.  This,  of  course,  is  not  the  case  in  rabbits 
where  the  ** English'*  pattern  differs  visibly  from  the 
''Dutch"  spotting,  which  Hurst  (1905)  found  to  be  re- 
cessive to  self.  Bateson  also  considers  that  the  case  of 
dominant  spotting  in  mice,  reported  by  Miss  Durham,  is 
the  result  of  a  different  spotting  factor  from  that  pro- 
ducing recessive  spotting. 

In  terms  of  the  presence  and  absence  hypothesis  this 
means  that  the  dominant  form  possesses  a  factor  for  re- 
striction of  pigmentation  which  self  forms  lack.  This 
fact  becomes  of  interest  when  Miss  Durham's  experi- 
mental results  are  closely  examined. 

In  the  race  which  gave  rise  to  the  dominant  spotting 
the  following  conditions  are  seen. 

A  sooty  yellow  spotted  mouse  of  unknown  origin  was 
crossed  with  a  black-eyed  white  (spotted)  animal  (of 
Atlee's  strain).  Among  other  progeny  was  obtained  a 
black-eyed  white  mouse  with  ''agouti  ears."  This 
mouse.  No.  21  (spotted),  was  crossed  with  an  albino  (car- 
rying chocolate),  No.  35,  and  gave  among  its  progeny  No. 
69,  a  black  self  mouse.  This  black  animal.  No.  69  was 
crossed  with  an  albino  (carrying  chocolate),  No.  34,  and 
from  these  two  individuals  came  the  dominant  spotted 
race. 

Now  inasmuch  as  No.  34  and  No.  35,  the  albinos,  were 
not  supposed  to  carry  spotting,  the  dominant  spotting 
must  be  considered  as  probably  coming  from  No.  69,  a 
black  self  animal.  We  know  that  this  animal  must  carry 
spotting  as  a  recessive  character  since  its  parent.  No.  21, 
was  spotted. 

If,  therefore,  this  animal  was  the  progenitor  of  the 
dominant  spotted  race,  and  if  he  carried  a  recessive  spot- 
ting, as  it  seems  certain  he  did,  we  must  suppose  that  one 
of  three  things  has  happened  to  the  recessive  spotting 
which  he  carried. 


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No.  666]  SPOTTING  IN  MICE  79 

1.  It  may  have  been  completely  lost,  failing  to  manifest 
itself  in  his  germ  celk. 

2.  It  may  have  continued  to  exist  and  to  be  inherited 
together  with  the  dominant  type  of  spotting. 

3.  It  may  have  been  changed  to  a  so-called  *' dominant*' 
type  of  spotting  simply  by  the  nature  of  modifying  sup- 
plem^itary  factors  which  it  encountered  during  ontogeny. 

The  first  two  cases  necessitate  the  origin  of  the  *' domi- 
nant*' spotting  by  a  mutation  in  no  way  connected  with 
the  previous  recessive  spotting.  In  the  first  case,  more- 
over, we  should  have  to  suppose  the  disappearance  of  the 
recessive  spotting  character  in  a  manner  entirely  con- 
trary to  any  principle  of  Mendelian  heredity.  In  the  sec- 
ond case  the  occurrence  of  the  two  types  of  spotting  side 
by  side  in  the  same  litters  of  young  would  so  complicate 
the  experiments  that  analysis  would  be  diflScult  if  not  im- 
possible, on  Miss  Durham's  results. 

There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  third  possible 
explanation  is  the  correct  one.  It  accounts  for  the  for- 
merly *' recessive"  type  of  spotting.  It  presupposes  no 
fundamentally  different  appearance  of  the  two  types 
of  spotting.  Moreover,  it  is  very  probable  that  the  al- 
bino race  brings  in  the  modifying  factors  necessary  to 
give  the  apparent  change  in  the  type  of  spotting.  The 
addition  of  a  factor  as  presupposed  by  the  presence  and 
absence  hypothesis  is  not  proved  by  the  results  obtained 
nor  is  it  necessary  to  account  for  them. 

That  the  presence  and  absence  hypothesis  does  not 
apply  to  all  cases  of  spotting  is  seen  in  the  case  of  the 
** blaze"  mice  in  my  experiments.  Here,  if  Fi  animals 
had  been  given  me  as  a  starting  point  for  experimenta- 
tion, I  should  conclude  the  spotting  to  be  recessive,  while 
if  Fj  spotted  animals  were  given  as  a  starting  point  the 
conclusion  would  be  inevitable,  that  spotting  should  be 
considered  dominant.  Yet  it  is  one  and  the  same  spot- 
ting in  both  cases.  It  is  certain  that  ''self"  and  ''blaze" 
are  alternative  conditions,  but  it  is  equally  certain  that 
they  differ  from  each  other  rather  as  two  degrees  of  a 


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80  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

single  process,  one  greater,  the  other  less,  than  as  the 
presence  and  absence  of  one  or  more  unit  characters. 

Hagedoobn's  Wobk 

Hagedoorn's  work  shows  the  danger  of  the  modem 
tendency  to  produce  factors  upon  the  slightest  provoca- 
tion. While  adding,  in  experimental  work,  only  a  single 
litter  of  young  bearing  on  the  problem,  he  gives  a  symbol 
for  a  factor  for  dominant  spotting  in  mice,  and  further 
considers  it  as  due  to  a  factor  similar  to  that  producing 
the  dominant  ** English"  spotting  of  rabbits.  He  refers 
to  Morgan's  work  with  black-eyed  white  and  self  mice 
as  being  a  study  of  this  dominant  factor  in  mice.  Mor- 
gan himself  suggests  that  if  black-eyed  white  mice  repre- 
sent the  extremes  of  the  spotted  series  the  appearance 
of  spotted  animals  in  crosses  with  selfs  is  due  to  a 
strengthening  of  the  spotting  factor  or  to  a  change  in 
dominance.  This  is  far  different  from  supposing  the 
addition  of  an  entirely  new  inhibiting  factor  comparable 
to  the  English  pattern  in  rabbits.  Cuenot  with  mice  and 
Castle  (1905)  with  guinea-pigs  have  shown  that  black- 
eyed  whites  are  the  extreme  of  the  recessive  spotted 
series  and  it  is  almost  certain  that  Morgan's  explanation 
of  the  results,  as  due  to  a  change  in  dominance,  is  the 
correct  one.  It  is,  of  course,  obvious  that  the  presence 
and  absence  hypothesis  fails  to  explain  any  change  of 
dominance  of  a  single  character. 

To  treat  '^dominant"  spotting  in  mice  as  due  to  the 
presence  of  a  definite  unit-character  is  exceeding  present 
experimental  facts,  while  to  consider  it  similar  in  nature 
to  the  ^* English"  spotting  of  rabbits  is  still  less  justified. 

One  other  point  in  Hagedoorn's  work  is  of  such  a 
nature  as  to  require  further  experimentation  before  it 
can  be  accepted. 

This  is  the  case  (on  page  126)  of  ^^mutual  repulsion  be- 
tween two  factors."  In  this  case,  Hagedoom  mated  to- 
gether agouti  animals  heterozygous  in  factor  A  (for  color 
production)  and  in  factor  G  (for  the  agouti  pattern). 


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No.  566]  SPOTTING  IN  MICE  8 1 

Such  animals  would  ordinarily  form  gametes  AG,  Ag,  aO 
and  ag  in  equal  numbers.  These  by  independent  recom- 
bination would  form 

1  AAGG 

2  AaGG  I 

4  AaGg  . 


1  aaGG  ^ 

2  aoGg    I 
1  aagg    J 


4  albino. 


But  Hagedoom  gives  figures  which  show  that  the  pro- 
portion which  he  obtains  is  nearer  2  agouti ;  1  black  and 
1  albino.  This  he  supposes  to  be  due  to  the  fact  that  A 
and  G  can  never  go  into  the  same  gamete. 

Now  let  us  see  what  happens  if  this  is  the  case.  The 
original  heterozygotes  will  form  only  two  kinds  of  gam- 
etes instead  of  four,  these  will  be  aG  and  Ag.  Now  in  the 
recombination  of  these  gametes  the  following  result  will 
be  obtained. 

1  oG  aG=:l  albino, 

2  oG  Ag  =  2  agouti, 
1  AgAg  =  l  black. 

So  far,  so  good,  but  the  trouble  comes  in  testing  the 
albinos.    Here  I  may  quote  from  Hagedoom,  p.  126 : 

.  .  .  thirteen  of  these  albinos  have  been  tested  by  mating  with  black. 
Without  exception  they  have  given  black  or  equal  numbers  of  black 
and  albino  young.  .  .  .  But  never  has  one  of  those  albinos  produced 
a  single  agouti  young  in  a  mating  with  black.  Counting  together  the 
colored  young  of  such  families  I  get  89  black  young?- 

This  result  is  indeed  remarkable,  for  on  Hagedoom' s 
own  hypothesis  the  albinos  should  have  produced  in  such 
matings  nothing  hut  agouti  young,  '^  since  they  are  all, 
by  his  hypothesis,  homozygous  for  the  agouti  factor. 
The  evidence  is  incontestable ;  no  repulsion  of  A  and  G 
can  have  occurred.  Has  there  been  any  coupling  of  these 
two  factors!    If  such  was  the  case  only  gametes  AG  and 


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82  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

ag  would  have  been  formed  and  this  would  have  given 
only  agoutis  and  albinos  in  a  3 :1  ratio,  while  Hagedoorn 
reports  **73  agouti,  37  blacks^  and  32  albinos/' 

The  case  then  is  nothing  so  simple  as  ^* repulsion'*  or 
** coupling,''  it  includes  failure  to  segregate  and  com- 
plete disappearance  of  a  dominant  Mendelian  factor;  G 
the  factor  for  agouti. 

Since  numerous  investigators  of  color  inheritance  in 
mice  have  never  found  the  agouti  factor  anything  but  a 
normal  Mendelizing  factor  epistatic  to  black,  and  since 
Hagedoorn  himself  seems  to  have  become  mixed  in  his  in- 
terpretation, it  seems  that  the  case  proves  or  shows  little 
until  a  satisfactory  answer  can  be  found  to  the  question 
of  what  has  become  of  the  agouti  factor. 

Conclusions 
The  facts  above  given  lead  to  the  following  conclu- 
sions : 

1.  The  so-called  dominant  type  of  spotting  in  mice  does 
not  differ  from  *^self"  color  by  the  presence  of  a  unit 
character  which  ^^self "  lacks.  The  presence  and  absence 
hypothesis  fails  to  account  for  the  shifting  dominance 
seen  in  spotting  in  mice. 

2.  It  is  misleading  to  describe,  under  the  same  symbol, 
the  so-called  ^^ dominant"  spotting  of  mice  and  the  Eng- 
lish spotting  in  rabbits. 

3.  It  seems  probable  that  differences  in  *' dominance" 
of  spotting  in  mice  are  due  to  modifying  supplementary 
factors  and  such  spotting  might  be  termed  *'unsup- 
pressed"  and  *' suppressed"  spotting  rather  than  *' domi- 
nant" and  *' recessive"  in  the  Mendelian  sense. 

4.  Hagedoorn 's  hypothesis  of  repulsion  between  the 
color  factor.  A,  and  the  agouti  factor,  G,  is  incorrect. 

November  19,  1913. 
1  Italics  mine. 


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ON  DIFFERENTIAL  MORTALITY  WITH  RESPECT 

TO  SEED  WEIGHT  OCCURRING  IN  FIELD 

CULTURES  OF  PISUM  SATIVUM 

DR.  J.  ABTHUR  HAERIS 
Cabnbgib  Institution  or  Washington 

In  two  papers  which  have  already  appeared  in  these 
pageSy^  I  have  shown  that  for  the  dwarf  varieties  of 
Phaseolus  vulgaris  the  mortality  of  apparently  perfect 
seeds  (failure  to  germinate  or  to  complete  the  life  cyde) 
is  not  random,  but  differential,  or  selective. 

It  seemed  highly  desirable  to  extend  these  studies  to 
other  forms.  Pisum  sativum  naturally  occurred  to  me  as 
affording  suitable  experimental  material — ^both  because 
of  the  wide  range  of  seed  characteristics  and  the  conve- 
nience with  which  it  may  be  bred.  I  had  no  pedigreed  seed 
and  consequently  began  work  in  the  spring  of  1913  with 
commercial  stock.  About  1,000  seeds  from  each  of  ten 
early  (dwarf)  varieties  purchased  from  the  Thorbum 
seed  company  were  weighed,  individually  labelled  and 
planted  in  short  rows  scattered  over  one  of  the  fields  of 
the  Station  for  Experimental  Evolution.  Conditions 
were  not  the  best,  and  the  mortality  was  high. 

Table  I^  gives  the  weights  in  units  of  .025  gram  range' 

1  Harris,  J.  Artbnr,  "On  Differential  Mortality  with  Bespeet  to  Seed 
Weight  Oeenrring  in  Field  Colturee  of  Fhaseolus  vulgaris,"  Amsb.  Nat., 
46:  512-525,  1912;  < '  Sapplementary  Studies  on  the  Differential  Mortality 
with  Bespeet  to  Seed  Weight  in  the  Germination  of  Garden  Beans/'  Amsb. 
Nat.  [in  press]. 

2 For  conyenienee  the  series  may  be  designated  bj  letters:  A,  Witham 
Wonder;  B,  American  Wonder;  C,  Premiam  Qem;  D,  Little  Gem;  E,  Nott's 
Excelsior;  F,  Sutton's  Excelsior;  O,  Laztonian;  H,  little  Marvel;  /,  Peter 
Pan ;  /,  English  Wonder. 

>  Glass  1  =  0.00(K025  gram,  .  .  .  class  4  =  .07&-.100,  dass  5  =  .100- 
.125,  and  so  on.  Thus  to  obtain  means  or  standard  deviations  of  weights  in 
grams,  deduct  .5  from  the  values  in  the  tables  and  multiplj  bj  .025. 

88 


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84 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


TABLE   I 
Weight  of  Seeds  which  Geeminated 


Series     4 


8 


10 


11      12     18     14     15  I  16     17     18     19     20     ToUls 


A 
B 
C 
D 
E 
F 
O 
H 
I 
J 


65100 
40107 
63  117  173 
36  106  191 


76 
134 


4gi05 
9  27 


107,126 


105 
63 
27 

116 
16 

142 


67 

170 

126 

167 

68 

96 

71 

183 

26 

112 


42 

105 

56 

80 

32 

86 

114 

161 

61 

41 


19 
36 
11 
18 
3 
69 
159 
63 
88 
13 


2  — 

1 


11  4 
Bl  23 

6  2 
26101 

2  — 


17 


468 
604 
549 
606 
367 
391 
631 
603 
633 
665 


TABLE    n 
Weight  op  Seeds  which  Failed  to  Gekminatb 


Series 


8 


10     11      12     IS     14     16 


16     17 


18 


19  I  20    ToUls 


A 
B 
C 
D 
E 
F 
O 
H 
I 
J 


63  102 
2 


66 
37 
116 
13 
6 
17 
13 
66 


90 

52 

116 


88127 

210180 

46    84 

61  29 


93    78 

104;117 

122   95 
93 


91 

125 

43 


42 
84 
34 
37 
23 
153 


16 
36 
18 
11 
4 
114 


2      1    — 
3—2 

4l    1 


66,  71|110 


76    86 
93!  29 


26    35 
125;  91 


66162 

2   — 


3 

7    - 


31 


22     3 


I 


656 
400 
461 
399 
637 
613 
376 
404 
374 
439 


of  the  seeds  which  germinated.^  Table  II  gives  the  same 
distributions  for  the  seeds  which  failed  to  germinate. 
The  physical  constants*^  with  their  probable  errors  are 
given  in  Tables  III-IV. 

Taking  the  differences,  germinated  less  failed,  in  order 
to  have  the  positive  sign  if  elimination  tends  to  increase 
mean  weight  or  variability  of  weight  and  the  negative 
sign  if  it  tends  to  decrease  these  constants  in  the  popula- 
tion of  seeds  which  grow  as  compared  with  those  which 
fail,  I  find  the  differences  shown  in  Table  V, 

4  When  the  plantlets  were  about  three  inches  high  the  labels  for  seeds 
which  had  failed  to  germinate  were  collected.  The  distributions  for  the  seeds 
which  had  germinated  were  then  obtained  bj  subtraction  from  the  weight 
seriations  prepared  before  planting.    Some  of  the  plants  subsequently  died. 

B  Sheppard  's  correction  was  applied  to  the  second  moments. 


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No.  566] 


DIFFERENTIAL  MORTALITY 


85 


TABLE   in 
Physical  Constants  tob  Qxedb  whiob  Gbionatid 


SUndard  DotUUod  and 

Coeffloient  of  Variation 

SariM 

Mmui  And  Probable  Error  i 

Frobabla  Error 

and  Probabla  Error 

A 

9.2541^.062 

2.000*. 044 

21.610*. 498 

B 

10.581^^.038 

1.371*. 027 

12.954*. 256 

C 

10.078*. 037 

1.294*. 026 

12.844*. 266 

D 

10.355^.033           ; 

1.211*. 023 

11.692  *.230 

E 

9.790*. 042           1 

1.193*. 030 

12.185*. 308 

F 

11.568  *.054           I 

1.671  *.038 

13.583*. 334 

0 

13.090*. 043           1 

1.612  *.031 

12.313*. 237 

H 

11.186  *.037           1 

1.362*. 026 

12.178*. 240 

I 

14.269*. 057 

2.134*. 041 

14.958*. 290 

J 

9.773*. 040 

1.429*. 029 

14.622*. 300 

TABLE   rV 
Physioal  Constants  fob  Skeds  which  Failed  to  Gbionatk 


Seriw 

Mean  and  Probable 

Standard  DoTlation  and 

Coefficient  of  Variation 

Error 

Probable  Error 

and  Probable  Error 

A 

8.993*. 057 

2.003*. 041 

22.286*. 472 

B 

10.898*. 041 

1.236*. 030 

11.346  *.274 

C 

9.913*. 045 

1.439*. 032 

14.512*. 829 

D 

10.048*. 041 

1.229*. 029 

12.234*. 296 

E 

9.488*. 030 

1.122*. 021 

11.826*. 227 

F 

11.726*. 045 

1.653*. 032 

14.097*. 277 

0 

12.816*. 062 

1.787*. 044 

13.945*. 350 

H 

10.869*. 049 

1.447*. 034 

13.317*. 322 

I 

13.225*. 089 

2.552*. 063 

19.298*. 493 

J 

10.009*. 044 

1.376*. 031 

13.749*. 311 

TABLE   V 
CoicPABisoN  OF  Physical  Constants  fob  Skkdb  Gkbminatino  with  those 

FOB  SXEDS   FaILINO  TO   QlBMINATB 


Difference  In  Mean 

Difference  In  Standard 

Difference  in  Coefficient 

Series 

and  Probable  Error  of 

DoTiation  and  Probable 

of  Variation  and  Probable 

Difference 

Error  of  Difference 

Error  of  Difference 

A 

+  .261*. 085 

-.003*. 060 

-1.676*. 686 

B 

-  .316*. 067 

+.134*. 040 

+1.608*. 375 

C 

+  .165*. 068 

-.144*.041 

-1.669*. 423 

D 

+  .307*. 063 

-.019*.037 

-  .642*. 375 

E 

+  .302*. 051 

+.071*. 036 

+  .358*. 382 

F 

-  .158*. 070 

-.082*. 049 

-  .513*. 434 

0 

+  .274*. 075 

-.175*. 054 

-1.632  *.422 

H 

+  .317*. 062 

-.085*. 044 

-1.139  *.401 

I 

+1.044  *.105 

-.418*. 074 

-4.340*. 572 

J 

-  .236*.060 

+.053*. 042 

+  .873*. 432 

Consider  first  the  differences  in  the  mean  weight. 
Seven  are  positive  and  three  are  negative.    All  of  the 


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86  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL-XLVHI 

seven  positive  differences  are  at  least  2.5  times  their  prob- 
able error;  four  of  them  are  over  five  times  their  prob- 
able error.  The  mortality  is  therefore  almost  certainly 
selective,  with  a  tendency  to  leave  the  surviving  popula- 
tion with  seeds  distinctly  heavier  on  the  average  than 
those  which  were  planted.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are 
the  three  cases  in  which  the  seeds  which  produced  plant- 
lets  were  on  the  average  lighter  than  those  which  failed 
to  germinate.  One  of  these  differences  is  only  2.2  times 
its  probable  error,  and  so  perhaps  not  statistically  trust- 
worthy. Of  the  other  two,  one  is  over  5.5  times  and  the 
other  nearly  4  times  its  probable  error.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  in  at  least  one  of  these  cases  there  is  a 
tendency  for  the  lighter  seeds  to  show  a  viability  greater 
than  that  of  the  heavier.  In  garden  beans,  too,  strong 
evidences  of  differences  between  strains  in  this  regard 
have  been  pointed  out. 

The  interpretation  of  the  variabilities  offers  greater 
diflSculties  than  does  that  of  the  means.  More  data  and 
more  refined  methods  of  analysis  are  necessary  for  a  final 
solution  of  the  problem.  It  appears,  however,  that  in 
seven  of  the  ten  series  the  variability  of  the  seeds  which 
survived  is  less  than  that  of  those  which  failed.  This  is 
true  whether  absolute  variability  as  measured  by  the 
standard  deviation  or  relative  variability  as  expressed 
by  the  coeflScient  of  variation  be  used  in  the  comparison. 

As  far  as  these  data  go,  therefore,  they  are  in  general 
accord  with  those  for  Phaseolus.  In  both  of  these  Legu- 
minosae  the  mortality  which  occurs  before  germination  is 
not  random  but  differential.  But  in  both  cases,  and  espe- 
cially in  Pisum  where  the  seeds  used  are  of  commercial, 
not  pedigreed,  stock  and  number  as  yet  only  about  10,000, 
far  wider  series  of  experiments  and  much  refinement  of 
methods  of  analysis  are  necessary  to  establish  fully  the 
nature  and  the  immediate  (physical  or  chemical)  cause  of 
this  selective  death  rate. 

Cold  Spring  Hasbor^  N,  Y., 
July  28,  1913 


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THE  INHERITANCE  OF  A  EECURRING  SOMATIC 

VARIATION  IN  VARIEGATED  EARS 

OFMAIZE^ 

PROFESSOR  R.  A.  EMERSON 

UNiyEBsrnr  of  Nsbraska 

Intbodtjotion 

The  inheritance  of  variegation  has  special  interest  and 
importance  in  genetics.  It  is  with  forms  of  variegation 
that  the  only  two  certainly  known  cases  of  non-Mendelian 
inheritance  have  had  to  do.  I  refer  to  Banr's  experiments 
with  Pelargonium,  in  which  crosses  of  green-leaved  and 
white-leaved  forms  exhibited  somatic  segregations  in  Fj 
that  bred  tme  in  later  generations,  and  to  Correns^s  work 
with  Mirabilis,  which  showed  green  and  white  leaf  color, 
to  be  inherited  through  the  mother  only.  De  Vries^s  con- 
ception of  *' ever-sporting '*  varieties  was  apparently 
fomided  largely  upon  the  behavior  of  variegated  flowers 
in  pedigree  cultures,  from  which  he  reached  the  conclusion 
that  the  variegated  color  pattern  and  the  monochromatic 
condition  arising  from  it  as  sports  are  non-Mendelian  in 
inheritance.  Correns,  however,  has  shown  that  in  Mira- 
hilis  jcUapa  the  inheritance  of  these  sports  is  distinctly 
lifendelian,  and  the  results  of  East  and  Hayes  indicate  the 
same  for  Zea  mays.  In  this  paper  I  shall  present  data 
from  maize  and  attempt  to  show  how  they  can  be  inter- 
preted in  strictly  Mendelian  terms. 

Variegation  is  distinguished  from  other  color  patterns 
by  its  incorrigible  irregularity.  It  is  perhaps  most  often 
seen  in  the  coloration  of  flowers  and  leaves  but  also  occurs 
in  fruits,  seeds,  stems,  and  even  roots  of  various  plants. 
It  is  characteristic  of  the  ears  of  certain  varieties  of  maize 
known,  at  least  in  the  Middle  West,  as  ^  ^  calico '  *  com.    In 

iThe  experimental  results  reported  here  were  presented  at  the  Cleveland 
meeting  of  the  American  Societj"  of  Naturalists,  January,  1913.  Besearch 
l)Qlletin  No.  4  of  the  Nebraska  Agricultural  Experiment  Station. 

87 


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88  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVni 

these  varieties  the  pericarp  of  most  of  the  grains  has  f  ew 
to  many  narrow  stripes  of  dark  red,  the  remaining  area 
being  colorless  or  showing  a  sort  of  washed-out  red. 
Often  broad  red  stripes  appear  on  some  grains,  a  single 
stripe  covering  from  perhaps  one  tenth  to  nine  tenths  of 
the  grain.  Not  uncommonly  there  are  entirely  colorless 
grains  (so  far  as  pericarp  is  concerned)  and  also  solid  red 
grains  scattered  over  the  ear.  Much  more  rarely  there 
is  found  a  **freak*^  ear  with  a  large  patch  of  self -red  or 
nearly  self-red  grains.  Or  sometimes  an  ear  is  composed 
largely  of  red  or  almost  red  grains  with  a  small  patch  of 
striped  or  nearly  colorless  grains.  In  such  cases  it  is  not 
uncommon  for  the  margin  of  the  red  area  to  cut  across  a 
grain  so  that  one  side — always  the  side  toward  the  red 
patch — ^is  red  and  the  other  side  colorless  or  striped.  Ears 
that  are  colorless  throughout,  except  for  a  single  striped 
grain,  are  not  unknown  and  there  are  even  known  ears 
that  are  red  except  for  a  single  striped  grain.  Very  rarely 
a  plant  has  one  self-red  ear  and  one  variegated  ear  on  the 
same  stalk.  It  is  also  conceivable  that  all  the  ears  of  a 
plant  might  thus  become  red,  but  of  course  such  a  red- 
eared  plant  rising  as  a  bud-sport  could  not  ordinarily  be 
distinguished  from  a  red-eared  plant  arising  as  a  seed- 
sport. 

Variegated  ears  generally  have  variegated  cobs,  the 
amount  of  red  in  the  cob  ordinarily  varying  with  the 
amount  of  red  on  the  grains.  In  some  **freaks"  a  part 
of  the  cob  is  solid  red  and  the  rest  variegated.  In  a  few 
such  cases  the  red  part  of  the  cob  corresponds  exactly  in 
position  to  the  freak  patch  of  grains.  This  is  more  fre- 
quently true  when  the  grains  of  the  freak  patch  are  dark 
variegated  than  when  they  are  self-red.  In  other  ears 
there  is  no  change  in  the  cob  corresponding  to  the  change 
in  the  grains.  The  husks  of  variegated  ears  are  also 
rather  commonly  variegated.  In  a  few  freak  ears  the  red 
side  of  the  ear  is  enclosed  in  reddish  husks,  the  remainder 
of  the  husks  being  light  striped.  Red-eared  plants  aris- 
ing as  seed-sports  always  have  solid  red  cobs  and  usually 
solid  reddish  husks. 


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No.  566]  INHERITANCE  IN  EAB8  OF  MAIZE  89 

The  first  account,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  of  the  inherit- 
ance of  the  striking  somatic  variations  so  commonly  found 
in  variegated  plants  was  given  by  de  Vries*  in  his  dis- 
cussion of  ever-sporting  varieties.  The  study  was  made 
in  the  years  from  1892  to  1896  with  a  variety  of  Antir- 
rhinum with  striped  flowers.  De  Vries^s  records  are  re- 
produced diagrammatically  in  Fig.  1. 

Pi  Striped 

plant 


I 

Striped  Red 

plants  plants 

90%  10% 


-L 


(  I  ( 1 

Fs  Striped  Red  Striped  R6d 

plants  plants  plants  plants 

98%  2%  24%  76% 

I '" 1 

Striped  Red 

branches  branches 

i-^-.  I ' 1 

Fi  Striped  Red  Striped  Red 

plants         plants         plants  plants 

98%  2%  29%  71% 

I ^  I ^ 

F4  Striped  Red  Striped  Red 

plants         plants  plants         plants 

96%  5%  16%  84% 

FIO.    1.       DUOBAM    FBOK    I«    VBIBS*8    RSCOKDS    SHOWING    THB    INHBEITANCII    OF 

Yabibgation  AMD  Sblf-bbd  IN  THE  Flowbrs  ov  Antirrhinum. 

Of  these  results  de  Vries  says : 

From  these  figures  it  is  manifest  that  the  red  and  striped  types  differ 
from  one  another  not  only  in  their  visible  attributes,  but  also  in  the 
degree  of  their  heredity.  The  striped  individuals  repeat  their  peculiarity 
in  90-98  per  cent,  of  their  progeny,  2-10  per  cent,  sporting  into  the  uni- 
form red  color.  On  the  other  hand,  the  red  individuals  are  constant  in 
71-84  per  cent,  of  their  offspring,  while  16-29  per  cent,  go  over  to  the 
striped  type.  Or  in  one  word :  both  types  are  inherited  to  a  high  degree, 
but  the  striped  type  is  more  strictly  inherited  than  the  red  one. 

De  Vries 's  results  were  in  some  respects  very  similar 
to  those  of  Correns  and  it  is  probable  that  he  would  have 
interpreted  them  in  the  same  way  had  he  then  been  famil- 
iar with  Mendelian  phenomena. 

aVries,  Hugo  de,  "Species  and  Varieties,"  pp.  309-328  (1905). 


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90 


THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 


Correns^  has  reported  results  of  a  careful  study  of  the 
inheritance  of  the  self -green  condition  appearing  as  a 
bud-sport  on  variegated-leaved  plants  of  Mirabilis  jalapa, 
and  also  of  a  self-color  appearing  in  striped-flowered 
plants  of  the  same  species.  His  results  for  self-green 
and  variegation  of  the  leaves  are  shown  diagranunatically 
in  Fig.  2.  The  results  are  stated  in  approximate  per- 
centages. I  have  seen  no  report  in  which  the  detailed 
records  were  given. 

Variegated 
plant 


I — 

Variegated 
branch 

I 


Variegated 
plants 
100-a* 


Ft 


r" 

Vgtd. 
100-a 
,      I 


Green 

plants 

a 

_i 


I — 

Variegated 

plants 

25 


1 

Green 
branch 

I 


>66 
I 


<33 


r 

66 


Green 

plants 

75 

_J 


Green 
a 


Vgtd. 
25 


Green  Green  Vgtd. 
76       100     100-a 


Green 
a 


Vgtd.     Green  >66  <33 
branch  branch 

V       G    V    G    V  G    G 


ranch      I        I  I 


-i-^ 


Vgtd. 
25 


33 

I 


Green  Green 
75       100 


x\  xx\ 


66     33 


VGVGGG      VGVGG       VGVGGG 


Fi  100-a  a    25  75  25  75  100  100-a  a  25  75  100  100  100-a  a  25  75  100  100-a  a  25  75  100  100 


FIO.  2. 


COBBBNS'S    DIAOBAK    SHOWING    THB    INHBRITANCB    OF    VABIBQATION    AND 

Sblf-gbbbn  in  thb  Lbaves  of  Mirabilis  jalapa. 


The  diagram  shows  that  a  variegated  branch  of  a  varie- 
gated plant  produces  in  F^  mainly  variegated  plants,  but 
occasionally  a  wholly  green  plant,  while  a  green  branch 
from  the  same  plant  produces  in  Fj  25  per  cent,  varie- 
gated and  75  per  cent,  green  plants.  The  Fj  variegated 
plants,  however  produced,  behave  in  later  generations 
just  like  the  original  variegated  parent  plant.  The  Fi 
green  plants,  whether  produced  from  green  or  variegated 
branches,  are  always  of  two  sorts,  namely,  those  that  are 
homozygous  and  therefore  breed  true  green,  and  those 

•  Correns,  C,  Ber,  Deutsch,  Bot.  Gesel,  28:  418-434,  1910.  Der  Uher- 
gang  aua  dem  homoeygoiischen  in  einen  heteroeygoiischen  Zustand  im  selben 
Individuum  hei  hunihlditrigen  wnd  gestreifihlUhenden  MirdbUia-Sippen, 

*  Numerals  indicate  approximate  percentages;  a  =0-10  per  cent. 


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No.  566]  INHERITANCE  IN  EAB8  OF  MAIZE  91 

that  are  heterozygous  and  therefore  produce  progenies  of 
green  and  variegated  individuals  in  a  ratio  of  approxi- 
mately 3  to  1.  Correns  points  out  that  a  green  branch  of 
a  variegated  plant  behaves  as  though  it  belonged  not  to  a 
variegated  plant  at  all,  but  to  a  hybrid  between  a  varie- 
gated plant  and  a  green  one,  in  which  green  is  dominant, 
and  that  half  of  the  germ  cells  produced  by  the  green 
branch  carry  a  factor  for  green  and  the  other  half  a  factor 
for  variegation.  Similar  results  were  secured  from 
branches  with  self-colored  flowers  on  plants  with  striped 
flowers,  except  that  such  branches  produce  few  if  any 
more  self-colored  plants  than  are  produced  by  branches 
with  striped  flowers.  Plants  with  self-colored  flowers,  no 
matter  how  they  arise,  behave  as  they  would  if  they  had 
occurred  in  an  Fj  progeny  of  a  cross  of  striped  by  self- 
colored  plants. 

Results  of  Experiments  with  Maize 
Hartley*  in  1902  gave  an  account  of  an  experiment  with 
variegated  maize.  In  a  comparatively  pure  white  strain, 
which  occasionally  produced  a  red  ear,  there  was  found  an 
ear  similar  to  some  of  the  *' freak '^  ears  noted  earlier  in 
this  paper.  It  is  described  as  being  red  except  for  a  spot 
covering  about  one  fifth  of  the  surface,  in  which  the  grains 
were  white  with  fine  red  streaks.  The  excellent  plate  ac- 
companying the  account,  however,  shows  that  most  of  the 
**red'*  grains  had  white  streaks  at  the  crown  and  that  the 
cob  was  light-colored,  not  red.  From  the  near-red  grains 
of  this  ear  there  was  produced  a  crop  of  84  red  ears  and 
86  pure  white  ones^  while  from  the  variegated  grains  of 
the  same  ear  there  came  39  light  variegated  ears  and  36 
white  ones.  Hartley  refers  to  the  parent  ear  as  a  ' '  sport 
or  sudden  variation  from  the  type*'  but  does  not  indicate 
whether  the  *Hype''  in  mind  was  the  white  variety  or  the 
red  ears  occasionally  produced  by  it.  Both  the  color  of 
the  grains  and  cob  and  the  production  of  about  50  per 
cent,  of  white  ears  from  both  the  red  and  the  variegated 
grains  indicate  very  clearly  that  the  parent  ear  was  a 

*  Hartley,  C.  P.,  Yearbook,  U.  S.  Bept.  Agr.,  1902:  543-544. 


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92  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

heterozygous,  variegated  one  and  that  it  probably  came 

from  a  white  seed  crossed  by  a  stray  grain  of  pollen  from 

a  variegated-eared  plant,  just  as  the  occasional  red  ears  j 

in  the  white  variety  were  certainly  produced  by  stray  pol-  ' 

len  from  red-eared  plants. 

More  recently  East  and  Hayes^  reported  like  behavior 
of  a  similarly  variegated  ear.  An  ear  having  on  one  side 
solid  red  grains  and  on  the  other  white  and  very  light  j 

variegated  grains,  similar  to  some  of  the  ''freak''  ears 
noted  earlier  in  this  paper  furnished  the  material  for  the 
test.  The  ear  was  produced  from  a  white  seed  in  a  field 
of  otherwise  pure  white  corn  and  was  therefore  doubtless 
heterozygous  for  pericarp  color  and  was  probably  pol- 
linated in  large  part  from  plants  without  pericarp  color, 
so  that  50  per  cent,  white-eared  plants  were  to  be  expected 
in  its  progeny.  The  white,  the  light  variegated  and  the 
solid  red  grains  were  planted  separately.  The  white  and 
the  variegated  seeds  alike  produced  light  variegated  and 
white  ears,  15  of  the  former  and  15  of  the  latter.  The  red 
seeds  produced  22  white  ears  and  22  solid  red  ears.  The 
authors'  interpretation  of  these  results  is  that  the  white 
seed  which  gave  rise  to  the  original  colored  ear  had  been 
fertilized  by  pollen  from  a  red-eared  plant  and  that  the 
Fi  plant,  ''due  to  produce  a  red  ear  varied,  somatically  so 
that  one  half  of  the  ear  was  red  and  one  half  striped." 
The  authors  further  state : 

This  variation  was  transmitted  by  seeds,  but  at  the  same  time  the 
hybrid  character  of  its  seeds  was  unchanged  as  shown  by  their  segrega- 
tion into  reds  and  whites  in  the  next  generation  and  the  normal  segre- 
gation of  the  hybrid  dark  reds  in  a  further  generation. 

In  the  light  of  my  own  observations,  it  is  equally  pos- 
sible and  seems  more  likely  that  the  white  seed  from  which 
the  original  red-and-variegated  ear  came  was  the  result 
of  pollination  from  a  plant  with  variegated  ears,  and  that 
the  somatic  variation  was  from  variegated  grains  to  solid 
red  grains  rather  than  from  red  to  variegated.  But  the 
important  fact  is  that  a  somatic  variation  was  later  in- 
herited in  a  strictly  Mendelian  way. 

5  East,  E.  M.,  and  Hayes,  H.  K.,  Bui.  Conn.  Agr.  Expt.  Sta.,  167:  106-107. 
1911. 


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No.  566] 


INHERITANCE  IN  EARS  OF  MAIZE 


93 


In  1909  I  obtained  results  somewhat  similar  to  those  re- 
ported by  East  and  Hayes.  A  few  ''freak"  ears  were 
secured,  mainly  from  local  and  national  com  expositions. 
Nothing  was  learned  as  to  their  parentage  or  pollination. 
Obviously,  however,  the  parentage  of  the  red,  the  varie- 
gated, and  the  white  grains  of  any  one  ear  was  the  same, 
and  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  different  sorts  of 
grains  of  any  one  ear  were  pollinated  with  approximately 
the  same  kind  or  the  same  mixture  of  pollen.  The  results, 
as  shown  below,  were  essentially  like  those  of  Hartley  and 
of  East  and  Hayes. 


Number  of  Plants  with 

Seed!  PlftDted 

Red  Ears 

Variegated  Eari 

White  Ears 

Self-red 

43 
0 

0 

33 

Variegated  and  white 

22 

29 

The  results  from  four  other  ears  were  somewhat  differ- 
ent, probably  owing  to  differences  in  their  pollination. 
(See  Fi^.  3.)     They  were  as  follows: 


Flo.  3.     A,  •'  freak  "  ear  of  maize ;  B,  progeny  of  striped  seeds ;  C,  progeny  of 

self-red  seeds. 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Voi..  XLVHI 


Number  of  Plants  with 

Seed!  Planted 

Red  Ears 

Variegated  Ears 

White  Ears 

Self-red 

128 
8 

32 
103 

69 

Variegated  and  white 

68 

Two  other  ears  of  similar  history,  while  they  gave  quite 
as  striking  results  as  those  noted  above,  probably  do  not 
belong  here  since  none  of  their  immediate  progeny  were 
variegated  and  no  variegated  ears  have  occurred  in  later 
generations.  These  two  ears  were  made  up  of  red  grains 
and  white  grains  only.    The  results  were  as  follows : 


Seeds  Planted 
Red.... 


Number  of  Plants 
Red  Ears  White  Ears 


rw- 


White. 


.77 
.   0 


85 
122 


The  white  ears  bred  true  in  later  generations  and  the 
red  ears  produced  reds  and  whites  in  typical  Mendelian 
fashion.  No  such  somatic  variations  as  these  have  oc- 
curred in  my  cultures  of  self-red  or  white  maize,  so  that  I 
have  been  unable  to  study  them  further.  Somatic  varia- 
tions in  variegated  corn,  however,  are  not  rare.  Unfor- 
tunately several  of  the  most  pronounced  of  those  occur- 
ring in  my  cultures  were  open-pollinated  and  therefore 
of  little  or  no  use  in  a  careful  study.  I  have  therefore 
been  obliged  to  make  use  in  large  part  of  the  few  solid 
red  and  nearly  solid  red  grains  scattered  over  otherwise 
more  or  less  evenly  variegated  ears. 

From  twenty-three  self-pollinated,  variegated  ears  of 
plants  that  were  homozygous  for  pericarp  color,  grains 
with  various  amounts  of  red  were  selected  and  planted. 
The  results  are  summarized  as  follows : 


Namberof  Plants  with 

Seeds  Planted 

Self-red  Ears 

Variegated  Ears 

Non-red  Ears 

Self-red 

8 
56 

9 

5 
33 

1 

9 
16 
34 
22 
394 
22 

0 

Nearly  self-red 

0 

More  than  half  red 

Less  than  half  red 

0 
0 

Narrow  red  stripes 

0 

Non-red 

0 

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INHERITANCE  IN  EAB8  OF  MAIZE 


95 


Besides  these  23  ears,  20  other  selfed  ears  from  homo- 
zygous plants  contained  only  narrow-striped  seeds  from 
which  there  were  produced  16  plants  with  red  ears,  280 
with  variegated  ears,  and  none  with  white  ears.  Similarly 
21  selfed  ears  with  narrow-striped  seeds  only,  from  plants 
that  were  heterozygous  for  pericarp  color,  produced  28 
plants  with  red  ears,  411  with  variegated  ears,  and  208 
with  non-red*  ears.  Variously  colored  grains  from  42 
self-pollinated,  heterozygous,  variegated  ears  gave  the 
following  results : 


r         Namber  of  Planti  with 

Seeds  Planted 

Self-red  Ears 

Variegated  Ears 

Non-red^  Ears 

Sdf-red 

15 
17 
46 

8 
67 

0 

1 

8 

51 

34 

767 

10 

6 

Neariy  self-red 

8 

More  than  one  half  red 

Narrow  red  strioes 

31 

21 

300 

Non-red 

6 

In  the  progenies  of  these  63  self-pollinated  ears  that 
were  heterozygous  for  pericarp  color,  there  were  approxi- 
mately 2.5  plants  with  pericarp  color  to  one  without  it. 
All  the  classes  of  grains  from  self -red  to  non-red  yielded 
both  colored  and  non-colored  ears,  thus  indicating,  as 
already  shown  by  East  and  Hayes,  that  the  somatic  varia- 
tion in  the  seeds  does  not  change  their  hybrid  character. 
Considering  only  the  plants  with  pericarp  color,  in  the 
progenies  of  both  heterozygous  and  homozygous  varie- 
gated ears,  106  progenies  in  all,  marked  differences  are 
seen  in  the  percentages  of  self-red  ears  from  seeds  of  the 
different  color  classes,  as  follows : 

«  Some  of  these  ears  had  what  I  have  termed  ^' half -red"  pericarp,  i.  e., 
periearp  with  a  reddish  color  extending  part  way  from  the  base  to  the 
crown  of  the  seeds.  (See  Ann.  Bpt.  Nebr.  Agr.  Expt.  Sta.,  24:  62.  1911.) 
Half-red  differs  from  self -red  and  variegated  red  not  only  in  distribution 
but  also  in  almost  never  developing  f  uUy  in  the  heterozygous  condition.  It 
is  hypostatic  to  self -red,  but  shows  between  the  red  stripes  of  variegated 
seeds.  Since  its  pr^ence  does  not  mask  either  self -red  or  variegated-red 
and  since  it  is  strictly  allelomorphic  to  both  of  them,  half -red  is  here  in- 
cluded with  non-red.  Variegated  ears  have  never,  in  my  observation,  pro- 
duced half -red  grains  aa  somatic  variations. 

T  Some  of  these  were  half -red.    See  footnote  6.) 


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Number  of  PUnU  with 

Per  Cent  Self-red 
AmongColored 

SeeaaFUnted 

Self-rMl  Ears 

Variegated  Ears 

Self-red 

23 
73 
55 
13 
134 
1 

10 
24 
85 
56 
1.852 
32 

69.7 

Nearly  self-red 

75.3 

More  than  one  half  red 

Leas  than  one  half  red 

Narrow  red  stripes 

39.3 

18.8 

6.7 

Non-red 

3.0 

In  comparison  with  the  cases  reported  by  Hartley  and 
by  East  and  Hayes  and  one  of  my  first  cultures  from 
open-pollinated  ears,  in  all  of  which  red  grains  produced 
no  variegated  ears  and  striped  grains  no  red  ones,  the 
striking  features  of  the  results  from  these  106  self -pol- 
linated ears  are  the  facts  that  the  wholly  red  grains 
yielded  some  variegated  as  well  as  red  ears  and  that  the 
striped  grains  and  even  the  wholly  non-red  grains  yielded 
some  red  as  well  as  variegated  ears.  The  percentages  noted 
above  indicate  in  a  general  way  that  for  self -pollinated, 
variegated  ears,  the  more  red  there  is  in  the  seed  planted 
the  larger  the  percentage  of  red  ears  in  the  progeny. 
These  records,  however,  do  not  give  a  wholly  trustworthy 
indication  of  the  mode  of  inheritance  of  the  somatic  vari- 
ations concerned  here.  If  there  is  a  modification  of  some 
factor  in  the  female  gametes,  associated  with  a  visible 
modification  of  somatic  cells  of  the  pericarp  and  even  at 
times  of  the  cob  and  husks,  modifications  that  do  not  be- 
come visible  until  long  after  the  gametes  are  formed,  may 
there  not  be  a  similar  modification  of  the  same  factor  in 
the  male  gametes,  though  here  not  associated  with  any 
visible  change  in  somatic  cells  because  of  the  fact  that  the 
staminate  inflorescence  dies  too  soon  after  the  pollen  is 
shed?  If  male  gametes  do  carry  such  modified  factors 
and  if  the  modification  is  as  irregular  in  occurrence  as  the 
somatic  modifications  seen  in  variegated  ears,  so  that  any 
part  of  the  tassel,  from  all  to  none,  may  produce  gametes 
with  the  modified  factor  while  not  showing  any  visible 
somatic  modification,  it  is  obvious  that  the  real  nature  of 
the  male  gametes  of  any  variegated-eared  maize  plant 
can  not  be  foretold.  The  mere  fact  that  a  variegated  ear 
is  self-pollinated,  therefore,  does  not  insure  that  its  seeds 
are  fertilized  with  pollen  of  known  character. 


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No.  566]  INHERITANCE  IN  EARS  OF  MAIZE  97 

That  the  male  gametes  of  variegated-eared  maize  do 
often  carry  factors  for  self-red  is  shown  by  crosses  of 
pure  non-red  strains  with  pollen  from  plants  with  varie- 
gated ears.  The  plants  that  furnished  the  pollen  for 
these  crosses  were  in  some  cases  the  same  ones  whose  self- 
pollinated  ears  were  concerned  in  the  records  discussed 
above.  The  results  of  these  crosses  are  summarized  here. 
Eight  non-red  ears  crossed  by  plants  that  were  homozy- 
gous for  pericarp  color  yielded  17  red-eared,  116  varie- 
gated-eared and  8  white-eared®  plants.  Similarly,  14  ears 
of  pure  non-red  strains  crossed  by  pollen  from  plants 
heterozygous  for  pericarp  color  yielded  26  red-eared,  192 
variegated-eared  and  229  white-eared  plants.  Consider- 
ing merely  the  plants  with  colored  ears,  22  crossed  ears 
produced  43  red-eared  to  308  variegated-eared  plants,  or 
a  little  over  12  per  cent,  self-red. 

Since  the  male  gametes  of  variegated-eared  com  have 
now  been  shown  occasionally  to  carry  a  factor  for  self- 
red,  it  is  obvious  that  only  from  crosses  of  variegated- 
eared  plants  with  pollen  from  pure  non-colored  strains, 
can  a  definite  idea  of  the  inheritance  of  the  somatic  varia- 
tions in  pericarp  color  be  gained.*  Twelve  ears  from 
homozygous,  variegated  plants  cross-poUinated  by  non- 
red  strains  might  have  afforded  important  evidence,  but 
for  the  fact  that  7  of  them  contained  only  narrow-striped 
grains  and  the  other  5  no  fully  or  even  nearly  self-red 
grains.     The  results  are  summarized  here : 


Namberof  Plants  with 

Seeds  Planted 

Self-red  Ean 

Variegated  Ean 

Non-red  Ean. 

More  than  one  half  red 

Less  than  one  half  red 

Narrow  red  s^pes 

5 
0 
2 
0 

11 

15 

281 

22 

0 
0 
0 

Non-red 

0 

<  Some  of  the  8  white  ears  may  have  been  extreme  light  tjpes  of  varie- 
gation, for  in  some  other  cases  very  light  variegated  and  wholly  white  ears 
have  been  observed  on  the  same  plant.  And  of  course  some  of  them  may 
have  been  due  to  accidental  pollination  of  the  parent  ear. 

•  Though  the  genetic  factors  for  pigment  patterns  in  maize  seem  to  be 
distinct  from  the  factors  for  the  pigment  concerned  in  these  patterns,  no 
non-colored  maize  that  I  have  used  has  ever  given  any  indication  in  crosses 
of  carrying  pattern  factors. 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


The  principal  facts  of  interest  here  are  the  production 
of  only  one  red-eared  plant  to  about  140  variegated-eared 
ones  from  narrow-striped  seeds,  and  of  about  one  red- 
eared  to  two  variegdted-eared  plants  from  seeds  with 
from  one  half  to  perhaps  three  fourths  red. 

Of  20  variegated  ears,  heterozygous  for  pericarp  color, 
that  were  crossed  with  pollen  from  pure  non-colored 
strains,  5  had  only  narrow-striped  grains  and  15  had 
variously  broad-striped  grains  and  even  some  self-red 
ones.    The  summaries  of  these  crosses  are  as  follows : 


Number  of  Plmnts  with 

Seeds  Planted 

Self-red  Ears 

Variegated  Ears 

Non-red  Ears 

Self-red 

9 
5 
4 
3 

7 
0 

0 
0 
2 
5 
265 

11 

Nearly  self-red 

2 

More  than  one  half  red 

Less  than  one  half  red 

Narrow  red  stripes 

2 

9 

301 

Non-red 

27 

20 

Here  again,  just  as  with  homozygous,  variegated  ears, 
the  more  red  there  is  in  the  pericarp  the  more  likely  are 
the  female  gametes  to  carry  a  factor  for  self -red.  While 
the  number  of  individuals  dealt  with  are  too  few  to  aflford 
reliable  evidence,  it  is  suggestive  to  note  that  the  ratio  of 
red-eared  to  variegated-eared  plants,  though  not  the  ratio 
of  red-eared  to  total  plants,  is  greater  in  case  of  parent 
ears  that  are  heterozygous  than  of  those  that  are  homozy- 
gous for  variegated  pericarp. 

So  far  nothing  has  been  said  of  the  results  in  genera- 
tions later  than  the  one  grown  from  the  selected  seeds 
(Fi).  Let  us  now  see  what  results  follow  when  the  varie- 
gated ears  and  the  red  ears  produced  as  explained  above 
become  the  parents  of  second  generations  (Fg)  from  the 
selected  seeds.  The  variegated  ears  so  produced  behave 
like  the  original  variegated  ears  from  which  seeds  were 
selected  and  their  progenies  have,  therefore,  been  included 
in  the  data  already  presented.  There  remains  only  to 
present  the  records  of  the  progenies  of  red  ears. 

Data  are  available  from  7  Fi  red  ears  obtained  from 
self -pollinated,  homozygous,  variegated  plants.    Five  of 


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INHERITANCE  IN  EARS  OF  MAIZE 


99 


these  red  ears  were  self -pollinated  and  two  were  crossed 
with  pure  white-eared  plants.  The  results  in  F,  and  Fg 
were  as  follows : 


KumberofFluitswith 

Seeds  PlAiiUd  from 

Self-red 
Esn 

Ysriecmted 
Een 

Kon-red 
Ears 

Fi  redfl  from  selfed,  homo.,  vgtd.  Pi's 
5  wiTfl  jwlf^yl 

119 
46 

9 
16 

26 
40 

37 
45 

2 
•       0 

0 
0 

0 

2  ears  X  white 

0 

Fs  reda  from  self ed  Ft  reds 
1  ear  i»lf«l 

0 

1  ear  selfed 

0 

Fs  rods  from  Fi  rods  X  white 
1  ear  selfed                     

5 

2  ears  X  white 

37 

The  above  is  approximately  what  would  have  been  ex- 
pected, had  the  F^  red  ears  that  arose  from  self-polli- 
nated, homozygous,  variegated-eared  plants  been  pro- 
duced by  a  cross  between  red-eared  and  variegated-eared 
races. 

Of  the  Fj  reds  arising  from  self-pollinated,  heterozy- 
gous, variegated-eared  plants,  nine  were  selfed  and  two 
were  crossed  with  whites.  The  results  secured  in  Fj  and 
Fo  follow: 


Seeds  Planted  from 

Self-red 
Eurt 

Variegsted 
Ears 

Non-red 
Ears 

Fi  rods  from  selfed,  hetero.,  vgtd.  Pi's 
3  eara  selfed  (a) 

104 

6 

106 

12 

59 
23 

23 
7 
0 
0 

12 
0 

0 

1  ear  X  white 

0 

6  earo  selfed 

38 

1  ear  X  white 

7 

Fs  rods  from  selfed  Fi  rods  of  (a) 
4  eara  selfed 

0 

1  ear  selfed 

0 

From  the  above  it  api)ears  that  the  F^  red  ears,  arising 
from  self-pollinated,  heterozygous,  variegated-eared 
plants  behave  in  some  cases  as  if  they  were  hybrids  be- 
tween red-eared  and  variegated-eared  races  and  in  other 
cases  as  if  they  were  hybrids  between  red-eared  and 
white-eared  races. 

Of  the  four  possible  sorts  of  red-eared  ** sports*'  from 
variegated-eared  plants,  two  remain  to  be  treated.    Be- 


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cause  of  their  similar  behavior  they  will  be  considered 
together  here.  Of  the  Fj  red  ears  arising  from  homozy- 
gous, variegated-eared  plants  that  had  been  crossed  with 
white-eared  races,  three  were  self-pollinated  and  two 
crossed  with  whites.  Of  the  Fi  red  ears  arising  from 
heterozygous,  variegated-eared  plants  that  had  been 
crossed  with  white-eared  races,  four  were  selfed.  The 
results  in  Fg  and  F3  are : 


Seeds  Planted  from 

Self-red 
Ears 

Variegated 
Ears 

NoD-red 
Ears 

Fi  reds  from  vgtd.  Pi's  X  white 
Pi's  homozygous 

3  ears  selfed 

54 
34 

102 

32 
43 

0 
0 

0 

0 
0 

16 

2  ears  X  whites 

43 

Pi's  heterozygous 
4  ears  selfed 

47 

Fi  reds  from  selfed  Ft  reds 

3  ears  selfed 

10 

1  ear  selfed 

0 

So  far  as  these  results  go  they  indicate  that  F^  reds 
arising  from  crosses  between  both  homozygous  and  heter- 
ozygous, variegated-eared  plants  and  white-eared  races 
behave  as  if  they  were  hybrids  between  red-eared  and 
white-eared  races. 

One  homozygous,  variegated-eared  plant  was  cross- 
pollinated  by  a  homozygous  red  race.  From  the  varie- 
gated ear  produced,  self-red,  nearly  self-red,  and  narrow- 
striped  seeds  were  planted.  All  resulted,  of  course,  in 
red-eared  Fj  plants,  16  in  all.  A  self-pollinated  Fi  red 
ear  from  a  narrow-striped  seed  gave  in  F2  24  red-eared 
and  11  variegated-eared  plants — somewhat  fewer  reds 
than  were  to  have  been  expected.  An  Fi  red  ear  from  a 
nearly  self-red  grain,  when  cross-poUinated  with  non-red, 
yielded  9  reds  and  11  variegated  in  Fg.  A  third  Fj  red- 
eared  plant,  this  one  from  a  self-red  grain  of  the  varie- 
gated parent  ear,  bred  true  red  in  Fg.  One  ear  of  this  Fj 
plant  was  selfed  and  yielded  14  reds  in  Fg,  and  another 
ear  was  cross-pollinated  by  non-red  and  yielded  29  reds. 

There  are  various  other  somatic  variations  rather  fre- 
quently seen  in  maize,  but  they  are  apparently  not  in- 


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No.  566]  INHERITANCE  IN  EARS  OF  MAIZE  101 

herited.  There  are  sometimes  found  variegated  ears 
with  a  large  patch  of  self-red  cob  but  with  little  or  no  cor- 
responding change  in  the  color  of  the  overlying  grains. 
I  have  as  yet  no  evidence  that  this  somatic  variation  in 
cob  color  is  inherited  through  the  seeds  of  the  self-red 
part  of  the  cob.  Such  seeds  apparently  always  produce 
ears  with  variegated  grains  and  variegated  cobs,  just  as 
do  other  seeds  of  the  same  parent  ear.  Of  course  varie- 
gated seeds  from  a  self -red  patch  of  cob  occasionally  give 
rise  to  a  self -red  ear,  as  discussed  in  detail  in  this  paper, 
and  such  red  ears  always  have  self -red  cobs,  but  this  is 
also  true  of  all  self -red  ears,  whether  or  not  they  are  pro- 
duced by  red  or  by  variegated  seeds  and  without  respect 
to  whether  the  part  of  the  cob  underlying  these  seeds  is 
self-red,  finely  variegated,  or  entirely  white. 

Another  form  of  somatic  variation  seen  in  ears  of  maize 
is  the  occurrence  of  patches  of  considerable  size,  the 
grains  of  which,  though  variegated,  are  much  darker  in 
color  than  the  grains  of  the  rest  of  the  ear.  Such  patches 
of  grains  are  often  quite  as  strikingly  distinct  in  appear- 
ance as  patches  of  self-red  grains,  and  are  apparently 
even  more  likely  to  correspond  exactly  in  outline  with  an 
underlying  patch  of  self-red  cob  than  are  patches  of  self- 
red  grains.  Moreover,  such  dark,  variegated  grains  often 
present  a  rather  definite  color  pattern.  The  crowns  are 
often  made  to  appear  almost  solid  red  by  the  widening 
and  convergence  at  the  crown  of  narrow  red  stripes  ex- 
tending down  toward  the  base  of  the  grain  particularly  on 
the  side  opposite  the  germ.  Another  type  of  dark,  varie- 
gated grains  differs  from  the  lighter,  variegated  grains 
of  the  same  ear  principally  in  the  greater  development  of 
the  somewhat  washed-out  red  apparently  underlying  the 
dark  red  stripes  of  the  variegation  pattern  proper.  I 
have  grown  numerous  progenies  from  dark  and  light 
variegated  grains  of  the  same  ears,  but  as  yet  have  no 
evidence  that  such  somatic  variations  are  inherited.  Not- 
withstanding this,  I  have  strains  of  maize  breeding  true 
to  a  very  dark  type  of  variegation,  others  to  a  medium 


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102  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

sort  of  variegation,  and  still  others  to  exceedingly  light 
types  of  variegation.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  some  of 
these  different  types  of  variegation  are  inherited,  bnt  the 
mode  of  inheritance  in  crosses  has  not  been  fully  worked 
out. 

One  other  form  of  grain  coloration  that  might  be  called 
an  extremely  dark  type  of  variegation  is  to  be  noted.  The 
grains  are  self-red  throughout  except  for  a  nearly  color- 
less crown  formed  by  converging  light  stripes  extending 
some  way  down  the  side  of  the  grain  opposite  the  germ, 
almost  exactly  the  reverse  of  one  of  the  types  of  dark 
variegation  described  above.  Variegations  of  this  sort 
behave  in  inheritance  almost  exactly  like  fully  self-red 
grains,  giving  a  large  percentage  of  red-eared  prog^iy. 
And  these  red  ears  are  apparently  always  fully  self-red, 
never  showing  the  pattern  of  converging  light  lines  seen 
in  the  parent  seeds.  Many  such  seeds  have  been  included 
in  the  results  recorded  earlier  in  this  paper  where  they 
were  listed  as  ** nearly  self-red.** 

Intebpbbtation  of  Besults 
Anyinterpretation  of  the  data  presented  here  must  take 
account  of  these  facts:  (1)  that  the  more  red  there  is  in 
the  pericarp  the  more  frequently  do  red  ears  occur  in  the 
progeny,  and  (2)  that  such  red  ears  behave  just  as  if  they 
were  Fj  hybrids  between  red  and  variegated  or  red  and 
white  races.  The  development  of  red  in  the  pericarp  is 
evidently  associated  with  and  perhaps  due  to  a  modifica- 
tion of  some  Mejidelian  factor  for  pericarp  color  in  the 
somatic  cells.  The  zygotic  formula  of  a  plant  homozy- 
gous for  variegated  i)ericarp  may  be  designated  as  W, 
and  that  of  a  plant  heterozygous  for  variegated  pericarp 
as  V — .  If  in  any  somatic  cell  VV,  from  unknown  causes, 
a  V  factor  were  transformed  into  a  factor  for  self -color, 
8,  that  cell  would  then  have  the  formula  VS.  Any  peri- 
carp cells  descended  from  it  would  without  further  modi- 
fication be  red.  If  all  the  pericarp  cells  of  a  seed  were 
thus  descei^ded,  the  seed  would  be  self -red,  just  as  it  would 


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No.  666]  INHERITANCE  IN  EARS  OF  MAIZE  108 

if  the  plant  bearing  it  were  a  hybrid  between  pure  red  and 
vari^ated  races.  Moreover,  one  half  of  the  gametes 
arising  from  such  somatic  cells  wonld  carry  V  and  one 
half  would  carry  8,  just  as  if  the  plant  were  a  hybrid  of 
red  and  variegated  types.  Or,  if  both  V  factors  were 
changed,  the  grains  would  be  self-red  as  before,  but  all 
instead  of  half  the  gametes  would  carry  S.  If,  however, 
the  modification  from  VV  to  V8  should  occur  very  early 
in  the  life  of  the  plant,  or  even  of  the  embryo,  all  the  ears 
of  the  plant  might  thereby  become  self -red,  and  one  half 
of  all  the  gametes  both  male  and  female  might  then  carry 
8  and  the  other  half  F  as  in  the  ordinary  hybrid.  Or  the 
plant  might  then  become  a  sectorial  chimera  with  one 
variegated  ear  and  one  red  ear,  the  gametes  from  the  one 
side  of  the  plant  all  carrying  V.  If  the  modification 
occur  much  later,  say  soon  after  the  ear  begins  to  form, 
there  might  then  be  merely  a  solid  patch  of  red  grains  on 
an  otherwise  variegated  ear.  In  this  case  only  those 
gametes  arising  from  these  smaller  masses  of  tissue  would 
carry  half  8  and  half  F.  If,  however,  the  modification 
occur  after  the  grains  begin  to  form,  the  latter  might  be 
perhaps  three  fourths  red,  or  one  half  red,  or  merely  have 
narrow  stripes  of  red,  depending  upon  the  amount  of  peri- 
carp directly  descended  from  the  modified  cell.  In  this 
case  it  seems  reasonable  to  assume  that  the  larger  the 
mass  of  modified  tissue  the  greater  the  chance  that  the 
gametes  concerned  should  carry  8.  Finally,  if  in  certain 
grains  the  change  never  occurs,  they  should  show  no  red 
and  the  gametes  formed  in  connection*  with  them  should 
all  carry  F,  none  8. 

Similarly,  it  may  be  assumed  that  in  any  cell  of  a  heter- 
ozygous, variegated-eared  plant,  F — ,  the  F  factor  may 
as  before  become  an  8  factor.  The  effect  on  pericarp 
color  would  be  exactly  the  same  as  in  a  homozygous,  vari- 
egated plant,  and,  of  the  gametes  arising  from  the  modi- 
fied tissue,  one  half  would  carry  iS^  as  in  the  other  case, 
but  the  other  half,  instead  of  carrying  F,  would  carry  no 
factor  and  would  be  represented  by  — . 


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104  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

If  the  interpretation  suggested  here  is  correct,  it  is  to 
be  expected  that  the  more  red  there  is  in  the  pericarp  of 
any  seeds,  i.  e.,  the  larger  the  mass  of  tissue  descended 
from  the  cell  in  which  the  change  from  V  to  S  took  place, 
the  greater  the  chance  that  the  female  gametes  concerned 
carried  the  factor  S.  With  heterozygous,  variegated- 
eared  plants,  V — ,  however,  never  more  than  half  of  the 
gametes  concerned  could  carry  S  even  in  case  of  self-red 
grains,  the  other  half  of  the  gametes  carrying  no  factor, 
— .  Of  the  heterozygous,  variegated  ears  the  progenies 
of  which  have  been  reported  here,  some  were  self  ed,  some 
crossed  with  white,  and  some  open-pollinated.  From  self- 
pollinated  ears,  self-red  and  nearly  self-red  seeds  yielded 
32  red-eared,  9  variegated-eared,  and  14  non-red-eared 
plants,  or  practically  58  per  cent,  self-red.  This  excess  of 
self-red  ears  may  be  due,  in  part  at  least,  to  the  presence 
of  the  S  factor  in  some  of  the  male  gametes  concerned,  but 
the  numbers  are  too  small  to  give  very  reliable  indica- 
tions. From  similar  ears  that  instead  of  being  selfed 
were  crossed  with  white,  so  that  the  results  could  not  have 
been  influenced  by  factors  present  in  the  male  gametes, 
self-red  and  nearly  self -red  seeds  produced  14  plants  with 
red  ears  and  13  with  non-red  ears,  or  about  52  per  cent, 
red.  While  these  numbers  are  very  small,  the  fact  that 
no  variegated  ears  were  produced,  but  that  every  ear  with 
any  red  color  was  self-red,  is  noteworthy.  From  the 
open-pollinated,  heterozygous  ears  included  in  my  cul- 
tures self-red  seeds  gave  progenies  consisting  of  171  red- 
eared,  32  variegated-eared,  and  102  non-red-eared  plants, 
or  about  56  per  cent.  red. 

In  case  of  homozygous,  variegated-eared  plants,  VV,  all 
the  gametes  associated  with  seeds  that  later  become  self- 
red  could  carry /S  only  if  both  V  factors  of  the  somatic  cells 
from  which  the  gametes  arise  were  changed  to  S  factors. 
Because  of  the  rarity  of  changes  from  V  to  S,  unless  both 
V  factors  are  influenced  alike  by  whatever  causes  the 
change,  so  that  both  change  simultaneously  to  S  factors, 
the  chance  is  slight  that  more  than  one  will  ever  change. 


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No.  566]  INHERITANCE  IN  EARS  OF  MAIZE  106 

In  the  latter  case  only  about  50  per  cent,  of  the  gametes 
associated  with  self-red  grains  of  homozygous,  varie- 
gated ears  could  be  expected  to  carry  S,  just  as  in  the 
case  of  heterozygous  ears.  None  of  the  open-pollinated 
ears  whose  progenies  I  have  grown  were  homozygous  for 
variegated  pericarp,  and  none  of  the  homozygous  ears 
that  had  been  crossed  with  white  contained  any  self  red  or 
nearly  self -red  seeds.  The  only  data,  therefore,  that  bear 
upon  the  point  at  issue  are  those  obtained  from  self -pol- 
linated, homozygous,  variegated  ears.  The  self -red  and 
nearly  self-red  seeds  of  such  ears  produced  64  red-eared 
and  only  25  variegated-eared  plants,  or  about  72  per  cent, 
self-red.  This  may  mean  that  in  some  cases  both  V 
factors  were  changed  to  S  factors,  but  the  results  may 
just  as  likely  be  due  to  the  presence  of  S  in  an  unusually 
large  percentage  of  the  male  gametes  concerned.  The 
production  of  the  25  variegated-eared  plants,  however,  is 
very  good  evidence  that,  in  at  least  a  very  considerable 
number  of  cases,  not  more  than  one  of  the  two  V  factors 
could  have  been  changed  to  S. 

If  the  change  from  F  to  iS^  should  happen  to  occur  at  such 
a  time  that  the  grain  rudiments  became  sectorial  chimeras 
consisting  of  say  one  half  modified  cells  and  one  half  un- 
modified ones,  one  half  of  the  pericarp  would  be  expected 
to  show  red  color  and  the  other  half  no  color.  It  would 
be  expected  further  that  the  chances  of  a  particular 
gamete's  arising  from  a  modified  or  from  an  unmodified 
ceU  would  be  equal.  If  then  one  half  of  the  gametes  asso- 
ciated with  these  one-half -red  grains  arise  from  cells  in 
which  only  one  of  the  V  factors  has  been  changed  to  S, 
one  fourth  of  the  gametes  should  carry  S  and  three 
fourths  should  carry  F,  or  one  f ourth  S',  one  fourth  F,  and 
one  half  — ,  depending  upon  whether  the  ears  concerned 
are  homozygous  or  heterozygous  for  variegated  pericarp. 
Such  grains  from  homozygous  ears  should,  therefore, 
whether  selfed  or  crossed  by  white,  yield  about  one  red 
ear  to  three  variegated  ones.  Similarly,  from  hetero- 
zygous ears,  grains  with  one  half  their  pericarp  red  should 


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106  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VOL.XLVm 

yield  about  one  red  to  two  variegated  to  one  white  if  self- 
pollinated  and  one  red  to  one  variegated  to  two  white  if 
crossed  by  white.  (This  is  on  the  assumption  that  no  S 
factors  are  carried  by  the  male  gametes.)  Let  us  assume 
that  by  lumping  together  all  the  seeds  listed  in  the  fore- 
going records  as  *^more  than  one  half  red*'  and  as  *4ess 
than  one  half  red'*  the  whole  lot  would  average  about  one 
half  red,  and  compare  the  results  with  the  expectation  as 
noted  above.  From  grains  of  these  two  classes  from 
homozygous  ears  both  selfed  and  crossed  by  white,  there 
resulted  19  red-eared  and  82  variegated-eared  plants,  or 
a  ratio  of  about  1:4.3  instead  of  1:3.  From  heterozy- 
gous ears  self-pollinated  grains  of  these  two  classes 
yielded  54  red-eared,  85  variegated-eared,  and  52  white- 
eared  plants,  and  similar  grains  crossed  by  white  yielded 
7  red-eared,  7  variegated-eared,  and  20  white-eared  plants, 
or  ratios  of  1.04:1.63:1  and  1:1:2.86  instead  of  1:2:1 
and  1:1:2,  respectively.  The  observed  ratios  are  cer- 
tainly suggestive  but  must  not  be  given  undue  importance, 
for  there  is  no  assurance  that  the  seeds  used  really  aver- 
aged one  half  red  and  no  assurance  that  some  of  the  male 
gametes  in  the  case  of  the  selfed  seeds  did  not  carry  S. 

We  must  now  examine  the  results  secured  in  genera- 
tions later  than  F^,  and  note  whether  the  hypothesis  under 
consideration  applies  equally  well  to  them. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  Fj  red-eared  plants  that  arose 
from  homozygous,  variegated  ears  which  had  been  self- 
pollinated  (see  page  99)  yielded  in  Fa  only  red-eared  and 
variegated-eared  progeny.  On  our  assumption  the  for- 
mula of  the  parent  variegated  ears  was  VV,  but  the  red 
grains  of  these  ears  were  VS  and  the  gametes  associated 
with  them  therefore  either  V  or  S  or  all  S.  Female 
gametes  carrying  S  would  have  produced  red.  ears  in  Fj 
whether  the  male  gametes  carried  S  or  V,  and  female 
gametes  with  V  could  not  have  produced  red  ears  except 
when  the  male  gametes  uniting  with  them  carried  S.  The 
Fi  red-eared  plants  must  therefore  have  been  VS  or  S8, 
the  former  being  expected  much  more  frequently  than  the 


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No.  566]  INHERITANCE  IN  EARS  OF  MAIZE  107 

latter,  owing  to  the  rarity  of  S'  in  male  gametes.  Only  7 
such  red  ears  were  tested  and  all  yielded  red  and  varie- 
gated ears  in  typical  Mendelian  ratios,  showing  that  all 
of  them  were  V8  like  any  Fi  hybrid  between  red  and 
variegated  races.  Of  two  Fj  reds  from  self ed  Fi  *s,  one 
again  yielded  reds  and  variegates  and  one  apparently 
bred  true  red.  Three  Fj  reds,  from  Fj  reds  crossed  by 
whites,  yielded  reds  and  whites  only— typical  Mendelian 
results  throughout. 

When  Fj  red-eared  plants  arose  from  either  homozy- 
gous  or  heterozygous,  variegated  ears  that  had  been  cross- 
pollinated  by  whites  they  yielded  only  red-eared  and 
white-eared,  never  variegated-eared,  offspring  (see  page 
100),  just  as  if  they  were  Fi  ears  of  a  cross  of  reds  with 
whites.  By  hypothesis  the  parent  variegated-eared  plants 
were  V —  -and  VV,  and  their  red  grains  8 —  and  8V  (or 
possibly  88).  The  gametes  associated  with  such  grains 
were  therefore  8  and  — ,  and  8  and  V  (or  possibly  all  iS). 
The  male  gametes  from  white  races  were  all  — .    The  Fi 

plants  were  therefore  8 — ,  V — ,  and ,  only  those  with 

8 —  having  red  ears.  The  five  red-eared  Fi  plants  that 
were  tested  produced  in  Fj  red-eared  and  white-eared 
plants  in  Mendelian  ratios.  Of  the  Fg  red-eared  plants 
one  bred  true  in  Fj  and  three  again  segregated  into  reds 
and  whites. 

When  heterozygous,  variegated,  parent  ears  were  self- 
pollinated,  the  Fi  red-eared  plants  behaved  in  some  cases 
like  hybrids  of  red  with  variegated  races  and  in  other 
cases  like  hybrids  of  red  with  white  races  (see  page  99). 
Our  assumption  is  that  the  variegated-eared  parent  plants 
were  V —  and  their  red  grains  8 — .  The  gametes  asso- 
ciated with  these  red  grains  were  of  course  8  and  — .  The 
male  gametes  of  the  same  plants  were  doubtless  largely 
V  and  — y  though  a  few  were  probably  8.    The  Fj  plants 

must  therefore  have  been ,  V — ,  8 — ,  8V  or  88.  Reds 

with  88  would  be  expected  only  rarely,  and  of  the  11  Fj 
reds  tested  none  had  that  formula,  else  they  would  have 
bred  true  in  Fj.    Seven  of  the  11  Fi  reds  evidently  were 


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108  TBE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [VouXLVm 

8 — ,  for  they  yielded  Fg  progenies  consisting  of  reds  and 
whites  only.  Four  of  the  11  were  obviously  8V,  for  they 
yielded  Fg's  of  reds  and  variegates  only.  Of  the  latter 
Fg  reds,  one  bred  tme  in  F3  and  four  again  segregated 
into  reds  and  variegates. 

From  a  self -red  seed  of  a  homozygous,  variegated  ear 
that  had  been  cross-pollinated  by  a  pure  red  race,  an  F^ 
red-eared  plant  was  produced  and  this  plant  bred  true  red 
in  Fg.  From  a  nearly  self-red  seed  of  the  same  varie- 
gated, parent  ear,  an  Fj  red  was  produced  but  yielded 
reds  and  variegates  in  Fg  just  as  did  a  similar  Fj  ear 
from  a  seed  with  narrow  red  stripes  (see  page  100).  The 
variegated  parent  ear  was  VV  and  the  red  and  near-red 
grains  probably  VS.  The  gametes  associated  with  these 
grains  were  V  and  S.  The  male  gametes  were  all  S. 
Therefore  the  Fg  reds  were  in  part  V8  and  in  part  8S. 

By  way  of  summary,  it  is  recalled  that,  in  all,  28  Fj  red- 
eared  plants  were  tested  by  Fg  progenies.  Only  one  of 
these  bred  true  and  that  one  came  from  a  red  grain  of  an 
ear  that  had  been  cross-pollinated  by  a  pure  red  race. 
Disregarding  the  three  Fg  red-eared  plants  thus  produced 
and  the  9  red  ears  produced  from  seeds  of  variegated  ears 
that  had  been  cross-pollinated  by  white  races  and  that 
therefore  could  not  have  bred  true,  there  remain  16  F^ 
reds,  none  of  which  bred  true  in  Fg.  Had  these  Fj  red- 
eared  plants  behaved  as  did  the  F^  green-leaved  plants 
produced  by  green  branches  of  variegated-leaved  parents 
in  Correns's  experiments,  approximately  5  of  the  16 
should  have  bred  true.  It  will  be  recalled  that  Correns 
found  that  such  green  branches  always  produced  green- 
leaved  and  variegated-leaved  plants  in  the  ratio  of  3:1, 
and  that  one  of  the  three  bred  true  and  the  other  two 
again  segregated,  just  as  must  have  happened  if  the  green 
branch  had  been  a  part  of  an  Fj  hybrid  of  green  with 
variegated  instead  of  a  part  of  a  homozygous  variegated 
plant. 

The  difference  between  Zea  and  Mirabilis  is,  however, 
not  a  fundamental  one,  but  is  due  merely  to  the  circum- 


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No.  566]  INHERITANCE  IN  EARS  OF  MAIZE  109 

stance  that  MirabUis  has  perfect  flowers  while  Zea  is 
monecious.  In  MirabUis  both  male  and  female  gametes 
of  a  green  branch  arise  from  somatic  cells  in  which  the  V 
factor  has  changed  to  a  G  factor.  If  a  change  in  only  one 
V  factor  is  responsible  for  the  production  of  the  green 
branch,  the  somatic  cells  of  such  a  branch  must  all  be  VG 
and  the  results  reported  hj  Correns  are  the  only  ones  to 
be  expected.  With  Zea  mays,  however,  all  the  grains  of 
one  ear  of  a  variegated-eared  plant  might  arise  from  cells 
having  V8,  so  that  half  of  the  female  gametes  would  carry 
S,  while  little  or  no  corresponding  change  might  take 
place  in  the  staminate  inflorescence  and  therefore  no  (or 
very  few)  male  gametes  would  carry  8.  From  such  an 
ear  of  maize  only  about  one  half,  instead  of  three  fourths, 
of  the  Fj  plants  should  have  red  ears  and  none  (or  very 
few),  instead  of  one  third,  of  the  Fj  plants  should  breed 
true. 

The  occasional  green  plants  {^'a"  per  cent.)  arising 
from  variegated  branches  in  Correns 's  experiments  with 
MirabUis  are  more  nearly  comparable  to  Fj  red-eared 
maize  plants  than  are  the  green  plants  arising  from  green 
branches.  It  is  quite  conceivable  that  on  a  variegated 
branch  the  male  gametes  might  arise  from  cells  that  are 
VG,  while  the  female  gametes  arise  from  cells  that  are 
VV,  or  the  reverse,  though  this  difference  between  male 
and  female  gametes  would  hardly  be  so  common  an  occur- 
rence as  with  maize  where  the  staminate  and  pistillate  in- 
florescences are  situated  so  far  apart.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  in  this  connection  that  of  the  occasional  green  plants 
produced  by  selfed  seed  of  variegated  plants  in  Correns  *s 
experiments  with  MirabUis  (see  diagram,  Fig.  2),  less 
than  one  third  bred  true  and  more  than  two  thirds  segre- 
gated into  green  and  variegated.  (Correns  indicates  this 
merely  by  the  signs  <  and  >  in  connection  with  33  per 
cent,  and  66  per  cent,  respectively,  in  his  diagram,  and 
gives  no  indication  of  how  much  less  than  33  per  cent, 
bred  true  or  how  much  more  than  66  per  cent,  segregated.) 

De  Vries's  results  with  Antirrhinum  yield  readily  to 


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1 1 0  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVin 

the  same  analysis  used  with  Zea  and  Mirabilis.  Selfed 
seed  from  striped-flowered  branches  gave  a  small  per 
cent. — ^from  2  to  10 — of  red-flowered  plants.  Only  a  few 
of  the  red-flowered  plants  were  tested  and  these  were 
found  to  yield  76  per  cent,  red  to  24  per  cent,  striped. 
Selfed  seed  from  red-flowered  branches  of  striped-flow- 
ered plants  yielded  71  per  cent,  red-flowered  and  29  per 
cent,  striped-flowered  plants,  approximating  the  75  per 
cent,  and  25  per  cent,  indicated  by  Correns^s  results  with 
Mirabilis.  None  of  these  red-flowered  plants  bred  true, 
but  only  one  test,  and  that  of  only  a  few  plants,  was  made. 
The  results  were  84  per  cent,  red-flowered  and  16  per  cent, 
striped-flowered  plants.  It  seems  quite  likely  that  had 
de  Vries  tested  more  red-flowered  plants  he  would  have 
found  some  of  them  to  breed  true. 

Correns  ^s  results  with  striped  and  red  flowers  of  Mirdb- 
His  differed  in  one  impK)rtant  respect  from  his  results 
with  variegated  and  green  plants  of  the  same  species,  as 
well  as  from  the  principal  results  with  Zea  reported  here 
and  from  de  Vries 's  results  with  striped-flowered  and  red- 
flowered  forms  of  Antirrhinum.  When  red-flowered 
plants  arose  from  striped-flowered  varieties  of  Mirabilis, 
they  behaved  just  as  did  the  green  plants  that  arose  from 
variegated  forms.  But  selfed  seeds  from  wholly  red- 
flowered  branches  of  otherwise  striped-flowered  plants 
yielded  little  if  any  larger  percentages  of  red-flowered 
plants  than  did  selfed  seeds  from  striped-flowered 
branches  of  the  same  plants.  It  would  seem  that  in  case 
of  Mirabilis  flowers,  when  the  self  pattern  arises  as  a 
somatic  variation  from  the  variegated  pattern  there  is  no 
corresponding  change  in  the  Mendelian  factors  for  these 
patterns.  In  case  of  seed-sports  from  variegated-flow- 
ered to  red-flowered  plants,  however,  the  factors  for  vari- 
egation are  affected  just  as  in  case  of  green  plants  arising 
from  variegated  ones  and  of  red-eared  maize  plants  aris- 
ing from  variegated-eared  ones.  The  apparently  non- 
inherited  somatic  variations  of  maize  plants,  noted  briefly 
earlier  in  this  paper,  are  possibly  of  the  same  nature  as 


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No.  566]  INHEBITANCE  IN  EARS  OF  MAIZE  111 

the  somatic  variations  in  variegated  flowers  of  Mirabilis. 
Some  of  these  variations  in  maize  are  self -red  cob  patches 
on  otherwise  variegated  cobs^  and  dark,  variegated  grains 
occurring  in  patches  or  scattered  over  light,  variegated 
ears. 

Gbnbbal  Considbrations 

The  experiments  of  de  Vries,  Correns,  Hartley,  and 
East  and  Hayes,  as  well  as  the  records  reported  in  this 
paper,  all  indicate  that  certain  somatic  variations  are  in- 
herited in  strictly  Mendelian  fashion.  All  these  somatic 
variations  consist  in  the  appearance  of  self-colors  on 
plants  that  are  normally  variegated  in  pattern.  The  fact 
that  variegated  plants  occasionally  throw  both  bud-sports 
and  seed-sports  with  self -colors  is  not,  in  general,  to  be 
taken  as  an  indication  that  the  variegated  plants  in  ques- 
tion are  heterozygous.  Such  behavior  seems  to  be  insep- 
arably associated  with  variegation.  Coi'rens  has  pointed 
out  {loc.  dt.)  that  variegated  MirahUis  plants  can  not  be 
considered  mosaics  of  green  and  **chlorina**  tyi)es  due  to 
heterozygosis,  since  they  do  not  segregate  into  chlorina 
and  green,  but  into  variegated  and  green.  The  same  rea- 
soning applies  to  variegation  in  the  color  of  maize  ears. 
Variegated-eared  plants  do  not  throw  reds  and  whites,  but 
reds  and  variegates.  The  conclusion  seems  irresistible 
that  self-color  occurring  as  a  somatic  variation  is  due  to 
the  change  of  a  Mendelian  factor  for  variegation  into  a 
factor  for  self -color.  If  this  be  granted,  the  behavior  of 
these  variations  in  later  generations  is  a  mere  matter  of 
simple  Mendelian  inheritance. 

From  the  title  of  his  paper  and  the  tone  of  his  discus- 
sion, it  is  clear  that  Correns  regards,  as  the  most  signifi- 
cant feature  of  these  inherited  somatic  variations,  the 
change  from  a  homozygous  to  a  heterozygous  condition. 
He  even  refers  to  them  as  cases  of  **vegetativen  Bastar- 
dierung'^  or  *'autohybridization.**  To  me,  however,  the 
essential  feature  is  the  change  of  one  Mendelian  factor 
into  another.  The  fact  that  this  modification  of  genetic 
factors  results  in  a  change  from  homozygosis  to  heterozy- 


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112  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

gosis  seems  wholly  incidental.  It  follows  from  the  circum- 
stance that  usually  only  one  of  the  two  V  factors  of  so- 
matic cells  is  modified.  My  own  data  do  not  in  fact  show 
that  the  change  always  affects  only  one  of  the  factors  at  a 
time.  While  the  results  prove  that  this  is  true  in  a  part 
of  the  cases  at  least,  the  Fj  ratios  suggest  the  possibility 
of  both  factors  being  modified  in  some  cases. 

It  is  of  course  utterly  impossible  at  the  present  time  to 
conceive  of  the  cause  or  even  of  the  nature  of  this  change 
in  factors  from  V  to  8.  We  can  only  conjecture  at  pres- 
ent as  to  whether  the  change  may  possibly  be  associated 
with  changing  metabolic  processes  in  the  maturing  plant, 
or  perhaps  be  connected  in  some  way  with  changing  ex- 
ternal infiuences,  or  even  be  a  quality  inherent  in  the  V 
factor  itself.  It  is  perhaps  significant  that  in  maize,  at 
least,  the  change,  whatever  its  cause,  occurs  very  rarely 
early  in  the  life  of  the  plant  and  apparently  becomes  in- 
creasingly more  frequent  as  the  plant  matures.  Wholly 
red  ears  in  variegated-eared  plants  are  extremely  rare; 
large  patches  of  red  grains  are  somewhat  less  rare ;  indi- 
vidual red  grains  occur  on  most  variegated  ears;  red 
stripes  on  the  individual  grains  are  very  frequent,  in  fact 
all  but  universal  in  some  strains,  though  in  other  strains 
— ^very  light  variegated  ones — ^there  may  be  only  a  few 
striped  grains  on  a  whole  ear,  the  others  being  wholly 
colorless.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  even  the  presence  of  an 
ear  with  red  pericarp  throughout  on  a  variegated-eared 
plant  may  not  be  good  evidence  that  the  change  in  factors 
occurred  before  the  ear  began  to  form.  If  the  change 
took  place  before  the  ear  was  laid  down,  it  would  seem 
that  the  cob  should  always  be  self -red,  since  the  red-eared 
progeny  of  such  modified  grains  of  the  variegated  parent 
plant  invariably  have  red  cobs,  and  cob  and  pericarp 
colors  are  coupled  absolutely  in  later  generations.  But 
red  ears,  or  nearly  red  ears,  with  light  variegated  instead 
of  red  cobs,  have  been  found  to  occur  as  somatic  variations 
on  variegated-eared  plants.  Such  behavior  suggests  that 
sometimes  the  factor  change  may  occur  almost  simul- 


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No.  566]  INHEBITANCE  IN  EABS  OF  MAIZE  113 

taneously  in  the  rudiments  of  every  grain  so  that  the 
grains  become  self-red  while  the  cob  remains  variegated. 
We  might,  of  course,  account  for  the  appearance  of  self- 
colored  grains  on  a  variegated  cob  on  the  basis  of  sepa- 
rate factors  for  cob  and  pericarp  color^®  by  the  assump- 
tion that  one  of  these  factors  may  be  modified  while  the 
other  remains  unchanged.  But  we  should  then  have  the 
no  less  difficult  problem  of  accounting  for  the  universal 
appearance  of  red  cobs  with  Fj  red  ears  without  respect 
to  whether  the  parent  grains  stood  on  red  or  variegated 
cobs." 

Forced  to  its  logical  limit,  our  conception  of  the  V  f  ac-, 
tor  is  that  of  a  sort  of  temporary  inhibitor,  an  inhibitor 
that  sooner  or  later  loses  its  power  to  inhibit  color  devel- 
opment, a  power  that  once  lost  is  ordinarily  never  re- 
gained. Of  course  it  may  be  that  there  is  present  in  varie- 
gated maize  merely  a  dominant  factor  for  self -color,  8,  that 
is  temporarily  inactive,  but  that  sooner  or  later  becomes 
permanently  active.  Even  if  this  be  true,  S  as  an  active 
factor  and  /S  as  an  inactive  factor  are  certainly  as  distinct 
in  inheritance  as  they  are  in  development  and  therefore 
deserve  to  be  designated  separately.  And  since  in  one 
case  there  results  self -color  and  in  the  other  variegation, 
the  factors  may  as  well  be  called  8  and  V  as  anything  else. 
It  is  of  course  also  conceivable  that  the  8  factor  may  re- 
peatedly arise  de  novo,  though  this  seems  very  unlikely. 

Whatever  our  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  factors 
for  variegation  and  for  self-color  in  maize  ears,  these 
factors  are  certainly  as  distinct  in  inheritance  as  any  two 
factors  could  well  be.  Moreover,  there  is  abundant  evi- 
dence, which  can  not  be  given  here,  that  they  are  strictly 
allelomorphic,  as  indeed  they  must  necessarily  be  if  one 
arises  by  modification  of  the  other — this  on  the  assump- 
tion that  the  factors  are  definitely  localized  in  certain 

10  Evidence  that  there  are  distinct  factors  for  cob  and  pericarp  color  was 
presented  in  a  previous  paper  on  coupling  and  allelomorphism  in  maize. 
Ann,  Bpt.  Nebr.  Agr.  Expt.  Sta.,  24:  59-90.    1911. 

11  This  problem  is  discussed  in  another  paper  on  the  simultaneous  modifi- 
cation of  distinct  Mendelian  factors.    Ameb.  Nat.,  47:  633-636.    1913. 


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114  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

chromosomes.  Furthermore,  these  factors  are  to  be  re- 
garded as  pattern  factors.  Though  they  must  influence 
the  development  of  the  pigment  in  order  to  produce  a  pat- 
tern at  all,  they  are  now  known  to  be  distinct  in  inherit- 
ance from  the  factors  for  pigment — a  fact  that  I  have 
been  able  to  show  by  use  of  a  race  of  maize  with  a  peculiar 
brown  pericarp  in  addition  to  races  with  red  pericarp. 

SUMMABY 

A  somatic  variation  in  maize  is  shown  to  be  inherited  in 
simple  Mendelian  fashion.  The  variation  has  to  do  with 
the  development  of  a  dark  red  pigment  (or  in  one  stock 
a  brown  pigment)  in  the  pericarp  of  the  grains,  often 
associated  with  the  development  of  an  apparently  similar 
pigment  in  the  cob  and  husks. 

Plants  in  which  this  pigment  has  a  variegated  pattern 
may  show  any  amount  of  red  pericarp,  including  wholly 
self-red  ears,  large  or  small  patches  of  self-red  grains, 
scattered  self-red  grains,  grains  with  a  single  stripe  of 
red  covering  from  perhaps  nine  tenths  to  one  tenth  of  the 
surface,  grains  with  several  prominent  stripes  and  those 
with  a  single  minute  streak,  ears  with  most  of  the  grains 
prominently  striped  and  ears  that  are  non-colored  except 
for  a  single  partly  colored  grain,  and  probably  also  plants 
with  wholly  self-red  and  others  with  wholly  colorless  ears. 

It  is  shown  that  the  amount  of  pigment  developed  in  the 
pericarp  of  variegated  seeds  bears  a  definite  relation  to 
the  development  of  color  in  the  progeny  of  such  seeds. 
This  relation  is  not  such  that  seeds  showing  say  nine 
tenths,  one  half,  or  one  tenth  red  will  produce  or  even  tend 
to  produce  plants  whose  ears  as  a  whole  or  whose  indi- 
vidual grains  are,  respectively,  nine  tenths,  one  half,  or 
one  tenth  red.  Experimental  results  indicate  rather  that 
the  more  color  in  the  pericarp  of  the  seeds  planted  the 
more  likely  are  they  to  produce  plants  with  wholly  self- 
red  ears,  and,  correspondingly,  the  less  likely  to  yield 
plants  with  variegated  ears. 

Self-red  ears  thus  produced  are  shown  to  behave  in  in- 


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No.  566]  INHEBITANCE  IN  EABS  OF  MAIZE  115 

heritance  just  as  if  they  were  hybrids  between  self-red 
and  variegated  races  or  between  self-red  and  non-red 
races,  the  behavior  in  any  given  case  depending  upon 
whether  the  parent  variegated  ears  were  homozygous  or 
heterozygous  for  variegated  pericarp  and  whether  they 
were  self-pollinated  or  crossed  with  white. 

It  is  suggested  that  these  results  may  be  interpreted  by 
the  assumption  that  a  genetic  factor  for  variegation,  V, 
is  changed  to  a  self -color  factor,  8,  in  a  somatic  cell.  All 
pericarp  cells  directly  descended  from  this  modified  cell 
will,  it  is  assumed,  develop  color,  and  of  the  gametes  aris- 
ing from  such  modified  cells  one  half  will  carry  the  S 
factor  and  one  half  the  V  factor  if  only  one  of  the  two  V 
factors  of  the  somatic  cells  is  changed,  or  all  such  gametes 
will  carry  8  if  both  V  factors  are  changed. 

The  V  factor  is  thought  of  as  a  sort  of  temporary,  re- 
cessive inhibitor  that  sooner  or  later  permanently  loses 
its  power  to  inhibit  color  development,  becoming  thereby 
an  S  factor.  Or  it  may  be  that  the  dominant  factor,  8, 
is  temporarily  inactive,  but  sooner  or  later  becomes  per- 
manently active.  Again,  the  8  factor  may  repeatedly 
arise  de  novo.  The  cause  of  any  such  change  in  factors 
is  beyond  intelligent  discussion  at  present. 

Tie  results  of  Correns  with  Mirabilis  and  of  de  Vries 
with  Antirrhinum  are  shown  to  be  subject  to  the  same 
analysis  as  that  used  to  interpret  the  results  secured  with 
maize. 


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EESTOEATION  OF  EDAPHOSAUEUS  CRUCIGEB 

COPE 

Professoe  E.  C.  case 
University  of  Michigan 

In  the  year  1882  Cope  described  from  the  Permian  beds 
of  Texas,  an  imperfect  reptilian  skull  which  he  called 
Edaphosaurus  pogonias.  Two  years  later  he  described 
for  the  first  time,  the  wonderful  vertebra  with  elongate 
spines  bearing  lateral  projections  on  the  sides.  These 
verteibraB  he  assigned  to  the  same  genus  as  the  skull  but 
later  they  were  removed  to  a  separate  genus  as  he  con- 
sidered that  the  two  specimens  represented  different 
forms  of  reptilian  life.  The  vertebrae  with  long  spines 
and  cross  pieces  were  placed  in  the  genus  Naosaurus — 
** Ship-lizard,*'  a  name  suggested  by  the  fancied  resem- 
blance of  the  spines  with  their  lateral  projections  to  the 
masts  and  yard-arms  of  a  full-rigged  ship. 

From  the  time  of  the  original  description  until  1907  the 
two  genera  were  regarded  as  distinct  but  in  that  year 
Case^  suggested  that  the  two  genera  should  be  united  and 
that  the  skull  described  as  Edaphosaurus  by  Cope  be- 
longed with  the  vertebral  column  and  limb  bones  de- 
scribed under  the  name  Naosaurus.  The  similar  condi- 
tion of  elongate  spines,  but  without  cross  pieces,  on  the 
vertebrae  of  the  carnivorous  genus  Dimetrodon  very  nat- 
urally led  to  the  belief  that  the  two  forms  Edaphosaurus 
and  Dimetrodon  were  similar  in  other  parts  of  the  body 
and  Naosaurus  merely  exhibited  something  of  the  extrav- 
agance in  spines,  rugosities,  tubercles,  etc.,  which  is  such 
a  common  feature  in  the  most  highly  specialized  members 
of  any  group  which  is  approaching  the  final  stages  of  its 
family  or  generic  life.  The  close  relationship  of  the  two 
genera  was  so  probable  that  it  was  accepted  by  all  paleon- 

1  Publicatioii  55,  Carnegie  Institutioii  of  Washington. 

117 


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118  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

talogists  and  even  Case  was  very  reticent  in  his  sugges- 
tion that  they  were  much  farther  apart  than  was  usually 
thought.  Following  the  generally  conceived  idea  of  Nao- 
saurus  a  composite  mount  was  prepared  in  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History  in  New  York  in  which  the 
skull  and  limb  bones  of  a  Dimetrodon  were  associated 
with  the  vertebral  column  of  a  Naosaurus.  This  restora- 
tion was  published  by  Dr.  Osborn  in  the  Bulletin  of  the 
American  Museum  and  a  model  of  the  creature  in  the 
flesh  was  prepared  under  his  direction  by  Mr.  Chas. 
Knight.  Case  in  his  ** Revision  of  the  Pelycosauria  of 
North  America"  republished  this  restoration  by  Osborn 
but  at  the  same  time  published  an  alternative  restoration 
in  which  the  skull  described  as  Edaphosaurus  was  asso- 
ciated with  the  vertebral  column  of  Naosaurus  and  the 
two  genera  were  united  under  the  former  name,  as  it  had 
priority. 

T^he  composite  restoration  prepared  at  the  American 
Museum  has  gained  wide  circulation  in  the  text  books  but 
later  discoveries  have  shown  that  it  was  unfortunate.  In 
the  summer  of  1911  Dr.  B .  v.  Huene,  of  Tiibingen,  while 
a  guest  of  the  joint  expedition  from  the  universities  of 
Chicago  and  Michigan  to  the  Permo-Carboniferous  beds 
of  New  Mexico,  discovered  the  remains  of  a  skeleton  of 
Edaphosaurus  in  which  both  the  skull  and  a  portion  of 
the  vertebral  column  were  preserved.  As  the  vertebrae 
bore  the  typical  cross-pieces  of  the  genus  Naosaurus  the 
identity  of  the  two  genera  was  established  but  new  evi- 
dence was  speedily  coming;  Case  in  the  summer  of  1912 
discovered  in  the  Permo-Carboniferous  beds  of  Archer 
County,  Texas,  the  nearly  perfect  vertebral  column  of  an 
Edaphosaurus  (Naosaurus)  cruciger  Cope  with  the  limb 
bones,  and  a  crushed  skull,  identical  with  the  skull  origin- 
ally described  as  Edaphosaurus. 

From  this  skeleton,  now  preserved  in  the  museum  of 
the  University  of  Michigan,  the  author  has  prepared  the 
restoration  shown  in  B  ig.  1.  The  only  conjectural  parts 
are  the  size  of  the  feet  and  the  length  of  the  tail ;  the  re- 


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No.  566]  EDAPH08AUBUS  CBUCIGEB  119 

mainder  is  based  upon  careful  measurements  from  a 
single  specimen.  So  far  from  being  a  carnivorous,  rap- 
torial animal  similar  to  Dimetrodon,  Edaphosaurus  was 
harmless,  moUuscivorous  or  insectivorous  with  possibly 
some  ability  to  masticate  vegetable  matter.  The  edges 
of  the  jaws  were  lined  with  sharp  conical  teeth  and  upon 
the  palate  and  the  dentary  bones  were  strong  plates  sup- 
porting numerous  blunt,  conical  teeth.  The  head  in  all 
specimens  recovered  seems  rather  small  for  the  size  of 
the  body  and  in  this  is  peculiar  in  the  Permo-Carbonif- 
erous  reptilian  fauna,  in  which  the  reverse  is  the  rule. 
The  shape  of  the  head  in  the  restoration  is  taken  from  the 
nearly  perfect  and  undistorted  skull  in  the  museum  of  the 
University  of  Chicago.  The  elevated  dorsal  spines  begin 
with  the  third  vertebrae  and  speedily  reach  a  considerable 
height.  The  lateral  projections  are  elongate  at  the  base 
of  the  spine  but  above  the  middle  are  reduced  to  mere 
nodules  irregularly  arranged.  The  author  is  not  in  ac- 
cord with  the  suggestion  made  by  Jaekel  and  Abel  that 
the  spines  were  separate,  and  can  see  no  reason  for  the 
suggestion  made  by  the  former  that  the  spines  were  mov- 
able. The  strongly  interlocking  zygapophyses  render  such 
an  idea  impossible  to  any  one  familiar  with  the  skeleton. 
Nor  does  the  author  believe  that  the  spines  were  of  any 
use  to  the  creature  as  offensive  or  defensive  weapons; 
rather,  as  he  has  frequently  expressed  himself,  he  believes 
that  they  were  in  the  nature  of  excessive  growths  which 
may  have  had  their  inception  and  impetus  in  some  useful 
function,  but  grew  beyond  that  use  as  the  animal  became 
more  specialized.  The  union  of  the  spines  into  a  thin 
dorsal  fin  is  far  more  probable  and  the  idea  is  supported 
by  the  presence  of  rugosities  and  the  channels  of  small 
nutrient  vessels  such  as  would  lie  beneath  a  thick  dermal 
covering.  The  anterior  and  posterior  faces  of  the  bases 
of  the  spines  have  sharp,  low  ridges  which  give  place  to 
shallow  grooves  farther  up  the  spine ;  only  near  the  top 
are  the  spines  similar  on  all  sides.  Moreover  in  the  liv- 
ing genus  Basiliscus,  which  has  elevated  dorsal  spines. 


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120  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VOL.XLVin 

and  in  the  genera  of  the  chameleons  in  which  the  same 
thing  occurs,  for  example,  Chameleo  cristatus  Stutch.,  the 
spines  are  united  into  a  thin  dorsal  crest  by  the  integu- 
ment and  are  further  united  by  a  thin  membrane  carry- 
ing scattered  muscle  fibers.  The  outline  of  the  dorsal 
fin  shown  in  the  restoration  is  suggested  by  all  the  speci- 
mens in  which  the  spines  have  been  preserved.  The  sharp 
recurvature  of  the  spines  in  the  lumbar  region  is  less 
pronounced  in  the  specimen  from  which  the  restoration 
was  drawn  than  in  some  other  and  it  is  possible  that  in 
other  species  there  was  even  more  of  an  overhang  of  the 
posterior  end.  The  spines  are  abruptly  shortened  in  the 
pelvic  region  and  rapidly  decrease  on  the  tail.  The  length 
of  the  tail  is  not  known  but  in  all  probability  was  elongate 
rather  than  short  and  stumpy. 

The  limbs  were  short  and  heavy  with  the  forearm  and 
foreleg  shorter  than  the  proximal  segment  of  the  limb,  a 
condition  which  is  quite  common  in  slow  moving  forms  or 
those  of  aquatic  or  palustrial  habit,  and  just  the  reverse 
of  the  condition  found  in  the  active,  raptorial  Dimetro- 
don.  The  bones  of  the  feet  have  not  been  found  in  posi- 
tion, but  in  the  great  Brier  Creek  Bone-bed  in  Archer 
County,  Texas,  excavated  by  an  expedition  from  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan  in  the  summer  of  1913,  numerous 
large  foot  bones  of  a  character  different  from  those  of 
Dimetrodon  or  the  cotylosaur  Diadectes  were  found  as- 
sociated with  the  spines  of  Edaphosaurus  and  with  large 
claws.  It  is  believed  that  the  foot  of  that  animal  was  of 
goodly  size  and  armed  with  sharp  claws  well  fitted  for 
digging  in  the  soft  earth  or  vegetation,  tearing  open  rot- 
ten logs  and  overturning  rocks  in  search  of  food. 

It  has  been  noted  by  all  collectors  in  the  Texas  beds  that 
isolated  vertebrae  of  Edaphosaurus  are  among  the  most 
common  fossils  found  but  that  any  portion  of  an  asso- 
ciated skeleton  is  extremely  rare.  This  has  led  to  the 
suggestion  that  the  remains  of  the  animals  were  trans- 
ported for  some  distance  after  death,  probably  by  rivers 
from  a  higher  land. 


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No.  566]  EDAPE08AURUS  CBUCIGEB  121 

Edaphosaurus  was  a  highly  specialized  creature,  slug- 
gish in  movement  and  entirely  harmless,  living  upon  mol- 
luscs, insects  and  perhaps  vegetation.  It  probably  lived 
in  the  woods  or  near  swamps  at  some  distance  from  the 
lowlands  upon  which  were  deposited  the  deltas  which 
make  up  the  Wichita  and  Clear  Fork  formations. 

In  conclusion  the  author  wishes  to  express  his  thanks  to 
Dr.  Euthven,  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  for  many 
valuable  suggestions  in  arranging  the  pose  and  propor- 
tions of  the  restoration,  and  to  Mr.  Irwin  Christman,  of 
the  American  Museum,  for  the  painstaking  care  with 
which  his  suggestions  have  been  followed  in  making  the 
drawing.2 

s  A  full  aceonnt  of  the  known  tpedmens  of  Edaphotaurui  and  NaoiauruM 
and  a  complete  Bynonjmj  of  the  two  genera  will  be  found  in  Publications 
55  and  181  of  the  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington. 


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SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION 

HTOIIDITY— A  NEGLECTED  'FACTOR  IN  ENVIRON- 
MENTAL WORK 

An  admittedly  rough  but  probably  fair  estimate  of  the  relative 
interest  which  has  been  taken  in  the  relation  of  the  various 
environmental  factors  to  insects,  at  least,  may  be  made  from  the 
fact  thart;  Bachmetjew  in  his  admirable  compilation^  of  the  work 
along  these  lines  devotes,  in  round  numbers,  four  hundred  pages 
to  temperature,  one  hudred  and  fifty  to  food  and  chemicals, 
seventy  to  light,  forty-five  to  humidity,  fifteen  to  electricity  and 
magnetism  and  thirty  to  mechanical  and  other  factors.  Why  is 
it  that  temperature  is  given  about  a  third  more  attention  than  all 
the  other  factors  put  together?  Is  it  true  that  it  is  nearly  ten 
times  as  interesting  or  important  as  humidity  ? 

A  partial  answer  to  the  first  question  undoubtedly  is  that  tem- 
perature is  easily  controlled  as  well  as  measured,  whereas  humid- 
ity, for  example,  is  not  easily  controlled  and  the  means  of 
measuring  humidity  in  small  containers  are  untrustworthy  and 
expensive.  Furthermore,  work  with  temperature  gives  results. 
The  unfortunate  part  is  that  these  results  have  usually  been  as- 
cribed wholly  to  temperature. 

In  the  course  of  some  work  at  the  Carnegie  Station  for  Ex- 
perimental Evolution  I  found  that  I  could  change  to  a  surprising 
extent  the  markings  on  the  larvae  of  a  moth  {Isia  isabella)  by 
varying  the  temperature  at  which  they  fed  and  moulted.  How- 
ever, such  changes  were  much  more  definite  when  the  tempera- 
ture was  kept  constant  and  humidity  varied.  I  did  not  have  the 
necessary  apparatus  for  getting  accurate  control  of  either  factor, 
but  I  feel  confident  that  temperature  had  little  or  no  direct  in- 
fluence.    It  was  acting  through  its  influence  upon  humidity.     . 

It  would  seem  unnecessary  to  urge  upon  experimenters  such  a 
fundamental  principle  in  the  logic  of  cause  and  effect,  but  the 
fact  is  that  with  only  two  or  three  exceptions  none  of  the  more 
than  a  hundred  papers  having  to  do  with  the  effect  of  tempera- 
ture upon  insects  tell  us  anything  about  the  effect  of  temperature 

1  *  *  Experimentelle  Entomologische  Studien  vom  phjsikalisch-chemischen 
Standpunkt  aus. '*     Zweiter  Band.     Sophia,  1907. 

122 


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No.  566]        SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  1 23 

per  se.  A  few  state  that  the  atmosphere  was  ** moist"  or  *'dry," 
but  even  then  how  moist  or  how  dry  is  not  usually  mentioned 
unless  it  is  believed  to  be  saturated  or  absolutely  free  from  moist- 
ure. It  is  clearly  incumbent  upon  the  one  who  makes  such  a  criti- 
cism to  show,  either  by  his  own  work  or  in  a  review  of  that  of 
others,  that  humidity  is  a  factor  of  such  importance  that  the 
criticism  is  worth  the  making — especially  since  the  point  is  so 
self-evident  and  has  been  made  in  the  past.  The  following  notes 
are  an  attempt  to  justify  the  preceding. 

The  experiments  of  many  wofkers  show  that  when  lepidop- 
terous  pupae  are  subjected  to  abnormal  temperature  part,  at 
least,  of  the  adults  which  emerge  differ  from  the  normal.  The 
observations  have  usually  been  made  on  color  changes,  and 
Fisher^  especially  has  shown  that  warm  conditions  (36*'  to  41 '^  C.) 
produce  the  same  or  similar  effects  as  do  cold  conditions  (O*'  to 
10^  C),  also  that  hot  conditions  (42**  to  46^  C.)  produce  effects 
wliich  are  similar  to  those  produced  by  freezing  ( — 20"*  to  0**  C). 
Fisher  apparently  had  no  means  of  successfully  controlling  the 
humidity  but  Tower*  claims  to  have  had  this  in  his  **  Investiga- 
tion of  Evolution  in  Chrysomelid  Beetles  of  the  Genus  Leptino- 
tarsa"  and  he  obtained  similar  results,  stating  them  as  follows: 

The  result  produced  by  either  a  higher  or  a  lower  temperature  is  the 
development  of  a  greater  amount  of  pigmentation  and  a  consequent  me« 
lanic  tendency  in  variations.  This  stimulus  in  both  directions  to  increased 
pigmentation  reaches  a  maximum  between  5®  and  7^  C.  deviation  from 
normal.  Beyond  these,  as  the  temperature  further  deviates,  there  is 
a  rapid  fall  in  melanism,  first  to  the  normal,  and  then  to  a  condition 
below  normal,  until  a  marked  albinic  tendency  is  found;  and  this  de- 
crease in  pigmentation  continues  until  the  zero  point  is  reached,  be- 
yond which  no  pigment  whatever  is  produced.  The  zero  point  is 
reached  much  sooner,  however,  in  high-temperature  experiments  than 
in  low. 

Tower  then  gives  the  results  of  experiments  in  which  all  the 
environmental  conditions,  except  humidity,  are  '* normal.'' 
Normal  humidity  for  Leptinotarsa  decemlineata  is  taken  as  rang- 
ing from  43  per  cent,  to  saturation  with  an  average  of  74  per  cent. 
The  humidity  in  various  experiments  ranges  from  10  per  cent,  to 
saturation.  The  lowest  natural  humidity  of  which  I  have  seen 
a  record  is  5  per  cent.     It  occurred  in  Death  Valley,  California, 

2  866  Archiv  fiir  Bassen-  und  GeselUchafts-Biologie,  1907,  IV,  pp.  761- 
793,  for  Fisher's  statement  concerning  criticisms  of  bis  conclusions. 
8  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington,  Publication  No.  48,  1906. 


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THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


where  the  monthly  means  for  May  to  September  inclusive  varied 
from  20  per  cent,  to  27  per  cent.  The  annual  mean  at  Cairo, 
Egypt,  is  56  per  cent,  and  at  Ghardaia  (Algerian  Sahara)  is 
50  per  cent,  at  7  a.m.  and  26  per  cent,  at  1  p.m.  The  humidity 
at  Buitenzorg,  Java,  during  the  height  of  the  rainy  season  fluc- 
tuates between  70  per  cent,  and  97  per  cent,  during  the  day. 
Naturally,  when  dew  is  being  deposited  the  humidity  is  practi- 
cally 100  per  cent.  It  will  be  seen  then  that  even  Tower's  ex- 
treme averages  (see  below)  are  not  beyond  the  range  of 
possibility  in  nature,  although  they  are  as  great  as  it  is  possible 
to  use  in  experimental  work,  since  at  an  average  of  34  per  cent, 
humidity  only  0.4  per  cent,  of  the  larvae  reached  the  adult  stage 
and  atmosphere  can  not  be  kept  supersaturated. 

The  beetles  were  seriated  according  to  an  arbitrary  scale  in 
which  '^20  equals  total  melanism  and  0  total  albinism."  It  is 
difScult  to  suggest  a  better  method  of  measuring  the  extent  of 
melanism  than  this,  although  we  could  wish  for  diagrams  to  aid 
us  in  grasping  just  what  the  scale  means.  I  have  tabulated  the 
experiments  and  interpolated  the  normal  data. 


ReUtlTe  Humidity 

Per  Cent,  of 
Mortality 

Melanism 

Arerage 

Bange 

Mode 

Range 

100 
95 
84 
74 
66 
60 
50 
34 

100-100 
82-100 
55-100 
43-100 
33-100 
30-100 
25-83 
10-55 

90 
30 
15 

r 

35 

80 
92 
99.6 

4 
7 

12 
9 

11 
5 
3 
2 

2-9 

3-11 

7-16 

6-lS 

6-18 

3-11 

1-7 

1-4 

It  will  be  seen  that  mortality  increases  rapidly  as  the  humidity 
departs  from  normal  but  this  can  not  account  for  the  change 
in  color  since  the  range  of  melanism  is  doubled  and  in  three  of 
the  experiments  even  the  mode  falls  below  the  normal  range.  As 
stated  by  the  author: 

The  results  of  experiments  with  deviations  of  humidity  are  almost 
exactly  the  same  as  those  which  were  obtained  from  experiments  with 
deviations  of  temperature.  Such  deviations  from  the  normal  either  to- 
ward an  increase  or  a  decrease,  produce  up  to  a  maximum  increased 
pigmentation  and  a  consequent  melanic  tendency,  but  beyond  this  the 
effect  is  reversed,  pigmentation  is  retarded,  and  the  tendency  toward 
albinism  becomes  more  and  more  pronounced  as  the  deviation  from  the 
normal  becomes  greater. 


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No.  566]  EDAPHOSAUBUS  CBUCI6EB  126 

The  point  which  concerns  the  present  discussion  is  that  not 
only  does  humidity  have  a  definite  regularly  acting  influence,  but 
that  its  results  are  similar  to  those  of  temperature  and,  as  with 
temperature,  plus  and  minus  variations  of  certain  intensities 
bring  about  similar  effects.  If,  as  has  usually  happened,  the  hu- 
midity is  not  controlled  in  experimental  work  on  the  effect  of 
temperature,  how  can  it  be  said  that  the  observed  results  are  the 
effect  of  changes  in  temperature  t 

Tower  made  certain  experiments  in  which  both  temperature 
and  humidity  are  abnormal,  normal  average  temperature  being 
taken  as  22.2**  C.  Unfortunately,  proof  reading  or  something  of 
the  sort  was  faulty  when  it  came  to  publication.  Experiment 
26  would  be  the  most  valuable  for  our  present  purpose,  but  the 
table  includes  records  of  relative  humidity  35  and  39  per  cent, 
above  normal,  ».  e,,  relative  humidities  of  109  and  113  per  cent., 
respectively,  if,  as  in  the  other  experiments,  74  per  cent,  is 
'* normal"  humidity.  These  are  clearly  impossible.  The  text 
figure  illustrating  this  experiment  does  not  help  us  since  hu- 
midities are  not  given  and  furthermore  the  temperatures  in  the 
figure  are  rather  consistently  one  degree  different  from  those 
given  in  the  table.  Since  there  are  two  errors  in  text-figure  15, 
which  illustrates  the  experiments  with  humidity  as  the  only  vari- 
able, it  is  likely  that  the  figure  is  the  thing  that  is  at  fault  here. 
Several  other  similar  discrepancies  could  be  pointed  out  (as,  for 
example,  the  temperatures  in  experiment  24,  which  concerns  the 
combination  effect  of  humidity  and  temperature)  but  it  is  prob- 
able that  the  author's  notebook  records  are  correct  and  the  tem- 
perature discrepancies  in  the  published  report  are  so  slight  that 
we  may  accept  his  conclusion.    It  is 

that  when  temperature  and  moisture  are  the  variables  in  a  given  en- 
vironmental complex,  the  trend  of  general  color  modification  is  con- 
trolled by  moisture  (relative  humidity),  excepting  in  conditions  where 
the  temperature  deviation  is  so  excessive  that  the  ordinary  physiological 
and  developmental  processes  are  greatly  inhibited.  In  experiments 
approximating  natural  environmental  complexes,  however,  moisture  is 
the  dominant  factor  in  influencing  coloration. 

Even  if  there  were  no  other  reasons  for  urging  the  necessity 
of  taking  humidity  into  account,  I  feel  that  Tower's  work  would 
be  ample  justification.  Before  taking  up  those  reasons  let  us 
notice  several  cases  where,  on  account  of  the  striking  results  of 
the  experiments,  we  must  regret  our  lack  of  information  as  to  the 
real  cause  or  the  relation  of  the  several  causes. 


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126  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

This  same  work  of  Tower  is  one  of  them.  The  effects  just  noted 
were  merely  ontogenetic.  However,  he  made  other  experiments 
in  which  the  effect  seemed  to  be  passed  on  by  heredity.  The  fac- 
tors in  the  various  experiments  with  L,  decemlineata  were  35^, 
45  per  cent,  and  low  atmosphere  pressure  (p.  287) ;  **hot,  dry" 
(p.  288) ;  **hot,  dry  and  low  pressure''  (p.  288) ;  and  '*hot, 
moist''  (p.  291),  probably  31.2°,  94  per  cent.  Those  with  L. 
mulitceniata  were  30°  and  saturation  (p.  292  and  p.  293) ;  and. 
the  one  with  L,  undecemlineata  was  *  *  10  C.  above  the  average  and 
a  relative  humidity  of  40  per  cent.*'  The  work  is  of  such  im- 
portance because  of  its  pioneer  character  that  it  would  be  un- 
gracious to  complain  too  strongly,  but  the  fact  is  that  it  is 
impossible  to  tell  from  the  data  given  whether  the  effects  are 
caused  by  humidity  or  by  temperature  or  by  a  combination  of 
the  two.  Bateson's  idea  that  there  are  no  effects  to  be  explained 
need  not  concern  us  here. 

There  is  a  long  series  of  interesting  papers  starting  in  1895 
by  Fischer.  As  has  already  been  mentioned,  he  finds  that  certain 
high  temperature  grades  produce  effects  which  are  similar  to 
those  produced  by  certain  low  temperature  grades.  The  con- 
ditions of  humidity  are  rarely  mentioned,  not  to  say  considered. 
However,  he  occasionally  confesses  that  they  are  important,  as 
when  he  tells  us*  that  it  is  necessary  to  have  the  warm  air  dry  and 
the  cold  air  moist  in  order  to  get  similar  forms  of  Vanessa  by  the 
application  of  moderate  cold  and  moderate  heat.  I  suspect  hu- 
midity largely  enters  into  the  other  experiments  also  for  in  one 
with  high  temperature,**  which  gave  the  same  results  as  certain 
low  temperatures  and  presumably  high  humidity  he  says  the  hu- 
midity was  high. 

Like  Tower's  experiments  with  beetles  these  concern  color 
alone.  Pictet*  and  Federley,''  especially,  have  considered  the 
effect  of  environmental  factors  upon  the  form  of  lepidopterous 
scales.  Federley  calls  his  work  ''Temperatur-experimente"  and 
Pictet  **  Influence  de  I'Humidite"  but  neither  enables  us  to  dif- 
ferentiate the  effects  of  the  two  factors,  although  both  obtained 
striking  results.    Kominsky®  modified  to  a  considerable  extent 

^Algemeine  Zeiischrift  fur  Eniomologie,  VIII,  p.  274,  1903. 

5  Illustrierte  Zeiischrift  fiir  Eniomologie,  IV,  p.  134,  1899. 

^MSmoires  de  la  SocUiS  de  Physique  et  d'Risioire  Naturelle  de  Gen^e, 
XXXV,  Fasc.  1,  1905. 

7  Festschrift  fiir  Palmen,  No.  16,  Helsingfors,  1905. 

8  Zool,  JahrhUcher.  Aht.  fiir  Allg,  Zool.  und  Physiologic,  pp.  321-338, 
1911. 


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No.  566]       SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION         •     1 27 

not  only  the  color  and  form  of  scales  but  also  the  form  of  an- 
tennae, legs  and  other  body  parts  of  Lepidoptera.  He  exposed 
the  pupae  to  42.5**  C,  humidity  not  given;  38°  to  39°  C.  and  42* 
to  43°  C,  relative  humidity  80;  8°  C,  "high  humidity";  0°  C, 
''very  high  humidity";  —7.5  to  5°  C,  relative  humidity  80-90 
and  50;  and  — 11**  C,  humidity  not  given.  For  the  most  part 
the  humidity  was  high  and  probably  had  much  to  do  with  the 
results,  but  we  can  not  be  certain. 

All  the  experiments  just  considered  were  made  upon  pupae. 
It  should  be  remembered  that  only  about  one  fourth  of  the  weight 
of  lepidopterous  pupae  consists  of  solids,  and  that  the  only  way 
they  can  replace  fluids  lost  by  evaporation  is  by  chemical  changes 
in  these  solids.  It  is  probable  that  they  do  so  to  some  extent, 
although  this  has  not  been  accurately  determined.  It  is  known 
that  under  normal  conditions  pupae  lose  in  weight  and  the  per- 
centage of  solids  increases.  Naturally,  a  change  in  the  humidity 
of  the  surrounding  air  would  modify  this  physiological  process 
and  it  is  difiScult  to  believe  that  it  has  not  quite  as  much  effect  as 
changes  in  temperature,  the  humidity  remaining  the  same.  It 
is  easy  to  see  that,  if  the  air  is  made  more  absorptive  or  less  ab- 
sorptive either  by  the  temperature  changes  themselves  or  by  other 
means,  and  then  the  physiological  activities  are  slowed  or  quick- 
ened by  temperature  changes,  the  effects  will  be  much  greater 
and  might  easily  pass  as  due  entirely  to  the  temperature  changes. 

The  species  which  have  wet  and  dry  season  forms  in  regions 
where  the  temperature  is  fairly  constant  throughout  the  year,  as 
well  as  the  tendency  for  the  animals  of  moist  regions  to  be  mel- 
anic  and  of  arid  regions  to  be  light  colored,  speak  for  the  impor- 
tant influence  of  humidity.  But  there  is  another  point  in 
distribution  to  be  considered.  The  study  of  distribution  was 
long,  and  still  is,  largely  an  effort  to  get  the  ranges  of  animals 
and  plants  to  fit  isotherms.  When  yearly  averages  do  not  work, 
winter  minima  or  summer  maxima  or  accumulated  temperatures 
are  tried.  The  success  which  often  attends  these  efforts  shows 
that  man  is  very  ingenious  and  also  that  temperature  is  really 
one  of  the  controlling  factors,  but  it  does  not  show  that  it  is  the 
only  factor  or,  in  fact,  that  it  has  any  direct  influence. 

The  areas  of  grassland  and  forest  in  North  America  cut  across 
isotherms  as  though  they  were  merely  political  boundaries  but 
Transeau*  has  shown  that  if  we  plot  the  ratio  of  temperature  to 
•  Ameb.  Nat.,  XXXIX,  pp.  875-889,  1905. 


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1 28  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

humidity  we  get  a  very  close  corresjwndenee  between  distribution 
and  climatic  factors.  Schimper^®  has  brought  together  a  great 
deal  of  evidence  which  indicates  that,  as  far  as  plants  are  con- 
cerned, even  the  major  divisions  of  the  world's  surface  into  arctic, 
temperate  and  tropical  are  fundamentally  a  question  of  the  de- 
mand for  and  supply  of  water. 

Furthermore,  if  recent  climatic  changes  have  an  effect  upon 
the  origin  of  new  characters  and  the  distribution  of  the  organisms 
possessing  certain  characters,  humidity  is  deserving  of  more 
attention  than  temperature,  since  practically  the  only  evidence 
we  have  of  such  changes  concerns  humidity. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  even  aquatic  oi^anisms  are 
subject  to  what  amounts  to  changes  in  humidity.  Peat  bog  plants 
take  on  many  characteristics  of  a  desert  flora,  although  their 
roots  are  covered  with  water.  It  is  water,  however,  which  is 
not  easily  available,  because  of  the  chemicals  which  it  carries. 
It  is  water  which  is  physiologically  dry. 

Finally,  the  great  amount  of  work  which  has  been  done  upon 
artificial  parthenogenesis  and  related  subjects  is,  in  a  way,  a 
study  of  the  influence  of  environmental  factors.  The  obvious 
factors  concerned  have  usually  been  various  chemicals  but  at 
foundation  humidity,  in  a  broad  sense,  the  addition  or  withdrawal 
of  water  by  osmosis  seems  to  be  a  factor  of  prime  importance. 

Frank  E.  Lutz 
American  Museum  op  Natural  History 

10 "Plant  Geography  upon  a  PhTsiological  Basis,"  translated  by  W.  B. 
Fischer.     Oxford,  1903. 


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ooNTcmra  op  the  Auourr  number 

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HooreDATii, 
The  Infloftne*  of  Protneted  and  Intermittent  Fiftlnf 

upon  Growth.    Dr.  8en;iiii  Morgnlli, 
dmbrien  HolothnrUuM.   Anttln  H.  Clerk* 
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H.  DeTlB. 


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Gartner. 


CONTCNTS  OP  THC  OCTOBCII  NUMBCII 

▲  Ck>ntrlbntlon  toweidi  en  AnelTeie  ef  the  Ffoblem 
of  Inbreeding.   Dr.  Beymond  PeerL 

The  Inheritenee  of  Ooet  Color  in  Hotiei.  ProltMor 
W.&  AndeiKMU 

The  Verietiont  In  the  Nnaberof  VertebnB  end  Ven* 
irel  Sentte  in  Two  Bneket  of  the  Genoa  Begine. 
Profenor  Alezender  G.  ButhTen  end  Czyitel 
Thompaon. 

Shorter  Artiolet  end  Beporta:  The  SImiilleBeona 
KodUicetion  of  Diatinet  Mendellen  Vecton:  Pto- 
feaaorB.A.£meraon.  TheFonithlntemetlooel 
Genetic  Oonftoenee :  Dr.  Frenk  M.  Sorfeee. 


OONTKNTB  OP  THC  NOVCMBCll  NUMBCK 

The  Blleet  on  the  Oflipring  of  IntozleettBg  the  Mele 
Perent  end  the  Tzenamlaaion  of  the  Defeeta  to 
Bobaegnent  Genemtiona.  Dr.CherleaB.8toekeEd. 

Bnpplementery  Stodlea  on  the  DUEerentlel  Moitalitgr 
with  raapect  to  Seed  Weight  in  theGfreifnetton 
of  Gerden  Beena,    Dr.  J.  Arthur  Herxla. 

Shorter  Artlolea  end  Diaciiaaion :  Bedpiooel  Croaeea 
between  Beeye'a  Pheeaent  end  the  CnButmw 
Bingneek  Pheeaent  prodndng  Unlike  Hybclde. 
JohaCPhUUpe. 


CONTCNTS  OP  THC  DCCCMBCII  NUBIBCII 

TheFittttonofCherectertnOrgeniama.  ByBdweid 
Sinnott. 

Inheritenee  of  Left^hendedneaa.   Ptef eiaor  TnnoU 

Bemeley. 
Snpplementery  Btndiea  on  the  Diflerentiel  MorteU^ 

with  Beapect  to  Seed  Weight  in  the  Germlnetlon 

•f  Gerden  Beena.  H.  Dr.  J.  Arthur  Herria. 
Shorter  Artielea  end  Diacnaalon :  A  Croaa  inyolTing 

FonrPeiraofHendelienChereeterainlliee.   C 

C.  Little,  J.  CPhOllpe. 
Index  to  Volume  XLVn. 


OONTCNTB  OP  THC  JANUARY  NUMBER 
A  Genetie  Anelyaia  of  the  Chengee  predneed  by 

Selection  in  Xzperimenta  with  Tobecco.    Pro- 

feMor  B.  M.  Beat  end  H.  K.  Heyea. 
Gynendromorphoiia  Anta,  deecribed  daring  the  I>e> 

cede.  1906-1918.      Piofeaeor  WlUIem    Mortoa 

Wheeler. 

Shorter  Artielea  end  DiaeoMlon:  On  the  Beenlte  of 
Inbreeding  e  Mendellen  Fopoletlon— A  Cocree- 
tion  end  Bxtenaion  of  PreTlooa  Ooneluaioiia. 
Dr.  Beymond  Feerl— laoletfon  end  Bdeetloii 
elUed  in  Principle.    Dr.  John  T.  Gnliek. 


Single  Number  40  Centc 
TIm  NATURALIST  win  U 


Yeerir  SulMcr^tiom  $4.00 

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Special  Beference  to  the  Factors  of  Xrolution 


CaVTSHTS 

Fagt 
U    Tbe  BAet  of  Bsctoat  of  DtitrlbutiOB  on  SpoclaUon.    Asa  C.  Chanducr     -    ISO 

n.    Bloloffjr  of  llio  Tliysaaoivtora.    Dr.  A.  Fbankliii  Sbull     -      -  -    Ifl 

m.    SlMrt^  Artldos  sad  Oorrospoadoaoo :  The  Endemic  Mammals  of  the  Britiih 

lales.    Pn>lbiaorT.D.A.CocKBBBLL 177 

IV.    X^tos  and  Lltorataro :  Swingle  on  Variation  in  Fi  Citroi  Hybrids  and  the 

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130  THE  AMERICAN  NATUBALIST      [YouXLYUl 

In  the  pasty  mucli  of  the  work  that  has  been  done  on 
zoogeography  has  dealt  with  a  study  of  the  facts  of  dis- 
tribution, both  present  and  past,  as  they  sta9d,  together 
with  a  study  of  the  factors  influencing  distribution  and 
speculations  regarding  the  explanation  of  somo  of  the 
interesting  and  apparently  anomalous  facts  thus  brought 
to  light.  In  all  of  this  work,  the  distribution  of  animals 
has  been  considered  almost  entirely  as  the  effect  of  cer- 
tain biological  and  geological  causes.  The  present  paper 
is  intended  to  show  that  the  distribution  of  animals  is  not 
only  the  effect  of  other  causes,  but  is  in  itself  the  cause 
of  other  effects,  and  that  extent  of  distribution  has  a 
direct  influence  on  the  modification  and  speciation  of  the 
group  concerned. 

To  find  out  how  far-reaching  and  how  potent  is  this 
effect,  much  further  study  is  necessary,  not  only  of  the 
distribution  of  various  groups,  but  of  their  classification 
and  systematic  relationships  as  well. 

In  brief,  the  effect  of  extent  of  distribution  on  groups 
of  different  systematic  rank  may  be  stated  as  foUows: 
As  the  range  of  a  group  of  animals,  be  it  genus,  family,  or 
order,  is  extended,  the  species  increase  out  of  proportion 
to  the  genera,  the  genera  out  of  proportion  to  the  families, 
and  the  families  out  of  proportion  to  the  orders.  In 
other  words,  if  we  assume  that  in  a  distributional  area 
of  certain  extent,  there  are  three  genera  and  six  species, 
in  a  distributional  area  of  twice  that  size,  there  will  not 
be  six  genera  and  twelve  species,  but  more  probably  only 
four  or  five  genera,  and  twelve  species ;  i.  e.,  if  in  the  first 
case  the  index  of  modification  (a  term  here  used  to  indi- 
cate the  average  number  of  species  per  genus)  be  two,  in 
the  second  case  it  will  be  greater  than  two. 

As  new  distributional  areas  are  added,  other  factors 
remaining  equal,  there  is  a  constant  increase  in  number 
of  species  and  subspecies,  going  hand  in  hand  with  a 
diminishing  rate  of  increase  in  genera,  the  result  being  a 
constantly  larger  index  of  modification  as  the  area  in- 
habited by  a  group  of  animals  is  extended. 


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No.  567]  EFFECT  OF  DISTRIBUTION  ON  SPECIATION         131 

It  should  be  remarked  that  a  unit  of  area  in  this  con- 
nection should  be  considered  a  distributional  unit,  not  a 
geographical  unit.  In  other  words,  while  the  addition  of 
one  hundred  square  miles  might  or  might  not  involve  a 
change  in  the  life  of  a  region,  the  addition  of  a  new  ^^life 
zone,'*  **fauna,'*  or  association"  (see  p.  155)  would 
inevitably  involve  a  biotic  change,  and  therefore  the  addi- 
tion of  one  or  several  of  any  of  these  distributional  areas 
should  be  considered  as  an  addition  of  a  unit,  comparable 
to  another  unit  of  similar  kind. 

Two  possible  ways  of  testing  this  hypothesis  present 
themselves.  "We  may  compare  the  faunas  of  distribu- 
tional areas  of  dissimilar  size,  or  we  may  compare  the 
specific  and  generic  differentiation  found  within  families 
occupying  areas  of  different  extent.  The  former  method 
we  should  expect  to  work  out  with  a  fair  degree  of 
accuracy,  but  the  latter  involves  so  many  modifying  cir- 
cumstances that  even  if  sufficient  data  were  at  hand,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  prove  anything  by  it.  In  the  first 
place  there  is  the  difficulty  of  comparing,  in  a  distribu- 
tional sense,  the  areas  occupied  by  different  families, 
since,  as  pointed  out  above,  the  geographic  areas  do  not 
necessarily  coincide  at  all  with  distributional  areas;  in 
the  second  place,  while  it  is  justifiable  to  compare  the 
speciation  of  a  family  in  one  region  with  the  speciation  of 
the  same  family  in  another  region,  it  is  of  doubtful  value 
to  compare  the  speciation  of  one  family  with  that  of 
another  in  the  same  or  different  regions,  unless  the  other 
factors  controlling  their  speciation  be  comparable  or 
nearly  so.  In  view  of  this  there  are  few  families  which 
could  be  advantageously  compared  with  each  other  as  to 
speciation  in  relation  to  extent  of  distribution,  yet  in  the 
families  which  do  seem  to  lend  themselves  to  such  a  com- 
parison, the  evidence  aU  points  towards  the  correctness 
of  the  law  here  proposed. 

The  bats  seem  as  favorable  for  such  an  interfamily 
comparison  as  any  group  of  mammals  that  could  be 
selected,  and  the  table  (Table  I)  of  their  distribution  by 


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132 


TRE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHl 


TABLE   I 

Distribution  and  Spegiation  of  Families  of  Ghibopteba 

Data  Derived  from  Sdater  and  Sclater  (1899) 


Family 


Distribution 


Gen. 


I    Index 
SP.     I  of  Mod. 


Cosmopolitan 

Warm  parts  of  both  hemispheres . 


VespertilionidaB . 
Emballonuridffi . 

Ptoropodidae Old  World, 

Rhinolophidae lOld  World 

Nycteridse Warm  parts  of  Old  World 

Phyllostomidas ^  Neotropical 


17 
15 
18 
6 
2 
36 


190 
79 

110 
61 
15 
81 


11.18 
6.27 
6.11 

10.16 
7.60 
2.25 


families  is  significant.  One  family,  the  VespertilionidaB, 
is  cosmopolitan,  inhabiting  every  zoologic  region  and 
every  life  zone,  and  it  has  11.18  species  per  genus,  the 
highest  of  any  family  of  bats.  The  Phyllostomidae,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  the  narrowest  range,  occupying  only  the 
warm  zones  of  one  zoologic  region,  namely,  the  neotropic, 
and  has  in  36  genera  only  81  species,  giving  2.25  as  the 

TABLE   n 

DlSTBIBUnON  AND  SPECIATION  OF  FAMILIES  OF  INSEGTIYOBA 

Data  Derived  from  Sclater  and  Sclater  (1899) 


Family 


Distribution 


Gen. 

8p. 

11 

126 

2 

16 

11 

25 

2 

15 

3 

17 

2 

3 

1 

2 

1 

7 

7 

21    . 

1 

2    ! 

Index 
of  Mod. 


Soricidffi. 


Erinaceidffi . 


TalpidsB. 
TupaiidsB. 


. . .  Palearctic,   Ethiopian,   Oriental   and 

Nearctic  resions,  all  zones |     11 

. . .  Palearctic,   Ethiopian,   and   Oriental 

regions 

. . .  Palearctio  and  Nearctic  regions,  tem- 
perate zones  only 

. . .  Oriental  region,  warm  zones 

MaoroscelidaB .Ethiopian  region,  warm  zones 

Potamogalidffi I  Central     Africa     and     Madagascar, 

I     tropical  zones 

Galeopithecidffi {Malay  only,  forests,  tropical  zones. . . , 

Chrysochloridas ....  !South  Africa I 

Centetidffi Madagascar , 

Solenodontidas Cuba  and  Hayti | 


11.36 

8.00 

2.27 
7.60 
5.66 

1.50 
2.00 
7.00 
3.00 
2.00 


index  of  modification.  The  other  figures  in  this  table  are 
significant,  but  the  indices  of  modification  in  the  families 
RhinolophidaB  and  Nycteridae  are  abnormally  large,  and 
will  probably  be  reduced  by  subsequent  subdivision  of 
genera,  or  discovery  of  new  forms. 
Table  11  shows  the  generic  and  specific  differentiation 


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No.  567]  EFFECT  OF  DISTRIBUTION  ON  SPECIATION         133 

of  the  various  families  of  Insectivores,  but  as  some  of  the 
families  have  not  been  as  intensively  studied  as  others, 
and  as  the  conditions  affecting  their  distribution  and 
speciation  are  so  different  in  different  families,  we  could 
hardly  expect  accurate  results,  and  yet  the  table  clearly 
shows  a  tendency  for  the  families  having  wider  ranges 
to  have  a  higher  index  of  modification,  the  almost  cosmo- 
politan shrews,  for  instance',  having  11.36  species  per 
genus,  and  the  families  with  restricted  range  (Galeopi- 
thecidae,  Solenodontidae,  Centetidae  and  Potamogalidae), 
having  only  1  to  3  species  per  genus.  The  Talpidae  and 
Chrysochloridae  do  not  seem  to  conform  in  their  speciation 
to  what  should  be  expected. 

When  the  specific  and  generic  subdivisions  of  all  the 
families  of  mammals  have  been  worked  out  more  per- 
fectly, and  their  ranges  in  a  distributional  sense,  i.  e., 
through  life  zones,  faunas,  and  associations,  are  more 
accurately  known,  some  interesting  facts  concerning  the 
relation  between  their  indices  of  modification,  and  the 
extent  of  their  ranges,  might  be  brought  out. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  there  is  a  considerable 
number  of  conspicuous  examples  of  wide-ranging  genera 
which  are  remarkably  poor  in  species.  Among  carnivo- 
rous mammals  there  are  many  such  cases,  these  animals 
seeming  to  be  adaptable  to  an  almost  unlimited  range  of 
environmental  conditions  without  modification,  or,  in 
other  words,  their  germ  plasm, is  not  stimulated  to  change 
by  altered  conditions  of  climate  or  environment.  The 
tiger,  for  instance,  is  equally  at  home  in  the  bleak  frozen 
stepi>es  of  Siberia,  or  in  the  hot  humid  jungles  of  India. 
The  genus  Cynaelurus  is  widely  distributed  over  the 
Ethiopian  and  Oriental  regions,  and  yet  it  contains  but  a 
single  species,  with  several  geographic  races.  Among 
birds  there  are  a  number  of  similar  examples,  the  most 
striking  case,  perhaps,  being  Pandion,  a  cosmopolitan 
genus  with  but  a  single  species.  The  same  peculiar  condi- 
tion occurs  among  lower  animals,  as  for  instance  in  the 
Dinoflagellate  genus  Diplopsalis,  which  is  cosmopolitan 


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134 


THE  AMERICAN  NATUBALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


TABLE   inj 

Speciation  of  Mammals  in  Various  Distbibutional  Areas  in  CSauvobnu 

Data  from  GrinneU  {191$ A),  (1908),  Orinnell  and  Swarth  (191S) 


Boreal  aod  Upper  Trmnsltioo  Zooee 

Group 

Sao  Jae.  Mts. 
(SSOSq.M.) 

San  Bern.  Mta. 
(MOSq.M.) 

Sierra  Range 
(80,000  8q.ll.) 

OoD.     !      8p. 
1                1 

Gen.              8p. 

Gen. 

8p. 

Ungulata 

1            ,      1 

2 

1 
1 

21 

6 

1 
7 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
2 

14 

2 
3 

7 

1 
1 

4 

2 

2 

4 
4 

4 

Bovids 

1 

7 

4 

2 

1 

6 

2 

1 
3 

2 

1 

1 

2 
2 

1 

8 

4 

3 

1 

6 

2 

1 
3 

2 

1 

1 

3 
3 

1 

Cervids 

1 

10 
6 

3 

1 
1 

2(7) 

(2) 

1(2) 

1 

(1) 

(1) 

2 

1 
1 

2 
2 

1 

12 
6 

6 

1 
1 

2(8) 

(2) 

1(2) 

1 

(1) 

(2) 

2 

1 
1 

3 
3 

3 

Antilocapridffi 

Rodentia 

67 

Sdurids 

22 

Aplodontids 

Murids 

1 
17 

Geomyids 

5 

Heteromyidtt 

24apodida 

2 
2 

Ereihisontids 

Oohotonida 

Leporids 

1 
3 
4 

Camivora 

21 

FelidflB 

3 

Canida 

6 

Muatelidffi 

10 

Prooyonidffi 

Uraids 

1 
1 

Inaeotivora 

SoriddflB 

11 

7 

Talpids 

4 

Cheiroptera 

Phylloetomids 

Vespertilionids 

Moloeaids 

7 
7 

Total 

18 

20 

17(22) 

20(26) 

45        ;     100 

Indioes  of  modifioa- 
tion 

1.11 

1.17  (1.81) 

2.22 

in  warm  and  temperate  seas^  and  yet  is  composed  of  not 
more  than  two  species.  No  adequate  explanation  of  these 
exceptional  cases  has  been  offered,  and  it  is  probable  that 
their  speciation,  or  lack  of  it,  is  due  to  conditions  of  their 
existence  or  constitution  which  we  do  not  understand,  or 
do  not  recognize. 


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No.  667]  EFFECT  OF  DISTBIBUTION  ON  8PECIATI0N         135 

To  test  the  law  by  comparison  of  faunas  of  areas  of 
different  extent,  a  series  of  tabular  comparisons  of  the 
faunas  of  various  regions  of  different  size  and  character 
was  made.  In  all  of  these  tabulations,  care  has  been  taken 
in  the  choice  of  areas  for  comparison  to  make  them  of  un- 
equal size  from  a  distributional  point  of  view,  and  to 
make  them  reasonably  comparable.  An  arctic  and  a 
tropical  region,  for  example,  are  not  considered  reason- 
ably comparable  as  regards  number  of  genera  and 
species,  nor  is  a  region  on  the  outskirts  of  the  range  of  a 
group  considered  comparable  with  a  region  near  its 
center  of  distribution. 

Table  m  shows  a  comparison  of  the  mammals  of  vari- 
ous parts  of  California.  The  regions  compared  are  as 
follows:  (A)  the  boreal  and  transition  zones  of  (a)  the 
San  Jacinto  Mountain  range,  (b)  the  San  Bernardino 
Mountain  range,  and  (c)  the  entire  Sierra  range,  includ- 
ing the  Warner  and  Shasta  Mountains  to  the  north,  and 
the  San  Bemardinos  and  San  Jacintos  to  the  south;  (B) 
a  comparison  of  all  the  zones  of  (a)  the  San  Jacinto 
Mountains  with  the  immediately  adjoining  country,  (&) 
the  Sierra  range  as  defined  above,  and  including  their 
foothills,  and  (c)  the  entire  state. 

A  careful  study  of  Table  III  brings  out  a  number  of 
interesting  and  significant  facts,  and  bears  out  the  law 
here  proposed  with  unexpected  accuracy,  barring  one 
seeming  exception  which,  as  we  shall  see  later,  can  not 
truly  be  considered  as  such. 

Let  us  compare  first  the  three  areas  in  which  only  the 
two  uppermost  life  zones  are  involved,  and  from  which 
the  species  invading  only  the  lower  Transition  zone  have 
also  been  excluded.  First,  a  word  as  to  the  areas  com- 
pared. The  Boreal  and  Transition  zones  of  the  Sierras 
take  in  over  one  half  of  all  the  representation  of  these 
zones  within  the  whole  state.  These  zones  of  the  San 
Bernardino  and  San  Jacinto  mountain  masses  are,  as 
compared  with  the  entire  range,  very  small  indeed,  and 
comprise  almost  as  small  areas  as  could  justifiably  be 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 


TABLE   niB 

(Data  as  above) 
(Data  as  in  Table  III  A) 


Group 


Ungulata 

BovidsB 

Cervida 

Antilooaprids 

Rodentia 

Sduridffi 

Castorids. 

Aplodontids 

Morids 

Geomyids 

Heteromyids 

Zspodids 

Erethiiontida 

Oohotonids 

Leporida 

Carnivora 

FeGda 

Canida 

Must^da 

Prooyonida 

yrsida 

InBeotivora 

Soridda 

Talpida 

Cheiroptera 

Ph3^o«tomida 

VeepertUionida 

MoloKida 

Total 

Indices    of    modifi' 
eation. 


All  Zoom 


San  Jm.  Mts. 

(2,600  Sq.M.) 


Gen. 


16 
6 


Sp. 


41 
7 


14 

4 

12 


4 
10 

2 

4 


Sierra  Range 
(60,000  Sq.M.) 


Geo. 


28 

7 

1 
10 

1 
4 
1 
1 
1 
2 

16 

2 
3 

7 
2 
1 


Sp. 


110 

26 

1 

38 

9 

24 

2 

1 

3 

11 

20 

3 
9 
13 
3 
1 

12 

8 

4 

12 


11 
1 


California 
(158,000  Sq.M.) 


Geo. 


1 
2 

1 

31 

7 

1 

1 

11 

1 

4 
1 
1 
1 
3 

17 

2 
3 
9 
2 

1 


4 
2 

11 

1 
8 
2 


10 


41 

2 

2 

64 

19 

48 

5 

1 

3 

18 

51 

6 
17 

22 

4 
2 

20 

14 
6 

26 

1 
21 

4 


34 


68 


170 


68 


810 


1.85 


2.03 


4.56 


considered  to  be  individual  f annal  nnits.  The  San  Jacin- 
tos  are  somewhat  smaller  than  the  San  Bemardinos,  bnt 
the  difference  is  almost  inconsiderable  when  compared 
with  the  Sierras.    Before  examining  the  table,  let  us  see 


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Na  567]  EFFECT  OF  DISTRIBUTION  ON  SPECIATION         1 37 

what  conditions  in  number  of  genera  and  species  wonld 
be  expected  in  these  three  areas.  The  San  Bemardinos, 
being  almost  as  small  a  fannal  unit  as  should  be  sepa- 
rately considered,  we  should  ezi)ect  to  approach  a  mini- 
mum index  of  modification^  i.  e.,  a  minimum  number  of 
species  per  genus,  approaching  one  as  a  limit.  On  the 
San  Jacintos,  these  being  smaller  than  the  San  Bemardi- 
nos,  we  shotdd  expect  fewer  types  according  to  the  law 
suggested  by  Grinnell  and  Swarth  (1913),  that  the  num- 
ber of  persistent  types  in  a  disconnected  area  varies 
directly  with  the  size  of  the  area.  On  the  entire  Sierra 
range  we  should  expect,  due  to  the  greatly  increased 
territory,  a  considerable  increase  in  genera,  but  a  very 
much  greater  increase  in  species.  Looking  now  at  Table 
m,  we  find  that  with  the  single  exception  of  the  car- 
nivores on  the  San  Bernardino  Mountains,  not  one  dis- 
crepancy exists.  The  Ungulates,  Insectivores  and  bats 
are  represented  by  the  same  numbers  of  genera  and 
species  on  both  of  the  small  areas,  and  all  of  them  show 
a  marked  increase  in  genera  and  species  on  the  larger 
area,  in  every  case  with  an  increase  in  the  index  of 
modification. 

The  rodents,  which  show  a  larger  degree  of  differentia- 
tion than  any  of  the  other  groups,  show  a  very  interesting 
advance  in  the  index  of  modification  as  the  area  is  ex- 
tended. The  carnivores,  as  stated  above,  show  a  seeming 
discrepancy,  inasmuch  as  there  are  six  genera  and  six 
species  existing  on  the  San  Jacintos,  and  only  two  genera 
and  two  species  on  the  San  Bemardinos,  whereas,  if  they 
conformed  with  our  laws  of  distribution,  we  should  expect 
at  least  six,  and  possibly  seven  or  eight,  species  to  be 
found  there.  On  page  35  of  Grinnell 's  **  Biota  of  the  San 
Bernardino  Mountains''  (1908)  we  find  reference  to  a 
number  of  carnivores  now  rare  or  extinct  on  the  San 
Bemardinos,  which  undoubtedly  have  been  exterminated 
by  man  within  the  last  fifty  years.  Counting  these  forms, 
which  it  seems  to  me  we  are  justified  in  doing,  the  table 
bears  out  the  law  without  a  single  exception,  not  only  for 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 


the  total  of  mammalian  forms,  but  the  totals  for  each 
order  and  for  each  family. 

In  comparing  the  three  areas  in  which  all  the  life  zones 
are  involved,  the  truth  of  the  effect  of  extended  distribu- 
tion on  speciation  is  still  more  forcibly  impressed  upon 
us.  In  this  case  we  are  comparing  areas  which  are  suc- 
cessively larger  in  size,  the  San  Jacintos,  with  their  foot- 
hills and  low  passes  involving  the  fauna  of  an  area  of 
about  2,500  square  miles,  the  Sierras,  about  60,000  square 
miles,  and  the  whole  state  of  California  about  158,000 
square  miles.  The  following  table,  derived  from  Table 
III,  is  very  significant  in  showing  the  diminishing  in- 


Genera 

Species 

Index  of  ModificaUon 

Group 

SanJac. 

Sier. 

CaL 

8anJao.{   Sier. 

Gal. 

SanJao. 

Sier. 

Cal. 

Unsulates 

Rodents 

Carnivores 

Insectivores... 
Cheiroptera. .. 

2 

16 

9 

3 

4 

3 

28 

15 

5 

7 

4 
31 
17 

6 
11 

2 
41 
10 

3 

7 

7 

110 

29 

12 

12 

10 
203 
51 
20 
26 

1.00 
2.56 
1.11 
1.00 

yr5 

1.85 

2.33 
3.93 
1.93 
2.40 
1.71 

2,60 
6.45 
3.00 
3.33 
2.36 

Totals 

34 

58 

68 

63 

170 

310 

2.93   1   4.56 

crease  of  genera,  and  the  constantly  increasing  addition 
of  species  as  the  area  is  enlarged. 

By  comparing  the  upper  zones  of  the  San  Jacintos 
with  the  San  Jacintos  as  a  whole,  and  the  upper  zones  of 
the  Sierras  with  the  Sierras  as  a  whole  (see  Table  HI), 
we  find  that  increasing  the  life  zones  has  in  a  lesser 
degree  the  same  effect  as  increasing  the  geographic  area 
regardless  of  zones;  in  other  words,  adding  life  zones 
tends  to  have  the  same  effect  on  speciation  as  adding 
faunas  and  associations  without  life  zones.  The  follow- 
ing table  (derived  from  Table  HI)  illustrates  this: 


Mammal! 

San  Jac. 
(Upper  Zonae) 

San  Jac. 
(All  Zonae) 

Sierras 
(Upper  Zones) 

Sierras 
(All  Zones) 

Genera 

18 
20 
1.11 

34 
63 

1.85 

45 
100 
2.22 

58 

Species 

170 

Index  of  mod 

2.93 

Another  rough  test  of  the  hypothesis  was  made  in  a 
comparison  of  the  mammalian  faunas  of  some  of  our 


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No.  667]  EFFECT  OF  DISTRIBUTION  ON  SPECIATION         139 

large  continental  islands  and  zoologic  regions^  the  results 
being  shown  in  Table  IV.    The  data  used  in  this  table  are 

TABLE   IV 
Spichation  of  Mammals  in  Yarious  Continental  Islands  and  Zoolooio 

Begions 
Daia  from  Solater  and  Sclater  (1899) 


Group 

AfHca 

AuttnUUn 
Region 

Austrftli* 

N«w 

Gnine* 

MadaffMOAr 
(228,000  Bq.M.) 

8p. 

Qen. 

Sp. 

Qen. 

8p. 

Gen. 

8p. 

Gen. 

Sp. 

Gen. 

tJngulatfls. . . 

Rodents 

Caniivores... 
InBoctivores.. 

Bats 

Lemurs 

Primates 

Hyraces 

Elephants. .. 
Edentates... 
Marsupials . . 
Monotremes. 

156 

196 

59 

73 

101 

8 

72 

14 

1 

6 

35 

41 
22 

8 

19 

3 

6 

1 
1 
2 

69 
83 

144 
5 

8 
26 

36 
3 

18 
39 

36 
3 

5 
16 

14 
2 

1 
13 

9 
20 
21 
36 

1 
7 
7 
9 
12 
11 

Totals 

685 

128 

301 

73 

169 

59 

96 

87 

100 

47 

Index  of  mod- 
ification. . . 

5.35 

4.12 

2.86 

2.59 

2. 

13 

by  no  means  up  to  date,  being  taken  from  the  summaries 
in  Sclater  and  Sclater  (1899),  but  the  subsequent  additions 
to  the  faunas  of  the  places  concerned,  and  the  splitting 
up  of  genera  and  species,  have  probably  been  approxi- 
mately proportionate  in  each  of  the  five  areas,  and  there- 
fore the  figures  used  are  sufficiently  accurate  to  be  signifi- 
cant Comparing  Africa,  the  Australian  region,  Australia, 
New  Guinea  and  Madagascar,  which  rank  in  size  in  the 
order  given,  we  find  that  the  indices  of  modification  of 
their  mammalian  faunas  are  as  follows:  Africa  5.35, 
Australian  region  4.12,  Australia  2.86,  New  Guinea 
2.59,  and  Madagascar  2.13.  Certainly  these  figures  are 
significant. 

Comparing  the  mammalian  faunas  of  the  various 
islands  of  the  Philippine  Archipelago  (Table  V),  we  find 
that  there  is  even  here  some  corroboration  of  our  law  of 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 


TABLE  V 

Speoation  of  Mammals  in  Islands  of  thb  Philippink  Abohipelago 

Data  from  Holliaier  {1912) 


Island 


Sq.  Miles 


Sp. 

Gen. 

72 

40 

61 

32 

16 

13 

14 

13 

10 

8 

21 

18 

17 

11 

9 

8 

8 

7 

3 

3 

5 

4 

Index  of  Mod. 


Luson .... 
Mindanao . 
Samar. . . . 
Negros. . . . 
Panay .... 
Palawan. . 
Mindoro. . 

Leyte 

Cebu 

Bohol 

Masbate. . 


40.969 
36.292 
5,031 
4,881 
4,611 
4.027 
3.851 
2,722 
1,762 
1,441 
1.236 


1.80 
1.90 
1.23 
1.07 
1.26 
1.16 
1.54 
1.12 
1.14 
1.00 
1.25 


speciation.  Considering  the  large  element  of  chance  in 
the  animal  population  of  a  group  of  islands  of  such  small 
size  as  those  of  the  Philippines,  where  the  various  islets 
are  at  a  varying  distance  from  each  other,  and  their 
faunas  have  originated  from  diflFerent  sources,  the  rela- 
tion between  their  size  and  the  differentiation  of  their 
forms  is  remarkably  regular.  In  Table  V,  where  the  main 
islands  have  been  listed  in  order  of  size,  with  their  num- 
bers of  genera  and  species  of  mammals,  the  deer  have 
been  excluded  entirely,  since  their  generic  and  specific 
differentiation  is  in  too  chaotic  a  state  to  be  used.  The 
most  striking  fact  brought  out  by  the  table  is  the  lead 
which  the  two  large  islands,  Luzon  and  Mindanao,  show, 
not  only  in  total  number  of  forms,  but  in  index  of  modifi- 
cation as  well.  With  the  possible  exception  of  Mindoro 
and  Palawan,  practically  none  of  the  smaller  islands  is 
supporting  as  large  a  variety  of  mammalian  forms  as 
could  be  expected  of  it,  a  fact  which  might  be  explained 
in  a  number  of  ways. 

In  all  of  the  tabulations  given,  the  marine  mammals 
have  been  entirely  excluded  since  the  factors  affecting 
their  distribution  and  speciation  are  so  different  from 
those  of  terrestrial  mammals.  In  the  majority  of  cases 
marine  mammalian  families  have  a  paucity  both  of  genera 
and  species,  a  circumstance  brought  about  by  a  number 
of  factors.     Generally   speaking,   large,   wide-ranging 


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No.  567]   EFFECT  OF  DISTRIBUTION  ON  SPECIATION         141 

forms,  or  forms  which  are  poor  in  nmnbers  of  individ- 
nalsy  are  poor  in  genera  and  species,  possibly  due  to  the 
comparative  uniformity  of  their  environment,  which  is 
usually  coincident.  Most  marine  mammals  are  of  these 
kinds,  and  their  paucity  of  types  is  emphasized  by  the 
comparative  uniformity  of  their  environment,  even  in  the 
most  widespread  groups.  From  a  distributional  point  of 
view,  i.  e.,  taking  into  account  life  zones,  faunas  and 
associations,  a  cosmopolitan,  oceanic,  surface  group  of 
animals  does  not  range  through  as  great  a  variety  of 
ecologic  niches  and  environmental  and  climatic  condi- 
tions as  does  a  cosmopolitan  terrestrial  group. 

In  order  to  determine  whether  the  principles  of  distri- 
bution and  differentiation  here  set  forth  would  apply  to 
birds  as  well  as  to  mammals,  a  number  of  series  of  com- 
parisons was  made  as  with  mammals,  and  with  exactly 
comparable  results. 

TABLE   VI 

SpsaATioN  OF  Birds  in  Various  California  Arbas 

Data  from  GrinneU  (19133),   {1908),  WiUett  (191g) 


Group 

8*11  Bernardino  Mts. 
(2,000  Sq.M.) 

Southern  Californi* 
(«0,000,8q.  M.) 

California 
(158.000  8q.M.) 

Gen. 

8p. 

Gen. 

Sp. 

Gen. 

Sp. 

Pluseres 

62 

16 

8 

5 

1 
1 
3 
1 
2 
2 
1 

82 

20 

3 

5 

1 
1 
3 
1 
2 
2 
1 

79 

19 
7 

10 
2 
3 
4 
5 
7 
5 

12 

114 

23 

7 

14 

2 

3 

4 

6 

7 

5 

14 

87 

20 

8 

12 

3 

6 

9 

6 

8 

11 

16 

197 

PiearuD 

38 

Striges 

15 

Aecqiitres 

17 

CohimbflB. 

3 

<Vlli 

11 

10 

Grues 

8 

Waden 

11 

Anseres 

11 

other  water  birds... 

26 

Total 

97 

121 

163 

199 

186 

347 

Index  of  mod 

1.: 

25 

1.30 

1.87 

Table  VI  gives  a  comparison  of  genera  and  species 
of  resident  birds  of  (a)  the  San  Bernardino  Mountain 
region,  (&)  Southern  California,  and  (c)  California  as 
a  whole.  Almost  without  exception,  in  each  individual 
group  of  birds  there  is  a  reduction  in  the  index  of  modi- 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLYIH 


fication  as  the  area  is  restricted  from  Califomia  to  the 
Pacific  Coast  region  of  Southern  California,  and  finally 
to  the  San  Bernardino  region.  The  totals  reflect  the  trend 
in  each  gronp.  While  in  the  largest  area  the  nnmber  of 
genera  is  considerably  less  than  double  what  it  is  in  the 
smallest,  the  number  of  species  is  mpre  nearly  tripled. 
The  Southern  Califomia  area  is  intermediate. 

TABLE  vn 

Speciation  of  Besidint  Birds  in  Australll  and  Tasmania 

Data  from  North  {1901-1909) 


Group 

AostnOia 
(2,947,000  Sq.M.) 

Tasmania 
(26.000  8q.M.) 

Sp. 

0«n. 

Fam. 

Sp. 

0«]i. 

Fam. 

Passeres • 

804 

29 

9 

27 

67 

119 

18 

2 

17 

14 

26 
6 
2 
2 
3 

68 

7 
1 

11 
11 

42 

7 
1 
9 
9 

16 

PfoaiuD 

3 

Striges 

1 

Acoipitres 

2 

Paittaoi 

3 

Total 

426 

170 

39 

83 

68 

24 

Index  of  cenerio  mod 

4.36 

2.83 

Index  of  speoifio  mod. 

2.30 

1.22 

Table  VII  shows  a  comparison  of  the  families,  genera, 
and  species  of  resident  birds  of  Australia  and  Tasmania, 
from  North  (1901-1909),  Here  again,  in  addition  to  a 
very  marked  diminution  of  the  total  number  of  types  in 
Tasmania  as  compared  with  Australia,  each  group  shows 
a  considerable  decrease  in  the  ratio  of  genera  to  families, 
namely,  from  4.35  in  Australia  to  2.83  in  Tasmania,  and 
of  species,  to  genera  going  from  2.30  in  Australia  to  1.22 
in  Tasmania. 

Table  VlJJL  is  a  similar  comparison  of  (a)  the  resident 
birds  of  Ireland,  from  Hartert  (1912),  (6)  the  resident 
birds  of  all  the  British  Isles,  from  Hartert  (1912),  (c)  all 
the  species  of  the  Palaearctic  region,  the  great  majority 
of  which  are  resident  in  one  part  or  another,  from  Dresser 
(1902),  (d)  all  the  species  of  Japan,  many  of  which  are 
not  resident,  from  Ogawa  (1908),  and  (e)  all  the  species 
of  Kamtschatka,  where  the  majority  are  resident,  from 


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No.  667]   EFFECT  OF  DISTRIBUTION  ON  SPECIATION         143 

TABLE  Vni 

I^KSATioN  OF  Birds  in  Yabious  Paleabgtio  Begions 

Data  from  Hartert  (191g),  Dresser  (190S),  Oganoa  (1908)  and 

Stejneger  (1885) 


Group 

Ireland 

(82,688 
8q/M.) 

Britiih 
IslM 

Palearotio 

Beffion 
(19,160,000 
Bq.  m!) 

Japan 

Kam- 
taohatka 
(106,000 
Sq.k) 

Sp. 

Oen. 

Sp. 

Gen. 

Sp. 

Oen. 

8p. 

Gen. 

8p. 

Gen. 

Paflmran 

67 

4 
2 
7 
4 
4 

10 
4 
1 
8 

23 

35 

4 
2 
4 
2 
4 
9 
4 
1 
8 
14 

86 

7 

6 
12- 

4 

8 
16 

6 

1 

16 
30 

42 
7 
4 
7 
2 
7 

11 
6 
1 

12 

16 

610 
81 
34 
66 
29 
76 
97 
34 
31 
64 

129 

116 
21 
11 
21 
6 
19 
32 
13 
12 
24 
36 

180 
34 
14 
23 
12 
11 
46 
27 
23 
89 
83 

64 

16 

8 

14 

21 

12 
21 
28 

66 

8 
4 

16 
0 
6 

26 
1 
0 

28 

32 

38 

PicaruB 

5 

Strises 

3 

Aodpitres 

7 

Cdnmbte 

0 

OfJli 

3 

T.fmi<^1^       ..... 

17 

Gmes 

1 

Waders 

0 

Animrm 

20 

Other  water  birds 

18 

Total 

124 

87 

188 

113 

1,261 

310 

491 

204 

183 

112 

Index  of  mod. ......... 

1.42 

l.AA 

4.nn 

2.41) 

l.ftS 

Stejneger  (1885).  The  increase  in  index  of  modification 
from  Lreland  to  the  British  Isles^  and  then  to  the  entire 
Palaearctic  region,  is  almost  exactly  what  should  be  ex- 
pected. The  greater  number  of  both  genera  and  species 
in  Japan  as  compared  with  Kamtschatka  reflects  the 
greater  variety  of  ecologic  niches  in  a  warm  country  as 
compared  with  a  cold  one  of  comparable  size.  A  com- 
parison of  the  resident  species  of  Japan  with  the  resident 
si)ecies  of  the  British  Isles  would  be  of  very  great  inter- 
est, but  such  a  list  of  Japanese  birds  is  not  available.  The 
very  striking  similarity  between  the  speciation  of  birds  in 
Kamtschatka,  and  that  in  the  British  Isles,  both  in  num- 
ber of  genera  and  of  species,  is  very  remarkable.  The 
interesting  manner  in  which  the  balance  of  nature  is  pre- 
served is  shown  by  the  large  representation  of  raptorial 
birds  to  parallel  the  abundance  of  shore  birds  and  Anseres. 
That  reptiles  and  amphibians  are  influenced  in  their 
speciation  by  tiieir  (iistribution  is  indicated  by  Table  IX, 
which  shows  a  comparison  of  the  genera  and  species  of 
amphibians,  lizards,  and  snakes,  in  three  of  the  geo* 
graphic  areas  defined  by  Cope  (1898). 


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144 


TRE  AMERICAN  NATUBALIST      [Vol.  XLVUl 


TABLE  IX 

Spegiation  of  Amphibia  and  Bsptilia  in  Nobth  Amebicah  Absas 

Data  from  Cope  (1889),  (1898} 


Group 

Lower  Californim  District 
(12,000  Sq.M.) 

Wettern  Sab-region 
(600,000  Sq.  M^) 

Medioolnmblan  Begiea 
(4.600.000  Sq.lE) 

8p. 

Gen. 

Index  of 
Mod. 

8p. 

Gen. 

Index  of 
Mod. 

Sp. 

Gen. 

Index  of 
Mod. 

Amphibia 

Lacertilis 

Ophidia 

4 
17 
16 

8 
13 
12 

1^ 
1.30 
1.33 

23 
28 
20 

10 

13 

9 

2.30 
2.15 
2.22 

130 
143 
191 

28 
31 
46 

4.64 
4.61 
4.24 

The  ** Lower  California  district'^  consists  of  only  the 
tip  of  Lower  California;  the  ** Western  subregion^'  em- 
braces the  Pacific  slope  of  North  America  from  Northern 
Mexico,  east  of  the  Sierras,  to  Oregon,  where  it  crosses 
the  Sierras  to  the  Bocky  Mountains,  including  northern 
Idaho,  eastern  Montana,  and  most  of  British  Columbia. 
The  **Medicolumbian  region'^  includes  northern  and  cen- 
tral Mexico,  and  most  of  the  United  States  and  Canada 
north  to  a  line  drawn  diagonally  from  New  England  to 
Alaska,  interdigitating  on  its  border  with  the  **Holarctic 
region. '* 

The  almost  exactly  parallel  increase  in  the  indices  of 
modification  in  the  three  groups  of  cold-blooded  verte- 
brates considered,  as  the  area  is  extended,  is  quite  remark- 
able. All  three  groups  average  from  1.25  to  1.33  species 
per  genus  in  the  smallest  area,  from  2.15  to  2.30  in  the 
intermediate  area,  and  from  4.24  to  4.64  in  the  largest 
area. 

As  suggested  by  Professor  Kofoid,  a  factor  influencing 
speciation  in  such  diverse  vertebrates  as  mammals,  birds, 
reptiles,  and  amphibians,  should  be  very  widely  appli- 
cable to  speciation  in  the  entire  animal  kingdom. 

A  series  of  statistics  relating  to  various  orders  of  in- 
sects and  other  invertebrates  has  been  compiled  to  ascer- 
tain whether  in  these  groups  as  well  as  in  vertebrates,  the 
number  of  species  increases  out  of  proportion  to  the 
genera,  as  the  size  of  the  area,  in  a  distributional  sense, 
is  enlarged. 


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No.  507]  EFFECT  OF  DI8TBIBUTI0N  ON  8PECIAT10N         146 


TABLE  X 

Spsciation  of  "ELAmiDM  IN  Yabious  Abbas  of  XJNBQUiii  Sub 

Data  from  Sohwan  (1906) 


RefloD 


Sq.MUes 


Sp. 

6«D. 

674 

66 

246 

36 

438 

63 

160 

40 

177 

41 

126 

36 

96 

28 

386 

42 

61 

20 

137 

24 

13 

7 

Index  of  Hod. 


Africa. 


India 

Borneo. . 
Sumatra. 

Java 

Oylon. . . 


Australia 

New  Guinea. . 
New  Zealand. 
Tasmania. . . . 


11,770,000 
228,000 

1.760,000 

296,700 

184.000 

60,000 

26.338 

2.947,000 

312,000 

104,760 

26,000 


10.43 
6.80 

8.26 
3.76 
4.31 
3.37 
3.42 

9.19 
3.06 
5.70 
1.86 


Table  X  was  compUed  to  show  the  number  of  genera 
and  species  of  beetles  of  the  family  ElateridsB  in  various 
continents  and  islands,  the  regions  chosen  for  comparison 
being  well  defined  areas  of  unequal  size. 

A  careful  inspection  of  this  table  shows  that  with  only- 
two  exceptions  the  indices  of  modification  are  directly 
proportional  to  the  size  of  the  areas.  Borneo  and  New 
Guinea,  however,  not  only  show  a  smaller  index  of  modi- 
fication than  should  be  expected  of  them,  but  are  poor  in 
total  number  of  types.  Nevertheless,  when  we  reflect  that 
these  two  islands  are  not  nearly  so  thoroughly  known  to 
science  as  are  the  other  areas  considered  in  the  table,  no 
great  significance  can  be  attached  to  their  seeming  paucity 
of  known  types. 

Table  XI  shows  tiie  number  of  genera  and  species  of 
Limnophilidse,  a  family  of  Trichoptera,  in  eastern  North 
America  (east  of  the  Bockies)  as  compared  with  North 
America  as  a  whole.    It  will  be  noticed  that  while  in  the 

TABLE   XI 
SPldATION  OF  LnCNOPHILIDil  (TBICHOPTBU)  IN  NOETH  AlCESIOA 

Data  from  Ulmer  (1907) 


Bagton 

8q.  MilM 

8p. 

0«n. 

Index  of  Mod. 

North  America 

8,000.000 
6,000,000 

98 
46 

27 
20 

3.63 

Eastern  North  Ameriea 

2.26 

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146 


TKE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 


larger  area  the  number  of  species  is  more  than  double 
what  it  is  in  the  smaller  area,  the  increase  in  genera  is 
only  about  one  third,  increasing  the  index  of  modification 
from  2.25  to  3.63. 

Table  XTT  shows  practically  the  same  thing  in  the  case 
of  the  hawk  moths  of  the  family  Sphingidae. 


TABLE   XII 

Speciation  of  Sphinqidji  in  Amebioan  and  African  Abkas 

Data  from  de  Rothschild  and  Jordan  (1907) 


Area 


Sq.  MilM 


Gen.      Index  of  Mod. 


West  Indies 

Mexico  and  Central  America 

South  America 

Mex.,  Cent.  Am.,  and  S.  Am 

Mex.,  Cent.  Am..  S.  Am.,  and  W.  I. 

Bourbon 

Madagascar 

Africa 

Africa  and  Mad 

Africa,  Mad.,  and  Bourbon 


76,000 

976,200 

7.000,000 

7.975,200 

8,051,200 

965 

228,000 

11,772.000 

12.000.000 

12,000,965 


61 

20 

122 

34 

197 

35 

237 

40 

262 

41 

7 

5 

39 

20 

166 

48 

195 

53 

197 

53 

3.05 
3.58 
5.62 
5.92 
6.39 

1.40 
1.95 
3.45 
3.67 
3.71 


In  this  case  two  series  of  tabulations  were  made,  one 
showing  the  number  of  genera  and  species  in  various 
Neotropical  areas,  and  combinations  of  these  areas,  the 
other  showing  a  similar  tabulation  for  various  Ethiopian 
areas,  with  similar  combinations.  It  will  be  observed  that 
the  speciation  in  the  West  Indies  is  very  large  for  the  size 
of  the  area  involved,  but  when  we  consider  the  abundant 
opportunity  that  has  been  given  for  isolation  to  operate, 
this  is  not  surprising.  The  index  of  modification  is  quite 
low.  Mexico  and  Central  America  have  a  larger  specia- 
tion, compared  with  South  America,  than  would  normally 
be  expected,  the  reason  being  that  Central  America  is  the 
American  center  of  distribution.  The  index  of  modifica- 
tion, however,  reflects  the  smaller  size  of  the  area,  being 
considerably  lower  than  that  for  South  America.  The  in- 
crease in  index  of  modification  from  5.62  to  6.39,  as  areas 
are  successively  added  to  South  America,  is  significant. 
Looking  now  at  the  Ethiopian  regions,  we  find  that  there 
is  the  same  disproportionate  increase  of  species  over 


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No.  567]   EFFECT  OF  DISTRIBUTION  ON  SPECIATION         147 

genera  in  successively  larger  area6,  the  index  of  modifica- 
tion increasing  from  1.40  in  the  small  island  of  Bourbon 
to  1.95  in  Madagascar,  and  3.45  in  Africa.  Combining 
Africa  and  Madagascar,  this  is  increased  to  3.67,  and  with 
the  island  of  Bourbon,  to  3.71. 
Table  AIJJL  is  one  of  especial  interest,  since  it  deals 

TABLE   XIII 

SPECIATION  OF  MABINE  GAMMABIDIA   (AMPHIPODA)   IN  VaBIOUS  SBAS 

Data  from  Stebhing  (1906) 


Aras 

8p. 

G«ii. 

Index  of  Mod. 

Medit4¥TTAneftn  8«a 

147 
311 
476 
65 
588 
645 
735 
1,333 

67 
140 
176 

44 
101 
207 
214 
313 

2.19 

Arotio  Ocean ^ . 

2.22 

N,  Atlfrntri«  Oc«ftn 

2.70 

S.  Atlantic  Ocean 

1.47 

Arctic  and  N.  Atlantic 

3.07 

Arctic,  N.  Atlantic,  and  S.  Atlantic 

3.11 

Arctic,  N.  Atlantic  S.  Atiantio  and  Med.  Sea 

Whole  family 

3.43 
4.22 

with  a  marine  instead  of  a  terrestrial  group.  It  embodies 
the  results  of  a  compilation  of  the  marine  genera  and 
species  of  Amphipoda  of  the  suborder  Gammaridea  in  a 
number  of  the  oceans  and  seas  of  the  world.  Since  it  is 
primarily  a  cold-loving  group,  the  largest  numbers  are 
found  in  the  cold  seas,  the  Arctic  and  North  Atlantic  being 
the  home  of  considerably  over  half  of  the  known  marine 
si)ecies.  It  is  very  likely  that  when  the  Antarctic  regions 
have  been  studied  as  thoroughly  as  the  northern  regions, 
the  number  of  species  from  tiiat  part  of  the  world  will  be 
very  considerably  increased.  At  the  time  of  Stebbing's 
work  on  Amphii)oda,  our  knowledge  of  Antarctic  and 
contiguous  areas  was  very  meager. 

The  steady  increase  of  the  index  of  modification  from 
the  smaller  to  the  larger  seas  is  striking.  The  Mediter- 
ranean Sea,  although  it  is  the  most  thoroughly  known  of 
all,  has  the  lowest  index  of  modification,  namely  2.19,  the 
Arctic  Ocean  comes  next  with  2.22,  and  then  the  North 
Atlantic  with  2.70.  The  small  number  of  species  from  the 
South  Atlantic  and  Antarctic  regions  has  already  been 


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1 48  TEE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

mentioned,  and  its  low  index  of  modification  may  be  at- 
tributed to  the  same  sort  of  imperfect  knowledge  as  in  the 
case  of  Borneo  and  New  Guinea  in  Table  X.  The  con- 
stant growth  of  the  number  of  species  per  genus  from 
2.22  to  3.43  as  the  various  seas  and  oceans  are  added  to- 
gether, exactly  parallels  the  results  obtained  in  a  similar 
way  for  a  terrestrial  group  in  Table  XII.  The  comparison 
of  the  speciation  of  the  largest  area  for  which  it  was 
worked  out,  with  the  speciation  of  the  entire  group,  many 
species  and  genera  of  which  inhabit  fresh  water,  is  inter- 
esting, jumping  as  it  does  from  3.43  to  4.22.  From  the 
facts  brought  to  light  by  this  table  it  can  hardly  be  doubted 
that  practically  the  same  influence  is  brought  to  bear  on 
the  speciation  of  marine  as  on  terrestrial  organisms  by 
the  extent  of  their  distribution. 

The  theoretical  explanation  here  proposed  for  this  phe- 
nomenon involves  a  number  of  complex  problems  relating 
to  evolution  and  speciation,  including  isolation,  effect  of 
time,  causes  of  specific  and  generic  modification,  etc.,  each 
of  which  will  be  dealt  with  in  the  following  pages  as  they 
seem  to  influence  the  law  here  proposed. 

Let  us  first  consider  the  factor  of  isolation  in  relation 
to  the  production  of  new  forms.  As  excellently  stated  by 
Cook  (1909),  isolation  can  not  be  considered  as  a  cause  or 
factor  in  evolution,  since  changes  in  the  characters  of 
species  are  not  dependent  upon  the  subdivision  of  species 
to  form  additional  species.    To  quote  from  him : 

The  separation  of  species  into  two  or  more  parts  allows  the  parts 
to  become  different,  but  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  evolutionary 
changes  of  the  same  kind  would  take  place  if  the  species  were  not 
divided.  That  the  isolated  groups  become  different,  does  not  indicate 
that  isolation  assists  in  the  process  of  change.  It  gives  the  contrary 
indication  that  changes  are  restricted  by  isolation.  If  isolation  did  not 
confine  the  new  characters  to  the  group  in  which  they  arise,  the  groups 
would  remain  alike,  instead  of  becoming  different.  .  .  .  Isolation  is 
the  shears  that  splits  the  species,  not  the  loom  that  weaves  it. 

Therefore,  while  isolation  can  not  be  considered  a  factor 
in  evolution,  it  is  an  important  factor  in  speciation. 
Species  vary  in  many  directions  or  orthogenetically  pro- 


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No.  567]  EFFECT  OF  DISTBIBUTION  ON  SPECIATION         149 

gress  in  a  definite  direction,  but  the  trend  of  variation  or 
progression  may  be  different  in  one  locality,  and  tend 
towards  a  different  result,  from  that  of  another  locality. 
Whether  the  evolution,  usually  in  more  or  less  divergent 
directions,  of  segregated  groups  of  individuals  be  looked 
upon  (1)  as  the  accumulation  of  numerous  slight  varia- 
tions which  have  a  different  average  character  in  any  two 
portions  of  a  species,  as  originally  explained  by  Darwin 
(1859,  Chap,  4)  or  (2)  purely  as  the  result  of  natural  selec- 
tion, as  argued  by  Wallace  (1858),  or  (3)  as  the  result  of 
a  change  in  the  average  character  of  two  portions  due  to 
the  imeven  occurrence  of  mutations  in  the  two  portions, 
a  conclusion  reached  by  Dewar  and  Finn  (1909,  p.  380),  or 
(4)  as  the  result  of  orthogenetic  evolutionary  tendencies 
inherent  in  the  species  and  influenced  by  the  environment, 
as  Eimer  suggested  (1897,  Chap.  1),  does  not  concern  us 
here, — ^the  general  tendency  appears  to  be  that  two  iso- 
lated portions  of  a  species  as  a  general  rule  trend  in 
different  directions,  and  diverge  farther  and  farther  as 
long  as  they  are  isolated. 

It  is  assumed  that  the  greater  the  length  of  time  given 
for  the  influence  of  isolation  to  be  felt,  the  farther  apart 
are  the  two  originally  identical  divisions  likely  to  trend, 
however  the  dissimilar  evolution  be  interpreted.  As 
stated  by  Tower  (1906),  in  speaking  of  the  method  of 
evolution  of  the  CShrysomelid  genus  Leptinotarsa, 

We  can  interpret  the  conditions  found  by  any  of  the  current 
hypotheses;  but  explaining  a  condition  by  an  hypothesis  is  not  the 
same  as  that  the  conditions  found  are  evidence  in  support  of  an 
hypothesis,  although  it  is  often  so  used. 

The  existence  of  distinct  variations,  subspecies,  and 
ultimately  species  and  genera,  in  isolated  areas  is  a  too 
frequently  observed  phenomenon  to  be  looked  upon  as 
anything  else  than  a  self-evident  truth,  but  that  this  should 
necessarily  be  considered  as  supporting  any  particular 
theory  of  evolution  can  not  be  argued. 

The  profound  results  of  prolonged  isolation  may  be 
observed  in  the  fauna  of  some  of  our  long-separated  con- 


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150  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VouXLVIH 

tinental  islands,  such  as  Madagascar,  Australia  and  New 
Zealand.  Decreasing  degrees  of  isolation  may  be  observed 
in  our  West  Indian  islands,  where  some  generic  differenti- 
ation has  occurred ;  in  the  Santa  Barbara  islands,  where 
there  has  been  a  differentiation  of  species;  and  the  de- 
tached mountain  ranges  of  Southern  California,  where  the 
upper  life  zones  are  at  present  in  an  isolated  condition, 
but  have  been  so  only  long  enough  to  develop  a  few  new 
subspecies,  and  to  lose  many  of  the  types  of  the  mother 
range,  in  accordance  with  the  law  proposed  by  Grinnell 
and  Swarth  (1913)  that  **the  smaller  the  disconnected 
area  of  a  given  zone,  or  distributional  area  of  any  other 
rank,  the  fewer  the  types  which  are  persistent  therein." 

From  this  it  is  apparent  that  the  time  element,  in  con- 
junction with  isolation,  may  have  a  very  decided  effect  on 
the  number  of  genera  and  species  in  a  family,  but  since, 
from  a  geologic  point  of  view,  animals  appear  to  have 
reached  a  new  equilibrium  very  quickly  after  a  geographic 
change,  the  time  element  may  have  little  effect  on  the  num- 
bers of  genera  and  species  relative  to  each  other  in  any 
given  area.  In  other  words,  as  fast  as  new  genera  are 
produced  in  a  given  area,  the  species  within  the  genera 
will  tend  to  be  produced  in  the  same  ratio,  thus  leaving 
the  index  of  modification  unaffected. 

As  an  example  of  the  effect  of  time  and  isolation  let  us 
take  a  hypothetical  case.  Let  us  assume  that  a  certain 
island  became  divided  into  two  islands  of  unequal  size, 
and  that  after  a  short  period  of  segregation,  just  long 
enough  for  the  fauna  to  readjust  itself  to  the  smaller 
areas  and  reach  a  new  equilibrium,  we  had  say  six  species 
in  three  genera  on  the  larger  island,  and  three  of  the  same 
species  in  two  of  the  genera  on  the  smaller  one.  After 
a  long  period  of  isolation  we  should  have  approximately 
the  same  number  of  genera  and  species  on  the  two  islands, 
but  they  would  have  diverged  to  generic  differentiation. 
In  other  words,  the  effect  of  time  in  conjunction  with  iso- 
lation is  to  increase  the  number  of  genera  and  species  in 
the  family,  while  the  index  of  modification  undergoes  little 
change. 


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No- 567]  EFFECT  OF  DISTRIBUTION  ON  SPECIATION         151 

This  leads  ns  to  a  consideration  of  the  factors  involved 
in  the  differentiation  of  genera  as  contrasted  with  the 
differentiation  of  species.  In  general  it  may  be  said  that 
extrinsic  modifications,  i.  e.,  those  which  are  in  some  way 
connected  with  changes  in  temperature,  humidity,  char- 
acter of  flora,  food,  and  other  environmental  conditions, 
and  which  usually  affect  such  characters  as  color,  size, 
length  of  hair,  etc.,  lead  to  differentiation  of  species  and 
subspecies  primarily.  On  the  other  hand,  intrinsic  modi- 
fications, i.  e.,  those  which  are  related  directly  or  indi- 
rectly to  a  change  in  the  habits  or  mode  of  life  of  the 
animal  or  the  occupation  of  a  new  niche  in  nature,  usually, 
if  not  always,  lead  to  generic  or  family  differentiation, 
since  it  is  evident  that  changes  fitting  an  animal  to  live 
arboreally  instead  of  terrestrially,  for  instance,  are  of 
such  a  nature,  that  if  they  are  perpetuated  and  carried  to 
perfection,  will  not  stop  at  specific  difference  but  will 
become  of  generic  importance. 

It  might  be  argued  that  there  are  no  modifications  which 
might  not,  if  carried  far  enough,  ultimately  lead  to  generic 
differentiation.  This  is  possible,  but  very  improbable, 
because  the  modifications  here  alluded  to  as  ** extrinsic*^ 
are  of  such  a  nature  that  in  the  varying  climatic  condi- 
tions there  are  likely  to  be  intermediate  forms  which  make 
the  division  of  the  more  widely  separated  ones  into  genera 
impracticable.  In  the  case  of  our  *4ntrinsic*'  modifica- 
tions, intermediate  forms  are  not  so  likely  to  exist  when 
once  the  incipient  changes  leading  to  an  altered  mode  of 
life  have  reached  a  fair  degree  of  perfection. 

As  a  concrete  example  of  what  is  meant  by  extrinsic 
and  intrinsic  modifications,  let  us  take  the  squirrels  of  a 
given  region,  say  eastern  North  America.  There  are  four 
genera  to  be  distinguished, — Sciurius,  Tamias,  Sciuro- 
pterus  and  Arctomys.  The  genus  Sciurus  contains 
strictly  arboreal,  mostly  nut-eating,  omnivorous  forms. 
Tamias  includes  forms  which  are  terrestrial,  diurnal, 
dwelling  in  natural  or  artificial  holes  and  crevices,  and 
with  a  device  for  carrying  food  in  their  cheeks.    Sciuro- 


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162  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

pterus  is  an  arboreal  tjrpe  which  is  nocturnal,  and  has  de- 
veloped characters  which  enable  it  more  easily  to  travel 
from  tree  to  tree.  Arctomys  is  the  most  highly  modified 
form,  and  has  departed  most  widely  in  its  habits;  it  is 
entirely  terrestrial,  seeks  shelter  in  artificial  burrows, 
eats,  grass,  and  hibernates. 

Were  we  to  study  the  characters  separating  these  gen- 
era, we  should  find  that  they  are  all  characters  which 
enable  the  animal  best  to  occupy  the  ecologic  niche  it  fills. 
If  now  we  select  any  one  of  these  genera  and  examine  its 
species,  we  perceive  that  the  differences  we  find  are  not 
such  as  could  clearly  be  related  to  differences  in  mode  of 
life  or  habits,  but  rather  such  differences  as  are  induced 
by  the  circumstances  mentioned  above,  such  differences 
being  size,  color,  length  of  feet  and  tail,  texture  of  fur, 
etc.-i.  e.,  extrinsic  variations. 

An  interesting  example  of  both  extrinsic  and  intrinsic 
modii&cations  in  an  incipient  stage  may  be  foxmd  in  the 
song-sparrows  of  western  United  States.  Let  us  compare 
the  form  of  the  humid  northwest  coast  belt,  Melospiza 
melodia  morphna,  with  the  form  of  the  arid  Arizona  des- 
erts, M.  m.  fallaaj.  The  differences  to  be  observed  in  color 
and  size  are  very  noticeable,  and  would  undoubtedly  lead 
to  their  separation  into  two  distinct  species  were  it  not  for 
the  complete  chain  of  intermediate  forms.  But  even  if  the 
chain  of  intermediate  forms  were  not  complete,  and  after 
a  period  of  segregation  the  numerous  intergrading  sub- 
species became  broken  up  into  a  few  well-marked  species, 
nevertheless,  unless  a  change  in  mode  of  life  of  the  bird 
were  involved,  however  far  the  extremes  of  color  and  size 
might  tend,  they  could  not  be  given  generic  distinction 
because  of  the  intermediate  forms,  inhabiting  semi-arid  or 
semi-humid  regions,  which  would  be  almost  certain  to 
exist  It  hapens,  however,  that  Melospiza  melodia  mor- 
phna, and  M.  m.  fallax,  do  differ  considerably  in  mode  of 
life,  the  former  being  a  beach  comber,  the  latter  a  nomad 
of  the  desert  It  would  be  expected,  therefore,  tiiat  if 
these  two  subspecies  were  isolated,  the  modifications  re- 


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No.  567]  EFFECT  OF  DISTRIBUTION  ON  SPECIATION         163 

lated  to  their  difference  in  mode  of  life,  already  shown 
in  an  incipient  manner,  woxdd  soon  lead  to  their  generic 
differentiation. 

It  is  not  argaed  that  nnder  a  given  set  of  ecologic  con- 
ditions, only  one  type  could  be  produced,  nor  that  accord- 
ing to  the  idea  of  some  zoologists,  as  set  forth  and  refuted 
by  Grinnell  and  Swarth  (1913),  should  individuals  of  one 
geographic  race  be  transplanted  into  the  region  of  a  dif- 
ferent geographic  race,  the  first  race  would  assume  within 
a  few  generations  all  the  characters  of  the  second  race. 
Whether  the  changes  due  to  the  influence  of  the  environ- 
ment be  looked  upon  as  the  results  of  natural  selection 
and  adaptation,  or  merely  as  the  results  of  a  stimulus  to 
the  germ  plasm,  the  new  type  would  not  necessarily  be 
always  the  same,  this,  however,  depending  upon  the  num- 
ber of  potential  responses  in  the  type,  and,  as  excellently 
shown  by  Buthven  (1909)  in  his  study  of  evolution  in  the 
genus  Thamnophis,  upon  the  modifications  previously 
undergone  by  the  type  we  are  dealing  with. 

It  is  very  evident  that  there  are  many  variations  in 
animals  which  seem  to  fall  into  neither  the  extrinsic  nor 
intrinsic  category,  but  which  are  neutral  and  vary  inde- 
pendently of  climate  or  habits,  and  may  be  inherited  phy- 
logenetic  tendencies.  It  is  very  largely  due  to  these 
neutral  variations,  frequently  to  be  ascribed  to  ortho- 
genetic  evolution,  tending  in  different  directions  in  dif- 
ferent places,  and  giv^i  an  opportunity  to  diverge  by  iso- 
lation, that  different  species  may  be  produced  to  occupy 
regions  of  similar  climatic  and  environmental  conditions, 
and  different  genera  may  be  found  occup3dng  the  same 
ecologic  niches. 

To  choose  an  example  in  the  same  family  quoted  before, 
we  may  cite  the  case  of  Tamias  in  eastern  North  America, 
and  Eutamias  in  western  North  America.  In  this  case  the 
characters  separating  the  genera  are  not  clearly  related 
to  their  mode  of  life,  the  chief  difference  being  the  loss  of 
one  small  premolar  in  Tamias,  and  its  retention  in  Euta- 
mias.    The  extent  of  divergence  of  these  neutral  varia- 


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154  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

tions  depends  on  the  duration  of  geographic  segregation, 
and  may  therefore  be  of  specific,  generic,  family,  or  ordi- 
nal rank. 

To  sum  up,  specific  modifications  may  be  of  three  kinds : 
(1)  extrinsic  modifications,  induced  by  changes  of  climate 
and  environmental  conditions;  (2)  neutral  modifications, 
due  to  a  different  trend  of  evolution  in  segregated  regions ; 
(3)  incipient  generic  modifications.  On  the  other  hand, 
generic  modification  may  be  either  intrinsic  modifications, 
concomitant  with  changes  in  mode  of  life  or  habits  of  the 
animal,  or  neutral  modifications  as  above,  given  generic 
value  by  a  longer  i>eriod  of  segregation. 

Having  dwelt  for  some  length  on  these  preliminary  con- 
siderations, let  us  now  apply  them  to  the  case  in  hand  and 
see  how  they  affect  differentiation  into  species  and  genera 
through  extension  of  range. 

It  is  a  well-known  biological  fact  that  different  types  of 
a  group  of  animals,  at  least  of  higher  animals,  are  found 
associated  with  different  ei^vironments ;  nearly  related 
species  do  not,  as  a  rule,  live  comfortably  together  in  the 
same  environment,  and  nearly  related  genera  do  not 
occupy  the  same  ecologic  niche  in  a  given  zoogeographical 
area.  This  does  not  seem  to  hold  true  for  animals  of 
lower  organization,  as  conclusively  shown  by  Kofoid 
(1907).  It  is  common  for  a  group  of  animals,  unless  hin- 
dered by  an  impassable  barrier  or  unfavorable  environ- 
mental conditions,  not  only  to  continually  extend  its  range 
into  new  territory,  but  also  to  attempt  to  live  in  as  many 
different  niches  in  nature  as  possible  within  a  given  area. 
Such  attempts  to  invade  new  ecologic  niches  are  frequently 
concomitant  with  heritable  modifications  better  fitting 
them  to  occupy  their  new  situation,  though  it  is  difficult  to 
say  whether  these  modifications  are  causes  or  results  of 
the  change  in  mode  of  life.  However  this  may  be  looked 
upon,  the  tendency  to  occupy  new  niches  in  nature  is  fre- 
quently accompanied  by  intrinsic  modifications,  and  there- 
fore by  generic  differentiation. 

From  this  we  may  safely  assume  that  in  a  given  area 


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No.  567]   EFFECT  OF  DISTRIBUTION  ON  SPECIATION         155 

a  family  of  animals,  by  adaptive  evolution,  will  approach 
a  maximum  of  generic  differentiation  which  can  be  sup- 
ported in  that  area.  In  other  words,  every  suitable  eco- 
logic  niche  which  is  represented  in  the  region  considered 
will  be  invaded  by  the  family,  and  even  in  a  small  area 
there  is  likely  to  be  a  considerable  generic  differentiation, 
especially  if  isolation  has  had  any  opportunity  to  operate 
within  the  area,  in  breaking  up  the  genera  and  species. 

Let  us  assume  that  in  one  unit  of  area  a  certain  family, 
Sciuridae  for  example,  was  represented  by  three  genera, 
each  with  three  species.  Second,  let  us  assume  that  this 
family  kept  spreading  into  additional  units  of  area.  With 
each  new  unit,  the  chance  of  new  suitable  ecologic  niches 
being  represented  would  decrease,  and  therefore  the 
chance  of  new  genera  being  represented  would  decrease, 
since  if  a  genus  were  fitted  for  its  niche  in  nature  imder 
certain  conditions  of  climate  and  environment,  it  would 
in  the  majority  of  cases  not  be  likely  to  undergo  any 
radical  changes  in  the  occupation  of  the  same  niche 
under  somewhat  altered  conditions  of  climate  and  environ- 
ment; i.  e.,  the  stimulus  for  intrinsic  modification  would 
be  lacking. 

On  the  other  hand,  with  each  additional  unit  of  area,  the 
chances  of  the  combined  conditions  of  temperature,  hu- 
midity, and  environment  being  different,  would  remain  the 
same.  In  other  words,  the  chances  of  the  three  dimen- 
sions influencing  the  life  of  a  region,  i.  e.,  **life  zone** 
(controlled  by  temperature),  ** fauna'*  (controlled  by  hu- 
midity), and  ** association"  (controlled  by  the  effect  of 
the  other  two  plus  a  number  of  other  environmental  con- 
ditions), intersecting  at  the  same  point  would  be  almost 
equally  improbable  with  each  succeeding  unit  of  area. 
Since  it  is  changes  in  *'life  zone,*'  ** fauna,**  or  ** associa- 
tion** which  produce  extrinsic  changes,  and  therefore  lead 
to  differentiation  of  species  and  subspecies  primarily,  the 
increment  of  species  would  average  nearly  the  same  for 
each  succeeding  unit  of  area,  other  factors  remaining 
equal.    It  should  also  be  taken  into  consideration  that 


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166  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XL VIII 

with  the  invasion  of  new  zoogeographic  areas,  contact 
with  allied  forms  is  frequently  experienced,  and  oppor- 
tunity is  thus  afforded  for  cross  breeding  and  hybridiza- 
tion, the  result  of  which  upon  the  germ  plasm  appears  to 
be  as  influential  in  the  production  of  new  forms  as  is  the 
shock  of  new  environmental  conditions.  The  constant 
increase  in  species  and  subspecies  accompanying  invasion 
of  new  territory,  going  hand  in  hand  with  a  diminishing 
increase  in  genera,  results  in  the  constantly  larger  index 
of  modification  as  the  area  inhabited  by  a  group  is 
extended. 

SUMMABY 

1.  Extent  of  distribution  has  a  direct  influence  on  the 
speciation  of  the  group  concerned  in  this  way,  that  as  the 
range  of  a  group  of  animals  is  extended,  the  species  in- 
crease out  of  proportion  to  the  genera,  the  genera  out  of 
proportion  to  the  families,  and  the  families  out  of  pro- 
portion to  the  orders. 

2.  Comparisohof  different  families  having  unequal  geo- 
graphic ranges  is  usually  inaccurate  due  to  the  great  dif- 
ferences in  the  other  factors  controlling  their  speciation. 
Those  families  which  do  lend  themselves  to  such  a  com- 
parison show  decidedly  the  effect  of  extent  of  distribu- 
tion, e.  g.,  the  bats  and  some  of  the  insectivores,  the  fami- 
lies of  widest  distribution  having  the  largest  indices  of 
modification.  A  number  of  exceptions  exist  in  the  form  of 
certain  wide  ranging  genera  which  have  a  paucity  of 
species.  We  have  no  adequate  explanation  for  this 
phenomenon. 

3.  Comparison  of  the  faunas  of  areas  of  different  size 
gives  very  accurate  results.  A  number  of  tabulations  show 
as  a  whole  an  invariable  increase  in  the  index  of  modifica- 
tion as  the  distributional  area  is  extended  by  the  addition 
of  either  life  zones,  faunas,  or  associations.  Such  tabu- 
lar comparisons  were  made  for  all  the  classes  of  ter- 
restrial vertebrates,  for  several  families  of  insects,  and 
for  the  marine  Amphipoda  of  the  suborder  Gammaridea. 
Allowing  for  explicable  exceptions,  the  increase  in  number 


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No.  567]  EFFECT  OF  DISTRIBUTION  ON  SPECIATION         167 

of  lower  systematic  groups  out  of  proportion  to  the  in- 
crease of  higher  systematic  groups  as  the  area  considered 
is  enlarged  is  a  remarkably  constant  and  wide-spread 
phenomenon. 

4.  The  theoretical  explanation  here  proposed  for  this 
phenomenon  involves  a  number  of  complex  problems 
relating  to  evolution  and  speciation,  including  isolation^ 
the  time  element,  and  causes  of  specific  and  generic 
modification. 

5.  Isolation  is  an  important  factor  in  speciation,  since 
the  separation  of  species  into  two  or  more  parts  allows 
the  parts  to  become  different  The  degree  of  divergence 
of  the  s^regated  parts  is  largely  dependent  upon  the 
duration  of  segregation. 

6.  Time,  in  conjunction  with  isolation  and  evolution, 
tends  to  increase  the  number  of  genera  and  species  in  a 
family,  but  the  index  of  modification,  t.  e.,  the  average 
number  of  species  per  genus,  remains  approximately  the 
same  in  a  given  area. 

7.  Three  types  of  modifications  in  animals  may  be 
named:— first,  ** extrinsic'*  modifications,  which  are  in- 
duced by  climate  and  other  environmental  conditions,  and 
which  lead  to  differentiation  of  species  and  subspecies 
primarily;  second,  ** intrinsic''  modifications,  which  are 
concomitant  with  a  change  in  habits  or  mode  of  life  of  the 
animal,  due  to  the  occupation  of  a  new  ecologic  niche,  and 
which  usually  lead  to  generic  or  family  differentiation; 
and  third,  neutral. modifications,  which  are  merely  the 
result  of  the  natural  tendency  of  all  animals  to  vary  and 
to  be  subject  to  more  or  less  orthogenetic  evolution,— 
modifications  which  can  not  be  correlated  with  environ- 
mental conditions,  nor  with  a  change  in  mode  of  life  of 
the  animal,  but  which  may  be  influenced  largely  by  in- 
herited tendencies.  Such  modifications  are  responsible  for 
the  production,  through  isolation,  of  different  species  to 
live  under  the  same  climatic  and  environmental  conditions, 
and  of  different  genera  to  occupy  the  same  ecologic  niche. 

8.  Specific  modifications  may  be  of  three  kinds:  (1)  ex- 


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168  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [V0L.XLVIII 

trinsic  modifications,  (2)  neutral  variations  in  segregated 
regions,  ( 3 )  incipient  generic  modifications.  Generic  modi- 
fications may  be  (1)  intrinsic  modifications,  or  (2)  neutral 
varations,  given  generic  value  by  a  longer  i)eriod  of 
segregation. 

9.  Since  different  types  of  a  group  of  animals  are 
usually  found  associated  with  different  environmental  con- 
ditions or  different  ecologic  niches,  and  since  it  is  common 
for  animals,  if  unhindered,  not  only  to  extend  their  range 
continually  into  new  territory,  but  also  to  occupy  new 
ecologic  niches,  and  since  these  tendencies  lead  to  specific 
and  generic  differentiations,  respectively,  any  given  area 
will  have  a  differentiation  of  species  proportionate  to  its 
variety  of  environmental  conditions,  and  of  genera  pro- 
portionate to  its  variety  of  suitable  ecologic  niches. 

10.  Since,  as  the  area  of  distribution  is  extended,  the 
chance  of  new  conditions  of  climate  and  environment  being 
represented  remains  approximately  the  same,  the  increase 
in  number  of  species  is  nearly  proportional  to  the  increase 
in  the  area  of  distribution,  but  since  the  chance  of  new 
ecologic  niches  being  represented  in  most  cases  constantly 
decreases,  the  increase  in  genera  proceeds  at  an  ever- 
diminishing  rate.  This,  going  hand  in  hand  with  the 
nearly  constant  increase  in  species  or  subspecies,  results 
in  a  constantly  increasing  index  of  modification. 


LITERATURE  CITED 
Cook,  O.  F. 

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Cope,  E.  D. 

1889.     The  Batrachia  of  North  America.    Smithsonian  Inst.  Nation.  Mus. 

Bull.,  S4,  1-525,  86  pis.,  119  figs,  in  text. 
1898.     The  Crocodilians,  lazards  and  Snakes  of  North  America.     Smith- 
sonian Inst.  Nation.  Mus.  Rep.,  18^,  155-1270,  36  pis.,  347  figs, 
in  text. 
Darwin,  Ch. 

1859.     The  Origin  of  Species,  2d  ed.,  1869.    New  York,  D.  Appleton  &  Co., 
xi,  440,  1  pi. 
Dewar,  D.,  and  Finn,  F. 

1909.  The  Making  of  Species.    London,  John  Lane  Co.,  xix,  400,  15  pis. 


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Dreflser^  H.  E. 

1902.    A  Mannal  of  Palearetie  Birds.    London^  Vols.  1  and  2,  922,  2  pis. 
Eimer,  Th.  G.  H. 

1897.    Die  £^nt8tehllllg  der  Aiten  anf  Orund  von  Yererbung  erworbung 
Eigenschaften   naeh   den   Gesetzen   organisehen   Waehsens,   II. 
Leipzig,  W.  Engelmann,  xvi,  513,  235  figs,  in  text. 
Orinnen,  J. 

1908.    The  Biota  of  the  San  Bernardino  Mountains.    Uniy.  Calif.  PabL 

Zool.,  5,  1-170,  pis.  1-24. 
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Acad,  Set,,  4tli  series,  S,  265-390,  pis.  15-16. 
1913B.    A  Distribational  List  of  the  Birds  ot  California.    Mss. 
Grinnell,  J.^  and  Swarth,  H.  S. 

1913.    An  Aeconni  of  the  Birds  and  Mammals  of  the  San  Jacinto  Area 
of  Southern  California,  with  Bemarks  upon  the  Behavior  of 
Geographic  Baces  on  the  Margins  of  their  Habitats.     Vjoy, 
Calif.  Publ.  Zool.,  10,  197-,  pis.  6-10,  figs.  1-3  (in  press). 
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1912.    A  Handlist  of  British  Birds.    London,  Witherby  &  Co.,  XII,  237. 
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1912.    A  List  of  the  Mammals  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  EzclusiTe  of  the 
Cetacea.    Phihpp.  J.  Set.,  D,  7,  1-64. 
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1901.    The  Limitations  of  Isolation  in  the  Origin  of  Species.    Science, 
N.  S.,  es,  500-606. 
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1901-1909.    Nests  and  Eggs  of  Birds  Found  Breeding  in  Australia  and 
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1908.  A  Handlist  of  the  Birds  of  Japan.    Annot.  Zool.  Jap.,  Tokyo,  (>, 

337-420. 
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figs,  in  text. 


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Stpjneger,  L. 
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Wallace,  A.  R. 

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BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THYSANOPTEBA^        ^ 
DR.  A.  FRANKLIN  SHULL 

XJNIVEBSITr  OF  MlOHIOAN 

I.    FACTORS   GOVERNING  LOCAL  DISTRIBUTION 

Intboduction 

The  Thysanoptera,  commonly  called  thrips,  are  only 
beginning  to  be  known,  in  this  conntry,  by  systematic 
entomologists.  The  systematic  knowledge  is  mostly  con- 
tained in  the  monograph  of  Hinds  (1902),  a  more  recent 
synopsis  by  Monlton  (1911),  and  a  few  other  papers  deal- 
ing with  new  species  and  with  relationships,  prominent 
among  which  is  the  work  of  Jones  (1912).  Biologically 
the  group  is  still  less  known.  A  considerable  number  of 
papers  have  been  issued  from  experiment  stations,  de- 
scribing the  life  history  {egg^  larval,  pupal  and  adult 
stages)  and  habits  of  thrips  of  economic  importance.  Be- 
sides these  the  principal  recent  work  of  a  biological 
nature  is  a  paper  of  my  own  (Shull,  1911),  on  the  ecology, 
method  of  locomotion,  mode  of  reproduction,  and  dissemi- 
nation. The  life  cycle  of  most  species  is  still  largely  un- 
known« 

The  first  section  of  this  paper  is  an  attempt  to  carry 
into  further  detail  the  study  of  the  ecology  of  the  Thy- 
sanoptera. The  first  ecological  scheme,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  worked  out  for  the  Thysanoptera  was  that  of  Jor- 
dan (1888),  who  divided  thrips  into  three  classes:  first, 
the  flower-dwellers ;  second,  the  leaf -dwellers ;  and  third, 
all  other  thrips  (for  example,  those  living  on  fungi,  under 
wet  leaves,  under  bark  of  trees,  on  roots,  on  lichens,  etc.). 
The  inadequacy  of  this  classification,  and  the  difficulty  of 
applying  schemes  of  ecology  adapted  to  other  groups  of 
insects,  was  pointed  out  in  my  earlier  paper,  where  I  pro- 

1  GontributionB  from  the  Zoological  Laboratory  ot  the  Uniyersity  of 
Miehigaiiy  No.  142  (Biological  Station  Series,  Zoological  Publication, 
No.  10). 

161 


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162  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VouXLVHl 

posed  a  new  scheme,  based  on  my  observations  in  the 
field.  In  this  scheme,  Thysanoptera  were  divided  into 
two  groups :  (1)  interstitial  species,  those  living  in  closely 
concealed  situations,  as  among  the  florets  of  composite 
flowers,  or  in  clusters  of  young  leaves;  and  (2)  super- 
ficial species,  those  living  on  exposed  surfaces,  for  ex- 
ample, the  surface  of  leaves.  The  interstitial  species 
were  further  divided  into  an  anthophilous  division 
(flower-dwellers)  and  a  phlceophilous  division  (those 
living  under  bark  scales  on  trees).  The  superficial  spe- 
cies were  either  poephilous  (on  grass)  or  phyllophilous 
(on  leaves  of  plants  other  than  grasses).  The  distinction 
between  poephilous  and  phyllophilous  seemed  warranted, 
since  grass-dwellers  were  found  on  many  different 
grasses,  but  rarely  on  other  kinds  of  leaves. 

Such  a  classification  undoubtedly  describes  the  facts, 
but  does  not  explain  why  the  habitats  named  are  the  ones 
chosen(f).  The  factors  determining  habitat  were  be- 
lieved by  me  at  that  time  to  be  character  of  food,  and  pro- 
tection afforded.  In  some  species  one  of  these  factors 
predominated,  in  other  species  the  other  factor,  while 
others  may  have  been  influenced  largely  by  both.  In  the 
light  of  recent  ecological  studies,  however,  the  explana- 
tion of  local  distribution  in  terms  of  such  general  environ- 
mental factors  seems  inadequate.  Largely  owing  to  the 
work  of  Shelf ord  (1911)  upon  the  tiger-beetles,  much 
emphasis  is  now  being  placed  upon  the  ecological  impor- 
tance of  physiological  factors.  With  a  view  to  relating  the 
distribution  of  Thysanoptera  to  the  physiology  (more 
specificially,  behavior)  of  the  various  species,  and  thus 
explaining  that  distribution  in  more  definite  terms,  the 
experiments  and  observations  recorded  in  this  paper 
were  made. 

This  work  was  done  largely  at  the  University  of  Michi- 
gan Biological  Station,  at  Douglas  Lake,  Michigan,  sup- 
plemented by  observations  at  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  in 
Ohio  and  elsewhere. 


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No.  567]  BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THTSANOPTEBA  163 

Facts  to  be  Explained 

The  following  are  some  of  the  facts  of  habits  and  dis- 
tribntion  of  the  more  abnndant  species  for  which  physio- 
logical explanations  were  sought.  Some  of  these  facts 
are  stated  in  my  former  paper,  some  of  them  doubtless 
the  common  property  of  all  thysanopterists ;  others,  so 
far  as  I  know,  have  never  been  recorded. 

Euthrips  tritici  is  found  almost  exclusively  in  situa- 
tions  where  it  is  concealed,  as  among  the  florets  of  com- 
posite flowers,  in  clusters  of  young  leaves,  or  in  almost 
any  close  crevice  where  the  tissues  are  not  too  hard  or 
tough  to  be  pierced.  It  appears  to  make  little  difference 
what  species  of  plant  is  inhabited,  provided  a  concealed 
situation  is  available.  In  the  paper  cited  above  (Shall, 
1911)  I  gave  a  list  of  seventy  species  of  plant  on  which 
Euthrips  tritici  was  taken,  and  I  have  since  collected  it  on 
a  number  of  plants  not  included  in  that  list.  But  with 
rare  exceptions,  it  has  been  found  in  crevices  where  it  was 
not  readily  visible.  In  related  plants,  it  is  always  more 
abundant  in  those  affording  concealed  situations.  Thus, 
in  white  clover  {Tri folium  repens)  and  in  red  clover 
(jT.  pratense)y  this  thrips  is  usually  abundant;  while  on 
the  related  yellow,  and  white,  sweet  clovers  (Melilotus 
officinalis  and  M.  alba,  respectively),  growing  along  with 
the  red  and  white  clovers,  Euthrips  tritici  is  usually  rare 
or  wanting.  The  flowers  of  Melilotus  are  widely  sepa- 
rated from  one  another  on  the  stem,  and  do  not  afford 
concealment  (ShuU,  1911). 

If,  while  Euthrips  is  in  one  of  these  crevices,  it  is  dis- 
turbed, as  by  gently  rubbing  or  pressing  the  flower,  it 
quickly  comes  out  of  its  retreat  and  crawls  rapidly  away, 
or  takes  to  flight.  The  larvae  show  the  same  behavior  as 
the  adults  in  this  regard,  except,  of  course,  that  they  do 
not  fly. 

Anaphothrips  striatus  is  found  usually  on  grasses  of 
various  kinds,  rarely  on  leaves  of  other  plants.  The  spe- 
cies of  grass  seems  to  make  little  difference.  Some  indi- 
viduals are  found  in  perfectly  exposed  situations,  as  on 


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164  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 

the  upper  side  of  grass  blades,  others  more  or  less  con- 
cealed in  the  rolled  up  young  leaves  (Shnll,  1911).  I  have 
found,  however,  that  among  the  adults,  those  in  exposed 
situations  are  almost  exclusively  females,  while  those  in 
the  rolled  young  leaves  are  either  males  or  females.  (For 
the  first  time  on  record,  the  males  of  this  species,  as  will 
be  shown  in  the  second  part  of  this  paper,  have  been  found 
in  considerable  numbers.)  The  larvsB,  according  to  my 
observations,  may  be  either  exposed  or  concealed;  the  ex- 
posed ones  are  predominantly  the  older  larvae. 

In  one  of  the  grasses  {Spartina  michauxiana)  on  which 
Anaphothrips  was  found  in  abundance  at  Douglas  Lake, 
Michigan,  the  leaves  bear  on  the  upper  surface  a  set  of 
fine,  but  prominent,  ridges  running  parallel  to  the  axis  of 
the  leaf.  Adult  females  and  larvae  of  Anaphothrips  on 
the  exposed  parts  of  these  leaves  were  always  lodged  be- 
tween the  tops  of  these  ridges,  and  almost  invariably 
unth  their  heads  toward  the  base  of  the  leaf.  If  disturbed, 
they  began  to  crawl  along  the  crest  of  one  of  these  ridges 
toward  the  base  of  the  leaf.  It  was  possible  to  force  them 
to  turn  in  the  opposite  direction,  but  if  allowed  to  do  so 
they  soon  turned  again  toward  the  base  of  the  leaf,  often 
continuing  until  they  were  among  the  rolled  young  leaves 
in  the  center  of  the  top  of  the  plant. 

Anthothrips  verbasci  is  found  exclusively  on  one  spe- 
cies of  plant,  the  common  mullein  {Verbascum  thapsus). 
Furthermore,  it  is  rare  that  a  specimen  of  mullein,  of  con- 
siderable size,  is  found  free  from  the  mullein  thrips.  Most 
of  the  thrips  are  found  among  the  florets  or  seed  pods  of 
the  spike.  Less  commonly  they  are  to  be  seen  on  exposed 
surfaces,  as  on  the  leaves  or  stem  lower  on  the  plant;  but 
these  exposed  individiials  are  mostly  adults.  The  larvse 
are  usually  hidden  on  the  flower  sp^e  unless  that  situa- 
tion is  crowded  by  a  large  number  of  larvae ;  and  the  larva 
that  are  occasionally  found  exposed  are  mostly  nearly 
fully  grown. 

Anthothrips  niger  was  not  abundant  enough  during  my 
stay  at  Douglas  Lake  that  many  observations  of  its 


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No.  567]  BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THTSANOPTEBA  165 

habitat  and  behavior  could  be  made.  One  f act,  howeyer, 
is  of  interest  in  connection  with  an  experiment  to  be  de- 
scribed. While  the  adults  live  mostly  on  flowers,  some- 
times concealed,  sometimes  more  or  less  exposed,  the 
larv»  were  always  found  concealed;  moreover,  it  was 
ivith  difficulty  that  the  larva  could  be  driven  from  their 
retreat  by  pressing  the  flowers.  Frequently  such  vigor- 
ous squeezing  was  necessary  to  dislodge  them  that  the 
larv®  emerging  were  injured ;  and  a  flower  so  treated  was 
often  found  later  to  contain  numerous  dead  larvsB.  In 
this  respect,  the  behavior  of  this  species  is  in  considerable 
contrast  to  that,  for  example,  of  Euthrips  tritici. 

The  habitats  and  behavior  described  above  can  be  ^^ex- 
plained'' in  large  measure  if  we  say,  as  I  at  first  proposed 
(1911),  that  certain  species  seek  protection,  or  that  cer- 
tain other  species  have  specific  food  requirements.  Thus, 
it  might  be  said  that  Euthrips  tritici  seeks  safety  in 
crevices,  and  flees  danger  when  disturbed ;  that  Anapho- 
thrips  striatus  ** prefers''  grass  for  food,  that  it  requires 
as  much  protection  as  its  commissarial  activities  permit, 
and  that  its  habitat  and  behavior  are  such  as  best  fulfill 
these  requirements.  Anthothrips  verbasci  might  be  said 
to  be  limited  to  one  article  of  diet,  while  protection  is  a 
minor  matter. 

This  explanation  might  be  acceptable  as  far  as  it  goes, 
were  it  not  that  no  species  is  immune  to  attack.  I  have 
seen  larvae  of  Anthothrips  verbasci  frequently  captured 
by  various  bugs.  Heads  of  mullein  where  thrips  are 
found  nearly  always  bear  bugs  of  the  family  Capsidae, 
and  observations  convince  me  that  they  prey  almost 
wholly  on  the  larvae  of  the  mullein  thrips.  The  degree  to 
which  they  check  the  thrips  was  tested  experimentally  as 
follows :  Two  mullein  spikes  of  approximately  equal  size 
and  equally  infected  with  thrips  were  selected.  The 
predatory  bugs  were  removed  from  one  of  them,  after 
which  the  spike  was  enclosed  in  a  thin  muslin  bag.  Two 
weeks  later  the  bag  was  removed.  The  enclosed  spike 
bore  a  large  number  of  full-grown  larvae,  a  few  had 


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186  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVni 

pupated,  and  many  were  crawling  on  the  inside  of  the 
bag.  The  spike  that  was  exposed,  on  the  other  hand,  bore 
but  little  over  half  the  number  of  larvae  that  were  on  the 
protected  one,  none  were  quite  full  grown,  and  none  had 
pupated.  Since  nothing  in  the  climatic  conditions  (heavy 
rains,  for  example)  could  have  caused  this  difference, 
it  is  to  be  inferred  that  predatory  bugs  had  devoured  the 
larger  larvae  in  considerable  numbers. 

Yet  Anthothrips  verbasci,  according  to  my  earlier  ex- 
planation, ** chooses''  its  habitat  almost  exclusively  in  re- 
lation to  food,  protection  being  a  minor  consideration. 

Can  we  not  explain  habitat  and  behavior  in  these  in- 
sects in  some  way  not  implying  choice,  especially  choice 
between  conflicting  preferences  ?  May  we  not  assume  that 
certain  elements  of  behavior  are  what  they  are  without 
reference  to  their  usefulness?  If  we  grant  the  possibility 
of  an  aflSrmative  answer  to  these  questions,  the  experi- 
ments about  to  be  described  will  have  significance. 

Experiments  on  Behavioe 
The  following  experiments  were  designed  to  show  the 
reaction  of  the  commoner  species  of  Thysanoptera  to 
what  seemed  to  me  the  most  probable  external  agents 
affecting  their  distribution  and  behavior,  namely,  light, 
contact  and  gravity.  Inasmuch  as  I  was  not  primarily 
interested  in  how  a  given  reaction  was  brought  about,  but 
only  in  its  end  result,  the  experiments  were  rather  crude. 
Eefinements  were  unnecessary,  and  their  omission  en- 
abled me  to  use  much  greater  numbers  of  individuals  than 
would  otherwise  have  been  possible.  From  ten  to  forty 
repetitions  of  each  test  were  usually  made.  The  experi- 
ments are  described  by  species,  only  representative  ex- 
periments being  given. 

Euthrips  tritici 
Light.    Exp.  1. — ^Adults  of  this  species  were  placed  in 
a  glass  tube  about  three  feet  long  and  one  inch  in  diam- 
eter, closed  at  the  ends  with  corks.    One  end  of  the  tube 


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No.  567]  BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THTSANOPTERA  167 

was  turned  toward  a  small  window,  while  the  room  was 
rather  dimly  lighted.  All  the  thrips  crawled  rapidly 
toward  the  window.  When  the  position  of  the  tube  was 
reversed,  the  thrips  reversed  their  crawling,  again  going 
toward  the  iraidow.  The  reaction  was  definite  and  in- 
variable. 

Exp.  3. — ^A  close-fitting  sleeve  of  black  building  paper 
was  slipped  over  one  half  of  the  glass  tube  used  in  experi- 
ment 1.  The  thrips  were  collected  at  the  exposed  end  by 
turning  that  end  for  a  few  minutes  toward  the  window. 
The  covered  end  of  the  tube  was  then  turned  toward  the 
window.  The  thrips  crawled  rapidly  toward  the  light, 
until  they  reached  the  shadow  of  the  sleeve.  Here  they 
crawled  about,  apparently  aimlessly,  for  half  an  hour  an 
inch  or  two  within  the  sleeve  or  just  outside  it. 

Contact.  Exp.  1. — ^When,  in  the  light  experiments,  the 
tube  was  reversed  in  position  as  soon  as  the  thrips 
reached  one  end,  the  insects  immediately  turned  toward 
the  opposite  end.  But  if  the  tube  was  allowed  to  rest  for 
some  time,  the  thrips  became  settled  quietly  between  the 
glass  and  the  sloping  surface  of  the  cork.  The  tube  could 
then  be  carefully  reversed,  and  most  of  the  thrips  re- 
mained lodged  between  cork  and  glass  for  many  minutes, 
some  of  them  for  hours.  The  positive  reaction  to  contact 
counteracted  the  positive  reaction  to  light. 

Exp.  25. — ^A  larva  of  this  species  was  placed  on  a  glass 
plate,  upon  which  rested  a  microscope  slide.  When  the 
larva  in  its  crawling  reached  the  slide,  it  came  to  rest  in 
the  angle  formed  by  the  glass  plate  and  the  edge  of  the 
slide.    It  remained  there  many  minutes  until  disturbed. 

Gravity.  Exp.  17. — ^An  adult  female  was  placed  in  a 
glass  tube  which  was  enclosed  in  a  black  sleeve  to  exclude 
Ught,  and  the  tube  placed  in  a  vertical  position.  The  posi- 
tion of  the  thrips  was  marked  with  a  wax  pencil  before 
putting  on  the  sleeve.  The  sleeve  was  then  removed  mo- 
mentarily at  frequent  intervals,  and  the  position  and 
direction  of  crawling  of  the  insect  noted.  Most  fre- 
quently it  was  found  lower  than  the  previous  position. 


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168  TRE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

and  crawling  downward.    This  was  not  always  the  case, 
however. 

Of  other  specimens  tried,  some  showed  positive  geo- 
tropism  more  definitely,  some  less  definitely  than  the  one 
described.  None  showed  a  negative  reaction  in  the  ma- 
jority of  cases. 

Anaphothrips  striatus 

Light.  Exps.  5  and  7. — ^Adnlts  of  this  species  were 
shaken  ont  on  a  sheet  of  white  paper  near  a  window,  and 
the  course  of  their  crawling  was  plotted  as  accurately  as 
possible  in  my  notes.  Some  individuals  were  decidedly 
negative  to  light,  crawling  directty  away  from  the  window 
every  time  they  were  tried,  regardless  of  the  direction  in 
which  they  happened  to  be  headed  when  they  touched  the 
paper.  Others  were  indifferent  to  light,  crawling  in  vari- 
ous directions.  Most  of  the  males  used  were  decidedly 
negative  to  light,  females  usually  indifferent. 

Exp.  10. — ^Females  taken  from  the  exposed  portions  of 
leaves  of  Spartina  michauxiana,  and  tested  as  above, 
were  found  in  nearly  every  case  to  be  indifferent  to  light. 
Females  from  the  curled  young  leaves  of  the  same  plants 
were  as  a  rule  negative  to  light. 

Exp.  6. — ^Larvae  were  usually  found  indifferent  to  light, 
regardless  of  whether  they  came  from  exposed  or  con- 
cealed situations. 

Exp.  15. — ^A  single  larva  taken  from  the  exposed  part 
of  a  leaf,  when  placed  in  a  glass  tube  one  end  of  which 
was  directed  toward  the  window,  crawled  steadily  toward 
the  window.  When  the  position  of  the  tube  was  reversed, 
the  larva  at  once  reversed  its  direction.  The  tube  was 
then  placed  in  a  black  sleeve  to  exclude  the  light,  and  kept 
there  for  an  hour.  When  it  was  removed,  the  larva 
showed  for  some  minutes  a  decidedly  negative  reaction  to 
light.  Later,  however,  its  behavior  became  indefinite, 
and  soon  became  markedly  positive.  Darkness  had  ap- 
parently  temporarily  reversed  its  reaction. 

Contact.    Exp.  22. — ^A  female  of  this  species  which  was 


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No.  567]  BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THJSANOPTEBA  169 

negative  to  light  was  placed  on  a  sheet  of  blotting  paper. 
A  small  square  of  glass  was  placed  over  her,  and  sup- 
ported at  one  edge,  so  that  in  crawling  away  from  the 
window  the  thrips  approached  the  edge  of  the  glass  which 
was  in  contact  with  the  paper.  She  soon  became  lightly 
wedged  between  the  glass  and  the  blotter,  and  came  to 
rest.  Blotter,  thrips  and  glass  were  tiien  carefully 
turned  through  180  degrees  so  that  the  negative  reaction 
to  light  would  have  led  the  thrips  out  of  its  crevice;  but 
she  remained  there  for  a  long  time.  Positive  reaction  to 
contact  overcame  the  negative  reaction  to  Ught. 

Another  female,  indifferent  to  light,  was  placed  under 
a  sinoilar  glass.  In  her  random  crawling  she  became 
wedged  between  the  blotter  and  glass,  and,  notwithstand- 
ing that  the  blotter  was  occasionally  turned  in  the  mean- 
time, remained  there  several  hours,  until  I  lifted  the  glass. 

Another  female,  not  negative  to  light,  was  placed  under 
a  similar  glass  square.  She  crawled  from  under  it,  but 
happened  to  crawl  against  the  edge  of  the  microscope 
slide  that  supported  the  glass  cover.  She  settled  quickly 
into  the  right  angle  formed  by  the  slide  and  the  blotter, 
and  remained  there  a  long  time. 

Gravity.  Exp.  21. — ^A  female  which  was  indifferent  to 
light  was  placed  in  a  glass  tube,  and  the  tube  set  in  a 
vertical  position.  The  thrips  immediately  began  to  crawl 
downward.  The  tube  was  reversed,  and  the  thrips  im- 
mediately reversed  its  direction.  A  sleeve  was  placed 
over  the  tube  to  exclude  the  light,  and  frequently  removed 
temporarily  to  observe  the  position  of  the  thrips.  In 
every  case  she  was  found  crawling  downward. 

"Wlien  the  tube  was  held  in  an  oblique  position,  the  re- 
sult was  the  same ;  the  thrips  crawled  down  the  slope.  If 
she  was  already  crawling  down,  a  slope  of  5  to  10  degrees 
was  found  to  be  sufficient  to  keep  her  going  in  the  same 
direction.  But  to  reverse  the  direction  of  crawling,  it 
was  necessary  to  create  a  slope  of  about  45  degrees  in  the 
opposite  direction.  The  same  positive  geotropism  was 
shown  when  the  thrips  was  placed  on  an  inclined  sheet  of 


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1 70  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVUI 

paper;  but  being  here  at  liberty  to  fly,  she  soon  inter- 
rupted the  experiment. 

Numerous  other  females  were  tried,  and  all  showed 
positive  geotropism,  some  more  promptly  than  others, 
but  all  perfectly  definitely.  A  single  male  tested  showed 
no  definite  reaction  to  gravity.  A  larva,  nearly  full 
grown,  subjected  to  the  same  tests,  showed  as  definite  a 
positive  reaction  to  gravity  as  did  any  of  the  females. 

With  the  possible  exception  of  the  males,  therefore, 
Anaphothrips  striatus  is  decidedly  positive  to  gravity. 

Anthothrips  verbasci 

Light.  Exp.  4. — ^Adults  of  this  species,  shaken  out  on 
a  paper  near  a  window,  crawled  in  various  directions. 
None  of  them  showed  any  definite  reaction  to  light. 

Numerous  larvae,  none  of  them  over  three  fourths 
grown,  crawled  directly  away  from  the  window  in  every 
instance. 

Exp.  12. — ^In  this  experiment  adults  from  concealed 
places  in  mullein  spikes  were  compared  with  those  from 
exposed  situations.  They  were  shaken  out  on  a  sheet  of 
paper  near  a  window,  and  the  direction  of  crawling  noted. 
In  every  case,  those  from  concealed  situations  showed  a 
fairly  definite  negative  reaction  to  light.  Of  those  from 
exposed  situations,  two  were  plainly  negative,  the  re- 
maining ten  indifferent  to  light. 

Exp.  11. — ^Larvae  taken  from  concealment  in  a  mullein 
spike  were  tested,  on  a  sheet  of  paper,  for  their  reaction 
to  light.  Those  of  the  smaller  sizes  crawled  directly  away 
from  the  windoiv.  Those  nearly  full  grown,  while  on  the 
whole  negative,  crawled  in  a  more  or  less  devious  path 
away  from  the  window;.  One  reddish  larva,  which  from 
its  color  and  size  must  have  been  nearly  ready  to  pupate, 
was  especially  indefinite  in  its  reaction  to  light. 

Contact.  Exp.  18. — ^Larvae  of  various  sizes,  which  were 
found  to  be  negative  to  light,  were  placed  on  a  blotter 
under  a  square  of  glass  supported  at  one  edge,  as  de- 
scribed for  Anaphothrips  striatus.    When,  in  crawling 


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No.  567]  BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THTSANOFTERA  171 

away  from  the  window,  they  became  wedged  lightly  be- 
tween glass  and  blotter,  and  came  to  rest,  the  blotter  with 
all  on  it  was  turned  through  180  degrees.  The  larvae 
turned  their  bodies  so  that  their  heads  were  directed  away 
from  the  window,  but  did  not  crawl  away.  The  positive 
reaction  to  contact  overcame  the  negative  response  to 
light. 

An  adult  tested  in  the  same  manner  as  the  larvae  above 
described  did  not  come  to  rest  under  the  glass  square. 
But  happening  to  crawl  against  the  microscope  slide 
which  supported  the  glass,  the  thrips  came  to  rest  in  the 
right  angle  formed  by  the  blotter  and  the  edge  of  the 
slide,  and  remained  there  a  long  time. 

Gravity.  Exps.  13  and  20. — ^Adults  and  larvae  were 
put,  one  at  a  time,  into  a  glass  tube,  which  was  set  in  a 
vertical  position,  and  covered  with  a  black  sleeve  to  ex- 
clude light.  Some  were  examined  at  frequent  intervals, 
others  were  left  half  an  hour  without  examination.  In 
every  case  the  thrips  were  found  almost  precisely  where 
they  were  put  at  the  beginning  of  the  experiment.  This 
species  is  therefore  indifferent  to  gravity. 

Anthothrips  niger 
Light.  Exp.  2. — The  red  larvae  of  this  species  were 
shaken  out  on  a  paper  near  a  window,  as  described  in 
other  experiments.  In  every  case  the  larva  crawled  away 
from  the  window  for  a  few  seconds  at  firsts  then  slowly 
turned  toward  the  window,  and  continued  indefinitely 
toward  the  light.  Once  while  the  larva  was  crawling 
toward  the  light,  I  tapped  the  paper  vigorously  with  a 
pencil,  so  that  the  thrips  was  lifted  slightly  from  the 
paper  and  let  drop;  it  immediately  reversed  its  direction, 
crawling  from  the  window,  but  in  a  few  seconds  turned 
again  toward  the  light.  The  paper  was  jarred  frequently, 
but  always  with  the  same  result.  To  show  whether  the 
jarring  made  the  response  to  light  negative,  or  merely 
reversed  whatever  the  larva  was  doing  at  the  instant,  the 
tapping  was  repeated  at  intervals  of  one  or  two  seconds. 


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172  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVni 

At  the  first  tap,  the  larva,  which  had  been  crawling 
toward  the  window,  immediately  tnmed  away  from  the 
light.  Before  it  resumed  its  positive  response  to  the  light, 
the  paper  was  tapped  again ;  the  negative  response  con- 
tinued. In  this  way  the  larva  conld  be  kept  crawling  away 
from  the  light  indefinitely.  Disturbance  makes  the  reac- 
tion of  the  larva  to  light  temporarily  negative;  otherwise 
it  is  positive. 

Summary  op  Expbeimbnts 

Euthrips  tritici,  when  disturbed,  is  positively  photo- 
tropic  in  both  larval  and  adult  stages.  It  is  positively 
stereotropic,  and  the  stereotropism  is  stronger  than  pho- 
totropism,  at  least  under  certain  circumstances.  Some 
individuals  appear  to  be  on  the  whole  positively  geo- 
tropic ;  others  are  indiflPerent. 

Anaphothrips  striatus. — ^Adult  males  are  usually  nega- 
tively phototropic.  Females  taken  from  exposed  situa- 
tions are  usually  indifferent  to  light,  those  from  concealed 
situations  usually  negative.  The  larvae  are  usually  in- 
different to  light,  regardless  of  the  kind  of  place  from 
which  they  are  taken ;  a  single  larva  that  was  positive  was 
made  negative  by  keeping  it  in  the  dark.  Adults  are  posi- 
tively stereotropic.  The  females  and  larvae  are  positively 
geotropic. 

Anthothrips  verbasci. — ^Adults  taken  from  concealed 
situations  are  usually  negatively  phototropic,  those  from 
exposed  places  tend  to  be  indifferent  to  light.  The  larvae 
are  all  negatively  phototropic,  except  the  full-grown  ones, 
which  may  be  indifferent.  The  larvae  are  plainly  posi- 
tively stereotropic,  the  adults  less  plainly  so,  or  not  at  all. 
Neither  adult  nor  larva  responds  to  gravity. 

Inteepbetation  op  the  Experiments  in  thbib  Bblation 
TO  Distribution  and  Behavioe  op  Thrips  in  Nature 
With  the  evidence  from  these  experiments  before  us, 
may  we  not  interpret  the  observed  distribution  and  be- 
havior of  the  Thysanoptera  in  nature  somewhat  as  fol- 
lows ?   Instead  of  explaining  the  fact  that  Euthrips  tritici 


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No.  667]  BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THTSANOPTEBA  173 

always  lives  in  concealed  situations  as  due  to  a  demand 
for  protection,  we  may  assume  that  it  is  due  to  the  strong 
positive  stereotropism  of  this  species — aided  in  some 
cases  by  positive  geotropism,  where  the  flower  inhabited 
is  upright,  but  notwithstanding  positive  geotropism 
where  the  flower  is  inverted.  The  rapid  escape  by  crawl- 
ing or  flight  when  disturbed  is  not  due  to  the  fact  that 
this  is  the  best  way  of  avoiding  danger,  but  to  the  posi- 
tive reaction  to  light.  Other  species  avoid  danger  by 
going  deeper  into  crevices,  because  they  are  negatively 
res]>onsive  to  light. 

Anaphothrips  striatus  lives  on  grasses  doubtless  be- 
cause it  can  not  live  on  any  other  food,  or  because  the 
reproductive  processes  are  not  stimulated  by  any  other 
host  plant.  But  their  distribution  and  behavior  on  the 
grasses  may  be  explained  largely  in  terms  of  their  reac- 
tions to  the  three  agents  tested  in  the  experiments.  The 
males  usually  live  in  concealed  situations  on  the  plants 
(curled-up  leaves)  because  they  are  mostly  negatively 
phototropic,  and  crawl  down  the  leaves  until  they  reach 
these  concealed  situations.  Females  may  live  either  in 
exposed  or  in  concealed  places,  for  some  of  them  are 
negative  to  light,  others  indifferent.  The  larvae  are  either 
exposed  or  concealed,  because  they  are  indifferent  to 
light.  The  eggs  from  which  they  hatch  are  probably  laid 
by  negatively  phototropic  females  in  the  young  curled 
leaves,  and  tiie  leaves  unfold  as  the  larvsB  develop;  this 
explains  why  the  exposed  larvsB  are  much  larger,  on  the 
average,  than  are  those  concealed  in  the  young  leaves. 
Perhaps  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect  as  here  stated  is 
reversed,  at  least  for  some  cases.  Concealment — caused 
in  one  way  or  another — ^may  lead  to  negative  phototro- 
pism,  as  in  the  larva  which  was  made  temporarily  nega- 
tively phototropic  by  being  kept  in  the  dark. 

The  adults  are  lodged  between  the  ridges  on  the  upper 
side  of  the  leaves  of  the  grass  Spartina,  not  for  the  sake 
of  protection,  it  seems  to  me,  but  because  they  are  posi- 
tively stereotropic.    Doubtless  between  the  ridges  is  the 


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174  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVni 

place  where  they  can  best  suck  the  juices  of  the  plant,  but 
there  is  no  need  to  assume  that  they  deliberately  choose 
this  location  in  order  to  get  their  food  most  easily.  Both 
adults  and  larvae  rest  on  these  leaves  with  their  heads 
directed  toward  the  base  of  the  leaf,  and  crawl  toward 
the  base  of  the  leaf  if  disturbed,  not  because  protection  is 
most  quickly  to  be  found  among  the  curled  leaves  at  the 
center  of  the  plant,  but  because  the  thrips  are  positively 
geotropic. 

Anthothrips  verbasci. — The  larvae  of  this  species  live 
hidden  among  the  flowers  of  the  mullein  spike,  not  be- 
cause they  must  get  their  food  there,  for  they  can  get  it 
from  any  part  of  the  plant;  nor  do  they  hide  there,  it 
seems  to  me,  to  secure  protection.  They  remain  in  these 
crevices  because,  excepting  the  largest  larvae,  they  are 
positively  stereotropic  and  negatively  phototropic.  The 
adults  are  sometimes  exposed,  sometimes  concealed,  prob- 
ably because  in  the  former  case  they  are  usually  indiffer- 
ent to  light,  in  the  latter  case  negatively  phototropic.  (Or 
may  they  be  made  negative  or  indifferent  according  as 
they  live — ^f or  one  reason  or  another — concealed  or  ex* 
posed?) 

Thus,  while  Anthothrips  verbasci  is  limited  to  one  food 
plant,  and  the  food  requirements  are  therefore  probably 
exceedingly  important,  yet  the  distribution  and  behavior 
of  the  insects  on  this  plant  may  be  explained  without  ap- 
pealing to  anything  like  ** choice*'  in  other  matters. 

Regarding  Anthothrips  niger,  I  wish  to  call  attention 
to  but  one  fact.  The  difficulty  with  which  the  larvae  are 
driven  forth  from  a  flower  in  which  they  live  appears  to 
be  due,  not  to  a  persistent  attempt  at  concealment,  but  to 
the  fact  that  on  being  disturbed  they  are  temporarily 
negatively  phototropic;  if  the  disturbance  is  continued, 
the  negative  response  continues. 

The  only  argument  which,  it  appears  to  me,  could  be 
advanced  in  favor  of  assuming  that  the  Thysanoptera 
choose  their  locations,  instead  of  adopting  simple  re- 
sponse to  external  stimuli  as  the  correct  explanation  of 


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No.  567]  BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THTSANOPTEBA  176 

distribution,  is  the  possibility  that  they  have  learned  that 
certain  modes  of  behavior  are  best  suited  (for  example) 
to  continued  safety. 

The  reply  to  such  an  argument  is  first,  that  most  of  my 
studies  on  behavior  have  been  made  in  an  unsettled  re- 
gion, where  the  enemies  of  thrips  incident  to  civilization 
are  practically  wanting,  and  where  even  the  natural 
enemies  are  not  abundant.  It  could  hardly  be  assumed 
that  every  individual  would  learn  to  avoid  its  enemies  in 
the  course  of  its  short  lifetime,  yet  certain  species  seem 
to  be  invariable  in  their  response  to  certain  agents. 
Furthermore,  many  of  the  larvae  tested  in  the  experi- 
ments could  have  been  but  a  few  days  old.  It  is  incred- 
ible that  their  reactions  should  have  been,  as  in  fact  they 
were,  as  definite  and  invariable  as  those  of  older  larvae, 
if  these  responses  were  dependent  on  experience. 

It  seems  to  me,  therefore,  that  the  only  satisfactory  ex- 
planation of  outdoor  behavior  and  distribution  of  the 
Thysanoptera  lies  in  the  assumption  that  they  are  in 
large  measure  the  result  of  responses  to  simple  stimuli, 
and  do  not  imply  any  degree  of  choice. 

Obigin  and  Adaptivenbss  op  Besponses  to  External 

Stimuli 

The  origin  of  such  responses  in  Thysanoptera  as  have 
been  described  above  is  not,  I  believe,  discoverable.  Pur- 
poseful they  most  probably  are  not,  as  I  have  shown,  if 
by  purpose  we  mean  conscious  direction  of  actions  to 
some  end.  But  adaptive  they  no  doubt  are  in  many  cases. 
Perhaps  they  are  all  adaptive,  but  I  confess  that  my 
powers  of  analysis  are  not  keen  enough  to  prove  such  a 
view  correct.  That  Euthrips  tritici  is  positively  photo- 
tropic  when  disturbed  is  no  doubt  the  cause  of  frequent 
escapes  from  danger.  One  may  even  believe  the  negative 
phototropism  of  larvae  of  Anthothrips  verbasci  to  be 
adaptive,  because  they  are  much  more  sluggish  than  is 
Euthrips  tritici,  and  could  not  escape  quickly  even  if  they 
should  emerge  into  the  light.    They  are  probably  safest. 


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176  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVm 

theref  ore,  if ,  when  disturbed,  they  retire  into  still  deeper 
crevices.  But  I  am  nnable  to  discover  the  adaptiveness 
of  the  response  of  the  larvsB  of  Anthothrips  niger  to  light 
— at  first  negative,  on  being  distorbed,  bnt  soon  becoming 
positive.  Nor  can  I  understand  why  the  males  of  Ana- 
phothrips  striatus  are  more  definitely  negative  to  light 
than  are  the  females  or  larvsB.  These  reactions  seem  to 
me  to  be  useless. 

We  need  not  demand  that  all  of  these  responses  be 
adaptive,  any  more  than  that  they  be  purposeful.  Re- 
sponses have  arisen,  no  one  knows  how.  They  have  been 
preserved,  and  we  can  but  speculate  as  to  the  method  of 
their  preservation.  Natural  selection  may  be  respon- 
sible for  the  preservation  of  the  useful,  and  it  may  have 
eliminated  res]>onses  that  were  harmful.  But  other  re- 
sponses of  no  value  whatever,  but  likewise  harmless,  may 
have  been  allowed  to  persist,  without  help  or  hindrance 
from  selection. 

(To  he  continued.) 


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SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

THE  ENDEMIC  MAMMALS  OF  THE  BRITISH  ISLANDS 

When,  in  1891,  I  was  collecting  information  to  be  used  by 
Dr.  A.  E.  Wallace  in  preparing  the  second  edition  of  his  ''Island 
Life,"  I  found  much  skepticism  among  naturalists  concerning 
the  alleged  endemic  or  precinctive  elements  of  the  British  fauna. 
Dr.  Wallace  was  able  to  give  lists  of  supposed  precinctive  species 
and  varieties  belonging  to  several  groups,  but  for  the  mammals 
he  was  obliged  to  state,  "it  is  the  opinion  of  the  best  authorities 
that  we  possess  neither  a  distinct  species  nor  distinguishable 
variety."  We  little  imagined  that  about  twenty  years  later  the 
British  Museum  would  issue  a  work  describing  ten  species  and 
twenty  subspecies  of  mammals  peculiar  to  the  British  Islands; 
twenty-one  of  these  being  actually  undescribed  at  the  time  I 
made  my  enquiries,  and  the  rest  then  reposing  quietly  in  the 
synonymy.  Still  less  did  we  imagine  that  such  a  revision,  when 
made,  would  be  the  work  of  an  American,  coming  over  from  the 
United  States  National  Museum  to  show  Europeans  the  neglected 
wonders  of  their  own  fauna !  The  Catalogue  of  the  Mammals  of 
Western  Europe,  by  Mr.  G.  S.  Miller,  published  last  year  by  the 
British  Museum,  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  remarkable  zoolog- 
ical works  ever  produced,  and  is  well  worthy  of  the  attention  of 
all  naturalists,  whether  specially  interested  in  the  Mammalia 
or  not.  While  so  many  students  of  genetics  are  giving  us  the 
results  of  their  experiments  in  breeding  mammals,  it  is  worth 
while  to  turn  also  to  the  results  of  nature's  long-time  breeding 
exx>eriments,  so  clearly  set  forth  by  Mr.  Miller  in  the  volume  cited. 
What,  after  all,  is  the  connection  between  the  phenomena  seen  by 
the  breeder  and  the  facts  of  mammalian  evolution  t  Do  species 
and  subspecies  differ  by  "units,''  and  do  the  variations  observed 
in  captivity  correspond  in  any  way  to  the  recorded  specific  and 
snbspecific  differences  T 

A  complete  analysis  of  Mr.  Miller  ^s  volume  can  not  be  made  at 
the  present  time,  but  I  have  extracted  the  list,  given  below,  of 
the  forms  supposed  to  be  confined  to  the  British  Islands,  giving 
their  distribution  and  principal  distinctive  characters.  I  have 
added  to  Mr.  Miller's  list  three  quite  recently  described  animals. 
On  examining  the  list,  it  appears  that  a  few  of  the  species  must 
belong  to  the  older  fauna  of  the  country,  not  wholly  exterminated 
by  the  glacial  ice  and  periods  of  partial  submergence.    Such  are 

177 


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178  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VouXLVm 

Mustela  hibemica  of  Ireland  and  Microtus  orcadensis  of  the 
Orkney  Islands.  It  is  at  least  suggestive,  in  this  connection,  that 
so  many  of  the  Scottish  islands  yield  animals  differing  from 
those  of  the  mainland.  In  the  majority  of  cases,  however,  the 
peculiar  British  mammals  are  closely  related  to  those  of  the  con- 
tinent, and  might  well  be  of  very  recent  origin.  There  is  a 
decided  tendency  to  darker  colors,  such  as  has  been  noted  also 
among  British  moths.  In  spite  of  this  tendency,  however,  some 
forms  are  lighter  than  their  relatives,  the  most  conspicuous  case 
being  the  light-tailed  British  squirrel.  In  several  cases  the  differ- 
ence noted  has  in  part  to  do  with  particular  phases;  thus  the 
squirrel  has  no  dark  phase,  and  the  ermine  does  not  turn  so  white 
in  winter.  The  British  red  grouse,  it  will  be  remembered,  is 
peculiar  in  lacking  a  white  winter  phase.  Some  of  these  differ- 
ences may  be  due  to  the  direct  effect  of  the  mild  and  moist 
British  climate,  and  would  perhaps  disappear  in  the  descendants 
of  British  animals  taken  elsewhere.  The  experiments  on  birds  by 
Beebe  are  very  suggestive  in  this  connection.  In  other  cases,  the 
distinctions  are  such  as  might  readily  result  from  changes  in  one 
or  two  ** units,"  such  as  are  observed  in  experimental  breeding. 
"When  we  have  a  variable  type,  subject  to  losses  and  new  combi- 
nations of  unit  characters,  it  is  perhaps  to  be  expected  that 
different  groups  of  individuals,  isolated  from  one  another,  will 
after  a  time  produce  different  homozygous  combinations.  That 
is  to  say,  the  result  comes  from  a  long  series  of  ** accidents," 
which  will  probably  not  be  duplicated  in  two  different  places.  In 
this  way  mere  isolation  may  be  an  adequate  cause  of  modification, 
providing  always  that  through  variation  degrees  of  hetero- 
zygosity have  arisen. 

In  the  common  house  mouse,  Mus  musculus,  Hagedoom^  has 
isolated  and  figured  a  great  number  of  color  varieties,  for  nearly 
all  of  which  he  bas  constructed  zygotic  formulae.  Little*  has 
also  described  and  figured  a  similar  series  of  varieties,  appar- 
ently in  ignorance  of  Hagedporn  's  paper,  which  he  does  not  cite. 
He  gives  zygotic  formulae  for  thirty-two  different  varieties,  but 
not  all  of  them  are  visibly  different.  Albino  varieties,  resulting 
from  the  dropping  out  of  a  particular  determiner,  may  be  pro- 
duced, corresponding  in  other  respects  to  each  of  the  thirty-two 
colored  forms,  although  they  all  look  alike,  and  will  only  show 
their  true  characters  on  crossing.    Several  of  the  varieties  show 

1  Zeii.  f.  ind,  Ahst.  Ver,,  1912. 

'"Experimental  Studies  of  the  Inheritance  of  Color  in  Mice,"  1913. 


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No.  567]    SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  CORRESPONDENCE     179 

noteworthy  fluctuating  variability,  due  to  differences  in  ex- 
pression. 

Muts  musculus,  then,  is  very  conspicuously  variable  in  color; 
yet  Miller's  book  records  only  one  subspecies,  that  of  the  Medi- 
terranean region  and  the  Azores,  which  is  less  dusky  and  more 
yeUowish,  with  the  under  parts  buffy  grayish.  It  possibly  agrees 
with  Little's  ** dilute  black  agouti"  variety.  On  the  other  hand, 
M.  musculus  has  a  recognized  subspecies  in  Mexico,  whete  it 
must  have  developed  since  the  species  was  introduced  by  man. 
The  mice  of  St.  Eilda  and  the  Faroe  Islands,  although  given  as 
distinct  species,  are  derivatives  of  Mus  musculus,  differing  in 
other  points  than  color.  In  connection  with  subspecific  differ- 
ences in  size,  Sumner's  experiments  with  different  temperatures 
should  be  noted,  since  they  prove  that  differences  of  temperature 
might  lead  to  readily  measurable  differences  in  dimensions, 
wholly  unconnected  with  losses  of  determiners  or  new  zygotic 
combinations.  Whether  or  not  diverse  conditions  of  this  sort 
would  ultimately  affect  the  germ  plasm,  their  effects  would  be 
patent  long  before  and  quite  independently  of  any  such  modifi- 
cation. On  the  whole,  the  poverty  of  Mu^  muscuiu^  in  subspecies 
would  suggest  that  the  variations  observed  by  breeders  are  not, 
as  a  rule,  the  stuff  that  new  subspecies  are  made  of.  Against  this 
argument  may  well  be  adduced  the  fa6t  that  M.  musculus  is  an 
urban  animal,  constantly  traveling  about,  so  that  incipient  races 
do  not  remain  isolated.  Here  the  closely  related  rats,  Epimys, 
are  worth  considering.  For  Europe  Miller  can  only  recognize 
the  Norway,  Black  and  Alexandrian  rats,  all  widespread,  prac- 
tically cosmopolitan.  Yet  in  the  Malay  Archipelago,  where 
Epimys  is  distributed  over  myriads  of  islands,  large  and  small, 
the  species  are  innumerable.  One  can  almost  take  a  map  and 
indicate  where  new  species  of  Epimys  are  to  be  found,  namely,  on 
those  islands  still  unexplored.  Years  ago,  when  the  writer  was 
actively  engaged  in  studying  the  British  MoUusca  and  Lepi- 
doptera,  the  question  of  endemic  forms  was  constantly  in  mind ; 
but  in  those  days  we  failed  to  discriminate  properly  between  the 
different  classes  of  "varieties. ' '  We  made  the  mistake  of  looking 
for  well-marked  ''sports"  or  aberrations,  rather  than  for  con- 
stant but  only  slightly  distinguished  local  races.  There  was  a 
practical  reason  for  this,  in  the  fact  that  by  searching  the  litera- 
tore  we  could  ascertain  whether  a  well-marked  variation  had 
been  reported  from  the  continent ;  whereas  the  determination  of 
subspecific  types  analogous  to  those  described  by  Miller  among 


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130  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [VouXLVm 

mammals  required  long  series  from  different  parts  of  Eiirope, 
and  these  we  did  not  possess,  and  could  not  readily  obtain.  Miller, 
following  the  custom  of  mammalogists,  lays  great  stress  on  sub- 
species, but  almost  ignores  individual  variations,  except  such  as 
are  expressed  by  the  statistical  data  regarding  size.  By  reading 
the  synonymy,  one  can  see  that  many  such  variations  have  re- 
ceived names,  and  I  can  not  doubt  that  the  time  will  come  when 
iheOd  names  will  be  generally  used.  In  this  case,  it  will  be 
extremely  desirable  to  use  the  same  adjectival  name  for  analogous 
varieties  of  different  species,  and  beyond  the  limits  of  subspecies 
it  ought  not  to  be  held  that  a  name  once  used  in  a  genus  can  not 
be  employed  again.  It  may  be  true  that  most  or  all  of  the  '*  indi- 
vidual" varieties  can  be  expressed  by  zygotic  formulae,  but  one 
can  not  remember  all  these  formulae,  nor  use  them  in  speech  with 
any  comfort.  Moreover,  they  have  to  do  with  the  germinal  con- 
stitution rather  than  the  patent  characters.  Little  provides  all 
his  varieties  with  polynomial  English  appellations,  but  would  not 
Latin  varietal  names  be  better  f  Following  his  theory  con- 
cerning the  pigments,  some  of  the  varieties  receive  names 
which  do  not  suggest  the  animals  at  all;  thus  ''brown-eyed 
yellow,"  according  to  the  apparently  excellent  colored  plate, 
is  light  orange-ferruginous,  while  "sooty-yellow"  is  dark  gray 
with  yellowish  under  parts.  Morgan*  describes  a  wild  variety  of 
M.  musctdv^  from  Colorado,  which  he  calls  ''mauve,"  but  from 
the  detailed  account  it  is  rather  "fauve,"  namely,  fulvous  op 
yellowish  brown.  It  must  be  similar  to  the  Old  World  subspecies 
azoricUs,  or  possibly  that  subspecies  introduced  t  If  we  had 
standard  scientific  names  for  the  different  forms,  we  should  try 
to  compare  our  specimens  with  the  types  or  descriptions  of  those 
names,  and  it  would  not  be  left  to  authors  to  use  such  miscellane- 
ous descriptive  terms  as  might  occur  to  them.  For  Mus  musculus, 
possibly  Little's  apparently  excellent  colored  plates  might  be 
made  the  standards  for  a  series  of  names.  Thus  his  Fig.  9 
(pi.  8)  is  the  animal  named  niger  as  long  ago  as  1801;  Fig.  10, 
the  dilute  black,  would  naturally  take  the  name  nigrescens. 
Fig.  12  is  probably  albicans  of  Billberg,  1827. 

Mammals  Peculiab  to  tbs  British  Islands 
In$ectivora 
8orex  aranem  castaneus  (Jenyns  1838).    Great  Britain.    Not  so  dark  as  true 
araneuB, 

tAnn,  N,  T.  Acad,  8ci.,  XXT,  p.  106. 


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No.  567]   8H0BTEB  ARTICLES  AND  COBBESPONDENCE    ISi 

Borex  granti  (Barrett-HamUton  and  Hinton  1918).  Inner  Hebrides.  Dif* 
fera  from  araneus  bj  the  eontraat  between  bright-colored  flanks  and 
dusky  npper  parts;  teeih  also  different. 

Veamys  fodiens  hicohr  (Shaw  1791).  Qreat  Britain.  Under  parts  nsoally 
washed  witit  wood-brown  instead  of  bnffy  whitish;  skull  smaller. 

Chiroptera 

Khwolaphus  ferrum-equinum  insulanuB  Barrett-Hamilton  1910.  Central  and 
8.  England.    Wing  shorter. 

MMnolophui  hippasideros  tninutiu  (Montagu  1808).  England  and  Ireland. 
Wing  shorter. 

Camivora 

Musiela  erminea  stabUis  (Barrett-Hamilton  1904).  Mainland  of  Great 
Britain.  Bather  large,  with  large  teeth;  color  somewhat  different,  a 
little  darker  above.  Change  to  white  in  winter  less  complete  and  regu- 
lar than  in  continental  forms. 

Miuiela  erminea  riciruB  (Miller  1907).  Islands  of  Islay  and  Jura,  Scot- 
land.   Smaller  than  etdbiUa;  proportions  of  skull  different. 

Mustela  hibemica  (Thomas  and  Barrett-Hamilton  1895).  Ireland  and  Isle 
of  Man.  Quite  distinct;  recognized  by  combination  of  black-tipped, 
heavily  penciled  tail  with  entirely  dark  ear  and  upper  lip.  Superficially 
like  certain  North  American  forms. 

Felia  sylvestria  grampia  (Miller  1907).  Scotland;  formerly  throughout 
Great  Britain.    Darker,  with  more  pronounced  black  markings. 

Bodentia 
Lepus  europcBus  occidenialis  de  Winton  1898.    England,  Scotland  and  Isle 

of  Man.    Buffy  tints  rich  and  dark. 
Lepus    iimidus    scotieus    (Hilzheimer    1906).      Highlands    of    Scotland. 

Smaller;  rarely  becomes  so  white  in  winter  as  Alpine  race. 
Lepus  T^emicus  Bell  1837.    Ireland.    Distinguished  by  the  strongly  russet 

color  and  partial  or  complete  absence  of  white  winter  coat.    Larger  than 

seoticus. 
Bvotomys  aistoni  Barrett-fiamilton  and  Hinton   1913.     Island  of  Mull, 

Hebrides. 
Evotomys  glareolw  hritannicus  (Miller  1900).     Great  Britain.     Smaller; 

color  less  intense. 
Evotomys  skomerensis  Barrett-Hamilton  190S.    Skomer  Island,  off  coast  of 

Wales.    Color  nbove  unusually  light  and  bright;  skull  peculiar. 
Microtus  agrestis  esBsul  Miller  1908.    North  and  South  Uist,  Hebrides.    Be- 

sembles  true  agrestis  of  Scandinavia;  teeth  peculiar,  a  character  usually 

present  which  elsewhere  in  the  species  occurs  as  a  rather  rare  anomaly. 
Mierotus  agrestis  maegiUivraii  Barrett-Hamflton  and  Hinton  1913.    Island 

of  Islay,  Hebrides. 
Mierotus  agrestis  Iwrtus  (Bellamy  1889).     England  and  South  Scotland. 

Smaller  than  typical  agrestis;  upper  parts  noticeably  tinged  with  rus- 
set, and  venter  washed  with  wood-brown. 
Mierotus  agrestis  negleotua  (Jenyns  1841).    Highlands  of  Scotland.    Not 

so  small  as  Mrtus;  upper  parts  darker. 


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182  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XL VIII 

Miorotus  orcadenm  Millais  1904.  South  Orkney  Islands.  Belated  to  If. 
aamius  of  Guernsey  and  the  Pleistocene  M,  corneri  of  South  England. 
Distinguished  by  its  large  size  and  dark  color. 

Miorotus  sandayensis  (Millais  1905).  Sanday  Island,  N.  Orkney  group. 
Allied  to  orcadensis,  but  skull  differing;  upper  parts  much  lighter. 

Miorotus  sandayensis  westrcB  MiUer  1908.  Westray  Island,  N.  Orkney  group. 
Not  80  pale  as  in  typical  form;  teeth  differing  a  little.     * 

Arvioola  amphilius  (L.  1758).  Typical  subspecies.  England  and  South 
Scotland.    Large;  color  moderately  dark. 

Arvioola  amphibius  ater  (Macgillivray  1832)  =  reta  Miller  1910.  Scot- 
land, except  southward.  Darker,  melanism  frequent.  The  name  was 
changed  on  account  of  EypudoBus  terrestris  var.  ater  Billberg  1827,  but 
the  change  is  perhaps  needless,  as  Billberg 's  animal  was  not  a  sub- 
species, and  has  not  been  treated  as  a  species  or  subspecies  under 
Arvioola. 

Apodemus  hehridensis  (de  Win  ton  1895).  Lewis  and  Barra  islands,  Hebri- 
des.   Large,  with  small  ears;  color  dark. 

Apodemus  hirtensis  (Barrett-Hamilton  1899).  Island  of  St.  Kilda.  Near 
hehridensis,  but  skull  larger  and  color  darker. 

Apodemus  fridariensis  (Kinnear  1906).  Fair  Isle,  Shetland  group.  Large; 
skull  peculiar;  colors  also  somewhat  peculiar. 

Apodemus  fia/vioollis  wintoni  (Barrett-Hamilton  1900).  England.  Under 
parts  with  duller  color,  pectoral  spot  more  diffuse. 

Mus  muralis  Barrett-Hamilton  1899.  Island  of  St.  Kilda.  Like  M,  musoulus 
but  feet  and  tail  less  slender;  skull  peculiar. 

Mus  fceroensis  (Clarke  1904).  Faroe  Islands.  Larger  than  musoulus  and 
muralis;  hind  foot  very  robust;  tail  thickened. 

Sciurus  vulgaris  leuoourus  Kerr  1792.  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  Small; 
tail  drab,  fading  in  summer  to  cream  buff.    No  dark  phase. 

Vngulata 

Cervus  elaphus  sootious  Lonnberg  1906.     Great  Britain.     Color  darker  and 

less  gray  than  in  the  related  Norwegian  form. 
Capreolus  oapreolus  thotti  Lonnberg  1910.     Great  Britain.     Darker,  face 

darker  than  body. 

I  thought  it  of  interest  to  compare  the  above  British  list  with 
a  similar  one  for  the  Spanish  peninsula  (Spain  and  Portugal). 
The  latter  area  is  continuous  northward  with  France,  but  the 
Pyrenees  constitute  a  barrier.  The  Iberian  peninsula  differs  so 
much  in  its  recent  geological  history  from  Britain,  and  is  at  the 
same  time  so  much  more  southern,  that  we  should  expect  to  find 
the  faunal  elements  very  different.  This  expectation  is  realized, 
yet  the  difference  in  numbers  between  the  two  lists  is  not  very 
great,  and  the  number  of  Iberian  forms  treated  as  distinct 
species  is  exactly  the  same  (12)  as  that  for  the  British  Islands. 
This  suprising  result  is  evidently  due  to  the  numerous  small 


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No.  567]    SHOETEB  ARTICLES  AND  CORRESPONDENCE    183 

islands  of  the  British  group,  sti<;h  islands  being  wanting  around 
the  coasts  of  Spain. 


Mammals  Peculiab  to  thx 
Inseetivora 
Talpa  ocoidentaUs  (Cabr.). 
Oalemys    pyrenaious    rufulus 

(GraeDs.). 
8<fr€x  araneus  granariut  Miller. 
Neomys  anomalus  Cabr. 
Crocidura  mimuJa  cantabra  (Cabr.). 
Crocidura  russula  dnira  MiUer. 
Brinaceus   europcBus   hispanioua  B.- 

Ham. 


Chiroptera 


(None.) 


Camivora 
Cants  lupu8  signatus  Cabr. 
Cants  luptu  deiianvs  Cabr. 
Meles  metes  marianensis  (Graells.). 
Maries  foina  mediterranea 

(B.-Ham.). 
Mnstela  nivalis  iberica    (B.-Haiii.). 

(Also  Balearic  Is.). 
Mustelaputoriusaureolus  (B.-Ham.). 
Mungos  toiddringtonii  (Gray). 
Oenetta  genetta  (L.),  typical  nibsp. 
Felts  sylvestris  tartessia  (Miller). 
Lynx  pardeUus  Miller. 

Bodeniia 
Lepus  granatensis  Bosenb. 

(Also  Balearic  Is.). 
Leptu  granatensis  galUseius  Miller. 

Univebsity  of  Colokado 


Spanish  (Iberian)  Pininstjla 
Eliomys  lusitanieus  (Beuvens). 
Glis  glis  pyrenaious  Cabr. 
Microttu  agrestis  rosianus  (Bocage). 
Mieroius  asturianus  Miller. 
Arvicola     sapidtu     Miller,     typical 

subsp. 
Pitymys  lusitanieus  (Gerbe). 
Pitymys  maruB  (Major). 
Pitymys  pelandoMus  Miller. 
Pitymys  depressus  Miller. 
Pitymys  iberious    (Gerbe),    typical 

sabsp. 
Pitymys  iberious  centralis  Miller. 
Pitymys  iberious  pasouus  Miller. 
Pitymys  iberictu  regulus  Miller. 
Mus  spicilegus  i  kfanicus  Miller. 
Mus  spicUegtu  hispanicus  Miller. 
Soiurtu  vtUgaris  numantius  MiUer. 
Soiunu  VtUgaris  infusoatus  (Oabr.). 
Sdmus  VtUgaris  segura  Miller. 
Sciurus  vulgaris  bcsticus  (Cabr.). 

UngtUata 
Bus  sorofa  castUianus  Thomas^ 
8us  sorofa  bcetious  Thomas. 
Cervus  elaphus  Mspanieus  Hilxh. 
Capreolus  oapreohu  oantu  Miller. 
Capra  pyrenaica  lusitanica  (Franca). 
Capra  pyrenaioa  victoria  Cabr. 
Capra  pyrenaica  hispanioa  (Schimp.). 
Bupicapra  parva  (Cabr.). 

T.  D.  A.  COCEERELL 


LITEBATUBE   CITED 
BatesoB,    W.    Mendel's    Principles    of    Heredity    Cambridge    (England) 

University  Press.     1909.    396  pp. 
Castle,  W.  E.    Heredity  of  Coat  Characters  in  Guinea-pigs  and  Babbits. 

PubL  Carnegie  Inst  of  Wash.    No.  23,  1905. 
Cannot,  L.    La  loi  de  Mendel  et  I'h^r^dit^  de  la  pigmentation  chez  les 

souns.      4me  note.    Arch,  Zool  exp.  et  g4n.    Notes  et  Bevue,  1905. 
Darbishire,  A.  D.    Notes  on  the  Besults  of  Crossing  Japanese  Waltzing 

Mice  with  European  Albino  Baees.    Biometriica,  Vol.  2,  p.  101,  1902. 


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184  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VouXLVHl 

Poncsster,  L.  On  the  Inheritance  of  Coat  Colour  in  Bate.  Proo,  Camb, 
Phil.  Soc,  Vol.  12,  pt  4,  p.  215,  1905. 

Durham,  F.  M.  A  Preliminary  Account  of  the  Inheritance  of  Coat  Colors 
in  Mice.    Bept.  Evol.  C't'ee.  B07.  Soc.,  IV,  1908. 

Hagedoorn,  A.  L.  The  Genetic  Factors  in  the  Development  of  the  House- 
mouse  which  Influence  the  Coat  Color,  with  Notes  on  Such  Factors  in 
the  Development  of  Other  Bodents.  Zeit  fur  indukt,  Abst.  u.  Vererh,, 
Bd.  6,  pp.  97-136,  1912. 

McCurdj,  H.,  and  Castle,  W.  E.  Selection  and  Crossbreeding  in  Belation  to 
the  Inheritance  of  Coat-pigments  and  Coat-patterns  in  Bats  and  Mice. 
Publ.  Carnegie  Inst,  of  Wash.,  No.  70,  1907. 

Morgan,  T.  H.  Becent  Experiments  on  the  Inheritance  of  Coat  Color  in 
Mice.    Am.  Nat.,  Vol.  43,  pp.  494-510,  1909. 


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NOTES  AND  LITERATURE 

SWINGLE^   ON  VARIATION   IN   F^   CITRUS  HYBRIDS 
AND  THE  THEORY  OP  ZYGOTAXIS 

SwiKGiiB  in  two  recent  papers  has  published  some  very  inter- 
esting observations  on  Citrus  species  and  their  F^  hybrids.  On 
the  basis  of  these  observations,  the  somewhat  startling  statement 
is  tnade  that  current  theories  of  heredity  and  variation  give  no 
adequate  explanation  of  variability  in  F^  hybrid  generations 
from  ''pure  bred''  parent  strains.  Swingle  assumes  this  vari- 
ability to  be  so  great  that  qualitative  differences  in  chromosomes 
can  not  account  for  it.  As  the  chromosomes  in  the  F^  hybrid 
remain  unfused  until  synapsis,  there  is  said  to  be  no  opportunity 
for  quantitative  exchange  of  hereditary  substance,  so  that  this 
variation  can  not  be  accounted  for  on  this  basis.    Hence, 

if  proof  can  be  given  to  show  that  in  certain  specific  cases,  pairs  of 
gametes  of  identical  hereditary  composition*  give  rise  to  very  diverse 
organisms,  the  way  has  been  opened  for  a  general  reinvestigation  of  the 
validity  of  our  modem  theories  of  heredity. 

The  term  "pure  bred"  as  used  by  Swingle  implies  that  cer- 
tain Citrus  species  reproduce  themselves  in  a  relatively  faithful 
manner  from  seed,  there  being  no  overlapping  of  distinguishing 
specific  characters  and  very  little  variation  of  these  characters 
intraspecifically.  C.  aurantium  and  C.  trifoliata  are  examples 
of  such  widely  separated  species.  The  former  has  been  grown 
from  seed  in  Florida  for  two  hundred  years,  and  though  varia- 
tions have  appeared,  they  are  said  to  differ  but  little  from  the 
general  type  of  C.  a/urantium,  and  in  no  way  to  approximate 
that  of  C.  trifoliata. 

On  the  basis  of  evidence  of  this  kind,  Swingle  believes  the 
various  Citrus  species  (C  aurantiuniy  C.  trifoliata,  C.  medica 
limonum,  etc.)  breed  true  in  nearly  all  their  characters  and 
especially  in  those  which  differentiate  them  from  one  another. 
Hence,  for  genetic  studies,  the  germ  cells  of  these  species  are 

1  Swingle,  W.  T^  "VariAtion  in  First  Oentration  Hybrids  (Imperfect 
Domisanoe) :  Its  Possible  Explanation  through  Zjgotaxis,''  IV®  Conf.  In- 
temat.  de  Genetique^  Paris,  1911,  pp.  381-394;  <<Some  New  Citrus  Fruits," 
Amer.  Breed.  Ma^,,  4:  83-95,  1913. 

s  The  italics  are  mj  own. 

185 


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186  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VouXLVni 

assumed,  in  respect  to  these  diflFerential  characters,  to  be  pure; 
or,  expressed  in  more  technical  language,  each  species  is  for  the 
characters  under  observation,  genotypically  homozygous.  This 
assumption  is  based  on  wholly  inadequate  evidence,  as  will  be 
shown  later. 

Citrus  trifoliata  crossed  with  other  Citrus  species  (C  auran- 
tium,  etc.)  gave  Fj  hybrid  families  showing  a  large  degree  of 
variability,  even  when  the  seeds  from  a  single  cross  having 
identical  male  and  female  parents  were  grown.  This  variability 
expressed  itself  in  foliage,  habit  of  growth,  and  fruit,  and  was 
especially  noticeable  in  the  latter,  the  fruits  of  the  Fj  individuals 
showing  differences  in  color,  size,  texture,  shape,  number  of  seeds, 
and  flavor.  For  example,  from  a  single  cross  of  C.  trifoliata  X  C. 
aurantium,  the  11  resulting  hybrid  seeds  gave  rise  to  Fj  plants 
(citranges)  differing  in  foliage,  habit  of  growth,  and  very  strik- 
ingly in  fruit.  The  fruit  of  one  of  these  citranges,  the  "Morton," 
was  smooth,  round,  very  large,  and  orange-colored ;  those  of  the 
**Colman"  were  rather  flattened,  globose,  pubescent,  yellow,  al- 
most seedless,  and  lacked  the  disagreeable  oil  common  to  the 
others;  while  those  of  still  another  type,  the  ** Willi ts,"  were 
often  monstrously  fingered.  The  ** Phelps"  was  bitter,  while  the 
''Saunders"  almost  lacked  this  quality.  The  "Rustic"  often  has 
double  fruits  with  many  seeds,  and  a  habit  of  growth  more  like 
its  aurantium  parent. 

When  varieties  of  the  lemon  were  crossed  with  C.  trifoliata, 
still  greater  differences  in  the  F,  generation  (citremons)  resulted. 
These  consisted  largely  of  "abnormal"  foliage  developments. 
Hypophylls,  though  absent  in  the  common  Citrus  species  are  ex- 
tremely characteristic  of  C.  trifoliata.  About  20  per  cent,  of  the 
lesnon-trifoliata  hybridis  developed  an  intensified  form  of  this 
character,  and  this  proportion  occurred  in  each  case  in  crosses 
involving  three  different  varieties  of  lemon.  The  tangerine 
orange  X  grape  fruit  (tangelo)  in  the  F^  generation  was  almost 
as  variable  as  the  citrange  families.  Fj  hybrids  between  the 
West  Indian  lime  and  the  kumquat  (limequat)  were  strikingly 
different  in  such  characters  as  aroma,  flavor,  acidity  of  pulp  and 
thickness  of  skin. 

Although  much  stress  has  been  laid  on  the  differences  in  these 
Fi  hybrids,  there  were  numerous  similarities.  For  example,  all 
the  Citrus  hybrids  involving  C.  trifoliata  in  their  parentage  have 
compound,  semi-evergreen  leaves,  increased  hardiness  and  fruits 


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No.  567]    SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  CORRESPONDENCE     187 


with  abundant  bitterish,  acid  juice.  Two  of  the  citranges  (Col- 
man  and  Cunningham)  have  the  pubescent  fruit  character  of 
C.  trifoliata,  while  the  others  are  smooth-skinned. 

The  author's  data  led  him  to  formulate  in  substance  the  follow- 
ing conclusions,  which  I  have  grouped  and  stated  in  my  own 
language. 

1.  Citrus  species  are  but  slightly  variable  in  the  characters 
which  diflferentiate  them,  and,  in  the  sense  that  no  overlapping 
takes  place,  may  be  said  to  breed  true,  their  germ  cells  being 
genetically  pure  for  these  differential  characters. 

2.  Individual  plants  of  the  Fj  hybrid  generations  between  these 
species  are  strikingly  variable,  although  all  are,  in  a  given  cross, 
the  zygotic  product  of  pairs  of  gametes  of  **  identical  hereditary 
composition." 

3.  Modern  theories  of  heredity  can  not  account  for  this  varia- 
tion. 

These  are  not  the  conclusions,  however,  in  which  all  present- 
day  geneticists  would!  concur.  In  the  first  place,  few  ''modem" 
geneticists  would  take  Swingle's  view  concerning  the  **pure 
breeding"  ability  of  the  various  Citrus  species,  nor  even  of  C. 
aurantium.  Webber,  in  the  Encyclopedia  of  American  Horti- 
culture, notes  that  70  varieties  of  the  common  sweet  orange  are 
grown  within  our  borders,  and  although  a  few  varieties  are 
fairly  constant,  the  majority  of  these  do  not  breed  true  from  seed. 
Practically  the  same  idea  has  been  gained  by  certain  prominent 
taxonomists  of  the  genus  Citrus.  De  CandoUe  specifically  calls 
attention  to  the  remarkable  variability  of  the  whole  group ;  and 
Professor  Hume  of  Florida  remarks  on  the  same  fact  in  certain 
Experiment  Station  publications.  As  to  the  variability  among 
the  individuals  in  the  special  strains  used  by  Swingle  in  his  breed- 
ing work,  no  data  are  given,  so  that  it  can  not  be  afSrmed  that 
inbred  progeny  from  them  would  have  been  duplicates  as  far  as 
hereditary  characters  are  concerned.  Citrus  plants  naturally 
cross  fertilize,  and  from  this  cause  alone  no  dependence  can  be 
placed  on  their  ability  to  produce  progeny,  which  are  exact  dupli- 
cates of  themselves  when  inbred;  in  fact,  the  inference  is  that 
they  would  not.  Hence,  as  far  as  intraspecific  constancy  of 
hereditary  characters  is  concerned.  Swingle's  statement  can  not 
be  accepted  until  more  exact  information  is  produced. 

Swingle  says  no  interspecific  gradations  occur  between  these 
various  species,  especially  C.  trifoliaia  and  C.  aurantium.    Qrant- 


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188  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVUI 

ing  this,  the  two  species  have  clearcut  differences  in  leaves  (ever- 
green or  deciduous,  unifoliolate  or  compound),  in  resistance  to 
cold  (difference  in  ability  to  withstand  certain  degrees  of  tem- 
perature) and  in  numerous  fruit  characters  (presence  or  absence 
of  pubescence,  quality  of  juice,  quantity  of  seed,  size  of  fruit, 
etc.). 

From  the  standpoint  of  modem  theories  of  heredity  as  regards 
variation  in  Pi  hybrid  generations,  it  matters  little  whether  so- 
called  species  intergrade  or  whether  their  differences  are  clear-cut 
and  all  variation  is  intraspecific.  In  either  case,  if  crosses  were 
made,  variation  among  the  F^  individuals  from  a  single  family 
might  or  might  not  occur.  In  either  case,  no  violence  to  modem 
theories  of  heredity  would  result  and  no  new  problems  would 
arise.  But  if  two  species  that  differ  from  each  other  in  part  or 
all  of  their  characters,  but  breed  true  intra-specifically  (geno- 
typically  homozygous)  are  crossed,  and  Fi  variation  results,  then 
modem  theories  of  heredity  would  be  compelled  to  change  front 
and  invoke  the  aid  of  new  hypotheses.  Swingle's  data,  assuming 
that  intraspecific  variation  in  Citrus  species  occurs,  does  not 
present  a  problem  of  this  kind  at  all.  C.  aurantium  and  C.  tri- 
foliatu  each  possess  distinctive  characters,  but  convincing  data  are 
not  at  hand  to  warrant  any  belief  in  the  homozygosity  of  these 
differential  eharacters  or  of  even  those  the  two  species  may  have 
in  common.  The  evidence  directly,  and  one  might  almost  say 
conclusively,  opposes  such  a  conclusion.  If  these  species  are  not 
homozygous  in  all  of  their  characters,  then  one  can  not  affirm,  in 
the  light  of  modem  theories,  that  all  the  gametes  produced  by  a 
particular  group  of  individuals  called  a  species  are  identical  in 
hereditary  composition,  nor  even  that  the  gametes  of  one  indi- 
vidual of  such  a  species  are  identical  as  to  hereditary  potenti- 
alities. At  the  risk  of  wasting  valuable  space  by  repeating  what 
is  extremely  common  knowledge  to  genetic  students,  let  us  assume, 
for  the  purpose  of  argument,  that  C.  (mrantium  and  C.  irifolicUa 
are  homozygous  in  all  their  respective  characters  except  one.  In 
the  former,  the  character  A  is  heterozygous  and  peculiar  to  this 
species.  Likewise,  in  C,  trifoUata,  B  is  heterozygous  and  differ- 
ential. All  the  remaining^  characters  of  the  two  species  may  be 
symbolized,  respectively,  by  the  formulaB  XX  and  TT.  When 
XXAabb  (C.  aurantium)  is  crossed  with  YYaaBd  (C.  trifoltata)^ 
the  resulting  progeny  would  appear  in  the  approximate  propor- 
tion of  1  XYAaBb :  1  XYAabl :  1  XYaaBb :  IXYaabb,  providing 


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No.  567]  NOTES  AND  LITEBATURE  189 

A  and  B  are  single  factor  characters.  In  the  majority  of  char- 
acters, the  Fi  hybrids  would  be  intermediate  or  possess  those  of 
either  one  or  the  other  parent,  since  all  the  F^  individuals  would 
be  alike  as  far  as  any  hereditary  quality  symbolized  by  XY  is  con- 
cerned, providing  the  plants  were  all  grown  under  the  same  en- 
vironmental conditions.  But  these  F^  individuals  would  not  be 
alike  as  regards  the  inheritance  of  the  characters  A  and  B.  Ex- 
perimental evidence  from  crosses  of  this  kind  show  us  that  four 
different  Fj  forms  may  result,  the  distinctions  between  them  aris- 
ing from  the  presence  or  absence,  through  inheritance,  of  the 
characters  A  and  B.  Dominance  is  assumed  to  be  absent  in  this 
illustration. 

Swingle's  Citrus  hybrids,  though  involving  greater  complexity 
because  a  large  number  of  parental  characters  instead  of  two  are 
probably  heterozygous,  are  of  the  same  general  type  as  those  of 
the  illustration  and  lend  themselves  to  the  same  interpretation. 
Owing  to  the  absence  of  sufficient  exact  experimental  data,  one 
can  not  speak  of  unit  characters  and  factors  in  these  hybrids,  but 
one  may  say  without  violence  to  modem  theories  of  heredity  that 
one  or  both  of  the  parents  involved  in  the  crosses  which  produced 
the  Colman  and  the  Cunningham  were  heterozygous  in  the  factors 
or  factor  for  pubescence,  that  various  size  factors  were  hetero- 
zygous and  that  one  parent  was  homozygous  for  absence  and  one 
for  presence  of  the  factors  for  hardiness,  compound  leaves  and 
evergreen  foliage. 

Fi  variation  in  Citrus  hybrids  then,  in  the  light  of  the  data  at 
hand,  apparently  results  from  differences  in  the  gametic  compo- 
sition of  the  heterozygous  parents. 

Swingle  calls  attention  to  other  cases  of  variation  in  F^  hy- 
brids from  two  pure  stocks  which  support  his  contention  that  this 
phenomenon  of  Fi  variation  is  very  general,  though  usually 
obscured  through  variation  due  to  heterozygous  parent  stock. 
CoUins  and  Kempton*  crossed  a  race  of  com  breeding  true  to 
waxy  endosperm  with  one  constant  for  homy  endosperm.  Homy 
endosperm  was  dominant  in  F^  and  the  Fj  generation  segregated 
in  the  expected  ratio  of  1  waxy  to  3  homy  kemels.  This  ratio 
represented  the  average  proportion  of  each  when  the  ears  of  all 
the  plants  were  lumped  together.    The  F,  progeny  of  each  selfed 

tColHos,  G.  N.,  and  Kempton,  J.,  n,  1912,  ''Inheritance  of  Waxy  Endo- 
spenn  in  Hybrids  of  Ohinese  Corn,''  IV**  Conf.  Internal,  de  Genetique,  1911, 
p.  34T;  alto  Cir«.  No.  120,  Bur.  of  P.  I.,  V.  8.  Dept  of  Agr.,  1913. 


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190  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

Fj  plant  when  taken  by  itself  gave  some  ears  as  low  as  13.7  per 
cent,  waxy,  while  others  exceeded  the  expected  proportions  and 
gave  ears  as  high  as  33.3  per  cent.  waxy.  The  investigators  point 
out  that  this  variation  is  not  the  result  of  the  laws  of  chance  as 
the  deviation  is  far  greater  in  many  cases  than  the  probable  error. 
Therefore,  says  Swingle, 

there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  their  varying  percentages  represented 
real  differences  in  the  hereditary  composition  of  the  first  generation 
plants.  It  would  be  hard  to  find  a  more  conclusive  case  since  there  could 
be  no  doubt  as  to  the  purity  of  the  parents  and  what  is  more  rare  no 
possible  doubt  as  to  whether  a  given  kernel  had  a  waxy  or  a  homy 
endosperm. 

Mendelians  are  said  to  be  unaware  how  fatal  this  phenomena  is 
to  some  of  the  chief  tenets  of  modem  theories  of  heredity,  and 
they  are  also  accused,  somewhat  unjustly,  I  believe,  of  applying 
the  term  ''imperfect  dominance"  to  this  and  to  the  Citrus 
phenomena. 

In  this  case,  both  parents  were  undoubtedly  homozygous  for 
their  respective  endosperm  characters,  so  that  heterozygosity  will 
not  account  satisfactorily  for  the  deviations.  But  this  is  a  dif- 
ferent phenomena  than  Swingle  found  in  his  Citrus  hybrids,  for 
here  one  is  dealing  with  a  fluctuation  in  a  proportion  or  ratio 
involving  the  same  character,  while  in  his  experiments  the  diffi- 
culty was  the  variation  in  presence  and  absence  of  distinct  and 
often  new  characters,  indicating  an  extremely  heterozygous 
parentage. 

As  an  explanation  or  working  hypothesis  for  his  own  and 
similar  data.  Swingle  advances  a  somewhat  new  and  suggestive 
chromosome  theory  on  the  assumption  that  it  fills  an  urgent  need. 
The  theory  of  zygotaxis,  as  it  is  called,  may  be  summarized  as 
follows : 

Maternal  and  paternal  chromosomes  probably  persist  side  by 
side  in  the  cells,  unchanged  in  quality  and  number  throughout 
the  whole  development  of  the  F^  organism.  This  being  true, 
Swingle,  in  order  to  explain  his  data,  assumes  that  the  influence 
in  character  formation  exerted  by  chromosomes  on  the  F^  hybrids, 
is  in  some  cases  due  to  their  relative  positions  in  the  nucleus,  and 
that  these  relative  positions  result  from  accident  or  at  least  are 
determined  at  the  moment  of  nuclear  fusion  in  fertilization,  and 
remain  unchanged  in  succeeding  cell  generations.    He  further 


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No.  567]  NOTES  AND  LITERATURE  191 

assumes  that  those  chromosomes  lying  nearest  the  nuclear  wall 
(peripheral)  are  better  nourished  than  those  centrally  located, 
and  hence  they  exert  more  influence  in  character  formation,  and 
dominating  synapsis,  produce  gametes  similar  in  their  hereditary 
character  to  the  cells  of  the  first  generation  hybrids,  whose  char- 
acter in  turn  was  determined  at  fertilization  by  the  configuration 
the  chromosomes  took  in  the  fusion  nucleus.  On  this  theory, 
reversions,  sports,  etc.,  may  result  from  sudden  changes  in  the 
nuclear  configuration. 

Three  types  of  nuclear  configuration  are  assumed  to  occur  in 
higher  organisms,  the  character  and  effects  of  which  are  synop- 
tically  outlined  below. 

1.  Interspecific  Hybrids, — ^Usually  sterile  and  intermediate. 
Chromosomes  repel  each  other  and  occupy  opposite  sides  of  the 
Pi  zygote  nuclei,  exerting  equal  influence  in  the  ontogeny  of  P, 
organisms,  explaining  why  first  generation  hybrids  of  this  char- 
acter are  always  intermediate,  little  variable  and  usually  sterile. 
Synapsis  often  impossible. 

2.  Mendelian  Crosses, — Abnormally  inbred  races  of  domesti- 
cated animals  and  plants.  Pj  generation  usually  intermediate, 
fertile,  dialytic  at  synapsis.  Dominance  of  certain  characters  in 
these  hybrids  is  due  to  the  inherited  potentialities  of  the  chromo- 
somes rather  than  to  their  nuclear  positions. 

3.  Normal  Cross-bred  Species, — ^Probably  normal  in  wild 
species.  Hybrids  usually  vigorous,  fertile,  and  variable.  Pree 
intermingling  of  chromosomes  in  the  fusion  nucleus  at  fertiliza- 
tion. Nuclear  configuration  permanent  for  each  individual. 
Synapsis  normal. 

This  elaborate  and  attractive  theory,  based  admittedly  to  a 
great  degree  on  assumptions,  is  advanced  by  Swingle  in  the  belief 
that  it  will  help  to  clarify  the  problems  of  heredity,  even  though 
he  acknowledges  it  does  not  help  one  to  arrive  at  satisfactory 
explanations.  In  the  reviewer's  opinion,  however,  the  field  of 
genetics  is  already  burdened  with  enough  theories  of  this  par- 
ticular type  and  the  somewhat  unnecessary  but  ever-increasing 
new  additions  serve  to  confuse  rather  than  clarify  the  ideas  of 
the  average  student  of  genetics.  Besides,  Swingle's  assumption 
that  maternal  and  paternal  chromosomes  in  the  cells  of  Pj  hybrids 
repel  each  other  and  do  not  mingle  in  the  Pi  zygote  cells  is  not 
borne  out  by  the  few  cytological  facts  at  our  command.    Rosen- 


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192  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

berg  V  work  on  species  hybrids  of  Drosera,  Moeukhaus  V  investi- 
gations of  species  hybricEs  in  fish  and  some  work  on  certain 
hybrids  in  the  Echinodermata  group  give  us  facts  that  directly 
oppose  such  an  assumption.  As  a  further  criticism^  one  may  say 
that  most  biologists  who  have  had  experience  with  pedigree  cul- 
tures would  decidedly  criticize  the  synoptic  outline  and  the  nar- 
row sphere  assigned  to  Mendelian  phenomena. 

Aside  from  the  theoretical  considerations,  these  two  papers  con- 
tain djescriptions  of  CiirusAike  species  new  to  occidental  horti- 
culture, together  with  a  somewhat  detailed  account  of  the  various 
Citrus  hybrids  and  their  hardiness  and  practical  value,  showing 
the  truly  fine  results  achieved  by  the  workers  in  this  field  toward 
moving  the  Citrus  belt  northward  and  adding  new  varieties  of 
this  genus  to  the  world's  horticulture. 

Obland  E.  White 

Bbookltn  Botanic  Oabden^ 
December  4,  1913 

>Bosenberg,  O.,  "  Qytologische  und  Morphologische  Studien  an  Drotera 
Umgifolia  X  D.  rotundifolia,"  Kungl.  Svenska  VetenskapBakademiens  Hand- 
linger.,  43,  N:  on,  pp.  1-64,  1909.    4  Tafn. 

«Moenkliau8,  W.  J.,  "The  Development  of  the  Hybrids  between  Fwtduhu 
heteroclitua  and  Menidia  notaia  with  especial  reference  to  the  B^avior  of 
the  Maternal  and  Paternal  Chromatin,"  Amer,  Jour,  of  Anatomy,  3:  29-65, 
1904.    Plates  I-IV. 


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with  Respect  to  Seed  Weight  in  the  OermlBatioa 
ef  Garden  Beans,  n.   Dr.  J.  Arthur  Harris. 

Shorter  Articles  and  Discussion:  A  Cross  inToIring 
Four  Fain  of  Mendelian  Charaeters  in  KiM.  C 
O.UUle.J.C.PhUUps. 

Index  to  Volume  XLVn. 

OONTENTS  OF  THE  «IANUARY  NUMBER 

Seleetton  in  Bxperimente  with  Tobaooo.    Prou 

fciMV  BL  M.  SMt  and  H.  K.  Hayes. 
Oynandxomorphout  Anti,  deicribed  during  the  Dei* 

cade.  1908-1918.      Pxofesior  WiUiam    Morton 

Wheeler. 
Shorter  Artielei  and  Diieaision:  On  the  Beralti  of 

Inbreeding  a  Mendelian  Popolatlon— A  Corree- 

tion  and  Bxtention  of  PreTions  Condusione. 

Dr.  Raymond  Pearl— Isolation   and  Beleetlon 

alUed  in  Principle.    Dr.  John  T.  Qolick. 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  FEBRUARY  NUMBER 
SomeKewVarietiesofRatsandGnineapplgBandtbeIr 

fessorW.B.  Castle. 
<•  Dominant"  and  *'  Recessire"  Spotting  in  Mice.   C. 

C.  Little.                              ^^ 
On  Differential  MorteUty  with  respect  to  Seed  Weight 

occurring  in  Field  Cultures  of  Flsum  satlTunu 

Dr.  J.  Arthur  Hairis. 
The  Inheritance  of  a  Recurring  Somatic  Vailatiaa 

in  Variegated  Ban  of  Maise.     Professor  B.  A. 

■merson. 
Bestoration  of  Edaphosaurus  crudger  Copa.    Pit^ 

f  essor  E.  a  Case. 
Shorter  Articles  and*  Discussion  :    Humidity ^a 

Neglected  Factor  in  Enylronmental  Work.    Dr. 

Frank  S.Lutz. 

Single  Number  40  CenU                                         Yearly  Subacriptiom  $4i>0 

THE  SCIENCE  PRESS 

GerriBoii.N.Y.               Substation  84:  NEW  YORK               Lancaster.  Pk. 

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THE 

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NATURALIST 


A  XOHTHLT  JOXnUTAL 

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I.  The  Oridn  of  X  OapieUa  Bnrta-paitorlt  araolmoldM.  Dr.  Hbnbi  Hub  -  Its 
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m.  Shortor  Aztlclei  and  Dlioitision :  Barriers  as  to  Dutribation  as  regards  Birds 
and  Mammals.  Joseph  Gbihnell.  Yellow  Varieties  of  Bats.  Professor 
W.  E.  Castlb        -------.----247 

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THE 

AMERICAN  NATURALIST 

Vol.  XLVIII  April,  29U  No.  568 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  X  CAPSELLA  BURSA-PASTOEIS 
ARACHNOIDEA 

DR.  HENRI  HUS 

University  op  Michigan 

Since  Jordan^  described  a  number  of  elementary  spe- 
cies of  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris,  their  constancy  has  been 
a  subject  of  cultural  experiment.  Herbarium  material 
demonstrates  the  existence  of  numerous  apparently  imde- 
scribed  forms.  The  finding  of  strikingly  distinct  forms, 
such  as  Capsella  Heegeri^  and,  more  recently,  C.  Viguieri,^ 
the  work  of  Almquist*  and  that  of  ShuU  have  added  to 
the  interest  which  this  species  holds  for  the  investigator. 
It  was  ShuU  who  determined  the  zygotic  constitution  of 
various  forms.  To  be  able  to  demonstrate  this  with  ex- 
actitude is  of  the  greatest  value  since  Bateson  and  Lotsy 
expressed  their  doubt  as  to  the  homozygocity  of  deVries's 
(Enothera  Lamarckiana.  It  was  left  to  Nilsson^  to  clearly 
show  its  necessarily  heterozygous  character.  The  inter- 
est aroused  by  this  paper®  leads  me  to  believe  that  an 

1  Jordan,  A.,  '  ^  Diagnoses  d  'esp^ces  nouvelles  ou  m^connues  pour  servir 
de  mat^riaux  k  une  ilore  r^form^e  de  la  France  et  des  contr^s  voisines." 
Paris,  1864. 

2  Solms-Laubach,  H.  Graf  zu,  ''Craciferen  studien.  I.  Capsella  heegeri, 
eine  nenentstandene  Form  der  deutschen  Flora/'  Bot,  Zeit.,  55:  167,  pL 
7,  1900. 

8  Blaringhem,  L.,  ''Les  transformations  brusques  des  §tres  vivants." 
Paris,  1911. 

^Almquist,  E.,  "Studien  fiber  die  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris  (L.),"  Ada 
Horii  Bergiani,  4:  No.  6,  1907. 

s  Heribert-Nilsson,  N.,  * '  Die  Variabilitat  der  (Enothera  Lamarckiana  und 
dai  Problem  der  Mutation,"  Zeitschr.  /.  ind,  Abst,  u.  Vererb,,  8:  89,  1912. 

•  Lotsy,  J.  P.,  '  *  Fortschritte  unserer  Anschauungen  fiber  Deszendenz  seit 
Darwin  und  der  jetzige  Btandpunkt  der  Frage,"  Progressus  Bei  BotaniccB, 
4:361,1913. 

198 


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194  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVUI 

account  of  certain  cultures  of  Capsella,  in  which  muta- 
tions were  simulated,  would  be  of  timely  interest. 

During  the  winter  of  1908-1909,  I  collected  in  a  green- 
house at  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  and  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Botanical  Department  of  the  University  of  Michigan, 
twelve  rosets  of  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris,  the  leaves  of 
whic'h  showed  certain  more  or  less  striking  morphological 
differences.  With  the  hope  of  isolating  certain  biotypes, 
the  rosets  were  placed  in  pots  and  permitted  to  flower. 
No  measures  were  taken  to  prevent  the  accidental  trans- 
ference of  pollen,  but  the  pots  were  placed  about  six 
inches  apart.  This,  as  will  be  shown  later,  is  the  only 
precaution  necessary  to  guard  against  cross-pollination, 
provided  the  cultures  are  carried  on  in  a  greenhouse  and 
during  the  winter  months.  After  a  portion  of  the  seed 
had  ripened,  the  plants,  the  majority  of  which  retained 
their  climax  leaves,  became  herbarium  specimens.  More 
recently,  after  constant  association  has  enabled  me  to 
detect  minute  differences,  it  has  been  possible  to  identify 
some  of  these  plants  with  two  of  the  biotypes  described 
by  ShuU,^  to  wit,  rhomhoidea  and  simplex.  At  the  time 
of  collection,  the  differences  were  sensed,  but  could  not  be 
described  technically,  since  the  extent  of  the  influence 
wielded  by  fluctuating  variability  was  an  unknown  quan- 
tity. Never  before  had  I  so  fully  realized  the  truth  of  de 
Vries's  statement.® 

We  are  trained  to  the  appreciation  of  the  differentiating  marks  of 
systematic  species.  .  .  .  Our  minds  are  turned  from  the  delicately 
shaded  features  which  differentiate  elementary  species. 

The  seed  obtained  was  sown  in  sterilized  soil  during 
the  spring  of  1910.  From  each  seedpan  60  individuals 
were  transplanted  to  flats.  As  the  plants  grew  older,  it 
was  found  that,  with  a  single  exception,  the  seedlings  in 
each  of  the  flats  were  uniform,  but  that  the  seedlings  in 
the  different  flats  were  not  alike,  three  types  being  dis- 
tinguishable.   The  interest  in  these  types,  for  the  isola- 

TShull,  G.  H.,  **  Bursa  huraa-pastoris  and  Bursa  Heegeri:  Biot.ypes  and 
Hybrids,''  Publ.  No.  112,  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington,  1909. 
8  de  Vries,  Hugo,  *' Species  and  Varieties,''  689,  1905. 


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No.  568]   X  CAP  SELLA  BUBSA-PASTORIS  ARACHNOIDEA  196 

tion  of  which  these  cultures  had  been  undertaken,  soon 
was  overshadowed  by  the  behavior  of  the  seedlings  bear- 
ing the  number  4,108.6  and  which  were  the  offspring 
yielded  by  a  plant  of  a  type  not  described  by  Shull  and 
which  I  have  named  X  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris  Setchelli- 
ana,  in  honor  of  Professor  William   Albert   Setchell. 


Fio.   1.     Appearance  op  a  Linear-leaved  Form  among  Seedlings  op  Capsella 

Bursa-pastoHs. 

During  the  time  that  the  seedlings  remained  in  the  seed- 
pan,  no  deviations  from  the  expected  course  of  develop- 
ment were  noted.  However,  after  the  seedlings  had  been 
transplanted  to  flats  and  had  remained  there  a  week  or 
so,  it  became  evident  that  some  of  the  seedlings  were  not 
making  the  expected  growth.  Their  development  ap- 
peared most  insignificant  compared  with  that  of  the 
majority.  A  closer  examination  showed  the  cotyledons 
to  be  somewhat  larger  than  normal  and  the  leaves  proper 
to  be  exceedingly  small  and  almost  linear.  Nor  did  they 
attain  the  same  length  as  the  leaves  of  the  rosets  belong- 
ing to  other  types. 


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196  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

An  explanation  of  this  peculiar  development  was  songht 
in  a  possible  attack  on  the  part  of  either  fungi  or  bacteria 
or  in  soil  conditions.  But  the  latter  were  uniform  for  the 
entire  flat.  Neither  fungi  nor  bacteria  could  be  demon- 
strated nor  did  the  underground  portion  of  the  '*  ab- 
normal" plants  look  imhealthy  or  underdeveloped. 


Fig.  2.     Seedlixus  ok  x  C.  .  .  .  SctcheUi  and  x  C.  ,  .  .  arachnoidef 

At  this  stage  the  flat  presented  the  appearance  shown 
in  Fig.  1.  At  the  time  but  three  types  were  distinguished, 
the  first  of  these  constituted  by  plants  which  showed  an 
incision  of  the  blade,  the  second  composed  of  those  which 
apparently  had  entire  leaves,  and  a  third,  comprising  the 
small  and  linear-leaved  rosets,  which,  because  of  the  spider- 
like appearance  of  the  latter,  has  been  designated  xCap- 
sella  Bur sa-past oris  arachnoidea.    There  also  appeared  a 


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No.  568]   X  CAP8ELLA  BURSA-F  AST  ORIS  ARACHNOIDEA  197 

single  individual  which,  while  closely  resembling  the  form 
arachnoidea,  differed  from  it  in  having  somewhat  spatu- 
late  leaves.  This  plant,  a  plant  of  arachnoidea  and  two 
of  Setchelliana,  are  shown  in  Fig.  2. 

After  photographs  had  been  taken,  the  plants  were 
potted  and  placed  in  the  frames.  None  of  the  plants 
made  a  growth  as  vigorous  as  that  of  the  Capsellas  grow- 
ing in  the  open.  The  plants  of  the  form  arachnoidea  de- 
veloped leaves  with  a  greatest  length  of  15  mm.  and  a 
greatest  width  of  a  little  over  1  mm.,  causing  the  plant  to 
retain  its  spider-like  appearance.  The  roset  with  spatu- 
late  leaves  appeared  somewhat  more  vigorous,  the  aver- 
age leaf  measuring  22  mm.  in  length,  with  a  greatest  width 
of  2.5  mm.  In  later  generations  I  have  been  able  to  ob- 
tain rosets  of  arachnoidea  with  a  greatest  leaf-length  of 
100  mm.  and  a  greatest  width  of  6  mm. 

In  the  frames,  flowering  shoots  made  their  appearance, 
those  on  arachnoidea  being  remarkable  chiefly  because  of 
their  small  size,  reaching  a  length  not  exceeding  12  cm. 
The  flowers  were  small  but  well-formed.  No  well-devel- 
oped pollen  could  be  demonstrated.  Seed  did  not  form 
and  the  capsules  retained  their  original  form,  typical  of 
non-fertile  capsules  in  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris,  remind- 
ing one  of  the  capsules  of  Capsella  Heegeri.  They  do  not 
resemble  the  fertile  capsules  of  C.  procumbens.  In  the 
next  generation  I  saw  a  single  capsule  formed  on  arach- 
noidea as  the  result  of  cross-fertilization,  and  in  this  case 
it  differed  in  no  manner  from  the  normal  capsule  such  as 
we  know  it  in  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris. 

The  ''normal"  plants,  i.  e.,  all  those  not  belonging  to 
the  form  arachnoidea,  matured  a  large  amount  of  seed. 
No  measures  were  taken  to  prevent  cross-pollination,  but 
no  other  plant  of  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris,  within  a  radius 
of  twenty  feet,  was  in  flower. 

At  this  time,  another  attempt  was  made  to  group  the 
plants.  It  was  foimd  that  the  criterion  used  earlier,  i.  e., 
the  incision  of  the  blade,  no  longer  could  be  relied  upon, 
since  plants,  which  at  the  time  of  the  previous  coimt,  had 
shown  an  entire  margin,  now  were  more  or  less  incised. 


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198  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

Unfortunately,  after  the  seed  had  been  collected,  the  plants 
were  destroyed,  having  lost  their  climax  leaves.  An  attempt 
to  group  them  later  with  the  aid  of  photographs  failed,  be- 
cause photographs  of  all  plants  were  taken  during  the 
earlier  stages  only,  i.  e.,  before  the  appearance  of  the  cli- 
max leaves.  Another  classification,  for  which  climax  leaves 
are  not .  essential,  and  which  is  based  upon  the  relative 
width  of  the  first  six  or  eight  leaves,  yields  for  54  plants 
the  proportion:  ''wide"  31,  ''narrow"  16,  "linear"  7,  the 
ideal  proportion,  as  since  worked  out,  being  33 :  16 :  16. 
The  fact  that  the  number  for  "linear,"  which  represents 
the  form  arachnoidea,  is  too  small  by  9,  may  be  ascribed 
to  various  circumstances,  among  others  the  fact  that  the 
last  row  in  the  flat  did  not  appear  in  the  photograph  upon 
which  the  count  was  based.  It  is  in  the  last  row  of  a  flat 
one  ordinarily  meets  with  the  smaller  or  at  least  less  vig- 
orous individuals  and  it  is  very  probable  that  in  this  last 
row  occurred  a  large  percentage  of  individuals  belonging 
to  arachnoidea.  Furthermore,  not  all  the  seedlings,  but 
only  sixty,  were  taken  in  each  case.  Almost  unconsciously 
one  selects  the  largest  individuals  when  transplanting 
from  seedpan  to  flat.  It  is  probable  that  in  this  process 
there  were  eliminated  a  greater  percentage  of  seedlings 
of  the  linear  form  than  of  any  of  the  others.  Hence  no 
great  weight  can  be  attached  to  the  proportion  obtained. 
The  collection  of  seed  brought  the  work  for  1910  to  a 
close.  As  far  as  I  was  aware,  no  forms  similar  to  arach- 
noidea had  been  either  noted  or  described  by  any  one  who 
had  devoted  his  time  to  culture  experiments  with  Cap- 
sella.  Neither  Shull  in  America,  nor  Almquist  in  Swe- 
den, nor  Lotsy®  in  Holland,  has  made  mention  of  such 
forms  in  their  publications.  The  fact  that  no  seed  was 
produced  by  the  aberrant  form  seemed  to  hold  out  little 
hope  for  the  continuation  of  the  cultures,  and  the  sole 
trace  left  by  this  new  form,  if  taxonomic  form  it  was, 
threatened  to  consist  of  but  a  few  photographs  and  some 
alcohol  specimens.    A  single  possibility  presented  itself. 

»Lotsy,  J.  P.,  *  *  Vorlesungen  iiber  Deszendenztheorien, ' '   1:   180,  Jena, 
1906. 


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No.  568]   X  CAPSELLA  BURSA-PASTORIS  ARACHNOIDEA  199 

Whether  the  parent  plant  was  of  a  hybrid  character  or 
whether  the  parent  plant  was  mutating,  and  the  new  form 
or  forms  were  to  be  looked  upon  as  mutants,  in  either 
case  there  existed  the  possibility,  if  not  the  probability, 
that  from  the  seeds  obtained  from  those  plants  of  the 
second  generation  which  appeared  ''normal,"  a  third  gen- 
eration might  be  obtained  which  would  again  present  the 
abnormal  form.    Such  indeed  proved  to  be  the  case. 


Fig.  3.     Early  Stages  in  the  De>*eia>pmext  of  Broad-i.eaved,   Narrow-leaved 

AND  Li  NEAR- LEAVED   FORMS   OF  Capftcllu. 

The  seed  for  the  next  generation  was  obtained  from  19 
plants.  The  seed  was  sown  separately  in  pots  of  steril- 
ized soil.  Certain  of  the  parent  plants,  which  we  now 
identify  with  ShuU's  simplex  and  rhomboidea,  produced 
a  uniform,  broad-leaved  offspring.  Others  behaved  like 
the  parent,  the  form  arachnoidea  appearing  in  197  indi- 
viduals out  of  a  total  of  979,  which  does  not  include  the 
713  which  bred  true  to  the  broad  type.  (For  an  illustra- 
tion of  these  types  see  Fig.  3.) 

It  is  unnecessary  to  go  into  details  as  to  the  various 
theories  which  suggested  themselves  as  a  solution  of  the 


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200  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHI 

origin  of  the  linear-leaved  form  which,  becatise  of  its 
striking  appearance,  concentrated  the  attention  upon  it- 
self. That  perhaps  we  were  dealing  with  a  mutation  was 
a  thought  which  most  naturally  obtruded  itself  upon 
the  mind  of  one  who,  for  years,  had  fruitlessly  tested 
a  large  number  of  species  in  the  hope  of  discovering  a 
case  analogous  to  that  of  (Enothera  Lamarchiana}^  The 
possibility  of  a  cross  between  a  local  form  and  either 
Capsella  Heegeri  or  C.  procumbens,  suggested  itself. 
However,  the  seedling  stage  of  either  of  these  two  forms 
does  not  bear  the  remotest  resemblance  to  that  of  Cap- 
sella arachnoidea.  At  the  same  time  there  was  slight 
reason  for  believing  that  either  Capsella  Heegeri  or  Cap- 
sella procumbens  ever  had  been  grown  in  Ann  Arbor. 

During  1911  and  the  greater  part  of  1912,  the  problem 
rested  here,  no  satisfactory  explanation  being  found. 
But  pedigree  cultures  were  continued  until,  on  the  one 
hand,  we  succeeded  in  placing  the  plants  in  optimum  sur- 
roundings for  the  production  of  climax  leaves,  and  on  the 
other  began  to  distinguish  between  the  various  biotypes. 

The  Biotypes 

As  has  been  noted  previously,  it  was  possible  to  use  two 
criteria  for  the  classification  of  the  rosets.  Leaving  out 
of  consideration  the  rosets  of  the  linear-leaved  arach- 
noidea, it  was  f oimd  that  after  dividing  the  rosets  accord- 
ing to  the  ''broad"  or  ''narrow"  character  of  the  earlier 
leaves  (Big.  3),  it  was  possible  to  further  subdivide  each 
group  on  the  basis  of  the  marginal  indentation  of  the 
leaves  subsequently  formed. 

I.  The  ^' Broad''  Group. — Here  the  first  four  or  five 
leaves  possess  a  blade  which  is  approximately  twice  as 
long  as  broad.  Up  to  this  stage  the  margin  remains 
entire.  When  the  sixth  leaf  appears  one  ordinarily  can 
begin  to  distinguish  between  two  types.     These  are : 

Type  1. — In  this,  the  first  of  the  two  broad-leaved 
forms,  the  margin  of  the  first  eight  leaves  remains  entire, 

10 Hub,  H.,  ''The  Origin  of  Species  in  Nature,"  American  Naturalist, 
45:  646,  Nov.,  1911. 


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No.  568]   X  CAPSELLA  BURS A-P AST OEIS  ARACHNOIDEA  201 

showing  at  most  a  very  slight  crenation  (Fig.  4).  Usually 
the  ninth  leaf,  though  sometimes  it  is  the  eighth  and  some- 
times the  tenth,  shows  a  more  marked  indentation,  though 
seldom  of  a  depth  of  more  than  2  mm.  on  each  side  of 
the  leaf  and  slightly  below  the  middle.  Subsequent 
leaves  show  an  increase  in  the  number  and  depth  of  the 


Fig.  4.     Dissection  op  Young  Rosets  of  C.  .  .  .  simpler  and  C.  .  .  .  rhoin- 

boidea.  Showing  the  "  Broad  "  Character  op  the  Earlier  Leaves 

AND  the  Distinctive  Character  op  the  First  Sinus. 

indentations,  the  maximum  for  both  being  reached  in  the 
climax  leaves,  which  usually  show  five  indentations  reach- 
ing about  midway  from  margin  to  midrib.  In  those  of 
the  earlier  leaves  which  show  a  marked  incision  the  lobes 
are  obtuse.  In  the  later  leaves  the  lobes  become  acute. 
It  may  be  stated  as  a  general  truth,  that  an  increase  in 
the  depth  of  the  sinus  carries  with  it  an  increase  in  sharp- 
ness of  the  lobe.  There  is  no  secondary  lobing,  but  some- 
times the  margin  of  the  sinus  shows  a  slight  denticulation. 
While  in  the  earlier  leaves  the  sinuses  separating  the 
terminal  lobe  from  the  rest  of  the  blade  are  the  deepest, 


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202  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHI 

the  converse  is  true  in  the  later  leaves,  where  the  sinuses 
separating  the  terminal  lobe  are  the  most  shallow.  I 
have  identified  this  form  with  Shull's  simplex}^  My 
plants  also  agree  fairly  well  with  the  illustration  of  onto- 
genetic succession  of  leaf  forms  in  Bursa  .  .  .  simplex, 
shown  by  ShuU.^^ 

Type  2. — In  the  second  of  the  two  forms  distinguished 
because  of  the  greater  relative  width  of  their  first  leaves, 
the  margin  of  the  first  five  leaves  remains  entire,  as  in 
the  case  of  those  of  type  1  {simplex).  The  sixth  leaf, 
however,  ordinarily  shows  a  marked  indentation,  at  least 
3  mm.  deep  and  slightly  below  the  middle  of  the  blade 
(Fig.  4).  This  indentation  may  appear  in  one  margin  or 
in  both.  The  lower  margin  of  the  sinus  ordinarily  is  at 
right  angles  to  the  midrib,  the  upper  margin  making  an 
angle  of  45  degrees  with  the  midrib  ( Fig.7,  h ) .  Even  when 
it  has  become  difficult  to  distinguish  between  types  on  the 
basis  of  relative  width  of  the  earlier  roset  leaves,  it  always 
is  possible  to  distinguish  between  tjT)e  2  (rhotnboidea) 
and  type  4  {Setchelliana  and  Treleaseana)^  by  means  of 
the  character  of  the  sinus.  In  type  4,  the  lower  margin 
of  the  sinus  makes  an  angle  of  45  degrees  with  the  midrib, 
while  the  upper  margin  makes  an  angle  of  between  30 
and  45  degrees  with  the  midrib.  Hence  the  first  sinus  in 
C.  .  .  .  Setchelliana  and  C  .  .  .  Treleaseana  is  at  least 
90  degrees,  while  the  first  sinus  in  rhomboidea  measures 
seldom  more  than  45  degrees  and  frequently  less. 

The  seventh  leaf  of  plants  belonging  to  type  2  ordi- 
narily shows  two  indentations  on  both  sides  of  the  leaf, 
dividing  the  blade  into  a  lower  portion,  two  central  lobes 
and  a  terminal  lobe.  The  depth  of  the  incision  amounts 
to  about  three-fourths  of  the  width  of  the  blade  from  mid- 
rib to  margin. 

It  is  possible  to  delay  the  appearance  of  the  first  inden- 
tations by  transplanting  from  seedpan  to  flat  either  too 
early  or  too  late.  In  such  cases,  the  indentations  appear 
in  the  seventh  leaf  only,  or  even  later,  and  are  rather 

11  Loc.  city  25,  and  PI.  2,  Fig.  2. 

"Shun,  G.  H.,  **Verh.  d.  naturf.  Ver.  in  Bninn,''  49,  PI.  4,  191L 


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No.  568]   X  CAPSELLA  BURSA-P AST  ORIS  ARACHNOIDEA  203 

shallow,  reaching  a  depth  of  three-fourths  of  the  width  of 
the  leaf  from  margin  to  midrib  in  the  eighth,  ninth  or 
tenth  leaf.  However,  once  the  indentations  have  made 
their  appearance,  the  leaf  next  produced  ordinarily  shows 
two  sinuses  on  both  sides  of  the  blade,  usually  the  upper 
set,  rarely  the  lower,  being  the  deeper  of  the  two,  and 
almost  reaching  the  midrib.  The  succeeding  leaves  show 
an  increase  in  the  number  of  lateral  lobes  from  two  to 
six.  Since  the  incisions  almost,  if  not  quite,  reach  the 
midrib,  both  lateral  lobes  and  the  terminal  lobes  are  well 
defined.  Upon  the  lateral  lobes  secondary  lobes  appear, 
both  on  the  distal  and  proximal  margins.  It  is  to  be 
noted  that  only  the  climax  leaves  of  well-grown  specimens 
of  the  homozygotic  form  distinctly  show  the  lobing  of  the 
proximal  margin  and  this  only  on  the  middle  lobes.  The 
lobing  of  the  primary  lobes  results  in  the  setting  off  of 
a  small  terminal  portion  of  each  lateral  lobe,  which 
possesses  a  more  or  less  rhomboidal  form.  This  terminal 
lobe  of  the  primary  lobe  can  be  observed  to  advantage 
only  in  the  climax  leaves  of  well-developed  specimens. 

I  have  no  hesitation  in  identifying  type  2  with  ShuU's 
rhomboidea.^^ 

Capsella  Bursa-pastoris  simplex  and  C.  Bursa-pastoris 
rhomhoidea,  described,  respectively,  as  types  1  and  2, 
agree  in  having  the  first  five  or  six  leaves  twice  as  long  as 
broad,  thus  contrasting  sharply  with  the  plants  to  be  de- 
scribed under  types  3  and  4,  which  constitute  the  *' nar- 
row" group. 

II.  The  ''Narrow''  Group. — In  the  plants  belonging 
here,  the  first  five  or  six  leaves  possess  a  blade  which  is 
from  2^  to  3  times  as  long  as  broad.  Usually  after  the 
appearance  of  the  seventh  leaf,  sometimes  not  until  the 
appearance  of  the  tenth  leaf,  it  is  possible,  on  the  basis  of 
marginal  indentation,  to  separate  the  plants  with  **  nar- 
row'' roset-leaves  into  two  groups,  designated  respec- 
tively types  3  and  4. 

Type  3. — Rosets  of  plants  belonging  to  type  3  can  not 
be  distinguished  from  those  of  iype  4,  until  after  the 

"ShuU,  Verb.,  PL  2j  Biotypes,  PI.  1,  Fig.  2. 


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204  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHI 

seventh  leaf  has  appeared  (Fig.  5).  It  is  to  be  noted  that 
for  the  first  six  leaves  of  type  4,  the  ratio  between  mean 
length  and  width  is  6:2,  while  for  the  corresponding 
leaves  of  type  3,  the  same  ratio  is  5 :2.    Once  the  seventh 


Fig.  5.     Dissection  op  Young  Rosets  of  x  C.  .  ,  .  Setchelli  and  x  C.  .  .  . 

attenuata^  Showing  the  "  Nabrow  "  Character  op  the  Earlier 

Leaves  and  the  Distinctive  Character  op  the  First  Sinus. 

leaf  has  appeared,  a  distinction  readily  can  be  made,  since 
in  type  3,  no  sinuses  appear,  and  the  leaves,  from  the 
seventh  to  the  tenth,  might  be  mistaken  for  those  of 
simplex  (Fig.  5).  Later  leaves  readily  can  be  distin- 
guished from  those  of  simplex,  by  the  pointed  apex,  the 
very  shallow  sinuses,  ending  in  a  sharp  tooth,  and  by  the 
fact  that  the  greatest  width  of  the  blade  lies  above  the 
middle,  about  one  third  the  length  from  the  tip  (Fig.  6). 

This  form,  which  because  of  its  morphological  charac- 
ters on  the  one  hand,  and  its  behavior  in  breeding  on  the 
other,  can  readily  be  distinguished  from  all  others,  I 
designate  X  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris  attenuata. 

Type  4. — Not  only  do  the  first  leaves  of  plants,  belong- 
ing to  this  type,  differ  in  relative  width  from  the  first 
leaves  of  plants  of  rhomboidea  and  simplex,  but  there  also 


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No.  568]   X  CAPSELLA  BURSA-P  AST  ORIS  ARACHNOIDEA  205 

is  a  difference  in  the  apex  of  the  leaf,  the  apices  of  leaves 
of  this  type,  like  those  of  type  3,  being  decidedly  pointed, 
while  those  of  types  1  and  2  are  rounded.^* 

At  the  sixth  or  seventh 
leaf  stage,  the  marginal 
indentations  make  their 
appearance,  at  first  as 
slight  crenations,  then  as 
long  and  shallow  sinuses, 
and  finally,  in  the  eighth 
or  ninth  leaf,  as  a  sinus 
on  one  or  both  sides  of 
the  midrib  and  about  the 
middle  of  the  blade  (Fig. 
5 ) .  The  lower  margin  of 
the  first  sinus  ordinarily 
makes  an  angle  of  45 
degrees  with  the  midrib, 
while  the  upper  margin 
makes  an  angle  of  from 
30  to  45  degrees  with  the 
midrib.  This  renders  the 
first  sinus  ordinarily 
greater  than  90  degrees 
(Fig.  7,  a).  The  depth 
of  the  first  sinus  is  ap- 
proximately one  half  the 
distance  from  margin  to 

midrib.  In  subsequent  leaves  the  depth  increases,  so  that 
in  the  11th  leaf  the  sinuses  almost  reach  the  midrib.  In 
Treleasi,  one  of  the  two  forms,  which  together  constitute 
type  4,  the  climax  leaves  show  incisions  to  the  midrib,  and 
a  well-marked  terminal  lobe,  while  in  the  other  the  sinuses 
are  less  deep  but  the  terminal  lobe  still  is  well  marked 
(Fig.  8).    The  number  of  sinuses  increases  in  propor- 

^*  It  is  to  be  noted  that  in  mj  cultures  there  appear,  from  time  to  time, 
plants  of  rhomhoidea  of  which  the  leaves  have  sharply  pointed  lobes.  What 
relation  these  plants  bear  to  others  classed  with  them  under  rhomhoidea,  I 
am  at  present  unable  to  say. 


Fig.  6.     Lateb  Roset  Leaves  op  w  C, 
,  .  attenuata  and  C.  .  .  .  simplex. 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVIII 


tion  to  their  depth.  If  the  seventh  leaf  has  one  sinus 
in  each  margin,  the  eighth  and  ninth  usually  have  two, 
the  tenth  and  eleventh,  three,  and  so  on,  until  the  mean 
of  six  is  reached.    As  the  lobes  increase  in  number,  they 


Fio.  7.  Early  Roset  Leaves  of  x 
C.  .  .  .  Svtchein  AND  C.  .  .  .  rhom- 
hoidea. 


Fig.    8.      Climax    Leaves    of    x   C. 
.  .  SetchelH  and  x  C.  .  .  .  Treleasi. 


not  only  become  narrower  but  the  sinuses  do  likewise. 
This  is  the  result  of  a  gradual  increase  in  the  angle 
between  the  lower  margin  of  the  sinus  and  the  midrib. 
In  the  eighth  leaf  the  lower  margin  forms  an  angle  of 
about  90  degrees  with  the  midrib,  causing  the  formation 
of  a  primary  lobe,  triangular  in  shape  and  with  an  upper 
angle  of  about  45  degrees,  instead  of  the  90-degree  angle 
found  in  the  first  lobe.  In  older  leaves  the  angle  between 
lower  margin  of  sinus  and  midrib  may  increase  to  110  or 
even  120  degrees.  The  climax  leaves  therefore  get  to 
resemble  more  and  more  those  of  rhomboidea,  especially 
since  the  distal  margin  of  the  sinus,  from  the  tenth  leaf 
on,  exhibits  a  number  of  denticulations  which,  in  older 
leaves,  especially  of  one  of  the  forms  {Treleaseana)^ 
tend  to  become  incisions,  so  that  secondary  lobes  are 


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No.  568]   X  CAPSELLA  BVRSA-P  AST  ORIS  ARACHNOIDEA  207 

formed.  However,  the  end  of  the  lobes  of  early 
leaves  of  type  4  always  are  sharply  pointed  (Fig.  9), 
while  the  lobes  of  early  leaves  of  rhomboidea  are  ordi- 
narily rounded  at  the  ends  (Fig.  4). 


Fig.  9.     Upper  Row  :  3  Sets  op  Leav-es  from  as  Many  Plants  of  jr  C.  .  .  . 

TreleasL     Lower  Row  :  4  Sets  of  Leaves  from  as  Many 

PukNTS  OF  X  C.  .  .  .  Setchclli. 

From  a  morphological  point  of  view  these  leaves  are 
entirely  different  from  any  form  described  by  ShuU,  the 
differences  being  most  marked  and  very  readily  recog- 
nized once  our  attention  has  been  called  to  them.  But  it 
is  especially  the  behavior  of  the  plants  on  breeding  which 
leads  me  to  recognize  them  as  most  distinct  hybrid  forms 
and  which  I  have  designated  X  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris 
Setchelliana  in  honor  of  Professor  William  Albert 
Setchell,  and  X  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris  Treleaseana,  in 
honor  of  Professor  William  Trelease. 

Type  5. — Capsella  Bursa-pastoris  arachnoidea.  This 
form,  which  readily  is  recognized  from  the  first  by  its 
linear  leaves,  does  not  require  an  elaborate  description 
at  present,  since  it  will  be  discussed  in  detail  later.  It  has 
been  illustrated  in  Figs.  1,  2  and  3. 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVHI 


The  above  descriptions  apply  only  to  plants  grown 
under  fairly  uniform  conditions,  in  a  light  soil  in  a  green- 
house, and  treated  in  such  a  manner  as  to  oflfer  the  plant 
the  most  favorable  conditions  for  development.  By  leav- 
ing the  plants  too  long  in  the  flats,  so  that  crowding  re- 
sults, by  keeping  them  too  moist  and  warm,  etc.,  it  is 
possible  to  produce  abnormal  climax  leaves  in  which  the 
typical  diflferences  can  be  recognized  with  difficulty  only. 
By  leaving  plants  too  long  in  the  seedpans,  by  keeping 
them  too  dry,  it  may  be  brought  about  that  plants  flower 
without  having  produced  climax  leaves.  There  will  be 
doubtless  many  who,  because  of  this,  will  refuse  recogni- 
tion to  the  segregates  just  described.  **Qu8ecunque  dixi, 
si  placuerint,  dictavit  auditor."  Fortunately,  the  differ- 
ences of  behavior  on  breeding  are  such,  we  must  recognize 
their  distinct  genotypic  constitution. 

Genotypic  Constitutions 
ShuU,  in  the  papers  above  quoted,  made  one  of  the  most 
important  of  recent  contributions  to  science,  since  he  de- 
termined with  exactitude  the  relations  existing  between 
some  of  the  lesser  forms  which,  because  of  their  alleged 
constancy  or  inconstancy,  have  been  a  bone  of  contention 
since  the  days  of  Jacquin.  Making  extensive  cultures  of 
Capsella,  Shull  was  able  to  distinguish  four  forms  (Fig. 
10),  to  wit,  heteris,  with  leaves  divided  to  the  midrib,  with 


Fig.  10. 


CL13IAX  Leaves  of  C.  .  .  . 
AND  C. 


heteris,  C.  . 
.  .  .  simplex. 


tenuis 


rhomboidca 


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No.  5d8]   X  CAPSELLA  BURSA-PASTORIS  ARACUNOIDEA  209 

elongated  primary  lobes,  a  marked  secondary  lobe,  in  the 
distal  axil  of  the  primary  lobe  and  a  well-marked  terminal 
lobe ;  rhomboidea,  with  leaves  divided  to  the  midrib,  with 
an  imelongated  primary  lobe,  with  an  incision  in  the  distal 
margin  setting  oflf  a  secondary  lobe  and  a  corresponding 
incision  on  the  proximal  margin  of  the  primary  lobe,  set- 
ting off,  in  well-grown  specimens,  a  terminal  portion  of 
each  lateral  lobe,  generally  of  rhomboidal  form;  tenuis, 
with  the  elongated  primary  lobe  of  heteris,  but  with  a 
sinus  which  usually  does  not  reach  the  midrib,  terminal 
lobe  clear  cut;  simplex,  with  lateral  lobes  obtuse,  never 
attenuated,  the  incisions  being  shallow  and  never  reach- 
ing the  midrib. 

Shull  recognized  here  the  presence  and  absence  of  two 
factors,  one  (A)  responsible  for  the  sharp  primary  lobe 
of  heteris  and  the  attenuation  of  the  lobes  in  tenuis,  while 
the  other  (B)  is  responsible  for  the  division  of  the  leaf 
to  the  midrib,  the  definite  terminal  lobe  and  the  second- 
ary lobes.  On  this  basis  Shull  was  able  to  represent  the 
biotypes  by  conventional  Mendelian  symbols,  thus: 
heteris,  AB;  rhomhoidea,  aB;  tenuis.  Ah;  simplex,  ah. 

That  this  conventional  presentation  gives  us  a  reliable 
working  basis,  my  experiments  have  shown  most  satis- 
factorily. With  the  aid  of  these  symbols  I  have  been  able 
to  solve  the  origin  of  Capsella  arachnoidea,  the  experi- 
ments showing  that,  without  question,  forms  presenting 
the  spider-like  appearance  of  the  rosets  typical  of  this 
plant  are  of  hybrid  origin. 

The  Zygotic  Constitution  of  4,108.6 
The  problem  to  be  solved  was  that  of  the  zygotic  con- 
stitution of  the  original  parent,  the  plant  which  in  my 
notes  is  recorded  as  4,108.6.  Among  its  offspring  neither 
heteris  nor  tenuis  made  their  appearance,  while  both 
rhomhoidea  (aB)  ajid  simplex  (ah)  were  met  with.  Hence 
the  parent  was  homozygotic  for  (a),  but  heterozygotic 
for  (B).  Therefore,  its  zygotic  constitution,  in  part,  must 
have  been  aaBh. 

Besides  rhomhoidea  and  simplex  there  appeared  two 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHI 


forms,  referred  to  as  types  3  and  4,  the  latter  being  ca- 
pable of  further  subdivision.  Neither  of  these  was  de- 
scribed by  Shull.  At  least  one  difference  between  rhom- 
boidea  and  simplex,  on  the  one  hand,  and  types  3  and  4,  on 
the  other,  could  be  noted  at  once,  i.  e.,  the  relative  width 
of  the  leaf.  As  has  been  shown  above,  the  former  have 
their  first  leaves  twice  as  long  as  broad,  the  latter  three 
times  as  long  as  broad.  The  idea  suggested  itself  that 
there  might  exist  a  factor  which  determined  these  charac- 
ters. Since  the  original  parent  belonged  to  type  4,  the 
narrow  character  of  the  earlier  leaves  must  be  dominant 
over  the  broad  character.  Also,  since  the  original  parent 
produced  both  **  narrow  ^^  and  **  broad '^  types,  it  must 
have  been  heterozygotic  for  this  character.  Using  (N) 
to  indicate  the  gene,  we  get  for  the  zygotic  construction 
of  the  parent  plant  oaBbNn. 


aBN  aBn 


abN 


abn 


aBN 


aBn 


abN 


abn 


1 
aBN 
aBN 

2 
aBn 
aBN 

3 
abN 
aBN 

4 
abn 
aBN 

5 

j     aBN 
aBn 

9 

aBN 
,     abN 

1 

1 

6 

aBn 
aBn 

7 
abN 
aBn 

abn 

aBn      1 

10 
aBn 
abN 

11 
abN 
abN 

12 

abn 
abN 

13 

aBN 

abn 

14 

aBn 
abn 

16 

abN 
<d>n 

16  1 
abn 

abn        1 

Pig.  11. 


Diagram  to  Illustrate  the  Nature  op  the  Offspring  or  m  C.  . 
Setchelli  (aaBhNn). 


Since  self-fertilization  is  the  rule  in  Capsella,  it  was  an 
easy  matter  to  test  the  validity  of  the  theory.  A  form 
aaBbNn,  one  with  unelongated  primary  lobes,  sinuses 
reaching  the  midrib  and  with  early  leaves  of  a  *^  narrow  *' 
type  should  yield,  on  self-fertilization,  the  following  com- 
binations: l.bbnn  (square  16),  a  plant  of  which,  accord- 
ing to  our  definition,  the  earlier  roset  leaves  should  be 


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No.  568]  X  CAPSELLA  BUB8A-P AST  ORIS  ARACHNOIDEA  211 

broad  and  of  which  the  later  leaves  shall  lack  incisions 
reaching  to  the  midrib,  a  plant,  in  short,  which  should 
have  all  the  characteristics  of  Shull's  simplex.  Further- 
more, on  being  self ed,  it  should  yield  a  uniform  offspring, 
in  all  respects  resembling  the  parent. 

Such  plants  actually  were  encountered.  Of  the  plants 
grown  to  maturity,  twelve  were  selected  as  seed-bearers. 
All  bore  the  simplex  character.  Ten  of  these  plants  were 
selected  from  among  the  first  generation  of  plants  of  the 
supposed  zygotic  constitution  BbNn,  while  one  parent 
(yielding  No.  25,712)  was  derived  from  a  plant  bearing 
the  simplex  character  and  another  (yielding  No.  31,112) 
was  derived  from  a  plant  which  was  shown  to  have  the 
zygotic  constitution  bbNn. 

TABLE   I 
EviBENcx  or  HoMOZTOOTic  Characizb  of  Simplex  (hhnn) 


Index 
Nomber 

Number  of 
Plants 

Charmoter  of 

Index  Number  of  Parent 

Parent 

Grand- 
parent 

25.712 

78 

G»» 

S,n2BRl2P9 

bbnn 

bbnn 

26.912 

22 

0 

S,212BRSPI 

bbnn 

BbNn 

26.312 

42 

0 

S,212CR5PI 

bbnn 

BbNn 

26.612 

187 

0 

S,212FRSPS 

bbnn 

BbNn 

26.712 

180 

0 

S,212HR7P7 

bbnn 

BbNn 

30.012 

276 

0 

8,212C/25P1 

bbnn 

BbNn 

30.112 

108 

0 

8,212^i22P6 

bbnn 

BbNn 

30.212 

60 

0 

8,212Gi26P8 

bbnn 

BbNn 

30.312 

162 

0 

8.2120/26P8 

bbnn 

BbNn 

30.712 

27 

0 

S,212HRSP6 

bbnn 

BbNn 

31.112 

50 

0 

26.012A/27P6 

bbnn 

bbNn 

3.113 

207 

0 

26M2BRIPS 

bbnn 

BbNn 

1.399 

This  table  offers  an  excellent  illustration  of  the  small 
danger  of  an  accidental  cross,  even  if  the  plants  are  not 
guarded,  always,  of  course,  when  the  proper  precautions, 
indicated  above,  are  taken.  Numbers  26,312  and  30,012, 
as  well  as  numbers  30,212  and  30,312,  respectively,  offer 
instances  of  uniform  inheritance  in  plants  possessing 
recessive  characters  only  and  of  which  the  parents  in  the 
one  case  were  left  tmguarded,  in  the  other  caged.    Had 

19  In  tliis  colmnn  "G"  indicates  that  the  parent  plant  was  guarded, 
"O"  that  the  plant  was  open-fertilized.  In  other  tables  the  same  abbre- 
viation will  be  used. 


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21 2  THE  AMERICAN  NATUBAUST       [Vol.  XLVIH 

crossing  taken  place  in  the  case  of  the  nnguarded  flowers, 
this  wonld^  because  of  the  purely  recessive  characters 
possessed  by  simplex,  have  become  apparent  at  once.  In 
all  cases  the  parents  were  checked  by  means  of  herbarium 
specimens  or  photographs,  or  both. 

2.  hhNN  (square  11).  According  to  our  hypothesis,  a 
plant  of  this  zygotic  construction  should  have  the  earlier 
roset  leaves  narrow  and  the  climax  leaves  should  lack 
incisions  to  the  midrib.  It  also  should  breed  true.  A 
plant  fulfilling  these  conditions  has  not  been  encountered, 
or  rather,  its  recognition  was  delayed  until  the  offspring 
of  the  corresponding  heterozygote  hhNn  could  be  observed. 
As  will  be  shown,  the  zygotic  combination  bbNN  yields 
a  plant  with  the  external  characteristics  of  arachnoidea. 

3.  bbNn  (squares  12  and  15).  A  plant  of  this  zygotic 
constitution  should  have  narrow  early  leaves  and  the 
climax  leaves  should  lack  incisions  to  the  midrib.  On 
self-fertilization  it  should  yield  25  per  cent.  bbNN,  50 
per  cent.  bbNn  and  25  per  cent.  bbnn. 


bN       1       bn 
bN       1       bN 

bN             bn 
bn               bn 

Several  plants  were  foimd  which  fulfilled  the  require- 
ments as  to  leaf  characters.  Such  plants,  on  being  selfed, 
yielded  approximately  25  per  cent,  simplex,  which  we 
know  to  have  the  zygotic  constitution  bbnn,  while  about 
50  per  cent,  bore  the  parental  characters,  supposedly  rep- 
resented by  bbNn.  The  remaining  25  per  cent,  clearly 
belonged  to  the  type  arachnoidea.  In  all,  12  plants  were 
selected  as  seed-bearers,  some  being  guarded,  others  re- 
maining uncaged.    The  results  are  given  in  Table  II. 

The  totals  closely  approximate  the  Mendelian  ratio, 
yielding,  respectively,  bbNN 24  per  cent.,  bbNn 49  percent, 
and  bbnn  27  per  cent.  Having  established  the  identity 
of  bbnn  (simplex)  and  bbNn  {attenuata)j  we  are  forced 
to  recognize  bbNN  as  the  zygotic  construction  of  arach- 
noidea.   It  would  be  a  comparatively  easy  matter  to  test 


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No.  568]   X  CAPSELLA  BURSA-P AST  ORIS  ARACHNOIDEA  213 

this  directly,  prorided  the  form  arachnoidea  produced 
seed.  Though  I  have  grown  several  hundreds  of  these 
plants,  I  have  obtained  in  all  but  eight  seeds,  and  these  as 
the  result  of  hybridization.  Hence  the  test  must  be  made 
indirectly  through  crossing  of  forms  yielding  the  desired 
gametic  combinations. 

TABLE   II 
EviDBNci  or  Heteroztqotic  Chakactie  of  attenuata  (hbNn) 


Number  of  Plants 

Index  Number 
of  Parent 

Char, 
of 

O 
or 

Index 

» 

^yN 

bblfh 

bbnn 

Char, 
of 

Num- 

Grand- 

ber 

a 
1 

&l 

a 

1 

^1 

a 

i 

*! 

Parent 

0 

parent 

26,012 

19 

25.50 

56 

51.00 

27 

25.50 

S,212BR5PI 

66Arn 

0 

BbNn 

26,412 

8 

7.50 

14 

15.00 

8 

7.50 

S,212DR10PS 

bbNn 

0 

BbNn 

31,212 

16 

14.75 

27 

29.50 

16 

14.75 

2Q,012AR2PI 

bbNn 

0 

bbNn 

31.312 

22 

15.00 

19 

30.00 

19 

15.00 

26,012AR\P2 

bbNn  '  0 

bbNn 

31,412 

10 

14.25 

25 

28.50 

22 

14.25 

26.012il«lP3 

bbNn     0 

bbNn 

31.512 

24 

25.50 

47 

51.00 

31 

25.50 

26,012^«1P4 

bbNn  \  0 

bbNn 

31.612 

2 

2.50 

4 

5.00 

4 

2.50 

26,012^ie6P6 

bbNn     0 

bbNn 

31.812 

26 

28.25 

54 

56.50 

33 

28.25 

26,012J5«1P3 

bbNn     0 

bbNn 

31.912 

11 

16..50 

40 

33.00 

15 

16.50 

26,012B«1P6 

bbNn     0 

bbNn 

3.213 

61 

64.25 

130 

128.50 

66 

64.25 

26,912D/K2P4 

bbNn     0 

BbNn 

3.313 

70 

61.50 

117 

123.00 

59 

61.50 

26,912Jg:/?6P6 

bbNn     0 

BbNn 

3.513 

27 

35.50 

71 

71.00 

34 

35.50 

26,912/?iJ6P4 

bbNn  1  0 

BbNn 

Total  . 

296 

308.50 

604 

617.00 

334 

308.50 

1 

Of  the  twelve  parent  plants  concerned  in  the  above  ex- 
periment, five  were  selected  from  among  the  first  genera- 
tion of  a  plant  having  the  supposed  zj^gotic  constitution 
BbNn,  while  seven  were  the  direct  offspring  of  No.  26,012, 
which  had  been  shown  to  yield  the  three  forms,  arach- 
noidea, attenuata  and  simplex,  as  indicated  in  Table  II. 

Tlhe  simplex,  obtained  by  selfing  a  plant  of  bhNn,  breeds 
true,  as  indicated  in  Table  I,  No.  31,112,  a  simplex,  yield- 
ing a  uniform  simplex  offspring,  consisting  of  50  indi- 
viduals. 

4.  BBnn  (square  6).  A  plant  of  this  supposed  zygotic 
constitution  should  resemble,  in  all  respects,  ShulPs 
rhomb oidea,  the  earliest  roset  leaves  being  broad,  and  the 
incisions  of  the  climax  leaves  reaching  the  midrib.  It 
should  breed  true.  Five  lots,  involving  four  parents,  were 
grown.    Again  it  was  shown,  in  the  case  of  No.  26,812  and 


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214 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIH 


No.  30,612,  that  the  fact  that  plants  are  left  unguarded 
does  not  affect  results.  The  parents,  in  all  cases,  were 
selected  from  among  the  first  generation  of  plants  having 
the  supposed  zygotic  constitution  BbNn.  The  results  are 
given  in  Table  III. 

TABLE   III 
Evidence  or  Homoztgotic  Character  of  rhomboidea  (BBnn) 


Index  Number 

No.ofPUnta 

Index  Number  of  Parent 

Char,  of  Parent 

Gor  0 

25.812 

20 

8,212J5iJlP6 

BBnn 

0 

26,812 

80 

SM2BR3P2 

BBnn 

0 

27.012 

6 

SA12ER10P6 

BBnn 

G 

27.112 

210 

SM2ERISP12 

BBnn 

G 

30,612 

96 

SA12BR3P2 

BBnn           1 

0 

In  all  cases  the  off- 
spring was  uniformily  of 
the  rhomboidea  character. 


Bn 

Bn 

Bn 

bn 
bn 

Bn 

bn 

bn 

5.  Bbnn  (squares  8  and 
14) .  Plants  of  this  zygotic 
constitution  should  resem- 
ble those  of  the  preceding 
group,  but  on  being  self  ed 
should  yield  25  per  cent 
homozygotic  rhomboidea 
{BBnn) J  50  per  cent,  het- 
erozygotic  rhomboidea 
{Bbnn)  and  25  per  cent. 
simplex  {bbnn). 

These  three  forms  were 
found  to  constitute  the 
offspring  of  a  single  plant, 
8,212ffi?lP3,  itself  an  off- 
spring of  a  plant  of  the 
supposed  zygotic  constitution  BbNn.    This  plant,  from 

16  Bursa  ...  39. 


Fig.  12.  Climax  Lbavbs  of  a  Hbtbb- 
ozTOOTic  C  .  .  .  rhomboidea  and  of  a 
HoMOZYQOTic    C.    .   .    .   rhomboidea.    . . 


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No.  568]   X  CAPSELLA  BUBSA-PASTOBIS  ABACHNOIDEA  215 

the  first,  was  classified  as  a  rhomboidea.  At  the  present 
time,  a  photograph  of  the  young  roset  confirms  this 
classification.  But  two  climax  leaves,  which,  in  the 
earlier  part  of  these  experiments,  were  deemed  suffi- 
cient, show  that  the  sinuses  do  not  quite  reach  the  midrib 
(Fig.  12).  Unfortunately,  Shull,  in  the  description  of 
his  No.  054.28,^®  does  not  mention  this  point,  though  he 
does  point  out  that  **the  later  rosette-leaves  had  some 
of  the  secondary  lobes  acutish,  but  not  elongated.  *'  In 
the  older  climax  leaves,  even  of  a  homozygous  rhom- 
boidea, I  find  that  the  secondary  lobes  disappear.  Shull, 
in  the  description  just  referred  to,  is  so  specific  as  to  the 
typical  rhomboidea  character  of  the  heterozygote  that  I 
have  hesitated  to  classify  the  heterozygotes  and  the  homo- 
zygotes.  But  the  homozygotic  rhomboidea,  obtained  as 
the  extracted  recessive  of  a  selfed  plant  of  the  supposed 
zygotic  constitution  BBNn,  always  has  sinuses  which 
reach  the  midrib.  In  other  combinations,  also,  one  can 
distinguish  between  BB  and  Bb  by  the  relative  depth  of 
the  sinus.  For  the  present,  then,  we  will  rely  upon  this 
character.  In  the  case  under  discussion  (26,612,  the  off- 
spring of  8,212ffi?lP3,  guarded)  there  were  among  the 
39  plants  6  which  clearly  were  simplex,  the  heterozygotic 
rhomboidea  was  represented  by  22  individuals,  and  the 
homozygotic  rhomboidea  by  11  individuals,  the  calculated 
ratio  being  9.75 :  19.50 : 9.75.  The  percentage  of  simplex 
is  far  too  low,  15.4  per  cent.,  instead  of  25  per  cent.,  but, 
considering  the  small  number  of  individuals  concerned, 
the  total  outcome  is  fairly  satisfactory.  It  is  almost  tin- 
necessary  to  add  that  in  this,  as  in  other  cases,  the  off- 
spring of  the  various  plants  is  being  tested  as  fast  as 
time  and  facilities  permit. 

Type  4. — ^Having  shown  the  presumable  correctness  of 
our  supposition  as  to  the  zygotic  constitution  of  the  initial 
plant  {BbNn)y  as  far  as  the  presence,  appearance  and  be- 
havior on  breeding  of  simplex,  rhomboidea  and  attenuata 
are  concerned,  there  remains  to  identify  the  major  group  of 
combinations  which,  in  a  simple  di-polyhybrid,  constitutes 


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216  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIH 

nine  sixteenths  of  the  total  offspring  and  may  be  uniform 
in  appearance,  the  constitnents  being  separable  only  by 
breeding,  '*eine  heillose  Arbeit,''  as  Baur  has  it.  For- 
tunately, in  this  case,  it  is  possible  to  distinguish  readily 
between  the  various  combinations. 

One  of  the  combinations,  BBNN  (square  1),  should 
breed  true,  being  homozygotic  for  both  characters  con- 
cerned. We  would  expect  such  a  plant  to  have  narrow 
first  leaves  and  climax  leaves  with  incisions  to  the  mid- 
rib. Thus  far  I  have  not  encountered  such  a  plant,  some- 
thing which  at  one  time  led  me  to  consider  the  possibility 
of  gametic  repulsion,  in  this  instance  the  gamete  BN 
being  incapable  of  existence.  This  supposition  seemed 
the  more  plausible  since  the  two  genes  B  and  N  well  might 
be  supposed  to  be  antagonistic,  the  one  being  responsible 
for  an  incision  of  the  leaf  to  the  midrib,  the  other  tending 
to  make  the  leaf,  especially  the  earlier  leaves,  narrow. 
Were  this  assumption  correct,  none  of  the  zygotic  combi- 
nations found  in  squares  1,  2  and  5,  3  and  9,  and  4  and  13, 
would  be  formed,  though  we  would  expect  the  same  com- 
bination as  occurs  in  squares  4  and  13  to  make  its  appear- 
ance as  the  result  of  the  fusion  of  the  gametes  bN  and 
Bn  (squares  7  and  10). 

Were  this  supposition  correct,  we  should  have  a  case 
similar  to  that  of  the  sweet  pea  ** Purple  Invincible,"  and 
we  could  not  expect  the  gamete  (bn)  to  be  formed.  Since, 
however,  simplex  (bbnn)  appears  in  our  cultures,  this 
theory  must  be  rejected.  Eecently  also,  in  culture  No. 
30,412,  an  instance  was  found  in  which  the  guarded  parent, 
supposedly  of  type  4,  yielded,  not  simplex,  rhomhoidea, 
attenuata,  arachnoidea  as  well  as  the  parental  type,  but 
only  arachnoidea,  rhomboidea  and  the  parental  type,  and 
in  proportions  closely  approximating  a  ratio  1:1:2. 

A  plant  which  yielded  25  per  cent,  rhomboidea  and  no 
simplex,  must  have  been  homozygotic  for  B,  and  since  it 
yielded  also  50  per  cent,  of  type  4,  must  have  been  hetero- 
zygotic  for  N,  its  zygotic  constitution  therefore  being 
BBNn.  Such  a  plant,  on  self-fertilization,  should  yield 
25  per  cent,  rhomboidea.    Provided  the  homozygote  and 


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No.  568]   X  CAPSELLA  BUBSA--PAST0R1S  ARACHNOIDEA  217 

the  lieterozygote  have  the  same  appearance,  the  remaining 
75  per  cent,  should  resemble  the  parent  (Fig.  9,  &). 


BN 
BN 

Bn 
BN 

BN 
Bn 

Bn 
Bn 

But  in  one  case  (30,412),  the  parent  being  8,4125i?9P9, 
and  open  fertilized,  the  offspring  consisted  of  26.3  per 
cent,  rhomboidea,  46.2  per  cent,  of  the  parental  type  and 
27.5  per  cent,  arachnoidea.  If  our  supposition  as  to  the 
zygotic  constitution  of  the  parent  is  correct,  then  the 
zygotic  constitution  of  the  arachnoidea  in  this  offspring 
must  be  BBNN.  In  the  case  of  a  selfed  attenuata,  we 
found  that  approximately  25  per  cent,  of  the  offspring 
was  composed  of  arachnoidea  of  the  probable  zygotic  con- 
stitution bbNN.  Is  it  possible  that  any  Capsella,  homo- 
zygotic  for  N,  would  have  the  appearance  of  arachnoidea? 
This  seems  more  than  probable,  and  other  evidence,  to  be 
adduced  later,  appears  to  support  this  view.  The  history 
of  the  BBNn  is  as  follows : 

During  1912  I  grew  No.  8,412  from  seeds  of  a  plant 
which  resembled  the  grandparent  4,108.6.  It  was  com- 
posed of  1,079  individuals,  among  which  various  types, 
such  as  '* broad, ^'  ** narrow*'  and  ** linear,''  could  be  rec- 
ognized. Not  all  plants  were  thus  classified,  a  fourth 
group  of  '* intermediates"  being  formed,  indicating  that 
some  of  the  plants,  while  in  certain  respects  resembling 
simplex  and  especially  rhomboidea  (deep  lobing,  second- 
ary lobes),  in  other  characters  more  closely  approximated 
the  '* narrows,"  since  their  early  leaves  had  been  noted 
as  *' narrow."  In  the  light  of  recent  experience,  it  is  easy 
to  see  why  the  distinction  was  made,  though  at  the  time 
the  conception  of  the  differences  was  most  hazy.  Several 
of  these  ** intermediates"  were  grown,  and  of  these  a 
single  one  yielded  the  seed  for  the  next  generation.  This 
plant  had  been  permitted  to  flower  unguarded,  but  after  a 
number  of  capsules  had  developed  on  the  main  stalk,  this 
was  decapitated  and  the  sideshoots  were  allowed  to  de- 


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218 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 


velop.  At  this  time  the  entire  plant  was  caged.  Subse- 
quently the  seeds  of  the  open  fertilized  and  of  the  guarded 
flowers  were  sown  separately,  with  the  following  results : 


S0,412.    Open  Fertilized 


Per  Cent. 


Planto 


Found     I   Expected 


30,512.    Guarded 
Plants 


Per  Cent. 


Found     I  Expected 


Aracknoidea.  . 
"Narrow"... 
Rhomboxdea.  . 


27.5 
46.2 
26.3 


40 
67 
38 


36.25 
72.50 
36.25 


21.15 
36.15 
42.70 


52 

89 

105 


I 


61.50 
123 
61.50 


The  figures  are  given  separately  to  again  call  attention 
to  the  fact  that  open  fertilization  is  no  hindrance  to  pedi- 
gree work  in  Capsella.  Since  the  seeds  came  from  the 
same  parent,  we  may  add  the  results,  which  gives  us 
arachnoidea  23.50  per  cent.,  ** narrow"  40  per  cent,  and 
rhomboidea  36.50  per  cent.  The  fact  that  the  percentage 
for  **  narrow  *'  is  too  low  and  that  for  rhomboidea  too 
high,  while  the  percentage  for  arachnoidea  is  within  the 
limits  of  probable  error,  is  probably  due  to  errors  in 
classification,  since  greater  weight  was  laid  upon  lobing 
of  the  adult  leaves  than  upon  comparative  width  of  the 
earlier  ones.  The  value  of  this  culture  lay  chiefly  in  its 
suggestion  of  a  zygotic  combination  BBNn,  which  prior 
to  that  time,  on  account  of  the  gametic  repulsion  theory, 
was  not  supposed  to  exist.  In  consequence,  a  number  of 
cultures  were  made,  with  the  following  result : 


TABLE   IV 
Evidence  of  Heterozygotic  Char.\cter  of  Treleaseana  (BBNn) 


Index 
No. 


3,813 
3,913 
4,013 
4,213 
4.313 
4,413 


Total 


Number  of  PlanU 

1 
1 

BBXN 

BBNn 

BBnn 

a 

1 

'd 

a 

1 

4 

Found 

Ex- 
pected 

38 

30 

56 

60 

26 

30 

36 

44.76 

87 

89.50 

56 

44.75 

14 

15.26 

28 

30.50 

19 

15.25 

15 

28.60 

65 

57 

34 

28.60 

33 

33 

62 

66 

37 

33 

37 

45.25 

102 

90.50 

42 

45.26 

173 

196.75 

400 

393.50 

214 

196.75 

Index  No.  of 
Parent 


30,412^«2P6 
30,412^/?4P3 
30,412^/26P3 
S0A12BR2P6 
30M2BR6P5 
30,412J5/29P2 


Char. 

of 
Parent 


_L 


BBNn 
BBNn 
BBNn 
BBNn 
BBNn 
BBNn 


Char. 

of 
Grand- 
parent 


O    BBNn 


BBNn 
BBNn 
BBNn 
BBNn 
BBNn 


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No.  568]   X  CAPSELLA  BURSA-P AST  ORIS  ARACHNOIDEA  219 

The  *' narrows*'  in  question,  then,  fulfilled  our  expecta- 
tion on  the  basis  of  a  zygotic  constitution  BBNn.  In 
some  cases  the  percentages  are  too  high,  in  others  too  low. 
The  total  yields  fairly  satisfactory  results,  to  wit:  BBNN 
22  per  cent.,  BBNn  51  per  cent,  and  BBnn  27  per  cent. 
Two  tests  of  the  extracted  recessive,  a  homozygotic  rhom- 
boidea,  were  made.  The  cultures.  No.  3,713,  from  a 
guarded  rhomhoidea  (30,412u4B2P3)  and  No.  4,113,  from 
an  unguarded  rhomhoidea  (30,412u4iJ8P3),  both  derived 
from  plants  of  the  supposed  zygotic  constitution  BBNn, 
yielded,  respectively,  54  and  207  plants,  all  of  which  bore 
the  typical  rhomhoidea  characters. 

In  the  cultures  just  tabulated,  the  plants  of  the  sup- 
posed zygotic  constitution  BBNn  resembled  the  parent  in 
all  respects.  The  form  arachnoidea,  in  this  case,  must 
have  the  zygotic  formula  BBNN.  Unfortunately,  in  this 
case  also,  it  proved  imf ertile. 

A  better  acquaintance  with  plants  of  the  zygotic  consti- 
tution BBNn  led  us  to  formulate  certain  differences  be- 
tween them  and  our  original  *' narrow.**  Plants  of  the 
BBNn  character,  readily  can  be  segregated  from  those  of 
the  BhNn  character  by  somewhat  narrower  primary 
lobes,  split  to  the  midrib  and  the  development,  in  climax 
leaves  of  well-grown  specimens,  of  a  secondary  lobe,  not 
pronounced  but  recognizable  (Figs.  8,  9). 

On  the  basis  of  these  morphological  differences,  as  well 
as  because  of  the  behavior  of  the  plant  on  breeding,  I 
propose  to  segregate  it  from  type  4  under  the  name 
X  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris  Treleaseana.  This  form  is 
homozygotic  for  B,  while  Setchelliana  is  heterozygotic 
for  B.  Both  are  heterozygotic  for  N.  They  may  be  ex- 
pected to  look  alike  during  the  early  stages.  Later  they 
show  a  difference,  since  the  form  containing  Bh  does  not 
develop  sinuses  as  deep  as  the  form  containing  BB.  The 
form  Treleaseana,  when  young,  can  readily  be  distin- 
guished from  a  heterozygotic  rhomhoidea  (Bbnn)  by  the 
relative  width  of  the  early  leaves ;  later  such  a  distinction 
is  diflScult  (Figs.  4,  5,  7).  If  any  distinction  at  all  is  to 
be  made,  it  should  be  made  on  the  basis  of  the  rounding 


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220  THE  AMERICAN  NATUBAZI8T       [Vol.  XLVUI 

of  the  lobes,  those  of  Treleaseana  being  sharp,  those  of 
the  heterozygotic  rhomboidea  rounded. 

I  am  fully  aware  that  in  thus  naming  genotypes,  I  am 
departing  from  all  rules  laid  down  by  systematists.  But 
a  rule  is  useful  only  as  long  as  it  serves  a  purposed  For 
the  geneticist,  the  rules  of  systematists  are  of  small  value. 
Subspecies,  variety,  form,  are,  after  all,  but  very  general 
terms,  almost  incapable  of  definition  because  of  too  fre- 
quent abuse.  But  once  we  have  determined  the  zygotic  con- 
stitution of  any  plant,  we  have  placed  ourselves  on  a  firmer 
basis.  Behavior  in  breeding  is  the  proper  criterion.  And 
while  I  recognize  that  this,  for  systematic  purposes,  is 
impracticable,  at  the  same  time  I  assert  the  right  to  use 
a  trinomial  for  any  organism  of  known  zygotic  constitu- 
tion, this  being,  at  the  present  time  at  least,  the  easiest 
way  of  designating  any  particular  form.  Some  day  we 
shall  have  formulas,  corresponding  to  those  of  chemistry, 
to  designate  the  lesser  forms. 

The  increase  in  the  number  of  named  forms,  a  neces- 
sary consequence,  need  cause  no  alarm,  since  they  concern 
only  him  who  occupies  himself  with  one  species  exclu- 
sively. But  we  must  go  even  further  than  this.  Squarely 
facing  the  issue,  we  find  ourselves  placed  in  apposition 
which  necessitates  the  naming  of  heterozygotes.  Obvi- 
ously, numerous  objections  could  be  urged.  But  since  it 
has  been  shown,  on  the  one  hand,  that  certain  forms  can 
exist  only  in  a  heterozygous  form  (Baur^s  Antirrhinum) 
and,  on  the  other,  that  not  only  the  difference  between  the 
homozygote  and  the  heterozygote  is  as  great  as  that  be- 
tween many  of  our  **  systematic '^  species  (for  instance, 
attenuata,  bbNn,  and  arachnoidea,  bbNN)j  but  that  a 
homozygotic  condition  for  a  single  gene  gives  the  same 
result,  whatever  the  condition  of  the  other  known  genes, 
at  least  as  thus  far  determined  (arachnoidea  occurs  as 
aaBBNN,  aaBbNN  and  aabbNN)^  the  advantage  of  nam- 
ing all  forms  of  different  zygotic  constitution  must  be 
granted. 

Thus  far  we  have  not  encountered  a  plant  of  the  zygotic 
c<mstitution  BbNN,  at  least  as  far  as  can  be  judged  from 


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Na  568]   X  CAPSELLA  BURSA-PASTOBIS  ARACHNOIDEA  221 

breeding  experiments.     On  being  selfed  such  a  plant 
should  yield : 


BN 
BN 

bN 
BN 

BN 
bN 

hN 
bN 

It  has  been  shown  that  plants  of  the  zygotic  constitu- 
tion BBNN  and  bbNN  exhibit  the  arachnoidea  type.  At 
least  50  per  cent,  of  the  offspring  then  should  show  this 
character.  But  if  the  suggestion  made  above  is  the  cor- 
rect one,  i.  6.,  that  all  plants  homozygotic  for  N  exhibit 
the  arachnoidea  type,  then  the  parent  and  its  entire  off- 
spring should  bear  this  character.  The  unfortunate  in- 
fertility of  arachnoidea  prevents  us  from  submitting  this 
hypothesis  to  direct  experimental  proof.  But  there  exist 
indirect  means  for  establishing  the  probable  truth  of  our 
contention.  In  the  first  place,  we  may  cross  two  plants, 
the  identity  of  which  can  be  established  beyond  doubt,  to 
wit,  attenuata  (bbNn)  and  Treleaseana  (BBNn).  Such  a 
cross  would  yield : 


BN 

bN 

Bn 
bN 

BN 

bn 

Bn 
bn 

Of  these,  we  would  recognize  Bbnn  because  of  its  rhom- 
boidea  character,  50  per  cent,  would  be  recognized  as 
Setchelliana  (BbNn),  while  the  remainder,  if  our  surmise 
is  correct,  would  consist  of  arachnoidea.  Experiments  to 
determine  this  are  under  way.  At  the  present  we  have 
another,  though  by  far  less  accurate,  means  of  testing  our 
hypothesis.  If  the  combination  NN  always  results  in  a 
form  arachnoidea,  the  offspring  of  a  plant  of  the  zygotic 
constitution  BbNn  would  be  composed  of : 

4  Setchelliana  (BbNn), 

2  Treleaseana  (BBNn), 

2  attenuata  {bbNn), 

4  arachnoidea  (1  BBNN,  2  BbNN,  1  bbNN), 


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222 


THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHI 


3    rhomhoidea  (1  BBnn,  2  Bbnn), 

1  simplex  (bbnn). 
Since  BbNn,  BBNn  and  bbNn,  in  the  earlier  experi- 
ments, might  have  been  confonnded  in  the  later  stages, 
and  since  there  is  little  doubt  as  to  the  earlier  stages, 
these  three  forms  have  been  combined  in  Table  V. 


TABLE   V 
Besults  from  Selected  Setchetliana  (BbNn) 


Index 

"Narrow" 

rhomboidea 

simplex 

No. 

Foand 

Expected 

Found 

Expected 

Found 

Expected 

Found 

Expected 

26.912 
3,613 

134 
94 

167.6 
89 

94 
45 

78.8 
45 

68 
33 

59.1 
33.75 

19 
8 

19.7 
11.25 

This,  especially  in  the  case  of  No.  3,613,  is  a  fairly  close 
approximation  to  what  we  might  expect.  When  in  No. 
3,613  we  attempt  to  distinguish  between  Setchelliana, 
Treleaseana  and  attenuata,  we  get  the  following  num- 
bers, the  expected  numbers  following  in  parentheses: 
BbNn  39(45),  BBNn  21(22.50),  bbNn  34(22.50),  the  last 
number  being  far  too  high.  When  the  experiments  were 
begun,  we  distinguished  only  between  '*  narrow," 
'* broad''  and  ''linear.''  To-day  we  know  that  the  ''nar- 
rows" include  Treleaseana,  Setchelliana  and  attenuata, 
that  the  "broads"  include  rhomboidea  and  simplex,  while 
the  linears  are  identical  with  arachnoidea.  In  this  light 
it  is  of  interest  to  go  back  to  the  first  generation  of  1910. 
Our  data  yield  the  figures  given  in  Table  VI. 

TABLE  VI 


"Narrow" 

"Linear*' 

"Broad" 

Index  No. 

Found 

Expected 

Found 

Expected 

Found 

Expected 

7,911 

34 

30.50 

9 

15.25 

18 

15.25 

8,111 

27 

35.50 

16 

17.75 

28 

17.75 

8.311 

66 

61 

32 

30.50 

24 

30.50 

8.711 

27 

27 

15 

13.50 

14 

13.50 

8.811 

49 

46.50 

20 

23.25 

24 

23.25 

9,011 

4 

7.50 

4 

3.75 

7 

3.75 

9,511 

93 

76 

32 

38 

27 

38 

9.611 

28 

23.50 

6 

11.75 

14 

11.75 

Total 

328 

308.50 

133 

154.25 

156 

154.26 

Per  cent 

53.2 

50 

21.5 

25 

25.3 

25 

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No.  568]   X  CAPSELLA  BURSA-P AST  OBIS  ABACHNOIDEA  223 

It  must  be  granted  that  the  approximation  is  fairly 
close,  and  that,  taken  in  consideration  with  the  others,  it 
offers  ample  support  for  the  correctness  of  the  diagnosis 
of  the  zygotic  constitution  of  the  original  plant.  It  at 
least  offers  a  working  basis.  One  would  be  tempted  to 
accept  it  as  a  final  solution  were  it  not  for  the  fortunate 
appearance  of  a  plant  which  does  not  fit  into  our  scheme 
and  which,  provisionally,  has  been  nsuxiedCapsella  Bursa- 
past  oris  orbicularis. 

Capsella  Bubsa-pastobis  obbiculabis 
This  form  differs  from  any  other  plant  encountered 
in  my  cultures.  While  in  a  general  manner  resembling 
simplex,  it  differs  in  being  more  robust,  having  larger 
flowers  (though  not  as  large  as  those  of  C.  grandiflora)^ 
and  in  having  orbicular  first 
leaves  (Fig.  13).  All  leaves 
are  covered  with  stout  hairs. 
It  is  a  plant  which  tempts  us 
to  draw  a  parallel  between  it 
and  (Enothera  gigas,  a  name 
which  I  have  not  used  for  the 
sake  of  avoiding  an  impUed  .'^;''^^,«^''"''*''  ''^  '^' 
comparison. 

The  first  plant  of  this  type  appeared  in  a  culture  of 
attenuata  (26,0125B3P5)  and  was  of  sufiSciently  striking 
appearance,  though  but  four  or  five  leaves  had  developed, 
to  call  for  a  special  note  and  a  photograph.  Later  the 
plant  was  potted  and  finally  seed  was  gathered  from  the 
unguarded  plant.  From  this  seed  four  seedlings  were 
obtained.  At  least  three  of  them  closely  resembled  the 
parent,  the  fourth  having  somewhat  narrower  leaves. 
Later  the  differences  between  these  plants  and  those  of 
simplex  became  more  apparent  (Fig.  14).  Those  of  my 
students  to  whom  the  differences  have  been  pointed  out 
have  not  the  slightest  difficulty  in  distinguishing  between 
the  two  forms.  It  is  hoped  that  later,  when  by  means  of 
prolonged  cultures  I  shall  have  made  myself  more  familiar 
with  this  form,  it  may  be  made  the  subject  of  a  distinct 
paper  where  histological  and  cytological  studies  will  find 


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224  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVm 

a  place.  One  would  be  inclined  to  look  upon  orbicularis 
as  a  mutation.  But  the  fact  that  at  first  we  classed 
arachnoidea  as  such,  later  to  prove  it  of  hybrid  origin,^^ 


Fio.  14.     Four  Seedlings  of  C  .  .  .  orbicularis  and  (the  lower)   Two  Seed- 
linos  OF  C.  .  .  .  simplex. 

would  tend  to  make  us  cautious,  and  lead  us  to  attempt  to 
find  a  solution  for  the  origin  of  orbicularis  in  the  disso- 
ciation or  combination  of  certain  *  *  units. ' '  While  I  should 
not  care  to  go  quite  as  far  as  M.  Heribert  Nilson'®  **das 
ganze  Mutations  phanomen  durfte  unter  einen  gemein- 
samen  Gesichtspunkte :  der  Mendelschen  Neukombination 
eingeordnet  werden  konnen,"  yet  it  is  probable  that  here 
the  majority  of  alleged  mutations  may  be  classed. 

iTBaur's    (Vererbungslehre,    189)    narrow-leaved   Melandrium  album  is 
perhaps  susceptible  of  the  same  explanation. 

i^Zeitschr.  f,  ind.  Ahst.  «.  Bcrerh.,  8:  89,  1912. 


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No.  568]  X  CAPSELLA  BURSA-F AST  ORIS  ARACHNOIDEA  225 

An  examination  of  the  herbarium  material  placed  at 
my  disposal  reveals  the  fact  that  plants,  apparently 
identical  with  C.  orbicularis,  occur  in  Europe.  In  the 
Engelmann  herbarium  of  the  Missouri  Botanical  Garden 
are  two  sheets  (No.  3,661  and  3,664)  containing  specimens 
which  undoubtedly  must  be  classed  here.  The  latter  sheet 
bears  the  label :  Thlaspi  Bursa-pastoris  humUe.  Heidel- 
berg.   April  1828. 

A  culture  of  Capsella,  derived  from  seed  of  a  single 
plant,  unfortimately  not  preserved,  escaped  from  culti- 
vation in  the  Experiment  Garden,  and  consisting  of  182 
individuals  (Ehlers,  No.  4,813),  appears  to  be  composed 
entirely  of  orbicularis.  And  while  I  have  never  encoun 
tered  the  plant  in  nature,  these  two  facts  lead  us  to  another 
possible  explanation.  Perhaps  the  appearance  of  orbic- 
ularis in  the  original  culture  was  due  to  an  accidental 
admixture,  such  as  is  almost  impossible  to  guard  against 
when  experimental  plants  are  grown  in  a  greenhouse  used 
for  a  variety  of  purposes. 

The  exact  relation  which  orbicularis  bears  to  the  other 
types  of  Capsella  here  described  can,  of  course,  be  de- 
termined only  after  a  series  of  experiments  has  been  car- 
ried out.  However,  the  delay  in  the  completion  of  the 
manuscript,  caused  by  the  unfortunate  destruction,  by 
fire,  of  the  botanical  laboratories  of  the  University  of 
Michigan,  enables  me  to  add  that  a  third  generation  of 
orbicularis,  the  parent  being  No.  32,012B1P3,  shows  at 
least  two  and  possibly  three  types,  of  which  one  is  espe- 
cially interesting  in  having  rather  narrow  leaves,  at  least 
as  compared  with  those  of  typical  orbicularis.  The  con- 
trast between  the  two  forms  is  increased  by  the  fact  that 
in  the  narrow-leaved  form  the  foliage  is  entirely  glabrous, 
while  in  the  typical  orbicularis  the  leaves  are  covered 
with  numerous  stiff,  almost  bristle-like,  hairs. 

X  Capsella  Bubsa-pastobis  abachnoidea 
By  this  name  is  designated  the  linear-leaved  form,  the 
appearance  of  which  induced  us  to  undertake  the  cultiva- 
tion of  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris  Setchelliana. 


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226  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 


FKJ.      l.'i.        I{r)SKT.S      iLI.rSTUATING     Tl.K     Two     TYPKS 


Already  the  leaves  which  immediately  follow  the  coty- 
ledons serve  to  distinguish  plants  of  this  type  from  all 
others.  At  the  ten-leaf  stage  even  the  casual  observer  is 
able  to  segregate  them  at  once  from  the  other  rosets. 
The  leaves  are  acicular  and  the  cotyledons  far  larger 
than  those  of  the  seedlings  of  the  other  forms.  The 
greater  size  of  the  cotyledons  may  be  attributed  to  the 
insufficiency  of  the  subsequent  leaves. 

If  one  removes  the  terminal  bud  of  seedlings  of  Atri- 
plex  hortensis  or  one  of  its  color  varieties,  it  will  be  found 
that  the  cotyledons  increase  in  length  far  beyond  normal, 
sometimes  reaching  a  length  of  8  cm.  Under  favorable 
conditions  the  leaves  of  X  C.  arachnoidea  may  rfeach  a 
length  of  100  mm.,  with  a  greatest  width  of  6  mm.  (Fig. 
16).  The  stem  ordinarily  is  weak,  having  a  diameter  of 
only  1  mm.    It  may  reach  a  length  of  30  cm.  (Fig.  17). 


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No.  568]   X  CAPSELLA  BURSA-P  AST  OBIS  ABACHNOIDEA  227 


fiijs      J^AK   Recognized    in  C.  .  .  .  orbiculaHs. 


Th 


^ 


flowers  are  small,  the  petals  especially  so.     The 


^^x^s  shrivel  up  early  and  as  a  rule  are  devoid  of  polleu 

^^^^'^^^^    Occasionally  a  few  can  be  demonstrated.     The 

ovatr^,-^    though  small,  contains  what  appear  to  be  ovules 

.^^•^Xe  of  being  fertilized.     Thus  far  I  have  collected 

f    ^      :seeds  contained  in  6  capsules  on  unguarded  plants 

^  ^^^^^<;hnoidea  (Fig.  18).    Two  of  these  germinated,  the 

^  ^  ^5^  ielding  a  plant  which  looks  like  simplex,  though 

ua^xx^^  a  large  amount  of  red  coloring  matter  in  the  peti- 

oVfe^^  "While  the  other  is  an  arachnoidea.    Attempts  to  arti- 

\  tvc\^lXy  fertilize  arachnoidea  have  failed  absolutely. 

,  ^^   has  been  shown  above,  one  may  distinguish,  on  the 

"^  V^'^i.H    of  genotypic  constitution,  three  forms  of  arach- 

"^^  v^oidea,  viz.:  BBNN,  BbNN  and  bbNN.    Externally  no 


^'v^. 


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28 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVffl 


ifferences  can  be  noted.  A  single  exception  perhaps  may 
e  made  to  this  statement.  It  had  been  noted  that  speci- 
lens  of  arachnoidea  frequently  showed  f asciation.  This 
isciation  seems  most  marked  in  plants  of  the  zygotic 
institution  BBNN  (Figs.  19,  20,  21). 


Fig.  16.     Roset  of  x  C.  , 


arachnoidea. 


While  it  is  hoped  that  later  a  more  extended  report  r^Sigr /> 
B  made  upon  this  plant,  at  present  it  may  be  stated  tj^^ 
lere  exists  the  probability,  that  it  may  throw  some  li^i^? 
pon  the  nature  of  fasciations.    In  earlier  publication^! » 
have  brought  together  some  of  the  known  facts  bearing 
pon  this  teratological  character.    Though  a  large  por^ 

19  <  <  Fasciation  in  Oxdlis  crenata  and  Experimental  Production  of  Fascia. 
ons,"  Bep,  Mo.  Bot.  Gard.,  17:  147,  1906;  "Fasciations  of  Known 
lusation,  * '  American  Naturalist,  42 :  81,  1908 ;  ' '  Inheritance  of  Fascia- 
on  in  Zea  Mays,"  The  Plant  World,  14:  1911;  "The  Origin  of  Species 
Nature,"  American  Naturalist,  45:  641,  1911;  " Frondescence  and 
Etfciation,"  Plant  World,  14:  1911;  "Fasciation  in  Oxalis  crenata," 
otanical  Journal,  2:  111,  1913. 


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No.  568]  X  CAPSELLA  BURSA-PASTORIS  ARACHNOIDEA  229 

tion  of  the  experimental  garden  is  devoted  to  cultures  of 
fasciated  races,  nothing  further  has  been  determined  than 
that  the  fasciated  character  is  inherited,  that  it  is  trans- 
mitted through  non-fasciated  individuals,  that  its  ap- 
parentness  depends  upon  nutrition,  that  it  behaves  as  a 


Fig.   17.     Two  Hebbarium   Specimens  of  x  C.   .  .  .  arachnoidea. 

recessive  character  and  that  the  fasciated  character  of  the 
stem  appears  to  be  associated  with  split  leaves  and  cup- 
shaped  leaves.  In  a  paper  read  before  the  Research  Club 
of  the  University  of  Michigan  on  March  16, 1910,  and  an- 
nounced under  the  title ''The  Identity  and  Inheritance  of 
Teratological  Characters,^*  I  showed  that  split  leaves, 
ascidia,  certain  disturbances  in  the  arrangement  of  the 


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230 


THE  AMERICAN  NATUBALIST       [Vol.  XLVin 


flowers,  supemumerary  locules  in  the  fruit,  etc.,  may 
safely  be  taken  as  an  indication  of  the  presence  of  the 
fasciated  character.    More  recently,  Kajanus,2<>  working 


Fig.  18.     Shoot  of  x  C.  ,  .  .  arachnoUleu,  with  a  Large  Number  of  Infertile 
AND  Few   Fertile  Capsules. 

with  different  material,  has  fully  confirmed  the  views 
which  I  expressed  at  the  time.     This  is  of  particular  in- 

20  Kajanus,  B.,  "Polyphyllie  und  Fasziation  bei  Trifolium  pratense  L.," 
Zeiisch,  /.  ind,  Ahst,  u,  Vererh.,  7:  63,  1912;  '*Ueber  einige  vegetative 
Anomalien  bei  Trifolium  pratense  L.,  ibid.,  9:  111,  1913. 


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No.  568]  X  CAPSELLA  BURSA-P  AST  ORIS  ARACHNOIDEA  231 

terest  in  connection  with  Capsella  arachnoidea,  since 
many  of  the  plants  which  do  not  show  a  fasciated  stem 
do  show  split  leaves  (Fig.  20)  and  a  most  peculiar  whorl- 
ing  of  the  flowers  (Fig.  21). 


Fig.  19.     Fasciated  Plant  of  a*  C  .  .  .  arachnoidea. 

The  spatulate  condition  of  the  leaves  of  the  seedling 
shown  in  Fig.  2  is  believed  to  have  been  due  to  fasciation. 

Capsella  Bursa-pastoris  arachnoidea,  then,  bears  all  the 
earmarks  of  a  fasciated  race.  All  of  the  three  zygotic 
combinations  which  yield  the  arachnoidea  type  are  homo- 
zygotic  for  N.  The  recent  work  of  East  and  Hayes,  and 
of  Emerson  on  Zea  Mays  has  shown  that  the  fasciated 


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232 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIH 


Fig.  20.     Leaves  of  x  C aruchnoidea. 


Fig.   21.    ABNORMAL  Whorled  Arrangement  op  the  Flowers   in   Inplokbs- 
CENCES  OF  w  O.  ,  ,  ,  arachnoidea. 


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No.  568]  X  CAP8ELLA  BUR8A-P AST  OBIS  ARACHNOIDEA  238 

character  is  dominant,  though  Mendel,  in  his  experiments 
with  Pisum  umbellatum,  has  shown  it  to  be  recessive. 
No  fasciation,  thus  far  at  least,  has  been  noted  in  the 
other  forms  used  in  these  experiments. 

SUMMABY 

A  culture  of  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris  proved  heterozy- 
gotic,  yielding  certain  new  forms  (X  C.  Bursa-pastoris 
SetchelUana,  xC. Bursa-pastoris  Treleaseana,  XC. Bursa- 
pastoris  arachnoidea  and  X  C.  Bursa-pastoris  attenuata)^ 
as  well  as  certain  forms  already  described  by  ShuU  (C 
Bursa-pastoris  rhomboidea  and  C.  Bursa-pastoris  sim- 
plex) in  the  proportion  4:2:4:2:3:1.  The  distinction 
between  simplex  and  rhomboidea,  both  inter  se  and  be- 
tween them  and  the  other  forms,  is  readily  made  by  any 
one  familiar  with  Shull's  investigations.  These  two 
plants  agree  in  having  the  earlier  leaves  broad  (Fig.  4). 
The  climax  leaves  of  rhomboidea  and  simplex  show 
marked  differences,  especially  as  far  as  the  incision  of 
the  blade  is  concerned.  These  incisions,  in  simplex,  reach 
a  depth  equal  to  approximately  one  fourth  of  the  width 
of  the  blade  (Fig.  10).  In  rhomboidea  the  incisions  are 
deeper,  reaching  the  midrib  in  the  homozygous  form 
(Fig.  12).  The  leaves  of  the  latter  also  show  marked 
secondary  lobes. 

The  distinction  between  X  C.  Bursa-pastoris  Setchelli- 
ana,  X  C.  Bursa-pastoris  Treleaseana  and  X  C.  Bursa- 
pastoris  attenuata  is  made  with  greater  difficulty.  They 
agree  in  having  long  and  narrow  first  leaves.  The  climax 
leaves  of  Treleaseana  and  SetchelUana  show  marked 
incisions,  exceeding  one  fourth  of  the  width  of  the  blade, 
and  which  may  reach  the  midrib  (Fig.  9).  The  latter 
form  also  may  show  marked  secondary  lobes. 

Besides  the  phenotypes  here  mentioned  occur  two 
others,  the  one,  X  C.  Bursa-pastoris  orbicularis,  with  an 
almost  orbicular  first  leaf  (Fig.  13)  and  a  climax  leaf 
greatly  resembling  that  of  simplex  (Figs.  14, 15),  though 
differing  in  texture.  This  form  has  not  been  sufficiently 
studied,  but  is  believed  to  be  identical  with  one  known  to 


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234  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIU 

occur  in  Europe.  Finally  there  is  X  C.  Bursa-pastoris 
arachnoidea,  a  sterile,  linear-leaved  form,  with  a  weak 
stem  and  which  frequently  shows  fasciation  (Figs.  17-21). 
To  facilitate  a  distinction  between  these  forms,  a  key  is 
appended : 

a.  Early  leaves  broad. 

h.  Early  leaves  orbicular.  orbicularis, 

&6.  Early  leaves  twice  as  long  as  broad. 

c.  Climax  leaves  incised  to  midrib.  rhomboidea. 

cc.  Early  leaves  not  incised  to  midrib.  simplex, 

aa.  Early  leaves  long  and  narrow. 

b.  Early  leaves  acicular.  airachnoidea, 

bb.  Early  leaves  2^-3  times  as  long  as  broad. 

c.  Climax  leaves  not  incised  to  midrib.  atienuaia. 

cc.  Climax  leaves  incised  to  or  almost  to  the  midrib. 

d.  Secondary  lobes  pronounced.  Treleaseana. 

dd.  Secondary  lobes  absent.  Setchelliana. 

It  was  found  that,  besides  the  genes  A,  B,  C  and  D, 
whose  existence  was  shown  by  ShuU,  there  exists  another 
gene,  N,  responsible  for  the  narrow  character  of  the 
earlier  leaves.  For  the  various  forms,  mentioned  here, 
the  following  zygotic  constitutions  have  been  tentatively 
determined:  simplex,  bbnn;  rhomboidea,  BBnn  and  Bbnn; 
Setchelliana,  BbNn;  Treleaseana,  BBNn;  attenuata, 
bbNn;  arachnoidea,  BBNN,  BbNN  and  bbNN.  The  zygo; 
tic  constitution  of  orbicularis  has  not  been  determined. 

As  to  the  probable  origin  of  X  C.  Bursa-pastoris  Setch- 
elliana, little  can  be  said.  It  most  probably  results  from  a 
cross  between  rhomboidea  and  attenuata  {BBnn  X  bbNn). 
This  seems  the  most  plausible  explanation  since,  judging 
from  herbarium  specimens,  both  attenuata  and  rhom- 
boidea occur  throughout  the  United  States.  Unfortu- 
nately such  an  assumption  necessitates  an  explanation  of 
the  origin  of  attenuata. 

My  thanks  are  due  to  the  regents  of  the  University  of 
Michigan  for  the  facilities  placed  at  my  disposal,  to  head- 
gardener  Adolph  Weiner  for  his  constant  care  of  the  ex- 
perimental plants,  to  Messrs.  J.  H.  Ehlers,  A.  Povah,  C. 
Oberlin  and  A.  W.  Murdock  for  assistance  in  classifica- 
tion of  the  seedlings  and  to  the  director  of  the  Missouri 
Botanical  Garden  for  the  loan  of  herbarium  material. 


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No.  568]   X  CAPSELLA  BURSA-PASTORIS  ARACHNOIDEA  235 

Conclusions 

1.  Besides  the  genes  {A,  B,C,  D)  discovered  by  Shull, 
there  exists  in  Capsella  a  gene  N,  responsible  for  the  nar- 
row character  of  the  early  leaves  of  certain  forms. 

2.  Absence  of  the  gene  N  results  in  the  formation  of 
early  leaves  of  a  *' broad''  character. 

3.  The  form  designated  arachnoidea  is  of  hybrid  origin, 
as  are  the  forms  Setchelliana,  Treleaseana  and  attenuata. 

4.  X  Capsella  Bursa-pastoris  arachnoidea  is  formed 
whenever  the  plant  is  homozj'gotic  for  N,  whatever  the 
constitution  of  the  remainder  of  the  zygote  {BBNN, 
BbNN,  bbNN),  i.  e.,  a  homozygous  condition  for  the  pres- 
ence of  a  single  factor  may  overshadow  the  influence  of 
others. 

5.  Homozygocity  for  a  single  factor  may  be  responsible 
for  total,  or  almost  total,  sterility. 

6.  A  knowledge  of  the  early  stages,  as  well  as  of  the 
climax  leaves,  is  essential  for  the  classification  of  the 
phenotypes  of  Capsella  Bur sa-past oris. 


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BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THYSANOPTERA.    H 

DR.  A.  FRANKLIN  SHULL 
University  of  Michigan 

II.      SEX  AND  THE  LIFE   CYCLE 

Intkoduction 

From  observations  made  on  the  abundance  of  males  in 
several  species,  Jordan  (1888)  was  led  to  believe  that 
there  might  be  among  Thysanoptera,  as  in  aphids,  an 
alternating  life  cycle ;  that  is,  that  there  might  be  a  series 
of  parthenogenetic  generations  during  the  summer,  fol- 
lowed by  a  generation  of  males  and  sexual  females  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  summer  or  in  the  fall.  Coupled  with 
this  he  suspected  that  there  were  winged  forms  in  the 
parthenogenetic  part  of  the  cycle,  and  at  least  occasional 
wingless  individuals  in  the  sexual  phase. 

Uzel  (1895),  however,  was  unable  to  detect  any  indica- 
tions of  such  a  cycle.  He  held  that  there  could  be  no 
question  of  parthenogenesis  in  a  species  in  which  males 
were  abundant  all  the  time  or  at  intervals.  Only  in  spe- 
cies in  which  the  males  were  too  rare  to  impregnate  all 
the  females  would  he  admit  parthenogenesis.  To  prove, 
in  such  a  species,  an  alternating  cycle  like  that  of  the 
aphids,  it  must,  in  UzePs  opinion,  be  shown  that  the  males 
are  abundant  only  at  certain  seasons.  As  Uzel  was  ac- 
quainted with  no  European  species  in  which  males  were 
plentiful  at  but  one  season,  he  rejected  Jordan's  sugges- 
tion regarding  an  alternating  cycle,  and  his  view  seems 
to  have  been  accepted  by  thysanopterists  since  that  time. 

To  Uzers  argument  it  may  be  objected  that  the  pres- 
ence of  males,  and  even  the  occurrence  of  copulation,  is 
no  proof  that  parthenogenesis  is  wanting.  For  among 
the  aphids  and  rotifers,  the  parthenogenetic  and  sexual 
females  exist  side  by  side.  Nor  is  parthenogenesis  in 
these  two  groups  facultative  (optional),  as  Uzel  appears 
to  assume  for  Thysanoptera;  a  female  is  either  only 

236 


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No.  668]  BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THTSANOPTERA  237 

sexual  or  only  parthenogenetic.  Moreover,  in  the  roti- 
fers, females  incapable  of  fertilization  copulate  as  fre- 
quently as  do  those  requiring  fertilization,  as  was  first 
shown  by  the  work  of  Maupas  (1890)  on  the  rotifer 
Hydatina. 

Presence  of  males  and  occurrence  of  copulation  are, 
therefore,  no  proof  of  sexual  reproduction.  But  even  if 
we  accept,  as  Uzel  does,  this  criterion  of  sexuality,  Jor- 
dan's view  that  there  may  be  an  alternating  cycle  would 
receive  some  support  if  it  could  be  shown  that  males  are 
more  abundant  at  one  season  of  the  year  than  at  other 
times.  Casual  observations  made  by  me  several  years  ago 
seemed  to  indicate  this  seasonal  variation  in  the  abund- 
ance of  males.  As  the  data  then  available  were  meager, 
no  conclusion  was  drawn,  but  I  subsequently  undertook 
to  obtain  such  data  on  a  larger  scale,  by  making  extensive 
collections  at  all  seasons  of  the  year  to  determine  the  sex 
ratio.  The  following  pages  give  these  data,  along  with 
other  observations  bearing  on  sex  or  the  life  cycle. 

I  desire  to  acknowledge  the  assistance  of  my  wife,  by 
whom  much  of  the  labor  of  determining  species  and 
counting  the  sexes  was  done. 

The  Sex  Ratio  in  Vabious  Species  of  Thysanopteba 
In  making  collections  for  the  purpose  of  determining 
the  sex  ratio,  the  food  plants  were  examined  very  care- 
fully, torn  apart  if  necessary,  and  every  individual  cap- 
tured. This  precluded  the  possibility  of  obtaining  an 
erroneous  sex  ratio  because  one  sex  was  more  easily  dis- 
turbed than  the  other.  A  few  individuals  escaped,  but 
they  could  not  have  affected  the  sex  ratio  very  greatly, 
and  it  was  known  from  their  size  that  they  were  some- 
times of  the  one  sex,  sometimes  of  the  other. 

The  sex  in  the  suborder  Terebrantia  is  readily  deter- 
mined by  the  presence  of  an  ovipositor  in  the  female  and 
the  rounded  end  of  the  abdomen  in  the  male.  In  the  sub- 
order Tubulifera,  the  sex  in  Anthothrips  verhasci  was 
determined  by  the  presence  of  two  short,  heavy  spines, 


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238  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVm 

one  on  each  side  of  the  abdomen  of  the  male,  near  the  end. 
As  the  specimens,  when  placed  on  a  microscope  slide, 
nearly  always  lie  either  on  the  dorsal  or  ventral  side, 
these  spines  are  nearly  always  readily  visible  if  present. 
I  used  this  criterion  (mentioned  in  the  re-description  of 
the  species  by  Hinds,  1902)  only  after  having  taken  eleven 
pairs  of  this  species  copulating  in  nature,  and  observing 
in  every  case  that  the  male  possessed  these  spines,  and 
that  in  the  female  they  were  wanting.  In  .other  Tubu- 
lifera,  e.  g.,  Anthothrips  niger,  sex  was  determined  by  the 
longitudinal  chitinous  rod  in  the  next  to  the  last  abdomi- 
nal segment  of  the  female.  When  the  specimens  were  too 
opaque  to  observe  this  rod,  they  were  cleared  by  boiling 
in  caustic  potash. 

The  data  from  these  collections  are  given  in  the  accom- 
panying table.  Unfortunately  the  collections  could  not 
all  be  made  in  one  year,  nor  in  the  same  locality.  Those 
made  from  July  1  to  September  18,  1912,  were  made  at 
the  University  of  Michigan  Biological  Station,  Douglas 
Lake,  Michigan;  all  others  were  made  at  Ann  Arbor, 
Michigan.  It  is  not  probable  that  the  results  are  greatly 
modified  by  collecting  in  two  regions  within  the  state. 
In  this  table  the  larvae  of  all  species  are  combined,  as  I 
am  unable  to  distinguish  with  certainty  the  larvae  of 
several  of  the  species  here  mentioned. 

The  important  facts  contained  in  this  table  are,  it  seems 
to  me,  the  following : 

Euthrips  tritici  appeared  in  spring  at  first  only  in  the 
female  sex.  Males  were  first  collected  nearly  a  month 
later,  and  not  until  about  the  time  fairly  large  larvae  were 
found  elsewhere.  Once  the  males  appear,  though  their 
number  fluctuates  in  the  individual  collections,  they  fur- 
nish a  fairly  constant  proportion  of  the  whole  number 
(about  one  third). 

The  males  of  Anthothrips  verbasci  appear  in  the  earli- 
est collection  of  this  species,  and  in  considerable  numbers 
throughout  the  season.  The  total  proportion  of  males  is 
23  per  cent.,  and  the  only  considerable  increases  over 


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No.  568] 


BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THYSANOPTERA 


239 


this  percentage  in  individual  collections  are  in  the  three 
collections  made  in  August,  and  on  October  7.  Consider- 
ing the  large  majority  of  females  taken  September  12,  the 
abundance  of  males  October  7  may  be  due  in  some  way  to 

TABLE    I 

Showing  Number  of  Males  and  Females  of  the  Commoner  Species  of 
thysanoptera  captured  at  intervals  during  the  active  season 


Date 


Apr.   30,  1911 
May     5 

10 

17 

22 

24 
June 


July 


1912 


Aug. 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


1 

7 
15 
21 
29 

3, 

4 

5 
11 
16 
17 
19 
26 
27 
29 
30 
31 

5 

8 

9 
12 
13 
18 
20 
21 

2 

2, 
12 
16 
18.  1912 

7,  1911 
14 
25,  1912 

9 


1911 


Enthrips 
tritici 

tkripg 
verbagk'i 

Antho- 
thrips 
niger 

9     cf 

9     cf     9     cT 

9;    0 

1 

7|     0 

2|     O! 

17l     0 

1 

22      1 

30      2 

174 

30    20    0 

41     17 

18    0 

40  62!  52  10  42 

21  27;  47   8  18 

11 


87| 

11  gI 

14!  25: 


21 

^! 

7 

6 

12 

3 
21 


7 
01 
3! 
2 
1 
29 

0, 
0 


82 


4' 

I  4 

1 

7i 

29   2 


154;i51 

81  1 
16  13 


43  25 


58  15 


30,  20 


26'  18| 


Total . 


16 

3 

7 

15 

3 

13 
4 

19 
3 


18 


88 


23 


1 


17i 

I 

ll 
27 


I   I 


879|441  64l'200'l62'  0  226'  0  530!l74  50 


Ch 

ro- 

» 

thrips 

us 

jnani- 

Larvae, 

catus 

all 

--_  -  - 

Species 

f 

9 

& 

3 

7 

6 

7 

i 

3 

2 

1 

25 

1 

1 

7 

1 

0 

5 
46 
72 

2 

0 

1 

187 

1 

16 
3 

5      0 

3 
2 

4 

9 

12 

1 

51 

1 

0 

39 

1 

0 

1 

2  103 

2 

1 

0 

2 

36 

21 
13 
10 

2 

2 
18 

1 

0 

4 

4 

12 

2 

0 

4 

2 

0 

36 

203 

191 

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240  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol,  XLVIH 

the  dying  of  their  food  plants ;  but  the  greater  proportion 
of  males  throughout  August  is  probably  significant.  It 
should  also  be  stated  that  I  have  collected  adults  of  this 
species,  of  both  sexes,  from  dead  mullein  spikes  in  late 
winter. 

Anthothrips  niger  was  found  only  in  the  female  sex. 
There  are  no  records  of  males  of  this  species,  so  far  as  I 
am  aware,  in  any  published  work. 

Thrips  tabaci  was  taken  almost  exclusively  in  the 
female  sex,  the  two  males  found  September  2  being  the 
only  ones  I  have  ever  collected. 

In  Anaphothrips  striatus  the  total  number  of  males  is 
less  than  25  per  cent.  On  August  20  and  September  2  the 
proportion  of  males  is  considerably  greater  than  25  per 
cent.,  especially  on  the  former  date,  while  at  other  times 
the  proportion  was  nearly  always  less.  The  collection  on 
August  20  can  hardly  have  been  erroneous  by  chance,  for 
the  figures  given  for  that  date  are  combined  figures  for 
two  collections  from  different  localities.  In  one  of  these 
collections  there  were  13  females  and  14  males,  in  the 
other  26  females  and  34  males.  This  strengthens  the 
probability  that  the  excess  of  males  is  significant. 

Thrips  physopus  was  collected  in  small  numbers,  but 
shows  a  fairly  constant  proportion  of  males. 

Chirothrips  manicatus  presents  curious  phenomena. 
All  the  collections  up  to  the  end  of  July  were  made  on 
timothy  heads  in  a  small  patch  a  few  feet  square  near  the 
laboratory.  On  July  11  careful  search  revealed  numer- 
ous females,  but  only  one  male.  By  July  19  almost  all 
the  thrips  of  this  species  were  gone;  only  5  specimens 
were  obtained,  and  these  were  females.  Less  than  two 
weeks  later,  however  (July  30),  on  other  timothy  heads 
in  the  same  small  patch,  there  were  foimd  51  males  and 
but  1  female.  No  living  thrips  were  taken  here  later,  as 
the  timothy  died;  but  subsequent  collections  elsewhere, 
from  timothy  and  bluegrass,  show  again  almost  ex- 
clusively males. 


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No.  568]  BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THYSANOPTERA  241 

Additional  Data  Beabing  on  the  Life  Cycle  and  Sex 

In  view  of  the  fact,  to  be  discussed  later,  that  Anapho- 
thrips  striatus  has  hitherto  been  known  ahnost  exclu- 
sively in  the  female  sex,  and  is  known  to  reproduce  par- 
thenogenetically,  and  the  fact  that  in  the  collections  here 
recorded  the  males  constitute  nearly  25  per  cent,  of  the 
total,  the  question  arises,  are  these  males  functional  f  If 
not  functional  in  this  species,  are  the  males  functional  in 
other  species!  A  number  of  observations  and  experi- 
ments I  have  made  bear  on  these  questions. 

A  single  pair  of  Anaphothrips  striatus  was  found  copu- 
lating in  nature,  which  Uzel  would  have  considered  proof 
that  parthenogenesis  did  not  occur.  The  testes  of  the 
males  are  plainly  visible  without  dissection.  Suspecting 
that  they  might  not  be  fleshy  organs  at  all,  but  chitinized 
structures,  perhaps  vestiges  of  testes,  I  boiled  a  number 
of  specimens  in  caustic  potash.  The  testes  disappeared, 
from  which  I  judge  they  are  not  merely  chitinous  bodies. 
I  can  say  nothing  of  their  cellular  nature,  owing  to  the 
loss  of  material  killed  and  fixed  for  that  purpose.  Nu- 
merous sections  of  another  species  Anthothrips  verhasci, 
however,  reveal  well-developed  testes.  Cell  divisions 
(probably  the  spermatocyte  divisions)  and  nearly  mature 
spermatozoa  in  bundles  were  observed  in  these  sections. 
Though  the  number  of  chromosomes  could  not  be  deter- 
mined, it  is  an  interesting  fact  that  spindles  in  side  view 
usually  showed  a  lagging  chromosome. 

Finally,  with  further  regard  to  the  functioning  of 
males,  I  have  attempted  to  breed  several  species  par- 
thenogenetically.  The  results  in  thfe  case  of  Euthrips 
tritici  were  so  far  encouraging  that  two  larvae  appeared 
on  the  plant  on  which  virgin  females  had  been  previously 
placed.  But  in  these  cases  I  could  not  be  certain  that  the 
food  plant  was  uninfected.  Experiments  with  Anapho- 
thrips striatus  and  Anthothrips  verhasci  gave  negative 
results,  but  in  each  case  failure  to  obtain  young  by  par- 
thenogenesis may  have  been  due  to  the  conditions. 

Some  observations  on  the  place  of  pupation  may  also 


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242  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVm 

be  here  recorded.  The  rarity  with  which  the  pupae  of 
most  species  are  discovered  in  collecting  suggested  that 
they  might  not  pupate  on  the  food  plant  of  the  larvaB. 
Some  species  of  thrips,  for  example,  the  pear  thrips 
{Euthrips  pyri),  are  known  to  pupate  in  the  ground 
(Moult on,  1912).  Since  many  of  the  species  included  in 
Table  I  may  be  found  on  white  clover,  which  was  abun- 
dant at  Douglas  Lake,  the  place  of  pupation  of  these 
species  was  tested  in  the  following  manner.  A  mass  of 
the  flowers  of  white  clover  was  collected.  The  flowers 
were  gently  squeezed  for  some  time  to  drive  out  all  the 
adults.  They  were  then  placed  in  a  vessel  under  cover. 
After  two  days,  when  the  flowers  were  thoroughly  dried, 
they  were  again  gently  crushed  to  make  sure  that  all 
adults  were  driven  out.  At  intervals  from  one  to  two 
weeks  afterward,  15  adult  thrips  appeared  on  the  inside 
of  the  glass  cover.  These  were  of  three  species,  Euthrips 
tritici,  Thrips  tabaci  and  Anthothrips  niger. 

I  have  also  frequently  observed  the  pupaB  of  Antho- 
thrips verbasci  in  mullein  spikes,  those  of  Sericothrips 
cingulatus  on  white  clover,  the  pupa  of  Trichothrips  tri- 
dentatus  under  the  bark  of  the  white  oak,  where  the  larvae 
and  adults  live,  and  that  of  an  undescribed  species  on 
willow  galls  along  with  larvae  of  the  same  species.  I 
judge  from  these  observations  that  the  majority  of  thrips 
pupate  on  the  plants  on  which  the  larvae  live,  and  that 
their  rarity  in  collections  is  due  merely  to  concealment 
and  sluggish  habits. 

Discussion  of  the  Results  in  Relation  to  the  Life 

Cycle 
From  the  data  in  Table  I  and  the  observations  given 
above  it  is  evident  that  there  is  considerable  diversity  in 
different  species  with  regard  to  the  life  cycle,  and  diver- 
sity within  the  same  species  at  different  times  or  in 
different  regions.  First,  as  regards  the  mode  of  passing 
the  winter,  it  would  seem  that  in  Euthrips  tritici  only  the 
females  survive  that  season.    The  reason  for  so  believing 


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No.  568]  BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THTSANOPTERA  243 

is  that  males  could  not  be  found  in  the  spnng  until  the 
females  had  been  active  long  enough  to  have  produced 
one  generation  of  offspring.  Males  occur  late  in  autumn, 
but  must  perish  before  the  end  of  winter.  Likewise, 
neither  eggs  nor  larvae  live  over  winter,  or  larv®  would 
appear  earlier  in  spring.  In  Thrips  physopus,  on  the 
other  hand,  males  were  found  as  early  as  the  females; 
hence,  in  the  absence  of  any  collection  earlier  than  May 
22,  and  in  ignorance  of  the  time  required  for  develop- 
ment, I  should  assume  that  both  sexes  survive  the  winter. 
Both  sexes  of  Anthothrips  verhasci  have  been  seen  on 
dead  mulleins  in  winter. 

In  species,  like  Euthrips  tritici,  whose  males  do  not 
survive  the  winter,  if  fertilization  of  the  early  spring 
females  takes  place  at  all,  it  must  occur  in  the  fall.  I  do 
not  regard  my  breeding  experiments  as  proof  of  par- 
thenogenesis in  this  species,  but  it  is  by  no  means  improb- 
able that  parthenogenesis  occurs.  More  rigorous  experi- 
ments are  needed. 

As  regards  the  mode  of  reproduction  during  the  rest  of 
the  year,  there  is  nothing  in  the  sex  ratio,  as  given  in 
Table  I,  to  suggest  an  alternating  cycle  in  Euthrips  tri- 
tici.  In  other  species,  it  would  be  possible  to  interpret 
certain  facts  to  mean  that  an  alternation  of  partheno- 
genesis and  sexual  reproduction  occurs,  or  did  once 
occur.  There  is  a  well-marked  increase  in  the  proportion 
of  males  in  Anaphothrips  striatus,  for  example,  in  Au- 
gust. This  is  a  particularly  interesting  species.  Hinds 
(1902)  saw  only  the  female  of  this  species,  though  he 
mounted  and  examined  over  a  thousand  specimens,  and 
he  bred  it  parthenogenetically  in  the  laboratory  for 
months.  What  purported  to  be  the  male  was  described 
by  Gary  (1902),  from  Maine,  but  the  specimens  described 
were  evidently  those  of  another  species.  The  first  males 
ever  recorded  were  described  by  ShuU  (1909),  two  speci- 
mens among  probably  two  hundred  females.  It  is  re- 
markable, therefore,  that  in  the  vicinity  of  Douglas  Lake 
there  should  be  nearly  25  per  cent,  of  males.    Whether 


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24^  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHI 

the  presence  of  numerous  males  is  dependent  on  climatic 
conditions,  or  whether  it  is  a  racial  difference,  there  is  at 
present  no  way  of  deciding.  The  weather  was  unusually 
cold  during  the  summer  in  which  these  records  were 
made,  and  it  is  desirable  that  the  effect  of  temperature  be 
experimentally  determined.  The  presence  of  males  in 
goodly  numbers  throughout  the  summer,  the  occurrence 
of  copulation  in  nature,  and  the  failure  of  an  attempt  to 
breed  the  species  parthenogenetically,  leave,  as  the  only 
reason  for  suspecting  that  it  may  have  been  partheno- 
genetic  at  Douglas  Lake,  the  fact  that  it  is  parthenoge- 
netic  elsewhere.  But  if  the  species  is  parthenogenetic  in 
one  region  and  sexual  in  another,  it  is  not  diflScult  to  be- 
lieve that  it  may  be  both  parthenogenetic  and  sexual  in 
the  same  region.  It  is  diflScult  to  decide  whether  the  well- 
marked  increase  in  the  proportion  of  males  in  August 
and  early  September  should  be  regarded  as  evidence  of 
such  an  alternation,  or  as  due  to  a  period  of  cold  weather 
or  other  climatic  factor,  or  as  a  hereditary  remnant  of 
the  sexual  phase  of  an  alternating  cycle  once  possessed 
by  the  species.  Only  experiment,  and  perhaps  cytological 
study,  can  decide  this  question. 

A  similar  but  less  marked  increase  in  the  number  of 
males  is  seen  in  Anthothrips  verhasci,  also  in  August.  In 
that  month  the  proportion  of  males  rose  from  about  20 
per  cent,  to  40,  or  even  nearly  50  per  cent.  In  this  species 
the  increase  may  be  due  to  the  late  date  at  which  the  first 
brood  of  larvfiB  becomes  mature.  The  life  history  of  this 
species  is  longer  than  that  of  most  of  the  suborder  Tere- 
brantia,  and  may  appear  to  be  still  longer  because  ene- 
mies destroy  many  of  the  larger  larvae.  For  these  rea- 
sons, in  the  region  of  Douglas  Lake,  the  first  generation 
of  larvae  may  not  become  mature  until  nearly  August.  If 
this  assumption  is  correct,  the  proportion  of  males  found 
prior  to  August  is  the  proportion  that  survive  the  winter. 
This  explanation  receives  support  from  the  cytology  of 
the  germ  cells.  As  stated  above,  there  is  a  lagging  chro- 
mosome in  the  spermatocyte  divisions,  which  suggests 


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No.  668]  BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THTSANOPTERA  246 

the  probability  that  there  are  two  classes  of  sperm  asso- 
ciated with  sex,  as  in  the  bugs  and  many  other  animals, 
and  that  therefore  the  sexes  should  be  approximately 
equal  in  numbers.  The  40  to  50  per  cent,  of  males  in 
August  accord  fairly  well  with  this  explanation. 

This  explanation  would  not,  however,  account  for  the 
increase  in  the  number  of  males  in  late  summer  in  a  spe- 
cies whose  life  Tiistory  is  much  shorter  than  that  of 
Anthothrips  verbasci.  Thus,  in  Anaphothrips  striatus, 
Hinds  states  that  the  entire  life  history  is  passed  through 
in  12  to  30  days.  Even  in  a  cold  season,  such  as  that  of 
1912  at  Douglas  Lake,  therefore,  the  life  history  can  not 
have  been  so  long  that  the  first  adults  would  emerge  in 
the  middle  of  August.  The  increase  in  the  number  of 
males  of  Anaphothrips  in  August  and  September  is  not 
to  be  explained,  therefore,  as  due  to  the  first  appearance 
of  a  new  brood  at  that  time. 

Thrips  tabaci  likewise  affords  interesting,  even  if  mea- 
ger, evidence  regarding  the  seasonal  occurrence  of  males. 
In  this  species  males  are  exceedingly  rare.  Hinds  (1902) 
redescribed  the  male  in  quotation  marks,  from  which  it 
is  to  be  inferred  that  he  did  not  have  specimens.  In  my 
own  collecting,  though  the  females  were  quite  common,  I 
never  saw  a  male  until  the  summer  of  1912.  Then  two 
specimens  were  taken  September  2,  as  shown  in  Table  I* 
These  irregularly  occurring  males  can  hardly  be  func- 
tional, so  that  Thrips  tabaci  is  still  probably  to  be  re- 
garded as  wholly  parthenogenetic.  But  their  appearance 
in  late  summer  may  be  the  vestige  of  a  former  sexual 
phase,  and  may  be  caused  now,  as  the  sexual  phase  prob- 
ably was  in  part  formerly  caused,  by  climatic  conditions. 

Chirothrips  manicatus  presented,  at  Douglas  Lake,  an 
anomalous  condition.  As  shown  in  Table  I,  and  stated 
more  explicitly  above,  females  were  abundant  in  a  given 
small  area  early  in  July,  but  practically  no  males  were 
pr^ent.  Then,  so  far  as  I  could  determine  by  painstak- 
ing collections,  the  females  disappeared ;  almost  no  adults 
of  either  sex,  and  not  many  larvae,  were  to  be  found.    Two 


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246  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIH 

weeks  later,  however,  males  were  found  in  the  same  area 
in  large  numbers.  As  these  males  were  wingless,  they 
had  probably  not  immigrated.  The  only  other  explana- 
tion that  occurs  to  me  is  that  the  larvae  were  present  in 
considerable  numbers  at  the  time  of  the  earlier  collec- 
tions,  but  in  the  flowers,  not  among  the  spikelets  of  the 
timothy,  so  that  I  did  not  discover  them;  and  that  the 
female  larvae  reached  maturity  much  earlier  than  the 
males.  In  any  case,  it  is  diflScult  to  see  how  the  males  can 
have  been  functional,  when  the  two  sexes  occurred  at  dif- 
ferent times.  If  such  conditions  recur  frequently,  Chiro- 
thrips  manicatus,  eVen  though  it  produces  many  males, 
must  be  parthenogenetic. 

SUMMABY 

The  principal  conclusions  reached  in  the  second  "part  of 
this  work  may  be  stated  as  follows : 

Some  species  of  Thysanoptera  pass  through  the  winter 
in  both  sexes,  in  others  the  males  perish.  In  none  of 
those  studied  does  the  egg  or  larva  live  over  winter. 

Pupation  of  most  of  the  species  of  Thysanoptera  stud- 
ied occurs  on  the  food  plants  where  the  larvae  live,  not- 
withstanding that  the  pupae  seldom  appear  in  collections. 

From  the  determination  of  the  sex  ratio,  Euthrips 
tritici  shows  no  indication  of  an  alternating  life  cycle.  It 
is  probably  sexual  throughout  the  active  season,  though 
this  is  not  proven. 

Chirothrips  manicatus  occurred  abundantly  in  both 
sexes,  but  the  two  sexes  appeared  at  different  seasons. 
The  explanation  of  this  phenomenon  is  doubtful. 

An  increase  in  the  number  of  males  in  Anthothrips 
verbasci  in  late  summer  may  be  explained  as  due  to  the 
great  length  of  the  life  history  and  to  selective  mortality 
during  the  winter,  without  assuming  an  alternating  life 
cycle. 

Anaphothrips  striatus,  a  species  which  has  hitherto 
been  known  almost  wholly  in  the  female  sex,  produced 
about  25  per  cent,  of  males  at  Douglas  Lake.    This  may 


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No.  568]  BIOLOGY  OF  THE  THYSANOPTERA  247 

be  due  either  to  climatic  conditions  or  to  racial  differ- 
ences. Sexnal  reproduction  was  not  wholly  proven,  but 
seems  probable.  An  increase  in  the  number  of  males  in 
late  summer  in  this  species  and  in  Thrips  tabaci  might  be 
interpreted  as  indicating  a  sexual  phase,  or  the  vestiges 
of  a  sexual  phase  that  existed  in  the  species  formerly, 
Jordan's  belief  in  an  alternating  life  cycle,  which  was 
rejected  by  Uzel,  thus  receives  some  measure  of  jus- 
tification. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Gary,  L.  B.    1902.    The  grass  thrips  (Anaphothrips  striata  Osborn).    Maine 

Agr.  Exp.  Station,  Bull.  83,  June,  pp.  51-82. 
Jones,  P.  B.    1912.    Some  new  California  and  Georgia  Thysanoptera.    U.  S. 

Dept.  Agr.,  Bur.  Ent.,  Tech.  Ser.  No.  23,  Part  1,  24  pp.,  7  pis. 
Jordan,   K.     1888.    Anatomie  und  Biologie   der   Phjsapoda.     Zeit,   iviss, 

ZooL,  Vol.  47,  pp.  541-620. 
Hinds,  W.  E.     1902.    Contribution  to  a  monograph  of  the  insects  of  the 

order    Thysanoptera   inhabiting   North   America.     Proc.    U,    8,   Nat. 

Museum,  Vol.  26,  No.  1310,  December  20,  pp.  79-242. 
Maupas,  E.    1890.    Sur  la  fdcondation  de  THydatina  senta  Ehr.     Comp, 

Bend.  Acad.  8ci.  Paris,  Tome  111,  pp.  505-507. 
Moulton,   Dudley.    1911.    Synopsis,   catalog   and   bibliography   of   North 

American  Thysanoptera.    U.  S,  Dept.  Agr.,  Bur.  Ent.,  Tech.  Ser.  No. 

21,  56  pp. 
1912.    Papers  on  deciduous  fruit  insects  and  insecticides.    IV.  The  pear 

thrips  and  its  control.    U.  S.  Dept.  Agr.,  Bur.  Ent.,  Bull.  80,  Part  IV, 

pp.  51-66. 
Shelf ord,  V.  E.    1911.    Physiological  animal  geography.     Joum.  Morph., 

Vol.  22,  No.  3,  September,  pp.  551-618. 
Shull,  A.  F.     1909.     Some  apparently  new  Thysanoptera  from  Michigan. 

Entom.  News,  Vol.  20,  No.  5,  pp.  220-228. 
1911.    A  biological  survey  of  the  sand  dune  region  on  the  south  shore  of 

Saginaw  Bay,  Michigan.     Thysanoptera  and  Orthoptera.     Mich.  Geol. 

and  Biol.  Survey,  Pub.  4,  Biol.  Ser.  2,  pp.  177-231. 
Uzel,   H.    1895.    Monographie   der   Ordnung   Thysanoptera.     KOniggratz, 

privately  published,  482  pp.,  10  pis. 


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SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION 

BARRIERS  TO  DISTRIBUTION  AS  REGARDS 
BIRDS  AND  MAMMALS 

The  geographical  range  of  any  species  of  animal  may  be 
likened  to  a  reservoir  of  water  in  a  mountain  canyon.  The  con- 
fining walls  are  of  varying  nature.  A  concrete  dam,  absolutely 
impervious,  may  retain  the  water  at  one  end.  Along  either  side 
the  basin's  walls  differ  in  consistency  from  place  to  place.  The 
substratum  varies  in  porosity,  at  some  points  being  impervious 
like  the  dam,  at  others  permitting  of  seepage  of  water  to  a  greater 
or  less  distance  from  the  main  volume.  The  water  continually 
presses  against  its  basin  walls,  as  if  seeking  to  enlarge  its  area. 
And  it  may  succeed  in  escaping,  by  slow  seepage  through  such 
portions  of  its  barrier  as  are  pervious  or  soluble,  or  by  free  flow 
through  a  gap  in  the  walls,  if  such  ofiPers.  The  area  occupied 
by  the  water  will  extend  itself  most  rapidly  along  the  lines  of 
least  resistance. 

Every  species  has  a  center  or  centers  of  abundance  in  which 
favoring  conditions  usually  give  rise  to  a  rate  of  reproduction 
more  than  sufficient  to  keep  the  critical  area  stocked.  A  tendency 
to  occupy  a  larger  space  results,  because  of  competition  within  the 
species:  individuals  and  descent-lines  multiply  and  travel  radi- 
ally, extending  those  portions  of  the  frontier  where  least  resist- 
ance is  offered.  Such  radial  dispersal  takes  place  slowly  in  some 
directions,  more  rapidly  in  others,  according  to  the  degree  of 
passability  of  the  opposing  barriers.  These  barriers  consist  of 
any  sort  of  conditions  less  favorable  to  the  existence  of  the 
species  than  those  in  the  center  of  abundance. 

Theoretically,  sooner  or  later  and  in  all  directions,  every 
species  is  absolutely  stopped.  But  as  a  matter  of  undoubted 
fact  most  barriers  are  continually  shifting,  and  the  adaptability 
of  the  animals  themselves  may  be  also  undergoing  continual 
modification ;  so  that  perfect  adjustment  is  beyond  the  limits  of 
possibility  so  long  as  topography  and  climate  keep  changing. 
The  ranges  of  species  may  thus  be  constantly  shifting.  Descent- 
lines  may  move  about  repeatedly  over  the  same  general  region, 
like  sparks  in  the  soot  on  the  back  of  a  brick  fireplace. 

Yet,  in  all  of  our  studies,  of  but  a  few  years'  duration,  the 

248 


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Na  568]        SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  249 

time  element  is  reduced  almost  to  a  negligible  quantity,  and  we 
may  look  upon  the  areas  occupied  by  each  species  as,  for  the 
time  of  our  observation,  fixed.  We  are  thus  enabled  to  compare 
one  with  another,  and  because  of  the  large  number  of  the  species, 
we  can  infer  a  good  deal  as  to  the  nature  of  barriers  in  general, 
at  least  as  regards  birds  and  mammals.  It  is  even  conceivable 
that ;  with  sufScient  refinement  in  methods,  the  inquirer  might  in 
time  find  himself  able,  from  a  comparative  study  of  the  ranges 
of  rodents,  for  example,  to  establish  the  identity  of  all  of  the 
external  factors  which  have  to  do  with  the  persistence  of  each  of 
the  species;  in  other  words  to  analyze  the  ** environmental  com-, 
plex''  into  its  uttermost  elements — as  regards  the  existing  species 
of  rodents  in  their  recent  development. 

The  most  obvious  kind  of  barrier  to  distribution  is  that  con- 
sisting of  any  sort  of  physical,  or  mechanical,  obstruction.  Such 
obstruction  aflFects  directly  the  individuals  of  a  species  en- 
countering it,  either  by  stopping  their  advance  or  by  destroying 
outright  such  as  attempt  to  cross  it.  As  barriers  of  this  nature, 
are  to  be  cited  land  in  the  case  of  purely  aquatic  mammals,  and 
bodies  of  water  to  purely  terrestrial,  especially  xerophilous, 
mammals.  In  each  case  the  width  of  the  barrier  has  to  do  with 
the  degree  of  impassability.  Oceans  and  continents  are  most 
perfect,  and  aflfect  a  large  proportion  of  the  species.  The  com- 
paratively narrow  Colorado  River  is  a  barrier  of  the  first  rank, 
but  only  to  a  certain  few  desert  rodents.  Mechanical  barriers, 
where  they  exist  at  all,  are  clearly  recognizable. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  upon  considering  the  birds  and 
mammals  of  a  whole  continent,  that  by  far  the  greater  number 
of  species  are  delimited  in  range  without  any  reference  to  actual 
land  and  water  boundaries ;  more  explicitly,  their  ranges  fall  far 
short  of  coast  lines.  The  barriers  here  concerned  are  intangible, 
but  nevertheless  powerful.  By  their  action  the  spread  of  species, 
genera  and  families  is  held  in  check  as  surely  as  by  any  tangible 
obstruction. 

By  these  invisible  barriers  the  individual  may  not  necessarily 
be  stopped  at  all,  as  with  animals  of  free  locomotion;  but  the 
species  is  affected.  For  example,  the  mocking  bird  in  its  Cali- 
fomian  distribution  is  closely  confined  to  those  parts  of  the  state 
IKMSsessing  certain  definite  climatic  features;  but  vagrant  indi- 
viduals, especially  in  autumn,  occur  far  beyond  the  limits  of 
these  restrictive  conditions.     Carnivorous  mammals  are  well 


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250  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

known  to  be  subject  to  sporadic  wanderings  on  the  part  of  indi- 
viduals, but  the  species  is  kept  in  set  bounds  by  some  potent  but 
invisible  set  of  factors.  The  very  fact  that  individuals  are  quite 
capable  of  temporarily  transgressing  these  bounds  and  yet  do 
not  overstep  them  en  masse  emphasizes  all  the  more  the  remark- 
able potency  of  this  category  of  barriers  as  regards  species  and 
higher  groups. 

Our  geographic  studies  lead  us  to  designate  among  these  rela- 
tively intangible  barriers:  (1)  increase  or  decrease  in  prevailing 
temperature  beyond  certain  critical  limits,  according  to  the  species 
concerned;  (2)  increase  or  decrease  in  prevailing  atmospheric 
humidity  beyond  certain  limits;  (3)  modification  in  food-supply 
and  appropriate  breeding  and  foraging  ground.  The  limits  set 
by  each  of  these  factors  will  vary  with  the  physiological  pecul- 
iarities of  the  organism  considered ;  in  other  words  the  inherent 
structural  equipment  of  each  animal  figures  importantly.  In 
these  three  sorts  of  barriers  will  be  recognized  what  have  been 
called  ''zonal/'  ''faunal"  and  ''msociationaV  delimitation,  each 
of  which  I  will  now  try  to  define. 

Two  schools  of  f aunistic  students  are  represented  among  Amer- 
ican zoo-geographic  writers  of  the  present  day.  One,  of  which 
C.  H.  Merriam  is  the  most  prominent  exponent,  sees  in  tempera- 
ture the  chief  cause  controlling  distribution,  and  deals  with  the 
ranges  of  species  in  terms  of  **life  zones.''  The  other  school,  of 
which  C.  C.  Adams,  A.  G.  Ruthven  and  Spencer  Trotter  are 
active  advocates,  assigns  to  temperature  but  a  minor  role,  look- 
ing rather  to  a  composite  control,  of  many  factors,  resulting  in 
ecologic  ** associations,"  of  which  plants  are  essential  elements, 
and  which  are  to  be  further  explained  on  historical  grounds. 
The  two  sets  of  areas  thus  defined  do  not  by  any  means  corre- 
spond. Yet  the  reviewer  can  not  fail  to  note,  here  and  there, 
places  where  boundaries  coincide,  and  such  coincidences  are  so 
frequent  as  to  be  suggestive  of  real  concordance  in  some  signifi- 
cant manner.  Is  it  not  probable  that  both  schools  are  approxi- 
mately correct,  the  difference  in  mode  of  treatment  being  due  to 
different  weights  given  the  different  kinds  of  evidence,  or,  in 
other  words,  to  difference  in  perspective? 

Every  animal  is  believed  to  be  limited  in  distribution  zonally 
by  greater  or  less  degree  of  temperature,  more  particularly  by 
that  of  the  reproductive  season.  When  a  number  of  animals 
(always  in  company  with  many  plants  similarly  restricted) 


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No.  568]        SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  251 

approximately  agree  in  such  limitation  they  are  said  to  occupy 
the  same  life  zone. 

The  observation  of  this  category  of  distributional  delimita- 
tion is  particularly  easy  in  an  area  of  great  altitudinal  diversity 
like  that  comprised  in  the  southwestern  United  States.  The 
writer  is  led  to  wonder  if  those  authors  who  minimize  the  impor- 
tance of  temperature  have  ever  been  privileged  to  travel  exten- 
sively, and  carry  on  field  studies,  outside  of  the  relatively  uni- 
form eastern  half  of  North  America ! 

Study  of  any  area  which  varies  widely  in  altitude  and  hence 
provides  readily  appreciable  diflEerences  in  daily  temperature 
from  place  to  place  brings  conviction  of  the  very  great  eflEective- 
ness  of  temperature  in  delimiting  the  ranges  of  nearly  all  species 
of  animals  as  well  as  of  plants.  Particular  attention  may  be 
called  to  the  pertinent  results  of  Merriam's  survey  of  Mount 
Shasta. 

But  temperature  is  not  to  be  considered  the  only  delimiting 
factor  of  environment,  though  its  possible  overemphasis  by  the 
Merriam  school  seems  to  have  led  some  other  persons  to  believe 
that  this  view  is  held.  In  fact  it  becomes  evident,  after  a  con- 
sideration of  appropriate  data,  that  very  many  species  are  kept 
within  geographic  bounds  in  certain  directions  only  by  an  in- 
creasing or  decreasing  degree  of  atmospheric  humidity.  By 
plotting  the  ranges  of  many  animals  as  well  as  of  plants  coin- 
cidence in  this  regard  is  found  in  so  many  cases  as  to  warrant 
the  recognition  of  a  number  of  **faunal  areas" — on  the  causa- 
tive basis  of  relative  uniformity  in  humidity.  It  is  probable  that 
every  species  is  affected  by  both  orders  of  geographic  control. 

The  reader  may  enquire  as  to  the  grounds  for  employing  the 
widely  used  terms  zone  and  fauna  in  the  restricted  sense  here 
prescribed.  In  reply,  it  may  be  said  that  this  is  not  an  inno- 
vation, but  is  an  adoption  of  a  usage  which  has  come  about  his- 
torically among  a  certain  group  of  workers  in  the  geography  of 
vertebrate  animals  in  North  America.  The  writer  recognizes  the 
fanlt  in  imposing  restricted  meanings  upon  old  terms,  but  he 
also  hesitates  at  coining  new  words. 

As  to  which  is  the  more  important,  assembled  data  seem  to- 
show  that  more  genera  and  higher  groups  are  delimited  by  zonal 
bomidaries  than  by  faunal  boundaries.  The  arresting  power  of 
temperature  barriers  would  therefore  seem  to  be  relatively  the 
greater. 


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252  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVni 

In  the  third  category  of  distributional  control  there  is  a  con- 
spicuous association  of  the  majority  of  so-called  adaptive  struc- 
tures of  animals  (often  of  high  taxonomic  value)  with  certain 
mechanical,  or  physical,  features  of  their  environment  An 
animal  may  thus  intimately  depend  upon  certain  inorganic  or 
organic  peculiarities,  or  both,  of  a  given  area,  and  be  unable  to 
maintain  existence  beyond  the  limits  of  occurrence  of  those 
features  of  the  environment.  Tracts  of  relatively  uniform  en- 
vironmental conditions,  including  their  inanimate  as  well  as 
living  elements,  are  here  called  associations. 

After  a  consideration  of  all  the  birds  and  mammals  occurring 
both  within  the  state  of  California  and  elsewhere  as  far  as  the 
writer's  knowledge  goes,  associational  restriction  appears  to  be 
governed  by  the  following  three  factors,  of  relative  importance 
in  the  order  named. 

1.  Kind  of  food-supply  afforded,  with  regard  to  the  inherent 
structural  powers  of  each  of  the  animals  concerned  to  make  it 
available. 

2.  Presence  of  safe  breeding  places,  adapted  to  the  varying 
needs  of  the  animals,  in  other  words  depending  upon  the  respect- 
ive inherent  powers  of  construction,  defence  and  concealment 
in  each  species  concerned. 

3.  Presence  of  places  of  temporary  refuge  for  individuals, 
during  daytime  or  nighttime,  or,  while  foraging,  when  hard- 
pressed  by  predatory  enemies,  again  correlated  with  the  respec- 
tive inherent  powers  of  defence  and  concealment  of  each  species 
involved. 

It  is  believed  that  the  geographical  distribution  of  any  animal 
is  correctly  diagnosed  in  terms  of  each  of  the  three  main  group- 
ings here  suggested.  In  other  words  an  animal  belongs  simul- 
taneously to  one  or  more  zones,  to  one  or  more  faunas,  and  to 
one  or  more  associations.  No  one  of  these  groupings  can  be 
stated  in  terms  of  the  other,  any  more  than  a  person  can  com- 
pute liquids  by  candle-power,  or  weight  in  miles.  The  constit- 
uent species  within  each  of  these  groupings  always  belong  to 
the  other  two.  To  illustrate:  the  southern  white-headed  wood- 
pecker inhabits  the  coniferous  forest  association  of  the  San 
Bernardino  fauna  of  the  Transition  zone;  the  Abert  towhee  be- 
longs to  the  mesquite  and  the  quail-brush  associations  of  the  CJolo- 
rado  Desert  fauna,  of  the  Lower  Sonoran  zone ;  the  Pacific  shrew 
belongs  to  the  upland  riparian  association  of  the  northern  coast 
redwood  fauna  of  the  Transition  and  Boreal  zones. 


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No.  568]       SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  268 

Classification  of  Barriers  to  Species  as  Regards 
Birds  and  Mammals 
Barriers: 

A,  Intangible. 

(a')  Zonal  (by  temperature). 

(6')  Faunal  (by  atmospheric  humidity). 

(c')  Afisociational. 

(1)  By  food  supply. 

(2)  By  breeding  places. 

(3)  By  temporary  refuges. 

(Each  of  these  three  with  regard  to  the  inher- 
ent structural  characters  of  each  species 
concerned.) 

B.  Tangible  (mechanical). 

(a")  Land  to  aquatic  species. 

(6")  Bodies  or  streams  of  water  to  terrestrial  species. 

The  above  categories  are  believed  to  include  all  the  factors 
commonly  involved  in  checking  the  spread  of  species  of  birds  and 
mammals.  It  is  possible  that  inter-specific  competition  may 
sometimes  occur  where  associational  homologues  meet.  But  even 
here  it  becomes  a  matter  of  relative  associational  fitness  which 
determines  supremacy  and  consequent  ultimate  limits  of  inva- 
sion of  the  forms  concerned. 

A  mountain  range,  mechanically  speaking,  is  no  barrier  at  all, 
per  se,  as  frequently  alleged.  Only  as  it  involves  zonal  or  faunal 
barriers  does  it  aflfect  distribution.  The  same  is  true  of  a  valley 
or  a  desert. 

As  far  as  contemplation  of  cases  has  gone,  the  writer's  experi- 
ence has  led  him  to  believe  that  the  outlines  of  the  ranges  of  all 
birds  and  mammals  may  be  accounted  for  by  one  or  more  of  the 
factors  indicated  in  the  analysis  here  presented.  And  as  de- 
tailed knowledge  of  the  facts  of  geographical  distribution  accu- 
mulates, the  delimiting  factors  become  more  and  more  readily 
detectable.  By  such  a  study,  of  comparative  distribution,  it 
seems  possible  that  the  ranges  of  birds  and  mammals  may  become 
subject  to  satisfactory  explanation. 

When  considered  in  its  historical  bearing,  the  problem  of 
barriers  concerns  itself  intimately  with  the  origin  of  species.  It 
is  believed  by  the  writer  that  only  through  the  agency  of  barriers 
is  the  multiplication  of  species,  in  birds  and  mammals,  brought 
about. 


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264  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIH 

The  present  contribution  is  abbreviated  from-a  general  discus- 
sion of  certain  distributional  problems  which  forms  part  of  a 
paper  to  appear  from  the  University  of  California  press  and 
which  treats  in  detail  of  the  birds  and  mammals  of  the  lower 
Colorado  Valley,  in  California  and  Arizona. 

Joseph  Gbinnell 
Museum  or  Vertebrate  Zoolooy, 
University  op  Calitc>rnia 

YELLOW  VARIETIES  OF  RATS 

In  a  recent  number  of  the  Naturalist  I  described  a  yellow 
variety  of  the  common  rat  {Mus  norvegicus)  which  in  recent 
years  made  its  appearance  in  England  and  is  now  a  recognized 
variety  among  fanciers.  Dr.  John  C.  Phillips  and  Professor  L. 
J.  Cole  have  both  called  my  attention  to  a  fact  which  I  had  over- 
looked; namely,  the  occurrence  of  a  yellow  variety  in  another 
species  of  rat  {Mus  rattus) .  Bonhote  described  the  occurrence  of 
this  variety  in  Egypt  in  1910  and  has  since  found  by  experiment 
(1912)  that  the  yellow  variation  of  Mus  rattics  is  recessive  in 
heredity  precisely  as  it  is  in  Mus  norvegicus.  The  fact  that  the 
yellow  variation  in  mice  is  dominant  in  heredity,  but  can  not  be 
obtained  in  a  homozygous  condition,  stands,  therefore,  as  a  phe- 
nomenon all  the  more  singular  and  striking. 

W.  E.  Castue. 

BussET  Institution, 
March  3,  1914. 


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NOTES  AND  LITERATUEE 

HEREDITY  AND   ''THE   INFLUENCE   OP 
MONARCHS'' 

In  **The  Influence  of  Monarchs'*  (xiii  and  422  pp.,  1913,  The 
Maemillan  Co.,  New  York,  $2.00)  Dr.  Frederick  Adams  Woods 
makes  a  second  and  firmer  step  along  the  path  entered  on  with  his 
interesting  ''Mental  and  Moral  Heredity  in  Royalty"  published 
in  1906.  Dr.  Woods's  goal  in  beginning  and  continuing  his  an- 
alysis of  the  character  of  royalties  and  the  circumstances  of  their 
reigns  is  one  probably  not  immediately  to  be  reached  but  also 
probably  one  not  impossible  of  attainment.  It  is  indeed  not  one 
goal  that  he  has  before  him,  but  two,  the  ways  to  which  lie  close 
together  and  parallel.  One  is  the  establishing  of  a  new  science  of 
history  to  be  called  historiometry ;  the  other  is  the  making  ap- 
parent of  the  dominan'ce  of  heredity  over  environment  in  deter- 
mining human  fate. 

That  the  methods  and  even  the  aims  of  most  historical  study 
are  not  satisfying  to  all  historical  students  is  made  obvious  by 
the  constant  complaining  of  historians  to  and  of  each  other. 
There  are  two  conspicuous  groups  of  these  protestants,  one  de- 
manding more  interest,  more  imagination,  a  more  literary  treat- 
ment of  historical  fact,  and  the  other  demanding  a  more  signifi- 
cant, more  inductive,  more  scientific  treatment.  The  former 
wants  more  "humanity,''  the  latter  more  biology,  in  history. 
Dr.  Woods  is  of  the  latter  group. 

But  Dr.  Woods  is  not  primarily  of  any  historical  camp.  He  is 
biologist,  especially  evolutionist  and  student  of  heredity.  How- 
ever, he  marches  very  boldly  into  the  ranks  of  the  students  of  his- 
torical human  history — to  distinguish  thus  the  last  few  thousand 
years  of  human  history  from  the  earlier  many  thousand  years 
of  it — with  the  new  methods  and  results  of  his  historiometry, 
just  as  Pearson,  several  years  ago,  invaded  the  biological  camp 
with  his  biometry.  Something  of  historiometry  in  history  there 
has  always  been,  just  as  there  has  always  been  something  of 
biometry  in  biology.  But  these  reformers  want  to  make  history 
and  biology  wholly,  or,  at  least,  most  importantly,  sciences  of 
measure.  And  each  of  them  finds  that  his  use  of  measure  in  them 
leads  him  to  discover  that  the  facts  that  he  is  measuring  offer,  in 
the  new  significance  they  are  thus  made  to  yield,  a  special  argu- 
ment for  some  particular  one  of  the  major  factors  in  evolution. 

255 


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256  TRE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIH 

Biometry  emphasizes  the  enormous  importance  and  significance  of 
variation  in  all  living  things ;  historiometry  reveals  the  enormous 
importance  of  heredity  in  human  life  and  the  affairs  of  society. 

After  an  introductory  chapter  stating  the  need  of  a  new  inter- 
pretation of  history  and  of  new  methods  of  getting  at  this  inter- 
pretation, and  a  following  general  chapter  further  elaborating 
and  expanding  his  views  concerning  ''the  philosophy  of  history 
and  historiometry,''  Dr.  Woods  plunges  into  a  series  of  compact 
histories  of  France,  Castile,  Aragon,  United  Spain,  Portugal,  The 
Netherlands,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Russia,  Prussia,  Austria,  Turkey, 
Scotland  and  England.  In  each  of  these  he  presents  a  swift  sum- 
mary of  the  economic  and  political  conditions  (success  in  wars, 
increase  in  territory  and  prestige,  prosperity,  advance,  failures  in 
war,  loss  of  prestige,  poverty,  retrogression)  of  these  nations  in 
the  various  reigns  of  a  period  of  about  500  years  for  each  country, 
together  with  a  statement  of  the  personal  traits  of  each  monarch. 
In  all,  three  hundred  and  sixty-eight  monarchs,  regents  or  other 
rulers,  royal  or  non-royal,  and  correspondingly,  three  hundred 
and  sixty-eight  sets,  or  periods,  of  national  conditions,  are  pre- 
sented. 

Prom  these  data  is  derived  the  very  positive  and  important 
conclusion  that  the  dominant  causal  influence  in  determining  the 
character  of  national,  political  and  economic  conditions  has  been 
the  personality  of  the  monarchs,  and  that  the  prime  determinant 
of  this  personality  is  heredity  and  not  environment. 

A  host  of  possible  criticisms  and  objections  to  the  method,  its 
results  and  their  interpretation,  leaps  into  every  one's  mind. 
Well,  they  are  all — or  all  that  I  have  so  far  been  able  to  formu- 
late— ^anticipated,  and  ingeniously,  and  usually  convincingly, 
answered.  At  least  they  are  anticipated  and  discussed.  In  this 
the  book  reminds  one  of  Darwin's  ** Origin  of  Species." 

To  all  who  have  read  ** Heredity  in  Royalty"  this  new  book  of 
Dr.  Woods  will  need  no  recommendation  of  its  interest  and  im- 
portance. To  those  who  have  not,  and  are  interested  either  as 
historian,  biologist,  or  natural  philosopher  in  human  history  and 
the  bionomic  factors  that  control  it,  *'The  Influence  of  Monarchs" 
may  be  strongly  recommended  as  an  original  and  very  suggestive 
treatment  of  the  subject.  To  students  of  heredity  the  book  is  a 
necessary  library  addition. 

V.  L.  K 

Stanford  Univkesitt, 
California 


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258  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST     [Vol.  XLVIII 

lated  from  the  rest  of  the  individuals  comprising  the  par- 
ticular species  represented  by  it.  This  brings  about  cer- 
tain striking  conditions  of  abundant  small  variation  and 
subspecific  (or  intraspecific)  distinction,  which,  however, 
because  of  the  general  similarity  of  habitat,  food  and 
habit,  do  not  tend  to  grow  rapidly  into  large  (specific, 
generic,  family)  diflFerences.  The  hundred  or  more  species 
of  Mallophaga  so  far  recorded  from  mammals  have,  until 
very  recently,  all  been  ascribed  to  two  genera,  of  which  one 
included  nearly  nine  tenths  of  the  total  number  of  kinds. 
There  has  been  made  a  beginning — and  not  a  particularly 
convincing  one — at  breaking  up  this  inclusive  genus 
(Trichodectes).  It  is  a  movement  suggested  more  by  the 
needs  of  convenience  than  the  needs  of  expressing  a  bio- 
logical situation.  Similarly,  although  not  representing 
so  extreme  a  condition  of  likeness,  the  Anoplura,  also 
including  about  a  hundred  parasite  species  (occurring 
only  on  mammals)  have  been,  until  recently,  divided  into 
but  half  a  dozen  genera,  with  the  great  majority  of  the 
species  included  in  one.  Certain  aberrant  forms  found 
on  man,  the  monkeys,  the  elephant,  and  on  seals  and 
walruses  have  always  made  necessary  the  recognition  of 
four  or  five  quite  distinct  genera.  Attempts,  however,  are 
now  being  made  to  break  up  the  unwieldly  genus  Hcema' 
topinus. 

As  this  paper  is,  in  eflFect,  a  continuation  of  my  paper 
on  ''Distribution  and  Species-forming  of  Ecto-parasites'' 
published  in  The  American  Naturalist  in  March,  1913, 
which  devoted  itself  to  a  consideration  of  the  Mallophaga 
(some  1,400  species  as  so  far  known)  found  on  birds,  and 
to  the  problems  presented  by  their  conditions  of  life  and 
their  host  and  geographic  distribution,  I  can  dispense 
with  any  further  account  of  the  special  biology  of  these 
parasites  by  referring  the  interested  reader  to  this 
former  paper.  In  it  I  have  set  out  rather  fully  the  spe- 
cial structural  and  habit  features  of  the  Mallophaga. 
Except  that  the  Anoplura  'take  blood,  rather  than 
feathers  and  hair,  for  food,  and  have  specially  modified 


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No.  569]  ECTOPARASITES  OF  MAMMALS  259 

mouth  parts  to  do  it  with,  and  are  perhaps  even  more 
specialized  in  their  physiological  adaptations  to  their 
host  than  the  biting  lice,  most  of  the  general  remarks 
made  concerning  the  Mallophaga  will  apply  to  the  suck- 
ing lice  also. 

In  their  peculiar  special  relations  to  their  hosts  as  per- 
manent ectoparasites  on  them,  wingless,  and  reluctant  to 
migrate  even  with  opportunity,  and  so  fitted  physiologi- 
cally to  their  parasitic  life  that  they  can  not  live  for  more 
than  a  few  hours  (or,  at  most,  and  exceptionally,  days) 
off  the  bodies  of  their  hosts,  the  Anoplura  and  Mallophaga 
are  alike.  And  hence  the  conditions  and  problems  of 
their  distribution  and  species-forming  are  practically  the 
same  for  the  two  groups. 

The  thesis  that  I  have  maintained,  on  a  basis  of  the 
conditions  presented  by  the  bird-infesting  Mallophaga, 
I  now  wish  to  test  by  the  conditions  presented  by  the 
mammal-infesting  Mallophaga  and  Anoplura.  This  thesis 
is,  in  fewest  words,  that  the  host  distribution  of  these 
wingless  permanent  ectoparasites  is  governed  more  by 
the  genetic  relationships  of  the  hosts  than  by  their  geo- 
graphic range,  or  by  any  other  ecologic  conditions.  The 
fact,  proved  by  abundant  cases,  that  two  host  species  of 
wholly  distinct  geographic  range  and  with  no  possible 
opportunity  for  contact  such  as  would  permit  of  the 
migration  of  wingless  parasites  from  one  to  the  other, 
may  have,  nevertheless,  one  or  more  parasitic  species 
common  to  them  both,  is  associated  almost  always  with 
the  further  fact  that  these  common  hosts  are  closely 
related  genetically.  They  are  most  often  of  the  same 
genus  or  of  closely  allied  genera;  they  are  almost  cer- 
tainly always  of  the  same  subfamily  or  family.  The  ex- 
planation for  the  possibility  and  the  reality  of  this  inter- 
esting host  distribution  I  find  in  the  hypothesis  that  the 
common  parasite  species  has  persisted  unchanged  from 
a  common  ancestor  of  the  now  divergent  but  allied  host 
kinds. 

Also,  if  it  be  true  that  genetic  relationship  is  the  deter- 


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260  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST     [Vol.  XL VIII 

mining  factor  in  accounting  for  the  host  distribution  of 
the  parasites,  then  it  is  also  true  that  the  distribution  of 
the  parasites  will  indicate  in  some  measure  the  genetic 
relationships  of  the  hosts,  and  that  occasional  aid  in 
determining  the  genetic  affinities  of  birds  and  mammals 
of  doubtful  relationships  may  be  had  from  a  study  of 
their  parasitic  fauna.  In  my  paper  already  referred  to 
I  have  pointed  out  some  suggestive  cases  of  this  sort  in 
connection  with  the  birds  and  their  parasites. 

In  examining  the  conditions  existing  among  the  mam- 
mals and  their  Mallophagan  and  Anopluran  fauna,  the 
first  necessity  was  the  compilation  of  a  complete  record 
or  catalogue  of  mammalian  hosts  and  their  parasites, 
together  with  the  record  of  the  actual  locality  of  each 
finding  of  parasites,  together  with  a  general  record  of  the 
geographic  range  of  all  the  various  hosts.  This  cata- 
logue, or  set  of  records,  I  have  now  completed,  and 
despite  its  meagerness  compared  with  the  similar  cata- 
logue of  the  bird  hosts  and  their  Mallophagan  parasites 
from  which  the  notes  for  the  former  paper  were  drawn, 
it  contains  enough  records  of  interest  to  make  worth 
while  a  preliminary  report  on  the  condition  obtaining 
among  the  mammals  and  their  parasites. 

It  is  unfortunate  that,  although  there  are  nearly  one 
fourth  as  many  mammal  species  as  bird  kinds,  only  about 
one  hundred  mammals  figure  in  the  Mallophagan  host 
list,  while  Mallophagan  parasites  have  been  taken  from 
over  eleven  hundred  bird  species.  Also,  only  one  hun- 
dred different  Mallophaga  have  been  taken  from  mam- 
mals, while  about  fourteen  hundred  have  been  taken 
from  birds.  Of  the  Anoplura,  which  are  found  only  on 
mammals,  records  have  been  made  from  about  one  hun- 
dred host  species,  these  records  referring  to  just  about 
the  same  number  of  Anopluran  kinds.  Thus  the  mam- 
malian host  catalogue  with  its  list  of  parasites  is  a  short 
one ;  as  far  as  it  goes,  however,  it  is  thoroughly  interest- 
ing and  suggestive. 

In  working  up  the  records  I  have  used  Trouessart's 


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No.  569]  ECTOPARASITES  OF  MAMMALS  261 

'^Catalogus  Mammalium"  as  an  authority  for  the  synon- 
omy  of  the  hosts,  and  my  own  judgment,  based  on  a  con- 
siderable personal  knowledge  of  the  parasites  and  on  a 
careful  consideration  of  all  the  more  intelligible  litera- 
ture of  the  two  groups,  as  a  last  court  for  the  synonomy 
of  the  Mallophaga  and  Anoplura  species.  The  synonomy 
of  the  parasites  I  have,  however,  not  pushed  far. 

With  so  much  of  introduction  and  explanation  we  may 
come  to  a  swift  resume  of  the  results  of  a  scrutiny  of 
these  records,  proceeding  by  sequence  of  the  mammalian 
orders,  and  referring  to  either  or  both  groups  of  para- 
sites as  they  may  happen  to  be  represented  in  the  para- 
site records  of  the  successive  host  groups. 

II 

The  Marsupialia  are  represented  in  the  host  list  by 
half  a  dozen  species  of  kangaroos  and  wallabies  (family 
Macropidae)  all  from  Australia,  and  a  wombat,  Phasco- 
lomys  ur sinus  (family  PhalangeridaB),  from  Tasmania 
(also  S.  Australia?).  From  all  of  these  hosts  only  Mallo- 
phaga are  recorded,  no  Anoplura  having  yet  been  taken 
from  a  marsupial.  The  six  species  of  kangaroos  repre- 
sent three  genera  (Macropus,  Petrogale  and  ^prym- 
nus),  and  their  Mallophaga  are  of  seven  species,  repre- 
senting four  genera.  Four  of  the  species  belong  to  the 
genus  Boopia,  and  I  strongly  suspect  are  not  all  different. 
In  addition  there  is  one  Trichodectes,  from  Petrogale 
penicillata,  one  Latumcephalum,  from  ** wallabies,**  and 
one  Heterodoxus,  which  is  recorded  from  Macropus 
giganteus  in  Australia  as  well  as  from  the  same  host  in 
the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  Paris.  It  is  also  recorded  from 
an  undetermined  wallaby  in  Victoria  and  one  in  Queens- 
land, as  well  as  appearing  in  three  other  records  from 
** kangaroo'*  or  ** wallaby**  from  Australia.  The  para- 
site of  the  wombat  is  a  species  of  Boopia,  and  it  has  been 
twice  recorded  from  the  same  host.  It  is  interesting  that 
the  kangaroo  in  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  harbored,  even 
after  some  period  of  captivity,  only  its  own  proper  para- 


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262  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XL  VIII 

sites  without  accepting  new  ones  from  its  many,  various 
and  closely  pressing  neighbors. 

Of  the  four  Mallophagan  genera  found  on  the  kanga- 
roo, three,  namely,  Boopia,  Latumcephalum  and  Hetero- 
doxus^  are  peculiar  to  them.  The  third  genus,  Tricho- 
dectes,  is  represented  by  but  a  single  species  which  has 
been  recorded  but  once.  This  is  the  common  Mallophagan 
genus  of  mammals  generally.  The  record  is  perhaps  a 
good  one,  but  its  lack  of  confirmation  by  being  unrepeated 
either  for  the  same  species  or  for  any  other  species  of 
Trichodectes,  is  suggestive.  Heterodoxus,  Latumcepha- 
lum and  Boopia  are  two-clawed  genera ;  that  is,  they  are 
Mallophagan  forms  which  belong  to  a  family  all  the  other 
genera  of  which  are  confined  to  birds.  The  characteristic 
structural  difference  between  the  mammal-infesting 
Mallophaga  and  the  bird-infesting  species  is  the  presence 
in  the  first  group  of  a  single  claw  on  each  tarsus,  and  in 
the  second  of  two  claws.  This  difference  is  plainly  an 
adaptive  one  concerned  with  the  fitting  of  the  foot  for 
the  seizing  of  hairs  and  scrambling  about  among  them, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  manipulation  of  feathers  and 
moving  about  on  them,  on  the  other.  In  examining  living 
specimens  under  the  microscope  the  special  use  and  fit- 
ness of  the  feet,  in  the  one  case  adapted  to  hairs  and  in 
the  other  to  feathers,  is  obvious.  However,  Heterodoxus, 
Latumcephalum  and  Boopia,  and,  in  addition,  perhaps 
one  other  doubtful  genus,  represented  by  one  species,  and 
perhaps  two  or  three  species  of  another  two-clawed 
genus,  constitute  exceptions  to  the  general  rule.  It  is  of 
decided  interest  to  note  that  the  only  genera  of  two- 
clawed  Mallophaga  found  exclusively  on  mamtnals  are 
limited  to  the  Marsupials.    The  antiquity  and  isolation  of 

1  The  single  valid  species  of  this  genus — the  two  or  three  that  have  been 
named  are  undoubtedly  all  the  same — ^has  also  been  recorded  from  dogs  1  In 
fact  specimens  in  my  own  collection  were  received  with  the  record  *'from 
Japanese  dog. '  *  And  Enderlein  has  recorded  it  from  a  dog  from  China  and 
Neumann  from  a  dog  from  Formosa.  Yet  dogs  ordinarily  do  not  harbor 
this  parasite,  and  kangaroos  and  wallabies  do.  It  seems  necessary  to  be- 
lieve that  the  dog  host  records  indicate  cases  of  straggling  from  kangaroos 
in  zoological  gardens  or  menageries. 


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No.  569]  ECTOPARASITES  OF  MAMMALS  263 

this  host  group  strongly  suggests  that  the  one-clawed  con- 
dition common  to  all  other  mammal-infesting  Mallophaga 
is  a  derivative  from  the  original  two-clawed  condition 
characteristic  of  the  parasites  of  birds  and  of  these  ancient 
manmials.  The  two-clawed  condition  is,  of  course,  the  one 
common  to  insects  generally  and  is  characteristic  of  the 
Atropids,  in  whom  I  am  inclined  to  see  the  ancestors,  or 
near-ancestors,  of  the  Mallophaga.  All  of  the  Anoplura, 
it  may  be  added,  which  are  exclusively  mammal-infesting, 
are  one-clawed. 

In  this  connection  the  suggestiveness  of  the  fact  that 
in  face  of  the  examination  of  many  specimens  of  half  a 
dozen  species  of  kangaroos  and  wallabies,  no  Anoplura 
have  yet  been  found  on  the  Marsupials,  may  be  referred 
to.  I  am  coming  strongly  to  believe  that  there  is  no  such 
wide  ordinal  separation  of  the  Mallophaga  and  Anoplura 
as  our  clinging  to  the  fetich  of  *' biting  and  sucking 
mouth-parts''  as  basis  for  radical  classificatory  separation 
has  led  us  to  effect.  I  believe,  with  Mjoberg,  that  the  two 
groups  of  parasites  have  a  fairly  near  genealogical 
aflSnity,  their  differences,  which  are  particularly  those  of 
mouth-parts,  being  adaptive  rather  than  palingenetic  in 
character.  The  Anoplura  have  gone  on  from  the  Psocid- 
Mallophagan  condition  to  a  more  specialized  parasitic 
habit,  and  are  the  extremes  of  a  general  line  of  ecto- 
parasitic  evolution.  The  absence  of  sucking  lice  from  the 
kangaroos  may  mean  that  the  Marsupials  are  older  than 
the  Anoplura!  No  other  considerable  group  of  mam- 
mals, except  certain  families  of  strong-smelling  Carni- 
vora,  is  free  from  the  blood-sucking  parasites. 

There  are  but  two  Edentates  in  the  host  list,  one,  the 
Cape  Ant  bear,  Orycteropus  afer  (family  Orycteropo- 
didae)  of  south  and  central  Africa,  harboring  a  sucking 
louse,  of  genus  and  species  peculiar  to  it,  and  the  other, 
the  three-toed  sloth,  Brady  pus  tridactylus  (family  Brady- 
podidae)  of  eastern  South  America,  harboring  a  Mallo- 
phagan  of  species  peculiar  to  it  but  of  the  genus  Gyropus 
which  is  the  less  scattered,  although  still  rather  catholic, 


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264  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST     [Vol.  XLVIH 

genus  of  the  two  large  ones  characteristic  of  the 
mammals. 

The  large  order  Ungulata,  with  its  nnmerons  domesti- 
cated and  semi-domesticated  species,  is  a  favorite  host 
group  with  both  Mallophaga  and  Anoplura.  Altogether* 
about  thirty  Anoplura  and  two  dozen  Mallophagan  spe- 
cies are  recorded  from  fifty  host  species  representing  nine 
Ungulate  families. 

The  family  Elephantidae  is  represented  by  the  African 
and  Indian  elephants,  recognized  as  distinct  species  of 
distinct  geographic  range.  They  both  harbor  a  common 
Anopluran  species,  HcBmatomyzus  elephantis,  of  species, 
genus  and  family  peculiar  to  the  elephants.  Fahrenholz 
has  given  the  varietal  name  sumatranus  to  specimens  of 
these  sucking  lice  taken  from  an  Indian  elephant  in 
Sumatra.  Records  show  that  the  parasites  have  been 
taken  from  their  elephant  hosts  not  only  in  Africa  and 
Asia,  but  in  various  zoological  gardens,  as  Paris,  Ham- 
burg and  Rotterdam. 

The  small  family  of  Hyracidae,  or  conies,  is  represented 
in  the  host  list  by  two  species  and  perhaps  a  third  one, 
one  of  which,  the  Syrian  coney  of  west  and  south  Asia, 
harbors  one  Anopluran  and  one  Mallophagan,  while  from 
the  other,  the  Cape  coney  of  South  Africa,  the  same 
Anopluran  species  is  recorded  as  well  as  another  of  the 
same  genus.  This  record  of  a  second  species  is  from  a 
coney  in  the  London  Zoological  Gardens.  From  the  pos- 
sible third  species  of  Hyrax  (taken  in  the  African  Congo 
and  perhaps,  but  not  probably,  also  a  Cape  coney),  a 
second  Mallophagan  species  is  recorded  of  the  same 
genus,  Trichodectes,  to  which  that  of  the  Syrian  coney 
belongs. 

In  the  family  Equidae  three  species,  the  horse,  the 
donkey  and  BurchelPs  zebra,  all  suffer  from  the  infesta- 
tion of  a  common  Anopluran  species,  Hcematopinus  asini. 
In  addition,  the  horse  and  the  zebra  have  a  common 

2  The  sjnoDomy  in  the  parasite  records,  and  indeed  in  the  host  records 
as  well,  is  a  vicious  tangle.    I  have  done  the  best  I  can,  for  the  present. 


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No.  569]  ECTOPARASITES  OF  MAMMALS  265 

Mallophagan  parasite,  Trichodectes  parumpilosus,  while 
the  horse  and  donkey  have  another  common  biting  louse, 
Trichodectes  pilosus.  Two  varieties  of  Trichodectes 
parumpilosus  have  been  named  by  Piaget,  one  from  the 
zebra  and  another  from  *  kittle  horses  of  Java/* 

The  pigs  (family  SuidsB),  of  which  three  wild  African 
species  besides  the  familiar  animal  of  the  barnyard  are 
fouBid  in  the  host  list,  are  infested  by  two  (perhaps  three) 
species  of  Anoplura  and  one  (a  not  too  certain  record) 
Mallophagan.  Hcematopinus  suis  is  found  on  the  domes- 
tic Sus  all  over  the  world,  while  Hcematopinus  latus  of 
Neumann,  H.  phocochoeri  of  Enderlein  and  H.  peristictus 
of  Kellogg  and  Paine,  which  are  almost  certainly  all  one 
species,  are  recorded  from  the  wart  hog,  Phacochcerus 
cethiopicus  from  Nyasa-land,  Africa,  and  probably  also 
from  another  wart  hog  species  from  Africa,  and  the  Red 
River  hog,  Potamochcerus  chceropotamus  from  Nyasa- 
land,  Africa.  In  addition  Potamochcerus  demunis  (prob- 
ably),rfrom  German  east  Africa,  is  credited  by  Stobbe 
with  a  Mallophagan  parasite  peculiar  to  it,  Trichodectes 
vosseleri  Stobbe. 

The  peccary,  Dicotyles  tajacu  (family  Dicotylidae)  of 
Central  wAmerica  and  southwestern  North  America,  has  a 
Mallophagan  species  peculiar  to  it,  belonging  to  the 
smaller  of  the  two  large  Mallophagan  genera,  namely, 
Gyropus. 

The  dromedary,  of  north  Africa  and  western  Asia,  and 
the  bactrian  camel,  of  central  Asia,  harbor  a  common 
sucking  louse,  Hcematopinus  cameli.  A  doubtful  second 
species  called  H.  tuherculatus  (Neumann  thinks  it  iden- 
tical with  cameli)  has  been  recorded  from  a  dromedary 
imported  from  India  into  Australia.  The  **  South  Amer- 
ican camel,*'  the  llama,  harbors  an  Anopluran  species 
peculiar  to  it,  and  two  Mallophagan  species,  Trichodectes 
hreviceps  Rudow  and  T.  incequalemaculatus  Piaget.  Al- 
though Rudow's  species  are  often  suspect,  I  have  just 
had  his  hreviceps  from  a  llama  of  Peru  (collector  C.  H. 


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266  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [V0L.XLVIII 

T.  Townsend).  With  these  llama  Mallophaga  there  is 
also  a  small  Anopluran  which  I  have  not  yet  worked  out. 

The  family  Cervidae  is  represented  in  the  host  list  by 
about  ten  species.  They  are  infested  by  three  species  of 
Anoplura,  each  peculiar  to  its  host,  and  six  species  of 
Trichodectes  (Mallophaga)  of  which  T.  tibialis  is  com- 
mon to  the  roe  deer  of  Europe  and  Asia  Minor,  an 
African  Capreolus,  and  our  own  black-tailed  deer  of  the 
western  states.  Trichodectes  longicornis  is  common  to 
the  red  deer  of  Europe  and  Asia  Minor  and  the  fallow 
deer  of  south  Europe,  Asia  Minor  and  north  Africa. 

The  giraffe  (family  Giraffidae)  harbors  a  sucking  louse, 
Linognathus  brevicornis,  peculiar  to  it. 

The  great  family  Bovidse,  with  its  many  buffalo,  buck, 
sheep,  goat  and  antelope  kinds,  is  represented  in  the  host 
list  by  five  or  six  species  of  Bos,  four  African  bucks, 
three  or  four  sheep,  the  ibex,  chamois  and  two  or  three 
goats,  and  five  or  six  antelopes,  or  gazelles.  The  domes- 
tic ox,  Bos  taurus,  harbors  three  species  of  Anoplura  and 
one  Mallophagan.  Curiously,  none  of  these  species  is 
recorded  from  any  other  Bos.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
zebu,  the  Indian  buffalo,  and  the  American  bison  all 
have  the  same  Anopluran  species  (and  no  other,  nor  any 
Mallophagan),  while  the  yak  of  central  Asia  and  the 
Kaffir  buffalo  each  have  an  Anopluran  peculiar  to  it. 
The  four  species  of  African  reedbucks  and  duikerboks 
have,  according  to  the  records,  each  a  peculiar  species  of 
sucking  louse.  These  records  need  scrutiny.  One  of 
them  is  my  own,  but  I  had  to  describe  the  species  without 
seeing  the  types  of  the  others.  The  domestic  sheep 
carries  two  Anopluran  species  and  one  Mallophagan. 
The  latter  occurs  also  on  at  least  two  wild  species  of 
Ovis,  one  of  west  Africa  and  the  other  of  north  Africa. 
The  fat-tailed  sheep  has  a  record  from  German  south- 
west Africa  of  a  Trichodectes  of  its  own. 

The  domestic  goat  harbors  one  Anopluran  and  at  least 
one  Mallophagan,  the  latter  being  common  also  to  the 
Angora  goat,  the  chamois,  and  a  wild  ( ?)  goat  of  Guinea, 


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No.  569]  ECTOPARASITES   OF  MAMMALS  267 

and  a  wild  (?)  goat  of  Java.  A  recent  description  of  a 
second  Mallophagan  species  from  the  domestic  goat  is 
not  convincing.  The  chamois  has  also  an  Anoplnran,  but 
one,  so  far,  peculiar  to  it.  Three  species  of  Gazella  (or 
Antilope)  have  three  species  of  Trichodectes,  of  which 
one  is  common  to  two  host  species,  one  of  Arabia  and 
Syria  and  the  other  of  north  Africa  and  southwest  Asia 
generally.  This  same  Trichodectes  is  also  recorded  from 
the  roan  antelope,  Hippotragus  equinus,  of  east  central 
and  south  Africa.  One  species  of  Gazella  carries  an 
Anopluran  peculiar  to  it,  as  does  also  Tragelaphus  grains 
of  west  Africa. 

The  order  Carnivora  is  represented  in  the  host  list  by 
eight  families  and  a  total  of  fifty-four  species.  Only  one 
species  of  Anopluran,  the  common  sucking  louse  of  the 
dog  (not  found  yet  even  on  the  wolf  or  fox,  both  of  which 
have  other  records)  is  recorded  from  a  Carnivore,  outside 
of  the  two  families  Trichechidae  (walruses)  and  Phocidie 
(seals  and  sea-lions).  From  these  two  families,  on  the 
other  hand,  only  Anoplura  are  recorded. 

The  family  FelidsB  is  represented  by  three  species,  the 
domestic  cat,  tte  California  lynx  and  the  tiger.  The  cat 
and  lynx  have  a  common  Mallophagan  parasite,  Tricho- 
dectes subrostratus  (and  no  other),  while  the  tiger  has  a 
biting  louse  presumably  peculiar  to  it.  The  description 
of  this  parasite  is,  however,  very  brief  and  unsatisfactory. 

The  family  Viverridae,  mongooses,  ichneumons  and 
genets,  is  represented  in  the  host-list  by  eight  species,  of 
which  five  are  of  the  genus  Herpestes.  Two  of  these 
Herpestes  species,  one  of  southern  Spain,  north  Africa 
and  Asia  Minor,  the  other  of  west,  east  and  south  Africa, 
harbor  a  common  Mallophagan  parasite.  A  record  of 
the  finding  of  Trichodectes  subrostratus,  the  familiar 
biting  louse  of  the  cat,  on  Herpestes  pluto,  comes  from 
the  Kameroons  (Africa).  It  is  probably  a  case  o© 
straggling,  the  mongooses  being  common  enough  in  gar- 
dens, and  some  of  them  fairly  domesticated. 

Of  the  family  Canidae  there  are  records  from  eleven 


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268  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST     [Vol.  XLVin 

species,  including  the  domestic  dog,  a  wild  dog  of  South 
America,  two  wild  dogs  of  Asia,  two  foxes,  and  a  wolf. 
The  domestic  dog  has  a  familiar  sucking  louse  and  is  also 
credited  with  that  problematical  normal  or  straggling 
biting  louse  of  a  peculiar  genus  which  I  have  referred  to 
in  my  account  of  the  parasites  of  the  kangaroos  Tricho- 
dectes  latus,  the  common  biting  louse  of  the  domestic  dog, 
is  also  conmion  to  the  wolf,  Canis  lupus,  of  Europe  and 
Asia,  and  to  the  raccoon-like  wild  dog,  Nyctereutes  pro- 
cyonoides,  of  Asia  and  Japan.  The  record  of  this  last 
came,  it  must  be  noted,  from  the  Berlin  Zoological  Gar- 
dens. There  is  no  other  record  of  commonness  of  para- 
site to  two  hosts  in  the  family.  The  English  fox  has  a 
single  Mallophagan  species,  and  the  California  fox  has 
another.  The  dhole,  a  wild  dog  of  the  Himalayas,  has  a 
Mallophagan  species,  and  the  Magellan  wolf  of  Patagonia 
has  another. 

The  family  Procyonidae  is  represented  in  the  host-list 
by  two  raccoons,  the  California  ring-tailed  cat,  and  two 
coatis  of  Central  and  South  America,  respectively.  The 
two  raccoons,  Procyon  lotor  of  North  America  and  Pro- 
cyon  psora  of  California,  harbor  a  common  Mallophagan 
parasite.  In  addition  a  German  record  (from  a  zoolog- 
ical garden?)  credits  Procyon  lotor  with  carrying  also  a 
Mallophagan  which  is  the  characteristic  parasite  of  the 
badger.  On  the  California  ring-tailed  cat,  Bassariscus 
astuta,  have  been  found  two  Mallophagan  species,  one  of 
which  is  the  characteristic  parasite  of  the  skunks  of 
North  and  South  America.  The  two  coatis,  Nasua  narica 
and  Nasua  rufa,  one  of  southwestern  United  States, 
Mexico  and  Central  America,  and  the  other  of  South 
America  from  the  equator  south,  both  harbor  a  common 
Mallophagan  species. 

The  family  Mustelidae,  comprising  the  badgers,  wea- 
sels, martens,  and  skunks,  an  ill-smelling  crew,  offers  no 
attraction  to  blood-sucking  parasites,  but  is  represented 
in  the  host-list  by  nearly  twenty  species  from  which 
Mallophaga  have  been  taken.    The  Old  World  badger  has 


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No.  569]  ECTOPARASITES  OF  MAMMALS  269 

a  characteristic  species,  Trichodectes  crassus.    The  mar- 
tens, weasels  and  ermine  have  also  a  characteristic  spe- 
cies, Trichodectes  retusus,  which  is  recorded  from  the 
pine  marten  of  Europe  and  northern  Asia,  the  beech 
marten  of  the  same  range,  still  another  Old  World  mar- 
ten, the  weasel  of  Europe  and  Asia,  the  ermine  of  north 
Europe,  Asia  and  America,  and  the  weasel  and  mink  of 
North  America,  in  all  six  or  seven  species  of  Mustela  and 
Putorius  of  very  wide  geographic  range.    The  skunks  of 
North  and  South  America  have  also  a  characteristic 
Mallophagan  species,  Trichodectes  nephitidis,  described 
by  Osbom  from  the  conunon  North  American  skunk. 
Mephitis  mephitica,  taken  in  Nebraska.    I  have  found 
this  parasite  on  the  western  skunk,  M.  occidentalis,  in 
California,  and  on  M.  macrura  of  Arizona.    It  has  also 
been  recorded  from  the  spotted  skunk,  Spilogale  inter- 
rupta,  of  the  southern  United  States,  Mexico  and  Central 
America,  and  I  have  examples  from  a  *' skunk  *'  of  Bolivia. 
It  is  also  recorded  from  a  Chilian  Mustelid,  Galictis 
quiqui,  which  ranges  over  South  America  from  the  Eiver 
Plate  south,  and  from  another  species  of  Galictis  in 
Brazil.    Finally,  examples  of  this  ubiquitous  pest  are 
recorded  from  Helictis  everetti  from  North  Borneo  I    The 
last  record  comes  from  Neumann,  a  very  careful  and 
weU-inf  ormed  student  of  the  parasites,  but  his  specimens 
were  taken  from  a  skin  in  the  Museum  of  Natural  History 
of  Paris.    The  Old  World  otter,  Lutra  Intra,  has  a  Tri- 
chodectes of  its  own,  as  has  also  an  African  otter,  L. 
matschiei,    and    the    North    African    Zorilla    lyhica. 
Mjoberg  records  a  species  of  Boopia  (typical  kangaroo 
parasite  genus)  from  Lutra  pruneri  of  India.    As  the 
record  is  an  extraordinary  one,  being  the  only  case  of  a 
Boopia  found  outside  of  Australia  or  on  a  mammal  other 
than  a  Marsupial,  it  is  well  to  note  the  exact  circum- 
stances of  the  record.    The  parasites  (several  examples) 
were  got  by  Mjoberg  from  the  Hamburg  Zoological  Mu- 
seum where  they  were  ticketed  as  having  been  taken 
from  a  ^'soeben  frisch  angekommenes  Thier"  of  the 
species  Lutra  pruneri,  the  animal  having  been  received 


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270  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST     [Vol.  XLVHI 

from  India.  There  are  to  be  considered  in  connection 
with  this  extraordinary  record,  first,  the  possibility  of  an 
exchange  of  labels  in  the  course  of  the  several  handlings 
of  the  Mallophagan  specimens,  and,  second,  the  possibility 
of  a  favorable  answer  to  the  question:  Is  Lutra  pruneri, 
which  does  not  appear  in  Trouessart  at  all,  only  Lutra 
lutra,  the  common  Old  World  otter,  and  was  the  speci- 
men from  which  the  Mallophagan  came  a  resident  in  a 
zoological  garden  in  which  kangaroos  or  wallabies  also 
lived,  affording  a  bare  chance  of  straggling?  The  similar 
aberrant  records  from  dogs  of  the  kangaroo  parasite 
Heterodoxus  have  already  been  referred  to. 

The  bears  (family  Ursidae)  have,  so  far,  but  one  para- 
site record  to  present,  a  Mallophagan  species,  Tricho- 
dectes  pinguis,  having  been  described  from  the  Thibetan 
bear,  Ursus  thibetanus,  a  century  ago. 

The  walrus  (family  TrichechidaB)  harbors  a  strange 
Anopluran  parasite  of  species,  genus  and  family  peculiar 
to  its  host,  as,  indeed,  might  be  expected  of  any  ecto- 
parasite daring  enough  to  brave  comrade  life  with  wal- 
ruses. Examples  of  the  parasite  have  been  taken  from 
walruses  from  Spitzbergen,  Frobisher  Bay  (Davis 
Straits),  the  Hamburg  Zoological  Garden,  and  I  have 
recently  had  them  from  a  ** Pacific  walrus''  from  ** south- 
east of  Siberia." 

The  family  Phocidae  is  represented  in  the  host-list  by 
at  least  five  species  of  seals  and  sea-lions  carrying  an 
equal  number  of  Anopluran  species  representing  three 
different  genera,  all  of  them  peculiar  to  the  seals.  A 
single  parasite  species,  Echinopthirius  phocce  has  been 
repeatedly  taken  from  the  fur  seal,  Proca  vitulina,  from 
both  Old  World  and  New  World  shores.  The  harp  seal 
of  the  Arctic  is  credited  with  the  same  parasite,  as  well 
as  another.  Hooker's  seal  of  New  Zealand  and  the  Auck- 
land Islands  carries  an  Anopluran,  Antarctopthirius 
macrochir,  of  species  and  genus  peculiar  to  it,  while  the 
elephant  seal  of  the  south  Pacific  has  another  parasite 
also  of  genus  and  species  peculiar  to  it. 

The  large  order  Rodentia  is  well  represented  in  the 


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No.  569]  ECTOPARASITES  OF  MAMMALS  271 

host-list,  representatives  of  thirteen  families,  summing 
about  sixty  species,  being  listed.  Both  Mallophaga  and 
Anoplura  infest  the  rodents,  but  certain  families  are 
parasitized  almost  or  quite  exclusively  by  Anoplura, 
while  Mallophaga  are  the  only  parasites  of  others. 

The  SciuridsB  (squirrels  and  spermophiles),  for  ex- 
ample, with  a  dozen  host  species,  are  parasitized  by  a 
dozen  species  of  Anoplura  with  only  a  single  Mallo- 
phagan  record;  and  a  single  record  under  such  circum- 
stances is  always  suspect.  There  is  little  commonness  of 
parasite  species  to  two  or  more  host  species  in  this 
family.  Osbom's  Polyplax  montana  is  recorded  from 
the  eastern  and  western  North  American  gray  squirrels, 
and  his  P.  suturalis  has  been  taken  from  two  Spermo- 
phile  species,  both,  however,  of  the  same  general  range. 
The  well-differentiated  parasite  genus  Acanthopinus  is 
represented  by  one  species  from  the  common  Old  World 
squirrel,  Sciurus  vulgaris,  and  another  from  the  eastern 
gray  squirrel  of  North  America.  These  species,  though 
close  together,  really  seem  to  be  different.  In  addition  I 
have  just  found  the  Acanthopinus  species  of  the  eastern 
gray  squirrel  on  Douglas's  squirrel  in  California,  and 
another  (new)  species  on  a  California  chipmunk.  The 
only  Mallophagan  species  recorded  from  a  Sciurid  is 
Gyropus  turbinatus  from  the  marmot,  Arctomys  mar- 
motta,  of  the  mountains  of  southern  Europe. 

From  the  beaver  (family  Castoridae)  a  characteristic 
Mallophagan  species,  Trichodectes  castoris,  has  been 
taken  in  America.  The  beaver,  it  may  be  noted,  is  the 
host  of  the  only  beetle  (Platypsylla  cast  oris)  that  has 
become  a  specialized  permanent  ectoparasite,  passing  its 
whole  life  on  the  body  of  its  host. 

The  Old  World  dormouse  (family  Gliridae  or  Myoxidse) 
harbors  a  sucking  louse,  Polyplax  pleurophcea. 

The  large  family  Muridae,  including  the  rats,  mice, 
voles  and  lemmings,  is  represented  by  twenty  host  species 
well  scattered  over  the  world.  There  are  twenty-two 
Anopluran  species  and  two  Mallophagan  species  in  the 
parasite  list  for  the  group.    Both  of  these  Mallophagan 


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272  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVm 

records  are  my  own.  One  is  a  new  species  of  Colpoce- 
phalum  (exclusively  a  bird-infesting  genus)  from  a 
''spotted  rat,'*  Uganda,  Africa,  sent  me  by  Sjoestedt  in 
a  collection  made  by  the  Swedish  Zoological  Expedition 
to  Kilimandjaro-Meru,  Africa,  in  1905-1906.  It  is  un- 
doubtedly a  straggler  from  some  bird  taken  at  the  same 
time.  The  other  is  a  poor  specimen  of  Trichodectes  from 
Mus  rattus,  Canal  Zone,  Panama,  sent  me  by  Dr.  Jen- 
nings. It  may  be  a  good  record — or  it  may  be  a  deceiving 
one.  Both  record  and  specimen  need  further  scrutiny. 
It  is,  perhaps,  important  to  note  that  two  specimens  of 
a  wingless  Psocid  (Atropidae)  were  sent  with  the  lot 
labeled  ** parasites  from  Mus  rattus."  It  would  be  very 
interesting  if  we  could  know  that  these  Atropids  were 
really  living  on  the  rats,  feeding  on  their  hair  or  dermal 
scales.  I  have  found  Atropids  in  rats'  nests  and  birds' 
nests  living  undoubtedly  on  the  loose  hairs,  feathers  and 
dermal  exuviae.  It  is  my  belief,  based  primarily  on  cer- 
tain striking  facts  of  morphology,  that  the  Mallophaga 
are  degenerate  descendants  of  the  Rsocidae.^  Of  the 
murid  Anoplura,  two  or  three  are  common  to  several 
hosts,  as  the  well-known  Polyplax  spinulosa,  recorded 
from  all  over  the  world  from  the  now  cosmopolitan  Mus 
rattus  and  Mus  decumanus,  as  well  as  from  Mus  syl- 
vaticus  of  Europe  and  north  Asia,  and  Mus  alexandrinus 
of  south  Europe  and  Asia  Minor  (perhaps  only  a  variety 
of  Mus  rattus) y  and  Polyplax  affinis  (perhaps  only  a 
variety  of  P.  spinulosa)  recorded  from  Mus  agrarius  of 
eastern  Europe,  and  Mus  sylvaticus  of  Europe  and  north 
Asia.  Polyplax  (Hoplopleura)  acanthopus,  the  common 
sucking  louse  of  the  mouse  has  been  taken  from  the  now 
cosmopolitan  Mus  musculus,  and  also  from  Lemmus  tor- 
quatus,  the  lenuning  of  Arctic  Europe,  Asia  and  America, 
Microtus  agrestis,  the  field  vole  of  Europe,  Microtus  arvor 
lis,  another  common  vole  of  Europe  and  Asia,  and  Micro- 
tus sp.  from  Iowa,  U.  S.  A.  The  water  rat,  Hydromys 
chry so g aster,  of  Australia,  has  a  Polyplax  species  of  its 
own  as  has  also  Otomys  bisulcatus  of  south  and  central 

3  See  Psyche,  Vol.  9,  339,  pp.  1902. 


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No.  569]  ECTOPARASITES  OF  MAMMALS  273 

Africa,  Hesperomys  leucopus  of  North  America,  Epimys 
aurifer  of  the  Malay  Peninsula,  Gerbellus  indicus  of 
northern  India  and  Afghanistan,  and  Holochilus  sciureus 
of  Brazil  and  Peru.  The  conunon  Old  World  mouse,  Mus 
minutus,  harbors  three  Anopluran  species,  while  Mus 
musculus  has  but  two.  The  Old  World  water  vole.  Micro- 
tus  terrestris,  has  a  parasite  differing  from  the  two  in- 
festing respectively  the  two  Old  World  land  species  of 
Microtus. 

In  connection  with  this  resume  of  the  Murid  parasites, 
I  may  say  that  I  have  now  in  process  of  working  over 
some  two  hundred  vials  of  material  collected  last  summer 
from  California  mammals,  which  is  going  to  add  many 
records  to  the  Murid  list  of  both  hosts  and  parasites.  It 
will  also  add  numerous  records  for  the  squirrels  and 
spermophiles  (Sciuridae). 

The  family  Geomyidae,  gophers,  is  represented  in  the 
host  list  by  three  North  American  and  one  Central  Amer- 
ican species.  The  Mallophagan  species  Trichodectes 
geomydis  occurs  on  all  of  these  hosts.  The  North  Amer- 
ican hosts  are  Qeomys  bursarius  (Iowa),  Thomomys 
hott(e  (California),  Thomomys  bulbivorous  (California), 
and  the  one  Central  American  host  is  Macrotomys  hetero- 
dus  (Costa  Rica).  T.  bulbivorous  may  be  a  synonym  of 
T.  bottcB.  In  addition,  Qeomys  bursarius  has  yielded  an 
Anopluran  species  of  genus  and  species  peculiar  to  it. 

The  pocket  rats,  family  Heteromyidae,  are  represented 
by  a  species  of  Perognathus  (Baja  California),  and 
Dipodomys  merriami  (Arizona).  From  both  are  re- 
corded the  same  Mallophagan  species,  Trichodectes 
californicus. 

The  jerboa,  Dipus  sp.,  is  the  sole  representative  of  the 
family  DipodidaB.  From  it  is  recorded  an  Anopluran 
species  taken  in  Tunis. 

The  OctodontidaB  are  represented  by  three  species 
parasitized  by  one  Anopluran  and  three  different  Mallo- 
phaga.  The  three  hosts  are  of  three  different  genera,  one 
with  an  African  range,  the  other  two  of  South  America. 
The  parasite  species  on  each  is  peculiar  to  it.    A  third 


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274  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

record,  crediting  the  characteristic  Trichodectes  pilosus 
of  the  horse  to  a  coypou  of  South  America  (in  the  menag- 
erie of  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  in  Paris),  is  certainly 
either  a  false  record  or  one  of  rather  extraordinary 
straggling.  The  two  Mallophagan  species  from  these 
South  American  tuco-tucos  belong  to  the  genus  Gyropus, 
which  is  the  Mallophagan  genus  especially  characteristic 
of  the  related  South  American  families,  the  Caviidae 
(guinea-pigs),  the  Dasyproctidae  (agoutis),  and  the  Chin- 
chillidae  (chinchillas  and  vizcachas)  (see  following 
paragraphs). 

The  guinea-pigs  and  mocos  (family  Caviidae)  are  repre- 
sented by  three  species,  and  are  strongly  parasitized  by 
Mallophaga.  They  have  no  Anoplura.  The  domesticated 
form,  which  is  variously  held  to  be  a  species  distinct 
from  any  wild  one  now  known,  or  a  variety  of  the  wild 
species,  Cavia  cutleri,  harbors  two  well-known  species  of 
Gyropus,  namely  G.  ovalis  and  G.  gracilis  (this  latter  is 
held  by  some  students  to  be  of  distinct  genus).  In  addi- 
tion, Piaget  has  described  a  species  of  Menopon  (bird- 
infesting  genus)  from  it,  and  Paine  and  I  have  described 
another  Menopon  from  it  from  collections  we  have  had 
from  Peru  and  Panama.  We  have  also  found  this  latter 
species  on  the  wild  guinea-pig,  Cavia  cutleri,  from  Peru, 
and  from  this  host  Paine  has  described  a  species  of 
Gyropus  peculiar  to  this  host.  From  the  Brazilian  moco, 
Kerodon  moco,  has  been  recorded  a  variety  of  Gyropus 
gracilis,  one  of  the  familiar  species  of  the  domestic 
guinea  pig,  as  well  as  another  species  of  Gyropus  peculiar 
to  the  moco.  Recently  Cummings  has  described  a  new 
Mallophagan  taken  at  Villa  Rica,  Paraguay,  from  the 
wild  guinea-pig,  Cavia  aperea.  For  this  new  species  he 
established  a  new  genus  called  Trimenopon.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  the  species  is  so  much  like  Kellogg  and  Paine  *s 
Menopon  jenningsi,  except  for  its  markedly  larger  size, 
that  I  am  not  at  all  sure  it  should  be  added  as  a  fourth 
guinea-pig  parasite. 

A  single  agouti,  Dasyprocta  aguti,  from  Brazil,  repre- 
sents the  family  Dasyproctidae.  From  it  have  been  de- 
scribed two  species  of  Gyropus  peculiar  to  it. 


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No.  569]  ECTOPARASITES  OF  MAMMALS  275 

The  chinchillas  and  vizcachas  (family  ChinchiUidfiB, 
or  LagostomidsB)  are  represented  in  the  host  list  by  two 
species,  to  which  I  can  add  another  (perhaps  two  others) 
on  the  basis  of  material  recently  received  from  Dr.  C.  H. 
T.  Townsend,  of  Peru.  From  Lagidium  peruanum  Gay 
long  ago  described  a  peculiar  Gyropns,  and  I  have  speci- 
mens of  a  Gyropns  which  may  or  may  not  be  different 
from  Gay's  species.  His  description  is  very  meager.  In 
addition  I  am  about  to  describe,  under  the  name  PhUan- 
dria  toivnsendi,  another  species,  representing  also  a  new 
genus,  specimens  of  which  have  been  sent  me  by  Dr. 
Townsend  from  the  same  host.  Also  in  this  Townsend 
sending  are  specimens  of  a  small  Polyplax  species  (Ano- 
pluran)  from  the  same  host. 

The  CercolabidsB  or  CoendidaB,  American  porcupines, 
are  represented  in  the  host  lists  by  five  species,  three  of 
Central  and  South  America  and  two  of  North  America. 
They  harbor  no  Anoplura,  but  are  parasitized  by  two 
Mallophagan  species,  of  which  one,  Trichodectes  setosus, 
occurs  on  all  the  host  species  in  the  list.  The  second 
Mallophagan  is  a  Trichodectes  recently  described  by 
Stobbe  from  Cercolabes  nova-hispanice  of  Mexico  and 
Central  America.  The  other  South  American  host  porcu- 
pines are  Coendu  (Cercolabes)  prehensilis  (northern 
South  America)  and  C.  villosus  (Brazil).  The  North 
American  hosts  are  Erethizon  epixanthum  (California) 
and  E.  dorsatum  (Nebraska). 

Finally  the  family  Leporidae,  hares  and  rabbits,  ap- 
pears in  the  host  list  with  six  (perhaps  only  five)  repre- 
sentatives, of  which  four,  namely,  Lepus  timidus,  of  cir- 
cumpolar  arctic  regions,  Lepus  cuniculus,  native  to 
Europe  and  north  Africa  but  introduced  over  the  whole 
world,  Lepus  europceus  of  Europe  and  Lepus  campestris 
of  western  Canada  and  United  States,  harbor  the  same 
species  of  sucking  louse,  representing  a  genus  peculiar  to 
hares  and  rabbits.  I  must  note  that  this  species,  Hcema- 
topinus  ventricosus  Denny,  is  commonly  referred  to  as 
two  species,  of  which  one,  H.  ventricosus,  is  recorded 
from  the  American  host  species  and  L.  cuniculus,  while 


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276  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST     [VouXLVm 

the  other,  called  H.  lyriocephalus,  is  recorded  from  L. 
timidus  and  L.  europceus.  But  Neumann,  an  exception- 
ally experienced  student  of  the  Anoplura,  holds  that  the 
two  species  are  one.  A  deer-infesting  Mallophagan,  Tri- 
chodectes  tibialis,  certainly  a  straggler,  has  been  recorded 
from  Lepus  europceus,  and  another  Trichodectes  (a  very 
old  and  uncertain  record)  from  Lepus  cannabinus. 

The  order  Insectivora  is  represented  by  but  two  spe- 
cies, the  mole,  Scalops  argentatus,  of  North  America, 
and  the  shrew,  Sorex  araneus  of  Europe  and  Asia.  Each 
harbors  an  Anopluran  species,  that  of  the  mole  being  a 
curiously  modified  form  and  of  species  and  genus  peculiar 
to  its  host,  while  that  of  the  shrew  is  of  a  species  not 
found  on  other  hosts. 

The  order  Prosimiae,  the  lemurs,  presents  a  single 
record,  that  of  a  species  of  Mallophagan,  Trichodectes 
mjobergi  Stobbe,  described  from  the  North  Bomean 
Nycticebus  borneanus  (family  NycticebidsB). 

The  order  Primates  is  represented  in  the  host  list  by 
four  families,  the  CebidsB  of  the  New  World,  the  Cerco- 
pithecidae,  the  single  family  of  apes,  SimiidsB,  of  the  Old 
World,  and  the  family  of  man,  Hominidae.  The  distribu- 
tion of  the  ectoparasites  of  these  groups  is  of  unusual 
interest  to  the  special  student  and  will  likely  prove  equally 
so  to  more  general  students. 

The  Cebidae,  platyrrhine,  tailed.  New  World  monkeys, 
are  represented  by  two  species,  the  spider  monkey  and 
one  of  the  howling  monkeys  of  Brazil,  members  of  differ- 
ent genera,  each  with  a  Trichodectes  species  peculiar  to 
it.  In  addition  three  species  of  Ateles,  one  of  Mexico  and 
Central  America,  another  of  Guiana  and  Brazil,  and  the 
third  an  undetermined  species  of  the  genus  represented 
by  a  specimen  in  a  traveling  menagerie  in  Europe,  have 
yielded  three  species  of  the  Anopluran  genus  Pediculus, 
otherwise  characteristic  of  man  and  the  anthropoid  apes. 
These  three  Pediculus  species  have  been  recorded  and  de- 
scribed by  three  different  students  of  the  group,  all  careful 
workers,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  generic  refer- 
ence.  But  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  specimens  of  all  three 


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v^v 


Ko.569]  ECTOPARASITES  OF  MAMMALS  277 

parasite  species  were  obtained  either  from  host  skins  in 
a  mnsenm  (in  one  case  the  Zoological  Mnsenm  of  Ham- 
burg, in  another,  the  Berlin  Museum)  or  from  a  live  host 
in  a  menagerie.  In  no  case,  therefore,  is  the  possibility  of 
a  straggling  record  wholly  excluded,  but  the  coincidence 
of  three  discoveries  makes  the  records  practically  safe. 
Finally,  in  this  connection  it  is  to  be  noted  (a^  I  have 
already  pointed  out  in  a  brief  paper*),  that,  although 
^i^\'\  Ateles  is  a  tailed  New  World  genus  and  presumably 

^^^^v  widely    separated    genetically    from    the    anthropoids, 

^.  ^^  I'riedenthal  has  aflSrmed,  on  a  basis  of  blood  and  hair 

comparison,  that  Ateles  shows  unmistakable  diflferences 
'^e/t  from  other  tailed  monkeys,  and  resemblances  with  the 

'^  anthropoids,  and  he  suggests  that  in  Ateles  we  should  see 

^^^  monkeys,  which,  in  a  certain  sense,  replace,  in  the  New 

TForld,  the  anthropoids  of  the  Old.    It  is,  in  any  event,  a 
t  k  strange  thing  that  Ateles  differs  from  the  other  Cebidae 

my  ^nd  from  the  CercopithecidsB  as  well,  in  not  harboring  the 

I'ij  ^najylxiTan  genus  Pedecinus  to  which  all  monkey-infest- 

rifi!;.  %•  -Arxoplura,  except  those  of  the  simians,  belong,  but  in 

-,^  ^^^u^lly  harboring  parasite  species  of  the  genus  found 

,,  ^/sex^rlxere  only  on  the  simians  and  man. 

Tlx^     family   CercopithecidaB,   catarrhine.    Old   World 

^ortfer^ys,  is  represented  in  the  host  list  by  a  dozen  spe- 

^[^  ^^^s,     f*:H*om  which  one  Mallophagan  species,  viz.,  my  Tri- 

d  ^Ao^^  ^^:^tes  colobi  from  a  guereza  monkey,  Colohus  guereza 

\\.  ^^"■^-    <^^::iudatus  (East  Africa),  and  ten  Anopluran  species 

'^^^^^     TtDeen  recorded.    Of  the  Anoplura  nine  species  be- 

;  l^^K  t  o  the  genus  Pedecinus,  long  recognized  as  the  char- 

^  actox-i  s^tic  genus  of  the  lower  monkeys,  as  contrasted  with 

-'  ^^^  S^^Tius  Pediculus  characteristic  of  the  anthropoid  apes 

i^  ^^^   ^^^^t^an.    For  the  tenth  species,  Fahrenholz  establishes 

t)^^     x^^^  genus  Pthirpedecimis,  just  as  for  one  of  the 

^^^^^■"^^  infesting  species  the  separate  genus  Phthirius  had  to 

^     ^^^ablished.    There  are  several  cases  of  the  common- 

^^^    of  a  single  Pedecinus  species  to  two  or  three  hosts. 

I  '^^  ^'^eviceps  Piaget  is  recorded  from  Macacus  silenus  of 

Ectoparasites  of  the  Monkeys,  Apes  and  Man,"  Science,  N.  S.,  Vol. 
^,v     .  ^^»  Pp.  601-602,  1913. 


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278  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST     [Vol.  XL VIII 

India,  Cercopithecus  mona  of  west  Africa,  and  a  third 
Cercopithecus  skin  in  the  Zoological  Museum  at  Ham- 
burg. P.  longiceps  Piaget  is  recorded  from  Macacus 
cyclopis  of  Formosa,  Semnopithecus  maurus  var.  cris- 
tatxis  of  Borneo,  and  Macacxis  cynomolgus  of  the  Malay- 
sian region.  P.  eurygaster  Gtervais  has  been  recorded 
from  Macacus  sinicus  of  India  and  on  a  macaque  in  the 
Zoological  Garden  at  Sydney,  and  another  in  the  Zoolog- 
ical Garden  at  Melbourne.  A  hamadryad  (Paphio  sp.) 
of  north  Africa  has  a  Pedecinus  species  peculiar  to  it,  as 
has  a  trachypithecus,  of  Malaysia,  and  the  Barbary  ape, 
Macacus  innuus,  of  northern  Africa  and  Gibraltar.  The 
common  Macacus  rhesus  carries  one  species  of  Pedecinus 
peculiar  to  it,  and  that  single  species  of  Phthirpedecinus 
already  referred  to.  Macacus  silenus  also  has  recorded 
from  it  two  species  both  belonging  to  Pedecinus. 

The  family  Simiidae,  anthropoid  apes,  is  represented 
in  the  host  list  by  three  species,  namely,  the  chimpanzee 
and  two  gibbons.  One  of  these  gibbons  is  Hylohates 
syndactylus  of  Sumatra;  the  other  is  H.  leuciscus  of 
Borneo.  A  single  species  of  Pediculus  is  common  to 
them  both,  and  is  not  elsewhere  recorded.  The  chimpan- 
zee has  also  a  single  species  of  Pediculus  which  is  pecul- 
iar to  it.    No  Pedecinus  has  been  taken  from  a  Simian. 

Finally  man,  representing  the  fourth  Primate  family, 
Hominidffi,  is  the  host  of  three  notorious  Anopluran  spe- 
cies, two  of  which  are  species  of  Pediculus  and  the  third 
the  only  species  so  far  known  of  another  genus,  Pthirius. 
Neumann  is  inclined  to  see  in  Pediculus  corporis  only  a 
variety  of  Pediculus  capitis.  All  of  these  parasites  are 
found  on  man  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Some  curious 
variations  among  the  parasite  individuals  are  shown, 
perhaps  the  most  curious  being  a  plain  tendency  to  a 
darker  coloration  of  the  individuals  occurring  on  the 
bodies  of  men  of  the  dark-skinned  races.  In  my  brief  dis- 
cussion elsewhere,  already  referred  to,  I  have  noted  the 
interesting  significance  of  this  possession  by  man  and  the 
anthropoid  apes  of  a  common  genus  of  Anopluran  para- 
sites, while  the  parasites  of  the  lower  monkeys  belong  to 


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No.  569]  ECTOPARASITES  OF  MAMMALS  279 

a  well-distinguished  other  genus.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
the  close  physiological  fitting  of  parasites  to  host  makes 
their  host  distribution  significant  of  genetic  or  ''blood'* 
relationship,  and  this  commonness  of  one  type  of  parasite 
to  man  and  the  apes,  and  its  limitation  to  these  hosts,  and 
replacement  on  the  lower  monkeys  by  another  parasitic 
type,  is  an  added  indication  of  the  actual  blood-likeness 
of  the  Simians  and  man,  a  likeness  apparently  greater 
than  that  between  the  Simians  and  the  lower  monkeys. 

Ill 

In  the  light  of  the  plain  statement  in  part  I  of  this 
paper  of  my  belief  gained  from  a  study  of  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  bird-infesting  Mallophaga,  to  the  effect  that 
the  host  distribution  of  the  permanent  wingless  ecto- 
parasites of  birds  is  determined  more  by  the  genetic  rela- 
tionships of  these  hosts  than  by  geographic  relationships 
or  any  ecological  condition,  and  the  corollary  of  this, 
which  is  that  the  distribution  of  the  parasites  may  there- 
fore often  have  a  valuable  significance  as  to  the  genetic 
relationships  of  animals  whose  genealogic  aflSnities  are 
in  process  of  ascertainment,  and  in  the  light  of  the  facts 
of  distribution  for  the  mammal-infesting  Mallophaga  and 
Anoplura  as  just  set  out  in  part  II  of  this  paper,  I 
hardly  need  to  do  more,  in  conclusion,  than  to  point  out 
that  the  distribution  conditions  exhibited  by  the  mammal 
parasites,  even  in  the  face  of  the  meager  knowledge  that 
we  yet  have  of  the  mammal-infesting  forms,  clearly,  on 
the  whole,  confirm  this  thesis.  In  fact,  considering  how 
few  mammal-infesting  parasite  species  we  yet  know,  it  is 
surprising  how  repeatedly  the  commonness  of  parasite 
species  to  two  or  more  related,  although  geographically 
well  separated,  host  species,  is  illustrated.  All  through 
the  order  from  Marsupials  to  Quadrumana  this  condition 
is  again  and  again  exemplified.  I  am  then,  naturally, 
made  more  certain  of  the  essential  truth  of  the  thesis,  and 
can  the  more  strongly  recommend  the  attention  of  sys- 
tematic zoologists  to  that  practical  application  of  it, 
which  I  have  stated  in  the  form  of  a  corollary. 


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REGENERATION,  VARIATION  AND  CORRELA- 
TION  IN  THYONE 

PROFESSOR  JOHN  W.  SCOTT 
University  of  Wyoming 

It  is  well  known  that  many  Echinoderms  possess  a  re- 
markable power  of  regeneration,  and  the  results  given 
here  show  some  interesting  phases  of  this  process  in 
Thy  one  hriareus  (Leseur).  The  problem  was  suggested 
a  few  years  ago  in  connection  with  class  work  in  the 
Marine  Biological  Laboratory  at  Woods  Hole,  Massachu- 
setts. There  it  is  a  common  practise  for  students  who  are 
taking  the  invertebrate  course  to  keep  aquaria  in  which  are 
placed  specimens  brought  in  from  various  collecting  trips 
in  the  vicinity.  Students  are  encouraged  to  study  the 
behavior  of  these  animals,  but  their  enthusiasm  for  col- 
lecting frequently  causes  them  to  overcrowd  their  aquaria, 
with  disastrous  results.  After  collecting  Thyone,  espe- 
cially if  they  are  kept  in  stagnant  water,  the  student  is 
frequently  amazed  to  find  one  or  more  of  his  specimens 
that  have  undergone  evisceration.  In  this  process  the 
animal  not  only  loses  the  principal  feeding  organs,  the 
tentacles,  and  the  entire  digestive  system,  consisting  of 
the  esophagus,  stomach  and  intestine ;  but  it  also  throws 
out  a  whole  series  of  organs  surrounding  the  esophagus 
including  the  circlet  of  calcareous  plates,  the  nerve  ring 
forming  the  central  nervous  system,  the  portion  of  the 
water-vascular  system  known  as  the  ring  canal  with  its 
attached  stone  canal  and  Polian  vesicles,  and  the  muscles 
which  serve  as  retractors  for  the  set  of  organs  surround- 
ing and  attached  to  the  esophagus.  We  shall  refer  to 
these  muscles  as  retractors  of  the  esophagus. 

The  remainder  of  the  animal  after  evisceration  con- 
sists, principally,  of  the  dermo-muscular  integument,  the 

280 


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No.  569]  REGENERATION  281 

cloaca  with  its  attached  respiratory  trees,  the  single 
gonad,  the  radial  canals  of  the  water- vascular  system  and 
the  major  portion  of  the  dorsal  mesentery  by  which  the 
intestine  was  suspended.  Since  this  part  of  the  animal 
continues  to  give  reactions,  the  student  invariably  raises 
the  question,  ''Can  Thyone  regenerate  the  lost  parts t*' 
This  question  was  the  starting  point  of  the  following  in- 
vestigation. The  work  had  not  proceeded  far  when  it 
was  discovered  that  important  individual  differences 
occurred,  and  the  question  became,  ''To  what  extent,  or 
how  completely,  may  these  individual  variations  be  re- 
produced in  the  process  of  regeneration  f  Curiously 
enough,  the  most  important  differences  between  individual 
Thyone  involve  structures  which  help  to  form  the  radial 
symmetry  of  the  animal.  Consequently  the  problem  has 
a  bearing  on  the  phylogeny  as  well  as  the  ontogeny  of 
Thyone. 

In  general,  the  results  show  that  regeneration  of  all  lost 
organs  may  occur  and  that  there  is  a  decided  tendency  to 
even  reproduce  individual  variations.  It  was  found  that 
the  Polian  vesicles  varied  greatly  in  number,  size  and 
location.  The  retractor  muscles  in  a  single  radius  were 
single  or  multiple,  and  for  each  individual  this  variation 
was  closely  correlated  with  a  corresponding  variation  in 
the  number  of  Polian  vesicles.  Whether  one  or  more 
Polian  vesicles  are  present,  there  is  a  strong  tendency  for 
these  to  occur  on  the  left  side  of  the  animal,  a  fact  which 
undoubtedly  has  a  phylogenetic  significance.  A  more 
complete  statement  and  a  discussion  of  these  results  will 
be  given  in  the  following  pages. 

General  Structure  of  Thyone 
Thyone  is  functionally  a  bilateral  animal.  It  has  ante- 
rior and  posterior  ends,  dorsal  and  ventral  surfaces,  and 
consequently  right  and  left  sides.  The  external  opening 
of  the  genital  duct  is  located  near  the  anterior  end  in  the 
mid-dorsal  region.  The  structure  and  arrangement  of 
the  tentacles  is  alike  on  both  sides  of  the  animal.    Even 


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282  THE   AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XL VIII 

the  feeding  reactions,  as  Pearse  has  pointed  out,  indicate 
a  bilateral  type.  The  single  genital  gland  is  median  in 
position ;  the  genital  duct  and  the  stone  canal  are  in  the 
median  dorsal  mesentery ;  a  part  of  the  intestine  and  the 
stomach  are  supported  by  the  same  structure.  The  respi- 
ratory apparatus  is  also  a  bilateral  structure,  one  branch 
arising  from  each  side  of  the  cloaca. 


Fig.  1.  Fio.  2. 

Fig.  1.  A  Diagrammatic  Drawing  from  a  Dissection  Made  by  Taking  a 
Longitudinal  Cut  in  the  Body  Wall  a  Little  to  the  Left  of  the  Mid-vbn- 
TRAL  Line.  Shows  the  arrangement  of  the  chief  organs  concerned  in  eylsceration 
and  subsequent  regeneration.  B,  w.,  body  wall ;  cl.,  cloaca ;  c.  p,,  calcareous 
plates ;  i.,  intestine ;  {.  m.,  longitudinal  muscles ;  p.,  Polian  vesicles ;  r.,  ring 
canal ;  r.  m.,  retractor  muscles ;  r.  t.,  base  of  respiratory  tree ;  $,,  stomach ;  t., 
tentacles ;  m.  d,,  mid-dorsal ;  I.  d.,  left  dorsal ;  {.  v.,  left  ventral ;  r.  d,,  right 
dorsal,  and  r.  v.,  right  ventral,  interradial  spaces. 

Fig.  2.  A  Diagram  to  Show  the  Relation  of  Radial  to  Bilateral  Sym- 
metry. The  esophagus  (e)  is  shown  in  cross-section,  cut  Just  anterior  to  the 
stomach,  and  the  view  looks  toward  the  anterior  end.  M.,  madreporite;  r.  r., 
ring  canal.     Other  letters  as  in  Fig.  1. 

Notwithstanding  this  general  tendency  toward  bilateral 
synametry,  the  most  conspicuous  differences  between  indi- 
viduals involve  structures  of  the  radial  type.  Fig.  1  is  a 
diagrammatic  drawing  of  a  dissection  to  show  the  general 


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No.  569]  BEGENERATION  283 

arrangement  of  some  of  the  more  important  structures 
studied  in  this  experiment.  The  dissection  was  made  by 
making  a  longitudinal  cut  in  the  body  wall  a  little  to  the 
left  of  the  mid-ventral  line,  and  then  pulling  the  flaps 
apart  and  pinning  the  animal  down  on  its  dorsal  surface. 
The  Polian  vesicle  is  shown  attached  to  the  ring  canal  in 
the  position  where  it  is  usually  found  when  only  one  is 
present,  that  is  in  the  left  dorsal  interradial  space.  It 
will  be  noticed  that  the  retractor  muscles  are  simply 
branches  of  the  longitudinal  muscles,  and  hence  are  radial 
in  position.  At  the  time  of  evisceration  the  body  wall 
breaks  a  short  distance  posterior  to  the  tentacles,  the  re- 
tractor muscles  separate  at  the  point  where  they  join  the 
longitudinal  muscles  and  the  intestine  breaks  off  just  in 
front  of  the  cloaca. 

A  better  understanding  of  the  radial  type  of  structure 
will  be  gained  by  a  reference  to  Fig.  2.  This  figure  is  a 
diagram  to  show  the  relation  of  the  radial  to  the  bilateral 
symmetry.  The  dorsal  side  of  the  animal  is  represented 
toward  the  top  of  the  page,  the  esophagus  appears  in 
cross-section,  cut  just  anterior  to  the  stomach,  and  there- 
fore one  is  looking  forward  to  the  other  organs  shown. 
The  retractor  muscles,  showing  the  position  of  the  radii, 
are  much  contracted  and  thickened,  a  condition  in  which 
they  are  usually  found  after  evisceration.  The  stone 
canal  ending  in  the  small  madreporite  is  located  in  the 
mid-dorsal  interradial  space.  Passing  around  in  a  clock- 
wise direction,  the  other  interradial  spaces  are  designated 
as  right  dorsal,  right  ventral,  left  ventral  and  left  dorsal. 
Polian  vesicles  may  be  found  in  any  of  the  interradii  ex- 
cept the  mid-dorsal  space  which  always  bears  the  stone 
canal.  Although  only  one  Polian  vesicle  is  represented  in 
this  figure,  the  mid-ventral  retractor  muscle  is  shown 
double,  a  split  condition  which  is  characteristic  when  two 
or  more  Polian  vesicles  are  present.  This  description 
will  be  sufficient  to  show  the  general  relation  between  the 
radial  and  the  bilateral  sjnnmetry. 


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284  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST     [Vol.  XLVIII 

EVISCBBATION 

Only  one  method  of  producing  evisceration  was  used. 
By  placing  a  number  of  Thyone  in  a  small  aquarium  of 
stagnant  sea  water,  the  supply  of  oxygen  is  soon  ex- 
hausted. The  animals  become  greatly  distended,  they 
crawl  up  on  the  sides  of  the  aquarium  when  possible,  and 
extend  the  siphon  toward  and  frequently  above  the  sur- 
face of  the  water.  All  of  their  behavior,  including  the 
pumping  of  the  siphon,  indicates  that  respiration  is  in- 
adequate. In  the  course  of  a  day  or  two  the  water  be- 
comes very  foul ;  soon  some  of  the  Thyone  will  eviscerate, 
and  a  considerable  percentage  will  do  so  as  conditions 
grow  more  unfavorable.  Many,  however,  resist  the  un- 
favorable surroundings  and  will  not  eviscerate  though 
kept  for  several  days  in  foul  water.  But  if  the  aquarium 
is  now  placed  where  it  will  have  a  continuous  stream  of 
water  and  air  bubbles  passing  through  it,  the  behavior  of 
the  animals  is  somewhat  different.  They  then  tend  to 
contract  to  a  minimal  size,  and  sometimes  assume  a 
volume  not  more  than  one  fifth  to  one  seventh  of  their 
maximum  distention.  The  respiratory  movements  are 
practically  discontinued;  the  animal  seeks  a  position  as 
close  as  possible  to  the  side  and  bottom  of  the  aquarium. 
Contraction  does  not  always  take  place  immediately.  To 
my  surprise,  after  several  hours  I  found  Thyone  which 
had  resisted  the  previous  unfavorable  conditions  now  dis- 
charging their  viscera.  After  remaining  two  or  three 
days  in  the  running  water,  and  the  animals  had  appar- 
ently become  adjusted  to  this  condition,  I  again  set  the 
aquarium  to  one  side  partly  filled  with  water.  Then,  by 
repeating  the  conditions  of  the  first  experiment,  as  the 
water  became  foul  several  more  of  the  holothurians  ap- 
parently found  life  too  strenuous  to  further  retain  their 
internal  organs.  When  the  remainder  of  this  lot  of 
Thyone  was  returned  to  running  water,  and  again  to 
stagnant  water,  a  few  additional  individuals  underwent 
self-mutilation.  Out  of  a  total  of  sixty-one  specimens 
used  in  this  lot  forty  of  them  eviscerated.    That  is,  autot- 


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No.  569]  REGENERATION  285 

omy  occurred  in  at  least  sixty-five  per  cent,  of  Thyone, 
under  the  conditions  described.  Probably  one  reason  why 
this  process  did  not  occur  in  a  still  larger  number  is  that 
some  animals  occupied  more  favorable  positions  in  the 
aquarium.  A  discussion  of  the  cause  of  evisceration  will 
be  given  later. 

When  evisceration  occurs  it  is  sometimes  hard  to  see 
just  how  the  process  takes  place.  Pearse  ( '09)  ascribes 
the  process  to  a  '* structural  accident'';  that  is,  it  is  due 
to  a  powerful  contraction  of  the  circular  muscles  at  a  time 
when  the  calcareous  ring  is  well  forward.  **But  if  the 
tentacles  are  extended,"  he  says,  *'and  the  calcareous 
ring  is  pushed  forward  a  break  may  occur  at  &"  (a  point 
in  his  Fig.  2  where  the  body  wall  joins  the  calcareous 
ring)  ''as  a  result  of  the  strong  contraction  of  the  circu- 
lar muscles  at  that  point,  and  the  visceral  organs  are 
forced  out.  .  .  .  Whether  this  autotomy  takes  place  or 
not  depends  upon  the  breaking  of  the  inner  branch  of  the 
longitudinal  muscle  bands,  whose  normal  function  is  to 
retract  the  calcareous  ring.  When  the  strain  brought 
about  by  the  contraction  of  the  circular  muscles  becomes 
too  great  these  inner  bands  are  torn  asunder,  usually  at 
the  point  a?''  (inner  end  of  the  retractors  of  the  calcareous 
ring).  While  it  is  true  that  muscular  contraction  and 
consequent  pressure  undoubtedly  plays  a  prominent  part 
in  the  process,  close  observation  has  convinced  me  that 
this  is  not  the  only  factor  causing  evisceration.  Upon 
several  occasions  I  have  watched  carefully  the  breaking 
of  the  body  wall  near  its  attachment  to  the  calcareous 
ring,  and  while  there  are  times  when  the  pressure  appears 
to  be  strong,  especially  when  the  animal  is  being  irritated 
mechanically,  there  are  other  times  when  the  skin  appears 
to  ''melt  away"  or  separate  with  very  little  or  no  pres- 
sure present.  Indeed,  after  the  skin  once  breaks  at  one 
side  and  the  viscera  escape  through  the  opening,  the  pres- 
sure is  relieved.  But  one  may  observe  that  the  skin  con- 
tinues to  break  until  the  calcareous  ring  is  entirely  sepa- 
rated.   This,  of  course,  would  not  happen  if  the  process 


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286  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XL  VILE 

depended  entirely  upon  an  accidental  stmctural  defect. 
Another  thing  noticed  is  of  interest  in  this  connection. 
When  splitting  open  the  body  wall  of  an  animal  that  was 
eviscerating,  and  thus  relieving  any  internal  pressure  that 
might  be  due  to  contraction  of  the  circular  muscles,  some 
of  the  retractors  were  seen  still  attached  to  the  longitu- 
dinal muscles.  Under  these  conditions  it  would  not  be 
possible  for  the  retractors  to  exert  any  pull  against  the 
pressure  produced  by  the  circular  muscles,  yet  the  re- 
tractors were  observed  to  constrict  off  or  break  away 
from  the  longitudinal  muscles  by  what  appeared  to  be 
purely  a  local  disturbance.  It  is  hard  to  see  how  this 
could  happen,  or  how  the  skin  continues  to  separate 
around  the  calcareous  ring  after  the  first  break  is  made, 
if  the  process  of  evisceration  depends  solely  upon  the 
breaking  of  retractors  and  internal  pressure.  Indeed, 
the  view  that  local  changes  take  place  in  the  tissues  is 
supported  by  other  facts.  Leptosynapta,  if  left  in  stag- 
nant water  or  under  other  favorable  conditions,  under- 
goes repeated  autotomous  fission  as  the  result  of  local 
constrictions,  and  Pearse  states  that  autotomy  depends 
upon  the  presence  of  the  anterior  portion  of  the  body, 
and  presumably  upon  the  presence  of  the  cireumoral 
nerve  ring.  However,  he  found  in  Thyone  that  highly 
irritating  substances  like  acetic  acid  and  clove  oil  did  not 
produce  ejection  of  the  viscera. 

Nor  were  drugs  like  codene  and  atropine,  which  cause  violent  peri- 
staltic waves  of  contraction  to  pass  over  the  body,  any  more  potent  in  in- 
ducing autotomy.  The  same  may  be  said  of  sodium  chloride,  atropine 
and  clove  oil,  although  the  injection  of  any  of  these  substances  was 
often  followed  by  a  waving  of  the  oral  tentacles  to  perform  feeding 
movements,  thus  bringing  about  favorable  anatomical  relations  for  au- 
totomy. 

These  results  would  indicate  that  the  nervous  system 
is  not  primarily  involved.  Certainly  the  ejection  of  vis- 
cera may  occur  in  Thyone  without  any  visible  external 
stimulus. 

The  parts  eviscerated  in  Thyone  have  already  been 


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No.  569]  REGENERATION  287 

mentioned.  However,  sometimes  evisceration  is  incom- 
plete, as  the  following  examples  will  show.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  August  4,  a  Thyone,  which  we  shall  later  speak  of 
as  individual  H,  was  found  eviscerating  in  an  over- 
crowded aquarium  jar.  While  the  process  usually  re- 
quires only  a  few  seconds,  or  at  most  a  few  minutes, 
the  intestine  in  this  case  was  not  completely  thrown  out 
until  two  or  three  hours  later.  This  animal  lived  until 
killed  at  the  end  of  twenty-one  days.  In  the  afternoon 
of  the  same  day  on  which  individual  H  eviscerated,  an- 
other Thyone  was  found  with  the  process  only  partially 
complete.  Five  hours  later  the  intestine  was  still  re- 
tained, and  scissors  were  used  to  cut  it  off  at  its  anterior 
end  near  the  stomach.  Though  this  Thyone  received 
equally  good  care  it  died  at  the  end  of  two  days  without 
further  evisceration.  A  third  specimen  was  found  in- 
completely eviscerated  on  the  above  date,  but  it  was 
allowed  to  stand  until  the  next  morning ;  at  this  time  the 
injured  end  was  open,  the  intestine  was  still  within  the 
body  cavity  and  a  part  of  one  of  the  branchial  trees  was 
protruding.  The  intestine  was  pulled  out  and  broken 
oflF,  after  which  the  branchial  tree  was  retracted  and  the 
injured  end  partially  closed.  This  animal  also  died  at 
the  end  of  two  days.  A  fourth  Thyone  was  seized  and 
by  squeezing  was  forcibly  caused  to  throw  off  the  usual 
parts  except  the  following:  a  part  of  the  stomach,  most 
of  the  intestines,  and  some  of  the  retractor  muscles 
which  had  broken  off  near  their  esophageal  end.  The 
next  morning  it  had  expelled  the  remainder  of  the 
stomach  and  intestine,  two  complete  retractor  muscles, 
and  some  debris  which  had  escaped  from  the  intestine 
into  the  body  cavity.  The  anterior  end  of  the  part  re- 
maining appeared  ragged  and  imperfectly  closed.  It 
died  on  the  third  day.  It  is  probable  that  the  two  re- 
tractor muscles  last  expelled  were  broken  off  at  their 
posterior  ends  by  local  constriction,  not  when  the  body 
was  under  pressure.  A  fifth  animal,  which  we  shall 
designate  as  individual  M,  was  found  partly  eviscerated 


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288  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [V0L.XLVIII 

late  on  the  afternoon  of  August  6.  The  next  day  it  still 
retained  the  stomach  and  intestine  and  at  noon  the  diges- 
tive tube  was  clipped  off  with  scissors  in  the  region  of 
the  esophagus.  Nothing  peculiar  was  noted  in  its  behavior 
until  four  days  later,  August  11,  when  it  discharged  the 
remainder  of  the  digestive  tube.  It  lived  and  was  killed 
at  the  end  of  eighteen  days.  These  results  are  typical. 
The  animal  dies  unless  it  is  itself  able  to  eliminate  all 
organs  concerned  in  the  process  of  evisceration,  and 
therefore  regeneration  does  not  occur  unless  all  these 
organs  are  eliminated. 

The  eviscerated  animals  show  comparatively  a  low 
degree  of  mortality.  In  an  attempt  to  raise  twenty-five 
mutilated  Thyone  seven  died;  three  of  these  were  un- 
able to  complete  the  process  of  evisceration  as  described 
above,  and  two  more,  since  they  lived  for  fourteen  days, 
probably  owe  their  death  to  other  causes.  The  sixth 
specimen  to  die  lived  three  days  and  had  been  slow  in 
eviscerating.  The  seventh  did  not  receive  the  best  of 
care  and  died  after  three  days.  So  considering  the 
amount  of  injury  the  mortality  is  extremely  small  where 
proper  care  is  taken  and -evisceration  is  complete. 

It  will  not  be  inopportune  to  describe  the  subsequent 
behavior  of  the  different  parts  after  evisceration.  The 
parts  expelled  lie  on  the  bottom  in  a  more  or  less  inactive 
condition  untit  they  die,  which  happens  usually  in  the 
course  of  a  few  hours.  At  first  the  tentacles  frequently 
expand  and  contract.  They  are  highly  sensitive,  as  one 
would  expect,  and  if  touched  withdraw  quickly  into  the 
esophagus  and  at  the  same  time  the  retractor  muscles 
will  undergo  strong  contraction.  By  supporting  these 
parts  near  the  surface  of  the  water,  so  as  to  insure  plenty 
of  oxygen,  an  attempt  was  made  to  keep  them  alive.  In 
some  cases  the  parts  remained  alive  for  two  or  three 
days,  so  this  experiment  appeared  to  be  partially  success- 
ful. Death  is  probably  due  to  the  direct  exposure  of 
tissues  to  the  sea  water  and  to  the  attacks  of  minute 
organisms.    The  dermo-muscular  portion  of  Thyone  is 


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No.  569]  REGENERATION  289 

much  less  sensitive  than  the  expelled  portion,  just  after 
.evisceration.    This  is  due  to  lack  of  a  central  nervous 
system. 

Behavior  During  Regeneration 
After  evisceration  each  specimen  was  placed  in  a  sepa- 
rate jar  of  fresh  sea  water.  The  injured  end  of  the  body 
turns  in  and  closes  up  tightly,  and  the  entire  body  is 
somewhat  smaller  than  before  evisceration.  Respira- 
tion is  slower  and  not  so  vigorous.  If  the  water  is  stag- 
nant, within  a  few  hours  the  animal  usually  climbs  up 
on  the  side  of  the  aquarium  by  means  of  its  tube  feet. 
This  part  of  the  animal  therefore  is  capable  of  respond- 
ing to  a  lack  of  oxygen,  and  the  reaction  is  independent 
of  the  central  nervous  system. 

The  observations  upon  the  following  individual,  re- 
ferred to  in  my  notes  as  Thy  one  A,  will  serve  to  illus- 
trate the  general  behavior  during  regeneration: 

July  14,  A.M. — ^Animal  eviscerated  itself  in  the  usual  way.  In  the 
afternoon  it  climbed  up  on  the  side  of  the  jar  and  clung  there  evidently 
for  the  purpose  of  respiration. 

July  15-16. — Acts  as  on  the  afternoon  of  the  fourteenth.  Keeps 
closed  and  well  contracted  at  the  injured  end.  Entire  body  somewhat 
smaller  than  before  evisceration,  due  in  part  to  organs  lost.  Respira- 
tion slower  and  not  so  vigorous  as  normal. 

July  17. — ^In  the  afternoon,  after  water  was  changed,  Thyone  took 
up  position  on  the  sand  against  the  side  of  the  jar  farthest  away  from 
the  source  of  light. 

July  18. — The  next  morning  it  was  half  buried  in  the  sand  in  same 
position,  with  a  few  pieces  of  debris  pulled  over  it.  Remained  so  all 
day. 

July  23. — For  some  two  days  it  has  been  slowly  burrowing  down  until 
only  the  two  protruding  ends  of  the  body  can  be  seen.  When  a  piece 
of  debris  that  was  being  held  over  a  part  of  the  anterior  end  was 
touched,  this  end  retracted  below  the  surface  and  the  posterior  end 
withdrew  until  it  could  scarcely  be  seen.  Later  the  posterior  end  re- 
tracted when  the  shadow  of  my  hand  passed  over  it,  the  hand  being  held 
about  one  foot  away.  The  uninjured  animal  is  even  more  sensitive  to 
shadow.    The  respiratory  movements  are  growing  stronger. 

July  28. — For  the  past  two  or  three  days  the  Thyone  has  been  slowly 
moving  through  the  sand  in  a  posterior  direction  without  uncovering 
itself. 


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290  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [VOL.XLVIU 

August  2. — It  is  now  oriented  with  respect  to  the  direction  of  the 
light  and  has  reached  probably  the  darkest  portion  of  the  jar. 

August  7. — Has  advanced  still  farther.  Came  about  half  way  out  of 
the  sand  to  do  this. 

August  8. — ^Reacts  quickly  to  shadows  by  withdrawing,  and  to  jar- 
ring the  table.    Evidently  is  recovering  its  normal  behavior. 

August  10. — Has  again  come  up  about  half  way  out  of  the  sand. 
Reacts  quickly  to  shadows  as  before. 

August  11. — Came  entirely  out  of  the  sand.  Spent  the  day  on  the 
sand  or  on  the  side  of  the  jar.    Appeared  restless. 

August  12,  4  P.M. — Has  been  clinging  to  the  side  of  the  jar  and  mov- 
ing about  more  or  less  all  day.  Respiratory  movements  are  strong  and 
apparently  normal.  Has  just  now  expanded  the  anterior  end  suffi- 
ciently for  me  to  see  the  new  growth  of  tissue  formed  around  a  penta- 
gonal opening.  Fifteen  minutes  later  it  was  observed  to  extend  a  set  of 
minute  tentacles  and  go  through  feeding  movements.  The  tentacles  ap- 
peared to  be  slightly  more  than  three  eighths  of  an  inch  in  length.  Its 
behavior  continued  apparently  normal  until  it  was  killed  twelve  days 
later. 

The  actions  of  other  Thyone  were  studied  under  the 
same  conditions,  and  we  shall  now  give  a  general  sum- 
mary of  their  behavior  during  regeneration.  The  earli- 
est reactions  after  evisceration  take  the  form  of  contrac- 
tions resulting  in  the  closure  of  the  wound,  and  move- 
ments in  response  to  lack  of  oxygen.  If  the  oxygen 
supply  is  suflScient  Thyone  will  draw  itself  closely  into 
the  angle  between  the  side  and  bottom  of  the  aquarium, 
or  if  the  supply  is  deficient,  it  clings  close  to  the  side  of 
the  jar  near  the  surface.  In  from  three  to  seven  days 
an  instinct  to  burrow  usually  asserts  itself.  There  is  a 
tendency  for  the  body  to  contract  very  noticeably  at  this 
time,  and  the  whole  organism  becomes  rather  inactive. 
This  condition  is  probably  necessary  for  the  formation 
of  new  tissue.  Pearse  makes  the  statement  that  in  bur- 
rowing the  normal  Thyone  will  cover  itself  in  from  two 
to  four  hours.  My  observations  on  the  mutilated  ani- 
mals indicate  that  they  require  from  twelve  to  twenty- 
four  hours,  in  one  case  forty-eight  hours,  to  complete  the 
reaction.  The  process  frequently  stops  for  some  hours 
and  occasionally  is  never  completed.    In  the  Thyone  de- 


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No.  569]  HEGENERATION  291 

scribed  above  the  animal  did  not  begin  to  orient  itself 
with  respect  to  the  source  of  light  until  about  the  twelfth 
day,  but  in  another  case  the  response  took  place  on  the 
second  day,  which  shows  that  this  reaction  does  not  de- 
pend upon  the  central  nervous  system.  It  should  be 
stated  that  normal  Thyone  similarly  placed  were  used  as 
controls.  Thyone  A  was  quite  sensitive  to  shadows  and 
to  touch  on  the  ninth  day,  but  it  reacted  more  quickly  on 
the  twenty-fourth  day  both  to  shadows  and  to  mechanical 
disturbances.  Whether  this  was  due  to  the  regeneration 
of  a  new  central  nervous  system,  or  to  a  more  highly 
developed  specialization  of  function  in  the  old  tissue,  I 
am  unable  to  say.  It  is  quite  possible  that  both  factors 
were  involved.  Respiration  is  undoubtedly  correlated 
with  the  activity  of  the  animal,  and  feeding  movements 
do  not  occur  until  the  regeneration  of  all  organs  is  well 
established,  at  about  twenty-seven  or  twenty  eight  days. 
The  internal  changes  that  take  place  during  regenera- 
tion were  studied  in  animals  that  were  killed  at  different 
stages  in  the  process.  Thyone  N  was  killed  nine  days 
after  self  mutilation.  At  the  injured  end  there  was  a 
very  small  plug  of  tissue  representing  the  newly  formed 
esophagus;  a  thread-like  continuation  of  this  tissue,  the 
beginning  of  a  new  stomach-intestine,  was  also  seen  in 
the  mesentery.  The  calcareous  ring  and  the  ring  canal 
were  not  clearly  defined.  Another  Thyone  was  killed  at 
about  the  same  age  after  evisceration ;  India  ink  was  in- 
jected into  the  cloaca  and  into  the  opening  at  the  ante- 
rior end  in  an  attempt  to  demonstrate  a  cavity  in  the 
newly  formed  thread-like,  stomach-intestine.  The  re- 
sults were  negative  and  the  esophagus  was  found  to  be 
tightly  closed.  However,  the  interesting  observation  wa^ 
made  that  the  anterior  end  of  each  of  the  longitudinal 
muscles  had  split  off  a  very  slender  branch  to  form  a 
new  retractor  muscle  (see  Fig.  3).  These  newly  formed 
retractor  muscles  were  not  more  than  one  fourth  inch  in 
length;  their  anterior  ends  were  attached  in  a  normal 
position  around  the  esophagus,  but  their  posterior  ends 


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292 


THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 


were  attached  only  a  short  way  back,  much  in  front  of 
the  position  of  attachment  of  the  full-sized  retractors. 
In  another  animal  killed  when  a  day  or  so  older,  the  same 
conditions  held  with  reference  to  esophagus,  stomach 
and  intestine.  At  least  three  of  the  radial  canals  belong- 
ing to  the  water  vascular  system  had  branched  and  con- 
nected at  their  anterior  ends  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
form  a  part  of  a  new  ring  canal  (cf.  Fig.  4).  I  was  un- 
able to  find  the  rest  of  the  ring-canal  and  perhaps  it  was 
not  yet  complete. 


X  /-v 


FiQ.  3.  Fig.  4. 

FiQ.  3.  Diagrammatic  Drawing  to  Show  that  in  Regeneration  the  Rr- 
TRACTOR  Muscles  (r.  w.)  Arise  by  Splitting  off  from  the  Longitudinal 
Muscles  {U  m.).  Dissected  a  little  to  the  right  of  the  mld-yentral  line;  d.,  dor- 
sal mesentery  suspending  the  intestine  {i. )  ;  in,,  integument ;  e.,  region  of 
esophagus. 

Fig.  4.  To  Show  the  Development  of  the  Pentagonal  Canal  in  a  Thyone 
about  Nine  or  Ten  Days  after  Evisceration,  r.,  radial  canal ;  p.,  pentagonal 
canal.  The  anterior  ends  of  the  radial  canals  fork  dichotomously,  and  these 
branches  anastomose  to  form  the  canal  which  later  assumes  a  circular  shape 
around  the  esophagus. 

Thyone  F,  which  was  killed  twelve  days  after  eviscera- 
tion, showed  minute  calcareous  plates  which  formed  a 
very  small  esophageal  ring  not  more  than  one  millimeter 
in  diameter.  The  esophagus  continued  posteriorly  in  the 
form  of  a  small  tube,  the  stomach-intestine,  which  was 
suspended  in  the  dorsal  mesentery.  This  new  digestive 
tube  was  about  0.5  millimeter  in  diameter  and  contained 
small,  colored,  movable  particles  that  could  be  seen  with 
the  unaided  eye.    The  ring  canal  was  completely  formed. 

Another  specimen,  Thyone  0,  died  at  the  end  of  four- 


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No.  569]  REGENERATION  293 

teen  days  and  was  in  bad  condition  when  examined.  The 
stomach  had  begun  to  expand  and  retractor  muscles  were 
present.  Probably  owing  to  the  condition  of  the  speci- 
men, no  calcareous  ring,  ring  canal;  or  Polian  vesicle 
could  be  found.  Another  individual  killed  at  about  fif- 
teen days  showed  the  stomach  slightly  enlarged,  and  the 
intestine,  retractor  muscles,  calcareous  ring,  tentacular 
canals,  and  ring  canal  well  formed.  Two  small  Polian 
vescicles  each  about  one  millimeter  in  length  were  pres- 
ent. The  position  of  the  new  intestine  was  described  in 
my  notes  as  follows : 

From  the  stomach  the  intestine  follows  the  ventral  edge  of  the  dorsal 
mesentery,  lying  ventral  to  th'e  gonaduct.  At  the  gonad  it  turned  ven- 
trally  with  the  mesentery  and  then  forward  for  about  one  half  inch  to 
the  left  interradial  space;  here  it  turns  rather  abruptly  backward,  con- 
tinuing in  the  mesentery  below  the  left  branchial  tree  to  the  anterior 
ventral  part  of  the  cloaca. 

At  a  little  later  stage  in  another  specimen  the  intestine 
passed  from  the  left  ventral  interradial  to  the  right  ven- 
tral interradial  space ;  then  posteriorly  and  again  to  the 
left,  following  the  ventral  radial  mesentery  to  the  ante- 
rior ventral  side  of  the  cloaca. 

We  see  from  the  preceding  description  that  all  impor- 
tant organs  have  been  reproduced  in  form  though  not  in 
size,  before  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  day.  The  first  madre- 
porite  with  its  tiny  stone  canal  was  found  some  eighteen 
days  after  mutilation.  Twenty-one  days  after  eviscera- 
tion in  one  specimen  the  calcareous  ring  was  about  three 
millimeters  in  diameter  and  the  ampuUae  at  the  bases  of 
the  tentacles  were  well  developed.  Within  a  week  after 
this  time  the  regenerating  animal  begins  active  feeding. 
Thy  one  A,  killed  at  41  days,  was  practically  a  normal 
animal  both  in  behavior  and  appearance,  except  for  the 
fact  that  the  regenerated  organs  had  not  yet  reached  full 
size.  The  stomach  was  about  one  third  normal  size,  but 
the  Polian  vescicles  were  better  developed.  The  intes- 
tine contained  a  small  amount  of  food  material  and  was 
nine  or  ten  inches  in  length;  most  of  this  growth  had 


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294 


THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST     [Vol.  XL  VIII 


taken  place  posterior  to  the  gonad.  It  was  held  in  posi- 
tion as  previously  described  and  had  several  additional 
coils. 

Individual  Variations 
To  all  outward  appearances  any  two  Thyone  are  as 
much  alike  as  two  peas.    It  was  not  until  the  internal 
organs  were  studied  that  important  differences  were  ob- 


FlO.   5.      DiAQBAHS  TO   SHOW   VABIATION  IN    POSITION  AND  SiZB  OP  THE  POLIAN 

Vesicles.  P.  v.,  Polian  vesicles ;  m.,  madreporite ;  r.  c,  ring  canal ;  a-d,  witb 
one  Polian  yesicle,  e-g,  with  two ;  h-k,  with  three,  I.,  with  four ;  c,  d.,  f.,  g.,  k., 
with  additional  rudiments  of  these  vesicles;  j.,  with  a  branched  vesicle. 

served.  While  there  are  numerous  minor  differences, 
the  most  conspicuous  variations  are  found  in  the  num- 
ber, size  and  location  of  the  Polian  vesicles  (cf.  Fig.  5), 
and  in  the  number  and  arrangement  of  the  retractor 
muscles.  On  account  of  the  radial  structure  of  Thyone 
not  more  than  four  Polian  vesicles  are  present,  since 


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No.  569] 


REGENERATION 


295 


a  homologous  structure,  the  madreporite  and  its  stone 
canal,  occupies  the  dorsal  interradial  space.  The  num- 
ber of  vesicles  varies  in  fact  from  one  to  four.  By  a 
reference  to  Table  I,  it  will  be  seen  that  out  of  77  indi- 
vidually examined,  41  had  one,  20  had  two,  14  had  three, 

TABLE  I 

To  Show  the  Number  of  Polian  Vesicles  Peesent  in  a  Given  Number 

OP  Thyone.    Also  to  Show  thbib  Location  in  the 

interradlal  spaces,  with  reference  to  the 

Bilateral  Symmetry  of  the  Animal 


Number  of 
PoliAD  YesiolM 

Number  of  IndiTld- 
uala  Eznmiued 

Left 
Dorsal 

Left 
Ventnil 

Right 
Ventntl 

Right 
Dorsal 

1 
2 
3 
4 

41 
20 
14 
2 
77 

38 
17 
14 
2 
71 

3 
19 
15 

2 
39 

0 

3 

12 

2 

.      0 

1 
1 
2 

Totals 

17 

4 

and  2  had  four  Polian  bodies.  If  one  is  to  test  the  matter 
of  regeneration,  of  course  it  is  important  to  know 
whether  the  variations  or  individual  peculiarities  will 
be  accurately  reproduced.  Another  striking  character- 
istic comes  out  when  we  note  in  the  same  table  the  loca- 
tion of  these  organs.  Of  the  forty-one  individuals  which 
had  a  single  Polian  vesicle,  all  were  on  the  left  side  of 
the  animal,  and  38  were  in  the  left  dorsal  interradial 
space.  In  twenty  specimens  with  two  Polian  bodies  each, 
36  were  on  the  left  side  and  only  four  on  the  right  side 
of  the  body.  A  similar  asymmetrical  distribution  of 
these  parts  was  found  when  three  Polian  bodies  were 
present.  In  one  specimen,  however,  two  vescicles  were 
found  in  one  space,  the  left  ventral  interradius,  the  only 
instance  of  this  kind  observed;  on  account  of  this  dou- 
bling, the  right  side  lacked  one  of  the  number  to  which  it 
was  entitled  in  the  table.  Where  four  Polian  bodies  are 
present  the  arrangement  is,  of  course,  symmetrical  on 
both  sides.  Still  another  interesting  fact  comes  out  when 
we  examine  the  totals  in  the  last  line.  Out  of  the  77  indi- 
viduals, 71  had  a  Polian  vesicle  in  the  left  dorsal  inter- 
radial space,  39  vesicles  were  found  in  the  left  ventral. 


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296 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XL VIII 


17  in  the  right  ventral,  and  only  4  in  the  right  dorsal 
space.  That  is,  the  total  number  on  the  left  side  com- 
pared with  the  total  number  on  the  right  side  bears  the 
ratio  of  110  to  21.  Not  only  is  there  this  tendency  for 
the  vesicles  to  be  more  abundant  on  the  left  side  of 
Thyone,  but  the  totals  show  that  the  chances  of  a  given 
Thyone  having  a  Polian  vesicle  in  any  given  interradial 
space  decreases  in  a  counter-clockwise  direction,  begin- 
ning with  the  left  dorsal  interradial  position.  Coincid- 
ing with  the  number  of  individuals  examined,  the  maxi- 
mum number  of  chances  is  found  in  the  mid-dorsal  inter- 
radius,  where  the  stone  canal  is  always  present.  That  is, 
the  stone  canal  with  its  madreporite  is  a  more  funda- 
mental and  stable  structure  than  each  or  all  of  the 
vesicles. 

The  conditions  are  none  the  less  interesting  when  we 
compare  the  Polian  vesicles  with  reference  to  size  and 
location,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  examination  of  Table 
II.  The  Polian  vesicles  are  here  divided  arbitrarily 
into  three  groups,  designated  as  large,  medium  and 
small,  and  their  respective  locations  are  shown.    In  addi- 

TABLE  II 
To  Show  the  Polian  Vesicles  with  Reference  to  Size  and  Location 


Sice 

Left  Donal 

Left  Ventral 

Right  Ventral 

Right  Donal 

ToUl 

Large 

Medium 

Small 

Rudiment .  .  . 

56 

17 

0 

2 

17 

22 

0 

1 

0 

5 

10 

5 

0 
1 
3 

7 

73 
45 
13 
15 

Total 

75 

40 

20 

11 

146 

tion  some  Thyone  had  the  rudiments  of  other  vescicles, 
each  too  small  to  be  considered  a  distinct  pouch.  These 
are  designated  in  the  table  as  a  *^ rudiment."  It  will  be 
noticed  that  all  of  the  large,  and  most  of  the  medium- 
sized  vesicles  are  on  the  left  side;  that  all  the  small 
ones,  and  most  of  the  rudimentary  ones  are  on  the  right 
side.  The  table  as  a  whole  shows  that  not  only  does  the 
number  of  Polian  vesicles  diminish  in  a  counter-clockwise 


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No.  569]  REGENERATION  297 

direction,  but  their  size  diminishes  following  the  same 
law.  These  facts  appear  significant  and  without  doubt 
are  suggestive  of  ancestral  history. 

If  it  is  true  that  the  radial  symmetry  of  Echinoderma 
is  to  be  ascribed  to  a  fixed  stage  in  their  ancestral  his- 
tory, we  are  led  to  suppose  that  the  point  of  attachment 
was  on  the  right  side  of  an  originally  bilateral  animal. 
The  life  history  of  Pentacrinus,  the  larval  organ  of  Aste- 
roidea,  and  a  great  many  anatomical  and  embryological 
facts  support  this  view.  While  it  is  not  within  the  prov- 
ince of  this  paper  to  discuss  the  relative  significance  of 
these  matters,  the  evidence  is  so  overwhelming  that  the 
theory  is  generally  accepted.  It  is  also  no  doubt  true 
that  some  groups  of  Echinoderms  took  to  a  free-living 
existence  early  in  their  ancestral  history,  and  others  re- 
mained fixed  until  comparatively  a  late  period.  As  proof 
we  may  cite  the  embryological  evidence  that  Holothurians 
develop  without  any  attached  stage  whatever,  that  the 
Asteroids  develop  a  larval  organ  and  pass  through  a 
Sessile  stage  for  a  brief  period  in  their  development, 
while  the  crinoids  usually  remain  permanently  fixed 
throughout  life.  At  least  we  can  best  account  on  this 
theory  for  the  deep-seated  and  fundamental  radial  sym- 
metry of  some  forms;  the  longer  the  attachment  the 
more  deep-seated  would  become  the  type  of  radial  sym- 
metry. Now  if  this  theory  is  correct  we  can  use  it  to  ex- 
plain the  conditions  described  above  for  Thyone.  The 
ancestors  of  this  form  must  have  broken  away  from  the 
fixed  stage  very  early,  for  we  find  the  radial  symmetry 
not  well  established  on  the  right  side  of  the  animal  as 
evidenced  by  both  the  position  and  size  of  the  Polian 
vesicles.  Out  of  118  large  and  medium-sized  Polian 
vesicles,  112  were  on  the  left  side,  while  in  a  total  of  28 
small  or  rudimentary  Polian  bodies,  25  were  found  on 
the  right  side.  The  arrangement  of  these  organs  in 
Thyone  adds  one  more  bit  of  evidence  to  support  the 
following  statement  of  Lankester. 


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298 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 


It  therefore  appears  that  the  Holothurian  stock  branched  off  from 
the  Pehuatozoa  before  complete  pentamerous  symmetry  of  the  hydro- 
coele  and  associated  organs  had  arisen,  before  any  definite  calcynal  sys- 
tem had  developed,  while  the  gonads  were  still  a  simple  strand  opening 
to  the  exterior  by  a  single  posterior  gonopore. 

The  muscles  used  as  retractors  of  the  oesophagus  were 
other  organs  in  which  there  was  considerable  individual 
variation.  As  a  general  rule  each  of  the  five  retractor 
muscles  consists  of  a  single  band  that  takes  its  origin  from 
the  longitudinal  radial  muscle  about  one  third  the  way  back 
from  the  anterior  end  of  the  body  and  is  inserted  in  front 
into  the  wall  of  the  esophageal  ring.  Such  a  retractor, 
however,  is  frequently  split  up  into  several  strands  vary- 
ing from  two  to  five  in  number.    A  reference  to  Table  III 

TABLE  III 

To  Show  the  Correlation  between  the  Number  op  Polian  Vesicles 

AND  THE  Tendency  poe  the  Retractoe  Muscles  to  Divide 


Number  of  Poli«n  Vesicles 


I 


Retractor  muscles,  single 

Retractor  muscles,  multiple 

Average  number  retractor  muscles,  per  individual 

Average  number  retractor  muscles,  per  radius 


39 
1 

5.153 
1.030 


2 
17 
10.263 

2.052 


0  0 

16  I  2 
12.400  10-000 

2.480|    2.000 


shows  that  in  76  individuals  examined,  41  had  retractor 
muscles  all  in  single  bands,  while  35  specimens  had  these 
muscles  subdivided  or  multiple  in  character.  This  vari- 
ation is  especially  interesting  when  considered  with 
reference  to  the  number  of  Polian  vesicles.  For  in  forty 
cases  where  one  Polian  body  was  present  thirty-nine  bore 
the  unsplit  or  single  retractor  and  there  was  only  one 
specimen  with  these  muscles  showing  a  multiple  number. 
In  thirty-six  cases  where  two  or  more  Polian  vesicles 
were  present,  all  but  two  had  the  retractor  muscles  in  a 
split  or  divided  condition.  If  we  consider  each  strand 
as  a  separate  retractor  muscle,  we  may  then  obtain  the 
average  number  of  retractors  per  individual  for  any 
definite  number  of  Polian  vesicles.  By  a  reference  to 
the  fourth  horizontal  line  of  Table  III,  one  finds  that  the 
average  number  in  individuals  with  one  Polian  vesicle  is 


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No.  569]  REGENERATION  299 

just  slightly  in  excess  of  five,  the  pentameric  number, 
and  the  average  number  when  two  Polian  vesicles  are 
present  is  10.263.  This  ratio  is  only  partly  maintained 
when  three  vesicles  are  present,  for  the  average  number 
is  then  12.400,  and  in  the  two  cases  with  four  vesicles  the 
average  was  just  twice  the  pentameric  number.  It  is 
therefore  evident  from  the  facts  shown  in  this  table  that 
with  an  increase  in  the  number  of  Polian  vesicles  there 
is  associated  a  strong  tendency  for  the  retractor  muscles 
to  take  on  a  split  character.  If  it  were  not  for  the  fact 
that  the  split  character  shows  considerable  variation  in 
the  same  individual  one  might  suggest  that  the  tendency 
to  divide  is  correlated  with  the  greater  functional  activ- 
ity of  the  water  vascular  system  as  evidenced  by  the  in- 
creased number  of  Polian  vesicles  and  the  location  of  the 
longitudinal  muscles  that  lie  along  and  just  internal  to 
the  radial  canals.  About  all  one  can  say  is  that  corre- 
lated with  a  more  complete  radial  symmetry  with  respect 
to  the  Polian  vesicles,  there  is  a  greater  plasticity  in  the 
retractor  muscles,  causing  them  to  divide  longitudinally 
into  separate  muscle  bands. 

To  what  extent,  or  how  completely,  may  these  indi- 
vidual variations  be  reproduced  in  the  process  of  regenera- 
tion! An  answer  was  obtained  in  the  following  way. 
First  a  close  examination  was  made  of  all  parts  eviscer- 
ated and  a  record  was  kept  of  all  organs  showing  variable 
structures.  Special  attention  was  given  to  Polian  vesicles 
and  to  retracter  muscles.  The  mutilated  specimens  were 
then  placed  in  separate  aquaria  in  which  the  water  was 
changed  frequently  to  prevent  it  from  becoming  stale. 
After  a  considerable  interval  these  animals  were  killed 
and  the  regenerated  organs  were  compared  with  the  lost 
parts.  Table  IV  shows  several  individuals  compared  in 
this  way.  The  number  of  retractor  muscles  found  in  each 
radius  is  given  in  the  order  of  the  radii  taken  in  a  clock- 
wise direction.  A  study  of  the  table  indicates  that  there 
is  a  strong  tetndency  to  reproduce  individual  peculiarities, 
as  shown  by  individuals  B,  E,  G,  H,  M  and  0.    This  does 


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300 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVHI 


not  always  hold  true,  for  individual  L  reverted  toward 
the  more  radial  type  of  symmetry.  From  these  few  cases 
it  would  appear  that  individual  peculiarities  tend  to  pre- 
dominate over  ancestral  influences  in  the  process  of  re- 

TABLE   IV 

To  Illustrate  the  Relation  between  Beoeneration  and  Original  Sym- 
metry IN  Thyone 


IndiTiduAl 

OrlglDAl  Sjmmetrj 

Regenerated  Symmetry 

Used 

PoliAD  Vetfcles 

Retractor  Muadea 

Pollan  Vesicles 

Retractor  Musclfs 

B 
E 
0 
H 
L 
M 
0 
W 

2 

2  + 

2 

2 

1 

u 

2-2-2-2-2 
3-3-2-2-2 
1-1-1-1-1 
1-2-2-2-1 
1-1-1-1-1 
1-1-1-1-1 
2-2-2-2-2 

2 

2 

2 

2  + 

2 

? 

? 

2 

2 

2 

3-3-2-3-3 
2-3-2-2-2 
2-1-1-1-1 
2-2-2-2-2 
2-3-2-2-2 
1-2-1-1-2 
2-2-1-2-2 
2-2-2-3-4 

X 

2-2-2-2-2 

Y 

2-2-1-2-2 

generation.  Specimens  W,  X,  Y,  are  included  in  this 
table  to  show  further  the  correlation  between  Polian  ves- 
icles and  retractor  muscles. 

Discussion  and  Summaby 
There  remains  to  be  discussed  the  general  bearing  of 
the  foregoing  experiments.  First,  the  difference  in  the 
number  of  Polian  vesicles  in  different  Thyone  is  partly 
compensated  by  a  variation  in  size,  the  fewer  the  number 
the  larger  their  size,  though  this  ratio  would,  not  be  an 
exact  one.  In  other  words  the  total  volume  of  the  Polian 
vesicles  in  any  given  specimen  bears  a  general  relation  to 
the  size  and  functional  activity  of  the  animal.  Notwith- 
standing this  functional  relationship  since  the  actual 
number  varies  so  widely  it  would  be  interesting  to  com- 
pare the  number  found  in  other  species  of  holothuria  with 
the  conditions  in  Thyone.  The  data  secured  on  this  ques- 
tion were  meager  and  not  very  definite.  For  example, 
Packard  in  one  of  the  older  text-books  says  in  speaking 
of  Thyone, 


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No.  569]  REGENERATION  301 

There  are  three  Polian  vesicles,  one  fusiform  and  an  inch  in  length, 
the  two  others  slenderer. 

Clark  ('02)  gives  the  number  for  Thyone  briareus 
(Leseur)  as  usually  one  or  two;  for  T.  scahra  (Verrill) 
as  usually  single,  and  for  T.  unisemita  (Stimpson)  as 
one.  He  also  mentions  six  other  holothurians  found  in 
the  Woods  Hole  region  and  all  have  a  single  Polian  ves- 
icle except  Cucumaria  frondosa  (Gunnerus),  which  usu- 
ally has  one.  He  says  nothing  of  the  position  in  which 
these  vesicles  are  found.  In  another  paper  ( '01)  Clark 
mentions  a  large  holothurian  about  40-45  centimeters  in 
length  {Holothuria  mexicana  Ludwig)  in  which  there  is 
a  great  diversity  in  the  number  of  tentacles  and  Polian 
vesicles.  The  tentacles  vary  from  18  to  21,  while  the 
Polian  vesicles  vary  from  1  to  9.  The  number  of  speci- 
mens examined,  sixteen,  was  hardly  suflBcient  to  obtain  an 
adequate  comparison ;  two  had  1  vesicle  each,  two  had  2, 
five  had  3,  three  had  7,  one  had  8,  and  one  had  9.  It  is 
probable  that  if  one  were  to  examine  a  large  number  of 
individuals  of  each  species,  with  reference  to  the  number 
and  location  of  the  vesicles,  he  would  obtain  further  inter- 
esting results.  Lang  ( '96)  cites  a  number  of  groups  of 
holothurians  in  which  only  one  vesicle  has  been  observed ; 
but  states  that  there  are  a  number  of  species  in  other 
groups  that  have  occasionally  or  usually  more  than  one. 

Where  accessory  vesicles  occur  they  vary  greatly  in  number,  and  ap- 
pear to  have  very  slight,  if  any,  systematic  significance.  Where  only  one 
Polian  vesicle  occurs  it  lies  in  the  left  ventral  inten-adius,  very  seldom 
in  the  left  dorsal  interradius.  Where  two  or  more  vesicles  occur,  they 
are  also  mostly  formed  in  the  ventral  region  of  the  circular  canal. 

Since  Lang  describes  Cucumaria  as  the  type  specimen, 
in  which  the  Polian  vesicle  is  said  to  be  in  the  left  ventral 
region,  it  is  possible  that  his  generalizations  were  based 
principally  on  this  form.  At  any  rate,  the  conditions  in 
Thyone  seem  to  give  a  more  definite  significance  to  the 
number  and  location  of  thB  Polian  vesicles. 

Various  explanations  of  autotomy  and  evisceration  have 
ieen  suggested,  many  of  them  having  a  teleological  char- 
acter.   The  view  that  the  holothurian  offers  up  the  better 


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302  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVm 

part  of  itself  to  appease  the  hunger  of  its  enemy  lacks 
confirmation,  since  the  viscera  are  distasteful  to  fishes 
and  to  some  other  animals.  It  may  be  that  the  autotom- 
ous  elimination  of  the  Cuvierian  organs  serves  a  defen- 
sive purpose,  as  pointed  out  by  Ludwig  and  Minchin,  and 
Minchin  suggests  that  the  viscera  may  also  be  lost  in  this 
process  and  thus  incidentally  be  associated  with  a  pro- 
tective response.  In  the  case  of  Thyone,  however,  evis- 
ceration can  hardly  be  considered  defensive,  and  certainly 
it  is  not  a  process  of  self -division  for  only  one  part  pro- 
duces a  new  individual.  Clark  ( '99)  in  discussing  self- 
mutilation  in  the  synaptas  states  the  matter  clearly  in 
the  following  terms : 

I  agree  entirely  with  Cuenot  ('91)  in  believing  that  autotomy  is  not 
normal  or  defensive  but  is  due  entirely  to  pathological  conditions.  I 
never  saw  a  case  of  it  in  synaptas  supplied  with  plenty  of  sand  and  an 
abundance  of  sea  water. 

Lang  ( '96)  points  out  one  of  these  pathological  condi- 
tions, and  recounts  the  fact  that 

A  Stichopus  was  observed  to  come  entirely  out  of  its  skin,  t.  e.j  the 
whole  integument  dissolved  into  slime,  so  that  only  the  dermo-muscular 
tube  enclosing  the  viscera  remained. 

In  the  present  paper  I  have  mentioned  that  Thyone  at 
times  appears  to  undergo  a  similar  softening  of  the 
tissues  in  the  region  where  the  break  occurs,  and  Pearse 
('09)  showed  that  autotomy  is  due,  at  least  in  part,  to  a 
structural  arrangement  which  he  considers  is  accidental 
in  character.  My  observations  further  show  that  local 
constrictions  undoubtedly  have  an  important  part  in  sepa- 
rating the  retractors  from  the  radial  longitudinal  muscles. 
All  of  these  factors  are  pathological  and  are  due  to  exter- 
nal or  internal  stimuli.  The  external  (extra-cellular) 
stimuli,  mechanical  and  chemical,  as  tried  by  Pearse 
('08),  appear  to  be  less  effective  in  producing  autotomy 
than  the  purely  internal  (intracellular)  stimuli  such  as 
lack  of  oxygen  and  its  associated  phenomena.  The  chem- 
ical (strychnine)  that  produced  the  largest  percentage 
of  evisceration  in  Pearse 's  experiments,  probably  affected 
respiration,  since  it  greatly  increased  the  activity  of  the 


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No.  569]  REGENERATION  303 

animal;  therefore  the  need  of  oxygen  would  be  propor- 
tionately greater  than  the  supply,  and  the  Thyone  ren- 
dered more  susceptible  to  evisceration.  Now  while  autot- 
omy  undoubtedly  enables  the  animal  to  maintain  its  exist- 
ence for  a  considerable  period  on  a  smaller  supply  of 
oxygen,  the  times  when  this  would  become  necessary  in 
nature  are  probably  rare,  and  it  would  be  futile  to  specu- 
late upon  what  evolution  yet  has  in  store  for  the  process. 

According  to  Lang,  the  retractor  muscles  of  the  oral 
region  have  been  derived  by  the  splitting  up  of  the  ori- 
ginally simple  longitudinal  muscles,  and  this  specializa- 
tion became  more  marked  as  the  oral  tentacles  became 
more  highly  developed  and  required  increasing  protec- 
tion. Species  are  to  be  found  in  the  Dendrochirotae  in 
which  the  separation  and  branching  off  of  retractors  from 
the  longitudinal  muscles  has  not  yet  been  perfected.  In 
regeneration  the  retractor  muscles  of  Thyone  are  derived 
in  the  same  way,  i.  e.,  by  splitting  off  from  the  longitu- 
dinal muscles,  and  such  progress  is  made  that  they  are 
fairly  well  developed  by  the  time  the  tentacles  take  up  the 
function  of  feeding.  The  increasing  sensitiveness  and  the 
later  activity  of  the  regenerating  animal  are  presumably 
associated  with  the  development  of  a  new  nervous  system. 

If  we  may  regard  the  bilateral  echinoderm  larva  as 
representing  an  early  phylogenetic  stage  rather  than  a 
larval  adaptation  to  a  free-swimming  existence,  we  will 
now  discuss  the  symmetry  of  Thyone.  As  stated  above,  it 
is  generally  agreed  that  the  radial  arrangement  of  parts 
of  the  echinoderm  body  is  due  to  a  fixed  stage  in  its 
ancestral  history.  Some  holothurians  and  spantangoids, 
show  in  their  ontogeny  first  a  free  stage,  second  a  radial 
stage,  and  finally  a  bilateral  adult.  During  the  develop- 
ment of  asteroids  that  have  a  fixed  embryonic  stage,  the 
early  bilateral  symmetry  is  soon  disarranged  by  the 
development  of  organs  on  the  left  side  of  the  animal. 
For  example,  the  left  hydrocoele  takes  the  form  of  an  un- 
closed water-vascular  rosette  which  grows  around  the 
esophagus  to  form  the  ring  canal  and  its  appendages,  and 
its  connection  with  the  dorsal  pore  gives  rise  to  the  stone 


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304  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST     [Vol.  XL  VIII 

canal.  Excepting  the  echinoids  and  erinoids  in  which 
there  is  either  no  distinct  Polian  vesicle  or  else  a  simple 
glandular  structure,  those  echinoderms  that  have  retained 
the  most  distinctive  type  of  radial  structures  have  also 
as  a  rule,  retained  the  most  symmetrical  arrangement  of 
the  Polian  vesicles.  Presumably  these  forms,  the  aster- 
oids and  ophiuroids,  have  quite  recently  abandoned  the 
fixed  stage,  and  each  individual  usually  has  four  Polian 
vesicles  and  a  stone  canal,  one  in  each  interradius. 
Among  most  of  the  holothurians  a  secondary  bilateral 
symmetry  has  become  superimposed  over  the  radial  type, 
and  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  there  was  a  time  in 
the  ancestral  history  of  Thyone  when  the  Polian  vesicles 
were  symmetrically  and  radially  disposed,  or  else  the 
animal  quit  its  fixed  habits  before  the  radial  symmetry 
of  the  vesicles  was  thoroughly  established.  In  the  one 
case  we  would  have  a  regression,  a  sort  of  backward 
retracing  of  the  steps  of  evolution,  or,  which  seems  more 
probable,  the  ancestors  of  Thyone  began  a  free-living 
existence  before  the  radial  arrangement  of  the  Polian 
vesicles  had  become  complete.  Also  the  fact  that  the 
embryology  of  the  holothurian  egg  is  probably  much 
compressed  and  shows  no  trace  of  a  fixed  stage  indicates 
that  the  corresponding  ancestral  stage  was  compara- 
tively short,  or,  very  remote.  Since  the  modem  habits  of 
Thyone  are  bilateral,  and  since  it  is  altogether  improb- 
able that  such  habits  would  produce  the  present  arrange- 
ment of  Polian  vesicles,  the  position  of  these  organs  must 
be  due  to  ancestral  influence. 

Now  the  Polian  vesicles  are  capable  of  contracting  and 
expanding  and  their  function  when  they  are  well  devel- 
oped is  to  act  as  accessory  reservoirs  of  the  water-vas- 
cular fluid.  Muscle  and  connective  tissue  in  the  wall  of 
the  vesicle  furnish  the  means  to  do  this  work.  Of  course, 
if  the  ampullae  are  well  developed  there  is  little  or  no 
need  of  Polian  vesicles,  as  is  the  case  in  Asterias.  But, 
though  the  size  and  number  of  these  vesicles  is  function- 
ally correlated  with  the  general  development  of  the 
water-vascular  system,  especially  of  the  oral  tentacles, 


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No.  569]  REGENERATION  305 

and  hence  shows  great  variability  in  the  different  species 
of  holothurians,  this  does  not  in  any  way  explain  the 
great  excess  of  these  vesicles  on  the  left  side  of  Thyone 
briareus.  In  regeneration,  probably  through  the  influence 
of  functional  correlation,  there  is  a  tendency  for  the  old 
tissue  to  reproduce  the  exact  number  and  arrangement 
of  the  lost  vesicles,  but  it  may  reproduce  a  somewhat 
more  radial  (ancestral)  arrangement. 

Enough  has  been  given  in  this  paper  to  show  the  need 
of  a  more  extensive  and  intensive  reexamination  of  the 
Polian  vesicles.  This  would  give  a  better  idea  of  their 
morphological  and  functional  significance.  The  follow- 
ing sunmaary  and  conclusions  are  based  on  the  work 
described : 

1.  Evisceration  in  Thyone  includes  the  following  or- 
gans: Esophagus,  stomach,  intestine,  calcareous  ring, 
nerve  ring,  tentacles,  ring  canal,  Polian  vesicles,  stone 
canal  with  madreporite,  and  the  retractor  muscles  of  the 
esophagus. 

2.  The  method  used  to  produce  evisceration  was  to 
allow  Thyone  to  stand  in  stagnant  water  imtil  it  became 
foul.  This  was  followed  by  treatment  with  rimning  water 
containing  much  oxygen.  Alternating  these  processes 
produced  as  high  as  65  per  cent,  of  self -mutilated  indi- 
viduals. 

3.  The  structural  accident  theory  of  Pearse  is  inade- 
quate to  explain  all  of  the  conditions  arising  in  the  proc- 
ess of  autotomy.  At  times  the  skin  appears  to  dissolve 
away  with  little  or  no  pressure  present,  and  retractors 
frequently  break  off  by  local  constrictions  instead  of  by 
longitudinal  pull. 

4.  The  parts  eviscerated  are  at  first  highly  irritable, 
and  may  be  kept  alive  for  some  time.  The  part  remain- 
ing is  less  responsive,  but  reacts  to  touch,  to  lack  of 
oxygen,  and  probably  to  other  stimuli. 

5.  Regeneration  of  all  lost  organs  may  occur,  but  it 
takes  place  only  when  all  parts  concerned  in  evisceration 
are  completely  expelled.    Otherwise  the  animal  dies. 


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306  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [VouXLVm 

6.  During  the  process  of  regeneration  the  behavior 
gradually  becomes  more  responsive  and  finally  is  like  the 
normal  individual.  This  appears  to  be  correlated  with 
the  growth  of  a  new  nervous  system. 

7.  Thyone  is  functionally  a  bilateral  animal,  but  the 
most  conspicuous  individual  differences  involve  struc- 
tures that  have  a  radial  arrangement. 

8.  The  Polian  vesicles  vary  greatly  in  number,  size 
and  location.  There  is  a  strong  tendency  for  these  to 
occur  on  the  left  side,  and  this  arrangement  is  undoubt- 
edly due  to  ancestral  conditions,  for  the  present  bilateral 
habits  of  Thyone  could  probably  have  no  influence  in 
producing  this  asymmetry. 

9.  The  retractor  muscles  in  a  single  radius  consist  of 
single  or  multiple  strands,  and  this  variation  is  closely 
correlated  with  a  similar  variation  in  the  number  of 
Polian  vesicles.  No  explanation  is  forthcoming  for  this 
peculiar  plasticity  of  the  retractor  muscles,  but  the  sug- 
gestion is  made  that  it  may  be  functionally  correlated 
with  the  development  of  the  water- vascular  system. 

10.  It  was  found  from  the  study  of  a  number  of  speci- 
mens that  individual  peculiarities  of  structure  tend  to  be 
reproduced  in  the  process  of  regeneration.  In  this  proc- 
ess it  would  appear  that  individual  variations  tend  to 
predominate  over  generalized  ancestral  influence. 

11.  Autotomy  enables  Thyone  to  survive  for  a  consid- 
erable period  on  a  smaller  than  normal  supply  of  oxygen. 
Nevertheless,  the  conditions  which  give  rise  to  self -muti- 
lation are  seemingly  in  all  cases  pathological. 

12.  The  conditions  in  Thyone  afford  some  evidence  for 
believing  that  when  this  animal  abandoned  the  fixed  stage 
the  Polian  vesicles  conformed  more  or  less  to  the  radial 
type.  This  is  opposed  to  the  statement  of  Lang  that  in 
all  cases  where  a  multiple  number  is  now  present  **  there 
was  originally  only  one  vesicle.''  It  is  believed  that  the 
present  arrangement  of  Polian  vesicles  in  Thyone  can  be 
best  accounted  for  on  the  theory  of  phylogenetic  influ- 
ence. That,  in  general,  those  vesicles  have  retained  their 
most  complete  radial  arrangement  in  those  species  of 


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No.  569]  REGENERATION  307 

echinoderms  which  have  maintained  to  a  high  degree 
the  functional  activity  of  the  water-vascular  system. 

References 
Bather,  F.  A.,  and  Goodrich,  E.  S. 

'00.    A  Treatise  on  Zoology.    Ed.  by  E.  Ray  Lankester.    Pt.  3.    The 
Echinodermata.     London, 
aark,  A.  H. 

^09.    The  Affinities  of  the  Echinoidea.     Am.  Nat.,  Vol.  XLIII,  pp. 
682-686. 
aark,  H.  L. 

'99.     The  Synaptas  of  the  New  England  Coast.    Bull.  U.  S.  Fish  Com., 

1899,  pp.  21-31. 
'00.     The  Echinoderms  of  Porto  Rico.     Bull.  U.  S.  Fish  Com.,  1900, 

pp.  231-263. 
'02.    The  Echinoderms  of  the  Woods  Hole  Region.     Bull.  U.  S.  Fish 
Cbm.,  1902. 
Cuenot. 

'91.    Etudes  morphologiques  sur  les  Echinodermes.     Archiv,  de  Biol, 
Vol.  XI. 
Gerould,  J.  H. 

'96.    Anatomy  and  Histology  of  Caudina  arenata,    Proc,  Boston  Soc. 
Nat.  Hi8t.,  Vol.  27,  pp.  8-74. 
Grave,  C. 

'03.     On  the  Occurrence  among  Echinoderms  of  Larvae  with  Cilia  ar- 
ranged in  Transverse  Rings,  with  a  Suggestion  as  to  their  Sig- 
nificance.   Biol.  BiUl,  Vol.  V,  pp.  169-186. 
'05.    The  Tentacle  Reflex  in  a  Holothurian,  Cucumaria  pulcherima, 
Johns  Hopkins  Univ.  Circ,  Vol.  24,  pp.  504-^07. 
Henri,  V. 

'03.    Etudes  des  contractions  rhythmiques  des  vaisseauz  et  du  poumon 
aqueaux  chez  les  Holothuries.    C.  B.  Soc,  Biol.,  Paris,  T.  55,  pp. 
1314-1316. 
Johnson,  R.  H.,  and  Hall,  R.  W. 

'00.    Variations  and  Regeneration   and   Synapta  inhcerens.     Science, 
N.  S.,  1900,  p.  178. 
Lang,  A. 

'96.    Text-book  of  Comparative  Anatomy.    London,  Vol.  II. 
Ludwig,  H. 

'96.    Echinodermen.    Bronn's  Klassen  u.  Ord.  des  Tierreichs.    Bd.  II, 
Abt.  3,  Buch  1. 
Morgan,  T.  H. 

'01.    Regeneration.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  1901. 
Packard,  A.  D. 

'81.    Zoology  for  High  Schools  and  Colleges,  1881. 
Pearse,  A.  S. 

'08.    Observations  on  the  Behavior  of  Thyone  hriareus  (Leseur).    Biol. 

Bull,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  259-286. 
'09.     Autotomy  in  Holothurians.     Biol.  Bull,  Vol.  XVIII,  pp.  42-49. 


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SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION 

TERMS  RELATING  TO  GENERIC  TYPES 

In  the  field  of  biological  taxonomy  an  important  reform  is  in 
progress.  The  change  is  from  the  method  of  concepts  to  the 
method  of  types,  in  order  that  names  may  be  applied  with 
greater  precision  and  permanence.  Under  the  method  of  types 
we  no  longer  think  of  the  technical  name  of  a  plant  or  an  animal 
as  attaching  primarily  to  a  concept  embodied  in  a  description  or 
definition,  but  as  relating  to  the  first  representative  of  the  group 
that  became  known  to  science.  In  determining  the  application 
of  a  specific  name  we  go  back  to  the  original  specimen  or  type 
on  which  the  description  was  based.  The  original  description 
has  become  secondary  to  the  original  specimen.  In  like  manner 
generic  names  are  treated  as  relating  primarily  to  groups  of 
species,  with  the  original  species  as  the  generic  type.^ 

Without  waiting  to  appreciate  the  fundamental  nature  of  the 
change  from  concepts  to  types,  many  systematic  workers  took  it 
for  granted  that  generic  types  were  to  be  determined  by  elimina- 
tion, in  much  the  same  way  that  generic  concepts  had  been 
treated,  by  gradual  subdivision,  restriction  and  removal  of  com- 
ponent groups.  The  general  results  of  elimination  were  the 
same  as  under  the  method  of  concepts:  The  applications  of 
many  of  the  older  generic  names  did  not  become  definitely  fixed, 
but  remained  dependent  upon  varying  individual  opinions  of 
the  validity  of  the  work  of  later  authors.  It  often  happened 
that  after  elimination  was  accomplished  only  the  doubtful  or 
unidentifiable  species  remained  to  serve  as  generic  types.  Grad- 
ually it  became  apparent  that  the  practise  of  elimination  was 
inconsistent  with  the  method  of  types,  and  could  not  insure 
stability  in  the  application  of  names.  Recourse  was  then  had, 
especially  by  zoologists,  to  the  arbitrary  designation  of  generic 

1  Cook,  O.  R,  1898,  "The  Method  of  Types,"  Science,  N.  8.,  8:  513;  also 
1900,  "the  Method  of  Types  in  Botanical  Nomenclature,"  Science,  N.  8., 
12:  475,  and  1902,  "Types  and  Synonyms,''  Science,  N.  S.,  15:  646. 
Swingle,  Walter  T.,  1913,  "Types  of  Species  in  Botanical  Taxonomy," 
Science,  N.  S.,  37 :  864. 

308 


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No.  569]        SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  309 

types,  the  apparent  object  being  to  preserve  the  results  of  elimi- 
nation, even  though  the  theory  had  to  be  abandoned.  Probably 
it  is  only  a  question  of  time  until  the  results  of  elimination  will 
be  discarded,  as  well  as  the  theory,  and  replaced  by  the  actual, 
historical  types. 

A  plan  for  determining  the  historical  types  of  genera  was 
adopted  in  1907  in  the  American  Code  of  Botanical  Nomencla- 
ture, and  other  applications  of  the  method  of  types  are  being 
rocognized  by  zoologists.  Specialists  in  many  groups  are  en- 
gaged in  the  study  of  generic  types,  and  the  need  of  a  special  , 
terminology  to  facilitate  work  of  this  kind  is  becoming  appar- 
ent. Thus  in  Bulletin  83  of  the  U.  S.  National  Museum,  **Type 
Species  of  the  Genera  of  Ichneumon  Flies,''  by  Henry  L.  Vie- 
reck,  two  new  terms,  **isogenotypic"  and  ** monobasic,"  are  em- 
ployed in  treating  of  the  application  of  generic  names  to  type 
species.  The  paper  is  of  interest,  not  only  to  students  of  this 
group  of  insects,  but  also  as  an  example  of  the  tasks  that  con- 
front all  taxonomists  who  appreciate  the  need  of  basing  their 
work  upon  types.  The  distinctions  to  which  the  special  terms 
refer  are  undoubtedly  useful,  and  the  possibilities  of  express- 
ing them  in  more  convenient  form  are  worthy  of  consideration. 

The  word  **isogenotypic,''  is  used  with  reference  to  cases 
where  two  or  more  generic  names  have  been  applied  to  the  same 
type  species.^  For  this  purpose  a  new  term  is  not  needed  unless 
zoologists  are  unwilling  to  borrow  from  botanical  nomenclature 
a  more  convenient  method  of  treating  the  same  class  of  eases. 
The  botanical  code  provides  a  classification  of  synonyms,  and 
applies  the  word  **typonym"  to  a  name  that  has  to  be  rejected 
because  an  earlier  valid  name  was  proposed  for  the  same  type. 
The  formation  and  use  of  typonym  are  in  accord  with  a  familiar 
analogy.  As  a  preoccupied  name  becomes  a  homonym,  it  is  easy 
to  remember  that  the  use  of  a  preoccupied  type  results  in  a 

2  A  diflferent  combination  might  have  been  expected,  such  as  *  *  autogeno- 
tjrpic'^  or  *  *  deuterogenotypic, "  since  isogenotypic  suggests  the  notion 
of  equally  good  types  or  of  equal  numbers  of  types,  instead  of  con- 
veying the  idea  of  one  and  the  same  type,  or  of  a  second  use  of  the  same 
type.  Genera  have  been  termed  *  *  isotypical  * '  when  they  were  described 
from  more  than  one  species,  but  all  truly  congeneric,  on  the  assumption  that 
such  species  would  have  equal  standing  as  types.  A  still  older  use  of  the 
word  **i9otype''  had  reference  to  equal  representation  of  a  genus  by  similar 
or  corresponding  species  in  different  geographical  regions  or  geologic  periods. 
See  Schuchert,  Charles,  1905,  U.  S.  National  Museum  Bulletin  53,  Ft.  1 :  16. 


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310  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST     [Vol.  XLVIH 

typonym.  A  name  based  on  a  different  type  species,  but  eon- 
generic  with  the  type  of  an  older  genus,  is  termed  a  metonym. 
A  name  rejected  for  lack  of  an  identified  type  is  a  hyponym, 
and  one  rejected  for  linguistic  reasons,  a  caconym.  All  rejected 
names  fall  readily  into  these  five  classes. 

The  other  new  term,  *' monobasic,"  is  used  by  Mr.  Viereck  to 
indicate  genera  with  only  one  species  at  the  original  place  of 
publication.  In  botanical  literature  the  word  ''monotypic"  is 
often  employed  in  this  sense,  though  also  applied  to  genera  that 
consist  of  only  one  species.  If  previous  use  disqualifies  mono- 
typic,  the  same  objection  lies  against  monobasic.  In  addition  to 
an  older  chemical  meaning,  the  same  word  was  employed  several 
years  ago  in  a  biological  sense,  to  describe  a  condition  of  descent 
in  simple  lines.*  Apart  from  being  preoccupied,  the  word  mono- 
basic has  a  misleading  implication,  since  under  the  method  of 
types  each  generic  name  is  referred  to  a  single  type  species. 
The  idea  of  a  genus  being  based  on  many  types  is  discarded 
with  the  method  of  concepts.  Appreciation  of  this  incongruity 
may  explain  why  no  such  term  as  "symbasic"  or  *'polybasic'* 
is  used  in  contrast  with  monobasic,  to  indicate  genera  that  were 
first  proposed  in  connection  with  more  than  one  species. 

Evidently  there  is  need  of  a  simple  and  consistent  terminology 
for  indicating  relations  between  generic  names  and  type  species. 
The  normal  relation  under  the  method  of  types  is  the  designa- 
tion of  the  type  species  at  the  original  place  of  publication  of 
the  genus.  Genera  provided  with  types  by  original  designation 
may  be  described  as  orthotypic,  or  normal-typed.  With  ortho- 
typic  genera  there  is  no  occasion  to  raise  the  question  of  how 
many  species  were  included  at  the  original  place  of  publication. 

8  Cook,  O.  F.,  and  Swingle,  W.  T.,  1905,  **  Evolution  of  Cellular  Struc- 
tures," Bull.  81,  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry,  U.  S.  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, p.  20.  Plants  or  animals  with  specialized  habits  of  asexual  reproduc- 
tion, such  as  vegetative  propagation,  parthenogenesis  or  self-fertilization, 
would  be  described  as  monobasic.  The  second  edition  of  the  Standard  Dic- 
tionary defines  monobasis  as  follows:  "The  derivation  of  a  stock  from  a 
single  parentage  by  inbreeding,  or  by  propagation  of  buds  or  cuttings; 
opposed  to  symbasis."  Thus  the  danger  of  ambiguity  in  using  monobasis 
for  nomenclatorial  purposes  is  greater  than  in  using  monotypic,  though  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  use  of  the  word  monotypic  in  two  senses  may 
sometimes  result  in  confusion.  Genera  that  were  monotypic  in  the  strictly 
nomenclatorial  sense  of  being  established  in  connection  with  one  species  may 
not  be  monotypic  in  the  more  general  taxonomic  sense  of  including  only  one 
species. 


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No.  569]       SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  311 

Genera  that  are  not  orthotypic  fall  into  the  two  classes  al- 
ready considered,  those  with  a  single  species  at  the  original  place 
of  publication,  and  those  with  two  or  more  species.  It  is  now 
generally  agreed  that  when  only  one  species  was  mentioned  this 
should  be  accepted  as  the  type.  Such  genera  may  be  called 
haplotypic,  or  single-typed.  When  two  or  more  species  were  in- 
cluded in  the  original  treatment  of  a  genus,  and  no  type  was 
designated,  we  have  the  problem  of  subsequent  determination  of 
the  type,  resulting  in  what  may  be  termed  a  logotypic  genus, 
that  is,  a  genus  with  a  rationally  selected  type  species.  The 
object  of  selection  is  to  determine  the  historical  type  of  the 
genus.  Names  must  have  definite  applications,  and  historical 
applications  of  generic  names  can  be  made  definite  by  ascertain- 
ing the  historical  types.  The  recognition  of  a  new  generic  group 
is  usually  based  on  one  leading  or  dominant  species,  with  the 
others  added  as  associate  members. 

In  many  cases  the  generic  type  is  intimated  by  the  original 
author  in  dividing  the  genus  into  subgenera  or  sections,  in  illus- 
trating one  of  the  species  or  citing  illustrations  published  in 
earlier  works,  in  naming  the  genus  with  particular  reference  to 
one  of  the  species,  in  recording  economic  uses,  or  in  giving  geo- 
graphical or  other  indications  of  greater  familiarity  with  one  of 
the  species.  If  the  application  of  these  or  other  historical  cri- 
teria leaves  more  than  one  species  eligible  for  selection,  the  first 
of  the  eligible  species  should  be  taken  as  logotype.  In  this  way 
it  is  possible  to  develop  a  consistent  system  of  type  selection  that 
will  commend  itself  as  reasonable  and  give  the  same  results  in 
the  hands  of  different  students.* 

4  Simply  taking  the  first  species  under  a  generic  name  as  the  type  would 
probably  establish  more  of  the  generic  names  in  their  historical  places  than 
the  method  of  elimination,  which  accepts  the  last  of  the  original  species  left 
in  the  genus  as  the  type.  Either  of  these  methods  of  selecting  types  would 
result  in  many  cases  of  separation  of  generic  names  from  their  historical 
types,  but  these  undesirable  changes  in  the  application  of  names  can  be 
avoided  by  taking  the  historical  considerations  more  directly  into  account, 
as  in  the  American  Code  of  Botanical  Nomenclature.  Probably  a  more  sat- 
isfactory system  for  associating  generic  names  with  their  historical  types 
could  be  developed  by  sufficient  study  of  the  problem.  A  policy  of  refusing 
to  revive  generic  names  that  were  not  directly  associated  with  binomial  spe- 
cies to  serve  as  types,  would  avoid  many  of  the  changes  threatened  by  un- 
mitigated priority.  In  proposing  lists  of  **nomina  utique  conservanda"  in 
advance  of  any  provision  for  the  definite  application  of  names,  European 
botanists  have  demonstrated  one  more  way  to  put  the  cart  before  the  horse. 


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312  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHl 

In  addition  to  the  three  ways  of  associating  generic  names 
with  their  type  species,  there  are  many  cases  where  generic 
names  have  been  applied  to  groups  that  do  not  include  the  type, 
or  any  of  the  original  species.  Formal  assignments  of  errone- 
ous types  also  occur  when  generic  names  are  not  traced  back  to 
their  original  places  of  publication,  or  when  ineligible  species 
are  designated  as  types.  In  dealing  with  the  synonymy  of 
genera  previously  treated  under  names  that  belong  to  other 
groups  it  will  be  convenient  to  have  a  distinctive  term  for  this 
class  of  cases.  Such  misplaced  names,  applied  to  groups  that  do 
not  contain  the  true  type,  may  be  indicated  as  pseudotypic,  or 
false-typed.^ 

It  should  be  expected  that  more  critical  analysis  of  taxonomic 
problems  would  lead  to  more  definite  distinctions  and  more  pre- 
cise terms.  The  older  terminology  was  developed  to  facilitate 
the  study  of  names,  whereas  it  is  now  apparent  that  provision 
must  be  made  for  the  study  of  types  as  another  formal  branch 
of  biological  taxonomy.  Nomenclature  has  a  history  of  three 
hundred  years  while  systematic  typology  is  only  beginning.  To 
gain  further  insight  into  these  typological  problems  is  obviously 
more  important  than  to  attempt  premature  applications  of  par- 
tial solutions.    It  may  take  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  to  transfer 

Failure  to  regulate  the  application  of  names  is  the  fundamental  defect  of  the 
Paris  and  Vienna  codes,  and  is  hardly  to  be  cured  without  thorough  re- 
casting. 

5  Thus  the  palm  genus  Martinezia,  as  treated  by  Kunth,  Martius,  and 
many  later  writers  as  relating  to  Martinezia  caryotwfolia  and  its  immediate 
relatives,  was  pseudotypic,  for  this  species  does  not  appear  to  be  congeneric 
with  any  of  the  five  species  originally  referred  to  Martinesia  by  Buiz  and 
Pavon.  Hence  it  has  been  proposed  to  replace  this  pseudotypic  use  of  Mar- 
tinezia  by  a  new  generic  name,  TiXmia,  (See  Bull,  Torrey  Bot,  Club,  28: 
565.)  The  five  original  species  of  Martinezia  belong  to  three  natural  groups, 
now  recognized  as  distinct  families,  the  first  two  species  to  the  Cocace®,  the 
third  species  to  the  AcristacesB  and  the  others  to  the  Chamsedoreacese.  The 
third  species,  M,  ensiformis,  should  be  taken  as  logotype  of  Martinezia  be- 
cause the  figures  used  to  illustrate  the  generic  characters  evidently  represent 
a  member  of  the  family  Acristacese.  Another  reason  for  excluding  the 
cocoid  species  from  consideration  as  type  is  that  they  are  mentioned  as 
deviating  from  the  ''essential  characters  of  the  genus,''  in  connection  with 
the  original  description.  The  rule  of  the  Vienna  code,  to  the  effect  that  the 
name  of  a  subdivided  genus  should  go  with  the  majority  cf  the  species,  would 
carry  the  name  Martinezia  over  to  the  family  ChamsBdoreace®.  The  making 
of  such  a  rule  shows  that  many  European  botan'sts  were  still  working  imder 
the  method  of  concepts,  and  were  not  accustomed  to  think  of  generic  names 
as  inseparably  connected  with  type  Spec'es. 


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No.  569]        SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  313 

the  whole  structure  of  biological  taxonomy  to  the  new  founda- 
tion of  types.  To  suppose  that  any  permanent  adivantage  can 
be  gained  by  elaborating  defective  methods  under  forms  of  legis- 
lative enactments  or  judicial  decisions  is  to  show  a  limited  ap- 
preciation of  the  nature  of  the  subject  and  of  its  historical  de- 
velopment. As  long  as  legislation  and  interpretation  are  based 
on  inadequate  study,  they  can  represent,  at  most,  only  a  tem-* 
porary  consensus  of  opinion,  for  it  is  of  the  very  nature  of 
science  to  condemn  and  throw  aside  any  doctrine  or  method  that 
has  proven  inadequate  or  fallacious. 

Terms  Relating  to  Synonyms 

The  following  classes  of  synonyms  were  recognized  in  1907, 
in  the  American  Code  of  Botanical  Nomenclature:** 

Homonym, — A  name  rejected  because  of  an  earlier  applica- 
tion of  the  same  name  to  another  genus. 

Typonym, — ^A  name  rejected  because  an  older  name  was  based 
on  the  same  type. 

Metonym, — ^A  name  rejected  because  an  older  valid  name  was 
based  on  another  species  of  the  same  genus. 

Hyponym. — ^A  name  not  associated  with  a  type.^ 

9  Bulletin  of  the  Torrey  Botanical  Club,  34:  167,  1907.  .-r—  . 

7  Much  confusion  would  be  avoided  by  a  consistent  policy  of  withhold- 
ing recognition  of  generic  names  that  have  not  been  associated  with  type 
species.  Thus  the  name  Acoeloraphe,  proposed  by  Wendland  in  1879  in  an 
analytical  key  to  genera  of  fan-palms  (Bot,  Zeitung,  37:  147),  was  not  as- 
sociated with  a  type,  though  evidently  relating  to  a  species  mentioned  in  the 
same  paper  as  *'Bmhea  serrulata,"  This  Florida  palm  differs  from  the 
Mexican  type  of  Brahea  in  the  leaf  characters  assigned  to  Acoeloraphe  in 
the  key  and  in  the  seed  character  indicated  by  the  generic  name,  the  al- 
bumen being  solid  instead  of  having  a  deep  channel  along  the  raphe.  But 
Acoeloraphe  being  left  without  a  type,  another  name,  Serenoa,  was  proposed 
by  Hooker  f.  in  18S3  for  **Sabal  aerrvXata  R.  &  S.''  (Genera  Plantarum, 
3:  926).  All  subsequent  writers  have  accepted  Hooker's  name,  and  Acoel- 
oraphe should  remain  under  Serenoa  aa  a  hyponym.  Nothing  has  tended  so 
strongly  to  bring  the  principle  of  priority  into  disrepute  as  the  incontinent 
revival  of  abortive  names,  to  replace  properly  established  names  in  current 
use.  No  species  was  referred  to  Acoeloraphe  until  1907,  when  Beccari 
(Webbia,  2:  107)  applied  the  name  Acoeloraphe  wrightii  to  a  Cuban  mem- 
ber of  a  genus  that  had  been  described  in  1902  under  the  name  Paurotis, 
a  Bahaman  species,  Paurotis  androsana,  being  the  type  (Mem.  Torrey  Bot, 
Club,  12:  21).  This  transfer  of  the  name  Acoeloraphae  to  the  genus 
Paurotis  was  followed  by  Sargent  in  1911  (Trees  and  Shrubs,  2:  117),  but 
Beccari 's  genus  Acoeloraphe  is  a  metonym  of  Paurotis,  and  is  also  pseudo- 


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314  THE   AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VOL.XLVni 


Terms  Relating  to  Type  Species 

Orthotype. — Type  by  original  designation.  A  species  desig- 
nated as  type  in  connection  with  an  original  publication  of  a 
generic  name.  A  genus  whose  type  was  formally  designated  at 
the  original  place  of  publication  is  orthotypic. 

Haplotype. — Type  by  single  reference.  A  single  species  re- 
ferred to  a  genus  at  the  original  place  of  publication,  and  on 
this  account  accepted  as  the  type.  A  genus  proposed  with  refer- 
ence to  a  single  species  is  haplotypic. 

Logotype, — Type  by  subsequent  determination.  The  histori- 
cal type  of  a  genus,  selected  from  two  or  more  original  species. 
A  genus  whose  type  is  selected  from  two  or  more  original  species 
is  logotypic. 

Pseudotype, — Erroneous  indication  of  type.  A  species  erro- 
neously indicated  as  the  type  of  a  genus.  A  genus  treated  on 
the  basis  of  an  erroneous  type,  or  so  as  to  exclude  the  true  type, 
is  pseudotypic. 

0.  F.  Cook 
BuEEAU  OF  Plant  Industry, 
U.  S.  Department  or  Agriculture, 
March  13,  1914 

typic,  because  of  the  original  application  of  the  name  to  Serenoa.  Two 
species  of  Paurotis  are  supposed  to  exist  in  Florida,  one  that  is  identi- 
fied with  the  Cuban  P.  urightU  (Grisebach  &  Wendland)  and  a  local  species, 
P.  arhorescens  (Sargent). 


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NOTES  AND  LITERATURE 

LINKAGE  IN  THE  SILKWOEM  MOTH 

One  of  the  most  striking  recent  developments  in  the  study  of 
genetics  is  the  discovery  of  linkage  in  many  of  those  forms  which 
were  supposedly  thoroughly  worked  out.  The  most  recent  ex- 
ample* is  a  very  interesting  paper  by  Y.  Tanaka,^  entitled 
** Gametic  Coupling  and  Eepulsion  in  Silkworms."  The  data 
presented  in  this  paper  demonstrate  the  existence  in  the  silk- 
worm moth  of  a  group  of  four  pairs  of  linked  genes.  Following 
Tanaka's  nomenclature  we  may  designate  these  genes  as  follows: 
N,  which  differentiates  the  larval  color  pattern  known  as 
** normal''  from  that  called  ** plain";  S,  occurring  in  larvae 
having  the  ''striped"  pattern,  and  epistatic  to  N;  M,  the  differ- 
entiator for  the  **moricaud"  larval  pattern,  also  epistatic  to 
N;  Y,  the  gene  which  differentiates  caterpillars  with  yellow 
blood  and  yellow  cocoons  from  the  recessive  whites.  Of  the  six 
possible  combinations  of  these  genes,  taken  two  at  a  time,  all 
but  NM  and  SM  were  made,  and  all  showed  linkage.  Fj 
''coupling"  tests,  i.  e.,  from  matings  where  both  dominants 
entered  the  cross  from  the  same  Pi  individual,  were  made  for 
SY  and  for  MY,  In  each  case  there  occurred  cross-overs,  or  new 
combinations  of  the  characters,  in  such  proportions  as  to  lead 
Tanaka  to  suppose  the  ratio  of  parental  combinations  to  cross- 
overs among  the  gametes  to  be  about  as  7:1.  "Repulsion" 
(where  one  dominant  entered  from  each  P^  individual)  Fj 
results  were  obtained  for  NS  and  for  NY,  In  neither  case  did 
any  double  recessives  (cross-overs)  appear,  though  over  3,000 
caterpillars  were  obtained  in  the  case  of  NY,  and  224  in  the  case 
of  N8.  From  these  data  Tanaka  concludes  that  the  repulsion  was 
complete  in  these  two  cases.  It  has,  however,  been  pointed  out  by 
Morgan^  that  such  results  will  be  obtained  if  the  linkage  is  com- 
plete in  one  sex  only.  In  Drosophila  such  "repulsion"  crosses 
never  produce  double  recessives  in  Fj,  and  it  has  been  shown 
that  this  is  due  to  complete  linkage  in  the  male,  crossing  over 
being  frequent  in  the  female  between  some  pairs  of  genes.  In 
order  to  test  this  possibility  it  is  necessary  to  mate  doubly  hetero- 
zygous individuals  to  double  recessives,  when  the  gametic  ratio 
is  obtained  directly  and  without  the  complications  present  in 
most  Fg  results.  It  so  happens  that  Tanaka  reports  two  such 
crosses,  one  for  each  sex,  though  he  does  not  recognize  their  im- 

1  Jour,  Coll,  Agr,,  Tohoku  Imper.  Univ.,  Sapporo,  Japan,  V,  1913. 

2  Science,  N.  S.,  XXXVI,  1912. 

315 


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316  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST     [Vol.  XL VIII 

portance  in  this  connection.  When  a  male  heterozygous  for  S 
and  for  Y,  one  dominant  having  been  derived  from  each  parent 
(SysY),  was  mated  to  a  doubly  recessive  {sysy)  female,  there 
were  produced  63  8y  and  65  sY — no  cross-overs.  A  female 
heterozygous  also  for  S  and  for  Y,  but  having  them  ** coupled" 
(SYsy),  was  mated  to  a  male  sysy,  and  produced  215  SY  and 
188  sy — again  no  cross-overs.  Yet  that  crossing  over  may  occur 
between  these  two  pairs  of  genes  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the 
** coupling*'  F2  results  indicated  a  gametic  ratio  of  about 
7:1:1:7.  We  are,  therefore,  still  left  in  the  dark  as  to  whether 
crossing  over  occurs  in  only  one  sex,  or  in  both.  But  it  is  certain 
that  the  strength  of  linkage  in  this  case  is  not  always  the  same — 
a  point  of  great  interest  and  importance.  Similar  cases  have  been 
reported  by  Baur*  in  Antirrhinum,  by  Punnett*  in  the  sweet  pea, 
and  by  the  writer^  in  Drosophila, 

Tanaka  refers  to  his  case  as  differing  from  previously  reported 
cases  of  linkage  in  animals  in  that  the  sex  differentiator  is. not 
one  of  the  genes  involved,  and  in  that  the  linkage  is  sometimes 
only  partial.  However,  he  refers  several  times  to  a  paper  by 
Morgan*  in  which  it  is  clearly  shown  that  three  of  the  sex-linked 
genes  in  Drosophila  also  show  partial  linkage  to  each  other,  inde- 
pendently of  their  sex-linkage.  Punnett,^  in  referring  to  the 
same  paper,  has  said,  ** Morgan's  experiments  with  Drosophila 
suggest  coupling  of  some  kind  between  factors  for  eye  color  and 
shape  of  wing,  though  both  of  these  factors  may  show  sex-limited 
inheritance  in  other  families."  A  study  of  the  data  referred  tOy 
or  of  any  of  the  similar  data  on  Drosophila  since  published,  will 
show  that  these  genes  always  show  sex-linkage,  and  that  at  the 
same  time  they  always  show  linkage  to  each  other  when  both  can 
be  followed  in  the  analysis.  The  two  phenomena  are  not  mutu- 
ally exclusive,  but  both  are  always  present. 

Both  Tanaka  (in  a  footnote)  and  Punnett  refer  to  the  latter 's 
case  in  rabbits  as  the  first  example  of  linkage  in  animals  not 
involving  sex.  If  the  linkage  between  sex-linked  genes  is,  for 
some  strange  reason,  not  considered  to  belong  in  this  category, 
there  are  still  at  least  two  cases  which  antedate  Punnett 's  slightly. 
A  few  months  before  Punnett 's  paper  appeared  I  had  suggested* 
the  possibility  of  linkage  in  mice.  It  now  seems  rather  probable 
that -the  relation  in  both  mice  and  rabbits  may  really  be  that  of 

8  Zeits,  f,  ind.  AbsUu,  Vererh.-Lehre.,  VI,  1912. 

^Jour,  Genet.,  Ill,  1913. 

5  Science,  N.  S.,  XXXVII,  1913. 

ojaur,  Exp.  Zool,  XI,  1911. 

tJour.  Genet.,  II,  1912  (Nov.). 

8AMER.  Nat.,  XLVI,  1912  (June). 


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No.  569]  NOTES  AND  LITERATURE  317 

triple  allelomorphism.    For  this  reason  I  am  inclined  to  assign 
priority  to  Morgan  and  Lynch,®  whose  paper  on  linkage  of  genes 
in  Drosophila  which  are  not  sex-linked  appeared  after  my  own 
paper  and  before  Punnett's. 
Columbia  University  A.  H.  Sturtevant 

NABOURS'S  BREEDING  EXPERIMENTS  WITH 
GRASSHOPPERS 

In  a  recent  paper,  Nabours  ('14)  describes  breeding  experi- 
ments that  he  has  been  carrying  on  for  some  years  with  grouse 
locusts  of  the  genus  Paratettix,  His  work  is  of  special  interest 
in  showing  that  in  a  wild  species  there  exists  a  number  of  distinct 
types  that  show  alternative  inheritance  of  a  particular  kind.  His 
paper  may  be  summarized  as  follows : 

1.  Nine  distinct,  true  breeding  forms  of  Paratettix  were  col- 
lected **in  nature."  These  ** species"  (as  Nabours  is  inclined 
to  consider  them)  **are  mainly  distinguished  by  their  striking 
color  patterns." 

2.  When  an  individual  of  one  of  these  species  is  mated  to  one 
of  a  different  species  the  hybrid  character  of  the  oflEspring  is 
apparent  at  once,  in  that  **all  the  characters  of  each  parent  are 
represented  in  the  F^  hybrid. '  *  In  other  words,  the  hybrid  is  in 
a  certain  sense  an  intermediate,  and  **the  terms  dominant  and 
recessive"  are  probably  not  ** applicable  at  all."  This  point, 
while  of  little  theoretic  importance,  has  a  practical  value  in  that 
the  zygotic  constitution  of  any  hybrid  can  be  recognized  without 
further  breeding  tests. 

3.  With  one  exception,  each  color  pattern  factor  was  found  to 
behave  as  an  allelomorph  to  any  other  color  pattern  factor. 

4.  The  various  lengths  of  the  wings  and  pronotum  are  appar- 
ently not  inherited,  as  such  but  are  determined  by  environmental 
factors,  especially  such  as  tend  to  prolong  or  to  shorten  the  length 
of  larval  life. 

It  appears  that  Nabours  confuses  the  relation  of  the  facts  men- 
tioned under  3,  and  that  he  supposes  this  to  be  the  ordinary 
behavior  of  "mendelizing  characters,"  for  he  says: 

The  essential  result  of  these  experiments  has  been  the  extension  of 
this  principle  [Mendelian  inheritance]  to  a  considerable  number  of 
tjrpes  of  a  phylogenetically  low  group  of  ametabolous  insects. 

To  be  sure,  he  recognizes  that  other  workers  in  genetics  have 
an  attitude  quite  different  from  his,  and  he  takes  some  little  pains 
to  make  clear  his  own  point  of  view.    To  quote  again  (p.  142) : 

•  Biol  Bull,  XXIII,  1912  (Aug.). 


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318  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

The  existence  of  unit  characters  in  the  De  Vriesian  sense  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  as  clearly  demonstrated  as  that  of  alternative  in- 
heritance .  .  .  and  the  interpretations  are  at  great  variance.  Thus,  one 
group  of  authors  [reference  made  to  Bateson,  Doncaster,  and  Tower] 
recognize  characters  in  organisms  that  can  be  replaced  by  other  char- 
acters when  the  proper  crosses  are  made,  .  .  .  while  on  the  other  side 
there  are  those  [references  to  Whitman  and  Montgomery]  who  believe 
that  the  organism  as  a  whole  is  the  only  unit  and  that  there  are  no 
actual  unit  characters. 

Again  he  says  (p.  169) : 

No  character  of  one  parent  species  is  ever  replaced  in  the  F^  hybrid 
by  any  character  of  the  other  parent.  All  the  characters  of  each  parent 
are  represented  in  the  F,  hybrid.  It  follows  then  that  these  grass- 
hoppers do  not  exhibit  characters  which  by  crossing  can  be  replaced  by 
other  different  characters;  the  whole  pattern  appears  to  be  the  only 
unit. 

There  is  no  real  conflict  between  Whitman's  idea  and  the 
accounts  given  by  students  of  Mendelism,  for  the  latter  realize 
that  far-reaching  somatic  effects  may  result  from  a  single  factor, 
and  the  composite  character  of  the  hybrid  is  not  an  uncommon 
occurrence.  Nabours  identifies  a  particular  pattern  with  the 
* 'organism  as  a  whole/'  but  since  his  evidence  relates  here  to 
color  patterns  only,  nothing  is  gained  by  the  introduction  of  such 
a  vague  phrase  as  the  ** organism  as  a  whole."  Specifically  he 
shows  that  the  hereditary  differences  between  any  two  types  can 
be  explained  on  the  assumption  of  a  single  differential  for  each 
case. 

With  reference  to  the  antithesis  presented  by  Nabours,  it  must 
be  recognized  that  the  modern  literature  of  Mendelian  heredity 
affords  innumerable  instances  where  two  or  more  characters 
entering  from  one  parent  and  their  allelomorphs  from  the  other, 
reappear  in  the  Fg  generation  in  new  combinations. 

If  we  assume  with  Nabours  that  each  of  the  eight  color  patterns 
are  represented  by  a  characteristic  condition  of  the  "germinal 
material,"  we  may  use  his  terms  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  F,  H  or  I  to 
symbolize  this  ** germinal  material"  for  the  various  color 
patterns.  As  Nabours  uses  the  terms,  an  individual  homozygous 
for  A  is  represented  simply  by  A,  and  a  hybrid  between  A  and  B 
by  AB.  In  ordinary  usage,  the  homozygous  form  would  be 
represented  as  AA  and  its  germ  cells  by  A.  This  is  a  minor 
matter.  Ordinary  usage  has  the  advantage  of  being  more 
consistent. 

According  to  Nabours,  then,  A  mated  to  B  gives  AB;  S  mated 
to  F  gives  BF;  C  mated  to  E  gives  CE,  etc.  In  gametogenesis 
these  factors  segregate,  so  that,  for  example,  BA  gives  germ  cells 


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No.  569]  NOTES  AND  LITERATURE  319 

A  and  B;  BF  gives  B  and  F,  etc.  In  other  words,  he  treats  the 
matter  as  if  he  were  dealing  with  a  system  of  multiple  allelo- 
morphs, though  he  nowhere  specifically  calls  them  such.  From 
this  point  of  view  there  are  eight  distinct  allelomorphs  con- 
cerned with  color  pattern  any  two  of  which  may  constitute  a 
pair;  in  any  zygote  two  allelomorphs  (perhaps  alike,  perhaps 
unlike)  will  be  present,  and  in  any  gamete  only  one  of  the  eight 
will  normally  occur. 

With  one  exception  of  which  I  will  treat  later,  all  of  Nabours's 
results  can  be  explained  by  this  hypothesis.  This  sort  of  explana- 
tion is  not  new.  (ShuU  ('11),  de  Meijere  ('10),  Sturtevant 
('13)  and  others  have  used  it  to  explain  results  obtained  in 
Lychnis,  Papilio,  rabbits  and  other  forms,  and  it  will  almost  un- 
doubtedly be  shown  to  apply  satisfactorily  in  still  other  cases. 

The  exception  just  mentioned  occurred  in  the  cross  which 
Nabours  describes  at  the  bottom  of  page  156  (e).  Here  a  male 
of  the  constitution  CE  was  mated  to  a  female  of  the  constitution 
BI,  On  Nabours 's  theory,  the  gametes  of  the  male  should  carry 
C  or  E,  but  not  both,  and  the  gametes  of  the  female  should  carry 
B  or  /,  but  not  both.  The  union  of  the  two  kinds  of  sperms  with 
the  two  kinds  of  eggs  should  give  four  classes  of  offspring,  and 
these  were  in  fact  obtained ;  viz.,  12  BC,  11  BE,  7  CI,  10  EL  But 
there  appeared  also  on^  individual  BEL  Nabours 's  explanation 
of  the  case  is  that  perhaps  the  BI  * 'female  parent  gave  at  least 
one  gamete  containing  the  factors  for  the  patterns  of  both  her 
parents  and  that  this  double  character  gamete  was  fertilized  by 
one  of  the  E  gametes  which  came  from  the  CE  male." *  Let  us 
see  whether  this  is  the  most  probable  interpretation. 

As  Sturtevant  has  pointed  out,  for  any  case  to  which  the  idea 
of  multiple  allelomorphism  is  applicable,  an  equally  valid  ex- 
planation may  be  found  in  ** complete  linkage"  of  the  factors 
concerned.  To  decide  in  any  case  between  the  two  explanations 
would  be  impossible. 

If,  however,  linkage  were  not  complete,  a  **  cross-over"  class  or 
''recombination"  class  might  occur,  and  this  would  suffice  to  rule 
out  the  explanation  based  on  multiple  allelomorphs. 

Such  a  "cross-over"  class  perhaps  is  furnished  by  the  BE  I 
individual.  The  demonstration  of  this  may  be  given  by  the  use 
of  symbols,  as  follows : 

Let  us  assume  that  A  is  the  allelomorph  of  a,  B  that  of  b,  C  of 
c,  D  of  d,  F  of  /,  /  of  i,  etc.,  making  eight  pairs  of  allelomorphs 
altogether.    Assume  that  each  gamete  of  any  individual  carries 

1  This  explanation  is  essentially  similar  to  that  advanced  hj  Bridges  ( '13) 
to  explain  certain  peculiar  results  in  DrosophUa,  Bridges  assumed  that  in 
garnet  ogenesis  the  two  X -chromosomes  of  a  whiteeyed  female  failed  to  segre- 
gate (in  Bridge's  terminology,  non-disjunction  occurred),  and  passed  over 
together  into  one  gamete. 


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320  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST     [Vol.  XLVin 

one  allelomorph  of  each  pair,  and  that  the  eight  factors  thus 
present  in  a  gamete  form  a  linked  group,  tending  to  segregate  as 
a  unit  in  gametogenesis.  Thus  Nabours's  form  A  would  give 
gametes  of  the  form  Abcdefhi,  AB  would  give  gametes  of  only 
two  forms,  one  corresponding  to  A  and  the  other  to  B,  viz., 
Abcdefhi  and  aBcdefhi,  Two  other  forms  are  possible,  formed 
by  the  exchange  of  A  with  B,  and  of  a  with  6,  but  these  will  not 
occur  if  linkage  is  complete.  In  dealing  with  the  hybrid  AB  in 
practise  the  factors  cdefhi  would  not  be  put  into  the  formulas, 
as  they  are  alike  in  all  gametes. 

These  rules  would  apply  similarly  to  all  other  species  and 
hybrids.  Therefore  in  the  case  in  which  the  BEI  individual 
occurred,  we  would  represent  the  male  parent,  which  Naboure 
designated  CE,  by  bCei-bcEi,  and  its  gametes  by  bCei  and  bcEi, 
The  female  parent,  which  Nabours  designates  BI,  we  would 
represent  by  Bcei-bcel,  and  its  gametes  would  be  Bcei  and 
bcel  if  linkage  were  complete.  If  linkage  were  not  complete  there 
would  occasionally  be  formed  gametes  bcei  and  BceL  One  of 
these  latter  (Bcei)  was  probably  formed  and  fertilized  by  a 
sperm  of  the  type  bcEi,  thus  giving  rise  to  the  BEI  individuaL 
No  gametes  corresponding  to  bcei  appear  to  have  been  fertilized, 
though  of  course  we  do  not  yet  know  what  the  appearance  would 
be  of  an  individual  so  formed. 

This  matter  would  be  easy  to  test,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  the 
cross  may  be  repeated.  If  then  BEI  forms  should  appear  again 
and  in  these  when  mated  to  other  forms  the  factors  B  and  I  should 
be  found  to  stay  together  to  the  same  extent  as  they  before  sepa- 
rated, it  would  show  that  close  linkage,  rather  than  multiple  alle- 
lomorphism explains  this  particular  instance. 

It  may  be,  too,  that  both  linkage  and  multiple  allelomorphism 
play  a  part  in  the  production  of  these  phenomena.  In  any  case 
it  seems  that  the  test  is  at  hand,  and  not  difficult  to  perform, 
excepting  in  so  far  as  there  are  practical  difficulties  connected 
with  the  rearing  of  the  grasshoppers  in  sufficient  numbers  to 
cover  the  point. 

Literature  Cited. 

Bridges,  C.  B.  1913.  Non-disjunction  of  the  Sex  Chromosomes  of  Droso- 
phila.    Jour,  Exp,  Zool,,  Vol.  15. 

de  Meijere,  J.  C.  H.  1910.  Ueber  Jacobsons  Zttchtungsversuche  bezttglich 
des  Polymorphismus  von  Papilio  Memnon  L.  ?,  etc.  Zta,  ind.  Ahsi.- 
Vererb.-Lehre,  Vol.  3. 

Nabours,  B.  K.  1914.  Studies  of  Inheritance  and  Evolution  in  Orthoptera, 
I.    Jour,  Genet.,  Vol.  3. 

ShuU,  G.  H.  1911.  Reversible  Sex  Mutants  in  Lychnis  dtoica.  Bat,  Gaz^ 
Vol.  LII. 

Sturtevant,  A.  H.     1913.    The  Himalayan  Rabbit  Case  with  some  Consid- 
erations on  Multiple  Allelomorphs.    Am.  Nat.,  Vol.  XLVII. 
Columbia  University  John  S.  Dextbb 


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322  TEE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

distinct  species.  Arbitrary  rules  for  species  making,  de- 
signed to  restrict  the  activities  of  the  more  vigorous 
**  splitters ''  have  been  indeed  laid  down  by  experienced 
and  conservative  systematists.  The  final  test,  however, 
so  far  as  any  exists,  is  acknowledged  to  be  whether  a 
group  breeds  approximately  true  to  its  kind  and  is  ap- 
proximately sterile  with  other  closely  related  stock,  and 
yet  in  how  few  cases  have  both  or  either  of  these  criteria 
been  actually  applied  by  the  describer  of  species ! 

As  a  matter  of  fact  no  stock  that  has  been  bred  on  a 
vast  scale,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  breeds  absolutely  true  to 
specific  characters.  In  Morgan's  Drosophila^  and  De 
Vries's  (Enothera,  numerous  mutants  appear,  probably 
through  the  absence  of  certain  chemical  elements,  or  by 
unusual  combinations  of  elements,  in  the  chromatin  of  the 
germ  plasm.  That  this  phenomenon  has  not  been  shown 
for  many  other  species  is  due,  in  all  probability,  to  lack 
of  close  attention  to  all  the  individuals  in  a  huge  proces- 
sion of  stock  in  the  process  of  breeding.  Any  insect  bred 
as  extensively  as  Drosophila  ampelophila,  the  pomace  fly, 
has  been  would  probably  show  as  many  mutants;  some 
would  show  more.  C olios  eury theme,  the  **  orange  sul- 
phur ''  or  alfalfa  butterfly,  is  such  an  example.  Though 
this  butterfly  can  not  be  bred  on  a  scale  comparable  with 
Drosophila,  every  thousand  individuals  yield  many  dis- 
continuous variations :  red  eyes  instead  of  green,  tongue 
uncoiled  instead  of  wound  in  close  flat  spiral  when  at  rest, 
one  antenna  shorter  than  the  other,  the  absence  of  certain 
spots  from  the  wings,  gynandromorphism,  caterpillars 
with  two  longitudinal  rows  of  large  black  dorso-lateral 
spots  or  white  dorso-lateral  stripes  upon  a  dorsal  surface 
usually  unmarked,  caterpillars  with  one  proleg  less  upon 
one  side  than  the  other.  This  is  a  partial  list  of  points  at 
which  the  descendants  of  three  females  of  Colias  eury- 
theme  failed  in  a  single  summer  to  breed  true  to  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  species,  though  bred  under  uniform 
normal  conditions.     The  fact  that  these  discontinuous 

1  Science,  N.  S.,  Vol.  XXXIII,  Nos.  847,  849,  pp.  496-499,  534-537,  1911. 


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No.  570]  SPECIES-BUILDING  323 

variations  appear  under  uniform  external  conditions 
leads  one  to  be  very  skeptical  toward  most  of  the  past 
experimental  work  supposed  to  show  the  effects  of  the 
environment  upon  insects  in  modifying  the  germ  cells. 
Any  one  wishing  to  try  an  experiment  on  the  production 
of  variations  by  the  influence  of  the  environment,  or  upon 
the  inheritance  of  acquired  characteristics,  should  deny 
himself  absolutely  this  privilege  until  he  shall  have  bred 
under  normal  conditions  at  least  a  thousand  individuals 
of  the  stock  that  he  will  subsequently  employ. 

That  species  necessarily  breed  true  to  the  specific  char- 
acters ascribed  to  them  by  their  inventors  is  an  unveri- 
fied dogma.  At  best  the  reporter  picks  out  stray  individ- 
uals here  and  there  from  a  vast  procession  of  which  he 
can  only  see  glimpses,  and,  trusting  to  the  credulity  of  the 
public  in  the  established  ideas  about  these  matters,  he 
creates  upon  paper  a  new  species.  Doubtless  the  unit 
characters  of  ^*  specific  ^^  grade  in  the  stock  of  some  spe- 
cies are  more  generally  constant  or  homozygous  than 
those  of  certain  others,  but  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose 
that,  owing  to  dominance  the  heterozygous^  condition  re- 
garding certain  characters  is  frequently  masked  and  un- 
noticed in  apparently  pure  strains  of  wild  stock.  If  the 
heterozygote  respecting  a  certain  character  be  compara- 
tively rare,  or  if  it  be  a  heterozygote  based  on  several 
interacting  factors,  like  redness  in  the  kernel  of  Nilsson- 
Ehle's  wheat,^  it  may  cross  again  and  again  with 
the  homozygous  dominant,  or  with  another  heterozygote 
of  similar  nature  to  itself,  without  the  appearance  in  the 
population  of  the  recessive.  That  specific  and  varietal 
characters  do  exist  in  heterozygous  condition  in  wild 
stock  of  *  *  pure ' '  species,  unmasked  by  dominance  and 
easily  detected,  I  have  found  to  be  the  case  in  Colias  at 
several  points.  The  color  pattern  as  a  whole  apparently 
fluctuates  in  variation,  but  these  variations  in  detail  are 

2  The  mixed  Mendelian  condition,  I>(i2),  producing  germ  cells  D  and  B 
in  equal  numbers. 

8  Act.  Univers.  Lund,  1909. 


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324  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [VoL.XLVHI 

strictly  a  matter  of  inheritance.  Its  *'  fluctuation  **  is  not 
due  to  a  difference  in  environmental  conditions  surround- 
ing different  individuals,  but  evidently  to  the  condition  of 
the  germ  plasm.  The  parents  of  any  brood  may  be 
heterozygous  or  homozygous  for  the  determiners  of  color 
pattern.  If  they  come  from  a  strain  homozygous  in  this 
respect  and  are  alike  in  appearance,  the  offspring  will 
resemble  the  parents  closely  and  show  a  narrow  range  of 
variation,  but  if  unlike  and  derived  each  from  imlike 
parents,  a  wide  range  of  inherited  '^fluctuation"  occurs. 
Such  is  often  the  case  in  the  inheritance  of  a  melanic 
tendency  so  often  attributed  to  the  action  of  the  environ- 
ment, and  of  spots  used  in  the  diagnosis  of  species  as,  for 
example,  the  conspicuous  spot  in  the  middle  of  the  imder 
side  of  the  hind  wing.  This  is  commonly  double  in  Colias 
philodice  and  C.  eurytheme,  consisting  of  a  chief  and  an 
accessory  spot,  single  in  C.  palceno,  an  arctic  circumpolar 
species,  but  it  varies  enormously.  In  eurytheme  and 
philodice  the  accessory  spot  may  be  absent ;  in  palceno,  in 
rare  cases,  it  may  be  present.  I  have  bred  large  families 
of  C.  eurytheme  in  which  both  the  chief  and  accessory 
spots  were,  like  those  of  the  parents,  almost  uniformly 
large  and  nearly  equal  in  size.  In  other  families,  from 
parents  in  which  the  accessory  spot  is  nearly  or  quite 
lacking,  the  offspring  show  a  similar  reduction.  In 
C.  philodice  I  have  found  it  possible  by  selection  to  estab- 
lish a  race  devoid  of  the  row  of  submarginal  red-brown 
spots  of  the  under  side  of  the  wings.  Thus,  by  selection, 
strains,  nearly  or  perhaps  quite  homozygous  for  definite 
points  of  color  pattern,  may  be  established,  derived  from 
a  population  which  in  the  main  is  in  an  extremely  hetero- 
zygous condition.  Yet  species  are  named  and  distin- 
guished on  the  basis  of  these  features. 

Another  example  of  heterozygous  condition  of  a  char- 
acter within  a  wild  species  is  the  white  pigment  in  the 
ground  color  of  the  ''  albino  "  female  of  Colias,  both  in 
the  yellow  species,  philodice  and  the  orange  species, 
eurytheme.    The  white  female  is  regularly  heterozygous 


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No.  570]  SPECIES-BUILDING  326 

for  this  sex-limited  character.  Her  daughters  are  white 
or  colored  (yellow  or  orange,  as  the  case  may  be)  in  equal 
numbers.  Still  another  interesting  heterozygous  feature, 
though  not  of  *^  specific  ''  grade,  was  seen  last  summer  in 
a  pure  strain  of  Colias  eurytheme.  A  female  appeared 
that  could  not  upon  stimulation  coil  up  her  tongue. 
Mated  with  a  normal  male,  this  abnormality  was  in- 
herited in  various  degrees  by  half  her  offspring  (37 
uncoiled  and  28  coiled).  One  of  her  daughters,  abnormal 
in  this  respect  and  mated  with  a  normal  of  a  different 
strain,  transmitted  the  abnormality  to  about  16  per  cent. 
of  her  offspring  (29:151),  showing  that  the  possessor  of 
this  abnormality  is  regularly  heterozygous  in  respect 
to  it. 

Whether  (Enothera  lamarckiana  is  or  is  not  a  complex 
hybrid  produced  from  two  American  species,  is  it  not 
certain  that,  like  other  wild  and  cultivated  stock,  it  does 
possess  characters  for  which  it  is  heterozygous,  and  that 
the  watcher  for  mutants  frequently  seizes  upon  rare  com- 
binations of  recessive  features  as  a  part  of  his  elementary 
species  f 

But  to  breed  true  is  only  a  secondary  criterion  of  spe- 
cies. Inbred  strains  of  domestic  animals  and  plants  do 
that  to  a  certain  degree.  Varieties  and  races  to  a  certain 
extent  may  do  the  same.  The  real  criterion  (and  the  one 
least  often  practically  used  by  the  systematist)  is  fertility 
within  the  group  and  sterility  with  other  closely  related 
groups.  Here  dogma  holds  sway  among  writers  on  or- 
ganic evolution  as  well  as  among  systematists,  for  we  are 
told  by  those  who  have  been  accustomed  since  childhood 
to  the  idea  of  the  objective  reality  of  species  that  hybridi- 
zation of  species,  that  is,  genuine  species  in  good  and 
regular  standing  before  the  scientific  public,  has  played 
very  little  part  in  the  origin  of  new  species.  This  atti- 
tude was  entirely  logical  in  view  of  the  accepted  ultimate 
definition  of  a  species.  If  the  individuals  of  one  species 
are  actually  sterile  with  members  of  another,  hybridiza- 


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326  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

tion  of  species  can  not  play  an  important  part  in  the  manu- 
facture of  new  wild  strains.  But  only  in  comparatively 
rare  instances  have  attempts  been  made  experimentally 
to  mate  Linnaean  species.  The  dogma  of  the  objective 
reality  and  uniform  value  of  the  species  unit  has  diverted 
us  from  seriously  attacking  this  problem.  Just  as  in  the 
nineteenth  century  the  fixed  idea  of  the  immutability  of 
species  blocked  the  progress  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution, 
so  this  dogma  now  stands  in  our  way,  and  obstructs  the 
possibility  of  vision.  We  need  now  fully  to  recognize  the 
fact,  which  most  biologists  are  ready  to  admit,  that  the 
term  species  is  applied  to  most  heterogeneous  groups  of 
individuals,  groups  of  every  conceivable  size,  based  on 
differences  that  are  most  diverse  in  number  and  impor- 
tance, often  separated  from  allied  groups  entirely  by  the 
arbitrary  judgment  of  the  describer,  and  depending  ulti- 
mately upon  his  personal  temperament.  These  groups, 
as  already  stated,  have  been  tested  in  comparatively  few 
instances  by  the  only  reputable  criterion  that  can  be 
applied  in  the  separation  of  closely  allied  groups,  that  of 
sterility  or  fertility  inter  se. 

To  one  who  tries  to  divest  himself  of  the  accepted  ideas 
regarding  species  and  is  on  the  watch  for  evidence  of 
hybridization  among  imlike  strains  that  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  call  species,  new  cases  of  such  hybridization 
frequently  come  to  light.  Especially  is  this  true  among 
the  insects.  In  regions  where  the  faunal  areas  of  two 
*^  good  "  species  overlap  or  are  contiguous,  such  crossing 
not  infrequently  occurs. 

A  most  interesting  case  is  that  of  the  four  species  of 
the  coccinellid  beetle  Adalia  that  occur  in  the  same  region 
in  Colorado,  as  worked  out  by  Palmer.*  These  four  forms 
with  clean-cut  differences  in  color  and  color  pattern  had 
been  named  and  described  by  different  authors  as  dis- 
tinct species,  yet  three  of  them  were  found  to  be  inter- 
breeding with  complete  fertility  but  still  respectively 
maintaining  their  identity,  forming  a  regular  Mendelian 

,  ^'Annals  Entom.  Soc.  America,  IV,' 3,  September,  1911. 


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No.  570]  SPECIES-BUILDING  327 

epistatic  series :  a  red-brown  spotless  form,  melanopleura, 
dominant  at  one  end  of  the  series,  then  annectans,  a  red- 
brown,  spotted  type,  and  finally  the  recessive,  melanic, 
red-spotted  humeralis  with  a  color  pattern  different  from 
that  of  annectans  or  of  Coloradensis,  another  red-brown, 
spotted  type  of  that  locality.  *'  But  ^^  says  the  upholder 
of  the  present  idea  of  species,  '^  here  we  have  a  single 
polymorphic  species,  not  three  or  four  different  species. 
The  breeding  experiments  show  that  the  describers  of 
these  forms  were  wrong  in  ascribing  systematic  rank  to 
mere  color  varieties.''  It  goes,  of  course,  almost  without 
saying  that  the  makers  of  these  species  did  not  before 
naming  their  beetles,  breed  them  to  determine  whether 
they  would  breed  true  to  type  and  were  infertile 
inter  se.  Indeed,  in  how  few  cases  has  this  been  done! 
Even  the  larval  stages  of  most  known  beetles  are  imper- 
fectly unknown,  much  less  the  possible  genetic  relation- 
ship of  one  type  to  another,  as  determined  by  breeding 
them  to  maturity.  BlaisdelP  describes  the  case  of  two 
Californian  Coccinellidse  which  are  found  in  winter  in 
small  groups  under  the  bark  of  eucalyptus  trees.  '*  Usu- 
ally there  was  one  Olla  plagiata  with  each  of  the  groups 
[of  0.  abdominalis],  irrespective  of  whether  they  were 
made  up  of  two  or  more  individuals."  The  same  author, 
by  selection  of  specimens  of  abdominalis  representing 
different  types  of  color  pattern,  describes  its  range  of 
variation,  but  adds  that  his  studies  throw  no  light  on  the 
relationship  of  the  two  species.  Had  he  bred  certain  in- 
dividuals of  0.  abdominalis  together,  it  is  not  at  all  un- 
likely, in  view  of  his  observation  of  the  regular  occur- 
rence of  a  few  plagiata  in  every  group  of  abdominalis^ 
that  the  former  interbreeds  with  the  latter  and  may  be  a 
simple  recessive  in  respect  to  it.  Miss  Palmer's  work 
on  the  allied  Adalia  certainly  suggests  this  as  a  possi- 
bility. 

Another  remarkable  case  is  that  of  the  nine  true-breed- 
ing species   of  grouse-locust,   Paratettix,  recently   de- 

^Entom,  News,  Vol.  24,  No.  9,  November,  1913. 


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328  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVni 

scribed  by  Nabours.®  These  nine  color  types,  or  species, 
freely  interbreed.  The  color  pattern  of  the  resulting  Fi 
hybrid  in  each  case  is  a  mosaic  combination  of  those  of 
the  two  parents.  The  latter  in  subsequent  inbreeding 
may  be  extracted  intact,  each  having  been  transmitted  as 
a  distinct  unit,  without  dominance. 

In  Lepidoptera,  an  order  in  which  polymorphism  is 
notoriously  common,  hybridization  between  species  has 
been  frequently  observed.  Standfuss^  devotes  eight 
octavo  pages  of  his  excellent  *'  Handbuch  ''  simply  to  the 
enumeration  of  examples  of  such  hybridization  between 
palaearctic  species  of  moths  and  butterflies,  and  acknowl- 
edges that  he  mentions  only  a  fragment  of  all  such  cases 
on  record  or  preserved  in  collections*  This  list  would  be 
greatly  extended  if  American  species  were  included. 
Seven  different  hybrid  combinations  within  the  genus 
Colias  in  the  palsearctic  region  have  been  noted  by  Stand- 
fuss. 

Colias  philodice,  the  clouded  sulphur  or  clover  butterfly 
of  the  eastern  and  central  United  States,  readily  crosses 
with  C.  eurytheme,  the  orange  sulphur  or  alfalfa  butterfly 
of  the  western  and  central  states.  The  territory  of  philo- 
dice, according  to  Scudder  extends  like  a  wedge  westward 
from  the  Atlantic  into  the  faunal  area  of  eurytheme. 
Overlapping  thus  occurs  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  though 
philodice  does  not  extend  as  far  southward  as  the  Gulf 
States,  Texas,  Louisiana  and  Mississippi,  in  which 
ei^rytheme  is  found. 

These  two  species  are  fairly  sharply  distinguished  by 
the  difference  in  the  ground  color,  which  in  eurytheme  is 
orange,  in  philodice  sulphur  yellow.  The  middle  spot  of 
the  upper  side  of  the  hind  wing  is  brilliant  orange  in 
eurytheme,  pale  orange  or  yellow  in  philodice.  The  dark 
border  of  the  hind  wing  of  the  female  is  wider  in  eury- 
theme than  in  philodice  and  broken  with  a  row  of  large 
yellow  spots. 

6  Journal  of  Genetics,  Vol.  3,  No.  3,  February,  1914. 

7** Handbuch  d.  palUarktischen  Gross-Schmetterlinge/ '  1896,  p.  51-53. 


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No.  570]  SPECIES-BUILDING  329 

It  has  long  been  known  that  these  two  species  hybridize 
in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  where  both  occur.  By  extended 
experiments  during  the  past  summer  and  previous  au- 
tumn with  eurytheme  stock  sent  to  me  from  Arizona 
through  the  kindness  of  Messrs.  V.  L.  Wildermuth  and 
E.  N.  Wilson  and  with  philodice  from  New  Hampshire,  I 
have  found  that  the  two  species  mate  together  readily,  and 
produce  vigorous  offspring.  The  species-hybrid  males 
were  then  mated  with  eurytheme  females,  and  more  than 
half  of  the  pairs  (viz.,  four  out  of  seven)  were  fertile. 
Mated  together,  however,  the  species-hybrids  showed 
much  sterility.  Out  of  ten  such  matings,  nine  were  in- 
fertile. From  the  tenth  pair,  nineteen  adult  butterflies 
were  produced. 

Orange  in  this  cross  is  distinctly  dominant  over  no 
orange,  or  yellow,  but  the  color  of  the  heterozygote  is  a 
pale  orange  overlying  yellow,  and  is  by  no  means  as  bril- 
liant as  the  almost  fiery  orange  of  the  large,  summer 
seasonal  variety,  the  typical  **  eurytheme.^*  In  broods 
emerging  the  last  week  in  August  and  the  first  three 
weeks  of  September,  when  intense  color  may  be  expected, 
the  heterozygote  is  pale  orange,  corresponding  approxi- 
mately to  the  variety  known  as  keewadin,  whereas  those 
raised  in  the  greenhouse  and  emerging  early  in  December, 
resemble  the  small  orange-yellow  winter  type  known  asi 
ariadne.  Keewaydin,  according  to  Wright,®  occurs  at  all 
seasons  in  California,  though  probably  more  abundantly 
in  spring  and  autunm.  Hence  he  regards  this  as  the 
typical  variety,  rather  than  '^eurytheme/'  It  is  inter- 
mediate, however,  in  size  and  intensity  of  color. 

In  general,  therefore,  there  is  an  incomplete  dominance 
of  orange,  the  color  of  the  heterozygote  corresponding 
either  to  that  of  the  intermediate  or  to  that  of  the  winter, 
seasonal  variety  of  eurytheme,  depending  upon  the  time  of 
the  year  when,  and  the  environmental  condition  under 
which,  the  cross  is  made.  The  wide,  spotted  margin  of  the 
hind  wing  in  the  female  eurytheme,  moreover,  when  pres- 

8'*Butterflie8  of  the  West  Coast  of  the  United  States,"  p.  119. 


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330  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

ent  in  marked  degree,  is  dominant  over  the  narrower 
margin  in  philodice.  This  dominance  of  the  orange  mani- 
fests itself  quite  as  distinctly  if  the  albino  female  of 
eurytheme,  instead  of  the  orange  female,  is  bred  to  the 
yellow  philodice  male.  The  daughters  of  such  a  family 
in  one  case  (0,  1913)  were  36  white,  35  orange;  the  sons, 
numbering  72,  were,  of  course,  all  orange.  The  white 
species-hybrid  (FJ  is  identical  in  appearance  with  the 
albino  eurytheme,  the  female  color  pattern  of  the  latter 
(wide  marginal  bands)  being  dominant,  and  the  orange 
middle  spot  both  in  pure  bred  albino  eurytheme  and  in 
the  albino  hybrid  being  usually  paler  than  in  their  orange 
sisters. 

The  second  hybrid  generation  inbred  (Fg)  shows  a  well 
marked  segregation  of  the  sulphur-yellow  color  of  phUo- 
dice,  as  a  simple  Mendelian  recessive.  Three  out  of  the 
sixteen  colored  (non-albino)  individuals  of  the  brood  ob- 
tained in  December,  1913,  are  definite  recessives  of  clear 
sulphur  yellow,  with  pale  yellow  middle  spots  on  the  hind 
wing.  The  most  highly  colored  individuals  are  four  that 
correspond  in  hue  to  pale  examples  of  the  light  orange- 
yellow  winter  variety,  ariadne.  There  is  no  return,  at 
least  in  this  winter  brood  (enclosed  in  a  greenhouse  in 
New  Hampshire  in  December),  to  the  brilliant  orange  of 
the  grandparent al  eurytheme  stock.  Nor  do  they  even 
return  to  the  suffused  light  orange  (intermediate)  tint 
of  the  heterozygous  father  (keewadin  type),  for  the 
ground  color  of  all  individuals  of  this  brood  (Fj)  is 
yellow,  either  flushed  or  spotted,  except  in  three  indi- 
viduals, with  orange. 

An  interesting  case  of  probable  hybridization  in  the 
allied  genus  M eg ano stoma,  or  dog's  head  butterfly,  is  re- 
corded by  Wright®  between  the  Califomian  M.  eurydice 
and  M.  ccrsonia,  common  throughout  the  southern  states. 
The  two  species  are  remarkably  different  in  color  and 
have  different  food  plants.  The  male  of  eurydice  differs 
from  that  of  ccesonia  in  having  a  violet  luster  and  lackmg 

9Loc,  cit.f  p.  116. 


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No.  570]  SPECIES-BUILDING  331 

the  black  border  upon  the  hind  wings  possessed  by 
ccesonia;  in  the  female,  etirydice  is  clear  yellow  with  no 
dark  border,  while  in  cccsonia  the  female  has  a  wide 
border  similar  to  that  of  its  male,  though  less  well  marked 
on  the  hind  wings.  The  probable  hybrid  called  amorphce 
is  a  female,  intermediate  in  color  between  the  typical 
ccesonia  and  eurydice.  That  is,  the  border  of  ccesonia 
crossed  with  no  border  (if  my  interpretation  is  correct) 
is  incompletely  dominant.    Wright  says: 

At  one  time  I  was  of  the  opinion  that  AmorphcB  was  a  hybrid  between 
Eurytheme  and  Caesonia  .  .  .  but  of  late  years,  as  no  male  Amorphce 
is  known,  I  have  concluded  that  Amorphce  is  simply  a  dimorphic  female 
[of  eurydice]. 

Possibly  it  is  both,  an  example  of  dimorphism  produced 
either  by  immediate  hybridization,  or  by  a  mutation  re- 
sulting from  some  previous  hybridization.  That  a  male 
appears  to  be  lacking  in  this  case  would  not  be  an  argu- 
ment against  the  possibility  of  hybridization,  for  by  such 
crossing  the  sex  ratio  is  frequently  upset,  the  product 
being  of  one  sex  only.  But  it  appears  to  be  possible  that 
the  male  of  this  cross  is  that  described  as  M.  bernardino, 
a  variety  of  eurydice  found  in  the  mountains  of  the  same 
region  where  amorphce  also  occurs.  It  is  an  interesting 
combination  of  the  male  coloration  of  both  species,  having 
the  violet  hue  of  eurydice  that  is  lacking  in  ccesonia  and 
having  the  dark  border  of  the  hind  wings  of  ccosonia  lack- 
ing in  eurydice.  Its  female  is  described  as  being  smaller 
than  that  of  eurydice,  but  otherwise  practically  identical 
with  it.  This  case,  as  Wright  has  suggested,  is  a  most 
inviting  subject  for  further  study,  and,  judging  by  what 
he  says  of  the  sexual  instincts  of  the  eurydice  male — '*  a 
wooer  .  .  .  energetic  and  persistent,  not  hesitating  to 
ignore  all  rules  of  propriety,  of  species  and  of  genera '' 
— ^not  difficult  of  experimental  management. 

The  genus  Basilarchia,  the  admiral  butterflies,  is  well 
known  for  the  hybridization  of  its  very  unlike  species, 
B.  arthemis  the  '*  banded  purple  ''  of  the  northern  states, 


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332  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [VoL.XLVIII 

B.  astyanax  the  '*  red-spotted  purple ''  of  the  southeast- 
ern states.  The  hybrid  species,  B.  proserpina,  occurs 
in  a  zone  in  which  their  two  faunal  areas  overlap. 
In  this  same  group  is  the  common  *'  viceroy  ''  B.  ar chip- 
pus,  the  range  of  which  roughly  covers  that  of  both  the 
other  species  and  extends  further  westward,  touching  the 
Pacific  coast  in  Washington  ( Scudder ) .  The  experiments 
of  Edwards,  and  especially  of  Field,  have  shown  that 
these  three  well-differentiated  pure  species  occupying 
contiguous,  or  in  respect  to  archippus  overlapping, 
territory  are  in  some  cases  at  least  mutually  fertile. 
B.  arthemis  and  astyanax  regularly  interbreed  in  the 
narrow  zone  where  proserpina  occurs.  Proserpina,  the 
hybrid,  usually  shows  the  general  dominance  of  the 
astyanax  characters  (lack  of  white  band). 

From  eggs  laid  by  a  wild  female  proserpina  Edwards^^ 
secured  three  arthemis,  one  proserpina.  Field^^  raised 
from  a  similar  lot  of  eggs  nine  proserpina,  seven  arthe- 
mis. Presumably  in  each  case  the  male  parent  was  the 
recessive  arthemis,  and  hence  equal  numbers  of  the  two 
types  would  be  expected.  Field  has  also  succeeded  in 
crossing  a  2  astyanax  with  a  <?  arthemis,  and  a  2  viceroy, 
archippus,  with  a  c?  arthemis,  the  latter  pair  producing 
nine  males  intermediate  in  color.  Specimens  of  an  ap- 
parent hybrid,  intermediate  in  color  between  astyanax 
and  archippus,  have  also  occasionally  been  captured. 

The  complete  overlapping  of  the  faunal  area  of  archip- 
pus upon  those  of  the  two  other  species  indicates  that, 
though  crossing  sometimes  occurs,  the  resulting  hybrids 
are  probably  usually  sterile,  though  this  matter  has  not 
yet  been  thoroughly  investigated.  Proserpina,  however, 
is  a  fertile  and  extraordinarily  variable  hybrid.  In  view 
of  its  great  variability  it  appears,  by  the  way,  not  impos- 
sible that  archippus,  the  red-brown  *'  mimic  ''  of  the  mon- 
arch, Anosia  plexippus,  may  have  arisen  as  a  mutation 
from  the  hybrid  proserpina,  though   the  wide-spread 

10  Canadian  Entomologist,  Vol.  IX,  1877. 

11  Psyche,  Vol.  XVII,  No.  3,  1910. 


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No.  570]  SPECIES-BUILDING  333 

range  of  archippus  at  present  and  our  ignorance  of  the 
state  of  the  Basilarchia  stock  at  the  time  of  the  origin  of 
the  ''mimic''  make  any  such  specific  historical  guess 
hazardous.  It  may,  however,  some  time  be  possible  by  ex- 
perimental breeding  to  extract  from  this  red-spotted  pur- 
ple hybrid  a  red-brown  type  similar  to  archippus.  If  the 
Basilarchia  stock  were  as  easily  bred  as  Drosophila,  one 
might  be  very  confident  of  accomplishing  this.  In  any 
event,  the  theory  of  the  origin  of  mimicry  by  natural 
selection  is,  in  the  opinion  of  the  writer,  entirely  super- 
fluous, though  this  celebrated  monarch-viceroy  case 
should  be  exhaustively  studied  by  experimental  methods, 
to  determine  whether  natural  selection  now  operates  in 
any  degree  in  the  matter. 

Examples  of  clusters  of  interbreeding  types  may  be 
drawn  in  large  numbers  from  various  classes  of  animals 
and  plants.  Bateson^^  has  recently  called  attention  to  the 
interesting  case  of  the  two  American  flickers  described 
by  Allen,^^  the  eastern  Colaptes  auratus  and  the  western 
and  Mexican  C.  cafer,  which  hybridize  in  the  zone  in 
which  their  faunal  areas  overlap,  the  American  grackles, 
the  golden-winged  and  blue-winged  warblers  and  their 
hybrids,  Lawrence's  and  Brewster's  warblers,  and  others. 

In  reference  to  the  common  purple  grackle,  which 
Chapman"  regards  as  a  hybrid  between  the  Florida 
grackle  and  the  bronzed  grackle,  Kidgeway^^  says: 

My  own  opinion  in  the  matter  exactly  coincides  with  Mr.  Chapman's 
but  since  so  many  forms  now  ranked  as  sub-species  are  similarly  in- 
volved I  prefer,  at  present,  to  leave  the  matter  in  abeyance. 

This  signiflcant  statement  from  a  master  of  ornithologi- 
cal taxonomy  indicates  that  hybridization  among  Ameri- 
can birds  is  a  promising  subject  for  investigation. 

Of  the  occasional  mutual  fertility  of  unlike  strains  dif- 
ferent enough  to  be  classed  as  unquestionable  species, 

12 "Problems  of  Genetics,''  1913,  Chap.  VII. 

i^BuU.  American  Mus,  Nat  Hist.,  Vol.  IV,  1892. 

"  Ibid. 

w Birds  of  North  and  Middle  America,''  Part  2,  p.  219,  1902. 


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334  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [VoL.XLYin 

there  also  can  be  no  doubt.  '*  We  can  only  escape  the 
conclusion  that  some  species  are  fully  fertile  when 
crossed,"  wrote  Darwin,^®  ''by  determining  to  designate 
as  varieties  all  the  forms  that  are  quite  fertile/'  and  he 
added  that  some  plants  exposed  to  unnatural  conditions 
are  so  modified  ''  that  they  are  much  more  fertile  when 
crossed  by  a  distinct  species  than  when  fertilized  by  their 
own  pollen. '* 

The  rareness  of  these  crosses  between  unlike  strains  or 
species  and  the  partial  sterility  of  the  offspring  are  not 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  regarding  occasional  hybridiza- 
tion as  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  mutation  and  hence 
eventually  of  new  species,  for,  as  my  preliminary  experi- 
ments in  hybridizing  species  of  C alias  have  already 
shown,  there  may  exist  within  a  strain  of  species-hybrids 
certain  individuals  that  ^re  fertile,  though  the  most  of 
their  brothers  and  sisters,  mated,  respectively,  in  a  similar 
way,  are  sterile.  Nature  probably  makes  more  random 
experiments  in  hybridization  than  we  imagine ;  many  fail; 
some  succeed;  and  in  especially  favorable  stock  Uke 
Colias,  judging  from  the  numbers  of  closely  aUied  but 
different  types  (species)  occurring  in  the  same  localities 
in  western  Asia  or  in  northwestern  United  States  and 
British  America,  probably  many  succeed. 

In  seeking  to  determine  how  mutation,  whether  the  re- 
sult of  hybridization  or  of  possible  climatic  influences, 
acts  in  the  production  of  new  species,  it  is  possible  from 
cases  already  at  hand  to  suggest  possible  steps  in  the  evo- 
lution of  distinct,  mutually  infertile,  types  from  one  com- 
paratively simple  polymorphic  species. 

The  well-known  dimorphic  European  currant  moth, 
Abraxas  grossulariata,  in  which  the  light-colored  (reces- 
sive) variety,  lacticolor,  is  found  in  nature  only  in  the 
female  sex,  will  serve  as  an  example  of  an  elementary 
condition.    Lacticolor  males,  as  Doncaster*^  has  shown, 

16  *' Animals  and  Plants  under  Domestication/'  Vol.  II,  Oiap.  19,  p.  179. 
IT* 'Report  of  the  Evolution  Committee, '*  4,  1908. 


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No.  570]  SPECIES-BUILDING  335 

may  readily  be  bred.  When  one  of  these  males  is  mated 
with  a  lacticolor  female,  there  is  produced  in  captivity  a 
pure  lacticolor  strain.  If  lacticolor  males  and  females 
should  be  segregated  and  allowed  to  breed  together  until 
they  have  become  as  abundant  as  the  typical  form,  this 
case  would  then  resemble  that  of  the  Colorado  lady  beetles 
of  the  genus  Adalia,  described  above,  in  that  it  would  con- 
sist of  different  types  maintaining  their  identity  while 
freely  interbreeding  with  complete  fertility.  The 
Abraxas  complex  differs  from  the  Adalia  species-cluster, 
however,  in  the  occurrence  of  sex-linkage  in  the  inheri- 
tance of  the  lacticolor  variety,  whereas  in  Adalia  the 
factors  for  the  different  color  patterns  apparently  are 
distributed  in  the  gametogenesis  of  a  heterozygous  indi- 
vidual without  sex-linkage,  freely  and  at  random. 

A  more  advanced  stage  in  evolution  is  that  represented 
by  the  Basilarchia  species-cluster,  in  which  partial  steril- 
ity between  the  viceroy  and  the  two  purple  species,  over 
the  faunal  areas  of  which  its  own  overlaps,  and  the  differ- 
ence in  geographical  distribution  between  the  banded 
purple  and  red-spotted  purple,  keep  the  three  elements 
apart. 

By  easy  stages  we  may  in  imagination  pass  on  to 
groups  composed  of  closely  allied  species  which  sterility 
and  local  segregation  completely  separate  from  one 
another,  groups  that  probably  have  arisen  from  a  poly- 
morphic species  that  has  broken  up  into  its  constituent 
parts,  and  thus  given  rise  to  new  elementary  species. 

The  dimorphism  of  Colias  differs  from  that  of  Abraxas 
in  that  the  color  of  the  rarer  type  of  female  can  not  be 
transferred  in  the  ordinary  course  of  breeding,  without 
further  mutation,  to  the  male.  It  is  a  sex-limited  char- 
acter, like  the  female  color  pattern  in  Colias,  (i.  e.,  a  wide 
dark  border  broken  with  spots)  and  not  sex-linked  like 
the  variety  lacticolor  of  Abraxas. 

The  white  female  of  Colias  is  regularly  heterozygous 
for  color.     She  produces  as  many  white  daughters  as 


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336  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol 

yellow,  or  orange,  as  the  case  may  be.  Evidently,  i 
to  extract  a  pure  white  race  from  C.  philodice  or  ( 
theme,  it  will  be  necessary  by  a  mutation  to  obtaii 
homozygous  white  female,  and  then  by  a  further  m 
a  homozygous  white  male.  White  males  are  kn 
nature  as  rare  aberrations,  but,  whether  they  an 
zygous  or  heterozygous  for  color,  it  is  impossible 
Among  the  two  thousand  offspring  of  heterozygou 
females  of  philodice  and  eurytheme  that  I  ha^ 
since  1908,  there  has  been  not  a  single  white  mal 
sons  of  a  white  female,  though  some  are  capable  o 
mitting  the  white,  are  always  yellow  or  orange, 
lately,  however,  raised  a  large  brood  in  which 
females  were  white.  This  was  a  '*  back  cross  ''  1 
a  white  female  of  the  orange  eurytheme  and  a  m; 
cies-hybrid  (son  of  a  white  mother).  Precisely 
matings,  however,  gave  both  white  and  colored 
offspring  in  equal  numbers;  hence  in  the  produ( 
this  brood  there  was  probably  a  mutation.  Fro 
stock  as  this  the  extraction  of  a  pure  white  ra( 
Colias  at  some  time  may  possibly  be  accomplishec 
In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  ^ 
the  testimony  of  a  good  observer,  the  late  Mr. 
Wright,"  who  made  the  study  of  Californian  bu 
his  life  work,  to  the  effect  that  the  white  variety  oj 
eurytheme  ''is  now  quite  common,  though  twe 
years  ago  it  was  a  great  rarity,  and  it  was  accoi 
feat  to  secure  one  of  them,  and  if  the  present  rat 
crease  of  the  blond  form  shall  go  on,  in  a  few  h 
years  the  normal  orange-colored  female  will  be 
and  unknown."  If  this  is  a  fact,  and  not  an  illus 
to  a  general  increase  in  the  population  of  eur 
owing  to  an  increase  in  the  cultivation  of  the  foo< 
alfalfa,  in  that  region,  it  may  be  the  result  of  \ 
mutations,  whereby  homozygous  white  females  m.i 
been  introduced  into  the  population.    It  will  be  o 

iTLoc.  cit.,  p.  117. 


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No.  570]  SPECIES-BUILDING  337 

est    to    determine    whether    such    true-breeding    white 
females  actually  occur  in  California. 

Evolution  in  Colias  is  usually  regarded,  on  the  other 
hand,  as  tending  towards  suppression  of  the  white  stock 
rather  than  its  further  extension,  inasmuch  as  Pieris  and 
other  allied  genera  are  white.  It  seems  to  be  a  reason- 
able hypothesis  that,  by  progressive  mutations  in  Colias 
affecting  first  the  male  then  the  female,^®  white  has  be- 
come yellow;  yellow,  orange;  orange,  red,  or  a  fiery 
orange  ;^*  or  yellow  may  be  transmuted  into  black,  as  in 
an  aberration  of  the  male  in  C.  philodice.  By  retrogres- 
sive or  degressive  mutations,  accordingly,  we  may  hope 
to  isolate  from  C.  philodice  or  C.  eurytheme  a  pure  white 
race. 

Summary  and  Conclusions 

The  erroneous  idea  that  Linnsean  species  are  homo- 
geneous, well-defined  groups  of  equal  importance  has 
done  much  to  retard  progress  in  the  experimental  study 
of  evolution.  The  limits  of  a  species  are  often  arbitrary, 
depending  ultimately  upon  the  temperament  of  the  des- 
criber,  and  frequently  based  upon  ignorance  of  the  near- 
est allies  of  the  individuals  described,  living  in  other 
parts  of  the  world. 

The  most  definite  criteria  of  species,  viz.,  that  ''  spe- 
cific *'  characters  are  constant,  and  that  hybrids  of 
Linnaean  species  are  infertile  inter  se,  are  only  approxi- 
mately correct.  Characteristics  of  species  sometimes 
occur  in  heterozygous  condition.  Hybrids  of  Linnsean 
species,  as  has  long  been  known,  are  often  fertile.  These 
matters,  owing  to  traditional,  unwarranted  respect  for 
described  species,  have  received  comparatively  little  in- 
vestigation. 

Examples  of  hybridization  in  Adalia,  Colias,  Meganos- 
toma,  Basilarchia  and  Paratettix  among  insects,  in  Co- 
laptes,  Quiscalus,  and  Helminthophila  among  birds  are 
cited. 

18  In  C.  dimera  of  South  America,  for  example,  the  female  is  yellow,  but 
in  the  male  the  /ore  wings  are  orange. 
1*  As  in  the  Asiatic  eogene. 


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338  TRE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

Occasional  fertile  crossing  of  unlike  strains  that  rarely 
interbreed  is  a  probable  source  of  mutations  and  new 
types. 

A  suggestion  is  made  that  a  comparatively  simple  poly- 
morphic species  (like  Abraxas  grossulariata)  may  break 
up  into  a  cluster  of  mutually  fertile  elementary  species 
{e.  g.y  Adalia  in  Colorado).  Further  differentiation,  in- 
volving partial  sterility,  may  be  illustrated  by  the  Basi- 
larchia  species-cluster.  This  may  be  followed  by  the 
establishment,  and  isolation  through  complete  sterility, 
of  distinct  types,  or  species  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term. 

Evolution  of  color  in  the  yellow  and  orange  butterflies 
of  the  genus  Colias  involves  white,  which  exists  to-day  in 
heterozygous  condition  in  certain  females.  If  the  an- 
cestors of  Colias  were  white,  as  in  Pierids  generally,  we 
have  only  to  imagine  a  mutation  in  the  male-producing 
germ  cells  of  the  original  white  females,  by  virtue  of 
which  white  pigment  was  replaced  by,  or  transmuted  into, 
yellow.  This  would  make  all  the  males  yellow,  leaving 
all  the  females  white,  which  is  true  of  certain  arctic 
species  to-day. 

A  similar  mutation  affecting  the  germ  cells  of  these 
white  females,  but  introducing  the  factor  for  yellow  into 
only  half  of  them,  would  produce  the  heterozygous  condi- 
tion found  in  C.  philodice  and  C.  eurytheme.  Pure  yel- 
low strains  may  readily  be  bred  from  such  mixed  stock, 
and  hence,  probably,  it  has  come  about  that  four  fifths  or 
nine  tenths  of  the  females  of  C.  philodice  in  eastern 
United  States  are  pure  yellow. 

Progressive  mutations  from  yellow  to  orange  and  fiery 
orange,  affecting  first  the  male,  then  the  female,  have 
probably  occurred  in  Colias  in  many  part  of  the  world, 
especially  in  warmer  climates.  Climatic  conditions  deter- 
mine the  amount  of  orange  pigment  in  the  cross  between 
the  orange  eurytheme  and  the  yellow  philodice.  This 
hybrid  is  larger  and  contains  more  orange  when  raised  in 
summer  than  when  bred  in  late  fall  and  winter.  C.  philo- 
dice in  this  cross  is  a  Mendelian  recessive. 


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HEREDITY    OF    BRISTLES    IN    THE    COMMON 
GREENBOTTLE    FLY,    LUCILIA    SERICATA 
MEIG.    A  STUDY  OF  FACTORS  GOVERN- 
ING DISTRIBUTION^ 

PHINEAS  W.  WHITING 
BussET  Institution 

In  a  previous  paper^  I  have  given  data  showing  that 
variation  in  the  number  of  posterior  dorso-central  and 
acrostichal  bristles  of  the  common  greenbottle  fly,  Lucilia 
sericata  Meig.,  is  determined  by  hereditary  factors. 
Since  the  publication  of  that  paper  further  evidence, 
bearing  upon  the  nature  of  the  hereditary  factors  in- 
volved, has  been  obtained. 

Two  general  conclusions  from  the  work  may  be  stated 
as  f oUows : 

1.  Reduction  in  bristles  tends  to  affect  the  males  more 
than. the  females,  while  additional  bristles  are  found  more 
often  in  the  females. 

2.  Distribution  as  well  as  number  of  bristles  is  heredi- 
tary. 

On  account  of  very  high  mortality  in  these  flies  it  has 
been  impossible  to  make  selections  as  might  seem  desir- 
able. The  results,  however,  furnish  considerable  evi- 
dence for  the  foregoing  conclusions,  and  throw  light,  I 
believe,  on  the  nature  of  factors  governing  distribution, 
such  as  spotting  factors,  for  example. 

Fig.  1  shows  the  mesonotum  of  Lucilia  sericata  with 
chaetotaxy  normal.  The  bristles  considered  in  my  work 
are  those  lettered  A,  B,  C,  the  post-acrostichals,  and  A\ 
B\  C,  the  post-dorso-centrals. 

1  Prom  the  Entomological  Laboratory  of  the  Bussey  Institution,  Harvard 
University,  No.  77. 

2 Whiting,  P.  W.,  "Observations  on  the  Chaetotaxy  of  Calliphorin®, " 
AnncUs  of  the  Entomological  Society  of  America,  VI,  2. 

339 


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340  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVm 


riQ.  1. 

It  is  evident  that  these  bristles  form  a  group  of  twelve 
in  four  rows  of  three  each. 

This  arrangement  is  recorded  as  3,  3,  3,  3,  the  separation  into  rows 
being  denoted  by  commas. 

When  one  or  two  of  the  anterior  bristles  of  a  row  are  omitted,  the  row 
is  denoted  by  2  or  1,  respectively. 

In  order  to  denote  the  omission  of  the  second  or  third  bristle  wh«i 
those  anterior  to  it  are  not  omitted,  the  normal  positions  of  the  bristles 
are  recorded  as  a,  b,  c,  from  anterior  to  posterior.  Thus  a  row  lacking 
the  second  bristle  would  be  called  ac. 

Addition  of  a  supernumerary  bristle  ijito  a  row  is  denoted  by  !  in- 
serted in  the  proper  position  between  or  in  front  of  the  letters  denoting 
the  normal  bristles.  Thus  addition  of  a  bristle  in  front  of  a  row  would 
be  expressed  by  calling  the  row   !abc. 

Insertion  of  a  supernumerary  bristle  between  the  normal  rows  is 
denoted  by  parentheses  enclosing  a,  b,  or  c,  acording  to  the  position 
of  the  bristle  from  anterior  to  posterior.  Thus  a  definition  as  3,  (a), 
3,  3,  3,  would  denote  the  addition  of  a  bristle  between  the  first  left  post- 
dorso-central  and  the  first  left  post-acrostichal. 

Additional  bristles  are  usually  smaller  than  the  normal,  but  range  all 
the  way  from  microchaetae  to  the  size  of  the  normal  macrocluetflB.  A 
small  bristle  is  denoted  by  italics. 

The  progeny  of  a  few  wild  females  have  been  bred  and 
counted  since  my  previous  paper.^     These  have  been 


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No.  570]         FACTORS  GOVERNING  DISTRIBUTION 


341 


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342  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol/XLVHI 

averaged  with  those  recorded  previously  and  the  results 
given  in  Table  I. 

From  this  table  it  appears  that  progeny  of  normal 
mothers  show  a  certain  degree  of  variation  in  the  direc- 
tion both  of  loss  and  of  acquisition  of  bristles ;  progeny 
of  reduced  mothers  tend  more  toward  reduction;  and 
progeny  of  mothers  bearing  additional  bristles  tend  more 
toward  the  addition  of  bristles.    It  is  also  evident  that  in 

3  It  is  thought  desirable  to  put  on  record  a  detailed  account  of  these  fam- 
ilies as  they  furnish  in  themselves  a  few  points  of  interest.  This  record  is 
given  below  with  the  exception  of  the  progeny  of  1913-^,  discussed  in  a 
later  part  of  this  paper. 

1913-5,  L.  sericata  ?  =  3,  ab,  ab,  3,  taken  at  Bussey  Institution,  May  6, 
1913,  gave 

11(J(J  =  3,  3,  3,  3. 
1    c?  =  3,  3,  3,  2^ 

3c?c?  =  3,  2,  3,  3.  17  $9  =  3,  3,  3,  3. 

1    cf=3,  3,  ac,  3.  1    5  =  3,2,3,3. 

1913-C,  L.  sericata  ?  =  3,  3,  2,  3,  taken  at  Bussey  Institution,  May  6, 
1913,  gave 

49c?(?=3,  3,  3,  3.  5705  =  3,  3,  3,  3. 

1    ^  =  3,  3,  abc,  3.  1    ?=  -'abc,  a /be,  3,  3. 

1    ^  =  3,  albc,  albc,  3.  1  ?  =  3,  a/bc,  3,  3. 

1  c?  =  3,  a.'bc,  3,  3. 
1  c?  =  3,  !abc,  3,  3. 
In  this  case  I  attribute  the  additional  bristles  to  the  combination  of  fac- 
tors introduced  by  the  male.  An  example  of  this  sort  in  which  a  reduced 
female  produces  offspring  abnormal  predominantly  by  addition  is  very  un- 
usual. There  are,  however,  occasionally  flies  with  extra  bristles  in  reduced 
strains,  a  fact  which  may  be  explained  by  recombinations  of  factors  or  by 
mutation. 

1913-F,  L,  sericata  ?  =  3,  3,  3,  3,  taken  at  Bussey  Institution,  March  19, 
1913,  gave 

24c?c?  =3,  3,  3,  3.  19??  =  3,  3,  3,  3. 

from  a  mating  of  these  were  produced 

92cfc?  =  3,  3,  3,  3.  89??  =  3,  3,  3,  3. 

1    <J  =  3,  3,  albc,  3.  1    ?  =  3,  albc,  3,  3. 

1913-1?,  L.  cwsar  ?  =  3,  2,  2,  3  (the  chaetotaxy  normal  for  this  species), 
taken  at  Bussey  Institution,  May  5,  1913  gave 

55c?(?  =  3,  2,  2,  3.  34??  =  3,  2,  2,  3 

4c?c?  =  3,  1,  2,  3.  1    $  =  ac,  2,  2,  3. 

1    cJ  =  3,  2,  b,  3. 

2<?(?=3,  1,  1,  3. 

1    c?  =  3,  2,  1,  3. 

1    cJ  =  3,  b,  2,  3. 
The  flies  of  this  mating  are  not  averaged  with  the  others,  as  it  is  possible 
that  this  species  may  be  different  in  its  variability  from  L,  sericata.    It  is 
noteworthy,  however,  that  here  also  reduction  favors  the  male  more  than 
the  female. 


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No.  570]         FACTORS  GOVERNING  DISTRIBUTION  343 

general  reduction  tends  considerably  to  favor  the  males, 
while  addition  favors  the  females  to  a  slight  extent. 

In  my  previous  paper  (p.  264)  is  given  in  detail  a 
record  of  the  progeny  of  a  female  L.  sericata  (1912-c) 
lacking  both  of  the  first  and  the  right  second  post-acros- 
tichal  (3,  2,  1,  3).  These  were  inbred  to  the  third  gen- 
eration, in  all  cases  brother  being  mated  with  sister  in  an 
attempt  to  analyze  the  stock  as  thoroughly  as  possible 
and  to  reduce  heterozygosis  of  factors.*    Here  again,  due 

«  Mr.  Harold  D.  Fish  has  kindly  furnished  me  the  following  note : 

''The  importance  of  mating  sisters  with  brothers  for  a  long  series  of 
generations  in  the  experiments  aimed  to  detect  Mendelizing  units  of  inherit- 
ance and  analyze  groups  of  them,  quite  generally  seems  to  have  been  over- 
looked. As  first  shown  by  Castle  ('03),  random  mating  of  the  individuals 
of  successive  generations  beyond  F^  tends  to  produce  in  each  generation  a 
population  with  the  same  per  cent,  of  homozygosis  and  heterozygosis  as  is 
present  in  the  F,  generation,  i,  ^.,  25  per  cent,  of  the  individuals  are  homozy- 
gous for.  one  factor  of  a  given  allelomorphic  pair,  25  per  cent,  homozygous 
for  the  other  factor,  and  50  per  cent,  heterozygous  for  both.  Such  a  system 
of  random  matings  often  has  been  confused  with  the  more  restricted  system 
of  mating  sisters  with  brothers. 

**It  is  evident  that  if  A  and  B  are  an  allelomorphic  pair  the  F,  zygotes, 
resulting  from  a  mating  of  AA  with  BB,  will  be  AA,  2AB  and  BB. 
Further,  if  these  are  all  females  and  are  mated  in  all  possible  ways  with  the 
same  number  and  kinds  of  males,  one  sixteenth  of  the  matings  will  be  AA 
with  AA,  and  one  sixteenth  will  be  BB  with  BB,  One  eighth  of  the  matings, 
then,  will  be  homozygous  and  produce  only  homozygous  young,  which,  be- 
cause of  the  restricted  system  of  mating  only  sisters  with  brothers,  will  pro- 
duce, in  turn,  only  homozygous  matings.  The  remaining  matings,  seven 
eighths  of  the  total,  will  produce  various  proportions  of  homozygous  and 
heterozygous  offspring  and  matings.  It  is  rather  natural  to  assume  that  one 
eighth  of  these  matings  will  be  homozygous  and  seven  eighths  heterozygous. 
This  would  mean  that  the  proportion  of  heterozygous  matings  between  indi- 
viduals of  the  Fh  generation  would  be  (7/8  )*»"*.  Accordingly  one  would  ex- 
pect an  automatic  increase  in  homozygosis.  The  expectation  is  justified  al- 
though the  figures  are  misleading. 

"Dr.  Baymond  Pearl  first  published  the  figures  exactly  expressing  the 
per  cent,  of  automatic  increase  in  homozygosis  for  patred  allelomorphs,  under 
the  restriction  of  mating  only  sisters  with  brothers.  This  article  appeared 
in  the  January,  1914,  number  of  the  American  Naturalist.  It  is  a  correc- 
tion of  his  paper  in  the  October,  1913,  number  of  the  same  periodical,  in 
which  he  states  in  no  uncertain  terms  that  an  automatic  increase  in  homo- 
zygosis in  obligate  bisexual  forms  is  impossible.  When  I  read  the  October 
paper  I  was  naturally  much  surprised,  since,  nearly  a  year  before,  during 
conversation  with  Mr.  Whiting,  the  increasing  per  cent,  of  homozygous 
matings  resulting  from  successive  matings  of  sisters  with  brothers  had  been 
discussed.  Of  course,  the  per  cent,  of  individuals  in  any  generation,  which 
are  homozygous  for  one  or  the  other  of  a  pair  of  allelomorphs,  is  the  same 


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344  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

to  high  mortality,  selection  as  might  have  been  desired 
has  been  impossible. 

A  detailed  account  of  this  strain  is  given  in  Table  II. 
In  recording  any  mating  of  this  strain  the  letter  c  denot- 
ing the  entire  strain,  is  followed  by  Fi,  Fg,  etc.,  denoting 
the  generation  from  which  the  mated  flies  have  been 
chosen.  This  symbol  is  then  followed  by  a,  b,  or  c,  denot- 
ing the  first,  second,  or  third  mating,  respectively,  of  the 
generation  indicated.  Thus  mating  cFgb  is  the  second 
mating  of  the  second  inbred  generation  of  strain  1912 — c. 
This  method  of  recording  matings  has  been  followed 
throughout  my  work. 

Several  points  of  interest  are  to  be  noted  in  this  strain 
but  it  is  thought  best  to  present  the  remaining  data  on 
reduced  strains  before  proceeding  to  a  discussion  of  this 
matter. 

Strict  inbreeding  has  been  followed  in  the  strain  re- 
corded below.  In  no  case  have  there  been  either  cousin- 
matings  or  outcrossings. 

1913-^,  L.  sericata  ?  =  3,  ac,  ac,  3,  taken  at  Bussey  Institution,  Forest 
Hills,  Mass.,  May  6,  1913,  gave 

96c?c?=3,  3,  3,  3.  129??  =  3,  3,  3,  3. 

1^5  =  3,  ac,  ac,  3.  1    ?=3,  ac,  3,  3. 

2c?cf  =  3,  ac,  3,  3.  2??  =  3,  2,  3,  3. 

2(?c?  =  3,  3,  ac,  3. 
1    c?  =  3,  2,  ac,  3. 
4c?c?  =  3,  2,  3,  3. 
3c?c?  =  3,  3,  2,3. 

as  the  per  cent,  of  the  allelomorphic  factors  which  are  homozygous  in  the 
average  individual  of  that  generation.  Because  Br.  Pearl  in  his  October 
paper  referred  frequently  to  the  paper  by  Dr.  E.  M.  East  ( '12)  on  "Hetero- 
zygosis in  Evolution  and  Plant  Breeding.  *'  I  gave  Dr.  East  my  figure  ex- 
pressing the  per  cent,  of  homozygosis  in  successive  generations  resulting 
from  matings  of  sisters  with  brothers.  Dr.  Pearl's  correction  followed  a 
letter  from  Dr.  East  which  pointed  out  the  error  of  applying  the  mathe- 
matics of  random  matings  in  each  generation  to  a  case  where  sisters  always 
had  been  mated  with  brothers.  The  percentages,  as  computed,  were  pub- 
lished by  Dr.  Pearl  for  the  following  generations:  Pi — 100  per  cent.,  Fx — 0 
per  cent.,  F^ — 50  per  cent.,  F3 — 50  per  cent.,  F* — 62.5  per  cent.,  F^ — 68.25 
per  cent.,  Fo — 75  per  cent.,  F, — 79.687  per  cent.,  Fg — 83.594  per  cent,  F, — 
86.719  per  cent.,  Fjo — 89.258  per  cent.  Previous  to  giving  these  figures  to 
Dr.  East  I  computed  the  number  of  generations  necessary  to  reduce  heterozy- 
gosis to  less  than  one  half  of  one  per  cent,  and  found  this  condition  first 
realized  in  the  F^s  generation,  which  is  99.553  per  cent,  homozygous.  The 
importance  of  these  figures  in  work  of  this  nature  is  quite  obvious.  *  * 


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No.  570]         FACTORS  GOVERNING  DISTRIBUTION 


346 


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346 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      i^ 


F. 


from^F.a={|-||«.33.33- 


•        24 

cfd'  =  3,  3,  3,  3. 

53??: 

=  3,  3,  3,  3 

11 

fJJ=:3,  ac,  ac,  3. 

2?$; 

=  3,  ac,  ac. 

13 

c?cf  =  3,  ac,  3,  3. 

52?' 

=  3,3,ac,  3 

9 

d'cf  =  3,  3,  ac,  3. 

1     ?: 

=  3,  ac,  Abe 

2 

(}(J=z3,  a6c,  ac,  3. 

1     ?: 

=  3,  ac,  2,  3 

1 

.^  =  3,  3,  a6c,  3. 

2?? 

=  3,  3,  a6c, 

1 

(?  =  3,  1,  1,  3. 

1     ?: 

=  3,  a6c,  3, 

3 

c^c^  =  3,  ac,  2,  3. 

1     ?: 

=  3,  a6c,  2, 

5  ^^  =  3,  2,  ac,  3. 

2??: 

=  3,  2,  2,  3 

1 

cr  =  3,  2,  2,  3. 

1     ?: 

=  3,  3,  2,  3 

5cfdr  =  3,  2,  3,  3. 

1     ?: 

=  3,  3,  a//c 

2, 

cfc?  =  3,  3,  2,  3. 

1     ?: 

=  3,  a!bc,  3 

1 

^  =  3,  ace,  3,  3. 

from  -4F,a  =  c?  and  ?  =  3, 

ac,  ac,  3.    Pair  segregated  Ji 

July  25. 

c?c? 

?? 

(?(? 

?2 

6 

35  =  3,   3,   3,   3. 

7 

2=3,  2,  a 

42 

18  =  3,  ac,  ac,  3. 

10 

4  =  3,  2,  1 

9 

18  =  3,  ac,  3,  3. 

7 

7  =  3,2,  J 

16 

12  =  3,  3,  ac,  3. 

5 

7  =  3,  3,  i 

5 

2  =  3,  ac,  2,  3. 

1 

0  =  3,  ac, 

from  ^Fjft  = 

c?  =  3,  ac. 

,2,3. 

S=3,  a6c,  2,  3. 

Pair  segregated  July  12;  larvae 

July  25. 

c?c? 

5? 

(?(? 

22 

16 

45  =  3,  3,  3,  3. 

4 

1  =  3,3,  2 

34 

9  =  3,  ac,  ac,  3. 

0 

1  =  3,  a6c 

8 

9  =  3,  ac,  3,3. 

0 

3  =  3,  3,  I 

7 

11  =  3,  3,  ac,  3. 

0 

3  =  3,  a6c 

.     8 

0  =  3,  ac,  2,  3. 

1 

0  =  3,  b,  3 

9 

1  =  3,  2,  ac,  3. 

1 

0  =  3,  ac. 

3 

0  =  3,  2,  2,  3. 

0 

1  =  3,  a6c 

2 

1  =  3,2,3,3. 

^from^F.a={|;3,ac,a,: 

5,  from  AT^.    Pair  segregated 
3,  larvsB  August  20. 

c?c? 

52 

(?(? 

22 

6 

32  =  3,3,3,3. 

4 

7  =  3,2,3 

24 

11=3,  ac,  ac,  3. 

1 

5  =  3,3,  2 

4 

20  =  3,  ac,  3,  3. 

1 

0  =  3,  ac, 

6 

13  =  3,  3,  ac,  3. 

0 

1  =  3,  ac. 

9 

6  =  3,  ac,  2,  3. 

1 

0  =  3,  ac, 

6 

7  =  3,  2,  ac,  3. 

0 

1=2,2,2 

3 

4  =  3,2,2,3. 

0 

1=3,  3,  a 

from  ^F,6  =  c?  and  9  =  3,  2, 

ac,  3,  from  A¥^, 

Pair  segreg 

13;  larv8B  August  20. 

c?cf 

29 

c?cf 

52 

0 

18  =  3,  3,3,3. 

13 

2  =  3,  2,  a 

10 

3  =  3,  ac,  ac,  3. 

6 

2  =  3,  2,  2 

4 

5=3,  ac,  3,  3. 

1 

7  =  3,2,3; 

1 

2  =  3,  3,  ac,  3. 

1 

4  =  3,3,2, 

13  3  =  3,  ac,  2,  3. 

from  ATiC=:f}  and  2  =  3,  2,  2,  3,  from  ^F^.    Pair  segreg 
13;  larva?  August  25. 


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No.  570]         FACTORS  GOVERNING  DISTRIBUTION 


347 


6  15  =  3,3,3,3.  2  15  =  3,2,3,3. 

10  7  =  3,  ac,  ac,  3.  3  8  =:  3,  3,  2,  3. 

11  7  =  3,  ac,  3,  3.  0  l  =  ac,  1,  2,  ac. 
10         12  =  3,  3,  ac,  3.  1  0  =  3,  2,  ace,  3. 

8           3  =  3,  ac,  2,  3.  2  1=3,  ace,  ac,  3. 

7  7  =  3,  2,  ac,  3.  1  0  =  3,  ace,  3,  3. 
5          4  =  3,2,2,3. 

from  ATffil  =  ^  and  2  =  3,  ac,  ac,  3,  from  A¥^,    Pair  segregated  August 

13;  male  died  August  18  and  another  with  same  chaetotaxy  put  in;  larvse 
September  1. 

(fcf       22  (f(f      22 

0  3  =  3,3,3,3.  1  1  =  3,  ac,  2,  3. 

1  2  =  3,  ac,  3,  3.  ,  1  0  =  3, 3,  aabc,  3. 
1          1  =  3,  3,  ac,  3. 

The  record  of  1913- A,  recorded  in  tabular  form  is  given  in  Table  III. 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  consider  the  nature  of  re- 
duction of  bristles  in  Lncilia  sericata. 

It  is  evident  from  Table  t  (record  of  first  generation 
flies),  that  reduction  and  addition  of  bristles  are  both 
hereditary.  It  is  further  evident  from  Table  III,  (inbred 
strain),  that  reduction  yields  readily  to  selection.  This 
eflFect  may  be  expressed  by  making  the  number  of  bristles 
lost  the  numerator  of  a  fraction  of  which  the  denominator 
is  the  number  of  bristles  normal.  We  then  have  a  ratio 
for  each  generation  of  1913 — A  as  follows : 


Fi 


18 
2892 


=  0.006  =*=  .010, 


^' '  1788  "  ^'^^^  ^  -^^^ 


435 
^*  ■  4692  =  ^-^^  *  •^^' 

^4  •  TT?k  =  0.104  =«=  .003. 


It  may  be  readily  seen  by  glancing  at  these  figures  that 
selection  has  a  very  rapid  eflfect.  It  also  appears  that  as 
we  pass  from  Fj  to  F4  the  effect  of  selection  gradually 
diminishes.  This  may  be  expressed  by  dividing  the  above 
decimals  for  each  generation  by  that  of  the  preceding 
generation. 


Fi 


0.055 
0.006 


=  9.16, 


1} 
F2 


0.093 
0.055 


=  1.69, 


F» 


0.104 
0.093 


=  1.11. 


The  reason  for  this  decrease  in  the  effect  of  selection  in 
the  later  generations  is  that  as  the  selection  advances  the 
majority  of  the  flies  become  reduced  in  two  bristles  only. 


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348 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVm 


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No.  570]         FACT0B8  GOVEBNING  DISTRIBUTION  349 

Barely  does  a  fly  occur  lacking  more  than  two.  In  the  few 
cases  in  which  three  or  more  bristles  are  lacking,  the 
absence  of  the  third  acrostichals  or  of  the  dorso-centrals 
is  as  frequent  as  the  absence  of  first  and  second  acros- 
tichals. Why  this  should  be  is  difficult  to  understand,  as 
it  would  be  expected  that  both  first  and  both  second  post- 
acrostichals  might  frequently  be  lacking  in  the  same  fly, 
especially  as  flies  asymmetrical  for  the  loss  of  these 
bristles  are  common. 

A  further  point  of  interest  lies  in  the  fact  that  not  only 
is  number  of  bristles  a  hereditary  matter,  but  their  dis- 
tribution is  also  hereditary.  Thus  from  Table  I  (first- 
generation  flies)  we  see  that  in  general  the  first  post- 
acrostichals  tend  to  be  reduced  more  than  the  second. 
This  may  be  expressed  as  a  fraction : 

First  post-acrostichals  lacking 40.5  _  ^  .  q 

Second  post-acrostichals  lacking       34 

It  is  possible  that  thig  tendency  to  reduce  the  first  post- 
acrostichal  more  than  the  second  is  evidence  of  relation- 
ship to  L.  ccesar  Linn.,  in  which  the  absence  of  the  former 
and  the  presence  of  the  latter  is  the  normal  condition. 
Strain  1913 — A  (Table  III),  however,  gives 

First  post-acrostichals  lacking    __  329  _  ^  . « 
Second  post-acrostichals  lacking      750 

Considering  the  rieduction  in  the  first  post-acrostichals 
separately,  we  may  express  the  effect  of  selection  as 
follows : 


Parents. 
Matings. 

l8t 

post-acros. 
lacking. 

Offspring. 
First   post-acros.   lacking. 
First  post-across,  normal  (2  per  fly) 

A 

0(f) 

^  =  0.021  ±.004. 

AF^a 

1 

|«g  =  0.087  ±. on. 

AF^ 

0 

-S^  =  0M1±.002. 

AF,b 

2 

r\  =  0.093  ±  .010. 
356 

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350 


THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVm 


AF^ 
A¥nb 
AFtC 


64 
346 

60 
190 

74 
292 


=  0.185  ±.014. 
=  0.316  ±  .023. 
=  0.253  ±.017. 


From  these  figures  it  is  readily  seen  that  reduction  m 
the  first  post-acrostichals  is  not  entirely  consistent  with 
the  direction  of  selection. 

Let  us  test  the  same  matter  for  reduction  in  the  second 
post-acrostichals. 


Parents 
Matings 

A 

AF^a 

AF^ 

AFJb 

AF^a 

AFJ> 

AF^ 


1st  post-acros. 
lacking 

2(f)' 

1 
4 
1.5 


Offering. 

First  post-acros.   lacking^ 

First  post-acros.  normal  (2  per  fly) 


8 


482 
63 


:  0.01 7  ±.004. 


298 
193 


=  0.211  ±.016. 


426 

147 


=  0.453  ±  .016. 


356 

145.5 


=  0.413  ±.018. 


=  0.420  ±.179. 


346 


^^  =  0.363  ±  .023 


190 
108 


=  0.370  ±.019. 


In  this  case  also  the  results  are  not  consistent  witti  the 
direction  of  selection,  although  there  is  better  agreeuaent 
here  than  in  the  case  of  the  first  post-acrostichals.  Ibis 
is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the  numbers  are  larger. 
As  regards  the  irregularities  that  do  occur,  I  consider 
them  as  evidence  of  recombinations  of  multiple  factors, 
insofar  as  they  are  not  due  to  probable  error. 

1912 — c  (Table  II)  is  a  strain  that  especially  tends  to 
lack  the  first  post-acrostichals.  Thus  for  the  entire 
strain 

First  post-acrostichals  lacking    __  25  _ 
Second  post-acrostichals  lacking  ""  11  ~ 


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No.  570]         FACTORS  GOVERNING  DISTRIBUTION 


361 


In  the  137  offspring  of  a  single  mating  of  this  strain,  cF^c, 
there  are  23  first  post-acrostichals  lacking,  showing  that 
it  is  due  to  this  mating  especially  that  the  strain  is  so 
lacking  in  first  post-acrostichals. 

It  can  not  as  yet  be  said  that  the  factors  governing  the 
first  post-acrostichals  are  altogether  independent  of  those 
governing  the  second.  That  a.  certain  degree  of  inde- 
pendence obtains  is  evident  from  a  comparison  of  the 
ratio  of  reduction  in  first  to  reduction  in  second  post- 
acrostichals  in  flies  in  general  (Table  I),  with  the  same 
ratio  for  strain  1913 — A.  In  the  former  case  we  have 
40.5/34  or  1.19.  In  the  latter  we  have  329/750,  or  0.43. 
In  order  to  establish  the  independence  of  the  factors  un- 
derlying these  two  tendencies  it  will  be  necessary  to 
obtain,  either  by  selection  from  a  strain  showing  both 
tendencies  or  by  breeding  from  wild  stock,  two  strains, 
one  tending  to  lack  the  first  while  retaining  the  second, 
and  the  other  tending  to  lack  the  second  while  retaining 
the  first. 

A  point  of  interest  in  strain  1913—^  is  the  presence  of 
twelve  small  second  post-acrostichals  in  the  progeny  of 
AFzb  in  which  the  female  had  one  of  these  reduced  to  half 
size.  The  progeny  of  AFza  in  which  there  was  total  ab- 
sence of  these  bristles  showed  either  presence  or  absence 
of  the  same  but  no  reduced  bristles.  In  Fj,  however,  we 
have  eight  reduced  bristles.  The  occurence  of  these 
small  bristles  in  the  progeny  of  certain  matings  is  taken 
as  an  indication  of  recombinations  of  multiple  factors, 
but  the  numbers  are  too  small  to  establish  this  with  cer- 
tainty. 

A  glance  at  the  tables  shows  that  third  post-acrosti- 
chals are  rarely  lackhig.  These  are  normally  present  in 
all  related  species,  while  in  a  few, — Cynomyia  mor- 
tuorum,  Musca  domestica,  Pseudopyrellia  cornicina,  and 
others,  there  is  normally  but  one  post-acrostichal,  and  this 
is  always  the  last. 

Posterior  dorso-centrals  are  very  rarely  absent.  Thus 
in  the  2,273  flies  recorded  in  Table  I  only  one  had  a  single 
post-dorso-central  missing.     Reduction  in  post-acrosti- 


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352  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIH 

chals  among  these  is  79.5.  Among  the  1,206  flies  of  strain 
1913 — A  there  are  but  three  post-dorso-centrals  gone. 
This  latter  is  a  highly  reduced  strain  as  regards  post- 
acrostichals,  lacking  1,081.  This  great  reduction  in 
acrostichals  seems  not  appreciably  to  have  affected  the 
dorso-centrals,  a  fact  which  argues  for  the  independence 
of  the  factors  controlling  the  distribution  of  these  two 
sets  of  bristles. 
Thus  for  flies  recorded  in  Table  I  we  have 

Post-acrostichals  lacking  _  79.5  _  ^  ^^ 
Number  of  FH^         "  2273  ^  ^'^^' 
One  post-dorso-central  lacking. 
For  flies  in  strain  1913—^  (Table  III)  we  have 

Post-acrostichals  lacking  ^  1081  _  ^  qq 

Number  of  Flies         "  1206  ~  ^'^^' 

Three  post-dorso-centrals  lacking. 

Among  the  3,238  flies  recorded  in  Tables  I  and  in  only 
four  post-dorso-centrals  are  lacking,  while  among  the  810 
flies  of  strain  1912 — c  (Table  II)  there  are  13.5  lacking. 
The  lack  of  post-acrostichals  in  this  latter  strain  is  37. 
There  are  9.5  dorso-centrals  lacking  in  the  progeny  of  the 
trio,  cFga,  among  which  there  are  only  seven  post-acros- 
tichals lacking. 

Thus  we  see  that  lack  of  post-dorso-centrals  is  in  no 
way  correlated  with  lack  of  post-acrostichals,  but  is  evi- 
dently governed  by  distinct  factors. 

Variatiois  by  Addition  of  Bristles 
A  strain  of  Lucilia  sericata,  1913 — E,  showed  some 
interesting  variations  chiefly  in  the  direction  of  addition 
of  bristles.  The  mother  was  normal  (3,  3,  3,  3),  taken  at 
the  Bussey  Institution,  March  19,  1913.  The  detailed  ac- 
count of  the  strain  follows : 

c?cf  ?? 

38  43  =  3,3,3,3. 

1  0  =  3,  3,  able,  3. 
F, 


from    ^F.a={^  =  3;3^ab!c,3. 


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No.  570]         FACTORS  GOVERNING  DISTRIBUTION  35S 


C?(f 

S? 

69 

76  =  3,  3,  3,  3. 
0  =  able,  3,  3,  3. 

1 

0 

l=!abc,  3,  3,  labc. 

F, 

from  EF^=Z(J  and  2  =  3,  3,  3,  3. 

cfcf 

S? 

(?C? 

SS 

318 

251  =  3,3,  3,  3. 

4 

5  =  3,  albc,  3,  3. 

13 

61  =  !abc,  3,  3,  !abc. 

0 

1=  lalbc,  3,  3,  labc. 

1 

4=!abc,  3,  3,  3. 

1 

0  =  3,  abcl,  abcl,  3. 
0=labc,  albc,  albc,  la 

6 

6  =  3,  3,  3,  labc. 

1 

1 

3  =  3  (a),  3,  3,  3. 

0 

l=labc,  albc,  3,  labc 

5 

2  =  3,  3,  3   (a),  3. 

1 

0  =  3,  able,  3,  3. 

3 

5  =  3,  3,  albc,  3. 

1 

l  =  albc,  3,  3,  albc 

1 

0  =  3,  albc,  abcl,  3. 

0 

3=  labc,  3,  3,  lalbc 

1 

0  =  3,  3,  3,  albc 

0 

1  =  3,  albc,  3,  labc 

1 

0  =  3,  3,  3,  able. 

0 

l=labc,  3,  3  (a),  labc 

1 

0=!abc,  a!bc,  3,  8. 

0 

1=  labc,  albc,  3,  lalbc 

1 

0  =  3,  3,  3  (b),  3. 

0 

l  =  albc,  3,  albc,  albc 

1 

1  =  3,  albc,  albc,  3. 

1 

0=lbc,  3,3,  lalbc 

1 

0=lalbc,  lalbc,  !a!bc,  lalbc 

1 

0  =  3,  3,  2,3. 

0 

1  =  3  (b),3,  albc,  albc. 
2=  lalbc,  3,  3,  labc. 

1 

0  =  3,  ac,  3,  3. 

0 

1 

0  =  3,  ac,  ac,  3. 

0 
F. 

from  . 

1  =  labc,  3,  albc,  labc. 

0 

1  =  3,  abc,  3,  3. 

rro  - f  0  ^^^  3,  3,  3,  3. 

^•«- is  =3;  3;  albc,  3. 

Pair 

segregated,  July  22:  larvae  July  30. 

dd 

S? 

c?c? 

?? 

191 

100  =  3,3,3,3. 

1 

0=  labc,  3,  abcl,   labc 

25 

43=  labc,  3,  3,  labc. 

2 

0  =  3,  abcl,  3,3. 

4 

3=  labc,  3,  3,  3. 

1 

0=labc  (a),  3,3. 

0 

1  =  3,  3,  3,   labc. 

1 

0  =  3  (a),  3,3  (a),  3. 

0 

1=  labc,  albc,  3,  labc. 

1 

l=labc,  3,  3  (a),  labc 

1 

2=  labc,  3,  albc,  labc. 

0 

l=lbc,  3,  3,  3. 

0 

2=  labc,  albc,  albc,  labc. 

from  .FF,6=<J  and  $  =  3,  3,  3,  3.    Pair  segregated  August  22. 

cSd  52  c?c?  9? 

41  57  =  3,  3,  3,  3.  2         0  =  3,  albc,  3,  3. 

0  1  =  3,  albc,  3,  labc  0        1=  labc,  3,  3,  labc 

1  0  =  3,  abcl,  3,  3.  0        1  =  labc,  albc,  albc,  labc 

A  summary  of  this  strain  is  given  in  Table  IV. 

The  points  of  interest  to  be  noted  in  this  table  are  as 
follows : 

There  are  many  supernumerary  bristles  in  the  flies  of 
this  strain. 

The  number  of  bristles  added  in  the  progeny  of  any 
mating  is  very  variable  and  has  no  consistent  relation  to 
the  visible  character  of  the  parents. 

Addition  of  bristles  tends  very  much  to  favor  the 
females,  reduction  still  affecting  the  males. 

Despite  the  high  ratio  of  bristles  added,  there  are 


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364 


THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Yoh.  :S^x,^yj\S5^ 


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No.  570]  FACTORS  GOVERNING  DISTRIBUTION  355 

nevertheless  a  few  flies  in  the  strain  in  which  bristles  are 
lacking. 

Bristles  normally  present  may  be  lacking  in  individuals 
having  additional  bristles. 

Genebal  Summaby  and  Conclusions 

Taking  a  general  summation  of  all  the  bred  material  of 
Lucilia  sericata,  we  find  that  reduction  affects  the  males 
while  addition  affects  the  females.  Of  the  5,367  flies  bred, 
2,708  are  males  and  2,659  are  females,  giving  practical 
equality. 

Eeduction  in  the  males  is  748.5  bristles,  while  in  the 
females  it  is  only  455.5  bristles.  As  has  been  noted  before 
the  degree  of  reduction  in  the  females  is  increased  by  the 
later  generations  of  strain  1913 — A,  by  reason  of  the  fact 
that  reduction  rarely  goes  beyond  the  loss  of  two  bristles 
in  a  single  fly.  Thus  when  most  of  the  flies  of  a  popula- 
tion become  reduced  to  this  extent  it  is  evident  that  reduc- 
tion in  the  males  would  be  but  slightly  in  advance  of  that 
in  the  females. 

There  are  210  bristles  added  in  the  males,  while  there 
are  343  added  in  the  females.  Thus  addition  affects  the 
females  more  than  the  males.  These  figures  for  bristles 
added  represent  number  of  bristles,  and  thus  no  distinc- 
tion is  made  between  bristles  of  large  and  bristles  of 
small  size. 

I  wish  to  express  my  appreciation  for  the  advice  and 
criticism  offered  me  in  this  work  by  Professor  W.  M. 
Wheeler,  Messrs.  H.  D.  Fish,  S.  G.  Wright,  and  C.  C. 
Little. 


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PHYSIOLOGICAL  CORRELATIONS  AND  CLI- 
MATIC REACTIONS  IN  ALFALFA 
BREEDING^ 

GEO.  F.  FREEMAN 
Arizona  Agricui/tural  Experiment  Station 

Climatic  Reactions 

To  the  worker  who  attempts  to  apply  the  recognized 
laws  of  heredity  to  the  actual  operations  of  plant  improve- 
ment many  difficulties  arise  which  heretofore  have  been 
largely  avoided  by  students  of  pure  genetics.  Color  and 
form  characters  are  but  little  affected  by  the  immediate 
ordinary  environment  and  hence,  for  the  sake  of  simplic- 
ity, are  usually  chosen  by  investigators  of  heredity.  To 
the  economic  breeder,  however,  such  characters  are  of  but 
little  consequence  except  in  so  far  as  they  indicate  phyletic 
relationships.  Of  greater  importance  to  the  breeder  are 
those  differences  in  yield  and  quality  which  are  the  re- 
sults of  inherited,  invisible,  physiological  powers  within 
the  plants,  whereby  each  variety  may  respond  differently 
in  manner  or  degree  to  the  same  environmental  stimulus. 

Those  hereditary  units  which  have  to  do  with  vegetative 
vigor,  heat,  cold  and  drought  resistance,  time  of  maturity, 
chemical  structure,  reproductive  strength,  etc.,  are  as  yet 
but  little  understood.  This  is  largely  due  to  the  difficulty 
of  exact  experiments  concerning  them.  This  difficulty  is 
occasioned  by  the  complexity  of  the  reactions  of  these 
hereditary  forces  with  the  external  environment,  and  also 
by  the  direct  influence  of  the  development  of  one  part  of 
the  plant  upon  that  of  some  other  part  The  plant  at  ma- 
turity presents  the  resultant  of  its  environmental  reac- 
tions during  development.    The  nature  of  these  reactions 

1  Bead  before  the  American  Breeders '  Association,  Columbia,  S.  C,  Jan- 
uary 26,  1913. 

356 


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No.  570]  ALFALFA  BREEDING  357 

is  determined  by  the  structure  of  the  vital  forces  within. 
These  differences  in  vital  structure  may  or  may  not  be 
accompanied  by  visible  morphological  differences.  Such 
cases  of  correlation  have  been  known  and  used  in  selecting 
for  qualities  which  they  were  thought  to  indicate.  The 
much  quoted  example  of  the  supposed  correlation  between 
the  short-haired  rachilla  and  high  brewing  quality  in  bar- 
ley is  a  case  in  point.  It  has  been  found,  however,  that, 
whereas,  in  one  strain  or  race  the  correlation  may  hold,  in 
another,  the  two  characters  are  in  no  way  related. 
Another  case  of  similar  nature  is  the  coupling  of  cob  and 
pericarp  color  in  certain  varieties  of  com  and  their  com- 
plete independence  in  others.  Many  other  examples  could 
be  adduced  to  show  that  the  coupling  of  two  characters  in 
a  given  race  of  plants  is  no  indication  that  these  same 
characters  are  inseparably  linked  in  all  races  of  the  same 
species.  These  facts  have  greatly  reduced  the  value  for- 
merly ascribed  to  gametic  correlations  in  plant  breeding. 
Under  our  present  knowledge,  therefore,  we  must  depend, 
for  the  most  part,  upon  direct  experimentation,  rather 
than  correlations,  to  discover  the  hereditary  physiological 
characters  of  the  varieties  with  which  we  are  working. 
Any  additional  light,  therefore,  which  may  be  had  con- 
cerning the  nature  of  such  characters,  together  with  meth- 
ods for  the  study  of  the  behavior  of  the  same  in  their  rela- 
tion to  each  other  and  to  their  physical  surroundings,  will 
have  not  only  a  scientific  value,  but  will  also  fill  a  distinct 
practical  need. 

As  an  illustration  of  such  a  study  we  may  now  examine 
the  data  concerning  the  development,  yield  and  chemical 
composition  of  forty-four  regional  varieties  of  alfalfa 
which  were  grown  on  the  Experiment  Station  Farm  at 
Phoenix,  Arizona,  during  the  season  of  1910.  In  the  case 
of  this  plant,  which  occupies  the  ground  throughout  the 
year  and  from  which  six  or  seven  crops  may  be  harvested 
during  the  growing  period,  the  climatic  factors  include  a 
long  series  of  variations  coincident  with  the  changing  sea- 
sons.   Now,  since  every  variety  consists  of  its  own  pecul- 


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358 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


iar  complex  of  hereditary  physiological  forces,  each  sensi- 
tive in  its  own  manner  and  degree  to  the  impinging  ex- 
ternal stimuli,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  resultant  (the 
gross  climatic  reaction)  should  be  sharply  different  in  the 
several  varietal  groups. 

The  unequal  effects  upon  the  vegetative  growth  of  the 
different  varieties  brought  about  by  the  climatic  changes 
which  occurred  during  the  course  of  the  summer  may  be 
exhibited  by  calculating  the  place  variation  in  yield.  This 
is  best  shown  by  correlating  the  first  with  each  of  the  fol- 
lowing cuttings  throughout  the  season.  The  result  is  a 
definite  curve,  beginning  and  ending  high  with  a  strong 
sag  in  the  middle. 

TABLE    I 

Place  Variation  in  Yieli> 

Cattingi  1  and  2  1  and  3  1  and  4  1  and  5  1  and  6 

Correlation.  +  .75  ±  .04  +  .68  ±  .05  +  .33  ±  .09  +  .36  ±  .09  +  .58  ±  .07. 

These  figures  indicate  the  presence  of  some  disturbing 
factor  which  reached  its  maximum  intensity  during  the 
fourth  and  fifth  cuttings,  and  to  which  certain  plots  were 
more  sensitive  than  others.  The  average  period  through 
which  the  growth  of  these  two  crops  extended  was  June  22 
to  August  27.  The  fact  that  these  dates  include  the  hottest 
portion  of  the  summer  strongly  suggests  temperature  as 
the  disturbing  factor. 

The  mean  maximum  temperature,  mean  minimum  rela- 
tive humidity  and  the  correlation  between  yield  and  water 
supplied  are  given  in  the  following  table : 


TABLE    II 
Temperature,  Relative  Humidity  and  Water  Supply 


Cutting 


Dates  locIudlDg  Arerage  Periods 
of  Growth 


From  March  23  to  April  23 
From  April  23  to  May  23 
From  May  23  to  June  22 
From  June  22  to  July  23 
From  July  23  to  August  27 
From  August  27  to  October  5 


Mean  Max-     iMeaDMioimum 
imum  Tempera- 1        Relative 
ture  o  F.       I      Humidity 


82.8 
93.8 
103.6 
104.8 
104.4 
102.0 


27.00 
23.00 
20.40 
25.26 
30.00 
25.18 


Correlation 

Between  Yield 

and  Water 

Supply 


—  .09±.10 
4- .05 dr. 10 
4  .40 i. 09 
-f  .21  ±A0 

—  .04  dr. 10 


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No.  570]  ALFALFA  BREEDING  359 

That  the  relative  humidity  had  little  to  do  with  yield  is 
shown  by  the  fact^iat  the  highest  averages  for  this  factor 
occurred  on  the  first  and  fifth  cuttings  which  were  the 
highest  and  lowest  in  yield,  respectively. 

Although  it  was  intended  to  give  each  plot  approxi- 
mately the  same  amount  of  water  for  each  cutting,  uneven- 
ness  in  tiie  slope  made  this  impossible.  The  average 
amount  of  water  applied  to  each  cutting  was  6.28  inches 
with  an  average  standard  deviation  of  1.54  inches.  Now, 
taking  cognizance  of  this  variation  in  the  water  supply, 
we  find  that  its  effect  upon  the  yield  was  only  appreciable 
in  the  fourth  and  fifth  cuttings.  Eecords  were  not  made 
of  the  water  supplied  to  the  first  cutting,  but  after  that 
time  they  are  complete.  By  reference  to  Table  11  it  will 
be  observed  that  these  correlations  in  the  second,  third 
and  sixth  cuttings  are  so  small  as  to  be  negligible,  but  in 
tiie  fourth  and  fiftb  cuttings  they  are  suflSciently  large  to 
indicate  that  this  factor  was  of  some  importance  in  gov- 
erning the  yields.  These  results  may  be  interpreted  as 
meaning  that  approximately  6.28  inches  of  water  were 
ample  for  each  cutting  during  the  cooler  weather  of  spring 
and  fall.  That  too  much  was  not  given  at  these  seasons, 
however,  is  shown  by  the  absence  of  large  minus  correla- 
tions. Factors  other  than  water  supply,  therefore,  gov- 
erned the  yields  during  these  i>eriods.  Hot,  dry  weather 
came  on  during  the  growth  of  the  third  cutting,  but  the 
amount  of  water  supplied  plus  the  winter  and  spring  sur- 
plus left  in  the  soil  was  ample  to  mature  the  crop.  With 
the  continued  high  demand  for  water  during  the  hot 
weather  of  July  and  August,  the  surplus  having  been 
exhausted  and  the  summer  rains  helping  but  little,  six  and 
one  fourth  inches  was  not  suflScient.  There  was,  therefore, 
marked  suffering  for  water,  which  was  reflected  in  the 
yields  of  those  plots  that  received  slightly  more  or  less  of 
irrigation  than  the  others. 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  high  temperature  and  a 
slight  deficiency  of  water  were  the  disturbing  factors  in 


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360  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

the  relative  yields  of  the  varieties  tested,  and  that  certain 
ones  were  more  sensitive  than  others  to  these  influences. 

If  we  turn  to  the  relation  between  stand  and  yield,  we 
shall  again  find  a  strong  disturbance  of  the  normal  corre- 
lation as  shown  in  the  following : 

TABLE   III 

CJOREtELATION   BETWEEN   STAND  AND   YiELD 
Cutting  iBt  2d  M 

Correlation +  .78  ±  .04  +  .55  ±  .07  +  .47  ±  .08 

Cutting  4th  6th  6th 

Correlation +  .54  ±  .07  +  .10  ±  .10  +  .70  ±  .05. 

The  exceptionally  low  coefficient  of  the  fifth  cutting  was 
due  to  the  low  yields  on  the  part  of  plots  which  had  good 
stands  but  were  relatively  inactive  during  the  hot 
weather  and  partial  water  famine  which  occurred  at  this 
period.  On  the  other  hand,  certain  plots  through  their 
resistance  to  heat  and  consequent  activity  at  this  period, 
overcame  to  a  large  extent  their  handicap  of  poor  stands, 
and  nearly  obliterated  the  usual  plus  correlation  between 
stand  and  yield. 

The  data  thus  studied  en  masse  indicate  at  least  two 
physiological  groups  which  are  unequally  sensitive  to  the 
climatic  changes  which  occur  in  the  course  of  a  growing 
season,  and  whose  reactions  were  sufficiently  strong  to 
change  almost  completely  the  order  of  the  productivity  of 
the  {dots.  In  order  to  test  this  conclusion  let  us  turn  to 
the  individual  plots  and  endeavor  to  discover  and  classify 
the  physiological  varieties  indicated  above. 

If,  now,  we  arrange  the  forty-four  regional  strains 
according  to  their  morphological  characters  and  geo- 
graphical origin,  we  shall  have  five  more  or  less  distinct 
groups  as  follows:  Mediterranean,  Peruvian,  European, 
American  and  Turkestan.  The  behavior  of  these  varietal 
groups  through  the  course  of  six  cuttings  during  the  sum- 
mer of  1910  substantiates  the  conclusions  already  drawn 
and  illustrates  the  sharp  differences  in  climatic  reactions 
which  may  be  observed  in  the  several  varieties  of  a  single 
species. 


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No.  570]  ALFALFA  BREEDING  361 

Morphologically  the  Mediterranean  and  Peruvian  al- 
falfas are  so  distinct  in  type  that  any  one  at  all  familiar 
with  the  different  kinds  of  alfalfa  would  recognize  them 
at  a  glance,  whether  a  whole  field  or  a  single  plant  be 
observed.  The  presence  of  yellow  or  greenish  blue  flow- 
ers also  determines  a  variety  to  be  of  northern  origin  with 
mixtures  of  falcata  characters,  which  usually  carry  with 
them  resistance  to  cold  and  drought.  Otherwise,  the 
Turkestan,  American  and  European  types  are  so  nearly 
alike  that  only  an  expert  would  recognize  them  in  mass 
culture.  The  individual  variations  within  these  three 
types  intergrade  to  such  a  degree  that  one  could  scarcely 
assume  to  judge,  from  the  observation  of  a  single  plant, 
the  type  prevailing  in  the  field  from  which  it  originated. 
The  three  types,  however,  differ  markedly  in  their  phys- 
iological reactions  as  we  shall  presently  see.  The  distinc- 
tions, in  this  regard,  as  exhibited  on  our  plots,  are  not 
nearly  so  marked  between  the  American  and  Turkestan 
alfalfas  as  between  these  two  types,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  European,  on  the  other.  However,  in  northern  cli- 
mates where  winter  resistance  enters  as  a  i)otent  factor, 
the  Turkestan  alfalfa  exhibits  greater  hardiness  than  the 
American  form,  and,  therefore,  is  able  to  maintain  a  more 
perfect  stand  through  seasons  of  extreme  frost. 

When  grown  under  Arizona  conditions,  the  average 
yields  of  each  of  these  five  type  groups  present  seasonal 
curves  at  once  striking  in  their  diversity  and  contrasts. 
These  differences  are  exhibited  more  easily  by  plotting 
the  average  of  all  the  plots  as  a  straight  line,  and  the  aver- 
age of  the  different  groups  as  percentages  of  the  total 
average  above  and  below  the  general  average  line. 

In  observing  Fig.l,  we  are  first  impressed  with  a  marked 
similarity  in  the  performance  of  the  European  and  Medi- 
terranean alfalfas,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  American  and 
Turkestan  on  the  other,  and  also  with  the  striking  differ- 
ences exhibited  between  the  two  groups.  Although  the 
average  yield  of  the  European  plots  greatly  exceed  that  of 
the  Mediterranean  plots,  the  shapes  of  their  respective 


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362 


THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [VoL-XLVDI 


curves  are  almost  exactly  alike,  tlie  greatest  relative  yield 
of  each  being  in  the  heated  part  of  the  summer  after  the 
beginning  of  the  water  famine.  In  like  manner,  the 
American  and  Turkestan  varieties  made  similar  relative 
yield  curves,  that  for  the  Turkestan  being  slightly  above 
the  curve  for  the  American  strains.    Here,  however,  the 


CUTTING 

^   3( 
a.   31. 

31 
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o 
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u 

u 
Q.    ia 

It 

IC 

if- 

12 

!• 

f 


AVE.  YIELD     3  f  i'J'LBa. 


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Sf^iM 


Relati\'g  Yield  of  Regional  Vabieties  Based  on  tub  AvEBAaB  of  All  Plots 

AS  100  Pbb  Cent. 

curves  bend  strongly  downward  in  mid  and  late  summer, 
as  if  these  types  were  much  less  resistant  to  the  accumula- 
tive effects  of  drought  and  heat.  In  fact,  it  would  seem 
that  during  the  hot  period  included  within  the  fifth  cutting 


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No.  670]  ALFALFA  BREEDING  363 

(July  and  August),  the  American  and  Turkestan  varieties 
were  comparatively  inactive,  yielding  only  about  eight 
hundred  pounds  of  dry  hay  per  acre,  as  against  more  than 
1  ton  and  a  half  each  on  the  first  cutting.  The  relative 
ield  curve  for  the  Peruvian  type  stands  separate  and  dis- 
tinct from  the  others.  Although  here,  as  with  other  varie- 
ties, the  yield  declines  with  the  advance  of  the  season,  the 
persistence  and  vigor  with  which  this  strain  resisted  the 
summer  heat  and  drought  caused  it  to  gain  rapidly  on  the 
other  varieties  in  relative  yield  throughout  the  season 
until  the  very  last  cutting,  when  there  was  a  slight  decline. 

Disregarding  the  shape  of  the  curves  we  may  now  notice 
the  total  yield  for  the  season.  In  this  respect  the  different 
regional  varieties  take  the  following  relative  order:  Peru- 
vian, European,  Turkestan,  American  and  Mediterranean. 
It  is  here  noticeable  that,  though  the  European  and  Medi- 
terranean varieties  have  similar  seasonal  yield  curves, 
they  are  not  contiguous  in  the  arrangement  based  on  total 
yields.  This  is  a  result  of  a  marked  difference  in  the 
stand  maintained  by  the  two  varieties  which  averaged 
ninety-two  per  cent,  for  the  former  and  seventy-four  per 
cent,  for  the  latter.  In  their  ability  to  maintain  stand,  the 
Peruvian,  European,  Turkestan  and  American  varieties 
were  about  equal,  averaging  92, 92, 93  and  94  per  cent.,  re- 
spectively. The  lack  of  stand  on  the  part  of  the  Medi- 
terranean alfalfas  was  not  due  to  the  poor  quality  of  the 
original  seed,  for  all  of  these  plots  once  had  perfect  stands. 
This  behavior  is  also  in  accordance  with  the  records  of 
other  fields  of  Mediterranean  alfalfa  in  the  southwest, 
which  have  come  under  the  observation  of  the  writer.  The 
explanation  of  the  weakness  of  the  Mediterranean  and 
corresponding  strength  of  the  otherwise  similarly  reacting 
European  alfalfa  in  maintaining  stand  under  Arizona  con- 
ditions is  a  subject  for  further  careful  physiological  study. 

The  recognition,  analysis,  and  calibration  of  these  dif- 
ferences of  the  physiological  reactions  of  varieties  are 
thus  seen  to  become  a  first  essential  in  the  study  of  cli- 
matic adaptation^  and  form  the  basis  for  rational  pro- 
cedure in  the  choice  of  varieties  and  in  selective  breeding 
for  the  improvement  of  the  same. 


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364  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

Correlations 
In  the  improvement  of  varieties  of  plants,  quality  is 
often  as  important  as  quantity  of  yield.  This  is  especially 
true  in  a  forage  crop,  such  as  alfalfa.  Since  nitrogen,  next 
to  fat,  is  the  most  expensive  of  the  necessary  food  constit- 
uents, it  may  be  taken  as  the  measure  of  quality.  Com- 
merical  buyers  judge  alfalfa  hay  by  its  purity,  odor,  color 
and  percentage  of  leaves  retained  in  curing  and  baling. 
The  value  of  the  leaves  lies  in  their  relatively  high  nitro- 
gen content  and  the  consequent  increased  food  value  which 
they  impart  to  the  hay.  Expressed  quantitatively,  the  cor- 
relations between  the  nitrogen  content  of  the  hay  and  the 
percentage  of  leaves  for  the  six  cuttings  were  as  follows : 

TABLE   IV 

CfOEBELATION  BETWEEN  NITROGEN  CONTENT  OP  HaY  AND  PEB  CENT.  OP  LEAVES 

Cutting  Iflt  2d  3d 

Correlation    +  .46  ±  .08  +  .61  ±  .06  +  .72  ±  .05 

Cutting  4th  5th  6th 

Correlation +  .68  ±  .05  +  .61  ±  .06  +  .52  ±  .07. 

That  the  final  value  of  the  hay  is  markedly  dependent  upon 
the  composition  as  well  as  the  percentage  of  leaves  is 
shown  by  the  following  high  and  fairly  uniform  correla- 
tion between  the  nitrogen  content  of  the  hay  and  the  nitro- 
gen content  of  the  leaves : 

TABLE   V 

Correlation  between  Nitrogen  Content  op  Hay  and  Nitrogen  Content 

OP  Leaves 

Cutting  Ist  2d  3d 

Correlation    +  .69  ±  .05  +  .73  ±  .05  +  .42  ±  .08 

CuttliiR  4th  5th  6th 

Correlation +  .67  ±  .06  +  .85  ±  .03  +  .74  dt  .05. 

If,  now,  we  have  shown  that  the  quality  of  the  hay  de- 
pends primarily  upon  the  percentage  and  composition  of 
the  leaves,  we  may  proceed  to  investigate  those  factors 
which  indirectly  modify  the  feeding  value  by  influencing 
the  amount  or  character  of  these  organs. 

The  factors  most  profoundly  affecting  the  percentage 
of  leaves  were  yield,  height  and  stage  of  maturity  at 
which  the  cutting  was  made.   Local  or  varietal  forces  were 


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No.  570]  ALFALFA  BREEDING  365 

suflBciently  constant  to  hold  the  place  variation  of  this 
character  to  the  plus  side  of  the  equation  for  four  out  of 
five  determinations  made,  as  is  seen  in  the  following 
table: 

TABLE   VI 

Place  Variation  in  Pbbcentagi  of  Leaves 

Cutting  1  and  2  2  and  8  8  and  4  4  and  5  5  and  6 

Correlation.  +  10  ±  .10   +  .23  ±  .10   +  .16  ±  .10   +  .46  ±  .08  —  .12  d:  .10. 

These  correlations,  however,  are  low  and  seem  to  indicate 
that  tihie  natural  varietal  traits  were  being  overcome  and 
obscured  by  other  variable  factors. 

Contrary  to  expectation,  the  stand  had  little  to  do  with 
the  percentage  of  leaves,  as  the  following  low  and  incon- 
stant correlations  show. 

TABLE  VII 

COREELATION  BETWEEN  THE  PERCENTAGE  OF  LEAVES  AND  STAND 

CnUinK                                                 1st                                2d  3d 

Correlation    —  .14  ±  .10  —  .02  ±  .10  +  .03  ±  .10 

CatUng     .                                          4th                               5tb  6th 

Correlation +  .10  ±  .10  +  .07  ±  .10  +  .24  ±  .10. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  relation  between  height  and 
yield  and  percentage  of  leaves  was  constant  and  marked, 
except  in  the  last  two  cuttings. 

TABLE  vin 

COBKELATION  BETWEEN  PERCENTAGE  OP  LEAVES  AND  HEIGHT  AND  YiELD 

Catting  l8t  2d  8d 

Yield    —  .41  ±  .08  —  .60  ±  .07  —  .15  ±  .10 

Height    —  .48  ±  .08  —  .62  ±  .06  —  .68  ±  .05 

Catting  4th  5th  6th 

Yield    —.40  ±.09  +  .20  ±  .10  +  .30  ±  .09. 

Height    —  .55  ±  .07  +  .09  ±  .10  +  .19  ±  .10. 

The  sudden  change  from  minus  to  plus  in  these  correla- 
tions should  be  noted.  The  average  heights  of  the  first 
four  cuttings  were  32,  30,  28  and  27  inches,  respectively. 
The  average  height  of  the  fifth  and  sixth,  were  15  and  12 
inches.  This  would  suggest  that  at  or  below  15  inches  the 
mutual  shading  of  the  stems  is  not  suflBcient  to  cause  an 
appreciable  shedding  of  the  lower  leaves.  Up  to  this 
I)oint,  moreover,  growth  usually  takes  place  by  an  increase 


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366  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

in  the  number  of  nodes,  each  with  its  accompanying  leaves 
and  side  branches.  Above  fifteen  inches,  however,  the 
principal  growth  in  height  consists  in  a  lengthening  of  the 
intemodes  and,  consequently,  a  relatively  greater  produc- 
tion of  stem  as  compared  with  leaf  tissue.  In  this  phys- 
iological correlation  lies  the  core  of  the  difficulty  in  breed- 
ing at  once  for  quality  and  quantity.  The  act  of  high  pro- 
duction within  itself  cuts  down  the  quality  of  the  product 
by  reducing  the  ratio  between  the  leaves  and  the  stems. 

This  difficulty,  moreover,  occurs  in  the  composition  as 
well  as  the  percentage  of  the  leaves.  The  correlation  ex- 
isting between  the  nitrogen  content  of  the  leaves  and  the 
number  of  days  required  to  mature  a  cutting  is  shown  in 
the  following  table : 


TABLE   IX 

COEBELATION 

BETWEEN 

THE  Nitrogen  Content  of  Hay  and  the  Period 
Eequtred  roR  Maturity 

Cutting 

Correlation    . 

l8t                                2d                                 3cl 
...  —.33  ±.09             —.30  ±.09             —.27  ±.09 

Cutting 
Correlation. 

4th                                  5tb                                  6th 
...  —.52  ±.07            —.50  ±.08            —.17  ±.10. 

Quickly  maturing  varieties  thus  have  leaves  richer  in 
nitrogen  than  those  which  require  a  greater  length  of  time 
for  completion  of  growth.  When,  however,  we  take  the 
average  number  of  days  required  throughout  the  season 
to  mature  a  cutting  for  each  plot  and  compare  this  with 
the  total  seasonal  yield  we  find  a  correlation  of  +  .43. 
Thus  we  are  again  confronted  by  a  minus  correlation  be- 
tween quality  and  yield  which  must  be  overcome  if  we 
would  make  progress  simultaneously  in  both  lines. 

As  further  examples  of  antagonistic  correlations,  a  few 
instances  may  be  taken  from  the  data  furnished  by  forty- 
three  plots  of  pure  races  of  alfalfa  grown  during  the  sum- 
mer of  1910.  The  correlation  between  height  and  percent- 
age of  leaves  was  again  constant  and  marked.  The  results 
here  paralleled  those  found  for  the  regional  varieties. 
Whereas  yield  was  uniformly  correlated  i)ositively  with 
both  stooling  capacity  (av.  No.  stems  per  plant)  and 
height,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  there  was  also  a  uni- 


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No.  570] 


ALFALFA  BREEDING 
TABLE  X 

CORBBLATION  IN  PUBE  BaCIS 


367 


Correlation  Between 

Cuttiogs 

July 

AugUBt 

September         October 

Green    weight    and    average 
number  stems 

Green    weight    and    average 
height 

+  .76  ±:  .04 
-h  .01  d=  .10 

—  .29  =b  .09 

—  .39  ±  .09 

4-  .42  rb  .08 
4- .44 ±.08 

—  .19  ±.10 

—  .15  ±.10 

4-  .62  ±  .06;+  .50  ±  .08 
4- .22  ±  .10  4- .33  ±  .09 

Average  height  and  number  of 
stems 

-  .32  ±  .091—  .21  ±  .10 

Average  height  and  per  cent, 
leaves 

—  .55  ±  .07  --  .51  ±  .08 

form  minus  correlation  existing  between  them.  We  thus 
have  two  factors  both  making  for  yield,  but  seemingly 
(probably  physiologically)  aatagonistic  to  each  other.  In 
breeding  for  high  yielding  strains  we  are  here  again  called 
upon  to  overcome  by  selection  an  antagonistic  physiolo- 
gical correlation. 

This  brings  us  to  the  following  final  conclusion  which 
the  writer  wishes  to  emphasize : 

In  economic  plant  breeding  one  frequently  encou/nters 
physiologically  negative  correlations  such  as  those,  in 
alfalfa,  between  height  and  stooling  capacity,  height  and 
percentage  of  leaves,  and  between  yield  and  quality.  In 
seeking  improvement,  therefore,  the  breeder  must  recog- 
nize and  make  use  of  these  facts  in  the  interpretation  of 
results  obtained,  and  also  search  for  races  which  violate 
su^h  naturally  antagonistic  correlations  to  the  greatest 
possible  extent. 

Geisteral  Conclusions 

That  the  complex  of  allelomorphs,  which  we  call  a  va- 
riety, may  be  definite  as  both  to  ultimate  composition  and 
organization  is  not  here  questioned.  When,  however,  we 
consider  that  visible  characters  are  only  the  expression  of 
the  reactions  of  the  vital  forces  of  the  plant  with  the  en- 
vironment, we  can  realize  that  the  variety,  as  we  see  it,  is 
not  a  definite  thing,  but  is  a  result  of  two  independent 
classes  of  factors.  Change  either  and  the  result  corre- 
spondingly changes. 


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368  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [V0L.XLVIII 

We  are  therefore  to  look  upon  the  variety  as  a  delicately 
organized  chemical  compound.  The  various  factors  of 
climate  and  soil  may  be  compared  to  different  physical 
influences  to  which  the  original  compound  may  be  sub- 
jected. As  the  chemist  would  expect  reactions  varying  in 
accordance  with  the  physical  stimuli  used,  so  will  the  plant 
react  in  agreement  with  the  different  environmental  com- 
binations. The  extent  to  which  this  will  change  the  nature 
and  appearance  of  plants  is  often  far  reaching.  Cook, 
working  with  cotton,  has  found  that  certain  cultural  condi- 
tions at  an  early  stage  of  growth  will  make  profound  dif- 
ferences in  the  method  of  branching  which  determines  the 
whole  subsequent  development  of  the  plant  and  affects 
materially  its  economic  value.  Cultural  and  climatic  reac- 
tions often  lead  to  error  among  those  who  assume  them  to 
be  mutative  changes  induced  by  the  new  conditions.  That 
these  reactions  may  bring  to  light  sub-races  with  heredi- 
tary tendencies  not  hitherto  called  into  expression  and 
which,  by  selection,  may  be  secured  as  pure  races,  is  the 
probable  explanation  of  many  cases  of  supposed  direct 
climatic  adaptation. 

Thus,  realizing  the  true  nature  of  a  variety,  we  can 
draw  further  upon  the  analogy  of  the  chemist  who  investi- 
gates an  imknown  substance  by  testing  its  reactions  with 
a  large  number  of  known  reagents.  In  like  manner  the 
breeder  can  only  understand  the  true  nature  of  the  hered- 
itary vital  forces  within  a  plant  after  he  has  tested  and 
calibrated  its  reactions  against  a  variety  of  soil  and  cli- 
matic factors.  These  reactions  are  of  interest  to  the 
farmer  only  in  so  far  as  they  affect  the  economic  value  of 
the  variety  as  grown  in  his  own  locality  but  to  the  breeder 
and  student  of  heredity  their  importance  is  fundamental. 
This  is  so  because  they  enable  him  to  classify,  coordinate 
and  interpret  the  experimental  results  that  he  obtains. 
This  ability  finally  must  form  the  basis  of  all  rational  pro- 
cedure, whether  one  be  engaged  in  the  study  of  pure  gen- 
etics or  in  the  operations  of  practical  plant  improvement. 


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TAXONOMY  AND  EVOLUTION 

ByX 

''  Some  passages  in  this  book,  if  taken  alone  and  read  hastily,  may 
appear  to  discourage  systematic  Zoology.  This  is  far  from  my  inten- 
tion. No  one  can  study  the  great  naturalists  of  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  without  feeling  how  seriously  their  work  is  impaired 
by  the  defective  systems  of  the  time.  It  is  not  systematic  but  aimless 
work  that  I  deprecate — ^work  that  springs  from  no  real  curiosity  in 
Nature  and  attempts  to  answer  no  scientific  questions." — L.  C.  Miall, 
"  Natural  History  of  Aquatic  Insects,"  Preface,  p.  L 

i 

Introduction 

LiNN^us  bestowing  Latin  names  upon  animals  and  plants 
was  simply  tripping  gaily  across  the  back  of  a  half  submerged 
Behemoth  and  mistaking  it  for  dry  land.  Now  the  beast  is 
careering  around,  and  in  spite  of  zoological  congresses  and  inter- 
national rules  nobody  quite  knows  what  to  do  with  him.  No 
doubt  when  some  zoological  czar  arises  and  issues  his  fiat  a  uni- 
form system  of  nomenclature  will  be  adopted  and  things  will 
begin  to  straighten  themselves  out.  This  can  only  be  a  matter 
of  time — ^the  past  can  not  be  altered.  On  systematists  to-day 
necessarily  devolves  the  dull,  diflBcult  and  important  duty  of 
going  through  the  descriptive  work  of  the  early  naturalists  and 
emending  it;  so  that  Spallanzani's  derisive  sobriquet  of 
** nomenclature  naturalists''  was  a  little  unjust,  even  in  his  time. 

Whatever  opinions  may  be  held  upon  the  genius  of  Linnaeus, 
in  justice  to  him  it  should  be  said  that  it  was  not  until  his  ex- 
ample had  been  followed  by  a  crowd  of  other  workers  eager  to 
attain  to  immortality  by  way  of  the  back  door  he  had  left  open 
that  the  fat  was  really  in  the  fire. 

Well  knowing  the  confusion  into  which  systematic  work  in 
zoology  was  brought  by  the  early  naturalists,  modem  systemat- 
ists  in  our  opinion  will  be  the  authors  of  a  similar  confusion  in 
the  future  if  some  of  the  slipshod  methods  of  modem  syste- 
matics  are  not  corrected.  Moreover,  a  confused  nomenclature 
is  not  the  least  of  the  evils  which  second-rate  systematic  work 
brings  in  its  train. 

369 


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370  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [V0L.XLVIU 

Systematisfts  with  a  proud  curl  of  tbe  lip  may  tell  us  that  the 
work  is  not  done  now  as  it  once  was.  Indeed,  to  those  who  are 
not  able  to  project  themselves  into  the  future  it  may  seem  in- 
credible that  the  systematists  of  a  later  date  will  be  able  to  find 
much  room  for  complaint  in  the  elaborate  descriptions  and  care- 
ful figures  of  modem  descriptive  writers.  For  the  moment,  how- 
ever, it  €niffices  us  to  point  the  parable  by  remarking  that  in 
1780  Spallanzani  was  able  to  refer  to  the  '* beautiful  figures'' 
and  ** careful  descriptions"  of  a  systematic  worker  on  frogs. 
We,  of  course,  know  without  seeing  them  that  the  figures  were 
not  beautiful  nor  the  description,  careful — any  way  in  the  sense 
of  being  complete.  We  have  therefore  to  reflect  whether  the 
zoologists  of  a  future  generation  will  find  the  work  of  to-day  any 
freer  of  faults  than  that  of  the  past  centuries. 

Systematic  Work.     General  CoNsroERATioNs 

It  is  necessary  to  insist  at  once  that  systematic  work  is  not 
merely  a  question  of  nomenclature,  names  and  novelties.  Sys- 
tematists have  only  themselves  to  thank  if  such  a  narrow  con- 
ception of  their  province  is  very  widely  spread,  especially 
among  morphologists  and  anatomists,  who  are  ready  to  belittle 
the  value  of  the  systematists'  work.  But  science  is  measurement 
and  zoology — if  you  like — is  description,  and  it  is  impossible  to 
dispense  with  the  ^stematists'  descriptive  work.  But  we  think 
it  possible  to  dispense  with  a  good  deal  of  stuff  after  this 
fashion : 

Metopidium  high,  suprahumerals  rather  long,  acute,  arcuate  and 
curved  at  the  tips.  Pronotum  roughly  punctured  at  the.  bottom  of  fine 
furrows.  Color  dark-ochreous.  Posterior  horn  uniformly  cylindrieal, 
undulating  or  sinuous  without  rugosities.  Underside,  scutellum  and 
legs  sordid-ochreous. 

The  phrase  ''sordid  ochreous  "  comes  ready  to  hand  and 
makes  it  unnecessary  for  us  to  go  in  search  of  a  suitable  com- 
ment. 

**This  is  the  30th  memoir"  writes  a  systematist  "on  the 
Zonitidae  which  I  have  published  in  this  journal,  describing  in 
all  about  560  new  species."  We  feel  inclined  to  put  our  hands 
resolutely  on  his  shoulders  and  inquire  if  he  ever  saw  a  cteno- 
phor  swimming  in  the  sea  or  watched  the  progress  of  an  Asierias 
towards  its  prey. 


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No.  570]  TAXONOMY  AND  EVOLUTION.  371 

No  one  can  look  unmoved  upon  the  Hymenopteran  or  Helicoid 
specialist  with  head  bent  over  a  drawer  full  of  shells  or  dried 
insects  on  pins.  It  is  not  that  we  resent  concentration  or  enthu- 
siasm or  even  specialization,  but  the  systematist  has  lost  touch 
with  his  own  science  of  zoology. 

Zoology,  a  cornucopia  of  marvels,  lies  at  his  elbow  full  to  over- 
flowing, but  he  is  unmindful  of  it.  It  is  as  if  a  man  should  use 
the  Parthenon  only  as  a  convenient  place  on  which  to  strike  a 
match  for  his  pipe. 

The  divorce  between  systematic  work  and  the  rest  of  zoology 
is  the  more  regrettable  because  it  is  practically  complete.  It  is, 
we  admit,  expedient  that  zoology  should  be  divided  up  into 
anatomy,  morphology  and  so  on.  But  such  a  division  is  allow- 
able only  when  it  is  expedient,  while  for  intellectual  purposes 
such  a  division  is  and  has  always  been  a  danger.  To  obtain 
facts  one  must  be  an  analyst,  to  consider  them  one  must  be  a 
j^ynihesist.  Between  the  two  there  is  all  the  difference  between 
a  hodman  and  a  natural  philosopher. 

But  our  contention  is  that  not  even  the  plea  of  practical  ex- 
pediency can  justify  the  extreme  state  of  specialization  into 
which  systematic  zoology  has  fallen,  making  itself  manifeeft  in 
the  concatenation  of  such  purely  artificial  characters  as  that 
*'the  third  joint  of  the  antenna  is  longer  than  the  second,  that 
the  mesoscutellum  is  ovate  and  the  color  pink  with  blue  spots.'* 
All  this  simply  makes  one  yawn,  though  there  is  this  much  to  be 
said  in  favor  of  this  stamp  of  systematist,  that  nothing  bores 
him  so  much  as  the  recitation  of  one  of  his  own  diagnoses  or 
being  introduced  to  the  systematist  of  another  group. 

Systematic  work  is  a  withered  branch  of  the  biological  tree 
which  there  is  still  hope  of  rejuvenating.  Treviranus  long  ago 
remarked  that  if  we  once  regarded  systematic  work  as  a  part  of 
biology  and  nomenclature  as  a  means  to  an  end  rather  than  as 
an  end  in  itself,  both  might  take  their  places  in  science.  Let  us 
take  every  precaution  against  systematic  work  becoming  one  of 
those  unproductive  and  artificial  pursuits  which  spring  up  like 
mushrooms  around  centers  of  splendid  endeavor  and  high 
achievement.  After  Shakespeare  came  his  commentators.  Shall 
it  be  said  that  after  biology  came  the  systematists  t 

We  assume  that  the  principal  object  of  systematic  work  is  to 
discover  the  phylo-genetic  classification  of  animals,  for  which  it 
is  surely  necessary  that  every  animal  as  it  passes  through  the 


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372  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.XLVIII 

systematists'  hands  should  be,  as  far  as  possible,  thoroughly  ex- 
amined and  described,  no  dependence  being  placed  upon  a  few 
superficial  characters  usually  selected  from  the  external  parts  t 
That  the  systematist  should  concern  himself,  as  he  does,  with 
the  external  parts,  leaving  the  anatomy  to  other  workers,  we 
consider  is  as  bad  for  the  systematist  himself  as  it  is  bad  for  the 
science;  for  himself,  he  is  doing  work  which  can  only  keep  his 
soul  alive  with  diflBculty — superficial  clerical  work  which  can  be 
"prompted  by  no  real  curiosity  and  attempts  to  answer  no 
scientific  questions,"  and  the  results  of  the  work  itself  is  often 
invalidated  by  the  arrival  of  the  destroying  angel  in  the  person 
of  the  anatomist.  For  a  superficial  description  often  means  a 
wrong  classification ;  whence  it  follows  that  any  zoo-geographical 
deductions  therefrom  are  invalidated;  while  a  careless  descrip- 
tion usually  ignores  the  possibilities  of  variation  and  shows  no 
evidence  of  pains  having  been  taken  to  make  identification  easy. 

Systematic  work,  then,  is  concerned  with  classification,  geo- 
graphical distribution,  variation  and  identification,  and  there 
would  be  no  need  for  this  paper,  if  it  were  more  generally  re- 
alized that  one  thorough  examination  and  description  of  the 
whole  animal  assists  those  branches  of  the  inquiry  more  than 
twenty  loose  and  superficial  ones. 

Of  course  systematic  workers  are  not  the  only  zoologists  who 
over-publish;  yet  they  especially  might  cultivate  a  little  of  the 
salutary  reticence  of  C.  L.  Nitsch  and  Alfred  Newton,  who,  with 
no  discredit  to  themselves,  wrote  and  published  little,  yet  it  must 
be  admitted  by  those  with  an  eye  on  the  extravagant  output  of 
others,  to  the  advantage  of  zoology.  The  words  "res  non-verba*' 
were  the  motto  of  Delle  Chiaje,  who,  like  Nitzsch,  on  his  death 
left  behind  many  important  discoveries  unpublished  and  only 
indicated  in  his  drawings. 

Classification  in  Genera  i. 

The  coming  of  Evolution  meant  for  systematic  workers  that 
no  system  of  classification  would  henceforth  be  considered  as  a 
serious  contribution  to  science,  which  was  not  constructed  on 
phylogenetic  lines.  It  meant  the  final  overthrow  of  such  ideas 
as  Agassiz  held,  that  the  divisions  of  the  animal  kingdom  were 
instituted  by  the  Divine  Intelligence  as  categories  of  his  mode  of 
thought — of  such  fantastic  systems  as  those  of  Bafinesque  and 
Swainson  and  such  strictly  artificial  ones  as  the  arbitrary  ar- 


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No.  570]  TAXONOMY  AND  EVOLUTION.  373 

rangements  of  convenience  which  should  be  now  used  only  in 
those  groups  where,  and  for  as  long  as,  our  knowledge  of  the 
anatomy  is  so  slight  that  some  sort  of  temporary  device  for 
sorting  out  genera  and  species  has  to  be  adopted. 

The  ideal  system  is  now  phylogenetic,  i.  c,  it  aims  at  recon- 
structing in  a  genealogical  tree  the  actual  lines  of  descent. 

Only  those  who  have  attempted  the  reconstruction  of  phylo- 
genetic trees  understand  the  intrinsic  difSculties  of  the  work. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  coming  of  Evolution  has  put 
before  the  systematist  a  very  difficult  task.  As  to  whether  the 
methods  usually  employed  by  him  are  adequate  to  the  demands 
placed  upon  them  we  are  frankly  sceptical. 

Fortunately  for  the  systematist  the  main  lines  of  classifica- 
tion in  most  groups  are  given  him  ready  made  by  the  morphol- 
ogists  who  have  laid  down  the  foundations  trusting  to  the  ''s3n9- 
tematist"  to  fill  in  the  details.  Such  classifications — ^the  main 
phyla,  classes  and  orders  are  of  permanent  value,  because  they 
are  founded  upon  a  combination  of  characters  of  tried  worth 
judiciously  selected  after  a  careful  survey  of  extensive  embry- 
ological  and  anatomical  data. 

Single  Character  Classification 

On  the  other  hand  the  minor  systems — ^the  families,  genera 
and  species — the  realm  of  the  ''systematist*' — too  frequently 
consist  of  haphazard  combination  of  a  few  character  selected 
because  of  their  convenience  in  not  entailing  any  anatomical 
work,  or  selected  on  account  of  the  ignorance  existing  of  any 
other — particularly  internal — important  characters.  Ignorance 
of  their  morphology  has  been  the  main  reason  for  the  difficulty 
in  classifying  the  Coleoptera.  Entomologists  are  especially 
prone  to  give  their  whole  attention  to  what  is  visible  without 
the  aid  of  dissection.  In  the  Polyzoa  the  majority  of  forms  are 
only  known  by  their  external  appearance  and  their  classification 
is  proportionally  unsatisfactory.  In  the  MoUusca  reliance  is 
placed  on  the  shell ;  in  mammals  the  skull  and  the  skin,  in  birds 
the  plumage  are  the  articles  of  faith. 

Single  character  classification  or  diagnosis  by  one  or  two 
characters,  as  zoological  history  shows,  has  proved  inadequate — 
that  it  is  unphilosophical  is  patent  to  all. 

Such  single  character  classification  even  when  practised  by 


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374  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVIII 

the  great  morphologists,  men  who,  being  acquainted  with  the 
whole  of  the  anatomy  of  the  forms  they  were  classifying,  de- 
liberately selected  one  or  two  characters  after  a  survey  of  the 
whole — was  rarely  a  success.  Huxley  set  out  unabashed  to 
classify  birds  by  their  palate,  and  Agassiz  fish  by  their  scales — 
^stems  which  have  now  shared  the  fate  of  most  others  which 
set  out  to  erect  a  classification  on  the  modifications  of  a  single 
organ  alone.  Alfred  Newton  said  that  there  was  no  part  of  a 
bird's  organization  that  by  a  proper  study  would  not  help  to 
settle  the  great  question  of  its  aflBnities. 

The  systematist  who  deals  with  the  minor  subdivisions  of  the 
animal  kingdom — families  and  genera — should  be  as  much  a 
morphologist  as  the  one  who  deals  with  the  larger — the  phyla 
and  classes. 

Description 

We  have  pointed  out  above  that  the  adequacy  of  a  system  of 
classification  depends  in  great  measure  upon  the  thoroughness 
of  the  description  of  the  species  and  genera.  Classification  in 
all  groups  has  progressed  in  just  proportion  to  the  more  exact 
examination  of  the  species  considered  in  the  classification. 

The  history  of  zoological  research  brings  out  this  fact  very 
clearly,  beginning  with  the  work  of  Linnaeus,  the  originator  of 
the  superficial  diagnosis,  passing  on  through  Cuvier,  who  appre- 
ciated the  value  of  anatomical  knowledge,  to  Von  Baer,  wbo 
emphasized  the  importance  of  embryology. 

It  was  not  a  "systematist"  as  we  know  him  who  first  correctly 
classified  Lepas — ^the  conchologists  blindly  accepted  it  as  a 
Mollusc.  It  was  not  a  ''systematise'  who  first  established  Peri- 
patus  as  an  Arthropod,  for  the  first  describer  of  that  animal 
regarded  it  as  a  slug  I 

How  rare  it  is  to  find  in  a  description  of  a  new  species  any- 
thing more  than  an  indication  of  the  external  parts.  It  is  a 
peculiarly  arbitrary  limit  to  a  man's  curiosity  that  restricts 
his  enquiry  to  the  superficial  aspect  of  an  animal.  A  natural 
philosopher  ought  never  to  be  satisfied  with  the  external  ap- 
pearance of  things.  The  wisdom  of  the  ancients  bids  us  **  be- 
ware of  what  things  appear  ";  and  the  method  of  our  modem 
science  is  one  of  close  and  detailed  observations.  In  scattering 
names  broadcast  with  liberal  largesse  upon  species,  varieties  and 


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No.  570]  TAXONOMY  AND  EVOLUTION.  376 

genera,  (systematists  have  sometimes  dropped  into  some  carions 
errors.  Teratological  specimens  have  been  described  as  new 
species  and  most  zoologists  have  heard  of  the  man  who  de- 
scribed as  a  new  species  the  longicom  beetle,  the  head  of  which 
having  fallen  off,  had  been  fixed  on  upside  down.  His  examina- 
tion of  a  new  species  makes  so  slight  an  impression  on  his  mind 
that  sometimes  the  same  worker  has  described  the  same  form 
twice  under  different  names. 

The  descriptive  papers  on  Mollusca  usually  consist  of  short 
descriptions  of  the  shells,  even  written  in  a  dead  language.  This 
is  conchology.  Conchologists  confine  themselves  to  the  pat- 
terns and  shapes  of  shells — ^nature's  medallions — numismatics  I 
Much  of  this  work — along  with  similar  productions  in  entomol- 
(^y  and  carcinology — we  regard  as  positively  flagitious. 

Sir  Ray  Lankester  in  the  article  ** Zoology"  in  the  Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica  (ed.  XI.)  remarks  that  museum  naturalists 
must  give  attention  to  the  inside  as  well  as  to  the  outside  of 
animals  and  that  to-day  no  one  considers  a  study  of  an  animal's 
form  of  any  value  which  does  not  include  internal  structure, 
histology  and  embryology  in  its  scope.  Agassiz,  too  in  his 
famous  ** Essay  on  classification"  wrote  that  ''the  mere  indi- 
cation of  a  species  is  a  poor  addition  to  our  knowledge  when 
compared  with  such  monographs  as  Lyonnet's  Cossus,  Bojanus' 
'Turtle'  Strauss  Durckheim's  Melolontha  and  Owen's  Nauti- 

**But,"  it  will  immediately  be  asked  in  chorus,  *'do  you 
seriously  suggest  that  a  monographic  volume  should  be  devoted 
to  every  new  species!" 

This  is  a  leading  question  which  brings  us  to  the  crux  of  the 
whole  matter,  and  can  not  be  answered  in  simple  '*Yea"  or 
**Nay." 

The  Provisionali  Diagnosis 

The  amount  of  analytical  study  that  may  be  given  to  «iny  one 
animal  form  in  any  one  stage  of  its  development  is  infinite. 
The  result  is  that  in  describing  a  new  species  for  the  purposes 
of  exact  phylogenetic  classification  there  must  be  a  limit  beyond 
which  it  is  unnecessary  to  go.  Such  a  limit  can  not  be  otherwise 
than  arbitrarily  selected  according  to  the  best  judgment  of  the 
fi^rstematic  worker  as  to  how  much  analysis  is  required  to  pl€u^ 
his  new  species,  although  at  present,  miserabile  dictu,  relatively 


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376  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [VoL.XLVni 

very  few  animals  have  been  thoroughly  explored,  yet  in  the  dis- 
tant future,  in  the  millennium,  it  can  not  be  doubted  that  every 
genus,  even  every  species  will  have  been  examined  in  toio  in  every 
stage  of  its  development  and  life-history  as  thoroughly  as  our 
instruments  and  eyesight  will  allow,  and  perhaps  a  whole  vol- 
ume or  several  volumes  will  be  devoted  to  every  animal  form. 
At  present,  however,  it  is  a  waste  of  ink  to  consider  a  future  so 
far  away.  A  more  pressing  duty  is  to  consider  how  far  modem 
methods  of  superficial  diagnosis  fulfil  the  obligations  placed 
upon  systematists  not  to  give  an  exhaustive  analysis  of  animal 
forms,  but  to  give  suflScient  data  to  meet  the  searching  demands 
of  phylogenetic  classification. 

"We  are  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  convinced  and  determined 
systematist  does  not  maintain  that  the  method  of  superficial 
diagnosis  does  meet  or  is  intended  to  meet  the  demands  we  have 
been  indicating.  If  he  reads  as  far  as  this  and  does  not  throw 
aside  this  paper  in  contempt,  he  is  ready  with  eager  forefinger 
and  glib  apology  to  convict  us  of  begging  the  question  that  sys- 
tematic zoology  can  be  ever  anything,  or  should  be  ever  any- 
thing more  than  we  have  said. 

It  is  often  argued  that  the  superficial  diagnosis  of  the  syste- 
matic worker  is  simply  a  provisional  diagnosis  awaiting  the  con- 
firmation of  the  anatomist.  A  plausible  defence  of  the  provi- 
sional diagnosis  is  advanced  by  many  workers  in  perfect  good 
faith  which  it  is  now  necessary  to  anticipate  and  examine. 

This  argument  defends  the  provisional  diagnosis  on  two 
grounds:  (1)  The  advertisement  theory;  (2)  the  recognition 
mark  theory. 

The  supporters  of  these  theories  admit  that  the  provisional 
diagnosis  in  no  way  settles  either  an  animal's  systematic  posi- 
tion or  its  validity  as  a  species.  But  it  is  alleged  to  be  of  value 
and  should  be  encouraged  because  it  advertises  the  existence  of 
a  presumptive  new  form  which  would  otherwise  renmin  un- 
known and  overlooked  in  the  store  rooms  of  the  museum  and 
laboratory,  and  because  in  giving  an  account  of  the  external 
parts,  at  all  events,  the  systematist  is  describing  those  features 
by  which  we  are  more  or  less  easily  able  by  a  superficial  exami- 
nation to  recognize  summarily  the  form  when  it  turns  up  again. 

The  first  part  of  our  answer  amounts  to  a  recapitulation  of  what 
has  been  previously  stated  in  general,  viz.,  that  systematics  have 
lost  touch  with  the  rest  of  the  science.    The  output  of  systematic 


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No.  570]  TAXONOMY  AND  EVOLUTION.  377 

work  and  the  output  of  aiiat<Mnical  and  morphological  work 
nowadays  move  along  completely  different  channels.  The  work 
turned  out  by  the  systematic  worker  is  scarcely,  if  ever,  con- 
ceived in  the  light  of  modem  biological  theory,  is  rarely  couched 
in  terms  of  modem  biology  and  rarely  indicates  a  problem  to  be 
solved  or  a  question  to  be  answered.  It  proposes  distinctions 
the  anatomist  sweeps  away  and  hazards  affinities  the  morphol- 
ogist  laughs  at.  It  performs  work  that  has  to  be  done  over 
again,  and  instead  of  giving  the  morphologist  what  it  claims  to 
give  him — a  sketch  map  of  the  country  he  is  to  traverse — cdl  it 
does  is  to  bewilder  him  with  a  Will-of-the-Wisp's  lantern,  an 
intolerable  multitude  of  slipshod  and  untrustworthy  directions 
that  he  has  come  instinctively  to  suspect.  We  can  not  too  often 
ask  the  question,  why  should  the  work  be  done  twice!  Surely 
it  is  time  that  something  were  done  to  stop  this  tremendous  rush 
for  publishing  provisional  diagnoses  that  more  time  could  be 
devoted  to  the  systematic  study  of  animal  forms,  obtaining 
thereby  sound  phylogenetic  classification,  sound  deductions  in 
geographical  distribution,  valid  species  and  a  less  confused 
nomenclature. 

Thus  the  systematist's  protest  that  at  least  he  ** advertises"  pre- 
sumptive new  forms  we  can  reply  that  he  may  do  so,  but  that  for 
any  purpose  other  than  a  dull  census  of  the  animal  kingdom  with 
a  very  generous  '*±"  to  it,  he  is  a  positive  Benedick  of  zoolo- 
gists, for  ** nobody  marks  him.'' 

The  upholders  of  the  provisional  diagnosis  will  say  that  at 
any  rate  they  are  giving  us  a  description  of  the  external  parts 
and  are  increasing  our  knowledge  by  so  much.  True,  but  by  so 
inconsiderable  an  amount  that  when  the  anatomist  comes  along 
with  his  scalpel  he  so  quickly  disposes  of  the  external  parts 
merely  by  the  use  of  his  eyes  that  it  is  a  matter  of  indifference 
whether  the  former  have  been  described  or  not.  Moreover,  the 
great  majority  of  the  tens  of  thousands  of  descriptions  that  are 
issuing  from  the  press  are  of  animals  so  closely  related  to  pre- 
viously described  species  that  such  descriptions  really  amount 
to  little  more  than  a  recitation  of  their  distinguishing  characters. 

It  is  certainly  useful  to  know  that  Caccabis  rufa  is  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  Perdix  cinerea  by  its  red  legs  and  that  the 
LeporidaB  can  be  discriminated  by  the  character  of  their  upper 
incisors.  But  the  question  may  well  be  asked,  what  is  the  use 
of  being  able  to  distinguish  one  species  from  another  without 


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378  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

being  able  to  record  at  the  same  time  anything  about  its  bionom- 
ics or  anatomy  which  would  give  the  distinction  its  real  value. 
A  great  deal  is  known  about  the  partridges  and  hares,  hence  the 
distinctions  alluded  to  above  are  useful  as  an  easy  way  of 
quickly  identifying  them.  But  so  long  as  nothing  is  known 
about  either  of  two  species  that  are  distinguished  we  are  none 
the  worse  oflP,  if  both  remain  indistinguishable. 

Finally  we  would  point  out  that  of  all  people  the  systematist 
should  know  that  at  present  of  the  forms  he  advertises  and 
describes  so  copiously  and  summarily  only  a  fractional  part  is, 
or  can  be,  dealt  with  by  the  laboratory  worker.  We  are  speaking 
now  of  the  anatomy  pure  and  simple  of  new  species  and  genera. 
The  laboratory  worker  proceeds  slowly,  is  fewer  in  numbers 
and  has  other  problems — embryology  (descriptive  and  experi- 
mental), heredity,  physiology  (descriptive  and  experimental) 
and  morphology  to  attend  to  besides  purely  descriptive  anatomy. 
And  yet  anatomy — ^the  very  corner  stone  of  the  temple  of 
zoology — ^has  to  be  restricted  in  output  because  none  of  the  sys- 
tematists  will  learn  how  to  use  a  scalpel  or  look  down  a  dissect- 
ing-microscope — feats  in  themselves  perfectly  easy  and  calling 
for  no  special  training  or  faculties. 

Possibly  the  upholders  of  the  provisional  diagnosis  will  main- 
tain that  by  publishing  his  account  of  the  difference  between 
closely  allied  forms  the  systematist  is  providing  the  biologist 
with  a  stimulus  to  discover  how  much  deeper  such  differences  go. 
But  surely  it  is  a  strange  perversion  of  a  man's  natural  instinct 
of  curiosity  that  enables  the  systematist  to  rest  content  with 
advertising  problems  instead  of  endeavoring  to  equip  himself 
for  the  task  of  undertaking  them  himself,  who  is  eminently 
suited  to  the  work  and  whose  occupation  daily  brings  him  into 
close  contact  with  them. 

Finally  we  would  point  out  that  the  enormous  mass  of  species 
which  have  been  created  upon  superficial  diagnosis  so  far  have 
remained  unincorporated  for  the  most  part  in  the  structure 
it  is  designed  to  build  up,  viz.,  a  clear  comprehension  of  the 
phylogeny  of  the  lesser  divisions  of  the  animal  kingdom.  It  is  as 
though  a  man  were  to  set  about  building  a  house  by  making  a 
vast  quantity  of  bad  bricks  and  then  to  leave  them  scattered 
about  his  site  in  the  hopes  that  some  one  would  come  along  and 
make  a  house  of  them.  Surely  it  is  an  economy  of  effort  for  the 
systematist  to  take  up  the  bricks  and  build  himself,  what  time 


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No.  570]  TAXONOMY  AND  EVOLUTION,  379 

the  embryologist  and  morphologist  are  engaged  upon  their  own 
special  tasks. 

The  Compabattve  Value  of  Internal  and  External  Parts 

Briefly  reviewing  the  discussion  as  far  as  we  have  carried  it, 
it  will  be  seen  that  we  are  asking  for  sound  phylogenetic  classi- 
fication of  the  smaller  groups  as  well  as  of  the  larger  ones,  based 
not  upon  single  characters,  but  upon  the  whole  of  the  characters 
regarded  collectively,  for  more  careful  and  more  thorough  mor- 
phological methods  in  description  and  for  the  discontinuation 
of  the  provisional  diagnosis.  In  view  of  the  desirability  of  work- 
ing up  sounder  schemes  of  classification  from  the  enormous,  un- 
wieldy and  superficially  known  mass  of  genera  and  species  sys- 
tematists  can  be  rendering  little  service  by  continuing  to  turn 
out  indiscriminate  provisional  diagnoses. 

It  remains  now  to  discuss  in  greater  detail  the  proposal  we 
bring  forward  in  the  place  of  the  provisional  diagnosis. 

The  commonly  accepted  opinion  is  that  while  for  the  classifi- 
cation of  families  and  orders  the  internal  parts  must  be  taken 
into  consideration,  for  that  of  species  and  genera  a  summary  of 
the  external  parts  is  all  that  is  required.  On  account  of  the 
labor  and  diflSculty  sometimes  involved  in  dissection  we  are  too 
ready  to  assume  that  the  internal  parts  in  genera  and  species 
present  a  dismal  monotomy  of  character  which  it  would  be 
profitless  to  investigate  for  systematic  purposes. 

If  it  is  admitted  that  internal  characters  are  of  value  among 
the  higher  divisions  of  the  animal  kingdom,  can  the  systematist 
tell  us  at  what  precise  point  in  the  downward  scale  they  cease  to 
have  value,  and  at  which  reference  need  only  be  made  to  the 
external  parts?  Even  supposing  for  a  moment  that  there  is 
such  a  limit,  we  are  strongly  of  opinion  that  it  does  not  come 
before  the  genera. 

A  genus  is  of  different  value  in  different  groups  but  as  a  rule 
it  presents  so  much  difference  in  external  form  from  other 
genera  as  to  warrant  the  inference  that  internal  differences  of  a 
like  extent  will  be  found  if  sought  for.  At  the  present  moment 
a  genus  is  a  perfectly  arbitrary  collection  of  species.  We  ven- 
ture to  prophesy  that  with  more  elaborate  descriptions  inter- 
generic  relationships  will  be  more  carefully  defined  and  genera 
will  become  less  heterogeneous  and  more  natural.  But  this  is 
by  the  way. 


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380  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [VoL.XLVHI 

A  priori  it  seems  improbable  that  less  variety  will  be  found 
among  the  various  internal  systems  of  organs  than  in  the  in- 
tegumentary or  exoskeletal  parts.  But  an  argument  may  be 
put  forward  that  the  external  parts  in  immediate  contact  with 
the  environmental  forces  would  be  the  first  to  register  change  in 
the  modification  of  a  species.  The  internal  parts  as  stanchions 
and  bulwarks  remain  firm  to  give  characters  to  orders  and  fami- 
lies, while  change  makes  assault  without  and  gives  characters 
for  species.  For  example,  among  the  Asteroids  it  is  said  that 
the  internal  organization  is  so  uniform  that  the  only  method  of 
classification  is  to  take  the  different  ways  in  which  the  demands 
of  the  external  environment  have  been  met. 

But  generally  speaking  a  species  depends  for  its  survival  not 
simply  upon  the  external  front  it  presents  to  its  environment. 
An  animal's  form  cannot  arbitrarily  be  divided  into  external 
and  internal  parts.  It  is  an  integral  whole,  and  variation  and 
selection  may  occur  anywhere,  while  the  correlation  of  variation 
is  a  text-book  commonplace.  As  opposed  to  correlative  variation 
there  is  the  law  of  the  independent  variation  of  parts.  Not  only 
may  variation  occurring  in  one  part  cause  a  variation  to  take 
place  in  another,  but  variation  may  take  place  independently  in 
some  areas  and  be  limited  in  another,  so  that  in  deciding  upon 
the  comparative  value  of  the  internal  and  external  parts  in  any 
group  consideration  must  be  given  to  both  these  laws.  In  the 
Asteroids,  we  assume  that  anatomists  have  taken  the  matter  in 
hand  and  found  that  the  external  parts  vary  as  a  rule  independ- 
ently of  the  internal  which  remain  constant.  But  in  how  few 
groups  has  such  a  precaution  been  taken  I  Is  it  not  rather  the 
general  rule  simply  to  assume  that  the  internal  parts  lack  varia- 
tion and  are  of  no  value  systematically,  as,  for  instance,  in  the 
Lepidoptera,  where  the  Lepidopterists  expect  that  a  classification 
based  upon  the  wing-markings  or  upon  wing-neuration  can  ex- 
press the  true  relationship  of  the  various  units! 

Even  in  those  groups  where  systematists  have  dissected  and 
found  the  internal  parts  valueless  it  still  remains  necessary,  in 
view  of  the  law  of  independent  and  unexpected  variation  of 
parts  for  them,  to  apply  the  scalpel  to  every  new  form. 

It  is  impossible  to  deny  that  the  external  parts  are  often  of 
extreme  systematic  importance — ^they  are  exposed  to  the  light 
and  develop  color  patterns  (although  color  is  usually  an  unsafe 
guide  if  taken  alone),  and  the  external  parts  of  such  forms  as 


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No.  570]  TAXONOMY  AND  EVOLUTION,  381 

Arthropods  and  Molluscs  being  hard  provide  syptematists  with 
a  sculpture  on  which  it  is  easy  to  detect  minute  diflferences  in 
pattern.  On  the  other  hand  we  would  remind  the  conchologist 
that  the  external  parts  are  by  their  very  positions  most  liable 
to  exhibit  lesions  and  weathering,  and  certainly  in  the  case  of 
Mollusca  where  the  dependence  of  the  exoskeleton  upon  a  spe- 
cific article  of  diet  (viz.,  lime  salts)  is  very  close,  to  register 
** fluctuating  variation"  according  to  the  constitution  of  the 
medium  or  of  the  food  ingested. 

But  here  again  if  a  more  common  practise  were  made  in  dis* 
secting  by  systematists,  variations  would  be  found  even  in  closely 
allied  species  making  the  descriptions  complete  and  often 
even  necessitating  the  erection  of  new  genera.  One  of  the 
writers  was  dissecting  an  ordinary  species  when  he  discovered 
that  the  epipharynx  was  so  entirely  different  in  form  and  struc- 
ture from  the  usual  type  for  the  genus  that,  had  it  been  an 
external  character  it  would  long  ago  have  been  formed  into  a 
new  genus. 

Karel  Thbn^  has  demonstrated  how  in  HolothyricUB  a  single 
internal  structure  is  at  variance  with  the  other  indications  of 
genetic  aflBnity.  A  great  many  similar  instances  will  be  immedi- 
ately called  to  mind  by  those  who  practise  dissection. 

Again,  if  systematists  are  convinced  of  the  taxonomic  value 
of  hard  parts  how  comes  it  that  they  need  to  be  reminded  that 
there  are  hard  parts  in  the  internal  anatomy  as  well  which  they 
so  frequently  and  habitually  leave  unnoticed!  The  endoskele- 
ton  of  Arthropods,  gastric  mills,  pharyngeal  ossicles  and  carti- 
laginous supports  are  all  systems  which  might  be  profitably 
studied  by  the  entomologist  and  carcinologist,  while  the  con- 
chologist generally  proceeds  as  though  the  radula  and  jaw  were 
part  of  the  **mush,''  as  he  so  inelegantly  terms  the  viscera. 

Geographicali  Distribution 

The  advent  of  the  morphologist  into  the  particular  sphere  of 
systematics  or  the  metamorphosis  of  the  systematist  into  a  mor- 
phologist (it  matters  not  how  we  put  this  desirable  event)  will 
result  in  .the  annexation  not  only  of  classification,  but  also  of 
questions  of  geographical  distribution  by  anatomy  and  morphol- 
ogy.    How  many  pretty  theories  in  geographical  distribution 

iZool  lahh.,  Bd.  XXIII,  Syst.,  pp.  720-21. 


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382  TRE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol-XLVHI 

have  collapsed. because  they  were  built  on  the  sands  of  an  in- 
correct classification!  The  similarity  between  the  faunas  of 
South  America  and  Madagascar  is  supported  by  many  facts, 
but  the  value  of  Solenodon  in  Cuba  and  Centetes  in  Madagascar 
has  been  lessened  by  the  recognition  that  the  two  genera  re- 
semble each  other  by  convergence,  and  should  now  be  classified 
in  different  families. 

The  Dendrobatinse  also  are  considered  by  Dr.  Gadow  as  an 
unnatural  group,  the  two  divisions — South  American  and  Mas- 
carene — ^having,  according  to  him,  lost  their  teeth  independently. 
Again,  Dr.  Gadow  refers  to  the  Ratitae  as  a  heterogeneous  as- 
semblage of  birds  which  is  "absolutely  worthless"  for  the 
zoogeographer.  There  are  scores  of  such  artificial  groupings — 
the  work  of  the  systematist — which  have  led  zoogeographers 
astray. 

The  result  is  that  systematic  work  as  at  present  pursued  is 
of  very  little  use  to  us  in  the  study  of  geographical  distribution. 
It  is  hopeless  nowadays  for  a  zoologist  to  sit  down  with  a 
list  of  species  and  their  range  and  trusting  implicitly  in  sys- 
tematic work  to  make  maps  of  distribution  and,  as  he  so  often 
does,  to  draw  deductions  therefrom,  for  the  validity  of  such  de- 
ductions must  ultimately  depend  upon  the  anatomical  and  mor- 
phological data.  Moreover  the  study  of  geographical  distribu- 
tion is  developing  new  methods  of  tackling  its  problems. 

We  do  not  consider  it  necessary  to  touch  on  the  other  remedies 
that  might  be  applied  with  a  view  to  redeeming  zoological  taxo- 
nomy from  its  present  artificial  state  and  to  bringing  it  into  line 
with  the  rest  of  biology. 

Such  remedies — for  instance,  testing  the  validity  of  species 
by  genetic  experiment  and  the  intensive  study  of  variation — 
have  been  advocated  many  times  before,*  although  with  little 
success.  "We  believe,  however,  that  the  reforms  in  descriptive 
zoology  we  have  advocated  above  are  the  more  urgent. 

«Cf.  E.  B.  Poulton,  '* Essays  on  Evolution,"  2.  ''What  is  a  Species! " 
and  K,  Jordan,  **Novitates  Zoologicie,''  3,  1896. 


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SHOETEE  AETICLES  AND  DISCUSSION 

NABOURS'S  GRASSHOPPERS,  MULTIPLE  ALLELO- 
MORPHISM,  LINKAGE   AND   MISLEADING 
TERMINOLOGIES  IN  GENETICS 

In  a  review  of  Nabours's  breeding  experiments  with  grass- 
hoppers,^ Mr.  Dexter  makes  a  distinction  between  an  interpreta- 
tion of  Nabours's  and  his  own,  where  I  fail  to  see  a  difference  ex- 
cept in  terminology.  This  is  so  typical  of  much  recent  Mendelian 
work  that  I  am  tempted  to  call  attention  to  it. 

Nabours  describes  a  cross  between  a  female  with  characters  BI 
and  a  male  with  characters  CE  and  comments  on  the  production 
of  an  individual  with  characters  BEI,  He  says,  as  quoted,  that 
the  ''female  parent  gave  at  least  one  gamete  containing  the  fac- 
tors for  the  patterns  of  both  her  parents  (B  and  I)  and  that  this 
double  character  gamete  was  fertilized  by  one  of  the  E  gametes 
which  came  from  the  CE  male.** 

Dexter  prefers  to  call  the  supposed  exceptional  BI  gamete  of 
Nabours  Bcel,  and  the  supposed  E  sperm  which  fertilized  it  hcEi, 
stating  that  Nabours 's  terminology  would  involve  multiple  allelo- 
morphism, his  own  linkage.  (Nabours  uses,  I  think,  neither  ex- 
pression.) Now  what  is  the  difference  between  the  two  interpre- 
tations! Is  it  anything  but  verbal  t  Is  there  anything  significant 
in  the  small  letters  which  Dexter  has  added  to  Nabours 's  form- 
ulae 1  If  so,  what  is  their  significance  t  Do  they  mean  any  more 
than  the  extra  zeros  in  the  expression  1.000  as  compared  with  1.0 1 

Dexter  proposes  an  experimental  test,  that  the  cross  be  re- 
peated. '*If  then  BEI  forms  should  appear  again  and  in  these 
when  mated  to  other  forms  the  factors  B  and  I  should  be  found 
to  stay  together  to  the  same  extent  as  they  before  separated,  it 
would  show  that  close  linkage,  rather  than  multiple  allelomorph- 
ism explains  this  particular  instance.*'  How  would  it  show  it! 
If  we  take  Nabours  *s  assumption  that  B  and  I  have  exceptionally 
gone  into  a  single  gamete  and  formed  with  E  a  zygote  BI,E, 
would  it  be  counter  to  his  assumption  that  they  should  subse- 
quently hang  together  and  that  gametes  should  arise  BI  and  E, 
respectively?  Would  adding  a  few  small  letters  to  the  formulae 
1  Am.  Nat.,  May,  1914. 

383 


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384  THE  AMERICAN  NATURAL 

alter  the  case,  changing  it  from  multiple  alle 
age  ?  It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  one  more  ca 
ious  conclusion  is  reached  in  consequence  oJ 
for  absent  characters  in  Mendelian  formulfi 
Wilson  has  pointed  out  others. 

BussEY  Institution, 
Forest  Hills,  Mass., 
May  6,  1914 


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Edited  bj 
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A  periodioal  for  the  pablioation  of  records  of  original  research  in  heredity,  variatioiti  and  allied  topics. 
The  JoUBMAi.  also  contains,  tiom  time  to  time,  articles  summarizing  the  existing  state  of  knowledge  in  the 
▼arions  branohes  of  genetics.  The  numbers  are  fully  illustrated,  and,  when  the  subjecfc-matter  demands  it, 
eolored  plates  are  freely  employed.  The  Journal  is  issued  in  parts  as  material  accumulates,  and  a  volume 
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3!ometrik:a 

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A  journal  for  the  statistical  study  of  biological  problems,  appearing  about  four  times  a  year.    A  volume 
containing  about  600  pages,  with  plates  and  tables,  is  issued  annually.    Volume  X  begins  in  1914.    The 
nine  preceding  volumes  fonn  a  veritable  encyclopaedia  of  biological  statistics  in  the  fields  of  anthropometry, 
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Prices  <m  book  numbers  of  these  journals  vary,  and  postage  from  London  is  charged  on  back  volumes 
and  single  csopiee.  

Published  in  America  for  the  Cambridge  University  Press  of  England  by 

The   University  of  Ohicasro  Rress 
Chlcasro,  Illinois 

University  Control 

By  J.  MoEjeen  Cattbll,  Professor  of  Psychology  in  CJolnmbia  Uniyersity 

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A  Moatiar  Joanml  MtoblklMd  in  1867.  Devoted  to  tke  AdwwuemmutA  of  fho  Biologieal 
with  SpocUl  Rof orooeo  to  tlio  Foelon  of  Or«»aic  ErotuOan  and  Horeditj 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  DECEMBER  NUMBER 

Tho  Fixation  of  Chftnctw  in  Oxganiimi.  By  Edward 

Sinnott. 
Inheritance  of  Lefl-handedneM.    Prof etior  Frandt 

Samaley. 
Bapplementary  Studlet  on  the  Differential  Mortality 

with  Reipect  to  Seed  Weight  in  the  Gennlnatlon 

ef  Garden  Beam,  n.   Dr.  J.  Arthur  Harrii. 
Shorter  Articlee  and  DiiooMion :  A  Croat  inyolTing 

Four  Pain  of  Mendelian  Charaeteri  in  Kiee.    0. 

C.  Little.  J.  C.  PhilUpe. 
Index  to  Yolnme  XLVIL 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  FEBRUARY  NUMBER 

Some  New  Yarietiee  of  Rati  and  Gninea-piffi  and  their 

Relatione  to  Problemi  of  Color  Inheritanoe.   Pto- 

feMor  W.  E.  Castle. 
•*  Dominant*'  and  "  ReceMire"  Spotting  in  Mice.    C. 

C.  Little. 
On  Differential  Mortality  with  respect  to  Seed  Weight 

oeonrrlng  in  Field  Cultures  of  Pisum  satlTum. 

Dr.  J.  Arthur  Harris. 
The  Inheritance  of  a  Recurring  Somatic  Variation 

in  Variegated  Ears  of  Maise.     Professor  R.  A. 


Restoration  of  Bdaphosaurus  eruciger  Cope.    Pro-- 

fessor  E.  C.  Case. 
Shorter  Articles   and  Discussion:    Humidity— a 

Neglected  Factor  in  Enyironmental  Work.    Dr. 

Flank  S.  Lutz. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  JANUARY  NUMBER 

A  Genetic  Analysis  of  the  Changes  pcoduocd  by 
Selection  in  Experiments  with  TolweoQ.  Pto* 
fessor  E.  M.  East  and  H.  E.  Hayes. 

Gynandromorphous  Ants,  described  during  tte  De* 
cade,  1908-1918.  Professor  William  Morton 
Wheeler. 

Shorter  Articles  and  Discussion :  On  ttie  BegaHs  ef 
Inbreeding  a  Mendelian  Population— A  Cotiee 
tion  and  Extension  of  PiCTious  ConclusioDs. 
Dr.  Raymond  Pearl— Isolation  and 
allied  in  Principle.    Dr.  John  T.  Guliek. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  MARCH  NUMBER 

The  Effect  of  Extent  of  Distribution  on  I 

Asa  C.  Chandler. 
Biology  of  the  Thysanoptera.   Dr.  A.  Franklin  SkoIL 
Shorter  Articles  and  Correspondence :  The  •g»vV"«i> 

Mammals  of  the  British  Isles.   Profeesor  T.  D.  A. 

OookerelL 

Notes  and  Literature :  Swingle  on  Varlatton  in  Wi 
Citrus  Hybrids  and  the  Theory  of  Zygotazis. 
Dr.  Orland  B.  White. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  APRIL  NUMBER 

The  Origin  of  X  Capsella  Bursa  pastoris  arachnoidea. 
Dr.  Henri  Hus. 

Biology  of  the  Thysanoptera.  II.  Dr.  A.  Franklin 
Shull. 

Shorter  Articles  and  INscussion :  Barriers  as  to  Dis- 
tribution as  regards  Birds  and  Mammals.  Joseph 
Grinnell.  Yellow  Varieties  ol  Rats.  Professor 
W.  £.  Castle. 

Notes  and  Literature :  Heredity  aad  the  Influence 
of  Monarchs.    Y.  L.  K. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  MAY  NUMBER 
Eetoparasitesof  Mammals.  Profenor  Vernon  Lyman 

Kellogg. 
Regeneration,  Variation  and  Correlation  In  Thyone. 

Professor  John  W.  Scott. 
Shorter  Articles  and  Discussion :  Tenns  ralntfng  to 

Generic  Types.   Dr.O.F.Oook. 
Notes  and  Literature:  Linkage  in  the  Rilkwofm 

Moth.    A.  H.  Sturterant.    Nabours*s  Breeding 

Bxperiments  with  Grasshoppers.  JohnaDextsr. 


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THE 

AMERICAN 
NATURALIST 


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IX.     Inttmal  BelaUoni  of  Terrettrlal  AsBOolattona.    Abthus  G.  Vbstal  -      -  418 

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The  undeiKiadiiate  coD^gca.  Cha 
giaduate  achoola,  and  the  prafes- 
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THE 

AMERICAN  NATURALIST 

Vol.  XLVni  July,  19U  No.  571 

PATTEEN  DEVELOPMENT  IN  MAMMALS 
AND  BIRDS 

GLOVER  M.  ALLEN, 
Boston  Society  of  Natural  History 

The  particular  coloring  of  mammals  and  birds  is  pro- 
duced by  two  factors — pigmentation  and  the  physical 
structure  of  the  hair  or  feathers.  Both  are  often  present 
together.  In  certain  mammals,  for  example  the  golden 
mole  (Chrysochloris)  and  the  European  Galemys,  a 
beautifully  iridescent  sheen  is  produced  by  the  reflection 
of  light  rays  having  a  certain  angle  of  incidence  upon  the 
hairs  which  themselves  contain  pigment  of  a  character- 
istic color.  In  the  duckbill  (Ornithorhynchus)  the  same 
thing  is  found.  The  peculiarity  of  feather  structure  that 
causes  iridescence  is  largely  developed  in  certain  families 
of  birds,  as  the  hummingbirds  and  the  pigeons  (see 
Strong,  1904,  for  an  account  of  the  feather  structure). 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  discuss  the  use  of  this  irides- 
cence to  the  bird,  beyond  stating  my  belief  thkt  it  is  in 
part  at  least  for  sexual  display,  as  no  one  can  doubt  who 
watches  the  male  street  pigeon  strutting  before  his  mate. 
With  amorous  coos  and  lowered  head,  he  confronts  her 
and,  swelling  out  his  throat  feathers,  turns  about  and 
about,  so  that  the  light  is  reflected  from  his  neck  and 
throat  in  a  sparkle  of  rainbow  hues.  It  has  also  been 
suggested  (Thayer,  1909)  that  iridescence  may  be  a 
strong  factor  in  concealment,  since  from  the  variety  of 
the  colors  produced  the  bird  is  more  diflScult  to  resolve 
from  its  many  tinted  environment  amid  foliage  and 
flowers. 

385 


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386 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIU 


With  many  birds  the  characteristic  coloration  may  not 
be  at  all  that  of  its  pigment.  Thus  the  blue  of  the  male 
indigo  bird  (Passerina  cyanea)  is  due  solely  to  the  phys- 
ical structure  of  its  feathers  which  though  pigmented 
with  brown,  appear  blue  by  reflected  light.  If,  however, 
a  blue  feather  be  immersed  in  oU  and  viewed  under  a 
microscope  by  transmitted  light,  it  is  seen  to  be  broivn- 
pigmented.  The  physical  feather-structure  of  the  adult 
male  is  thus  in  this  species  a  secondary  sexual  character 
chiefly  developed  during  the  breeding  period. 

The  important  point  at  present  is,  however,  that  the 
color  effects  just  described  are  none  the  less  due  to  pig- 
ment, quite  apart  from  the  fact  that  the  apparent  color 
of  the  pigmented  area  may  be  different  from  the  actual 
color  of  the  pigment  (except  that  iridescence  may  some- 
times be  faintly  seen  in  an  unpigmented  feather). 

The  use  of  pigmentation  to  its  possessor  is  a  matter 
still  under  discussion  and  investigation.  In  many  cases 
it  is  doubtless  the  result  of  purely  physical  causes  and 
it  is  quite  without  the  power  of  the  animal  to  make  use 
of  its  coloration  for  outward  effect.  Thus  the  beautiful 
colors  inside  the  shells  of  some  molluscs  are  never  appar- 
ent from  an  exterior  view,  and  are  supposed  by  some  to 
be  in  part  a  waste  product,  the  result  of  metabolism 
within  the  organism. 

The  present  discussion  has  to  do  only  with  the  external 
pigmentation  of  the  hair  and  feathers,  respectively,  in 
mammals  and  birds. 

The  simplest  cases  of  coloration  are  those  in  which  the 
body  or  its  covering  is  everywhere  of  the  same  hue,  or 
nearly  so — as  in  the  elephant,  the  wild  buffalo,  or  the 
house  mouse  in  which  the  hairy  covering  (or  hide  in  the 
elephant)  is  of  a  nearly  uniform  tone  everywhere.  So 
too,  the  crow,  the  apteryx,  and  the  nestlings  of  many 
birds  whose  parents  show  a  more  highly  differentiated 
style  of  markings.  Such  mammals  and  birds,  so  far  as 
the  development  of  pattern  is  concerned,  I  would  con- 
sider unspecialized,  yet  it  does  not  follow  that  in  this 


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No.  571]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  387' 

respect  they  are  also  primitive,  though  in  most  cases  I 
venture  to  think  this 'may  be  true.    The  uniformity  of 
plumage  is  probably  a  derived  condition  in  such  a  species 
as  the  Cuban  blackbird  (Holoquiscalus  assimilis)  in  which 
the  duller  colored  females  have  yet  a  yellow  patch  at  the 
bend  of  the  wing,  a  style  of  marking  widespread  among 
allied  forms.    The  adult  males,  however,  have  lost  this 
and  are  wholly  black.    Gadow  as  well  as  Keeler  (1893) 
conclude  that  among  related  species  in  which  there  is  a 
tendency  to  differentiation  of  the  coloring  the  end  result 
of  the  stages   through  which  the  species  may  pass  is  the 
production  of  a  wholly  black  bird.    In  general  a  wholly 
black  condition  is  no  doubt  to  be  considered  as  a  derived 
rather  than  a  primitive  state  among  birds  whereas  a  uni- 
formly dull  plumage  of  a  brownish  or  grayish  tone  is 
probably  in  most  cases  primitive.    Among  mammals  the 
same  is  probably  also  true,  for  in  both  the  black  condi- 
tion indicates  either  an  excessive  production  of  the  black 
over  other  associated  pigments,  or  a  loss  of  the  power  to 
produce  the  latter,  whereas  the  neutral  gray  or  brownish 
coloring  is  due  to  a  more  even  mixture  of  such  pigments. 
As  pointed  out  by  Professor  W.  E.  Castle,  the  '  kicked  ^^ 
pattern  of  the  hairs  of  mammals  is  probably  primitive^ 
and  it  is  certainly  very  widespread.   It  is  well  illustrated,. 
for  example,  by  the  house  mouse  {Mus  musculus)  or  the 
wild  guinea-pig  (Cavia),  in  which  three  separate  pig- 
ments occur  as  granules  in  the  individual  hairs — yellow, 
chocolate,  and  black.    These  three  in  their  normal  mix- 
ture produce  a  neutral  gray  tint — mouse  color — and  an 
examination  of  this  type  of  coat  usually  shows  that  some 
hairs  are  wholly  black,  others  dark  at  base  barred  with 
black  and  yellowish  near  the  tip. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  patterns  may  be  developed 
from  a  uniformly  tinted  covering  of  hair  or  feathers :  (1) 
by  a  local  change  in  the  relation  of  the  associated  pig- 
ments so  that  in  certain  areas  only  one  or  two  sorts  are 
produced  instead  of  three,  or  only  one ;  (2)  by  a  failure  to 


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888  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLYIII 

develop  pigment  at  all  in  certain  places,  so  that  a  white 
or  unpigmented  area  is  produced. 

It  is  not  rare  among  mammals  to  find  that  one  or  more 
of  the  characteristic  sorts  of  pigments  are  not  produced 
in  certain  individuals  and  probably  the  factor  or  factors 
for  these  are  lost  altogether  from  the  somatic  and  sex 
cells  alike.  Such  variations  may  be  perpetuated  through 
inbreeding  and  so  no  doubt  have  arisen  sundry  domestic 
color  varieties  of  animals  and  plants.  For  example,  in 
the  course  of  experiments  with  color  varieties  of  the 
house  mouse  (carried  on  some  years  since  with  Professor 
W.  E.  Castle)  we  found  that  the  chocolate-colored  mice 
which  we  bred  as  extracted  recessives  from  black  mice, 
contained  only  chocolate  pigment  in  their  hair,  whereas 
in  the  black  parents  both  black  and  chocolate  pigments 
were  present,  but  the  black  masked  a  chocolate  pigment. 
Moreover,  the  chocolate  mice  always  bred  true  to  that 
color,  but  if  bred  back  to  the  black  parents,  gave  black 
young  or  both  black  and  chocolate  in  Mendelian  propor- 
tions, according  to  the  nature  of  the  matings.  The  inter- 
esting point  here  is  that  the  chocolate  mouse  once  pro- 
duced, through  the  loss  of  its  black-and-gray-pigment- 
potentiality,  can  transmit  no  other  pigment  character  but 
the  chocolate.  What  causes  the  occasional  production  of 
an  individual  in  which  one  or  more  of  the  characteristic 
sorts  of  pigment  is  absolutely  lacking  is  still  unexplained. 
Nevertheless  it  is  of  frequent  occurrence  not  only  among 
domesticated  species,  in  which  the  natural  conditions  of 
life  are  so  greatly  modified,  but  also  in  species  in  a  state 
of  nature. 

A  skunk  normally  marked,  but  chocolate  instead  of 
black,  a  raccoon  likewise  of  normal  pattern  but  the  pig- 
mented areas  yellow,  are  merely  examples  of  the  drop- 
ping out  of  the  factor  for  black  pigment  from  the  normal 
combination  of  the  two.  Such  specimens  are  of  occa- 
sional occurrence,  and  examples  are  in  the  museum  of  the 
Boston  Society  of  Natural  History.  Similarly  are  pro- 
duced red  woodchucks  or  muskrats,  or  wholly  yellow  field 


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No.  571]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  389 

mice  (Microtus).  Melanism  commonly  results  through 
an  excess  of  black  pigment  which  may  mask  a  second 
pigment.  Thus  the  black  hairs  of  the  black  variety  of 
fancy  mouse  commonly  contain  a  considerable  amount  of 
chocolate  pigment  as  well,  and  so  of  the  hairs  of  the 
black-appearing  skunk.  A  black  mouse  thus  does  not 
contain  the  yellow  pigment,  while  the  chocolate  pigment 
is  largely  masked  in  general  view  by  the  black.  In  other 
cases  it  may  be  that  black  pigment  alone  is  present. 

It  is  probable  that  many  cases  of  dichromatism  among 
animals  are  explicable  as  similar  cases  in  which  one  or 
other  of  the  pigments  normally  present  becomes  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree  inactive.  Thus  red  forms  of  certain 
blackish  or  dull-colored  bats  {e.  g.,  the  small  Molossus  of 
Cuba)  are  apparently  the  result  of  the  dropping  out  of 
the  factor  for  black  pigment  or  its  great  reduction.  The 
red  and  gray  phases  of  the  screech  owl  {Otus  asio)  are 
probably  also  explicable  as  a  similar  phenomenon. 

It  is  only  when  this  inactivity  of  one  or  more  of  the 
pigment  factors  occurs  locally  on  the  body  that  a  definite 
color  pattern  is  produced,  in  which  neighboring  areas  of 
the  body  are  of  contrasting  hues.  As  an  example  may  be 
cited  the  variegated  guinea-pigs,  whose  monotone  ances- 
tors are  still  abundant  in  a  wild  state  in  South  America. 
Professor  Castle,  through  his  studies  of  these  patterns 
in  guinea-pigs,  first  suggested  to  me  in  1903  that  there 
were  definite  areas  of  the  body  which,  though  contiguous, 
are  independent  of  each  other  in  their  pigment-producing 
capacity.  In  this  suggestion  lies  the  key  to  the  chief 
investigation  of  this  paper,  namely,  the  defining  of  these 
areas,  and  a  study  of  their  behavior  in  the  development  of 
pattern  by  the  second  of  the  two  methods  previously 
given — that  is,  through  the  failure  of  pigment  to  develop, 
so  that  white  or  colorless  areas  result.  This  condition  of 
partial  albinism  is  not  uncommon  among  animals  which 
in  their  normal  condition  are  completely  pigmented.  In 
domestic  species  it  is  very  general  and  in  them  tends  to  be 
preserved.    It  also  occurs  normally  in  the  shape  of  defi- 


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390  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHl 

nite  white  markings  in  the  patterns  of  many  mammals 
and  birds.  Magazines  of  natural  history  abound  with 
instances  of  total  or  of  partial  albinism  among  mammals 
and  birds,  either  of  domesticated  or  of  wild  species. 
Some  writers  have  even  recognized  the  fact  that  such 
white  markings  tend  to  occur  in  certain  parts  of  the 
body,  as  at  the  tip  of  the  tail  or  on  the  forehead.  Darwin 
speaks  of  the  white  forehead  spot  or  star,  and  the  white . 
feet  so  common  among  horses,  and  implies  that  such 
markings  must  be  of  some  significance.  His  statement 
on  hearsay  that  white-marked  horses  are  more  suscep- 
tible to  poisoning  from  noxious  herbs  is,  however,  un- 
corroborated. In  1882,  W.  H.  Brewer  gathered  a  number 
of  statistics  as  to  the  presence  of  white  marks  in  horses 
and  cows,  but  reached  no  conclusion.  He  could  find  no 
necessary  correlation  between  the  presence  or  absence 
of  white  spots  in  forehead  and  feet,  though  it  appeared 
that  white  marks  might  be  more  frequent  on  one  side  of 
the  body  than  the  other.  But  the  tentative  conclusion 
that  such  animals  habitually  reclined  on  the  side  showing 
the  more  white,  is  begging  the  question. 

As  briefly  stated  in  my  paper  of  1904,  the  important 
thing  is  not  that  white  tends  to  appear  at  certain  places, 
but  the  converse,  that  pigment  production  is  more  intense 
at  certain  definite  centers  on  the  body  and  the  occurrence 
of  white  or  pigmentless  areas  is  due  to  the  restriction  of 
pigment  formation  at  the  periphery  of  these  centers,  so 
that  white  occurs  at  their  extremities  or  as  breaks  b<^- 
tween  contiguous  color  patches. 

In  mammals  and  birds  these  centers  are  typically  five 
on  each  side  of  the  body,  and  a  median  one  on  the  fore- 
head. They  appear  to  be  homologous  in  both  groups, 
though  in  different  species  they  show  varying  degrees  of 
modification  in  their  behavior  and  development.  When 
a  reduction  of  the  pigment  areas  occurs,  the  appearance 
is  as  it  were  a  shrinking  of  the  particular  color  patch 
toward  its  definite  center.  The  reduction  may  vary  to 
any  degree,  from  that  condition  in  which  the  break 


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No.  571]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  391 

between  two  adjacent  patches  is  merely  indicated  by  a 
white  streak  to  that  in  which  it  is  reduced  to  a  small  spot 
of  pigment,  or  to  zero,  when  the  entire  patch  drops  out, 
leaving  a  white  area.  These  patches  are  wholly  independ- 
ent of  each  other  in  the  extent  to  which  they  may  be 
developed,  so  that  a  particular  patch  may  be  quite  want- 
ing on  one  side  of  the  body,  while  its.  fellow  of  the  oppo- 
site side  is  completely  developed.  Nevertheless,  there  is 
often  a  marked  tendency  to  bilateral  synmietry  in  such 
reduction.  From  a  study  of  partial  albinos  in  which  the 
pigment  reduction  is  considerable,  the  location  of  the 
ultimate  centers  of  these  patches  becomes  possible  as  well 
as  the  determination  of  their  normal  extent.  I  have 
studied  several  domesticated  species  in  which  white 
marks  are  common,  with  the  results  briefly  detailed  below. 
When  all  the  centers  are  fully  developed  the  animal  is 
completely  pigmented;  when  none  is  developed,  it  is  a 
total  albino.  Between  these  extremes  may  be  found  every 
conceivable  degree  of  development.  In  an  ideal  case  in 
which  each  center  is  slightly  reduced  so  as  to  be  circum- 
scribed by  white,  the  animal  would  have  a  dark  coronal 
or  crown  patch  and  a  series  of  five  patches  on  each  side 
separated  by  a  median  dorsal  and  a  median  ventral 
stripe.  The  anteriormost  of  the  lateral  patches  center  at 
the  base  of  each  ear,  and  each  in  its  greatest  development 
covers  the  side  of  the  head  from  muzzle  to  behind  the 
ear.  These  I  have  called  the  aural  or  ear  patches;  the 
next  posterior  are  the  two  neck  or  nuchal  patches  each 
of  which  pigments  its  proper  side  of  the  neck,  and  extends 
from  behind  the  ear  to  the  shoulder  and  anterior  edge  of 
the  foreleg.  When  much  reduced  the  patch,  as  it  were, 
contracts  to  a  smaU  area  on  each  side  of  the  neck,  varying 
slightly  in  its  location  among  different  species.  Posterior 
to  these  come  the  scapular  or  shoulder  patches  one  on 
each  side  of  the  body.  Each  pigments  the  shoulder  area 
and  foreleg,  except  (usually)  the  front  edge  of  the  upper 
part  of  that  member.  This  patch  shows  interesting  slight 
variations  in  the  extent  over  which  it  spreads  in  different 


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392  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

species.  Centering  nearly  at  the  lower  part  of  the  back 
are  the  pleural  or  side  patches,  each  of  which  pigments 
the  area  from  the  shoulder  to  the  lumbar  region  and  ante- 
rior part  of  the  hind  leg  of  either  side.  Last  of  all,  the 
two  sacral  or  rump  patches,  each  of  which  on  its  respect- 
ive side  pigments  the  buttocks  and  tail.  In  most  species 
these  two  patches  are  so  closely  associated  that  they  tend 
to  remain  fused  dorsomedially,  so  as  to  give  the  appear- 
ance, when  reduced,  of  a  single  median  patch  at  the  base 
of  the  tail.  Their  frequent  bilaterality,  however,  indi- 
cates the  dual  origin  of  such  median  patches.  Each  of 
the  lateral  patches  in  its  complete  development  extends 
from  the  mid-dorsal  to  the  mid-ventral  line  or  those  of 
opposite  sides  may  overlap  slightly.  Reduction  usually 
first  appears  mid-ventrally. 

It  is  probable  that  the  retinas  should  also  be  considered 
as  an  additional  pair  of  patches,  since  morphologically 
the  eye  is  of  dermal  origin,  and  there  is  sometimes  seen 
a  tendency  to  the  formation  of  a  small  circumorbital 
patch,  which  appears  to  break  from  the  ear  patch  when 
this  is  largely  reduced. 

Pocock  (1907)  has  pointed  out  that  in  black-and-tan 
dogs  the  tan  appears  about  the  muzzle,  along  the  sides 
and  on  the  limbs,  while  the  blacker  portions  are  more 
dorsal.  It  may  be  added  that  in  tricolor  hounds,  in  which 
the  several  primary  patches  are  reduced,  these  are  often 
tan  color  at  their  several  peripheries  and  black  centrally. 
In  both  cases,  the  explanation  is  simply  that  pigment 
formation  is  less  intense  the  farther  away  from  the  pri- 
mary centers. 

The  reason  of  the  division  of  the  body  surface  into 
these  independent  areas  of  pigmentation  does  not  here 
concern  me.  It  is  no  doubt  the  result  of  physiological 
causes,  and  it  is  rather  suggestive  that  the  several  patches 
correspond  externally  to  important  nerve  centers  or 
groups  of  nerves.  Thus  the  eye  pigment  corresponds  to 
the  optic  nerve,  the  aural  patch  to  the  auditory  nerve,  so 
that  these  two  great  external  sense  organs  of  the  head 
have  each  their  corresponding  pigment  patch.    The  neck 


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No.  571] 


PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT 


393 


patch  corresponds  with  the  group  of  cervical  nerves,  the 
shoulder  patch  with  the  brachial  plexus,  the  side  patch 
with  the  nerves  of  the  trunk,  and  the  rump  patch  with  the 
sacral  plexus.  It  may  be  further  suggested  that  the 
median  crown  patch  of  the  head  corresponds  to  the  pineal 
eye,  a  suggestion  that  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  it 
is  more  or  less  obsolete  in  mammals,  just  as  the  pineal 
gland  is  vestigial,  whereas  in  birds,  which  are  more 
reptilian  in  structure,  the  patch  is  usually  well  defined. 
At  all  events  it  is  a  median  unpaired  structure,  as  are  the 
pineal  and  the  interparietal  bone. 

Turning  now  to  a  more  detailed  consideration  of  these 
pigment  patches  in  sundry  species  of  animals,  we  may 
first  examine  a  series  of  diagrams  (Figs.  1-15)  of  the 


Figs.  1-7.     Diagrams  Illustrating  Pigmentation  in  the  Domestic  Dog. 
Figs.  8-15.    Diagrams  Illustrating  Pigmentation  in  the  Domestic  Dog. 


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^ 


394  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 

domestic  dog,  all  of  which  are  carefully  drawn  from 
photographs  or  from  living  animals,  and  are  selected 
from  a  great  number  to  show  various  conditions  in  the 
reduction  of  the  pigment  patches.  In  these  and  the  other 
diagrams  the  black  portions  represent  pigmented  areas, 
irrespective  of  the  actual  colors. 

For  convenience  I  have  called  the  white  stripes  demark- 
ing  these  chief  or  primary  patches,  *' primary  breaks/' 
since  thiey  are  the  first  indications  of  a  decrease  in  pig- 
mentation such  that  two  adjoining  patches  no  longer 
meet.  Secondary  or  further  breaks  result  in  a  general 
disintegration  of  these  primary  pigment  patches,  and  are 
apparently  more  irregular  in  nature,  though  often  they 
follow  certain  fairly  well  defined  lines.  The  first  of  the 
primary  breaks  generally  occur  as  white  patches  on  the 
chest  or  belly,  about  in  the  median  line.  These  are  not 
shown  in  the  dagrams,  but  in  most  cases  should  be  under- 
stood as  present.  In  Fig.  1  the  pigment  areas  show  a 
beginning  in  reduction.  The  two  aural  patches  have 
become  separated  and  their  failure  to  spread  to  the 
normal  limit  in  the  median  line  has  resulted  in  a  white 
nose  stripe.  A  short  transverse  white  marking  indicates 
a  separation  of  the  neck  patch  at  its  anterior  edge  from 
the  ear  patch.  Elsewhere  the  various  patches  are  contig- 
uous; but  the  extremities  of  th6  limbs  and  tail  are  pig- 
mentless,  as  if  pigment  had  failed  to  spread  to  the  tips  of 
these  members  in  its  reduction.  In  Fig.  2  the  same 
primary  break  between  the  ear  patches  is  present,  and  in 
dogs  it  is  one  of  the  first  and  most  frequent  to  appear. 
The  sam^  shrinkage  of  pigment  from  the  extremities  is 
also  seen.  The  neck  patch  of  the  left-hand  side,  however, 
has  completely  dropped  out,  and  its  fellow  of  the  right- 
hand  side  is  reduced  posteriorly  so  that  it  fails  to  reach 
the  shoulder  patch.  Thus  a  white  collar  is  formed.  It 
is  also  interesting  to  see  that  at  its  anterior  end  a  distinct 
constriction  is  present  where  the  neck  patch  joins  the  ear 
patch  of  the  right  side.  Fig.  3  shows  a  somewhat  similar 
condition  but  the  neck  patch  of  the  right  side  as  well  as 


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No.  571]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  395 

the  ear  patch  is  missing,  while  those  of  the  left  side  are 
fnlly  developed.  In  Fig.  4  both  neck  patches  are  missing, 
so  that  a  white  collar  is  formed.  In  dogs  the  neck  patch 
is  usually  the  first  to  drop  out  altogether,  so  that  a  white- 
collared  dog  is  of  very  frequent  occurrence.  In  fox 
hounds  this  patch  is  shown  unusually  well,  either  wholly 
or  partly  separated  from  neighboring  patches.  The  sep- 
aration of  the  ear  patches,  wholly  or  partially,  so  as  to 
produce  a  white  blaze  or  line  in  the  middle  of  the  forehead 
is  about  as  frequent.  In  Figs.  8  and  12  a  single  neck  spot 
only  (as  it  happens,  in  one  on  the  right,  in  the  other  on 
the  left  side)  is  still  present  but  so  slightly  developed  as 
to  be  only  a  small  island  of  pigment  wholly  separate  from 
the  neighboring  patches. 

The  crown  spot  is  so  often  present  in  dogs  as  a  little 
oval  island,  always  on  the  top  of  the  head  about  in  line 
with  the  anterior  bases  of  the  ears  (Fig.  4)  that  I  am 
convinced  it  is  a  primary  patch.  It  is  common  in  bull 
dogs  and  bull  terriers,  and  in  other  breeds  is  often  seen 
but  is  so  commonly  not  indicated  at  all,  that  it  seems 
probable  it  is  becoming  lost,  and  its  area  is  filled  by  the 
ear  patches,  since  these  are  often  separated  by  a  very 
narrow  median  line  only,  which,  as  in  Fig.  13,  may  con- 
tinue posteriorly  to  separate  the  two  neck  patches 
medially  as  well.  In  other  cases  (Figs.  1,  6)  the  failure  of 
the  white  nose  stripe  to  extend  farther  posteriorly  may 
be  due  to  the  persistence  of  this  patch. 

The  demarcation  of  the  side  from  the  rump  patches  is 
indicated  by  the  imperfect  primary  break  across  the 
lower  part  of  the  back  in  Fig.  4,  while  in  Fig.  5,  a  similar 
primary  break  farther  forward  indicates  the  limits  of  the 
shoulder  and  side  patches.  In  each  case  the  break  is 
incomplete  transversely,  with  a  narrow  isthmus  near  the 
median  line.  In  dogs  there  is  a  marked  tendency  for  the 
ultimate  centers  of  the  side  and  rump  patches  to  be  close 
to  the  median  line,  so  that  the  corresponding  patches  of 
opposite  sides  are  confluent  dorsally.  This  is  especially 
the  case  with  the  rump  patches,  with  the  result  that  it  is 


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396 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 


very  rare  to  see  the  two  rump  centers  separated,  but 
instead,  as  in  Figs.  10  and  14,  they  appear,  when  much 
reduced,  as  a  small  median  spot  at  the  root  of  the 
tail.  That  they  were  originally  paired,  there  is  no  doubt, 
as  there  is  frequently  (as  in  Fig.  9)  a  deep  median 
notch  indicating  the  median  primary  break  between  the 
centers,  or  (as  in  Figs.  11,  12)  one  of  the  lateral  centers 
drops  out,  leaving  its  fellow  of  the  opposite  side.  The 
continued  union  of  the  side  patches  with  the  shoulder 
patches  is  seen  in  Fig.  7,  while  in  Fig.  9,  though  the  union 
is  still  present  between  these  patches  of  the  right  side,  on 
the  left  side  the  shoulder  patch  has  failed  to  develop,  and 
the  side  patch  is  so  reduced  that  it  does  not  meet  its 
fellow  of  the  right.  In  Fig.  8  both  shoulder  patches  are 
present  more  or  less  bilaterally  equal,  and,  as  frequently, 
are  produced  into  narrow  tongues  on  to  the  upper  arm. 
The  two  side  patches  in  Fig.  8  are  also  reduced,  so  as  to 
be  wholly  separated  from  each  other  and  from  the  neigh- 
boring centers.  They  are  further  interesting  in  being 
placed  nearly  median  one  behind  the  other  instead  of 
nearly  opposite.  In  Fig.  11,  on  the  other  hand,  they  are 
far  sundered,  but  this,  in  dogs,  is  a  much  less  usual  con- 
dition. In  Fig.  10  a  single  median  dorsal  patch  repre- 
sents the  slightly  developed  side  patches,  but  whether 
this  single  patch  corresponds  to  one  or  other  of  the  two 
centers,  or  whether  the  two  are  actually  fused  in  the 
dorsal  line,  I  can  not  yet  say. 

The  shoulder  centers,  when  slightly  reduced,  are  large 
in  dogs,  and  cover  a  considerable  saddle-shaped  area,  as 
indicated  in  Fig.  5,  from  near  the  center  of  the  back  for- 
ward including  the  fore  leg  and  part  of  the  fore  shoulder. 
When  further  reduction  takes  place  the  pigment  is  drawn 
away  from  the  extremities  and  the  saddle  separates  from 
the  neck  patch  (Figs.  2,  6)  and  then  from  the  side  patch 
(Figs.  5,  9),  and  finally  the  shoulder  patches  separate 
from  each  other  (Fig.  8).  One  or  other  of  the  shoulder 
patches  may  drop  out  entirely  (Fig.  10)  or  be  reduced  to 
a  very  small  spot  (Fig.  12)  at  what  may  be  considered 


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No.  571]  PATTEBN-  DEVELOPMENT  397 

the  ultimate  center  of  the  pigment  patch,  near  the  upper 
part  of  the  body,  near  or  just  back  of  the  shoulder.  The 
ear  patches  seem  to  be  the  last  to  disappear,  and  these, 
too,  may  be  variously  reduced  or  only  one  may  be  present 
(Fig.  15).  The  approximate  outlines  of  the  patches  when 
fully  developed  are  indicated  by  dotted  lines  in  Fig.  15, 
in  which  1  is  the  crown  patch,  2  the  ear  patch,  3  the  neck 
patch,  4  the  shoulder  patch,  5  the  side  patch,  and  6  the 
rump  patch. 

In  dogs,  there  is  seldom  seen  any  tendency  for  these 
primary  patches  to  divide.  .  What  has  the  appearance  of 
such  a  tendency  is  seen,  for  example,  in  the  coach  dog, 
which  is  rather  evenly  flecked  with  rounded  black  spots, 
with  often  in  addition,  black  ears  and  more  rarely  reduced 
rump  patches.  Fig.  9  shows  such  a  dog  in  which  both  ear 
patches,  one  shoulder,  both  side  and  both  rump  patches 
are  sharply  indicated,  though  reduced.  In  addition  there 
are  present  on  the  white  body  areas  between,  many  small 
flecks  of  dark  color,  evenly  distributed,  which  are  clearly 
not  islands  separated  from  the  primary  patches.  Indeed 
this  spotting  seems  to  constitute  a  wholly  different  cate- 
gory of  pigment  formation,  in  addition  to  that  of  the 
primary  patches,  which  latter  I  have  called  ''centripetal" 
pigmentation.  As  Professor  Castle  suggests  to  me,  it  is 
probably  homologous  with  the  ''English"  marking  or 
spotted  condition  of  domesticated  rabbits,  and  possibly 
the  dappling  of  horses  is  a  similar  phenomenon.  When 
these  spots  and  the  primary  color  patches  are  of  the  same 
hue,  it  is  not  possible  to  distinguish  the  two  in  visual 
appearance,  unless  the  latter  are  reduced  areally,  when, 
as  is  sometimes  the  case  in  the  coach  dog,  one  or  more  of 
the  primary  patches  is  seen  with  the  spots,  as  it  were, 
proliferating  from  its  edge.  This  second  element  no 
doubt  enters  as  a  factor  in  the  color  pattern  when  the 
small  spots  are  of  a  different  color  from  that  of  the 
general  body  surface,  as  in  case  of  the  cheetah  {Cynce- 
lurus)  or  the  leopard  and  jaguar. 

I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  excessive  breaking  up  of 


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398 


THE  AMERICAN  NATUBALIST      [Vol.  XLVIU 


the  primary  patches,  to  be  considered  under  the  cow,  is 
not  a  wholly  similar  phenomenon. 

Five  diagrams  illustrating  the  domestic  cat  are  shown 
in  Figs.  16  to  20,  and  are  interesting  to  contrast  with 


Figs.  16-20.    Diagbams  Illustbatinq  Piombntation  in  the  Domestic  Cat. 

those  of  the  dog,  also  a  carnivorous  mammal.  The 
demarcation  of  the  primary  patches  is  usually  less  sharp 
than  in  dogs,  but  is  in  general  similar.  The  most  comnion 
appearance  is  where  the  primary  breaks  occur  in  the 
mid-line  below,  giving  a  white  throat,  chest  or  belly;  or 
the  separation  of  the  aural  centers  produces  a  white 
streak  on  the  nose  or  extends  it  up  between  the  ears. 
The  ear  patches  in  Figs.  17, 19,  20,  show  successive  reduc- 
tion, so  that  at  first  the  hinder  margin  of  the  ears,  as  in 
dogs,  becomes  white,  then  with  further  decrease  in  pig- 
ment production,  the  inner  bases  only  are  colored.  The 
neck  patch  has  its  ultimate  center  farther  back  than  in 
dogs  so  that  when  much  reduced,  it  is  present  as  a  pig- 
mented spot  at  the  very  base  of  the  neck  or  even  at  the 
front  of  the  shoulder  (Figs.  16,  17).  In  Fig.  16  the  neck 
patch  of  the  right-hand  side  is  only  slightly  reduced  and 
is  in  contact  anteriorly  with  the  ear  patch,  while  poste- 


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No.  571]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  399 

riorly  it  does  not  meet  the  shoulder  patch.  The  left-hand 
neck  patch,  however,  is  quite  separate  from  the  neighbor- 
ing patches  and  is  reduced  to  a  small  area  at  the  junction 
of  the  neck  with  the  shoulder.  It  is  absent  in  Fig.  17  from 
the  left  side  and  is  represented  on  the  right  side  by  a 
similar  small  center,  placed  far  back.  In  Fig.  20  the 
neck  patch  or  patches  show  a  reduction  to  a  single  small 
square  median  patch  at  the  base  of  the  neck,  but  whether 
this  represents  a  median  fusion  of  the  two  lateral  centers, 
or  whether  one  only  has  persisted  and  has  shifted  to  the 
midline,  I  do  not  attempt  to  say,  though  the  former 
hypothesis  seems  on  the  whole  more  probable. 

The  shoulder  patch  in  house  cats  is  relatively  small, 
and,  as  indicated  by  the  indentations  in  Figs.  17, 18,  is  of 
the  fore  side  of  the  upper  arm,  but  the  shoulder  patch 
when  fully  developed  seems  to  cover  the  rest  of  the  leg 
and  a  smaU  scapular  area.  It  is  shown  much  reduced  in 
Fig.  19,  on  the  right-hand  side,  and  is  altogether  wanting 
in  Fig  20.  The  conjoined  shoulder  and  side  patches  in 
Fig.  18  are  shown  reduced  laterally,  so  as  to  form  a 
broad  median  stripe  which  I  take  to  mean  that  the  ulti- 
mate centers  are  closely  approximated  dorsally.  The 
neck  patch  is  wholly  absent,  but  both  ear  patches  are 
present  and  joined  medially.  The  sacral  patches,  as 
commonly,  seem  fused  or  at  least  very  close  together. 
There  is  a  small  break  midway  on  the  tail,  which  sepa- 
rates off  a  pigmented  tip,  a  phenomenon  which  I  shall 
refer  to  under  ** centrifugal  pigmentation.^^  The  side 
patch  is  long  comparatively,  and  extends  forward  to 
cover  the  deficiencies  of  the  shoulder  patch,  as  in  Fig.  17. 
Here  the  left  side  patch  has  been  reduced  at  its  anterior 
end,  and  its  separateness  from  the  patch  of  the  right  side 
is  indicated  by  the  median  indentations.  It  is  often  want- 
ing in  domesticated  cats. 

The  sacral  patches,  pigmenting  the  buttocks  and  tail, 
seem  to  be  fused  or  closely  approximated  at  the  root  of 
the  tail,  as  in  dogs.  I  have  seen  no  instance  of  the  crown 
patch  being  shown  in  the  cat,  though  such  may  occur. 


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400  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL-XLYIII 

The  approximate  boundaries  of  the  five  bilateral  patches 
are  indicated  in  Fig.  20  by  dotted  lines ;  2  is  the  ear  patch, 
3  the  neck  patch,  4  the  shoulder  patch,  5  the  side  patch, 
and  6  the  rump  patch. 

Among  domesticated  rodents  the  pigment  patches  have 
been  studied  in  rats,  house  mice,  and  guinea-pigs.  In 
all,  the  same  patches  appear  except  that  in  rats  and  mice 
the  median  crown  patch  appears  to  be  lost,  though  in  the 
guinea-pig  it  is  often  present.  Diagrams  of  parti-colored 
mice  are  shown  in  Figs.  21-24,  and  sufficiently  indicate 


Fios.   21-24.     Diagrams   Illustrating  Pigmentation   in  Domestic   Varibtibs 
OF  THE  House  Mouse. 

the  primary  pigment  areas.  The  white  spot  on  the  fore- 
head of  Fig.  21  indicates  a  primary  break  between  the 
two  ear  patches,  and  varies  widely  in  different  individ- 
uals, from  a  few  white  hairs  only  to  a  large  blaze  The 
inheritance  of  such  a  blaze  has  been  studied  by  Little 
(1914).  The  white  mark  at  the  base  of  the  neck  in  Fig. 
21  indicates  the  beginning  of  separation  of  the  neck  from 
the  shoulder  patches  and  perhaps  of  the  two  neck  patches 
from  each  other,  because  of  its  longitudinal  extension. 
The  white  band  across  the  neck  in  Fig.  23,  however, 
indicates  probably  only  the  beginning  of  a  separation  of 
the  neck  from  the  shoulder  patches,  which  in  Fig.  24  has 


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No.  571]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  401 

wholly  sundered  these  two  areas,  so  that  a  white-collared 
mouse  results.  The  condition  shown  in  Fig.  22  is  similar, 
except  that  the  separation  has  taken  place  on  the  right 
side  only,  between  the  neck  and  the  shoulder  patches  of 
but  one  half  of  the  body.  A  break  between  the  two  neck 
patches  of  opposite  sides  is  further  indicated  in  this 
figure  by  the  deep  median  reentrant  back  of  the  ears. 

In  all  four  diagrams  the  areal  restriction  of  the 
shoulder  patches  is  shown,  but  in  varying  degrees.  In 
Fig.  21,  the  pigment  has  not  spread  to  the  feet,  leaving 
these  white,  and  so  in  the  other  figures,  but  to  a  greater 
degree.  A  median  linear  break  between  the  shoulders 
indicates  the  restriction  of  the  patches  of  opposite  sides 
at  this  point,  which  in  Fig.  22  is  more  clearly  perceptible. 
The  posterior  limits  of  the  shoulder  patch  are  further 
shown  in  this  diagram,  by  the  beginnings  of  a  break 
between  the  shoulder  and  the  side  patches.  In  Fig.  24 
this  break  is  no  longer  interrupted,  but  clearly  separates 
the  two  areas.  Further,  the  side  patch  has  dropped  out 
on  the  left.  In  Fig.  23  an  imperfect  separation  of 
patches  on  the  posterior  part  of  the  body  has  taken  place. 
On  the  right-hand  side  the  shoulder  patch,  which  in  mice 
is  of  considerable  extent,  has  broadly  separated  from  the 
side  patch,  while  on  the  left-hand  side  a  long  transverse 
break  has  taken  place  between  the  side  and  the  rump 
patches,  with  two  island-like  white  spots  between,  the 
anterior  of  which  probably  marks  the  transverse  line  of 
stress  between  shoulder  and  side  patches,  the  posterior 
the  median  line  of  breaking  between  the  two  side  patches. 
A  slight  indentation  in  the  pigmented  area  far  back  on 
the  right  side  of  Fig.  22  points  to  the  beginning  of  restric- 
tion between  side  patch  and  rump  patch.  The  separation 
of  these  patches  by  a  transverse  mid-dorsal  break  is 
shown  in  Fig.  21,  and  their  complete  separation  on  the 
left  side  appears  in  Fig.  23  (the  transverse  white  mark), 
while  in  Fig.  24,  owing  to  the  failure  of  the  left-hand 
pleural  patch  to  develop,  the  two  rump  patches,  both  par- 
tially separate  from  each  other,  are  wholly  disconnected 


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1 


402  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

from  the  former  except  by  a  narrow  isthmus  on  the  right 
side.  The  long  tail  is  usually  without  pigment,  or  mainly 
so  where  areal  restriction  is  present,  and  it  is  seldom  that 
pigment  extends  far  on  to  the  base  of  this  member  when 
the  restrictive  tendency  appears.  In  the  domesticated 
varieties  of  rats,  the  same  patches  may  be  distinguished. 
There  is,  however,  an  interesting  variety  known  as  the 
''hooded"  rat,  in  which  the  ear  and  neck  patches  appear 
to  be  normal,  but  a  narrow  median  dorsal  area  is  pig- 
mented for  a  varying  length,  sometimes  quite  to  the  root 
of  the  tail.  A  separate  factor  seems  here  to  be  involved, 
producing  what  may  be  called  a  ''centrifugaP^  type  of 
pigmentation,  which  in  many  forms  of  mammals  causes  a 
black  spine  stripe  {Sorex  wardi,  Tupaia  tana,  certain 
forms  of  Apodemus,  Equus  caballus),  and  others. 

Among  guinea-pigs  the  typical  primary  patches  are 
beautifully  shown  and  may  be  seen  in  sundry  figures 
published  in  papers  by  Professor  Castle  on  heredity  in 
this  animal.  The  guinea-pig  is  one  of  the  few  mammals 
yet  known  in  which  the  median  crown  patch  is  visibly 
present,  a  character  which  I  take  to  be  primitive. 

In  guinea-pigs  the  breaking  up  of  the  ticked  color 
pattern  has  progressed  under  long  domestication  to  an 
extraordinary  degree,  so  that  not  only  are  black,  tawny 
or  grizzled  animals  produced  in  various  shades,  but  even 
in  the  same  individual,  the  different  primary  pigment 
areas  may  he  of  different  colors.  This  fact  is  of  much 
significance,  for  it  indicates  liot  only  the  mutual  independ- 
ence of  the  contiguous  color  areas,  but  further  points  to 
the  manner  in  which  a  variegated  color  pattern  may  have 
been  acquired.  Among  mammals  the  color  pattern  is  in 
general,  not  greatly  developed  in  comparison  with  birds, 
yet  in  many  cases  where  some  modification  has  taken 
place,  it  is  evident  that  this  differentiation  is  confined  to 
the  limits  of  one  or  two  of  the  primary  pigment  patches. 
Thus  in  the  South  American  Tayra  (T.  harhara)^  the 
head  and  neck  are  a  grizzled  gray,  and  the  breaks  occur- 
ring in  pied  individuals  show  that  the  grizzled  condition 


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No.  571]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT 


403 


a.sr 


j^ 


n 


3X 
Figs.  25-32.     Diaobams  Illustbating  Pigmentation  in  Horses. 


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404  THE  AMERICA^  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHl 

is  confined  to  the  aural  and  nuchal  patches  only,  for  else- 
where the  animal  is  black.  In  this  case,  too,  the  black 
condition  is  probably  derived,  for  youngish  animals  are 
uniformly  grizzled,  and  sometimes,  apparently,  this  is 
the  adult  condition  as  well. 

Among  domesticated  ungulates  the  same  primary 
patches  are  to  be  distinguished  in  cases  where  partial 
albinism  renders  their  bounds  apparent,  with  the  excep- 
tion that  in  horses,  cows  and  deer  I  have  seen  no  clear 
indication  of  the  median  crown  patch  which  in  mammals 
is  probably  obsolescent. 

In  both  horses  and  cows  the  patches  show  interesting 
and  peculiar  modifications.  A  series  of  diagrams  (Figs. 
25  to  32)  show  these  patches  in  ''calico^'  horses,  though 
not  so  fully  as  could  be  wished.  The  first  indications  of 
areal  restriction  of  pigment  in  horses  appear  in  the  shape 
of  a  white  ''star"  or  round  spot  in  the  center  of  the  fore- 
head. This  is  often  accompanied  by  white  at  the  base  of 
the  hoofs,  or  sometimes  the  entire  foot  is  white  producing 
the  so-called  ''white  stockings."  But  there  is  no  neces- 
sary correlation  between  these  white  areas,  such  as 
Brewer  (1882)  tried  to  show.  The  white  on  the  forehead 
may  vary  from  a  few  white  hairs  to  a  broad  blaze  cover- 
ing the  entire  front  of  the  head  between  the  eyes  to  the 
muzzle.  Sometimes  the  restriction  of  pigment  is  such  as 
to  produce  in  addition  to  the  white  star  on  the  forehead, 
a  white  spot  over  each  eye,  and  sometimes  these  three 
spots  are  joined  by  a  narrow  unpigmented  area.  This 
indicates  that  pigment  production  is  weak  at  a  spot 
directly  over  the  eye  in  comparison  with  neighboring 
parts,  and  this  no  doubt  accounts  for  the  fact  that 
in  black-and-tan  or  other  dogs  these  are  the  pale  spots 
over  the  eyes  where  black  pigment  is  not  produced. 
A  white  spot  over  the  eye  is  also  characteristic  of  many 
rodents. 

Next  after  the  restriction  of  the  ear  patches  and  the 
drawing  away  of  pigment  from  the  feet,  the  most  comimon 


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No.  571] 


PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT 


405 


white  marking  seems  to  be  a  primary  break,  as  in  Fig.  25, 
from  the  shoulder  back  of  the  foreleg,  which  delimits  the 
posterior  border  of  the  shoulder  patch.  In  the  horse  the 
shoulder  patch  is  large,  and  differs  from  that  of  any 
mammal  I  have  yet  studied,  in  its  great  extent  forward 
along  the  dorsal  side  of  the  neck  nearly  to  the  head.  In 
Fig.  26  a  small  break  at  the  back  of  the  neck  indicates  the 
beginning  of  separation  between  the  ear  and  the  neck 
patches  dorsally,  and  a  long  tongue  of  white  running  up- 
ward from  the  forearm  indicates  the  anterior  limit  of  the 
shoulder  patch.  This  limit  is  marked  still  nearer  the 
dorsal  line  in  Fig.  27  by  a  white  spot  on  the  side  of  the 
neck  near  its  base.  In  Fig.  28  the  shoulder  patch  has 
entirely  dropped  out  and  the  white  space  outlines  very 
nearly  its  extent.  The  ultimate  center  is  perhaps  shown 
by  the  small  shoulder  spot  in  Fig.  31. 

The  area  covered  by  the  ear  patches  extends  well  on  to 
the  upper  part  of  the  neck,  and  in  Fig.  29  is  shown  at  its 
greatest  spread,  or,  as  in  Fig.  28,  cut  off  by  a  narrow  white 
collar  from  the  neck  patch.  The  neck  patch  is  remarkable 
from  the  fact  that  in  its  areal  reduction  it  becomes  re- 
stricted first  dorsally,  and  the  ultimate  center  of  each  side 
is  nearly  ventral  on  the  throat,  so  that,  as  generally  seen^ 
the  two  centers  form  a  single  median  patch  on  the  front 
or  ventral  part  of  the  throat.  In  Fig.  26  the  neck  patch  is 
seen  to  pigment  the  anterior  side  of  the  forearm  and  is 
partly  separated  from  the  shoulder  patch  by  a  long 
tongue  of  white.  It  seems  to  extend  up  diagonally  to 
reach  the  mid-line  of  the  neck  for  a  short  distance  only, 
as  indicated  in  Fig.  28,  where  its  bounds  are  only  slightly 
contracted.  In  Fig.  29  it  is  so  far  lessened  as  to  be  absent 
from  the  forearm,  though  still  in  contact  at  the  throat 
with  the  ear  patch  where,  however,  a  deep  indentation 
locates  the  dividing  line  between  the  two  patches.  In 
Fig.  31  a  median  ventral  division  of  the  conjoined  neck 
patches  is  seen  indicated  at  the  upper  part  of  the  area, 
which  in  this  case  no  longer  reaches  the  ear  patches. 
Still  further  reduction  of  both  ear  patches  and  neck 


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406  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

patches  is  seen  in  Fig.  32,  but,  as  commonly,  the  neck 
patches  seem  fused  in  the  midventral  line.  This  shifting 
of  the  neck  centers  ventrally  is  a  rather  remarkable 
phenomenon  which  may  have  some  relation  to  the  manner 
in  which  the  head  is  held  erect.  For  this  reason  it  might 
be  expected  also  in  antelopes,  and  is  perhaps  evidenced 
in  such  a  species  as  the  oryx,  in  which  there  is  a  black 
median  line  on  the  throat  as  though  strongest  pigment 
production  centered  there  rather  than  on  the  gray  sides 
of  the  neck.  The  median  reduction  of  the  shoulder 
patches  in  horses  is  sometimes  indicated  by  a  white  mane. 

The  rump  patches  in  the  horse  appear  to  be  much  as  in 
other  mammals,  restricted  to  the  tail  and  posterior  part 
of  the  buttocks  and  the  entire  foot.  In  Fig.  30  the  patch 
is  shown  at  nearly  its  full  development,  except  that  it  has 
failed  to  extend  to  the  entire  hind  foot.  In  Fig.  27  it  has 
drawn  away  still  farther  but  remains  in  contact  with  the 
side  patch  at  one  place.  In  Fig.  29  it  is  further  restricted 
to  the  tail  and  posterior  border  of  the  haunches,  while  in 
Fig.  32  it  covers  only  the  root  of  the  tail  and  that  member. 

The  side  patch  is  the  largest  of  all  and  extends  from 
the  shoulder  to  the  fore  part  of  the  haimches  and  on  to  the 
fore  part  of  the  hind  leg  nearly  to  the  foot,  as  seen  in  Figs. 
27  and  28,  where  it  is  still  in  contact  with  the  rump  patch, 
or  in  Fig.  29  where  it  has  become  separated.  In  its  fur- 
ther reduction  this  patch  may  appear  as  a  small  spot 
back  of  the  ribs  or,  as  often,  a  curious  division  takes 
place,  separating  the  patch  into  a  dorsal  area  and  a 
lateral  one.  Occasionally  this  secondary  break  appears 
in  a  horse  which  has  most  of  its  patches  otherwise  well 
developed.  In  Fig.  31,  the  pigmented  area  of  the  tail, 
buttocks  and  lumbar  region  consists  of  the  conjoined  rump 
patch  and  a  dorsal  portion  of  the  side  patch,  while  the 
ventral  part  of  the  side  patch  is  present  as  the  oval  spot 
at  the  groin.  In  Fig.  30  the  latter  spot  only  persists,  but 
in  Fig.  32  the  dorsal  portion  of  the  side  patch  alone  is 
present  as  a  stripe  along  the  entire  back,  except  where  it 
breaks  away  posteriorly  from  the  small  rump  patch. 


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No.  571] 


PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT 


407 


This  peculiarity  of  the  side  patch  in  horses  is  somewhat 
paralleled  in  cows  by  a  tendency  to  secondary  breaking 
up,  though  in  a  different  way,  as  detailed  below.  It  is 
significant  in  this  connection  that  in  horses  and  donkeys 
there  is  usually  a  black  stripe  along  the  spine  from 
shoulder  to  tail  which  may  indicate  that  *' centrifugal  pig- 
mentation" is  also  present  (see  beyond).  The  dotted 
lines  in  Fig.  32  indicate  the  approximate  boundaries  of 
the  several  primary  patches.  The  crown  patch  seems  to 
be  wanting  in  horses ;  2  is  the  ear  patch,  3  the  neck  patch, 
4,  5  and  6  the  shoulder,  side,  and  rump  patches, 
respectively. 

Of  domestic  ruminants  I  have  studied  the  pigmentation 
in  the  cow  and  show  in  Figs.  33  to  42  a  few  of  the  many 


Figs.  33-36.     Diaqbams  Illustbatino  Pigmentation  in  Domestic  Cows,  Side 

View. 

variations  in  partial  pigmentation.  These  are  all  drawn 
from  photographs  or  from  the  animals  themselves,  and 
are  of  cows  in  which,  so  far  as  I  know,  there  has  been  no 
attempt  at  breeding  for  pattern.  Two  types  of  spotting 
may  be  distinguished  in  cows :  first,  that  in  which  the  pig- 
mented areas  are  sharply  outlined  and  solid  or  at  least 


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408  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLUVQ 

practically  so;  second,  that  in  which  there  is  a  grefiLteTr  < 
less  tendency  for  the  primary  patches  to  be  much,  bxro'k 
np  into  small  islands  (as  in  Fig.  36)  by  secondary  l3x*^ct' 
though  the  main  areas  are  still  distinguishable.  I  tt 
this  second  or  fragmental  type  to  be  a  different  pXx^xxc 
enon  from  the  diffuse  or  dappled  condition  seen,  ixx 
coach  dog  or  the  dappled-gray  horse. 

In  the  cow,  the  ear  patches  as  usual  pigment  ^^c^lx 
proper  side  of  the  head  to  a  short  distance  behimd 


Figs.  37-42.     Diaqbams  Illustrating  Pigmentation  in  Domestic  C^^^    . 
Seen  Spread  Out  and  from  Above. 

ears.  The  point  of  separation  between  ear  patchy  ^  ^ 
neck  patches  is  indicated  by  a  small  break  back  ^:>^  - 
skull  in  Fig.  38,  while  the  posterior  extent  is  sho^*^'"^'^  -. 
the  two  ear  patches  in  Fig.  42.    These  patches  uS"*^^ 


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No.  571]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  409 

draw  apart  first  across  the  forehead  making  here  a  tri- 
angular white  mark,  and  on  the  muzzle,  as  in  Fig.  34. 
Further  restriction  broadens  these  white  marks  and  joins 
them  by  a  narrow  isthmus  as  in  Fig.  35.  In  Fig.  40,  the 
two  patches  are  still  conjoined  across  the  vertex,  but  are 
much  reduced,  that  of  the  right  side  more  than  that  of  the 
left.  In  Fig.  42  they  have  failed  to  join  medially,  though 
fairly  well  developed  longitudinally.  Still  greater  re- 
duction, as  in  Fig.  37,  confines  them  to  the  ears,  the  bases 
of  which  appear  to  be  the  ultimate  centers. 

The  neck  patch  in  the  cow  is  more  extended  posteriorly 
than  in  the  horse,  and  its  center  is  strictly  lateral  rather 
than  nearly  ventral.  It  is  shown  in  Fig.  34  somewhat 
contracted  from  the  mid-line  of  the  throat,  but  extends 
squarely  back  against  the  f  oreshoulder  at  the  base  of  the 
neck,  and  is  fused  near  its  ventral  comer  with  the 
small  shoulder  patch,  itself  much  reduced.  As  in 
other  mamimals  it  appears  to  extend  in  its  complete 
development,  to  the  front  edge  of  the  upper  foreleg.  The 
animal  in  Fig.  41  shows  a  bilaterality  in  its  pigmentation 
that  is  rather  unusual.  What  appear  to  be  the  reduced 
neck  patches  are  seen  far  back  at  the  border  of  the  fore- 
shoulder.  In  Fig.  40  the  left-hand  neck  patch  has 
dropped  out,  but  that  of  the  right  side  is  still  present, 
though  small,  and  in  Fig.  42  it  is  reduced  to  a  small  spot 
only. 

The  shoulder  patch  in  cows  is  remarkably  narrow, 
and  compressed  between  the  neck  patch  and  the  body 
patch,  whence  it  extends  as  usual  on  to  the  foreleg.  In 
Fig.  33  a  primary  break  back  of  the  f  oreshoulder  marks 
the  nearly  vertical  posterior  outline  of  the  shoulder 
patch.  In  Fig.  34  the  separation  of  this  area  from  the 
neck  patch  is  all  but  complete  and  the  patch  itself  some- 
what reduced.  Its  narrow  vertical  outline  is  thus  indi- 
cated, as  well  as  in  Fig.  39,  in  which  there  is  a  narrow 
tongue-like  extension  down  on  to  the  center  of  the  foreleg. 

In  its  further  reduction  it  appears  as  a  small  center 
at  the  base  of  the  scapula,  as  in  Fig.  35,  or  in  Fig.  40,  in 


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410  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIK 

which  both  shoulder  patches  are  present,  though  small. 
In  Figs.  41  and  42  the  shoulder  areas  are  wanting.  A 
very  common  mark  in  cows  is  a  white  belt  just  back  of 
the  foreleg.  This  is  due  to  the  development  of  a  primary 
break  between  shoulder  patches  and  side  patches,  a  con- 
dition which  is  nearly  realized  in  Figs.  33  and  38.  It  is 
probable  that  this  marking  has  been  more  or  less  fixed 
through  selection  in  breeding,  and  this  has  been  the  more 
readily  accomplished,  since  this  break  occurs  in  a  place 
which  is  one  of  the  first  in  cowa  to  cease  pigment 
production. 

The  side  patch  is  large  and  covers  the  entire  lateral 
region  of  the  body  from  the  scapula  to  the  hips,  and  on 
to  the  front  edge  of  the  hind  limb.  When  only  slightly 
reduced,  it  appears  as  a  blanket-shaped  area  across  the 
back  as  in  Fig.  38,  where  it  has  not  wholly  broken  away 
from  the  shoulder  and  rump  patches,  or  as  in  Fig.  33, 
where  it  has  become  nearly  separated.  In  its  further 
reduction  this  dorsal  blanket  shows  a  peculiar  manner  of 
breaking  up  into  more  or  less  transverse  stripes  directed 
slightly  backward.  The  beginnings  of  these  secondary 
breaks  appear  in  Fig.  39  in  which  are  seen  on  each  side 
posteriorly  two  deep  indentations  at  the  edge  of  the 
patch,  whose  points  if  extended  would  meet  the  white 
pigmentless  islands  already  present  within  the  patch. 
In  Fig.  34  a  similar  series  of  indentations  points  to  the 
trisection  of  the  side  patch  which  is  realized  in  Fig.  35. 
Here  is  a  characteristic  which  if  developed  might  even- 
tually result  in  the  actual  production  of  white  stripes  on 
the  body,  such  as  are  found,  for  example,  in  certain  ante- 
lopes as  the  bongo  and  the  kudu.  The  tendency  of  the 
side  patch  to  divide  into  three,  as  in  these  diagrams,  is 
rather  marked  in  cows,  and  even  with  further  reduction 
the  three  centers  persist  fairly  well.  The  first  of  these 
secondary  centers  is  just  back  of  the  shoulder  patch,  the 
second  about  over  the  last  ribs,  and  the  third  over  the 
lumbar  region.  In  Fig.  40  the  first  two  are  present  on  the 
left  side,  with  a  small  spot  between,  which  has  become 


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No.  571]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  411 

separated  from  one  or  the  other  of  them,  while  the  third 
or  lumbar  spot  has  dropped  out.  On  the  right  side,  the 
first  and  second  divisions  are  still  fused  dorsally,  but 
the  lumbar  division  is  distinct.  The  same  three  divisions 
are  seen  in  Fig.  35,  better  developed,  whereas  in  Fig.  42, 
the  two  lumbars  are  present,  on6  on  each  side,  and  con- 
siderably in  advance  of  them,  what  seem  to  be  the  rem- 
nants of  the  first  division  of  the  side  area,  the  left  one  of 
which  has  further  broken  up. 

The  rump  patches  show  no  especial  peculiarities,  but 
cover  the  posterior  part  of  the  buttocks  and  hind  legs, 
and  the  entire  feet  and  tail.  Though  frequently  the  two 
patches  of  opposite  sides  are  conjoined  medially,  they  are 
often,  under  considerable  reduction,  well  separated.  The 
beginning  of  such  a  separation  appears  in  Fig.  38,  where 
there  is  a  deep  median  tongue  of  white  anteriorly,  mark- 
ing the  line  of  union.  In  Fig.  41  the  reduction  has  pro- 
gressed still  farther  so  that  the  two  patches  are  quite  sun- 
dered medially  and  do  not  extend  to  the  tail.  In  Fig.  40 
the  patch  of  the  left  side  has  become  inactive,  and  that  of 
the  right  si(jle  is  small. 

A  curious  condition  not  infrequently  seen  is  shown  in 
Pig.  37,  in  which  all  the  patches  are  present,  but  those  of 
the  right  side  are  separated  from  those  of  the  left  by  a 
median  dorsal  white  line,  showing  the  distinct  bilaterality 
of  these  pigment  areas.  In  the  figure,  the  ear  patches 
are  so  restricted  as  not  to  reach  the  neck  patches  of 
their  respective  sides,  the  shoulder  patches  do  not  extend 
far  on  the  forelegs,  the  side  patches  are  reduced  ven- 
trally,  and  the  rump  patches,  though  in  contact  with  the 
side  patches,  do  not  pigment  the  tail  or  extremities  of 
the  legs.  A  further  reduction  of  pigment  areas  results  in 
Fig.  41,  in  which  the  paired  centers  of  neck,  side  and 
rump  patches  still  appear. 

The  diffuse  condition  of  pigmentation  is  illustrated  in 
Fig.  36,  which  is  a  photograph,  inked  in.  The  ear  patch 
is  seen  much  reduced,  but  pigmenting  the  ear.  The  neck 
patch  is  of  most  irregular  shape,  with  several  subsidiary 


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412  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHl 

spots  separated  from  its  lower  border.  A  clear  line 
separates  the  neck  patch  from  the  shoulder  patch,  which 
is  also  of  most  irregular  boundary.  The  side  patch,  at 
its  fore  part,  is  broken  into  a  series  of  small  islands 
which  tend  to  arrange  themselves  in  lines  following  the 
direction  of  the  ribs.  The  main  part  of  the  patch  shows 
a  decided  tendency  to  break  into  the  usual  three  or  per- 
haps four  portions.  It  is  common  for  cows  to  have 
patches  with  very  irregular  boundaries  and  tongues  of 
pigment,  which  may  break  oflf  into  isolated  spots  in  a 
most  bewildering  fashion,  but  even  in  such  cases  it  is 
possible  to  distinguish  the  main  patches  of  which  these 
form  part. 

White  patches  occur  in  other  domesticated  ungulates 
as  the  pig,  the  llama,  the  alpaca,  the  camel,  the  yak,  the 
reindeer,  and  the  goat.  In  the  water-buflfalo,  occasional 
animals  seen  in  Egypt  show  a  beginning  of  pigment  re- 
duction through  the  presence  of  white  in  the  forehead  or 
on  the  tail.  I  have  had  no  opportunity  to  study  the  mark- 
ings of  these  species. 

(To  he  concluded) 


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INTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  TERRESTRIAL 
ASSOCIATIONS 

ARTHUR  G.  VESTAL 
University  of  Colorado 

Contents 

I.  Introduction. 
11.  Internal  activities  of  the  association,  as  determined  by  the  con- 
stitution of  the  individual  organism. 

A,  Ecological  constitution  of  the  organism. 

B,  Constitution  of  the  plant  in  relation  to  environment. 

C,  Constitution  of  the  animal  in  relation  to  environment. 

D,  Internal  activities  of  the  association. 

III.  Belative  influence  of  different  organs  with  the  association domi- 
nance. 

A.  Factors  of  dominance  among  animals. 

B.  Criteria  of  dominance  among  animals. 

C.  Specialized  and  unspecialized  animals. 
IV.  Distribution  within  the  association. 

A,  Distribution  in  space. 

B,  Distribution  in  time. 

V.  Interdependence  of  terrestrial  plant  and  animal  commimities. 

A,  Geographic  relations  of  terrestrial  plants  and  animals. 

1.  Greographic  range:  the  province. 

2.  Distribution  within  the  province:  distribution  of  plants 

and  animals  into  communities. 

B,  Local  relations  of  plant  and  animal  assemblages  (relations 

within  the  association). 

1.  Similarity  of  ecological  type    of  plants  and  animals. 

2.  Belative  dependence  of  plant  and  animal  assemblages. 

3.  Correspondence  in  distribution  within  the  association. 

4.  Uniformity  of  species  composition  of  plant  and  animal 


VI.  Summary  and  conclusions 
VII.  References. 

I.     INTRODUCTION 

The  material  here  presented  is  based  on  the  writer  ^s 
studies,  during  the  past  five  years,  of  terrestrial  associa- 
tions of  plants  and  animals,  mainly  in  different  parts  of 
the  prairie  region.  The  particular  area  chiefly  used  for 
illustration  in  this  paper  is  the  sand  prairie  of  the.  Illinois 
Eiver  valley,  plants  and  animals  of  which  have  been 
studied  by  Hart  and  Gleason  (1907)  and  by  the  writer 
(19136).  A  later  study  has  been  made  of  the  vegetation 
of  inland  sand  areas  of  Illinois  (Gleason,  1910) ;  the  Ijake 
Michigan  beach  area  in  northeastern  Illinois  has  been 
studied  by  Gates  (1912) ;  beach  areas  in  Illinois  and  Indi- 
ana by  the  writer  (1914a).    The  chief  representation  of 

413 


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414  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [V0L.XLYIII 

the  sand  prairie  is  the  bunch-grass  association,  well- 
developed  in  parts  of  northwestern,  central  and  north- 
eastern Illinois,  and  in  northwestern  Indiana,  in  each 
of  which  areas,  as  well  as  in  the  sandhills  of  Nebraska 
and  of  eastern  Colorado,  the  writer  has  studied.  Discus- 
sions of  physical,  vegetational  and  animal  aspects  of  the 
associations  of  the  central  Illinois  sand  prairie,  together 
with  an  annotated  list  of  the  animal  species,  with  data  on 
food,  habitat-relations,  life-history,  etc.,  are  embodied  in 
the  writer's  paper  (19136),  to  which  constant  reference 
is  made.  Frequent  citations  to  a  more  detailed  study  of 
local  distribution  of  grasshoppers,  in  a  Michigan  area 
(Vestal,  1913a),  and  to  the  many  associational  studies 
of  Shelford,  are  to  be  found. 

Th«  data  which  have  accumulated  relate  nearly  equally 
to  the  botanical  and  zoological  aspects  of  associational 
study,  but  since  the  subject  of  plant  ecology  is  at  present 
more  advanced  than  that  of  animal  ecology,  it  has  been 
possible  to  treat  the  vegetational  side  of  the  problem 
very  briefly,  so  that  more  of  the  discussion  relates  to 
animals  and  animal  assemblages. 

The  writings  most  frequently  cited  are  indicated  by 
italic  capitals,  the  full  titles  appearing  in  the  list  of  spe- 
cial references  at  the  end  of  the  paper. 

The  writer  wishes  to  thank  Dr.  Charles  C.  Adams,  Dr. 
Max  M.  Ellis  and  Dr.  H.  A.  Gleason  for  suggestions  and 
criticism. 

11.     INTERNAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  THE  ASSOCIATION,  AS  DETER- 
MINED BY  THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE 
INDIVIDUAL  OIWJANISM 

The  internal  activities  of  the  association  may  be  said 
to  be  the  sum-total  of  the  activities  of  all  the  plants  and 
all  the  animals  which  make  up  the  association.  Such  a 
sum-total  of  activities  may  well  be  thought  of  as  an  intri- 
cate and  complicated  mass  of  dependencies.  It  wiU 
simplify  the  treatment  of  the  entire  system  of  relations 
if  the  chief  dependencies  of  the  individual  organism  are 
first  discussed.    A  knowledge  of  the  ecology  of  the  asso- 


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No.  571] 


TERRESTRIAL  ASSOCIATIONS 


415 


ciation  is  built  up  largely  from  a  knowledge  of  the  ecol- 
ogy of  all  the  organisms  which  compose  it. 

A.    Ecological  Constitution  of  the  Obganism 

The  constitution  of  the  organism  is  the  sum-total  of 
those  of  its  characters  which  enter  into  relation  with 
environment.  These  are  commonly  classified  as  structural 
and  physiological.  For  the  purposes  of  this  discussion 
it  would  seem  preferable  to  subdivide  physiological  char- 
acters, restricting  the  term  physiological  to  denote  those 
characters  concerned  with  ordinary  metabolic  processes 
of  the  organism,  and  excluding  those  having  to  do  with 
life-history  and  rates  of  reproduction  (these  may  be  dis- 
tinguished as  biographical  and  numerical)  and  also,  when 
dealing  with  animals,  those  related  to  behavior  {psycho- 
logical characters).  The  constitution  of  the  organism  in 
relation  to  environment  will  be  discussed  in  terms  of 
these  classes  of  characters. 

B.    Constitution  of  the  Plant  in  Relation  to 
Envibonment 

The  environmental  influences  in  the  association  are  of 
three  kinds:  (1)  physical,  (2)  plant,  (3)  animal.  Each 
plant  and  each  animal  must  obtain  from  each  of  these 
three  constituents  of  its  environment  certain  necessaries ; 
it  has  certain  structural  and  physiological  characters 
which  enable  it  to  obtain  these  necessaries,  and  to  with- 
stand adverse  environmental  influences. 

The  environmental  relations  of  plants  are  very  differ- 
ent from  those  of  animals.  A  tabular  comparison  of 
these  relations  has  been  made  by  Shelf ord  {A:  593).  As 
therein  pointed  out,  structural  characters  are  of  greatest 
importance  in  the  adjustment  of  the  plant  to  the  environ- 
ment, and  plants  in  a  given  habitat  are  likely  to  have  a 
common  structure  or  growth-form,  indicating  common  or 
ecologically  equivalent  physiological  conditions  within. 

Different  plants  (and  different  animals),  within  a  com- 

1  Based  partly  on  Forbes ',  classification  of  adaptation  to  food  require- 
ments  (1909:  292). 


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416  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVm 

mon  habitat,  are  similar  in  ecological  constitution  (eco- 
logically equivalent)  in  so  far  as  their  presence  is  deter- 
mined by  the  same  environmental  conditions.  It  should 
be  pointed  out  that  there  are  local  environmental  differ- 
ences within  the  area  of  the  association  which  allow  the 
presence  of  differently  constituted  organisms,  and  that 
the  entire  range  of  environmental  conditions  within  the 
habitat  is  usually  much  wider  than  that  of  the  environ- 
mental complex  selected  by  a  particular  organism.  The 
environmental  complex  of  the  organism  is  not  the  same 
as  the  sum-total  of  environmental  conditions  withm  the 
association.  Each  organism  differs  in  greater  or  less 
degree  from  others  in  ecological  constitution,  and  thus 
selects  a  different  environmental  complex. 

The  physical  factors  of  the  environment  are  of  great- 
est importance  in  the  life  of  the  plant.  Plants  influence 
one  another  directly  to  only  a  slight  extent.  There  is 
usually  very  little  of  the  social  relationship  among  eco- 
logically similar  plants  which  will  compare  with  such 
relationships  as  seen  in  animals.  Competition  among 
plants  is  mainly  a  struggle  to  determine  which  plants 
are  to  be  most  favored  by  physical  conditions,  and  it  is 
probably  most  severe  for  the  physical  factor  present  in 
minimal  quantity.  In  desert  associations  plant  competi- 
tion is  almost  exclusively  for  water,  and  extensive  root 
systems  are  developed.  In  grassland  it  is  very  largely 
for  above-ground  space ;  in  forests  it  is  principally  for 
light.  The  influence  of  the  animal-environment  is  prob- 
ably of  greater  importance  than  has  commonly  been 
realized  by  plant  ecologists ;  the  study  of  economic  ento- 
mology and  of  the  effects  of  grazing  upon  grasslands  is 
helping  to  bring  about  a  realization  of  the  importance  of 
animal  influence  upon  plant  life. 

The  structures  of  plants  show  frequent  and  great 
modification  in  response  to  the  physical  conditions  of  the 
environment.  These  modifications  are  most  frequent  and 
important  with  respect  to  the  factor  present  in  minimal 
quantity.     Characters  which  may  be  associated  with 


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No.  571]  TERRESTRIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  417 

direct  plant  influence  are  infrequent.  Certain  plants 
which  become  more  abundant  as  a  result  of  close  grazing 
are  equipped  with  spines,  or  have  acrid  or  pungent 
juices;  and  many  other  characters  may  be  correlated 
with  animal  influence.  The  structural  modifications  are 
most  evident  in  the  adjustment  of  the  plant  to  external 
conditions,  though  these  are  accompanied  by  physiolog- 
ical characters  which  are  also  in  harmony  with  the  en- 
vironment. 

C.    Constitution  of  the  Animal  in  Relation  to 
Envibonment 

The  animal,  like  the  plant,  selects  an  environmental 
complex  which  is  of  three  kinds:  (1)  physical,  (2)  plant, 
(3)  animal.  Different  animals  show  extreme  variation 
as  to  the  degree  in  which  the  different  parts  of  the  en- 
vironment are  important  to  their  existence.  Endopara- 
sites,  for  example,  are  most  directly  concerned  with  the 
animal  part  of  their  environmental  complex. 

The  existence  of  any  animal  is  dependent  upon  a  num- 
ber of  physical  factors,  all  of  which  must  be  present  in 
proper  degree  or  quantity.  Minimal  and  maximal  quan- 
tities of  any  one  of  several  factors  mark  the  limits  of 
existence  of  any  animal  {A:  598 — law  of  toleration  of 
physical  factors).  It  is  not  necessary  to  consider  these 
factors  in  detail.  The  animal  reacts  to  physical  environ- 
ment most  evidently  by  its  behavior :  psychological  char- 
acters restrict  activities  more  narrowly  than  do  those  of 
other  types.  They  are  accompanied  by  structural  and 
physiological  characters;  hibernation,  storage  of  food, 
etc.,  are  biographical  characters  correlated  with  seasonal 
changes  in  physical  environment.  Animals  which  are 
subjected  to  very  severe  physical  conditions  may  produce 
a  larger  number  of  offspring  than  those  to  which  physical 
conditions  are  favorable.  This  is  an  example  of  corre- 
lation of  a  numerical  character  with  the  physical  environ- 
ment. 

The  plant  environment  reacts  upon  and  modifies  phys- 
ical and  animal  environments,  and  has  also  direct  influ- 


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418  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL-XLVHI 

ence  upon  the  animal.  In  addition  to  its  effect  in  the  con- 
trol of  temperature,  light  and  other  physical  factors,  the 
vegetation  constitutes  the  basic  food-supply  for  the  ani- 
mal community,  and  also  provides  shelter  and  materials 
for  abode  {A:  601).  Cases  of  direct  association  between 
particular  plants  and  particular  animals  are  numerous, 
but  the  majority  of  animals  have  no  direct  relation  to 
particular  kinds  of  plants.  Behavior  characters  are  in 
general  of  greater  importance  in  the  relation  of  the 
animal  to  the  plant  environment,  though  such  relations 
are  not  confined  to  psychological  characters. 

There  are  two  sets  of  relations  between  the  animal  and 
its  animal  environment.  These  are:  (1)  social,  and  (2) 
antagonistic.  Social  relations  {inter-psychology  and 
inter-physiology  of  Shelf ord.  A:  608,  h)  include  those 
between  individuals  of  the  same  species,  and  between 
animals  of  the  same  or  similar  mores^  (ecologically  equiv- 
alent animals),  in  so  far  as  these  relations  are  not 
antagonistic.  Breeding  and  family  relations  are  the 
principal  activities  which  come  under  this  head.  Be- 
havior characters  are  of  greatest  importance,  as  compared 
with  structural  and  other  characters.  The  antagonistic 
relations  constitute  the  intermores-psychology  and  phys- 
iology of  Shelf  ord  {A :  608,  c) .  They  are  the  antagonistic 
relations  between  animals  not  ecologically  equivalent,  and 
they  are  also  antagonistic  relations  within  a  species  and 
between  ecologically  similar  forms.  These  relations  are 
probably  not  greatly  concerned  with  reproduction,  but 
center  about  the  feeding  activities  of  the  animal.  The 
existence  of  the  individual  animal,  in  its  relation  to  other 
organisms,  is  dependent  upon  three  conditions:  (1)  it 
must  obtain  suitable  and  suflScient  food,  (2)  it  must  be 
free  from  destructive  competition  of  animals  of  similar 
requirements,  (3)  it  must  be  able  to  escape  or  to  with- 
stand attacks  of  other  animals  (or,  sometimes,  of  para- 
sitic fungi  or  bacteria).    The  various  characters  of  the 

2  Mores  (Latin  for  customs,  habits)  has  been  used  bj  Shelf  ord  (1911a: 
30)  to  supply  the  need  for  a  term  including  all  physiological  and  behavior 
characters  of  the  animal. 


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No.  571]  TERRESTRIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  419 

animals  are  correlated  with  all  three  of  these  conditions. 
The  characters  are  both  *' adaptive''  (fixed  by  heredity), 
and  regulatory  (not  fixed). 

Following  is  a  synopsis  of  correlations  between  the 
various  types  of  characters  and  the  three  conditions  of 
existence,  in  the  relation  of  the  animal  to  its  antagonistic 
animal  environment. 

(I)  Characters  Which  Enable  the  Animal  to  Obtain  Food 

1.  Structural  Characters. — ^Animals  of  selective  food- 
habits  often  have  specialized  structures,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  long  tongue  of  woodpeckers.  Animals  of  non-selec- 
tive food-habits  have  mouthparts  that  are  not  so  highly 
specialized ;  thus  grasshoppers  and  cutworms  have  heavy 
mandibles  for  cutting  vegetation;  tiger-beetles  and 
Chrysopa  larvae  have  sharp  piercing  mandibles.  The 
whole  structure  of  the  predaceous  animal,  its  *' action 
system,"  is  sometimes  suggestive  of  the  manner  of  pur- 
suit or  holding  of  its  prey. 

2.  Physiological  Characters. — The  physiology  of  ani- 
mals of  different  food-habits  differs  materially.  Physio- 
logical characters  are  not  apparent,  generally  speaking^ 
and  are  secondary  to  psychological  characters.  The 
range  of  food  assimilable  by  the  animal  is  usually  much 
wider  than  that  selected  by  it,  as  is  seen  when  animals  of 
selective  habits  take  new  kinds  of  food  when  the  usual 
food  is  exhausted,  often  thriving  seemingly  as  well  as. 
before. 

3.  Psychological  Characters. — Selection  of  food  is 
determined  chiefly  by  behavior  characters  of  the  animal. 
These  may  be  so  widely  variable  that  the  animal  will  be 
virtually  omnivorous,  as  in  the  case  of  crickets,  or  so 
narrowly  restricted  that  it  eats  only  a  single  species  of 
plant  or  animal,  as  the  leaf -beetle  Blepharida,  a  sand- 
prairie  insect  eating  leaves  of  the  three-lobed  sumac,  and 
the  pentatomid  bug,  Perillus,  which  feeds  on  Blepharida 
(cf.  E:  49,  30).  Selection  is  only  one  of  the  many  psycho- 
logical characters  relating  to  food.  The  behavior  cnar- 
acters  manifested  in  obtaining  food  are  of  great  variety. 


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420  THE  AMERICAN  NATUBALIS I      [VoL.XLVlIT 

With  these  are  accompanying  structural  and  physiolog- 
ical characters,  which,  however,  play  a  subordinate  part. 

4.  Biographical  Characters. — These  may  consist  in 
timing  the  life-history  of  the  animal  with  that  of  the 
food-species  (plant  or  animal)  in  such  a  way  that  the 
period  of  greatest  activity  of  the  former  coincides  with 
the  period  of  greatest  growth  or  abundance  of  the  latter. 
This  feature  may  be  incidental  to  seasonal  change  of 
physical  environment.  Whatever  its  cause,  it  is  very 
general  in  an  established  association,  so  general  that  it 
is  seldom  recognized.  It  is  of  advantage  to  both  animal 
and  food  species. 

5.  Numerical  Characters. — The  rate  of  reproduction 
must  be  so  adjusted  to  its  food-supply  (plant  or  animal) 
*Hhat  only  the  unessential  surplus  of  this  food  shall  be 
appropriated,  leaving  the  essential  maximum  product 
undiminished''  (Forbes,  1909:  293).  Species  of  re- 
stricted food-habits  must  remain  less  numerous  in  indi- 
viduals than  general  feeders,  as  the  available  food-supply 
is  very  much  less. 

(II)  Characters  Which  Remove  the  Animal  from  the 
Competition  of  Other  Form^ 

1.  Structural  Characters. — Structures  which  permit 
animals  to  live  in  varied  habitats,  to  take  varied  foods, 
or  to  time  their  activities  differently,  remove  each  group 
of  animals  from  competition  of  all  the  others,  resulting 
in  advantage  to  all.  To  that  extent  the  f ossorial  forelegs 
of  the  mole,  the  long  proboscis  of  the  butterfly,  and  modi- 
fications of  the  eyes  of  nocturnal  animals,  are  characters 
which  do  away  with  competition.  The  structural  char- 
acters are,  however,  accompaniments  of  modifications  of 
behavior,  and  are  secondary  to  the  latter. 

2.  Physiological  Characters. — Ability  to  digest  food- 
materials  unavailable  to  other  animals  is  an  advantage- 
ous physiological  character.  Thus  the  leaf-beetle  Chry- 
sochus  auratus,  which  lives  on  dogbane  (Apocynum)^ 
and  the  **  skin-beetle "  Trox,  which  eats  animal  tissues 
in  an  advanced  stage  of  decomposition,  have  few  corn- 


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No.  571]  TERRESTRIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  421 

petitors  for  food.    Physiological,  as  well  as  structural, 
characters,  are  accompaniments  to  modifications  of  habit. 

3.  Psychological  Characters. — Apparent  preference 
for  certain  activities,  certain  habitats,  or  certain  foods, 
together  with  peculiar  behavior  complexes,  seem  to  be  of 
greater  importance  in  removing  animals  from  competi- 
tion than  structural  and  physiological  characters. 
Highly  regulatory  habits  permit  certain  animals  to  ad- 
just themselves  to  changing  conditions  of  competition. 

4.  Biographical  Characters. — ^Professor  Forbes  (1909: 
295-298)  discusses  the  alternative  timing  of  the  active 
period  among  close  competitors  for  food.  (It  so  happens 
that  the  animals  mentioned,  having  almost  identical 
habits,  compete  with  each  other  in  many  ways,  besides 
with  respect  to  food.)  In  the  sand  prairie  it  has  been 
found  that  different  species  of  certain  genera,  having 
otherwise  the  same  habits,  differ  greatly  in  life-history. 
Evidence  of  this  biographical  adjustment  is  more  or  less 
complete  for  two  species  of  Arphia  {E:  21),  two  or  three 
species  of  Hippiscus  {E:  21),  two  species  of  the  milkweed 
beetle,  Tetraopes  {E:  47),  and  three  species  of  P recta- 
canthus,  robber-flies  {E:  55).  In  these  genera  the  term 
of  activity  of  one  species  is  abruptly  followed  by  that  of 
another,  the  successive  periods  usually  covering  most  of 
the  summer  season. 

5.  Numerical  Characters. — ^When  a  certain  limited 
food,  place  of  abode,  or  other  desideratum  is  used  by  two 
or  more  kinds  of  animals  at  one  time,  a  numerical  adjust- 
ment is  likely  to  be  found  among  these  competing  species. 
The  rate  of  multiplication  of  each  species  must  be  suffi- 
cient to  keep  up  its  numbers,  to  allow  it  to  hold  place 
with  competing  species.  (Too  high  rates  of  multiplica- 
tion, on  the  other  hand,  are  disadvantageous  because  of 
other  influences.) 

(Ill)  Protective,  Defensive  and  Concealing  Characters 
1.  Structural  Characters. — Animals  have  various  de- 
fensive, protective  and  concealing  structures.     Stings, 
beaks,  mandibles,  teeth,  claws,  hairs,  spines,  resemblance 


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422  TBE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

to  surroundings  in  color  or  form — all  are  of  advantage  to 
animals  which  possess  them.  Certain  of  the  interstitial 
or  blowsand  animals  resemble  in  color  the  sand  on  which 
they  rest  (Cicindela  lepida,  Stachyocnends,  Psinidia, 
Spharagemon;  ci.  E). 

2.  Physiological  Characters. — Malodorous  and  ill- 
tasting  animals  are  to  a  considerable  degree  exempt  from 
attack.  This  is  essentially  a  physiological  modification, 
though  a  structural  basis  in  the  form  of  glands  may  be 
present.  In  the  sand  prairie  Chrysopa  (lace-winged  fly), 
a  number  of  Hemiptera,  ladybird  beetles,  soldier  bugs 
{Chauliognathus) J  blister-beetles  (Epicauta),  and  others, 
are  ill-tasting  (perhaps  not  to  some  animals).  The 
skunk's  lack  of  caution  is  well  known. 

3.  Psychological  Characters.  —  Self-preservation  in 
animals  depends  more  upon  their  activities  and  behavior 
than  upon  special  structures.  The  ordinary  methods  of 
resisting  or  evading  attacks  of  enemies  are  generally 
known  and  need  not  be  discussed.  Many  specialized  in- 
stincts have  arisen,  such  as  feigning  death,  or  dropping 
to  the  ground  when  disturbed,  as  seen  in  many  herbi- 
colous  beetles. 

4.  Biographical  Characters. — It  is  to  the  advantage  of 
animal  species  preyed  upon  by  others  if  their  period  of 
greatest  abundance  is  timed  with  the  period  of  greatest 
activity  of  the  animals  which  feed  upon  them. 

5.  Numerical  Characters. — Animals,  as  well  as  plants, 
must  produce  a  normal  excess  in  numbers  which  will  pro- 
vide food  for  other  animals  and  still  leave  a  sufficient 
number  of  individuals  to  continue  the  species. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  various  kinds  of  characters 
usually  accompany  one  another,  all  being  parts  of  a 
single  modification.  This  modification  may  have  rela- 
tion to  one  or  to  several  of  the  environmental  influences 
(physical,  plant  or  animal)  or  to  more  than  one  kind  of 
antagonistic  relation  between  the  animal  and  others. 
The  modification  is  not  necessarily  advantageous  to  the 
animal  with  respect  to  all  or  to  any  features  of  the 


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No.  571]  TERRESTRIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  423 

environment,  though  a  large  number  of  characters  do 
result  in  advantage.  Characters  advantageous  in  one 
relation  may  be  disadvantageous  or  indifferent  in  an- 
other relation.  The  origin  of  the  characters  is  not  at 
present  a  subject  which  can  be  treated  in  a  study  of  inter- 
relations of  organisms  (cf.  Shelf ord,  19126:  342).  Be- 
havior  characters  appear  to  be  of  greatest  importance  to 
the  animal  in  determining  its  relations  with  other  organ- 
isms of  the  association,  though  usually  these  are  accom- 
panied by  physiological  or  structural  characters.  The 
animal  is  not  adapted  to  a  particular  status  in  the  asso- 
ciation ;  its  ecological  constitution  determines  what  place 
it  shall  be  able  to  find  among  the  other  animals  of  its  sur- 
roundings. The  relations  among  the  various  animals, 
when  a  state  of  equilibrium  has  been  reached,  are  the 
result  of  mutual  accommodation  on  the  part  of  all  the 
animals  involved. 

D.    Internal  Activities  of  the  Association 

It  has  been  indicated  that  the  complex  of  activities 
within  the  association  is  the  synthesis  of  all  the  activities 
of  the  individual  organisms.  Each  plant  and  each  ani- 
mal is  subjected  to  physical,  plant  and  animal  influences. 
From  the  extreme  complexity  of  the  entire  system  of 
relations  within  the  association,  it  is  hardly  possible  to 
consider  more  than  one  or  several  of  these  at  one  time.^ 
It  is  possible,  however,  to  see  that  each  species  finds  a 
status  within  the  association,  according  to  its  particular 
combination  of  internal  and  external  relations.  It  con- 
tinues in  fairly  constant  numbers  from  year  to  year.  A 
change  in  these  numbers,  if  at  all  great,  may  cause  a  dis- 
turbance in  the  association,  which  is  quickly  regulated 
by  the  activities  of  conflicting  organisms  (Forbes,  1880). 
The  entire  association  of  plants  and  animals,  by  very 

•  Very  helpful  diagrams  are  given  by  Shelf  ord  (C:  167,  168)  which  il- 
lustrate the  food  relations  of  land  (prairie)  animals.  There  are  also  dia- 
grams showing  food  relations  of  aquatic  animals  (C:  70,  71).  Food  rela- 
tions of  animals  of  plains  and  mountain  streams  are  discussed  by  Ellis 
(1914:  122-127;  diagram  on  p.  125).  References  to  studies  dealing  with 
interrelations  of  organisms  may  be  found  in  the  recent  handbook  of  Adams 
(1913:  123  et  seq.). 


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424  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

reason  of  the  conflicting  interests,  the  varying  conditions 
necessary  for  existence,  and  the  varying  methods  of  re- 
sponse to  these  conditions,  forms  a  self-contained  and 
self-regulating  system  of  activities. 

III.    RELATIVE  INFLUENCE  OF  DIFFERENT  ORGANISMS  WITHIN 
THE  ASSOCIATION— DOMINANCE 

The  plant  ecologist  determines  which  plants  in  an  asso- 
ciation are  of  greatest  importance  (dominant)  by  ob- 
serving which  species  tend  to  increase  at  the  expense  of 
others,  which  are  most  abundant,  most  frequent,  largest, 
etc.  Competition  among  plants  in  a  grassland  associa- 
tion is  mainly  for  space,  and  the  dominant  species  are 
usually  determined  with  considerable  accuracy  after  some 
study.  With  the  animals  the  consideration  of  dominance 
involves  greater  complexity.  The  important  relations 
between  conflicting  animal  species  are  those  in  which 
they  obtain  food,  are  removed  from  competition,  or 
escape  enemies.  These  relations  are  in  each  case  most 
directly  concerned  with  food.  The  plant-eaters  of  the 
association  thus  form  a  dominant  group  within  the  asso- 
ciation, since  predaceous  and  parasitic  animals,  and 
scavengers  in  large  part,  depend  upon  them  for  existence. 
Individual  species  within  the  various  food-groups,  how- 
ever, present  such  striking  differences  in  importance, 
that  we  can  not  speak  of  all  plant-eaters  as  dominant 
forms,  or  that  all  animals  of  other  food-habits  are  un- 
important. It  is  merely  probable  that  the  phytophagous 
group  will  contain  a  larger  proportion  of  dominant  spe- 
cies. This  appears  to  be  the  condition  in  the  bunch-grass 
association. 

A.    Factors  of  Dominance  Among  Animals 

The  success  of  an  animal  species  within  an  association 
is  due  to  the  resultant  effect  of  a  large  number  of  factors. 
Among  these  may  be  mentioned  number  of  individuals, 
size,  activity,  voracity,  concentration  of  food,  rapidity  of 
growth,  rapidity  of  reproduction,  and  wideness  of  dis- 
tribution in  space  and  in  time.    Dominance  signifies  more 


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No.  571] 


TERRESTRIAL  ASSOCIATIONS 


425 


than  mere  ability  of  a  species  to  thrive  in  its  surround- 
ings :  the  species  of  greatest  influence  are  those  on  which 
the  greatest  number  of  other  animals  depend ;  thus  domi- 
nant species  are  successful,  but  successful  species  are  not 
always  dominant.  Species  which  are  relatively  free  from 
competition  or  which  have  comparatively  few  enemies 
may  be  successful,  but  are  not  dominant,  and  are  usually 
not  numerous.  Species  which  are  successful  and  at  the 
same  time  extremely  abundant,  usually  form  the  food  of 
a  large  number  of  other  animals,  as  it  appears  to  be  the 
rule  that  no  considerable  source  of  food  within  the  asso- 
ciation is  left  unused.  Dominance  in  a  species,  then, 
would  seem  to  include  the  dependence  of  other  animals 
upon  it,  plus  the  ability  to  thrive  in  spite  of  the  drain 
upon  its  numbers. 

B.  Critebia  of  Dominance  Among  Animals 

The  factors  mentioned  as  contributing  to  the  success 
of  a  species,  and  the  numbers  of  animals  dependent  upon 
the  species,  are  all  indications  of  the  degree  of  its  domi- 
nance. It  appears  that  another  criterion  is  available, 
which  perhaps  expresses  the  summation  of  many  factors 
which  contribute  toward  dominance.  This  is  the  degree 
of  specialization  exhibited  by  the  species  in  its  adjust- 
ment to  a  particular  place  in  the  association.  Dominant 
animals  appear  to  be  those  of  moderately  specialized 
habits  rather  than  those  of  highly  specialized,  or  rela- 
tively unspecialized,  habits. 

C.  Specialized  and  Unspecialized  Animals 

Each  species  may  be  referred  to  a  position  in  the  scale 
of  specialization  in  habit.  The  degree  of  specialization 
of  the  species  is  well  seen  in  the  food-habits,  though  all 
the  habits  are  to  be  considered.  The  most  abundant  food 
in  the  sand  prairie  is  plant  material,  bunch-grasses.  The 
majority  of  the  plant-feeders  are  adapted  to  eat  herbage 
of  nearly  any  kind :  they  are  not  restricted  to  particular 
species  or  particular  parts  of  plants.  They  are  non- 
selective feeders.    Grasshoppers,,  cutworms  and  certain 


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426  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

leaf -beetles  are  thus  moderately  specialized  plant-eaters. 
There  are  also  non-selective  predaceous  animals,  as  tiger- 
beetles  and  lycosid  spiders,  which  eat  any  kind  of  small 
animal.  These  are  also  moderately  specialized.  The 
moderately  specialized  animals  carry  on  the  gross  metab- 
olism of  the  association;  they  constitute  the  dominant 
group,  and  include  the  dominant  species. 

Selective  feeders  belong  with  the  highly  specialized 
animals.  In  the  bunch-grass  association  Languria  hi- 
color,  an  erotylid  beetle,  bores  in  the  stems  of  the  com- 
posite Cacalia  (Indian  plantain),  while  Lygceus  bicrucis 
(hemipterous)  feeds  on  the  same  plant;  Perillus  circum- 
cinctus  eats  Blepharida  rhois.  Others  of  the  associa- 
tion eat  selectively.  The  majority  of  parasites  are 
greatly  restricted  in  their  selection  of  hosts.  Such  ani- 
mals are  particularly  dependent  upon  special  kinds  of 
food,  which  in  many  cases  are  not  available  to  general 
feeders.  Highly  specialized  forms  are  thus  enabled  to 
avail  themselves  of  opportunities  denied  to  animals  of 
generalized  type;  but  while  they  avoid  competition  by 
the  adoption  of  special  kinds  of  food,  or  by  special  habit 
of  some  other  kind,  they  lack  the  versatility  of  the  les§ 
specialized  animals,  being  unable  to  adjust  themselves 
to  changed  conditions.  They  may,  therefore,  become 
abundant  at  times ;  but  as  they  depend  wholly  upon  one 
variable  condition  (perhaps  the  presence  of  a  particular 
plant  species,  which  may  be  quite  infrequent)  they  never 
can  become  dominant  species.  Absolute  numbers  of  the 
insects  which  live  upon  Cacalia,  for  example,  are  insig- 
nificant in  comparison  with  such  animals  as  the  grass- 
hoppers. 

On  the  other  hand,  animals  of  relatively  non-specialized 
habits  would  also  be  ineffective  in  the  association,  for 
whatever  field  of  activity  they  were  to  enter,  they  usu- 
ally would  find  already  occupied  by  some  animal  better 
constituted  for  that  activity.  Such  non-specialized  forms 
would  assume  particular  importance  only  when  some 
animal  on  which  they  might  feed  should  become  unusually 


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No.  571]  TERRESTRIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  427 

abundant.  Few  animals  are  really  non-specialized  in 
habits;  many  moderately  specialized  species,  however, 
may  on  occasion  turn  from  their  ordinary  activities,  per- 
haps to  appropriate  a  particularly  abundant  kind  of  food. 
Many  ants  are  thus  habituated  to  certain  ordinary  kinds 
of  food,  but  are  able  to  eat  organic  food  of  almost  any 
sort,  and  do  vary  their  food  with  circumstance.  When, 
as  frequently  happens,  some  animal  species  becomes  very 
abundant,*  the  attacks  of  a  great  many  species  of  flexible 
habits  becomes  concentrated  upon  it,  and  the  numbers  of 
the  food-species  are  soon  reduced  to  normal.  Animals 
with  non-specialized  habits,  by  taking  whatever  food  is 
easiest  of  access,  act  as  regulators  of  disturbances  within 
the  association.  A  clear  exposition  of  the  manner  in 
which  species  of  generalized  habits  restore  unbalanced 
conditions  to  equilibrium  is  given  in  a  paper  by  Forbes 
(1883),  in  which  the  regulative  action  of  birds  upon 
insect  oscillations  is  discussed. 

The  animal's  status  within  the  association  is  deter- 
mined not  only  by  its  food-habits,  but  by  the  sum-total  of 
its  physiological  and  behavior  characters  (its  mores). 
The  degree  of  dominance  is  indicated  not  merely  by  the 
degree  of  specialization  of  food-habits,  but  in  all  habits, 
by  the  degree  of  flexibility  of  behavior.  An  extreme 
specialization  in  nearly  any  behavior  character,  as  habit 
of  abode  in  the  pit-digging  ant-lion  larva,  prevents  the 
species  from  becoming  dominant.  The  degree  of  spe- 
cialization of  behavior  is  thus  a  convenient  criterion  of 
the  relative  influence  of  animals  in  the  association.  The 
dominant  animals  are  moderately  specialized,  and  carry 
on  the  ordinary  work  of  the  association.  The  highly  spe- 
cialized animals  make  use  of  space  otherwise  unoccupied 
and  food  material  not  demanded  by  other  species.  Cer- 
tain of  the  first  group,  with  habits  more  highly  regulatory 
than  is  usual,  with  perhaps  some  few  unspecialized  forms 

^  With  some  animale  sudden  abundance  is  a  matter  of  seasonal  periodic - 
itjf  as  in  the  case  of  May-flies  (Hexagenia)  along  the  Illinois  Biver  (E:17). 
The  adults  on  emerging  become  a  sudden  source  of  food  for  animals  of  ad- 
joining terrestrial  associations,  as  the  bunch-grass. 


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428  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 

in  addition,  tend,  by  following  the  path  of  least  resist- 
ance, to  act  in  opposition  to  forces  tending  to  destroy  the 
biotic  equilibrium. 

IV.     DISTBIBUTION  WITHIN  THE  ASSOCIATION 

The  association  may  be  subdivided  into  minor  groups 
of  organisms,  both  in  space  and  in  time.  Each  group, 
being  thus  removed  from  the  immediate  influence  of  the 
others,  is  to  some  extent  self-contained,  having  its  own 
environmental  conditions,  its  own  assemblage  of  organ- 
isms, and  its  own  system  of  interrelations. 

A.      DiSTBIBUTION   IN   SpaCE' 

Different  parts  of  the  space  occupied  by  an  association 
present  different  environmental  conditions.  In  the  ver- 
tical distribution,  four  strata,  the  air  (cf.  E:  73),  the 
plant  layer,  the  surface  layer  and  the  underground  layer, 
are  usually  present.  In  forest  associations,  the  plant 
layer  is  complex,  plants  of  various  heights  giving  rise  to 
minor  strata  (cf.  ^).  In  grassland  associations  the  plant 
layer  is  relatively  uniform.  Animals  are  most  numerous, 
during  the  feeding  activity,  in  the  plant  layer.  Others 
find  food  at  the  surface  or  underground.  Many  of  the 
animals  in  the  air  or  on  the  ground  move  about  rapidly 
from  plant  to  plant.  Predaceous  animals  (while  active) 
are  frequently  permanent  members  of  air  and  ground 
layers,  depending  for  food  upon  the  transient  animals 
and  upon  members  of  their  own  group.  The  ground 
stratum  is  composed  of  the  surface  and  subsurface  layers 
{E:  72),  which  are  not,  however,  continuous  horizontally, 
but  alternate  to  greater  or  less  extent. 

Local  variability  in  horizontal  distribution  is  due 
partly  to  local  discontinuity  of  the  various  strata.  This 
interruptedness  is  particularly  conspicuous  in  open  asso- 
ciations, where  the  plants  do  not  form  a  dense  growth, 
but  are  separated  by  open  spaces.  The  subsurface  area 
is  provided  by  cover  of  various  kinds,  which  lies  more  or 
less  scattered  about  on  the  surface. 

»Cf.  Shelf ord,  A,  B,  1912&,  C;  aleo  D:  167;  also  p.  —  of  thin  paper. 


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No.  571]  TERRESTRIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  429 

The  motility  of  the  animal  allows  change  in  stratum, 
and  to  some  extent  and  in  some  animals,  in  habitat,  with 
change  in  activity.  The  food-stratum  and  the  food- 
habitat  are  apparently  of  greatest  importance  in  the  rela- 
tion of  the  animal  to  other  organisms. 

B.      DiSTBIBUTION   IN   TiME 

Physiological  activities  of  the  plants  are  subject  to 
diurnal  variation,  and  are  also  greatly  affected  by  varia- 
tions in  weather  conditions.  The  greater  part  of  the 
animals  of  an  association  are  active  during  the  day. 
Others  are  nocturnal.  During  the  inactive  period  of  the 
day  the  animal  rests  in  some  more  or  less  sheltered  place, 
perhaps  in  a  burrow  or  nest.  The  inactive  state  is  also 
induced  by  unfavorable  weather  conditions. 

Seasonal  changes  in  the  association  are  very  great  in 
temperate  climates,  particularly  in  treeless  regions, 
where  the  winters  are  severe.  Seasonal  changes  in 
the  vegetation  are  marked,  certain  groups  of  the 
plants  appearing  in  successive  periods  during  a  sum- 
mer season,  giving  four  or  five  successive  aspects  to  the 
plant  cover.  A  corresponding  seasonal  distribution  is 
observed  among  the  animals  of  the  association  (cf.  D: 
175). 

Annual  changes  in  the  associations  are  indicated  by 
the  very  marked  differences  in  the  numbers  of  indi- 
viduals, in  certain  species  of  plants  and  animals,  in  suc- 
cessive years.  This  may  be  due  (1)  to  fluctuation  in  the 
numerical  adjustment  between  different  organisms,  and 
(2)  to  the  effect  of  annually  varying  phenological  condi- 
tions upon  the  various  organisms. 

Oscillatory  irregularities  in  the  association  take  place 
at  indefinite  intervals.  The  causes  and  nature  of  oscilla- 
tions have  been  thoroughly  treated  in  several  of  Forbes 's 
writings  (1880,  1883,  1887). 

V.    INTERDEPENDENCE  OF  TEBBESTBIAL  PLANT  AND  ANIMAL 

COMMUNITIES 

The  thesis  of  the  following  section  is  that,  in  terrestrial 
climatic  or  extensive  environments,  the  relations  between 


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430  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVTU 

the  assemblage  of  plants  and  the  assemblage  of  animals 
are  intimate  and  regular  of  occurrence;  so  much  so  that 
(1)  the  two  are  coextensive,  (2)  the  two  constitute  to- 
gether a  community  which  may  be  called  a  biotic  asso- 
ciation, (3)  neither  plant  nor  animal  assemblage  usually 
occurs  independently  of  the  other,  (4)  the  geographic 
distribution  of  many  of  the  plant  and  animal  species 
which  make  up  the  assemblages  are  in  general  corre- 
spondence, (5)  the  species  composition  of  the  association, 
over  its  range,  varies  no  more  widely,  relatively  speak- 
ing, than  would  an  assemblage  of  plants  alone.  Perhaps 
the  single  view-point  of  the  botanist,  on  one  hand,  and 
the  zoologist,  on  the  other,  has  tended  to  a  neglect  of  the 
dual  character  of  the  one  problem.  Probably  most  botan- 
ists and  zoologists  agree  that  relations  of  animals  and 
plants  within  a  habitat  are  most  intimate,  and  there  is 
a  tacit  assumption  that  all  the  organisms  in  one  place 
constitute  the  true  system  of  interrelations,  but  botanists 
have  spoken  of  plant  communities,  and  zoologists  of 
animal  communities.  There  are  numerous  disharmonies 
and  variations  in  agreement  of  plant  and  animal  assem- 
blages, but  these  must  not  be  allowed  to  obscure  general 
facts  of  correspondence. 

It  is  recognized  that  .plants  and  animals  of  an  area  of 
essentially  homogeneous  physical  conditions  are  inter- 
dependent, the  animals  as  a  group  being  wholly  depend- 
ent upon  the  plants  for  food,  and  many  of  the  plants 
being  directly  dependent  upon  animals,  as  in  the  matter 
of  pollination.  All  are  directly  or  indirectly  affected  by 
animals  in  some  way.  It  is  also  recognized  that  the 
plants  are  a  good  index  to  conditions  for  animal  life,  the 
plant  assemblage  affecting  animals  locally  in  modifica- 
tion of  the  physical  environment,  and  more  directly  in 
providing  food,  shelter,  etc.  {A:  601).  It  is  further  ac- 
cepted that  plants  and  animals  respond  to  general  en- 
vironmental conditions  in  similar  manner  (Craig,  1908). 
Thus  considered,  the  character  of  the  plant  population  of 
an  area  is  an  index  to  general  character,  or  ecological 


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TERRESTRIAL  ASSOCIATIONS 


431 


type,  of  the  animal  assemblage.  These  relations,  how- 
ever, are  quite  general,  lacking  detail.  Detailed  consid- 
erations may  be  geographic,  including  geographic  range 
of  species  and  of  communities,  and  the  distribution  of 
species  and  of  individuals  into  communities;  and  they 
may  also  be  local,  dealing  with  interrelations  of  plants 
and  animals  within  the  area  of  the  community. 

A.    Geogbaphic  Relations  op  Tebrestbial  Plants 
AND  Animals 

1.  Geographic  Range:  The  Province. — ^If  one  were  to 
plot  the  geographic  range  of  the  plant  species  found  to- 
gether in  a  given  climatic  habitat,  a  general  correspond- 
ence in  distribution  would  be  made  apparent,  a  large 
number  of  the  species  ranging  more  or  less  continuously 
over  a  common,  rather  definite  area  (cf.  Transeau,  1905). 
The  similar  ecological  constitution  of  these  plants  and 
their  consequent  selective  distribution  into  similar  envi- 
ronmental complexes  gives  a  uniformity  to  the  vegeta- 
tion over  the  geographic  region  in  which  these  environ- 
mental conditions  are  found,  and  the  resulting  vegeta- 
tion unit  is  known  as  a  vegetation  province  (Gleason, 
1910 :  42).  The  area  of  the  province  is  generally  uniform 
in  physical  conditions.  This  uniformity  is  only  relative, 
being  subject  to  gradual  geographic  variation  in  climate, 
perhaps  giving  rise  to  subregions  in  distant  parts  of  the 
province,  and  to  abrupt  local  variations  in  soil,  water- 
content,  exposure,  etc.,  giving  rise  to  local  or  edaphic 
plant  assemblages  very  different  from  those  of  the  cli- 
matic or  geographic  type.  Thus  the  prairie  province 
occupies  the  winter-dry  interior  region  of  North  America. 
Environmental  variations  from  east  to  west,  climatic  and 
physiographic,  divide  the  province  into  the  three  sub- 
regions  of  Pound  and  Clements  (1898).  Certain  plant 
species  range  over  one  or  all  of  these  subregions,  still 
others  establishing  themselves  over  the  whole  area  of  the 
province  and  also  scatteringly  eastward,  in  dry  treeless 
parts  of  the  deciduous  forest  province,  to  the  Atlantic 
coast.    These  last  are  also  typical  prairie  plants,  though 


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432  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

extra-limital  in  parts  of  an  adjoining  province  locally 
approximating  the  prairie  environment. 

The  habitat-selection  of  different  animal  species  re- 
sults, in  precisely  the  same  manner,  in  similarity  of  geo- 
graphic range  among  ecologically  similar  animals.  These 
correspondences  of  distribution  point  to  the  existence  of 
definite  areas  characterized  by  general  similarity  of  the 
animal  assemblages.  As  the  physical  factors  of  the  en- 
vironment are  the  same  ultimately  for  animals  as  for 
plants,  and  as  the  vegetational  environment  for  animals 
has  the  same  range  as  the  physical  environment,  we 
might  expect  animal  communities  to  have  the  same  geo- 
graphic distribution  as  plant  communities,  and  we  might 
expect  the  area  of  the  plant  province  to  be  characterized 
by  distinctive  kinds  of  animals  as  well  as  by  distinctive 
kinds  of  plants.  The  province  is  thus  not  simply  a  vege- 
tation province,  but  a  hiotic  province.  This  is  not  a 
new  notion.  Euthven  (1908:  388-390)  has  stated  a  cur- 
rent viewpoint  as  follows  : 

Those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  literature  of  the  field  zoology  of 
North  America  are  familiar  with  the  fact  that,  since  the  time  of  the 
Pacific  Railroad  surveys,  naturalists  have  noted  that  there  are  in  North 
America  well-defined  biological  regions.  These  have  been  pointed  out 
at  various  times  by  Allen,  Cope,  Merriam,  and  others,  and  the  fauna  of 
each  has  been  more  or  less  investigated. .  . .  For  example,  we  have  forms 
of  birds,  reptiles  and  mammals  characteristic  of  the  southeastern  de- 
ciduous forest  region,  and  still  others  characteristic  of  the  northeastern 
coniferous  forest  region,  etc. 

Shelf ord  {A:  604)  bases  his  classification  of  animal 
regions  upon  that  of  plant  regions,  as  worked  out  by 
Schimper  (1903)  and  Transeau  (1903,  1905). 

How  close  the  correspondence  of  distribution  of  par- 
ticular animals  with  that  of  vegetation  provinces  may  be, 
is  well  shown  in  the  case  of  North  American  rabbits 
(Nelson,  1909).  The  distribution  maps  shown  for  certain 
species  and  groups  of  these  animals  might  almost  serve 
as  maps  of  the  provinces.  Many  other  animals,  verte- 
brate and  invertebrate,  correspond  in  area  with  the  plant 
provinces.    Among  the  insects  listed  by  Hart  (1907 :  205) 


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No.  571]  TEBBESTRIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  433 

as  western  species,  those  for  which  a  number  of  locality 
records  are  available  are  plainly  to  be  assigned  to  the 
prairie  province,  the  range  of  most  of  them  extending 
west  to  the  Eocky  Mountains,  north  about  as  far  as 
Montana,  east  to  Illinois  or  Indiana,  and  south  to  Texas. 

Other  animal  species  bear  apparently  no  relation  to 
province  boundaries.  Such  animals  have  been  discussed 
by  Shelf ord  {A:  606,  footnote),  who  shows  them  to  be  of 
three  types:  (1)  Species  of  scattered  but  very  wide 
range,  covering  perhaps  several  plant  realms  (animals 
of  local  associations  of  extreme  habitats) ;  (2)  Species 
occupying  only  a  part  of  the  plant  realm  in  which  they 
belong  (animals  of  such  ecological  constitution  that  their 
range  is  restricted  by  some  conditions  unfavorable  in 
certain  parts  of  the  province) ;  (3)  Species  occupying 
intermediate  ground  between  two  realms — these  are  few 
(Euthven).  These  exceptional  species  are  found  also  in 
plants,  so  that  local  associations  are  occupied  by  both 
plants  and  animals  of  the  scattered-but-wide  type  of 
range,  while  certain  subregions,  as  the  Great  Plains  area 
of  the  prairie  province,  contain  associations  with  both 
plant  and  animal  species  restricted  to  these  less  extensive 
areas. 

Associations  of  two  adjoining  provinces  may  inter- 
grade^  if  ecologically  similar,  or  may  alternate  if  dis- 
similar. Similar  associations  of  two  provinces  may  con- 
tain the  same  or  closely  related  species,  as  with  certain 
grasshopi>ers  which  range  in  both  northeastern  and  west- 
em  coniferous  provinces  {D:  173).  But  these  same  asso- 
ciations contain  also  plant  species  in  common,  so  that 
irregularities  of  range  are  no  greater  in  animals  than  in 
plants. 

2.  Distribution  Within  the  Province:  Distribution  of 
Plants  and  Animals  into  Communities, — It  is  seen  that 
plant  and  animal  species  may  correspond  closely  in  geo- 
graphic range.  There  may  be  also  more  local  corre- 
spondence in  distribution.  The  plant  community  has 
been  found  by  the  writer  to  be  the  convenient  index  of  the 


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434  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVni 

area  of  the  habitat  for  animals.  It  has  been  observed, 
in  an  area  in  Michigan,  that  grasshopper  species  corre- 
spond closely  in  local  distribution  with  plant  communities 
(/)).  There  is  evidence  that  local  distribution  of  ani- 
mals is  seldom  promiscuous  as  a  result  of  motility  (D: 
159).  It  appears  also  that  the  local  variability  of  envi- 
ronmental conditions  within  the  area  of  the  climatic  plant 
community  is  suflSciently  great,  usually,  to  supply  all 
necessary  conditions  for  a  large  number  of  animals,  so 
that  the  limits  of  the  plant  community  need  not  be 
passed,  ordinarily. 

The  animal  community  of  the  area  may  be  thus,  in  large  measure,  self- 
contained,  and  coextensive  with  the  plant  community  (D:  161). 

One  of  the  problems  of  plant  ecology  has  been  the 
differentiation  of  plant  communities  or  associations. 
Mere  comparison  of  lists  of  species  is  not  sufficient;  rela- 
tive abundance  of  various  species  must  be  considered  as 
well.  Animal  assemblages  in  contiguous  areas  must  be 
separated  in  the  same  way.  Given  two  adjoining  habitats 
differing  in  plant  population,  it  has  been  found  that,  in 
addition  to  differences  of  animal  species,®  there  are  also 
differences  of  relative  abundance  in  those  animal  species 
common  to  the  two  areas  {D:  154,  167). 

The  local  area  of  a  plant  community  is  determined  by 
(1)  local  distribution  of  the  physical  environmental  com- 
plex, and  (2)  influence  (competition,  etc.)  of  adjoining 
plant  communities.  Local  area  of  the  animal  community 
depends  upon  (1)  local  distribution  of  physical  environ- 
ment, and  (2)  local  distribution  of  vegetational  environ- 
ment, the  latter  being  uniform  over  the  area  of  the  plant 
community.  Contiguous  areas  differing  in  physical  and 
vegetational  conditions  will  be  expected  to  differ  also  in 
animal  population,  in  a  degree  comparable  to  that  of  the 
differences  in  environmental  conditions. 

Physical  habitats,  and  plant  communities,  sometimes 
alternate,  sometimes  intergrade ;  it  is  not  unreasonable  to 
expect  accompanying  alternation  or  intergradation  of 

«  Differences  in  species,  both  plant  and  animal,  are  accompanied  l>y  dif- 
ferences in  ecological  constitution. 


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No.  571]  TERRESTBIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  .435 

animal  populations.  Certain  of  the  animal  assemblages 
of  sand  habitats,  as  studied  in  central  Illinois,  intergrade ; 
others,  as  oak  forest  and  bunch-grass,  differ  radically. 

The  above  considerations,  if  correct,  appear  to  signify 
that,  in  ordinary  climatic  development  of  plant  and  ani- 
mal life  in  temperate  land  environments,  the  area  of  the 
animal  assemblage  is  that  of  the  plant  assemblage,  both 
resting  basically  upon  the  physical  environment.  The 
plant  and  animal  assemblages  are  therefore  coextensive 
parts  of  a  biotic  association,  composed  of  both  plants 
and  animals,  and  this  association  as  a  whole  constitutes 
the  real  terrestrial  community  of  living  organisms. 

B.    Local,  Eelations  of  Plant  and  Animal  Assemblages 
(Eelations  Within  the  Association) 

The  more  intimate  relations  between  plants  and  ani- 
mals are  ^een  in  the  detailed  study  of  a  single  associa- 
tion. The  bunch-grass  association  of  sand  prairie  is 
selected  for  illustration  (E:  68). 

1.  Similarity  of  Ecological  Type  of  Plants  and  Ani- 
mals.— Shelf ord  has  shown  {A:  593-594)  that  animals 
and  plants  may  evince  ecological  similarity  by  similar 
response  to  the  same  general  environmental  conditions, 
behavior  responses  in  animals^  corresponding  to  struc- 
tural responses  in  plants,®  so  that  mores  of  the  animal 
may  be  in  accord  with  growth-form  in  the  plant.  Shel- 
ford  states  {B:  87)  that  ''plants  and  animal  communities 
are  in  full  agreement  when  the  growth-form  of  each 
stratum  of  the  plant-community  is  correlated  with  the 
conditions  selected  by  the  animals  of  that  stratum.'' 

In  the  bunch-grass  there  is  general  agreement,  ac- 
cording to  this  criterion.  The  herbaceous  stratum  is  oc- 
cupied mainly  by  tuft  and  mat  plants — bunch-grasses, 
cactus  and  a  few  half-shrubs.  Associated  with  the  tuft  or 
mat  growth-form  is  the  sedentary  mores  of  the  plant- 
inhabiting  animals  (leaf -beetles,  stem-borers,  ambush- 
bugs,  etc.).   A  considerable  proportion  of  ground  surface 

.  7  Or  motile  organisms,  cf.  C:  305. 
•  Or  sessile  orjj^nisms. 


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436  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATUBALIST      [Vol.  XLVEI 

is  bare  sand;  in  the  interspaces  between  the  dommant 
plants  are  slender  annuals  (interstitial  plants),  and  here 
are  also  found  animals  of  the  roving  mores  of  the  ground 
stratum  (interstitial  animals).  Many  of  these  are  swift- 
running  and  predaceous  (six-lined  lizard,  tiger  beetles, 
lyeosid  spiders). 

Correspondence  in  ecological  type  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals in  the  bunch-grass  is  not  complete  in  several  re- 
spects. Shelf ord  mentions  types  of  disagreement  {B: 
88;  C:  306-308),  and  there  is  a  further  important  kind  of 
disharmony,  in  mixed  associations,  due  to  presence  of 
diverse  types  of  plants  and  animals  {D:  163).  Mixed 
associations  are  quite  frequent  in  forest  border  regions, 
and  in  the  transition  area  between  two  provinces.  The 
plant  and  animal  assemblages  of  a  given  habitat,  partic- 
ularly if  climatic  and  extensive,  are  usually  in  general 
ecological  agreement,  and  the  exceptions  are  likely  to  be 
infrequent  or  temporary  (Shelf ord,  B:  88). 

2.  Relative  Dependence  of  Plant  and  Animal  Assem- 
blages.— There  is  evidence  that  the  agreement  of  plant 
and  animal  assemblages  of  terrestrial  associations  is 
often  a  matter  of  accommodation  on  the  part  of  the 
animal  assemblage.  In  the  early  stages  of  development 
of  vegetation,  local  physical  conditions  dominate;  in 
later  stages  the  vegetation  assumes  the  type  determined 
by  climatic  conditions,  and  exerts  nearly  complete  con- 
trol over  local  physical  factors.  In  established  associa- 
tions, therefore,  the  locally  dominating  environmental 
feature  is  the  vegetation.  Shelford  states  that  in  the 
several  associations  of  a  successional  series,  the  domi- 
nating animal  mores  are  correlated  with  the  dominating 
conditions  {B:  94)  and  that,  as  the  forest  increases  in 
density,  the  animals  make  use  of  the  vegetation  in  in- 
creasing degree,  particularly  for  breeding-places,  and  as 
places  of  abode  {B:  90).  Many  grasshoppers  of  open 
grassland  depend  upon  a  particular  kind  of  soil  for  egg- 
laying,  while  those  of  closed  forest  lay  eggs  in  fallen 
logs — a  condition  of  the  plant  environment   (D:  163). 


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No.  571] 


TEBBESTBIAL  ASSOCIATIONS 


437 


The  sand-prairie  vegetation  is  in  an  intermediate  stage, 
certain  animals  depending  chiefly  on  the  presence  of 
loose  bare  sand,  others  on  the  bunch-grass  vegetation. 
With  development  of  bunch-grass  into  closed  grassland, 
the  interstitial  animals  are  eliminated.  The  animals  of 
established  associations,  while  in  accord  with  climatic 
physical  conditions,  are  perhaps  more  intimately  affected 
by  vegetation  conditions.  Since  established  associations 
are  very  much  more  extensive  than  primitive  associa- 
tions, the  importance  of  vegetation  as  a  dominating  part 
of  the  environment  for  animals  becomes  apparent,  and 
we  may  conclude  that  the  character  of  the  plant  assem- 
blage determines,  to  a  large  extent,  the  ecological  type 
of  the  animal  assemblage. 

3.  Correspondence  in  Distribution  within  the  Associa- 
tion.— The  uniformity  of  physical  and  vegetational  con- 
ditions is  only  relative.  There  are  spots  in  the  bunch- 
grass  association  in  which  local  invasion  of  blue  grass 
has  occurred,  darkening  and  binding  the  soil.  In  such 
partly  humified  situations,  small  colonies  of  the  corn- 
field ant,  not  occurring  elsewhere  in  the  bunch-grass  {Er 
57),  have  been  found.  There  are  also  areas  some  few 
feet  in  diameter  in  which  the  bunqjies  of  grass  are  few, 
small  and  scattered.  In  these  relatively  bare  patches  the 
abundance  of  interstitial  animals  is  greatly  increased. 
More  direct  relations  are  seen  in  the  case  of  animals 
associated  with  particular  species  of  plants.  Within  the 
association,  any  animal  species,  like  any  plant  species, 
may  be  distributed  generally  throughout  the  area,  or  it 
may  be  restricted  to  a  part  of  the  area  characterized  by 
a  slight  environmental  difference,  or  it  may  occur  in 
scattered  parts  of  the  association,  characterized  by 
scattered  local  differences  {D:  168).  There  is  evidence 
that,  in  so  far  as  the  vegetational  environment  is  con- 
cerned, distribution  of  animals  within  the  association  is 
usually  a  direct  function  of  similar  distribution  of  plants. 

4.  Uniformity  of  Species  Composition  of  Plant  and 
Animal  Assemblages. — It  has  been  seen  that  plant  assem- 


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438  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

blages  of  definite  ecological  type,  as  regards  growth- 
form,  etc.,  are  regularly  accompanied  by  animal  assem- 
blages of  similar  ecological  type,  as  regards  mores.  In- 
terest attaches  also  to  the  problem  whether  associated 
plant  and  animal  assemblages  show  definite  species 
relations. 

One  familiar  with  a  certain  association,  who  visits  a 
representation  of  that  same  growth  in  a  different  part 
of  the  same  climatic  region,  will  be  struck  with  the  fact 
that  a  large  proportion  of  both  plant  and  animal  species 
is  well  known,  while  a  certain  proportion,  perhaps  con- 
siderably smaller,  is  new  to  him.  The  writer  has  been 
impressed  with  the  similarity  of  the  plant  and  animal 
populations  of  the  sandhills  of  central  Nebraska  and  of 
eastern  Colorado,  to  those  of  the  sand  prairie  of  central 
and  western  Illinois,  despite  the  fact  that  certain  species 
are  not  common  to  the  two  areas.  Tiger-beetles,  blow- 
snake,  grasshoppers,  box-turtle,  six  lined  lizard,  western 
meadow-lark,  white-footed  mouse,  among  the  animals; 
prickly-pear,  lead-plant,  bunch-grasses,  sand-bur,  sand 
evening  primrose,  among  the  plants;  are  represented' in 
the  two  areas  either  by  the  same  or  by  closely  related 
varieties  and  species.  There  are  no  yuccas  or  sand-sages 
in  the  Illinois  sand  prairie,  no  lizard  Holbrookia  nor 
lubber-grasshopper  Brachystola;  and  there  are  certain 
eastern  species  not  found  in  the  western  sandhills.  But 
on  the  whole  the  species  (particularly  the  important 
species)  common  to  the  two  areas  are  more  numerous. 
This  is  the  more  remarkable  in  view  of  the  fact  that  dis- 
tribution of  sand  prairie  is  discontinuous,  the  largest, 
nearly  uninterrupted  gap  being  several  hundred  miles  in 
extent.  Many  of  the  animals,  as  well  as  plant  species,  of 
dry  mixed  prairie-grass  in  loamy  soil,  are  the  same  along 
the  mountain-front  in  Colorado  (Vestal,  19146)  as  in 
north-central  Illinois.  The  likenesses  become  much  more 
impressive  as  distance  is  decreased. 

Absolute  identity  of  species  composition,  where  large 
numbers  of  species  are  involved,  is  an  ideal  condition. 


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No.  571]  TERRESTRIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  439 

never  actually  attained.  No  one  can  say  just  what  pro- 
portion of  species-in-common  is  necessary  for  two 
growths  to  be  said  to  represent  the  same  association.  In 
addition  to  likenesses  and  differences  of  environment,  of 
aspect,  and  of  history,  which  must  be  weighed,  the  differ- 
ent plant  and  animal  species  vary  so  mtch  in  importance 
in  the  association,  in  physiological  variation  and  in  range 
of  environmental  tolerance,  that  associations  can  hardly 
be  separated  or  placed  together  on  a  statistical  basis.  A 
comparison  of  species  is  fair  if  the  following  kinds  of 
plants  and  animals  are  left  out  of  consideration;  (1) 
those  of  limited  range  within  the  climatic  region  or  prov- 
ince, including  species  belonging  more  properly  to  other 
provinces;  (2)  those  of  very  indefinite  habitat-relations, 
which  are  found  in  nearly  any  kind  of  habitat;  (3)  those 
of  special  restricted  habitats,  which  may  be  scattered 
about  in  many  kinds  of  associations,  as  moist  dead  wood, 
in  which  particular  fungi,  beetles,  perhaps  snails,  myrio- 
pods  and  pill-bugs,  are  usually  found ;  or  as  excrement  of 
grazing  animals,  in  which  certain  molds,  certain  dipter- 
ous and  scarabaeid  larvae,  etc.,  regularly  occur,  irrespect- 
ive of  surrounding  conditions;  (4)  invaders  from  near- 
by associations;  (5)  ruderal  and  introduced  species;  and 
possibly  one  or  two  other  groups.  The  second  and  third 
groups  may  be  called  the  irregular  element;  the  fourth 
and  fifth  may  be  known  as  the  derived  element.  While 
these  groups  make  a  formidable  list,  their  representa- 
tives constitute  usually  a  very  small  proportion  of  the 
organisms  of  the  association.  The  other  organisms,  and 
some  of  these,  follow  habitat-differences,  as  represented 
in  different  associations,  very  closely. 

Since  hardly  any  two  species  are  identical  in  habitat- 
relations,  geographic  and  even  local  variation  must  be 
looked  for,  but  since  many  species  resemble  each  other 
more  or  less  closely  in  general  ecological  relations,  there 
come  to  be  recognized  certain  ecological  groups  of  spe- 
cies, each  characterized  by  a  general  type  of  growth-form 
in  plants,  or  by  a  general  kind  of  mores  in  animals,  and 


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440  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

these  groups  may  be  considered  to  be  small  or  large, 
according  as  we  emphasize  minor  differences  or  general 
likenesses. 

Now  within  any  limited  region  (let  us  postulate  first 
an  area  removed  from  the  influence  of  an  adjoining  prov- 
ince) there  are  only  a  limited  number  of  ecological 
groups,  of  growth-forms  of  plants,  and  of  mores  among 
animals,  each  group  represented  by  a  limited  collection 
of  species.  Each  habitat  within  this  restricted  area  will 
be  characterized  by  definite  physical  conditions,  and  with 
these  will  be  correlated  certain  growth-forms  of  plants 
and  certain  mores  of  animals,  each  represented  by  as 
many  of  the  species  as  can  migrate  into  and  survive 
within  the  area,  as  determined  first  by  capabilities  of 
migration  and  by  habitat-selection,  and  second  by  inter- 
relation of  species  and  of  individuals.  It  follows  that 
physical  complexes  which  are  alike  will  become  populated 
with  similar  complexes  of  ecological  groups,  represented 
by  similar  collections  of  plant  and  animal  species,  and 
that  unlike  physical  areas  will  be  occupied  by  different 
combinations  of  ecological  groups,  and  will  be  composed 
of  different  species.  Two  areas  within  this  region  which 
have  similar  physical  conditions  and  similar  plant 
growths  will  be  expected  to  have  a  large  number  of  ani- 
mal species  in  common,  although  direct  relations  between 
species  of  animals  and  species  of  plants  obtain  only 
rarely  (between  comparatively  few  associated  plant-and- 
animal  pairs).  It  is  to  be  noted  that  species  composition 
of  the  animal  assemblage  varies  proportionately  no  more 
widely  than  does  that  of  the  plant  assemblage. 

No  terrestrial  continental  region  is  sufficiently  isolated 
to  be  free  from  influence  of  surrounding  areas,  and  since 
the  influences  are  different  from  different  directions,  and 
since  there  is  continual  change  of  physical  conditions,  and 
of  range  and  abundance  of  plant  and  animal  species, 
there  must  be  more  or  less  local  and  geographic  varia- 
tion of  species  composition  within  similar  but  separated 
habitats.    Geographic  variation  is  wider  with  distance. 


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J^p.  571] 


TEBRESTBIAL  ASSOCIATIONS 


441 


because  the  geographic  and  physiographic  complexes 
vary  geographically,  as  well  as  the  entire  collection  of 
plant  and  animal  species  which  may  invade  the  habitat. 
Within  the  area  of  the  climatic  province,  however,  or  at 
least  within  the  area  of  a  subregion  of  the  province, 
climatic,  physiographic  and  biotic  complexes  are  likely 
to  be  relatively  constant,  that  is,  likenesses  of  two  areas 
are  likely  to  be  greater  and  more  striking  than  differ- 
ences. Within  the  province  or.  subregion,  therefore,  it 
is  to  be  expected  that  species  composition  of  association 
of  closely  similar  habitats  will  be  relatively  constant 
Particular  plant  and  animal  assemblages  will  be  found 
together,  both  associated  with  a  particular  habitat.  Field 
observation  bears  out  these  expectations. 

Conditions  within  the  transition  zone  between  two 
climatic  regions  or  provinces  are  much  more  complex 
than  in  an  area  in  the  middle  of  a  sub-region  or  province ; 
climatic  and  physiographic  conditions  vary  to  wider 
extremes  and  are  less  stable ;  the  total  number  of  species 
near  enough  at  hand  to  invade  a  given  habitat  is  much 
greater.  Mixed  associations,  often  transitional  as  re- 
gards physical  conditions,  are  composed  of  representa- 
tives of  both  provinces.  Animals  of  a  particular  associa- 
tion of  one  province,  may  be  found  with  plants  of  a 
similar  or  equivalent  association  of  the  other  province. 
When  three  geographic  elements  are  represented,  as  at 
the  southern  end  of  Lake  Michigan  (cf.  C,  and  Vestal, 
1914a),  the  complication  of  conditions  is  extreme.  Even 
here,  on  the  dry  sand  of  old  lake  beaches,  fairly  typical 
representations  of  sand  prairie  can  be  seen ;  and  though 
such  habitats  are  shared  with  deciduous  forest  associa- 
tions, and  with  associations  of  the  northeastern  coniferous 
forest  province,  and  with  mixed  associations,  the  bunch- 
grass  growth  can  still  be  recognized  in  dry  shifting  sterile 
sand,  with  bunch  grass  plant  species,  and  bunch-grass 
animal  species.  The  tendency  towards  uniformity  of 
association  of  plant  and  animal  assemblages  is  even  here 
to  be  made  out. 


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442  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

If  the  foregoing  considerations  relating  to  relations 
between  plant  and  animal  communities  are  correct,  the 
thesis  mentioned  at  the  beginning  of  part  V  would  seem 
to  be  justified,  though  the  evidence  is  far  from  complete. 
Plant  and  animal  assemblages  are  mutually  interdepend- 
ent; the  plant  assemblage  dominates  in  established 
associations.  Plant  and  animal  assemblages  correspond 
in  geographic  distribution,  in  distribution  into  commu- 
nities, and  in  more  detailed  distribution  within  the 
habitat.  They  are  made  up  of  ecologically  similar  groups 
correlated  with  the  same  physical  conditions  or  with 
each  other.  Though  there  are  few  direct  relations  be- 
tween particular  species  of  plants  and  animals,  it  so 
happens  that  within  any  restricted  region,  particular 
collections  of  animal  species  come  into  regular  associa- 
tion with  particular  collections  of  plant  species,  the  spe- 
cies composition  within  the  habitat  exhibiting  a  greater 
or  less  degree  of  uniformity,  except  for  minor  irregular 
and  derived  elements.  The  more  restricted,  or  uniform 
in  biological  conditions,  this  region  is,  the  greater  the 
uniformity  of  the  collection  of  species.  Climatic  and  ex- 
tensive associations,  and  established  associations,  show  a 
greater  degree  of  uniformity  than  local  or  primitive 
associations. 

VI.     SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS 

The  discussion  is  based  principally  upon  the  writer's 
study  of  prairie  associations,  the  bunch-grass  associa- 
tion of  sand  prairie  in  Illinois  being  chiefly  used  for  illus- 
tration. Internal  activities  of  the  association  are  a  com- 
plex of  activities  of  all  the  organisms.  Environmental 
influences  are  of  three  classes,  physical,  plant  and  animal. 
The  characters  of  plants  and  animals  are  interpreted  in 
their  relation  to  these  influences.  Characters  of  plants 
may  be  classed  as  structural,  physiological,  biographical 
and  numerical.  Animals  have,  in  addition,  behavior  or 
psychological  characters.  These  groups  of  characters 
are  intimately  related,  one  to  another.  The  relations  of 
the  animal  to  its  animal-environment  are  of  two  kinds, 


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No.  571]  TERRESTRIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  443 

social  and  antagonistic,  the  latter  relations  being  with 
food-species,  competitors  and  enemies.  Correlations  of 
the  various  kinds  of  characters  with  relations  involving 
food,  competition  and  enemies,  are  given.  According  to 
its  ecological  constitntion,  each  organism  finds  a  status 
in  the  association,  the  whole  being  a  self-contained  and 
self -regulating  system  of  activities. 

Dependencies  within  the  association  are  concerned 
mainly  with  sources  and  interchange  of  material  and 
energy.  Dominant  plants  (the  most  influential  species) 
are  those  most  intimately  correlated  with  physical  en- 
vironment, as  indicated  by  aggressiveness,  abundance, 
frequence,  size,  etc.  Domiaant  animals  are  most  numer- 
ous among  phytophagous  forms.  Dominance  in  an  ani- 
mal species  includes  dependence  of  other  animals  upon  it 
(for  food)  plus  the  ability  to  thrive  in  spite  of  the  drain 
upon  its  numbers.  The  degree  of  specialization  of  be- 
havior is  a  convenient  index  of  the  relative  influence  of 
animals  in  the  association.  The  dominant  animals  are 
moderately  specialized,  and  carry  on  the  ordinary  work 
of  the  association.  The  highly  specialized  animals  make 
use  of  space  otherwise  unoccupied,  and  food  material  not 
available  to  other  species,  or  not  taken  by  other  forms. 
Least  highly  specialized  animals  act  as  a  check  upon 
undue  departure  from  biotic  equilibrium. 

The  association  may  be  divided  into  minor  groups  of 
organisms,  both  in  space  and  in  time.  Space-division  is 
vertical,  resulting  in  strata,  and  horizontal,  resulting  in 
sub-habitats  of  greater  or  less  magnitude.  The  strata 
and  sub-habitats  present  a  larger  or  smaller  degree  of 
discontinuity  and  of  internal  variability.  Time-distribu- 
tion is  diurnal,  seasonal  and  annual.  There  are  also 
time- variations  produced  by  variability  of  weather  condi- 
tions and  by  oscUlatory  disturbances. 

The  relations  between  plant  and  animal  assemblages 
have  long  been  known,  in  a  general  way,  to  be  intimate. 
Plants  and  animals  agree  in  similar  response  to  common 
environmental  influence,  and  in  types  of  geographic  dis- 


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444  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

tribution.  Upon  investigation,  it  begins  to  appear  that 
plant  and  animal  assemblages  are  coextensive  parts  of  a 
biotic  association,  composed  of  both  plants  and  animals, 
and  this  association  as  a  whole  constitutes  the  real  ter- 
restrial community  of  living  organisms.  Plant  and  ani- 
mal assemblages  are  mutually  interdependent ;  the  plant 
assemblage  dominates  in  established  associations.  Plant 
and  animal  assemblages  correspond  in  geographic  dis- 
tribution, in  distribution  into  communities,  and  in  more 
detailed  distribution  within  the  habitat.  They  are  made 
up  of  ecologically  similar  groups  correlated  with  the 
same  physical  conditions  or  with  each  other.  Though 
there  are  few  direct  relations  between  particular  species 
of  plants  and  animals,  it  so  happens  that  within  any 
restricted  region,  particular  collections  of  animal  species  • 
come  into  regular  association  with  particular  collections 
of  plant  species,  the  species  composition  within  the  habi- 
tat exhibiting  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  uniformity, 
except  for  minor  irregular  or  derived  elements.  The 
more  restricted  in  area,  or  uniform  in  biological  condi- 
tions, this  region  is,  the  greater  uniformity  of  the  collec- 
tion of  species.  Climatic  and  extensive  associations  show 
a  higher  degree  of  uniformity  than  local  or  primitive 
associations. 

VII.  REFERENCES 

r>  Special  Befereiices 

(A)  Shelf ord,  V.  E. 

19116.     Physiological  Animal  Geography.    Jour,  Morph.,  22:  551- 
618. 


1912a.     Ecological    Succession.     IV.  Vegetation   and   the  Control 
of  Land  Animal  Communities.    Biol,  BuU.,  23:  59-99. 


1913.     Animal  Communities  in  Temperate  America.     Geogr.  Soc. 

of  Chicago,  Bull.  No.  5,  p.  362.    Chicago. 
(D)  Vestal,  A.  G. 

1913a.     Local  Distribution  of  Grasshoppers  in  Relation  to  Plant 

Associations.     Biol.  Bull,  25:   141-180. 


(E) 


1913&.     An  Associational   Study  of  Illinois   Sand  Prairie.     Bull. 

III.  State  Lab.  Nat,  Hist.,  10:  1-96. 
Other  Articles  Cited 
Adams,  C.  C. 

1913.     Guide  to  the  Study  of  Animal  Ecology,  p.  183.    New  York. 


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No.  571]  TEBBESTBIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  445 

Craig,  W. 

1908.  North  Dakota  Life:   Plant,  Animal,  and  Human.     Bull  Am. 

Geogr,  Soc,  40:  321-332,  401-415. 
Ellis,  M.  M. 

1914.    Fiahes  of  Colorado.     Univ,  CoXO.  Studies,  11 :  1-136. 
Forbes,  S.  A. 

1880.    On  Some  Interactions  of  Organisms.  Bull.  III.  State  Lab.  Nat. 

Hist.,  Vol.  1,  No.  3,  pp.  3-17. 
1883.     The  Begulative  Action  of  Birds  upon  Insect  Oscillations.    Bull. 

m.  State  Lab.  Nat.  His.,  Vol.  1,  No.  6,  pp.  3-32. 
1887.    The  Lake  as  a  Microcosm.     Beprint  from  Bull.  Sci.  Assoc,  of 
Peoria,  III.,  pp.  1-15. 

1909.  The  General  Entomological  Ecology  of  the  Indian  Com  Plant. 

Am.  Nat.,  43:  286-301. 
Gates,  F.  C. 

1912.     The  Vegetation  of  the  Beach  Area  in  Northeastern  Illinois  and 

Southeastern  Wisconsin.    Bull.  HI.  State  Lab.  Nat.  Hist.,  9: 

255-372. 
Gleason,  H.  A. 

1910.  The  Vegetation  of  the  Inland  Sand  Deposits  of  Dlinois.    Bull. 

Ill  State  Lab.  Nat.  Hist.,  9:  23-174. 
Hart,  C.  A.,  and  Gleason,  H.  A. 

1907.  On  the  Biology  of  the  Sand  Areas  of  IlHnois.    Bull  III  State 

Lab.  Nat.  Hist.,  7:  137-272. 
Nelson,  E.  W. 

1909.     The  Babbits  of  North  America.     Bur.  BioL  Surv.,  U.  S.  Dept. 
Agr.,  N.  Am.  Fauna  No.  29,  pp.  314. 
Pound,  R,  and  Clements,  F.  E. 

1898.     The  Vegetation  Eegions  of  the  Prairie  Province.    Bot.  Gas.,  25: 
381-394. 
Buthven,  A.  G. 

1908.  The  Faunal  Affinities  of  the  Prairie  Begion  of  Central  North 

America.    Am.  Nat.,  42:  388-393. 
Schimper,  A.  F.  W. 

1903.    Plant  Geography  upon  a  Physiological  Basis.    Oxford. 
Shelford,  V.  E. 

1911a.    Ecological  Succession.     I.     Stream  Fishes  and  the  Method  of 

Physiographic  Analysis.    Biol  Bull,  21:  9-35. 
1912&.    Ecological  Succession.     V.     Aspects  of  Physiological  Classifi- 
cation.   Biol  Bull,  23:  331-370. 
Vestal,  A.  G. 

1914(1,    The  Status  of  Prairie  Associations  in  the  Southern  Beach  Areas 

of  Lake  Michigan.     Jour.  Ecology.     (In  press.) 
1914.    Prairie  Vegetation  of  a  Mountain-front  Area  in  Colorado.    Bot. 
Gae.     (In  press.) 
Transeau,  E.  N. 

1903.    On  the  Geographic  Distribution  and  Ecological  Eelation  of  Bog 

Plant  Societies.    Bot.  Gajg.,  36 :  401  et  seq. 
1905.    Forest  Centers  of  Eastern  America.    Am.  Nat.,  39:  875-889. 


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SHOETEE  AETICLES  AND  DISCUSSION 

ANOTHER  HYPOTHESIS  TO  ACCOUNT  FOR  DR. 
SWINGLE'S  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  CITRUS 

The  results  of  the  cross-breeding  experiments  with  forms  of 
Citrus  by  Walter  Swingle  have  given  rise  to  quite  a  number  of 
different  hypotheses,  to  account  for  the  facts  observed. 

The  facts  are  simply  these.  All  the  different  forms  of  Citrus 
used  in  the  experiments,  Citrus  trifoliata,  th€  lemon,  orange  and 
other  citrous  fruits  have,  so  far,  proved  to  reproduce  their  own 
type  through  seed. 

Nevertheless,  the  plants  raised  from  one  single  cross  are  ex- 
ceedingly different  among  themselves.  And  yet,  all  these  new 
forms,  for  so  far  as  tested,  have  proved  truly  to  reproduce  their 
own  kind  only,  if  sown. 

The  theories  offered  to  account  for  these  facts  are  rather  com- 
plex. So  far,  we  have  not  seen  the  simple  hypothesis  which  we 
want  to  add  to  the  others. 

The  fact,  that  the  Fi  from  almost  every  cross  between  types  of 
Citrus  is  multiform,  can  only  be  accounted  for  on  the  assumption, 
that  the  parent  plants  are  impure  (heterozygous)  for  a  number 
of  genes.  The  difficult  question  is  this :  how  can  a  tree,  impure 
for  a  number  of  genes,  produce  seed  which  always  only  repro- 
duces the  type?  We  know,  that  if  a  plant  reproduces  itself 
by  an  asexual  method,  all  its  daughter  plants  are  pure  for 
those  genes  in  respect  to  which  it  was  pure,  impure  for  those 
genes  for  which  it  was  impure.  Is  it  possible  that  in  these 
trees  the  seeds  normally  produced  are  not  derived  from  a  union 
between  two  normal  gametes?  In  Citrus,  with  its  adventitious 
embryos,  this  is  very  well  possible.  If  the  forms  of  Citrus  used 
by  Dr.  Swingle  are  self-sterile,  the  seeds  normally  produced  by 
these  trees,  are  not  produced  by  the  union  of  two  gametes,  but 
as  buds,  asexually. 

This  hypothesis,  that  the  Citrus  used  are  self -sterile,- and  that 
the  seeds  normally  produced,  are  produced  asexually,  fully  ac- 
counts for  all  the  facts.  All  the  daughter  plants  from  un- 
crossed seeds  are  genotypically  identical  with  the  mother  plant, 
as  in  all  clones.  On  poUenization  by  another  tree,  normal  seeds 
are  produced,  each  the  result  of  the  union  of  two  real  gametes. 

446 


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No.  571]        SHOETEB  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  447 

These  seeds  contain  different  combinations  of  the  genes,  for 
which  the  parent  plants  are  impure,  as  normally.  The  Fj  gener- 
ation for  this  reason  becomes  as  diverse  as  such  generations 
always  are,  if  the  parents  are  impure  for  numerous  genes. 

But  these  daughter  plants^  although  impure  for  a  number  of 
genes,  can,  because  of  their  self -sterility,  in  their  turn  only  pro- 
duce seed  asexually  and  therefore  their  offspring  will  be  like 
themselves. 

It  should  not  be  diflBcult  to  test  our  hypothesis.  It  seems 
easier  to  find  out,  whether  the  seeds  produced  without  crossing  in 
jCitrus  contain  the  embryo  formed  by  fertilization  of  the  em- 
bryo sac,  or  embryos  formed  adventitiously  by  the  adjacent  tis- 
sue, than  to  test  any  of  the  other  theories,  which  assume  a  pecul- 
iar behavior  of  the  chromosomes. 

Our  hypothesis,  that  a  variable  Fj,  of  only  true-breeding 
plants  (from  the  union  of  two  true-breeding  forms),  results 
from  habitual  self-sterility  and  asexual  production  of  seed,  with 
real  fertilization  in  the  case  of  a  cross  taking  place,  not  only 
accounts  for  the  facts  found  by  Swingle,  but  also  for  those  found 
by  Kosen  with  Erophila  vema.  These  facts  were  somewhat  dif- 
ferent. The  Fi  plants  were  all  identical,  and  somewhat  inter- 
mediate. They  gave  rise  to  a  variable  Fj  generation  of  which 
all  the  plants  bred  true  to  their  type.  These  facts  can  be  ex- 
plained on  the  assumption,  that  Erophila  vema  is  self-sterile, 
and  that,  in  the  absence  of  cross-fertilization,  unfertilized  egg- 
cells  develop  parthenogenetically.  Such  F^  plants,  which  are 
impure  for  a  number  of  genes,  should  therefore  produce  as  many 
different  kinds  of  F^  plants,  as  there  are  female  gametes  pro- 
duced, and  in  the  same  proportions.  In  the  case  of  such  a  plant 
being  impure  for  two  genes,  we  should  expect  it  to  produce 
plants  of  the  four  different  types,  not  in  the  usual  proportion  of 
9:3:3:1,  but  in  equal  proportions,  1:1:1:1.  The  F^  plants 
from  such  seed  could  only  be  pure  for  all  the  genes  present. 

It  would  be  possible  in  Erophila  vema  to  find  out  whether  F^ 
plants,  impure  for  two  genes,  produced  daughter  plants  of  the 
four  kinds,  AB,  Ab,  aB,  and  ah,  in  the  proportion  of  9 : 3 : 3 : 1, 
or  in  proportion  1:1:1:1,  and  thus  to  test  our  hypothesis. 

To  find  out,  whether  it  is  possible,  that  aC  plant,  impure  for  a 
number  of  genes,  produces  a  variable  F2  generation  of  only 
completely  homozygous  plants,  we  have  begun  a  series  of  experi- 
ments with  squashes.    Some  hybrid  plants  have  not  produced  a 


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448  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIU 

single  fruit  from  carefully  sealed  female  buds,  others  have  given 
plenty  of  empty  fruit,  but  some  hybrids  have  produced  several 
fruits,  full  of  viable  seed.  If  this  seed  is  formed  by  the  par- 
thenogenetic  development  of  unfertilized  normal  egg-oells,  as 
we  have  reason  to  believe,  we  expect  to  raise  a  variable  P,  gene- 
ration of  exclusively  homozygous  plants.  If  these  seeds  have 
developed  by  apogamy,  or  any  other  asexual  process,  we  expect 
to  obtain  a  second  generation  consisting  exclusively  of  plants 
like  the  original  hybrids.  Thus  we  will  have  a  non-cytological 
test  to  decide  between  apogamy  and  true  parthenogenesis. 

A.  C.  Hagedooen, 

A.  L.  Hagedoobn 

BussuM,  Holland, 
March  18,  1914 


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CONTENTS  OF  THE  JANUARY  NUMBER 

A  Genetic  Analyiii  of  the  Changes  produced  by 
Selection  in  Sxperlments  with  Tobacco.  Pro- 
fessor B.  M.  Bast  and  H.  E.  Hayes. 

Gynandiomorphous  Ants,  described  during  the  De- 
cade, 1903-1918.  Professor  WiUiam  Morton 
Wheeler. 

Shorter  Articles  and  Discussion :  On  the  Results  of 
Inbreeding  a  Mendelian  Population— A  Correc- 
tion and  Extension  of  Preyious  Conclusions. 
Dr.  Baymond  Pearl— Isolation  and  Selection 
alUed  in  Principle.    Dr.  John  T.  Gnlick. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  FEBRUARY  NUMBER 

Some  New  Varieties  of  Bats  and  Gaine«-idgs  and  ttieir 
Belations  to  Problems  of  Color  Inheritaaee.  Pro- 
fessor W.  B.  Castle. 

••  Dominant"  and  "  Kecess.ye"  Spotting  in  lOce.  C. 
c  Little. 

On  Difler^tialMortaUty  with  respect  to  Seed  Weight 

occurring  in  Field  Coltures  of  Pisum  sattTom. 

Dr.  J.  Arthur  Harris. 
The  InheritaBce  of  a  Beeorring  Somatic  Varlatloa 

In  Variegated  Bars  of  Maise.     ProfeMor  B.  A. 

Bmerson. 

Restoration  of  Edaphosftunis  erndger  Cope.    Pro. 

fessor  B.  a  Case. 
Shorter  Articles   and  Discussion  :    Humiditj— a 

Neglected  Factor  in  BnTironmentftl  Work.    Dc 

Ftank  B.  Luts. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  MARCH  NUMBER 

The  Effect  of  Extent  of  Diitrlbntlon  on  Speeiation. 

Asa  C.  Chandler. 
Biology  of  the  Thysanoptera.   Dr.  A.  Franklin  Shull. 
Shorter  Articles  and  Correspondence :  The  Endemic 

Mammals  of  the  British  Isles.    Professor  T.  D.  A. 

OockerelL 

Notes  and  Literature :  Swingle  on  Variation  in  Fi 
Citrus  Hybrids  and  the  Theory  of  Zygotaxis. 
Dr.  Orland  E.  White. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  APRIL  NUMBER 

The  Origin  of  X  Capsella  Bursa  pastoris  araehnoideab 
Dr.  Henri  Hus. 

Biology  of  the  Thysanoptera.  n.  Jh,  A.  Fraskltn 
Shull. 

Shorter  Articles  and  Discussion:  Barriers  as  to  Dis- 
tribution as  regards  Birds  and  Mammals.  Joseph 
Grinnell.  Yellow  Varieties  ot  Bats.  ProflBSSQr 
W.  E.  Castle. 

Notes  and  Literature :  Heredity  and  the  Tnfhieiioe 
of  Monarchs.    V.  L.  K. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  MAY  NUMBER 

Betoparasitesof  Mammals.  Professor  Vernon  Lyman 

Kellogg. 
Begeneration,  Variation  and  Correlation  in  Thyone. 

Professor  John  W.  Scott. 
Shorter  Articles  and  Discussion :  Terms  relating  to 

Generic  Types.   Dr.  O.F.Cook. 
Notes  and  Literature:  Linkage  in  the  Silkworm 

Moth.    A.  H.  Sturterant.    Nabours^s  Breeding 

BxperlmentB  with  Grasshoppers.  John  a  Dexter. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  JUNE  NUMBER 

Species-bailding  by  Hybiidintion  and  Matati<m.  Pro- 
fessor John  H.  Gerould. 

Heredity  of  Bristles  in  the  Commtm  Greenbottle  Fly— 
A  Study  of  Factors  goTemingDistiibatioiL  FhineM 
W.  Whiting. 

Physiological  Correlations  and  Climatic  ReaotionB  in 
Alfalfa  Breeding.    Geo.  F.  Freeman. 

Taxonomy  and  Erolution.    By  X 

Shorter  Articles  and    Diacosrion:    NabonnPs  QnMS- 
hoppera,  Multiple  Allelomorphism,  Tan^«e  and 
if^fiiAiiing  Terminologies  in  Genettos. 
W.  ELCsstle. 


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THE  SCIENCE  PRESS 

GarriMm,  N.  Y.  Sub^Station  84 :  NEW  YORK  Uneastcr.  I^u 


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TOL.  ZLVm,  VO.  672  ATTOTTST,  1914 


THE 

AMERICAN 
NATURALIST 


A  HOHTHLT  JOmUTAL 

Itofotad  to  fhe  Advancemdnt  of  fhe  Biolog^eal  Soieii06f  wift 

Special  Beferenoe  to  fhe  Paotors  of  Erolutiom 

COVTBVTS 


Pag9  *    1 

I.    Koltlple  AlUlomorpha  In  Mloe.    Profeisor  T.  H.  Mob0an      -       -      -      -  449  J 

IL    Tldrteen  Tears  of  Wheat  8«leotloii.   T.  B.  Hutohbson  -       -       -      -      .459  ; 

m.    Pattern  Derelopment  In  iraininala  and  Blrda.    Glotbb  M.  Allxn      -      -  467 
IV.    The  Meadow  Jumping  Honae.    Dr.  H.  L.  Babcook      .....  430 

y.    Shorter  Artlelea  and  IMienaslon :   Studies  on  Inbreeding.     Dr.  Batmomd  J 

Pbarl.    Parallel  Mntations  in  (Enothera  biennis  L.    Dr.  J.  STOMPS,  Dr.  '  i 

Bbablby  M.  Davis.    The  Theoretical  Distinction  between  Multiple  Allelo-  ; 

morphs  and  dose  Linkage.    ProfSsssor  T.  H.  Mobgan,  Professor  W.  E.  { 

Castlb  --------------  491  I 

VI.    Motes  and  Literature:  Biometrics.    Dr.  Baymond  Pbabl.    A  New  Mode  ef  \ 

Segregation  in  Gregory's  Tetraploid  Primulas.    HBBMAKif  J.  Mullbb   -  500 


THE  BODSNOE  PBEBB 

IiAHDABTEB.  PA.  OABBI80 V.  V.  T.  | 

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THE 

AMERICAN  NATURALIST 

Vol.  XLVIII  August,  19U  No.  572 

MULTIPLE  ALLELOMORPHS  IN  MICE 

PROFESSOR  T.  H.  MORGAN 
Columbia  University 

Some  breeding  experiments  with  mice  that  I  have  been 
carrying  on  during  the  last  two  years  have  shown  that 
yellow,  gray  gray-belly,  gray  white-belly  and  black  are 
allelomorphs.  To  this  series  a  fifth  allelomorph  may  pos- 
sibly be  added  which  for  the  present  naay  be  called  new 
gray.  This  quadruple  (or  quintuple)  system  of  allelo- 
morphs fulfils  the  conditions  of  a  multiple  series  in  that 
only  two  of  the  allelomorphs  can  exist  at  the  same  time 
in  any  individual.  In  other  words,  a  mouse  may  be  pure 
for  any  of  these  genes  (except  for  yellow,  in  which  the 
pure  form  is  not  viable),  or  a  mouse  may  be  heterozygous 
in  any  two  of  the  genes,  but  never  in  more  than  two. 
The  evidence  that  establishes  this  series  of  allelomorphs 
may  be  briefly  stated  as  follows : 

In  1911,  I  pointed  out  that  if  yellow  mice  (producing 
yellow  and  chocolates)  are  bred  to  agoutis  (grays),  and 
their  yellow  offspring  mated,  they  should  produce  not 
only  yellow  and  agoutis  (as  they  did)  but  some  choco- 
lates (or  blacks)  also;  but  no  chocolates  appeared.  I 
stated  that  the  results  obtained  were  explicable  if  yellow 
and  agouti  are  allelomorphs.^ 

1  The  discussion  in  the  same  paper  of  the  presence  of  chocolate  yellow  and 
black  bars  in  the  ticked  hair  in  relation  to  the  occurrence  of  chocolate,  yel- 
low and  black  color  in  domesticated  races  may  only  confuse  the  ontogenetic 
production   of  characters   with   the   gametic   inheritance   of   factors.     The 

449 


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460  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVl. 

Sturtevant  (1912)  showed  that  the  results  are  also 
consistent  with  the  hypothesis  that  there  is  close  or  com- 
plete linkage  (genetic  coupling)  between  yellow  and 
agouti.  In  principle  this  is  the  same  as  saying  that  when 
yellow  and  agouti  enter  from  different  sides  (mother  and 
father)  they  separate  in  gametogenesis,  or  in  other  words 
they  '*  repel ''  each  other  and  behave,  as  I  said,  like 
allelomorphs. 

The  numerical  results  would  be  the  same  whether 
yellow  and  agouti  arei  treated  as  though  completely 
linked  or  whether  they  are?  treated  as  allelomorphic. 
What  I  had  vaguely  seen  in  my  1911  paper  was  clearly 
explained  in  the  following  year  by  Sturtevant 's  treat- 
ment of  the  same  data,  to  which  he  added  that  of  Little 
and  Miss  Durham. 

Sturtevant  showed,  from  an  analysis  of  Miss  Dur- 
ham's results,  in  which  she  used  ordinary  gray  (gray 
'*  gray-belly '0  niice,  that  her  results  are  consistent  with 
the  hypothesis  of  absolute  linkage,  or,  on  my  interpre- 
tation, with  the  hypothesis  of  allelomorphism.  Sturte- 
vant's  conclusions  were  promptly  contradicted  by  C.  C. 
Little  on  the  evidence  furnished  by  some  of  his  earlier 
experiments,  in  which  he  obtained  yellow,  grays  and 
black  (or  chocolates)  in  offspring  from  yellow  to  black 
(or  chocolates).  Such  a  result  would  be  inconsistent 
with  Sturtevant's  hypothesis.  Little  also  appealed  to 
certain  experiments  of  Miss  Durham,  in  which,  he  stated, 
results  like  his  own  are  given.  Since  Little  has  been 
unable  to  get  again  his  former  results,  but  has  obtained 
evidence  in  favor  of  Sturtevant 's  view,  and  since  it  is 
clear  that  he  misunderstood  Miss  Durham's  evidence, 
his  contradiction  ceases  to  have  any  weight. 

factorial  hypothesis  relates  to  those  differentials  that  serve  to  separate 
different  types  in  inheritance  and  is  not  concerned  with  the  problem  as  to 
how  those  differentials  produce  their  effects.  Breeding  experiments  show 
that  gray  differs  from  black  by  one  differential,  from  yellow  by  another,  and 
from  cinnamon  by  a  third.  So  far  as  Mendelian  segregation  of  these  dif- 
ferential genes  is  concerned  it  is  of  no  consequence  that  the  gray  hair  is 
made  up  of  a  black,  a  yellow,  and  a  chocolate  band. 


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No.  572] 


MULTIPLE   ALLELOMORPHS 


451 


After  the  publication  of  my  own  and  of  Sturtevant^B 
paper  I  set  to  work  to  obtain  crucial  evidence  in  favor 
of,  or  opposed  to,  the  view  that  yellow  and  gray  are 
allelomorphic.  Little,  also,  it  appears,  has  carried  out 
some  new  experiments  which  he  has  recently  published, 
with  the  results  just  stated.  My  own  data  have  been 
ready  for  some  time>  but  I  have  withheld  them  in  order  to 
get  a  sufficient  body  of  evidence  to  make  the  case  con- 
vincing, especially  in  the  light  of  the  possibility  that  the 
crossing  over  might  occur  in  one  sex  and  not  in  the  other. 
For,  if  no  crossing  over  occurred  in  the  male,  there 
might  be  crossing  over  in  the  other  sex,  which  would  not 
reveal  itself  unless  the  experiments  were  deliberately 
planned  so  that  both  sexes  are  tested.  This  consideration 
seems  to  have  been  overlooked  by  Little,  for  he  has 
omitted  in  his  confirmatory  paper  to  give  the  sexes  of  the 
animals  used.  Without  a  knowledge  of  this  relation  even 
his  confirmation  fails  to  confirm  (as  he  supposes)  the 
view  that  he  formerly  combated. 

Since  Miss  Durham  worked  with  common  gray  and  I 
with  gray  white-belly,  and  both  are  **  repelled  ^^  by  yellow, 
i.  e.,  both  are  allelomorphs  of  yellow,  it  follows  that  these 
two  grays  are  also  allelomorphic  to  each  other. 

The  evidence  that  black  belongs  to  the  same  series  of 
allelomorphs  is  obtained  in  the  following  way :  If  a  given 
yellow  is  mated  to  black,  and  yellow  and  gray  offspring 
are  obtained,  and  if  then  the  yellow  offspring  are  mated 
to  black  again  and  now  give  yellow  and  black  only,  the 
proof  is  furnished;  for  in  the  first  mating  yellow  and 
agouti  have  repelled  each  other,  and  the  yellow-bearing 
gametes  have  united  with  the  black  gametes  of  the  other 
sex  to  give  the  yellow  offspring.  The  second  mating 
shows  that  black  is  now  repelled  in  turn  by  yellow  and  is 
tiieref ore  allelomorphic. 

This  may  be  illustrated  in  the  following  way:  Let 
B^  =  yellow,  b  =  black  and  B  =  gray.  These  three 
factors  may  be  treated  as  allelomorphs,  then: 


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452  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XL VIII 

Yellow  B^B  by  black  bh, 

Gametes  of  Pj  yellow  B^-B. 
Gametes  of  Pi  black  b-b. 
p         B ''6=  yellow. 
*        Bb    =gray. 


Gametes  of  F^  yellow  B''-6. 
Gametes  of  pure  black  b-b. 

^   5*'6  =  yellow. 

^'bb    =  black. 

But  if  yellow  and  black  and  gray  are  not  allelomorphic 
the  same  matings  should  give  the  following  results : 

¥'  =  yellow,     y'  =  not    yellow,     b  =  black.     B  =  *  *  gi  av ' '    ( not    black  ) . 
Yellow  YYBB  by  black  l/ybb^^ 
Gametes  ofP,  yellow  Y'B-i/B, 
Gametes  of  Pi  pure  black  y'b-y'b. 
p         Y'B  3/'6=7SIow. 

^        y'B  y'b=zgT2Ly. 

Gametes  of  Fi  yellow   Y'b-Y'B-y'b-y'B. 
Gametes  of  pure  black  y'b-y'b. 
Y'¥  ~y'b  =  yellow^ 
„        Y'B  y'b=  yellow. 
^»        y'6     i/'6  =  black. 
y'B    i/'6=:gray. 

On  the  second  assumption  yellow,  gray  and  black 
should  appear  in  the  back  cross.  The  former  and  not  the 
latter  view  is  therefore  consistent  with  the  actual  results. 

The  Symbols  Employed 
It  is,  of  course,  a  matter  of  secondary  importance  what 
system  of  symbols  is  followed.  The  requirements  are 
simplicity,  consistency  and  suggestiveness,  but  one  can 
not  always  arrange  to  have  all  three  at  the  same  time. 
The  simplest  scheme,  for  a  system  of  allelomorphs  like 
these,  would  be  to  have  some  common  letter  to  indicate 
their  relation  and  an  exponent  to  suggest  the  different 
characters  for  which  each  stands.  If  we  take  the  symbol 
b  (black)  for  the  common  letter,  and  use  capitals  for 
dominance,  the  allelomorphs  will  be: 

b     =  black. 
B^=  gray  gray  belly. 
5"'=:  gray   white   belly. 
B^  =  yellow. 

If  one  preferred  to  take  Y  (yellow)  as  the  common  letter 
the  series  would  be  y'^,  y'^,  y'^,  Z';  or,  if  one  preferred 


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No.  572]  MULTIPLE   ALLELOMORPHS  453 

to  take  G  (gray),  as  the  common  letter,  the  series  would 
be  g^,  g^y  G,  g^\  On  the  whole  the  first  series  seems  to 
me  somewhat  preferable. 

The  factor  for  cinnamon  is  entirely  independent  in 
heredity  of  the  preceding  series  of  allelomorphs.  This 
factor  may  be  represented  by  ci  and  its  normal  allelo- 
morph by  Ci.  The  formula  for  the  wild  gray  would  then 
be  Ci  Ci,  and  that  for  cinnamon  would  be  ci  ci.  Black 
would  be  h  b,  and  the  double  recessive  cinnamon  black 
(or  chocolate)  would  be  bb  ci  ci.  Chocolate  is  one  of  the 
commonest  types  of  domesticated  mice  and  since  I  have 
used  it  very  extensively  in  my  matings,  its  relation  to  the 
other  types  may  be  further  stated.  It  is  known  that  if 
chocolate  is  bred  to  wild  gray,  and  if  the  gray  offspring 
that  are  obtained  are  then  inbred,  they  give,  in  Fo,  the 
following  classes:  9  wild  gray,  3  cinnamon,  3  black,  1 
chocolate. 

It  is  clear  that  chocolate  is  the  double  recessive  type. 
Of  the  two  genes,  that  differentiate  chocolate  from  wild 
gray,  chocolate  has  one  in  common  with  cinnamon  and 
the  other  with  black.  In  other  words,  chocolate  is  cin- 
namon black,  and  technically  should  receive  this  name. 

The  Experimental  Evtoence 
Is  There  a  Separate  Factor  for  White-belly? 
The  first  series  of  experiments  was  made  in  order  to 
determine  whether  the  peculiarity  of  white-belly,  shown 
by  the  wild  race  of  white-bellied  grays,  is  due  to  a  factor 
that  may  be  separated  from  the  gray  white-bellied  mice, 
or  whether  it  is  completely  linked  to  gray  (or  allelo- 
morphic  to  it).  As  wild  gray  house  mice  offer  some 
drawbacks  in  breeding  work,  I  used  cinnamon  blacks 
(chocolates).     Gray   white-bellied   mice   were   bred   to 

2  It  is  not  possible  to  make  a  system  of  allelomorphs  (in  which  the 
"compounds'^  are  serially  epistate  to  each  other)  consistent  entirely  with 
the  system  of  nomenclature  that  I  have  suggested  for  the  usual  cases  in 
which  mutant  allelomorphs  are  contrasted  with  the  normal  allelomorphs  of 
the  wild  (or  supposed  original)  type. 


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464 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHI 


chocolates.^  The  gray  white-bellied  offspring  were  se- 
lected and  these  were  bred  again  to  chocolate.  The  cross, 
in  regard  to  sex,  was  made  both  ways.  If  there  is  an 
independent  factor  for  white-belly  that  can  separate  from 
the  factor  for  gray  gray-belly,  then  some  gray  gray- 
bellied  mice  should  appear.  None  were  obtained,  as  the 
following  table  shows.  We  must  conclude  either  that 
there  is  one  factor  that  gives  the  gray  white-bellied  coat, 
or  else  that  the  postulated  factor  for  white-belly  is  so 
closely  linked  to  the  gray  factor  that  it  has  not  sepa- 
rated once  in  100  times.  Therefore  unless  such  a  sepa- 
ration occurs  it  is  simpler  to  assume  one  factor  for  gray 
white-belly  that  is  allelomorphic  to  black  and  to  gray 
gray-belly,  etc. 

TABLE  I 


Mating 

Gray  or  Cinoa- 
mon  White- 
belly 

Black               Chocolate              White 

1 

cf 

9 

cf 

9     1     cf 

9         d^ 

9 

Gwb  9  by  Ch  cf . . . . 

Ch  9  by  Gwb  cf 

Totals 

7 
2 
9 

21 
14 
35 

2 
3 
5 

9 
10 
19 

5 

4 
9 

11          3 
10    1 
21          3 

1 
1 

Taking  both  crosses  together,  there  are  44  grays  to  54 
blacks  and  chocolates,  which  approximate  at  least  to 
expectation.  To  these  numbers  I  may  add  the  follow- 
ing data  taken  from  similar  experiments  made  for  other 
purposes  in  which  one  parent  was,  as  before,  gray  white- 
belly. 

Gray-white  Belly.  Black  or  Chocolate, 

c?  9  c?  S 

17  25  20  20 

Presumably,  therefore,  the  results  may  be  treated  as 
though  a  single  gene  for  gray  white-belly  exists.  It  will 
be  observed  that  the  experiment  has  been  made  in  two 
ways,  for  at  the  time  I  was  aware  of  the  possibility  that 
crossing  over,  if  it  occured,  might  be  limited  to  one  sex. 

•  At  the  time  when  the  experiment  was  made  all  the  gray  white-bellied 
mice  were  heterozygous  for  black  and  for  agouti  (including  some  with  the 
factor  for  cinnamon). 


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No.  572]  MULTIPLE   ALLELOMORPHS  455 

We  are  justified,  therefore,  in  treating  gray  white-belly 
as  an  allelomorph  of  gray  gray-belly,  the  former  domi- 
nating. If  crossing  over  should  occur,  it  might  perhaps 
only  be  realized  in  the  gray  or  cinnamon  mice,  since  it  is 
possible  that  the  ticked  condition  of  the  hair  (that  is, 
common  to  gray  and  to  cinnamon)  is  necessary  to  realize 
this  condition.  The  expected  crossover  that  would  be 
observed  would  be  gray  gray-belly  mice.  The  contrary 
class  would  then  be  black  or  chocolate  mice  that  carry 
the  factor  for  white-belly  that  might  or  might  not  show 
the  influence  of  the  supposedly  separable  factor. 

My  white-bellied  stock  of  mice  had  been  killed  after 
my  earlier  results  had  been  published,  but  Mr.  B.  B. 
Horton  had  kept  some  of  my  original  stock  alive,  and 
from  him  I  obtained  a  few  of  these  mice  in  1912  to  carry 
on  the  above  experiments. 

An  extraordinary  sex  ratio  appears  in  the  next  to  the 
last  table,  where  there  were  26  males  to  76  females,  ap- 
proximately 1:3.  The  mice  were  entered  when  about 
three  weeks  old.  The  sex  was  noted,  but  no  special  atten- 
tion given  to  the  determination.  There  is  some  chance 
of  mistaking  the  sex  of  young  mice,  but  one  familiar 
with  these  animals  can  determine  with  certainty  the 
sex  at  three  weeks  if  sufl5cient  care  is  taken.  I  have  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  I  made  such  errors  which  would 
have  to  be  frequent  to  give  these  results.  If  taken,  then, 
at  their  face  value,  the  data  seem  to  show  that  there  is  a 
sex-linked  lethal  gene  present  here.  It  is  not  linked  to 
any  of  the  factors  involved,  and  this  is  not  expected, 
since  neither  black  nor  agouti  is  sex-linked.  If  further 
work  confirms  this  conclusion  (and  I  hold  it  as  a  provi- 
sional conclusion  until  it  can  be  further  studied)  we  have 
here  the  first  evidence  of  a  sex-linked  gene  in  mice.  A 
sex-linked  lethal  should  give  a  sex  ratio  of  1(?:2$. 

The  Allelomorphism  of  Yellow,  Gray  and  Black 
The  allelomorphism  or  '*  repulsion '*  of  yellow  and 
agouti  (gray)  may  be  tested  in  various  ways.    One  of  the 


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456 


THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVIII 


simplest  tests  is  the  following:  Yellows  were  bred  to 
chocolates.  The  combination  gave  yellow  and  agouti  off- 
spring, when  certain  yellows  are  used,  and  yellow  and 
chocolate  offspring  when  other  yellows  are  used.  Mixed 
litters  of  yellow,  agouti  and  chocolate  do  not  appear. 
Now  when  yellow  and  agouti  appear  in  a  given  litter  (as 
above)  the  yellow  parent  must  have  carried  agouti.  If 
her  yellow  gene  ** repels''  the  agouti  gene,  then  none  of 
the  yellow  daughters  should  contain  agouti  genes,  con- 
sequently if  such  yellows  are  next  bred  to  chocolate  the 
offspring  should  be  only  yellow  and  chocolate  (or  black) 
and  never  yellow  and  agouti.  This,  in  fact,  is  what  my 
experiments  have  shown.  In  the  two  following  tables  the 
results  of  crossing  yellows  by  chocolates  are  given  by 
litters.  The  yellows  that  were  used  at  first  were  for  the 
most  part  heterozygous  for  gray  white-belly,  hence  in 
the.  earlier  litters  yellows  and  grays  were  generally  ob- 
tained. The  yellow  offspring  of  these  earlier  litters  were 
for  the  most  part  used  in  the  later  experiments,  hence 
the  later  litters  are  made  up  of  yellows  and  chocolates. 
The  records  (not  given  here)  showed  in  every  case  that 
yellow  mice  from  litters  of  yellow  and  gray  gave,  when 
bred  to  chocolate,  only  yellows  and  chocolates. 


TABLE    II 

Yellow  ^  by  Chocolate  $ 

Litters 


Yellow 

1 

11 

2  . 

.  1 

4 

3  13  24 

4  Q^^^^'s 

5  4!3  5  7!2l2'2  2 

34|.  .  .|.  .1.  . 

34  3  2412  2 

.i.  .j.  4  .  .1. 

?| 

Gray 

5 

422  . 
!  !  !  2 

4 

4  4  55 


4'. 
.1. 

Chocolate 

White 

i 

.  .2343.33 

.  .I.l.i.l.  .  .1. 

.  2  3.2  .  34  2 

3 

TABLE  III 

Yellow  $  by  Chocolate  c? 

Litters 


Yellow....  414 

Gray 5   ..2 

Chocolate 

4|3 

5!2 

4 
1 

4'2'4 
12.. 
.  .  .  .    1 

1    4    88 
3    5    13 

1 

1 

2I2    8 
..  ..   3 
22   .. 

3 
1 

2 

2 

'2 

1 
3 

1 
4 

4 
2 

3 
3 

4 
1 

Black 1.  .  .  . 

? 

White 1 .  .  . . 

i 

1    2!.. 

*  Probably  two  litters  combined. 


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No.  572]  MULTIPLE   ALLELOMORPHS  457 

TABLE  IV 

Summary  op  Litters 

Yellow  and  Gray  Yellow  and  Chocolate 

Yel.  Gray  Yel.  Choc. 

101  78  70  67 

The  experiment  is  not  demonstrative,  however,  unless 
both  the  yellow  daughters  and  sons  are  bred  to  chocolate, 
for  it  might  be  that  yellow  and  agouti  are  linked  and 
crossing  over  might  occur  in  one  sex  and  not  in  the  other 
sex.  For  instance,  if  we  start  again  with  yellow  by  choc- 
olate, then  if  their  yellow  offspring  contain  agouti  linked 
to  yellow  that  does  not  cross  over  in  one  sex,  let  us  say  in 
the  males,  it  follows  that  a  yellow  male  bred  to  chocolate 
would  give  only  yellows  and  chocolates,  for  the  agouti 
gene  would  go  with  the  yellow.  Therefore,  both  sexes 
must  be  tested.  This  essential  element  in  the  proof  has 
been  overlooked  by  Little,  for  he  fails  to  state  whether  his 
test  experiments  were  made  with  both  sexes.  In  my 
main  experiments  I  have  used  yellow  sons  only,  and  the 
tables  are  based  on  those  data,  but  in  a  few  cases  I  have 
mated  the  yellow  daughters  (whose  brothers  were  agouti) 
also  to  chocolate  and  have  found  that  these  females  give 
only  yellows  and  chocolates,  which  shows  for  both  sexes 
that  no  crossing  over  of  yellow  and  agouti  occurs. 

A  specific  case  will  illustrate  this  point.  A  yellow 
male  was  bred  to  a  chocolate  female  and  gave  5  yellow 
and  7  gray  offspring  in  two  litters.  One  of  the  yellow 
daughters  was  bred  to  chocolate  and  in  four  litters  pro- 
duced 11  yellows  and  9  chocolates.  A  yellow  grand- 
daughter gave  9  yellows,  7  chocolates  and  4  whites. 

A  yellow  female  bred  to  chocolate  gave  8  yellows  and 
16  chocolates,  but  as  I  have  no  record  of  the  preceding 
generation,  I  can  not  be  sure  that  this  result  is  compar- 
able to  the  last.  It  shows  at  least  that  a  yellow  female 
gave  only  two  kinds  of  offspring. 

A  **New  Gray"  Factor 
A  word  may  be  added  about  the  *'new  gray."    In  the 
original  stock  obtained  from  Mr.  Horton  there  was  a 


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458  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVHI 

gray  female  with  a  not-pure-white  belly.  She  was  not 
used  in  the  main  lines  of  the  experiments  described  above. 
But  she  was  kept  in  stock  and  bred  with  chocolates. 
About  a  year  later  I  noticed  in  the  offspring  of  a  pair  of 
cinnamon  white-bellied  mice  a  few  mice  that  looked  like 
chocolates,  but  which  showed,  on  closer  inspection,  dis- 
tinctly ticked  hair.  One  of  these  new  grays  bred  to 
black  (heterozygous)  gave  some  chocolates,  blacks,  new 
grays,  and  one  very  dark,  almost  black,  mouse  with 
ticked  hair.**  The  female  was  bred  next  time  to  a  house 
mouse  (gray  gray-belly)  and  produced  all  gray  gray- 
bellied  oflfspring  that  had  a  dark  coat,  but  not  nearly  so 
dark  as  that  present  when  the  new  gray  is  heterozygous 
for  black.  Until  further  tests  have  been  made  it  can  not 
be  stated  whether  or  not  the  new  factor  belongs  to  the 
yellow-black  system  of  quadruple  allelomorphs. 

8  The  resemblance  of  this  mouse  to  the  rabbit  "agouti -black"  homozygouB 
for  black  is  very  striking  (Punnett,  Jour,  of  Genetics,  II,  1912). 


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THEBTEEN  YEAES  OF  WHEAT  SELECTION 

T.  B.  HUTCHESON 
Associate  Agronomist,  University  of  Minnesota 

Intboduction 

In  1901  the  Minnesota  Agricultural  Experiment  Sta- 
tion planted  a  number  of  varieties  of  wheat  from  the 
polonicv/m,  spelta,  turgidum,  d/urum  and  wlgare  types  in 
foundation  beds  in  order  to  have  specimens  of  these  diflfer- 
ent  types  always  on  hand  for  class  work,  hybridiza- 
tion or  demonstration  purposes.  Six  of  these  varieties — 
hedgrow  {turgidum),  Eussian  {vulgare),  common  speltz 
(spelta),  kamouka  (durum),  and  Polish  (1)  and  Polish 
(2)  (varieties  of  polonicum) — have  been  grown  continu- 
ously since  that  time  and  an  effort  has  been  made  to 
improve  them  by  selection.  The  method  followed  was 
that  introduced  at  this  station  by  Professor  W.  M.  Hays 
and  called  the  ''centgener^'  method. 

The  centgener  method  consists,  briefly,  in  starting  with 
individual  plants,  planting  one  hundred  selected  kernels 
from  each  plant  at  equal  depths  and  at  equal  distances 
apart  in  separate  plots.  A  plot  of  one  hundred  plants  is 
called  a  centgener.  Careful  notes  are  taken  on  the  plants 
in  each  centgener  and  at  harvest  time  five  or  more  of  the 
highest  yielding  plants  are  selected  from  which  the  seeds 
for  planting  the  next  year  are  taken.  From  these  five 
best  plants  from  five  to  ten  of  the  best  heads  are  selected 
and  thrashed  together.  One  hundred  of  the  largest  and 
plumpest  kernels  are  then  selected  out  of  the  seed  ob- 
tained by  thrashing  these  selected  heads,  and  these  are 
planted  in  the  centgener  test  the  next  year.  This  work  is 
continued  from  year  to  year,  each  season  the  hundred 
best  kernels  from  the  five  or  more  best  plants  being 
planted  in  succeeding  centgeners. 

469 


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460  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [VOL.XLVIII 

In  1908  an  experiment  was  planned  with  the  object  of 
developing  a  strain  of  wheat  which  would  have  a  minimum 
amount  of  culm  exposed  between  the  base  of  the  spike  and 
the  upper  leaf  sheath,  or  in  other  words,  to  produce  a 
short-necked  variety  of  wheat.  The  ultimate  purpose  of 
reducing  the  neck  lengths  was  to  reduce  the  area  of  the 
stem  exposed  to  the  black  stem  rust.  Since  this  rust 
ordinarily  does  little  damage  to  that  portion  of  the  culm 
enclosed  in  the  leaf  sheath,  it  was  thought  that  a  short- 
necked  wheat  would  be  more  likely  to  escape  serious 
damage  from  stem  rust  than  a  long-necked  kind.  For 
this  work  individual  plants  were  selected  which  had  short 
necks  and  the  seed  from  these  were  planted  in  separate 
centgeners.  Each  year  at  harvest  time  ten  or  more  plants 
which  appeared  to  the  observer  to  have  the  shortest  necks 
were  selected  from  each  centgener  and  measurements  of 
their  neck  lengths  were  made  and  recorded.  One  hundred 
kernels  were  saved  from  these  shortest  necked  plants 
each  season  for  subsequent  centgeners,  thus  making  a 
continuous  selection  for  short  neck  lengths. 

The  data  derived  from  the  above  experiments  seems  to 
throw  some  light  upon  the  much-discussed  question  as  to 
whether  or  not  selection  within  a  pure  line  can  increase 
yield  or  change  type  enough  to  make  it  a  desirable  prac- 
tise from  the  practical  breeder's  standpoint.  In  both  of 
the  experiments,  we  have  the  requirements  for  a  pure 
line  satisfied.  Wheat  is  a  normally  self -fertilized  plant. 
Each  centgener  was  started  from  a  single  head  in  1901 
and  these  heads  have  bred  true  to  type  ever  since. 

The  long  period  of  years  over  which  this  experiment 
has  extended  makes  the  data  particularly  valuable.  One 
of  the  adverse  criticisms  to  most  pure  line  work  is  that 
it  has  not  extended  over  a  long  enough  period  of  time. 
Thirteen  years  are  about  as  long  as  any  practical  breeder 
would  be  apt  to  keep  up  selection  on  one  pure  line  and 
covers  the  longest  period  of  continuous  selection  for  a 
self-fertilized  plant  yet  reported. 

Another  criticism  to  pure  line  investigations  is  that  in 


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No.  572]     THIRTEEN  YEARS  OF  WHEAT  SELECTION        461 

many  cases  it  has  not  appeared  certain  that  the  material 
studied  was  a  pure  line.  Since  the  plants  have  bred  true 
to  type  throughout  the  whole  period  of  study,  it  is  obvi- 
ous that  this  criticism  will  not  hold  for  the  data  herein 
presented. 

The  work  haS  been  conducted  at  this  station  under  the 
direction  of  Professor  W.  M.  Hays  from  1901  to  1905, 
under  Professor  E.  C.  Parker  1905  to  1908,  under  Pro- 
fessor Andrew  Boss  from  1908  to  1911  and  under  Pro- 
fessor C.  P.  Bull  1911  to  1913. 


Plate  I.     Average  yield  per  plant  for  all  varieties.     X-X,  fitted  straight 

line. 

Selection  to  Increase  Yield 
The  varieties  studied,  the  average  annual  yield  of  each 
variety  and  the  average  yield  per  plant  for  the  six  vari- 
eties under  test  are  shown  in  Table  I.  In  the  years  1903 
and  1904  weather  conditions  were  unfavorable,  making 
it  impracticable  to  obtain  correct  average  yields  per 
plant,  so  data  for  these  years  were  omitted.  However, 
selections  of  the  best  plants  were  made  in  these  two 
seasons  as  in  the  others  and  the  best  seed  from  them 
were  kept  for  planting,  so  the  continuous  selection  for 
increased  yield  was  uninterrupted. 


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462 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLYIH 


TABLE  I 
Showing  Yield  Pee  Plant — ^Yeaes  1901-1913 


Name  of  Variety 


Yield  per  Plant  in  Grs. 


1901  1902  1905  '  1906  1907  1908  1909  1910  |  1911  1912  1918 


Hedgrow. . 
Russian. . . 

Speltz 

Kamouka. . 
Polish  (1) . . 
Polish  (2).. 


3.10 
1.00 
2.40 
1.60 
.80 
1.10 


2.80 
1.70 
1.80 


3.69  2.48 
3.67,  1.96 
3.99  2.99 


2.60  1.99  2.( 


1.30 
.95 


2.52|  2.04 
2.83'  1.97 


1.27 
1.71 
1.38 
1.39 
1.03 
1.26 


3.75 
2.74 
3.38 
3.31 
1.48 


2.49  2.65  2.02     .99,3.67 


1.95  1.37  2.70 

2.01  2.14  2.59 

1.67  1.36!  2.16 

1.91!  1.70  1.66  1.12  1.74 

1 1.61  1.31  1.78!    .51  1.33 


2.71  2.17 
2.40  2.86 
2.19!  2.48 

1I 


Average 


1.65 


1.84  3.10!  2.35*  1.34  2.93|  2.22  2.18  1.83  1.24  2.36 


Selection  to  Incbease  Height 
The  average  height  of  the  plants  for  each  year  of  the 
test  is  shown  in  Table  II.  Though  no  attempt  was  made 
to  select  for  increased  height,  since  a  number  of  workers 
have  shown  that  height  in  the  small  grains  is  distinctly 
correlated  with  yield,  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  the 
selected  plants  were  among  the  tallest  as  well  as  "being  the 
highest  yielders  of  each  year's  crop.  When  this  experi- 
ment was  begun,  it  was  not  known  that  height  and  yield 

table  n 

Showing  Average  Height  Per  Plant — 1901-1913 


Height  in  Inches 

Name  of  Virietj 

1901 

1902 

1905 

1906 

1908 

1909 

1910 

l$»ll 

1912 

1913 

Hedgrow 

36 
34 
34 
36 
40 
28 

41 
37 
38 
34 
38 
30 

42 
40 
37 
34 
41 
37 

43 
36 
47 
38 
38 
37 

46 
44 
44 
40 
42 

41 
41 
41 
40 
42 
35 

38 
33 
39 
32 
33 
31 

41 
36 
42 
38 
39 
38 

36 
35 
39 
36 
38 
31 

36 

Russian 

32 

Speltz 

35 

Kamouka 

Polish  (1) 

Polish  (2) 

33 
33 
32 

Average |    35 

36 

38 

39 

43 

40 

34 

39 

36 

33 

were  correlated,  so  the  figures  on  height  were  kept  merely 
as  a  matter  of  general  interest  and  with  no  idea  that  they 
would  have  bearing  on  the  problem.  Among  those  who 
later  found  height  correlated  with  yield  are  Deneumostier 
(10),^  Love  (ai),2  Myers  (12),8  Leighty  (^2)*  and 


1  Deneumostier,  C, 
1910. 


'Correlations  in  Wheat,"  Ann,  Oemblouan,  20,  No.  5, 


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No.  572]     THIRTEEN  YEARS  OF  WHEAT  SELECTION        463 

Selection  to  Decbbasb  Nbok-Lengths 
The  result  of  the  selection  for  short  neck-lengths  is 
shown  in  Table  III.  This  is  a  clear  illustration  of  how 
misleading  short-term  experiments  may  be.  Had  the 
experiment  been  discontinued  at  the  end  of  the  third  year, 
the  figures  would  have  indicated  that  it  was  possible  to 
modify  this  character  very  rapidly  by  selection.  How- 
ever, in  the  following  two  years  the  neck-lengths  seemed 
to  revert  to  the  mean  of  the  pure  lines,  and  the  last  year 
they  were  actually  longer  than  when  the  experiment  was 
started.  The  reduction  in  the  first  three  years  was  prob- 
ably due  to  growing  conditions. 


TABLE  ni 
Showing  Besult  of  Selection  tob  Shobt  Necks 


Averago  Neck  L  ngtb 

in  Curre 

1909 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1918 

Series  A 

7.4 
6.1 
6.8 
6.2 

1.86 
1.12 
1.66 
2.08 

.24 
.79 
.66 
.69 

7.34 
8.13 
7.63 

10.47 

9.64 

Series  B 

11.6 

Series  C 

8.21 

Series  D 

13.82 

Discussion 
From  the  data  presented  in  these  tables,  it  is  evident 
that  there  has  been  no  permanent  gain  for  these  thirteen 
years  of  selection  either  in  yield  per  plant,  height  of 
plant,  or  shortening  of  neck-lengths.  The  expected  sea- 
sonal variations  occur.  A  comparison  of  the  yield  of 
Haynes  Blue  Stem,  which  is  grown  extensively  in  Minne- 
sota, and  was  continued  in  the  variety  test  without  any 
attempt  at  selection  throughout  the  whole  period,  with 
Hutcheson  (13).«* 

2 Love,  H.  H.,  *'A  Study  of  the  Large  and  Small  Grain  Question,"  An, 
Bep,  Am,  Br,  Asso.,  7:  109-118,  1911. 

»  Myers,  C.  H.,  *  *  Variation,  Correlation  and  Inheritance  of  Characters  of 
Wheat  and  Peas,"  Cornell  University  Thesis,  1912. 

4  Hutcheson,  T.  B.,  "Correlated  Characters  in  Avena  sativa,  with  Special 
Reference  to  Size  of  Seed  Planted,"  Cornell  University  Thesis,  1913. 

«Leighty,  C.  E.,  "Studies  in  Variation  and  Correlation  of  Oats,  Avena 
saiiva,"  Cornell  University  Thesis,  1912. 


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464 


THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVIII 


the  average  yield  of  the  selected  varieties,  is  shown  in 
Table  IV.  The  average  yield  in  bushels  of  the  Haynes 
Blue  Stem  is  also  platted  in  comparison  with  the  average 
yield  of  the  selected  varieties  in  Plate  II.  In  1912  a 
severe  hail  storm  injured  the  variety  plats  so  much  that 


Plate  II.  Comparing  seaj^onal  fluctuations  in  selected  lines  with  unse- 
lected  Blue  Stem.  Solid  line,  yield  per  plant  in  grams  for  selected  lines; 
dashed  line,  yield  in  bushels  per  acre  for  Blue  Stem. 

it  was  thought  best  not  to  include  the  yield  of  the  Haynes 
Blue  Stem  for  that  year.  This  gives  an  incorrect  appear- 
ance to  the  curve,  as  it  was  extended  just  as  if  this  year 
was  present  and  midway  between  3911  and  1913  in  yield. 
It  will  be  noticed  from  Table  IV  and  Plate  II  that  the 


TABLE  IV 

Comparing  Seasonal  Fluctuations  in  Selected  Lines  with  Unsblbcted 

Blue  Stem 


1901 


1902 


1905 


1906 


1907 


Yield   in   grs.    per 

plant  for  selected  I 

lines I   1.65    1.84    3.10    2.35|   1.34    2.93 

Yield    in    bu.    per 


1908 


acre     for     bluei 
stem 22.9 


1909  I  1910     1911 


2.22 


23.9    30.4    24.00  21.00  26.00  26.6 


1912  ,  1918 


2.18    1.83  1.24 

I  I 


2.36 


24.6    24.2  1 123.2 


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No.  572]     THIRTEEN  TEARS  OF  WHEAT  SELECTION        465 

fluctuations  from  year  to  year  agree  very  closely.  These 
data  indicate  that  increased  yield  is  due  to  favorable 
environmental  factors  and  not  to  improvement  by 
selection. 

A  comparison  of  the  yield  of  each  variety  for  the  first 
five  years  of  the  test  with  that  of  the  last  five  years  is 
shown  in  Table  V.  The  data  in  this  table  show  that 
there  is  no  significant  difference  in  yield  for  these  two 
periods;  In  Eussian  and  Polish  (1)  there  is  a  slight 
increase  in  favor  of  the  latter  period,  but  in  the  other 
four  varieties  there  is  just  as  much  decrease  for  this 
period.  However,  there  is  not  enough  difference  in  any 
case  to  indicate  either  permanent  improvement  or  de- 
crease in  yield.  As  far  as  these  varieties  are  concerned, 
it  seems  that  selection  has  brought  about  no  permanent 
improvement. 

TABLE  V 

GOMPAUNa  THE  YiELD  OF  THE  FlEST-YEAB  PERIOD  WITH  THAT  OF  THE  LAST 

FivE-YEAB  Period 


IstS-year  Period 

Last  6-year  Period 

Name  of  Variety 

Height 

Yield 

Height 

Yield 

Hedgrow 

41.6 
38.0 
40.0 
36.4 

2.67 
1.90 
2.61 
2.01 
1.64 
1.62 

38.4 
36.4 
39.2 
36.8 
37.4 
33.4 

2.34 

Kiimriftn 

2.18 

Spelta 

2.40 

Kamouka 

1.97 

Polish  (1) 

39.8 
33.4 

1.61 

Polish  (2) 

1.31 

Average ..1         38.2 

2.06         !         36.5 

1.97 

A  curve  of  the  yields  of  the  six  varieties  under  con- 
sideration for  the  thirteen  years  of  the  test  was  plotted 
and  a  straight  line  was  fitted  to  it,  by  the  method  of  the 
least  squares,  to  indicate  the  trend  of  the  yield.  This 
curve  is  shown  in  Plate  I.  There  is  a  slight  downward 
tendency  in  this  straight  line,  but  it  is  not  enough  to  indi- 
cate a  tendency  toward  decrease  in  yield.  The  line  fitted 
to  the  curve  of  height  (Plate  III)  also  shows  a  slight 
tendency  downward. 

The  data  herein  cited  are  not  sufficient  for  definite  con- 


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466 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVIII 


elusions.  However,  the  indications  are  that  from  a  prac- 
tical breeder's  standpoint  permanent  improvement  in 
pure  lines  in  small  grains,  if  possible,  is  certainly  not 
rapid  or  apt  to  be  very  marked.    Thirteen  years  of  selec- 


4 

^ 

/ 

V 

^ 

u 

/ 

J 

A 
V 

^ 

/ 

\ 

9« 

19 

/ 

\ 

J 

_J^ 

/ 

\     7 

^ 

ns 

U 

^^ 

7  —  — 

J        /l  >v  M 

a 

,/ 

v^ 

""   \~"--; 

f 

1: 

15      ^ 

7^ 

17 

V 

* 

JL 

« 

t2 

3 

% 

I 

\        I 

1ZE2 

"5     "3 

«i        r 

1 

1 

P 

~*    "•! 

"f      "IB 

Plate  III.    Average  height  of  all  varieties.  X-X,  fitted  straight  line. 

tion  covers  considerable  time  and  expense,  and,  as  far  as 
can  be  seen  from  the  varieties  reported  in  this  paper,  it 
has  resulted  in  no  permanent  improvement.  This  would 
suggest  that  some  other  line  of  improvement  must  be 
sought.  It  is  probable  that  much  more  rapid  progress 
could  be  made  by  segregating  pure  lines  from  mixed 
populations  and  combining  the  desirable  characters  of 
these  lines  by  hybridization. 


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PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  IN  MAMMALS 
AND  BIRDS 

n 

GLOVER  M.  ALLEN 
Boston  Society  op  Natural  History 

Partial  Albinism  in  Wild  Mammals 

Partially  albinistic  individuals  of  species  that  normally 
are  wholly  pigmented,  occur  frequently  in  a  wild  state, 
and  almost  any  large  series  of  a  given  species  may  con- 
tain a  few.  I  have  examined  many  such,  in  which  it  was 
perfectly  evident  that  the  white  mark  was  due  to  areal 
restriction  of  some  one  or  more  of  the  primary  pigment 
areas  just  as  described  in  the  various  domestic  species. 
It  is  apparent  that  the  white  markings  in  both  are  quite 
comparable,  but  in  species  under  domestication  no  agency 
seems  present  whereby  such  pied  individuals  are  elimi- 
nated, whereas  in  a  wild  state  the  sudden  acquisition  of  a 
large  amount  of  white  in  an  individual  would  not  only 
render  him  too  different  from  his  fellows,  but  might  put 
him  at  a  disadvantage  because  of  a  conspicuousness  to 
which  as  a  species  he  had  not  yet  become  accustomed. 

There  are  many  other  species  in  which,  as  we  now  see 
them,  white  markings  form  a  permanent  and  normal  part 
of  the  pattern.  Among  those  in  which  these  white  mark- 
ings are  few  or  simple,  it  is  often  evident  that  they  are 
merely  prjjpary  breaks  between  the  pigment  patches  that 
have  become  more  or  less  fixed  by  long  periods  of  selec- 
tion, whether  natural,  sexual  or  otherwise.  As  I  shall 
endeavor,  tg^^how,  there  are  species  in  which  a  beginning 
has  alreaa^  been  made  towards  the  development  of  a 
pied  pattern,  though  it  has  not  yet  become  well  fixed* 
Still  other  species  show  a  more  complicated  white  and 
pigmented  pattern,  the  white  portions  of  which  can  not 
readily  be  derived  from  primary  breaks  alone.  Such  I 
take  to  be  highly  developed  patterns  and  make  no  attempt 

467 


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468  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVIII 

to  analyze  them  here.  Examples  of  this  type  are  seen  in 
the  zebra,  the  spotted  skunks  {8pilogale)j  the  striped 
weasel  {Ictonyx),  Probably  more  than  one  factor  is 
responsible  for  some  of  the  combinations  of  stripes  and 
spots  seen,  for  example,  in  certain  spermophiles  (Citellus 
13-Uneatus) J  but  I  shall  not  now  attempt  a  discussion  of 
these. 

One  of  the  most  frequent  manifestations  of  pigment 
reduction  in  mammals  is  the  presence  of  a  white  spot  in 
the  normally  pigmented  forehead.  This  is  due  primarily 
to  the  reduction  of  the  ear  patches,  which  fail  to  meet  at 
their  median  edges.  Perhaps,  too,  the  apparent  loss  of 
the  crown  patch  in  some  mammals  still  further  tends  to 
lessen  the  amount  of  pigment  production  at  this  point. 
Babbits  and  hares  very  often  have  more  or  less  white  in 
the  forehead,  but  none  of  the  species  has  developed  this 
sufficiently  to  make  it  a  permanent  mark.  Moseley  in  his 
^'Naturalist  on  the  Challenger,'^  speaks  of  a  ''black 
variety''  of  wild  rabbit — doubtless  introduced — "with  a 
white  spot  on  the  forehead"  as  occasionally  found  on 
Teneriffe,  Canary  Islands,  but  this  mark  is  common, 
and  I  have  seen  it  in  such  widely  sundered  species  as  the 
eastern  varying  hare  of  New  Hampshire  and  the  black- 
necked  hare  native  to  Java.  A  specimen  of  Leisler's  bat 
{Nyctalus  leisleri)  in  the  Museum  of  Comparative  Zool- 
ogy has  a  white  spot  in  the  middle  of  the  forehead  and 
another  on  the  mid- ventral  line  of  the  abdomen — ^the  first 
a  primary  break  between  the  ear  centers,  the  second 
probably  a  ventral  primary  break  between  tjig^e  of  the 
sides.  Among  the  Insectivora,  the  West  ]pdiah  Solen- 
odon  paradoxus  has  a  white  patch  at  th6  nape  of  the 
neck  which  has  become  a  permanent  part  of  *^s  pattern. 
It  is  clearly  the  enlargement  of  a  primary  D'reak  sepa- 
rating the  ear  patches  and  neck  patches  on  the  median 
dorsal  line.  It  is  a  fact  of  much  interest  that  in  a  con- 
siderable series  of  this  species  in  the  collection  of  the 
Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology  hardly  two  have  it 
developed  alike,  but  it  varies  from  a  few  white  hairs  to 


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No.  572]  PATTERN   DEVELOPMENT  469 

a  large  patch  15  X  10  nun.  wide.  Evidently  it  has  not 
yet  become  precisely  defined  in  its  limits,  though  now  a 
permanent  mark  of  the  species. 

White  marks  in  the  forehead  are  common  among  the 

species  of  the  Mustelidae  or  weasel  family.    A  narrow 

^hite  median  line  is  present  in  the  Javan  mydans  and  in 

*he  skunks  {Mephitis)  as  part  of  the  permanent  pattern. 

In  the  badger  (Taxidea)  a  white  line  is  not  only  pres- 

^^t  on  the  forehead,  but  it  is  often  extended  medially  so 

1^®  to  separate  the  pigment  patches  of  both  sides  of  the 

^  ^y.    In  the  New  York  weasel  (Mustela  noveboracensis) 

^^  the  eastern  United  States  a  few  white  hairs  are  often 

/>7tesent  on  the  forehead,  and  other  instances  could  be 

xnixlti  plied.    Among  monkeys,  a  white  spot  on  the  nose  is 

pr&s  ^nt  in  some  species  of  Lasiopyga,  and  in  an  allied 

^en.xi.s  Rhinostigma,  it  is  elongated  vertically  to  form  a 

wrZiit^  streak. 

-A^     3ret  more  illuminating  case  is  that  of  the  Muskeget 

^e^c^Ila  mouse   {Microtus  breweri)   a  derivative  of  the 

^^^t^^oM^ignmOiOn  brown  meadow  mouse  of  the  New  England 

^a^^ctHand.    On  this  island  of  white  sand  oflf  the  Massa- 

jix^^  ^^tts  coast,  a  pale  variety  has  developed  which  is  very 

.^^^izMzuct  from  that  of  the  neighboring  shores.    Not  only 

^i*       .^a  paler  race,  but  albinism  also  has  begun  to  appear, 

^  "fcii^^  ,«it  occasional  individuals  have  a  white  fleck  between 

te      ^^  ,^rs,  showing  the  drawing  apart  of  the  ear  patches. 

Of       ^^i^      series  of  62  specimens  in  the  collections  of  the 

M^-^^-^^^xma  of  Comparative  Zoology  and  the  Boston  Society 

0^   -^^"^  .^^tural  History,  no  less  than  13  had  such  white  flecks, 

^^^^       ^Z3ne  had  in  addition  a  white  spot  just  in  advance  of 

i^^        ^shoulders,  marking  the  line  of  separation  between 

^^c^'lsi     and  shoulder  patches.    In  our  studies  on  the  hered- 

\^^^      ^i>f  coat  colors  in  mice,  Professor  Castle  and  I  dis- 

c^^r^ored  (Allen,  1904;  see  also  Little,  1914)  that  the  pied 

wyxi^ition  is  recessive  in  the  Mendelian  sense  towards 

^OcLfe   self  colored,  so  that  partial  albinos  bred  to  wholly 

^Ygicaented  mice  produce  in  the  second  generation,  if 

mterbred,  25  per  cent,  of  spotted  young.    The  figures 


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470  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVIH 

given  above  (13  in  62)  are  near  this  in  case  of  the  Muske- 
get  mouse,  but  the  matings  are  of  course  more  promiscu- 
ous. The  case  is  interesting  in  connection  with  the 
studies  of  Ramaley  (1912)  and  Pearl  (1914),  tending  to 
show  that  in  a  mixed  population  the  recessives  may  in- 
crease so  as  to  exceed  the  dominants.  Although  the 
spotted  mice  do  not,  in  case  of  this  species,  exceed  the 
unspotted  individuals,  they  nevertheless  are  of  far  more 
frequent  occurrence  than  they  are  in  the  mainland  repre- 
sentatives of  the  species.  This  accords  with  the  fact  that 
island-living  mammals  are  very  conunonly  albinistic,  and 
the  cause  is  doubtless  that  the  population  is  much  more 
inbred,  so  that  the  recessive  condition  of  partial  albinism 
is  more  likely  to  be  propagated  than  if  successive  genera- 
tions have  a  wider  range  over  which  to  spread.  It  seems 
probable  that  heredity  will  tend  to  increase  the  propor- 
tion of  spotted  mice  of  Muskeget,  and  that  if  this  condi- 
tion is  disadvantageous,  a  large  part  of  the  spotted  indi- 
viduals will  be  killed  off,  yet  in  the  course  of  time  they 
may  become  adjusted  to  this  condition  and  will  survive 
in  increasing  proportion  till  the  white  mark  becomes 
characteristic  of  all  the  animals.  Cory  (1912)  records 
the  capture  of  seven  muskrats  at  Hayfleld,  Iowa,  all  of 
which  were  uniformly  marked,  having  a  white  ring  around 
the  neck  and  the  entire  underparts,  feet,  and  end  of  tail 
white.  I  can  think  of  three  causes  influencing  the  status 
of  such  white  markings.  These  markings  may  be  in- 
herited in  a  purely  automatic  way  as  unit  characters; 
but  if  thus  inherited  they  may  be  (1)  increased  through 
selection,  natural  or  sexual;  or  (2)  eliminated  by  the  same 
agent;  or  (3)  they  may  be,  at  first,  of  no  influence  at  all 
in  the  economy  of  the  animal  and  persist  or  not,  accord- 
ing as  they  are  heritable. 

I  have  mentioned  that  island  mammals  tend  to  be  more 
albinistic  than  their  mainland  representatives.  Other 
cases  may  be  mentioned,  as  the  common  squirrel  (Sciurus 
vulgaris  leucurus)  of  Great  Britain,  which  differs  nota- 
bly from  that  of  the  continent  in  having  frequently  a 


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No.  572]  PATTEBN  DEVELOPMENT  471 

white  or  whitish  tip  to  the  tail,  often  for  one  half  its 
length.  A  similar  white  tip  is  occasionally  seen  in  our  red 
squirrel  {8.  hudsonius)  as  an  albinistic  mark,  and  is  due, 
of  course,  to  the  terminal  restriction  of  the  rump  patches. 
The  deer  of  Whitby  Island,  Puget  Sound,  are  said  to  be 
much  marked  with  white,  and  sundry  marsupials  of 
Papua  as  well  as  the  monotreme  Zaglossus  are  subject  to 
white  markings.  In  the  cuscus  {Pseudochirus)  the  pig- 
ment is  sometimes  restricted  to  small  patches  and  round 
spots  scattered  on  the  back,  those  in  the  region  of  the 
shoulder  of  a  different  color  from  those  of  the  side  and 
rump  patches.  Another  instance  is  that  of  the  white- 
footed  mouse  of  Monomoy  Island,  Massachusetts,  the 
mid- ventral  parts  of  which  are  pure  white  to  the  roots  of 
the  hairs,  an  albinistic  condition  to  be  clearly  distin- 
guished from  that  in  which  the  belly  appears  white,  but 
only  because  of  the  white  tips  to  the  hairs  whose  bases 
are  dark-pigmented. 

The  restriction  of  the  rump  patches  so  as  to  produce 
a  white  tail-tip  is  common  among  mammals.  It  is  found 
in  occasional  specimens  of  many  species  as  the  shrew  mole 
{Blarina)y  Brewer's  mole  (Parascalops),  the  meadow 
jumping  mouse  {Zapus)^  the  white-footed  mouse  {Pero- 
myscus)y  and  squirrels  (Sciurus).  In  some  it  has  be- 
come developed  as  a  permanent  and  characteristic  mark, 
as  in  the  woodland  jumping  mouse  {Napceozapus)j  the 
red  fox  {Vulpes)^  such  genera  as  Hydromys,  Tylomys, 
the  Virginia  opossum  (Didelphys  virginiana),  the  tree 
kangaroos  {Dendrolagus).  In  many  others  a  pure  white 
beUy  is  developed  through  ventral  restriction  of  the 
shoulder  and  side  patches. 

Among  ungulates  the  break  between  the  ear  patches 
has  been  developed  to  form  a  broad  white  blaze  from 
forehead  to  nose  in  case  of  the  blesbok  (Damaliscus 
albifrons)  of  South  Africa  and  in  related  species  in 
East  Africa.  The  chevron-mark  on  the  forehead  of  cer- 
tain antelopes  is  possibly  a  specialized  development  of 
the  same  thing. 


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472  TRE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVIU 

White  buttock  patches  are  present  in  several  unrelated 
ungulates — as  the  pronghorn  {Antilocapra),  the  wapiti 
{Cervus  canadensis) ^  and  the  Rocky  Mountain  sheep 
(Ovi'S  canadensis).  Probably  these  are  the  result  of 
restriction  or  total  inactivity  of  the  pigment  patches 
covering  the  rump. 


Fio.  42a.    Diagram  Showing  the  Pigmented  Patches  op  a  Partiallt  ALBi!fO 

Dbbb. 

Among  the  deer  family  white  is  generally  confined  to 
the  under  surfaces  and  the  primary  white  breaks  have  not 
been  developed  to  form  patterns.  Albinistic  deer  are 
fairly  common,  however,  and  in  Fig.  42a  I  have  made  a 
tracing  from  a  photograph  showing  the  side  of  a  par- 
tially albino  doe  in  which  areal  restriction  of  pigment  has 
taken  place  in  such  wise  that  the  primary  patches  are 
all  indicated,  and  separated  from  those  of  the  opposite 
half  of  the  body  by  a  median  dorsal  white  line.  The  ear 
and  the  neck  patches  are  joined,  but  a  few  small  islands 
of  pigment  are  left  here  and  there,  much  as  in  cows. 

In  the  young  of  many  deer  and  in  the  adult  of  such 
species  as  the  axis  deer,  a  spotted  pattern  is  developed. 


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No.  572]  PATTERN   DEVELOPMENT  473 

There  is  an  obvious  tendency  for  the  spots  to  become 
arranged  in  longitudinal  rows,  and  intermediate  stages 
may  be  found  in  which  they  coalesce  to  form  broken  lines. 
There  is  little  doubt  that  the  complete  white  stripes 
occurring  in  part  of  this  pattern  were  formed  originally 
through  the  coalescence  of  rows  of  white  spots.  In  the 
tapir  a  somewhat  similar  spotted  pattern  is  found  in 
the  young,  while  the  adult  Malayan  tapir  has  lost  the 
shoulder  and  side  patches,  producing  thus  a  white-bodied 
animal,  pigmented  to  the  back  of  the  foreleg  and  on  the 
buttocks  and  hind  legs.  Among  the  ground  squirrels 
(Citellus)  a  beautiful  series  can  be  picked  out  showing 
the  transition  from  a  uniform  grizzled  mixture  of  ticked 
hairs  to  indistinct  spotting,  then  rows  of  white  spots,  and 
finally  broken  and  complete  longitudinal  stripes.  The 
production  of  these  stripes  I  believe  to  be  due,  not  to  the 
development  of  breaks  between  the  primary  pigment 
patches,  but  to  the  action  of  a  factor  which  is  the  negative 
of  the  so-called  ''English''  marking  in  rabbits,  so  that 
instead  of  the  development  of  scattered  small  pigments 
spots  there  are  formed,  instead,  spots  without  pigment. 
That  it  is  possible  to  evolve  a  striped  pattern  from  spots 
through  selection,  I  have  no  doubt,  and  indeed,  it  is  gen- 
erally believed.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  quite  possible 
that  the  converse  may  happen,  and  spots  result  through 
the  breaking  up  of  stripes.  According  to  the  experiments 
of  Professor  Castle  and  Dr.  MacCurdy,  however,  it  seems 
to  be  a  diflScult  matter  to  fix  a  given  marking  by  rigid 
selection,  yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  a  few  years'  work 
even  of  careful  breeding  is  nothing  in  comparison  with 
the  age-long  selection  that  may  have  been  at  work  on  the 
species.  That  it  is  a  difficult  matter  to  produce  a  given 
pattern  is  further  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  in  many 
species  in  which  white  markings  regularly  occur  as  part 
of  the  pattern,  these  are  subject  to  great  individual 
variation  in  their  extent,  showing  that  they  are  even  yet 
not  wholly  definite. 
It  was  formerly  urged  against  evolutionary  doctrine 


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No.  572] 


PATTERN   DEVELOPMENT 


under  side  of  the  specimens.  In  the  large  coastal  race  of 
mink  found  from  southern  Maine  to  the  Carolinas  {M,  v. 
lutreocephalus),  the  entire  pelage  is  usually  brown,  ex- 
cept for  the  chin  which  is  white.  Occasional  white  marks 
are  present  in  some  specimens  along  the  mid-ventral 
line  of  the  throat  and  chest,  and  between  the  hind  legs. 
In  the  smaller  typical  M.  vison  of  northern  New  England 
northward  the  white  marking  is  apt  to  be  more  extensive, 
and  in  no  two  individuals  exactly  alike.  The  diagrams 
show  the  ventral  markings  of  a  few  specimens  from  New 
England  and  Nova  Scotia.  In  Fig.  43  the  amount  of 
white  is  very  small.  The  chin  spot,  which  represents  the 
beginning  of  a  break  between  the  two  ear  patches  at  their 
antero-ventral  extremity,  is  always  present  and  has  be- 
come now  a  fixed  mark  of  the  species,  though  variable  in 
extent.  A  slight  break  in  the  center  of  the  chest  shows 
where  the  two  shoulder  patches  have  failed  to  meet,  and 
a  white  spot  at  the  anal  region  indicates  a  like  restriction 
of  the  rump  patches.  Similar  spots  appear  mid-ventrally 
in  Fig.  44,  with  the  addition  of  a  few  white  hairs,  medially 
at  the  upper  throat,  where  the  ear  and  neck  patches  join, 
and  a  few  more  on  the  lower  throat  at  the  line  of  union 
of  the  neck  patches  of  opposite  sides.  In  Figs.  45  and  46 
no  break  is  present  on  the  abdomen,  but  in  the  former 
figure,  a  large  transverse  break  has  appeared  on  the 
upper  throat  where  the  ear  patches  fail  to  unite  with  the 
neck  patches  and  with  each  other,  and  a  median  line  runs 
forward  to  join  the  white  of  the  chin,  showing  the  greater 
restriction  of  the  ear  patches  ventrally.  An  imperfect 
separation  of  these  patches  along  the  center  of  the  throat 
has  taken  place  in  Fig.  47,  and  a  more  considerable  break 
occurs  in  the  same  place  in  Fig.  46.  In  the  Pacific  Coast 
mink  {Mustela  vison  energumenos)  a  well-developed 
white  patch  on  the  chest  is  rather  characteristic,  some- 
what larger  than  in  Fig.  45.  This  is  due  to  the  ventral 
restriction  of  the  shoulder  patches  which  fail  to  meet 
below.  In  Fig.  46  this  white  area  is  seen  with  a  tongue 
extending  upon  the  center  of  the  lower  throat,  and  on  to 


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476  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVm 

one  fore  leg,  as  well  as  in  the  mid  line  of  the  thorax,  mark- 
ing nearly  the  anteroposterior  limits  of  the  shoulder 
patch.  The  neck  patches  are  not  separated  in  this  figure 
but  have  become  so  in  Fig.  48,  so  that  a  continuous  line 
of  white  runs  from  chin  to  chest.  In  Fig.  47  the  shoulder 
and  the  side  patches  have  both  failed  to  join  venfrally, 
and  thus  a  broad  white  line  is  formed  down  the  center  of 
the  belly  from  the  conjoined  neck  patches  to  the  rump 
patches.  If  all  these  breaks  were  to  be  present  in  a  single 
animal,  there  would  be  a  narrowed  white  area  along  the 
entire  ventral  side  of  the  body  from  chin  to  anus,  extend- 
ing on  to  the  lower  side  of  the  fore  legs.  Practically 
this  condition  exists  in  another  species  of  the  same 
genus,  Streator's  weasel  (Mustela  streatori)  of  the 
Pacific  Coast,  in  which  the  throat,  chest  and  belly  are 
white  but  the  width  and  boundaries  of  the  white  area  are 
very  variable  in  different  individuals.  It  is  therefore  in 
a  stage  beyond  that  which  the  minks  have  reached,  yet  it 
has  not  attained  the  stage  in  which  the  white  area  is  of 
definite  and  rather  constant  bounds,  as  in  certain  other 
weasels,  for  example  Mustela  noveboracensis,  in  which 
the  white,  of  the  belly  extends  nearly  or  quite  to  the 
lateral  border  of  the  body,  but  in  different  individuals 
varies  slightly,  and  M.  cicognanii,  in  which  the  white  area 
of  the  belly  constantly  extends  to  the  lateral  boundary  of 
the  venter  from  throat  to  anus.  This  is  the  condition 
toward  which  the  mink  is  tending. 

Another  interesting  case  in  which  a  pattern  mark  ap- 
pears to  be  evolving  through  the  fixation  of  a  primary 
break  between  pigment  patches  is  that  of  the  so-called 
tayra  of  South  America  (Tayra  barbara)  a  large  Muste- 
lid.  The  Central  American  race  (biologice)  of  this  animal 
is  wholly  black,  but  the  typical  subspecies  of  Brazil  and 
northern  South  America  is  subject  to  a  varying  amount 
of  reduction  in  pigmentation.  Curiously,  this  takes  place 
at  the  posterior  end  of  the  neck  patches  or  at  the  anterior 
part  of  the  shoulder  patches.  Three  of  five  specimens  in 
the  Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology  are  marked  in  this 


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No.  572] 


PATTERN   DEVELOPMENT 


477 


way.  All  have  a  triangular  patch  of  white  at  the  base  of 
the  throat  ventrally,  as  a  break  between  neck  and  shoulder 
patches  and  a  partial  separation  of  the  neck  patches 
from  each  other.  Each  has  a  dorsal  mark  of  white ;  in  the 
first  a  narrow  linear  break  between  the  shoulders ;  in  the 
second  a  broader  transverse  mark,  and  in  the  third  a 
square  patch  of  white  occupying  nearly  the  width  of  body 
between  the  shoulders  to  the  base  of  the  neck.  The  white 
throat  marking  increases  in  e^^tent  from  first  to  third, 
just  as  does  the  dorsal  marking.  Probably  in  time  this 
white  mark,  now  of  irregular  size  and  appearance  indi- 
vidually, will  become  a  permanent  part  of  the  pattern.  In 
this  animal  the  entire  head  and  neck  are  a  grizzled  gray 
as  far  back  as  the  posterior  limit  of  the  neck  patches,  and 
the  rest  of  the  body  is  black.  This,  then,  shows  that  the 
pigment  patches  of  head  and  neck  are  differentiated  in 
color  as  well,  from  the  patches  of  the  rest  of  the  body. 
The  occurrence  of  white  markings  in  the  back  is  relatively 
uncommon  in  mammals,  though  white  on  the  under  sur- 
faces is  common,  and,  as  shown  by  Mr.  Abbott  H.Thayer, 
may  be  of  real  service  to  the  animal  as  a  factor  in  con- 
cealment. 

In  the  development  of  white  pattern-marks,  the  evi- 
dence seems  to  show  that  these  come  in  at  first  as  small 
and  fluctuating  spots,  which  may  be  of  little  effect  in  the 
economy  of  the  animal.  Their  further  development  might 
lead  to  the  extinction  of  the  species  if  they  render  it  too 
conspicuous  to  enemies,  unless  the  species  at  the  same 
time  makes  use  of  them  or  accommodates  itself  to  their  re- 
vealing effect.  Often,  no  doubt,  they  may  not  be  a  source 
of  danger  at  all.  A  case  in  point  may  be  that  of  Sciurus 
finlaysoni,  a  Malayan  squirrel,  most  of  the  individuals  of 
which  are  largely  marked  with  white,  and  of  which  speci- 
mens may  be  found  side  by  side,  varying  from  an  almost 
entirely  pigmented  condition  to  one  of  completely  white 
coat  and  black  eyes.  White  squirrels  are  occasional  in 
other  species,  as  albinos,  but  these  rarely  survive  more 
than  a  generation  in  the  cases  I  have  known,  whereas 


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478  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [VoL-XLTDS. 

Finlay son's  squirrel  seems  to  have  accustomed  itsell  \yj 
gradual  stages  to  the  white  condition,  so  that  it  is  prol^ 
ably  not   at  a   great   disadvantage  by  reason    of     its 
whiteness. 

Pigment  Patches  in  Bibds 

In  birds  the  same  primary  pigment  patches  seem  to  bo 
present  as  in  mammals,  and  they  are  homologous  in    tbe 
two  groups.  In  defining  the  extent  of  the  pigment  patolies, 
however,  allowance  must  be  made  for  the  fact  that  the  long 
feathers  may  cover  a  part  of  the  body  remote  from  tlieir 
origin.    The  distribution  of  the  feathers  or  the  pterjrlosis 
of  the  species  in  hand  must  also  be  remembered.        In 
order  to  arrive  at  the  true  interpretation  of  the  patoTies, 
it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  pigment  as  projected  back 
from  the  vanes  of  the  feathers  to  the  part  of  the  l>ody 
at  their  bases.    By  so  doing,  it  becomes  evident  thL^t  a 
feather  variegated  with  pigmented  and  unpigmented    (  or 
white)  areas  indicates  none  the  less  that  the  tesLt^TcL^T 
arises  from  a  place  of  pigment  formation.    It  is  orxly  ^ 
wholly  white  feather  or  patch  of  feathers  that  caxx    ^^  ^^ 

considered  albinistic  in  the  sense  here  intended.        ^-^J^^  ''^ 

factor  determining  the  intermittent  formation  of     '^p^^ 
ment  in  the  individual  feather  is  probably  a  v^Yimq/^ 
different  one  from  that  determining  the  presence  or  ^i 
sence  of  pigment  formation  at  certain  places  on  t^J 
body,  though  not  necessarily  different  except  in  its  inter, 
mittent  action. 

In  the  domestic  pigeon  of  our  streets  and  buildings, 
we  have  a  species  that  in  its  wild  state  is  normally  fully 
pigmented  except  .for  a  white  rump  patch.  Under  semi, 
domestication  it  has  developed  partial  albinism  to  a  large 
degree,  so  that  it  is  possible  to  obtain  a  complete  series 
representing  on  the  one  extreme  a  totally  pigmented 
bird  without  a  trace  even  of  the  white  rump  patch,  and 
on  the  other  extreme  a  bird  of  pure  white  plumage.  A 
few  of  the  intermediate  stages  in  areal  reduction  of  pig- 
mentation are  shown  in  Figs.  49  to  53,  selected  from 
birds  raised  for  the  market  and,  so  far  as  known,  not 


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No.  572] 


PATTERN   DEVELOPMENT 


479 


bred  for  pattern.  The  first  steps  in  reduction  are  shown 
in  Fig.  49.  Here  there  is  seen  first  a  crescentic  band  of 
white  feathers  passing  from  eye  to  eye  around  the  occi- 
put. This  is  a  primary  break  marking  off  the  crown 
patch  posteriorly.  This  patch  in  birds,  in  contrast  to  its 
development  in  mammals,  is  the  main  patch  of  the  head, 


^ 


s-o 


6^/ 


Figs.   49-63.     Diaobams   Showinq   Pigmentation   in   the  Domestic   Pigeon. 

covering  the  area  from  the  base  of  the  bill  to  the  eyes 
and  occiput.  In  Fig.  50  its  posterior  limit  is  similarly 
defined  by  a  primary  break  separating  it  from  the  neck 
patches,  and  although  it  does  not  extend  forward  quite 
to  the  eye  in  this  specimen,  it  shows  a  beginning  of  sepa- 
ration from  the  more  lateral  ear  patches  by  virtue  of  the 
indentations  on  each  side  posteriorly.  In  Fig.  52,  the 
crown  patch  is  shown  slightly  reduced  in  extent  and 
wholly  separate  from  the  ear  patches,  which  have  become 
inactive  altogether.  In  Fig.  53  it  has  dropped  out  with 
the  latter.    It  is  evident  then  that  by  greater  or  lesser 


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480  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVHI 

reduction  of  the  crown  patch  alone  it  is  possible  to  pro- 
duce a  pigeon  with  a  mere  white  spot  at  the  back  of  the 
head,  one  with  a  white  stripe  from  the  base  of  the  beak 
through  the  eyes  to  the  back  of  the  head  (or  some  part 
of  such  a  stripe)  to  a  pigeon  in  which  by  the  total  reduc- 
tion of  the  patch,  the  entire  top  of  the  head  is  white. 
Such  specimens  can  be  found  in  most  any  miscellaneous 
flock.  There  is  a  tendency  often  for  the  patch  to  be  irreg- 
ularly broken,  sometimes  divided  almost  into  two  parts, 
a  result  of  the  pterylosis  to  some  extent. 

The  ear  patches  in  pigeons,  and  probably  in  all  birds, 
are  rather  insignificant,  and  the  smallest  of  all  the  pri- 
mary pigment  areas.  They  include  the  feathers  from 
the  posterior  angle  of  the  lower  mandible  to  the  angle  of 
mouth  and  thence  back,  including  the  ear  coverts.  I  do 
not  feel  sure  that  the  patches  of  opposite  sides  may  not 
join  on  the  chin,  but  the  present  evidence  tends  to  show 
that  the  chin  is  pigmented  by  a  forward  extension  of  the 
neck  patch,  which,  under  reduction,  often  leaves  a  small 
island  of  pigment  between  the  mandibular  rami.  In  Fig. 
50  the  neck  patches  are  seen  to  have  broken  away  ante- 
riorly from  the  crown  and  ear  patches  and  the  separa- 
tion of  the  latter  from  the  crown  is  indicated  by  deep 
reentrants  along  the  line  of  the  separation.  In  Fig.  51  a 
remnant  of  the  ear  patch  of  the  left  side  alone  remains 
in  dorsal  view,  consisting  of  a  small  tuft  of  pigmented 
feathers'  at  the  fore  end  of  the  aural  area  and  a  single 
pigmented  feather  just  behind  it.  In  this  specimen  there 
are  a  few  pigmented  feathers  on  the  chin  as  well,  which  I 
take  to  be  an  isolated  bit  of  the  neck  patches. 

The  neck  patches  are  bilateral  in  origin,  and  pigment 
the  entire  throat  and  neck  back  to  a  point  corresponding 
to  the  base  of  the  neck  vertebrae.  They  meet  the  crown 
patch  and  separate  the  ear  patches  at  the  occiput.  In  the 
domestic  pigeon  the  neck  patches  correspond  very  closely 
to  the  area  of  differentiated  feathers  that  give  the  metal- 
lic reflections.  In  the  reduction  of  this  area  it  is  common 
for  the  anterior  part  of  the  throat  to  be  white,  and  then  a 


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PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT 


481 


break  occurs  between  the  neck  patches  and  those  of  the 
head  as  in  Fig.  50.  Posteriorly  the  neck  patch  under 
reduction  may  become  separated  by  a  white  ring  at  the 
base  of  the  neck,  from  the  shoulder  patches  as  in  Fig.  50. 
The  ultimate  centers  of  these  patches  seem  to  be  in  the 
pigeon  well  back  on  the  base  of  the  neck.  These  are 
shown,  of  small  extent,  in  Fig.  51,  as  two  small  areas  of 
pigmented  feathers,  one  on  each  side  of  the  base  of  the 
neck.  In  Fig.  53,  further  reduction  has  taken  place,  so 
that  the  patch  of  the  left  side  only  remains  as  a  small 
center.  In  Fig.  52  there  is  a  large  median  dorsal  patch, 
which,  as  in  mammals,  may  represent  the  two  centers  of 
opposite  sides  which  even  under  much  reduction  have  not 
in  this  individual  become  divided  medially. 

A  very  common  manifestation  of  pigment  reduction  in 
pigeons  is  to  have  the  primaries  or  some  of  them  white, 
as  in  Figs.  49  or  50.  This  indicates  a  failure  of  pigment 
to  develop  at  the  extremities  of  the  shoulder  patches, 
just  as  in  mammals  white  forefeet  mark  a  slight  reduc- 
tion of  the  same  areas.  It  is  a  fact  of  much  interest  that 
in  the  guinea  fowl  {Numida)^  which  has  been  under 
domestication  but  a  short  time  comparatively,  a  distinct 
breed  has  arisen  in  which  this  same  reduction  of  pigment 
is  present,  resulting  in  a  speckled  bird  with  pure  white 
primaries  and  often  a  pure  white  area  on  the  breast.  In 
the  pigeon,  further  reduction  cuts  off  a  narrow  ring  of 
pigment  encircling  the  breast,  or,  it  may  be,  broken  in  the 
mid-ventral  line.  This  ring  represents  the  reduced 
shoulder  patches,  and  is  to  be  seen  in  many  wild  species 
as  a  permanent  part  of  the  pattern.  The  white  collar  at 
the  base  of  the  neck  in  Fig.  50  marks  the  separation 
between  the  neck  and  the  shoulder  patches  at  the  ante- 
rior border  of  the  latter.  In  other  specimens  the  patches 
are  separated  medially  by  a  white  area  down  the  back. 
The  ultimate  centers  of  these  patches  seem  to  be  near 
the  elbow  or  on  the  upper  arm  at  the  base  of  the  tertiaries, 
as  seen  in  Figs.  52  and  53. 


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482  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVIII 

The  side  patches  are  rather  small  and  seem  to  center, 
as  in  Fig.  51,  near  the  groin  on  either  side.  They  pig- 
ment the  belly  back  of  the  breast  area  included  by  the 
shoulder  patches,  and  extend  on  to  the  hind  legs  as  well. 
In  a  specimen  before  me,  the  shoulder  patches  pigment 
the  bases  of  the  wings  and  the  entire  breast  correspond- 
ing roughly  to  the  length  of  the  sternum,  and  tend  to  be 
separated  by  encroaching  white  feathers  midventrally. 
The  side  patches  ara  much  more  reduced,  and  are  con- 
fined to  a  small  area  at  the  top  of  each  thigh.  The  re- 
mainder of  the  patches  has  become  inactive,  so  that  a 
completely  white  belly  and  back  result.  A  very  common 
occurrence  is  the  white  rump  patch  due  to  the  restriction 
of  the  side  patches,  so  that  a  break  occurs  between  them 
and  the  tail  patches.  The  rump  patches  in  birds  are 
situated  far  back,  as  in  mammals,  and  pigment  the  tail 
coverts  and  the  rectrices  as  in  Figs.  49-51.  The  bilater- 
ality  of  the  two  patches  is  often  indicated  in  pigeons  by 
the  occurrence  of  a  few  pure  white  rectrices  in  the  center 
of  the  tail.  Other  birds  show  pure  white  feathers  at 
either  side  of  the  tail,  with  a  tendency  ta  bilateral  sym- 
metry, a  most  important  fact,  since  it  indicates  restriction 
at  the  outer  extremes  of  these  centers.  In  the  restriction 
of  pigment  formation,  the  rectrices  are  the  first  to  be- 
come white,  as  one  would  expect,  since  they  are  situated 
at  the  extremity  of  the  body  and  farthest  from  the  center 
of  the  patch.  In  Fig.  52  these  centers  are  seen  to  be  at 
the  base  of  the  tail  above,  and  include  the  upper  tail 
coverts.  They  are  still  joined  medially,  but  that  of  the 
left  side  is  more  extensive  than  the  patch  on  the  right  side. 
The  approximate  boundaries  of  the  several  pigment 
patches  are  indicated  in  Fig.  53  by  dotted  lines ;  1  is  the 
crown  patch,  2  the  ear  patch,  3  the  neck  patch,  4  the 
shoulder  patch,  5  the  side,  and  6  the  rump  patch,  as  they 
appear  in  a  dorsal  view.  Ventrally  the  neck  patch  runs 
forward  to  the  symphysis  of  the  mandibles. 

In  a  flock  of  domesticated  mallard  ducks  which   I 
studied,  the  same  patches  were  found  indicated,  and 


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No.  572]  PATTERN   DEVELOPMENT  483 

some  of  the  details  of  these  are  shown  in  Figs.  54-56. 
In  the  male  wild  mallard  there  is  no  white  in  the  pattern 
of  the  head  and  neck  except  a  white  ring  at  the  base  of 
the  neck.  In  one  of  the  domesticated  breed,  shown  in 
Fig.  54,  the  crown  patch  was  very  beautifully  marked 
off,  as  in  the  pigeon  (Fig.  49),  by  a  white  band  from  eye 
to  eye  passing  about  the  occiput.  This  duck  was  further 
interesting  ii^  showing  the  median  division  of  the  two 
neck  patches,  ^s  a  narrow  white  line  running  down  the 


rt  Si 


Sf. 


^1 


Figs.   64-^7.     Diagbams    Showing   Pigmentation   in   Domesticated   Mallard 
Ducks  and  in  the  (Wild)  Labrador  Duck  (57). 

back  of  the  neck  medially,  from  the  occipital  stripe.  An- 
other duck  shown  in  Fig.  55  had  lost  the  nfeck  patches 
entirely,  but  showed  the  same  occipital  stripe  bounding 
the  crown  patch  posteriorly,  and  the  ear  patches  dorsally. 
The  ear  patches  still  adjoin  the  crown  patch  anteriorly. 
In  Fig.  56  is  represented  another  of  these  ducks  in  which 
both  ear  patches  are  distinct  and  separate  on  either  side 
of  the  head.  The  crown  patch  appears  as  two  narrow 
lines  of  pigmented  feathers  which  are  not  quite  in  con- 
tact posteriorly.  I  have  not  obtained  a  satisfactory 
explanation  for  the  apparent  tendency  of  this  patch  to 


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1 


484  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVHI 

divide  medially.  Probably  for  some  reason  the  forma- 
tion of  the  pigment  is  more  intense  at  the  sides  of  the 
crown  than  in  the  center  where  the  nerve  and  blood 
supply  is  less.  In  the  pterylosis  of  this  area  the  develop- 
ment of  feathers  is  seen  to  be  greater  at  the  sides  also. 

The  neck  patches  and  the  side  patches  are  absent  en- 
tirely, but  the  shoulder  patches  are  both  present,  in  Fig. 
56,  that  of  the  right  side  covering  the  scapulars  and 
middle  of  the  upper  back,  that  of  the  left  side  including 
a  few  only  of  the  scapulars. 

The  tail  patches  are  both  present,  and  separate  from 
each  other,  as  shown  by  the  median  white  rectrices. 

In  this  same  flock  of  mallards  was  a  female  which  had 
a  white  ring  at  the  base  of  the  neck  in  the  same  situation 
as  the  white  ring  which  in  the  male  is  a  part  of  the  per- 
manent pattern.  It  was  not  quite  complete  dorsally, 
however,  in  this  female,  and  was  somewhat  broader  than 
regularly  in  the  male.  Nevertheless,  it  is  apparent  that 
this  white  collar  in  the  male  is  merely  a  primary  break 
between  neck  and  shoulder  patches  that  has  become 
developed  as  a  part  of  the  normal  pattern. 

Stone  (1912,  p.  318)  in  his  paper  on  the  phylogenetic 
value  of  color  characters  in  birds,  hints  at  the  existence 
of  these  patches.    He  says,  in  part : 

In  matters  of  pattern  there  seems  to  be  a  deeper  problem  involved, 
i.  e.,  the  determination  of  the  cause  governing  the  appearance  of  a  dif- 
ferently colored  patch  on  corresponding  parts  of  the  plumage  of  birds 
belonging  to  wholly  different  groups  ...  or  the  presence  of  a  mystacial 
stripe,  a  superciliary  stripe,  a  light  rump  patch.  ...  In  fact  if  a  bird 
exhibits  a  bright  or  contrasting  patch  of  color,  it  is,  in  the  vast  major- 
ity of  cases,  found  on  one  of  several  definite  portions  of  the  plumage, 
as  the  crown,  the  throat,  the  bend  of  the  wing,  the  rump,  «te. 

These  contrasting  areas  are  due  to  the  development  of 
one  or  more  of  the  primary  patches,  or  of  breaks  between 
them,  or  again  paler  areas,  as  at  the  bend  of  the  wing  or 
on  the  rump,  indicate  often  a  lessening  of  pigment  inten- 
sity at  a  distance  from  the  respective  primary  centers. 

(To  he  concluded,) 


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NOTES  ON  THE  MEADOW  JUMPING  MOUSE 

(ZAPUS  HUDSONIUS)   ESPECIALLY  RE- 

GARDING  HIBERNATION 

H.  L.  BABCOCK,  M.D. 
Dedham^  Mass. 

The  jumping  mouse  is  the  only  one  of  the  wild  mice  of 
this  region  (Massachusetts)  which  exhibits  the  habit  of 
regular  hibernation.  Regarding  this  habit  there  are  a 
number  of  references  in  the  literature  on  the  subject. 
Barton*  was  one  of  the  first  to  refer  to  the  fact  that  this 
mouse  became  dormant  in  winter.  He  says,  in  describing 
the  actions  of  one  he  had  in  captivity : 

On  or  about  the  22d  of  November  it  passed  into  the  torpid  state.  It 
is  carious  to  observe  that  at  the  time  it  became  torpid  the  weather  was 
unusually  mild  for  the  season  of  the  year,  and  moreover  the  animal  was 
kept  in  a  warm  room,  in  which  there  was  a  large  fire  the  greater  part 
of  the  day  and  night  ...  It  was  frequently  most  active  while  the 
weather  was  extremely  cold  in  December. 

This  was  in  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Audubon  and  Bachman*  regret  that  they  live  in  a  region 
where  the  species  does  not  exist  and  can  not  speak  from 
personal  observation  on  the  subject. 

Godman,^  Thompson*  and  Kennicott^  speak  of  its  habit 
of  hibernation. 

Tenney*  gives  an  account  of  a  specimen  of  this  species 
taken  alive  on  January  18,  1872,  near  Vincennes,  Ind.  It 
was  dormant,  coiled  up  tightly,  **the  nose  being  placed 
upon  the  belly,  and  the  long  tail  coiled  around  the  ball-like 

1 ' '  Some  Accomit  of  an  American  Species  of  Dipus  or  Jerboa, ' '  bj  Ben- 
jamin Smith  Barton,  MJD.,  Translatiana  of  the  Am.  Philosophical  Society, 
Vol.  IV,  No.  XII,  1799. 

*  Viviparous  Quadrupeds  of  No.  America/'  Vol.  11,  1851,  p.  255. 
«  Godman,  "Am.  Nat.  Hist.,''  Vol.  I,  1842. 

4 Rev.  Zadoc  Thompson,  "Nat.  and  Civil  Hist,  of  Vermont,"  1842. 
sKennicott,  Patent  Office  Report  for  1857. 

•  Tenney,  "Hibernation  of  the  Jumping  Mouse,"  Am.  Naturalist,  June, 
1872,  Vol.  VI,  No.  6,  pp.  330-332. 

485 


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486  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVm 

form  whicli  the  animal  had  assumed. "  It  was  taken  from 
a  nest  about  two  feet  below  the  surface,  made  of  bits  of 
grass.  The  mouse  showed  no  signs  of  life  at  first,  but  on 
being  held  in  his  hand,  soon  became  feebly  active,  and  on 
being  placed  in  a  warm  room,  came  out  of  its  dormant  con- 
dition entirely.  It  again  became  dormant  that  night,  but 
was  aroused  twice  again  by  the  application  of  heat,  within 
the  next  few  weeks,  in  spite  of  very  cold  weather. 

Merriam^  tells  of  taking  an  active  male  at  Easthamp- 
ton,  Mass.,  on  February  11,  1872,  and  states  that  during 
the  mild  winter  of  1881-82,  in  Lewis  County,  Northern 
New  York,  he  saw  jumping  mice  active  several  times. 

Seton^  speaks  of  finding  a  Zapus  Hudsonius  on  Sep- 
tember 27, 1888,  at  Carberry,  Manitoba,  in  a  nest  of  leaves 
under  the  roots  of  a  stump,  nearly  torpid.    He  says : 

In  the  country  near  Carberry,  I  never  saw  it  active  after  September 
first. 

Stone  and  Cram®  believe  that  this  mouse  passes  six 
months  or  more  of  every  year  hibernating  underground. 
They  speak  of  seeing  a  family  of  them  turned  up  by  a 
plough  in  May  and  exhibiting  not  the  slightest  symptom 
of  life,  on  being  handled  or  breathed  upon. 

Burroughs^^  tells  of  a  female  jumping  mouse  in  cap- 
tivity that  began  hibernating  early  in  November  and  con- 
tinued until  May,  with  several  intervals  of  activity,  espe- 
cially after  warm  weather  came  on. 

Preble^ ^  says: 

Hibernation  varies  with  the  locality,  but  usually  begins  about  the  time 
of  the  first  heavy  frosts  and  lasts  until  Spring.  The  fall  pelage  is 
usually  assumed  and  the  animals  become  exceedingly  fat  before  entering 
winter  quarters.  Although  they  often  lay  up  stores  of  food  in  nests  or 
burrows  during  summer,  it  is  not  known  that  they  use  this  food  during 
winter.  The  animals  are  generally  found  singly  (sometimes  in  pairs) 
in  nests  at  a  depth  varying  from  a  few  inches  to  two  or  three  feet  below 
the  surface.    Hibernation  sometimes  takes  place  above  ground. 

7  C.  H.  Merrian,  M.D.,  ** Mammals  of  the  Adirondack  Region,"  1884. 
8E.  T.  Seton,  ** Life-histories  of  Northern  Animals,"  Vol.  I. 
» Stone  and  Cram,  **  American  Animals,"  p.  103-104. 
10  John  Burroughs,  '* Squirrels  and  Other  Fur  Bearers,"  pp.  121-124. 
11 E.  A.  Preble,  "Revision  of  the  Jumping  Mice  of  the  Genus  Zapus,'* 
U.  S.  Dept.  Agr.  N.  A.  Fauna  Series,  No.  15,  1899. 


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No.  572]      NOTES   ON  MEADOW  JUMPING  MOUSE  487 

On  June  25, 1912,  a  female  Zapus  Hudsonius  was  taken 
alive,  by  the  writer,  on  the  edge  of  a  small  pond  in  eastern 
Massachusetts.  It  was  placed  in  a  small  wire  cage,  and 
after  a  few  frenzied  efforts  to  escape,  became  quite  tame. 

On  July  5  it  gave  birth  to  five  young,  blind  and  hairless ; 
but  when  the  family  was  transferred  to  a  larger  cage,  the 
mouse  deserted  the  young  and  they  soon  died.  One  dis- 
appeared mysteriously,  and  may  have  been  eaten  by  the 
mother.  The  young  measured  at  birth:  total  length  33 
mm. ;  taiil  9  mm. ;  hind  foot  4  mm. 

Throughout  the  summer  the  mouse  ate  chiefly  rolled 
oats  and  shredded  wheat,  and  was  also  very  fond  of  straw* 
berries  and  blueberries.  It  refused  most  of  the  common 
fruits  and  vegetables. 

It  was  almost  wholly  nocturnal  in  its  activity,  although 
when  disturbed  during  the  day  it  would  immediately  begin 
to  eat  and  remain  active  for  half  an  hour  or  more. 
Toward  the  latter  part  of  the  summer,  it  seemed  to  grow 
quite  fai    Rhoads^^  says  in  this  connection: 

When  going  into  winter  quarters  they  are  exceedingly  fat,  as  I  can 
testify  from  experience  in  removing  this  tenacious  yellow  blanket  from 
the  skips  of  them.    This  fat  is  their  fuel.    By  spring  it  is  nearly  gone. 

During  the  latter  part  of  August  there  were  several 
very  cool  nights  (49''  F.  minimum)  and  on  the  night  of 
August  28  it  did  not  come  out.  This  fact  was  apparent 
from  the  clean  drinking  dish,  which  was  placed  in  such  a 
position  that  the  mouse  could  not  approach  without  scat- 
tering saw-dust  in  it  The  absence  was  repeated  on  Au- 
gust 30,  and  September  1.  Throughout  September  its 
actions  were  irregular.  Every  night  until  the  21st,  with 
the  exception  of  the  12th  and  17th,  it  was  active,  but  on 
the  22d  disappeared  for  four  nights.  It  was  then  active 
for  two  more  nights  (26  and  27)  and  following  that, 
inactive  for  six  (September  28  to  October  3).  From  Oc- 
tober 4  to  28  it  was  out  every  night,  although  not  as  vigor- 
ous as  formerly,  neither  did  it  eat  as  much.  When  ap- 
proached it  seemed  to  pay  no  heed,  as  if  in  a  sort  of 
stupor. 

12  S.  N.  Bhoads,  ' '  The  Mammals  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey. ' ' 


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488  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVin 

OrPlc/AL    Observations 

Fffon  US'  W^ATHM/r  Bvftau,  Bosroft Sr^mN- 

Chmt SHow'm  NJHiMt/^  htf^HTir 


•  »  /fl6HTS  OH  WMtCH  THE  /iOOSe  WIS  NoTACTir£. 

There  was  no  evidence  of  any  attempt  at  storing  away  a 
supply  of  food,  although  there  was  ample  opportunity. 
This  habit  of  storing  food  is  mentioned  by  Homaday** 
who  says : 

In  the  autumn  it  stores  in  the  ground  quantities  of  food  for  winter 
use,  but  despite  this  fact,  under  certain  conditions,  it  becomes  so  thor- 
oughly dormant  in  winter  that  it  seems  to  be  quite  lifeless. 

According  to  Seton,^ 

It  is  quite  ready  to  respond  at  any  time  to  any  spell  of  unusually  fine, 
unseasonable  weather,  even  in  the  depths  of  winter,  and  it  is  probably 
for  these  arousing  times,  as  much  as  for  the  spring  time  famine,  that  it 
lays  up  its  abundant  stores  of  food. 

Preble^  ^  also  mentions  this  habit,  but  Shufeldt"  denies 
it  He  says,  in  speaking  of  the  deer  mouse  {Peromyscus 
Leucopus) : 

Is  it  to  meet  the  requirements  of  his  condition  that  this  mouse  lays  up 
a  goodly  stock  of  food  during  the  autumn  t  Something  the  Zapus  does 
not  do. 

Following  the  period  of  activity  through  October,  the 
mouse  was  inactive  on  the  four  nights  of  October  28,  29, 
30  and  31,  and  reappeared  for  the  last  time  on  the  night 
of  November  1,  after  which  it  retired  for  the  winter.  The 
cage  was  placed  by  an  open  window  of  an  empty  box  stall 
in  a  stable  where  the  temperature  was  practically  that  of 
out  doors.  The  mouse  built  its  nest  in  the  side  of  a  large 
sod  placed  in  one  comer  of  the  cage. 

In  spite  of  a  very  mild  winter,  the  lowest  oflScial  tem- 

18  Hornaday,  *  *  The  American  Natural  History. ' ' 

i*R.  W.  Shufeldt,  M.D.,  "Chapters  on  the  Natural  History  of  the  United 
States." 


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No.  572]      NOTES   ON  MEADOW  JUMPING  MOUSE 


489 


October  NovE/fBEFr  «^^ 


perature  for  this  section  being  only  3°  F.  (February  10, 
1913,)  the  monse  did  not  survive  the  cold  weather,  and 
was  found  dead,  when  the  cage  was  opened  on  June  17, 
1913. 

The  nest  was  found  to  be  located  in  the  extreme  end  of 
the  sod,  only  IJ  inches  from  the  top  and  about  1  inch  from 
the  edge.  It  was  roughly  oval  in  shape,  being  hollowed 
out  of  the  loam  and  lined  with  a  few  blades  of  grass.  It 
measured  roughly  IJ  inches  by  1^  inches  and  was  just 
large  enough  to  contain  the  mouse  when  curled  up  into  a 
ball.  The  opening  was  on  the  side.  Death  was  probably 
caused  from  exposure  to  continued  cold  owing  to  the  un- 
protected location  of  the  nest. 

The  poor  judgment  shown  in  not  building  the  nest 
securely  in  the  middle  of  the  large  sod,  and  other  similar 
instances  of  poor  management,  have  led  the  writer  to 
believe  that  the  intelligence  (if  tiiat  term  may  be  used)  of 
the  Zapus  Hudsonius  is  of  comparatively  low  grade,  much 
lower,  for  instance,  than  that  of  the  deer  mouse  {Peromys- 
cvrS  Leucopus). 

The  accompanying  chart,  which  is  a  record  of  minimal 
nightly  temperatures,  according  to  the  official  observa- 
tions of  the  TJ.  S.  Weather  Bureau  for  this  section  (Bos- 
ton), shows  the  activity  of  the  mouse  in  relation  to  the 
temperature  during  August,  September,  October  and  No- 
vember, and  brings  out  some  rather  interesting  facts.  For 
example,  on  October  15,  16  and  17,  with  the  minimum 
nightly  temperature  42°,  36°  and  42°,  respectively,  the 
mouse  was  active,  while  on  September  22,  23,  24  and  25, 


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490  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVIH 

with  the  minimum  nightly  temperature  of  48°,  49°,  56° 
and  53°  F.,  respectively,  a  much  warmer  series  of  nights,, 
it  remained  inactive.  And  again,  after  November  1,  dur- 
ing a  warm  spell  in  which  the  minimum  nightly  tempera- 
ture for  November  7  was  64°  F.,  the  mouse  did  not  appear. 

A  study  of  this  chart  suggests  the  question  as  to  how 
much  the  temperature  has  to  do  with  this  habit  of  hiber- 
nation. 

It  is  a  somewhat  general  belief  that  temperature  regu- 
lates the  degree  of  torpidity. 

Barton^  maintains  that 

the  torpid  state  of  animals *is  altogether  an  accidental  circumstance  and 
by  no  means  constitutes  a  specific  character.  The  same  species  becomes 
torpid  in  one  country  and  not  in  another.  Nay,  different  individuals 
of  the  same  species  become  torpid  or  continue  awake  in  the  same  neigh- 
borhood or  even  on  the  same  farm. 

Seton®  believes  that 

while  torpor  is  more  or  less  controlled  by  temperature,  the  habit  of  tor- 
pidity, like  the  changing  pelage  of  the  white-hare,  is  so  deeply  ingrained 
constitutionally  that  there  is  a  strong  tendency  to  torpify  at  a  given 
time  without  regard  to  the  original  cause. 

It  is  evident  from  this  chart  that  torpidity  develops 
gradually,  at  first  for  only  one  night  at  a  time.  Whether 
this  process  is  explained  by  a  cerebral  anemia,  a  slow 
toxemia  of  the  brain  centers  or  some  other  of  the  theories 
regarding  sleep,  it  seems  to  require  about  two  months  in 
which  to  become  sufficiently  developed  to  control  com- 
pletely voluntary  body  functions.  During  that  interval 
the  animal  occasionally  awakens,  probably  from  hunger 
and  habit  as  much  as  from  any  effect  in  change  of  tem- 
perature. 

After  torpidity  is  thoroughly  established,  changes  of 
temperature  may  be  important  external  factors,  as  has 
been  demonstrated  on  numerous  occasions  in  producing  a 
temporary  activity  by  the  application  of  heat.  It  is  safe 
to  say,  however,  that  the  temperature  is  not  the  only  ele- 
ment which  influences  the  length  of  the  period  of  hibema^ 
tion. 


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SHOETER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION 
STUDIES    ON    INBREEDING— IV 

On  a  General  Formula  for  the  Constitution  op  the  nTH 
Generation  op  a  Mendelian  Population  in  which 

ALL  Ma^TINGS   are   OP   BROTHER  X  SiSTER  ^ 

I.  In  a  former  paper  in  this  series^  the  constitution  of  a  Men- 
delian population  in  which  all  mating  was  of  the  brother  X 
sister  type  was  worked  out  empirically.  The  results  there  pre- 
sented may  be  put  in  the  form  of  a  general  formula,  by  means 
of  which  the  constitution  of  any  generation  may  be  written  down 
from  a  knowledge  of  the  preceding  generation;  that  is  from  a 
knowledge  of  the  n  —  1th  generation  the  nth  generation  may  be 
at  once  written  down. 

II.  This  general  formula  may  be  developed  as  follows.  A 
single  character  pair  will  be  considered,  A  denoting  the  dominant 
character  and  a  the  recessive.  Equal  fertility  for  all  matings 
is  assumed,  the  number  of  individuals  per  family  being  taken  as 
25,  of  which  s  are  males  and  s  are  females.  One  family  will  then 
make  s  matings  and  produce  s  families  in  the  next  generation. 
Each  mating  is,  by  hypothesis,  of  a  brother  with  his  sister. 

Starting  as  before  with  a  pair  from  a  population  in  which  all 
individuals  are  of  constitution  Aa  there  will  be  in  the  next 
generation  one  family  of  the  AA  +  Aa  +  aA  +  aa  type.  In  all 
succeeding  generations  there  will  be  six  types  of  families,  viz. : 

(1)  A  A  families. 

(2)  AA-\-Aa  families. 

(3)  Aa  families. 

(4)  'Aa-}-2Aa-\-  aa  families. 

(5)  Aa^  aa  isjmlies, 

(6)  aa  families. 

1  Papers  from  the  Biological  Laboratory  of  the  Maine  Agricultural  Ex- 
periment Station,  No.  66. 

It  seems  desirable  to  publish  sa  a  general  series  of  **  Studies  on  In- 
breeding" the  results  of  certain  investigations  now  in  progress  in  this 
laboratory.  The  three  papers  which  have  already  appeared  in  this  series, 
without  the  general  title,  are:  1.  **A  Contribution  towards  an  Analy- 
sis of  the  Problem  of  Inbreeding,''  Ameb.  Nat.,  Vol.  XLVII,  pp.  577- 
615,  1913.  II.  ''Tables  for  Calculating  Coefficients  of  Inbreeding,"  Ann. 
Eept.  Me.  Agr.  Expt  Sta,  for  1913,  pp.  191-202.  III.  ''On  the  Results 
of  Inbreeding  a  Mendelian  Population:  A  Correction  and  Extension  of 
Previous  Conclusions,"  Ameb.  Nat.,  Vol.  XLVIII,  pp.  57-62,  1914. 

2  Amir.  Nat.,  Vol.  XVLIII,  pp.  57-62,  1914. 

491 


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492  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIH 

The  proportionate  number  of  each  of  these  types  of  families 
will  change  in  successive  generations  according  to  the  following 
system. 

Let  o»_i  denote  the  number  of  A  A  families  in  the  n — 1th 

generation,  and 
Pn-x  denote   the   number   of   AA'\'Aa  families   in   the 

n — 1th  generation,  and 
gn-i  denote  the  number  of  Aa  families  in  the  n — 1th 

generation,  and 
r„_i  denote  the  number  of  AA  and  2Aa  and  aa  families 

in  the  n  —  1th  generation,  and 
Un-x  denote  the  number  of  Aa-}-aa  families,  and 
Vn-i  denote  the  number  of  aa  families. 

It  will  be  possible  to  write  down  u  and  v  in  any  case  without 
calculation  because  of  the  synunetrical  relations  of  a  Mendelian 
population,  since  always  under  normal  conditions  such  as  are 
assumed  in  the  general  treatment,  we  have 

^-l=Pn-i, 

Vn.i  =  On.iy 

Vn     =0n. 

It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  consider  only  the  coeflScients  for 
the  first  four  types  of  family.  In  the  nth  generation  the  consti- 
tution of  the  population  in  respect  of  families  (not  individuals) 
will  be  as  follows : 

Families  in  nth  generation 

=  s(On.t  +  l/4tpn.i  +  l/16r,..JAA  famiUes 
+  5(l/2p„.i  +  l/4trn.x)AA  +Aa  families 
+  s(l/8rn.i)Aa  families 
,+  5(l/2pn-x  +  qn-x  +  l/4trn.,)AA 

+  2Aa  +  aa  families 
'^8(v^)Aa  +  aa  families 
j'^s{vn)aa  families. 
Or,  taking  coefficients  alone  we  have 

On  =  On.t  +  l/4pn-i  +  l/16rn.i, 

Pn  =  l/2p,.i  +  l/4rn_i, 

gn  =  l/8rn.i,  ... 

rn  =  l/2pn-x  +  gn-x  +  V^n.^,  ^   ^ 

Un  =  l/2w»_i  +  l/4rn_i  =  Pn, 

Vn  =  Vn.i  +  l/4Wn-i  +  l/16r„.i  =  On. 


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No.  572]      SHORTER   ARTICLES  AND   DISCUSSION  493 

III.  Let  us  see  how  this  formula  works  out  in  a  concrete  case. 
Assume  the  same  conditions  of  fertility  as  in  the  former  paper, 
that  is,  put  2s  =  32,  or  s  =  16.  Start  with  a  single  -4.-4. +  2Aa 
-[-  aa  family. 

Then  On-i  =  0, 

^"-1  =  0, 
r„.i  =  l. 
Then  in  the  next  generation  we  shall  have 
16(0  +  1/4(0)  +1/16(1)}  =  1AA  family 
+  16(1/2(0)  + 1/4(1) }=:4(4A  + 4a)  families 
+  16(l/8(l)}  =  24a  families 

+  16(1/2(0)  +0  + 1/4(1)}  =  4(44  + 24a +  aa)  families 
+  4(4a  +  aa)  families 
+  laa  family. 

This  is  the  fact. 

In  the  next  generation  we  shall  have 

16(1  + 1  + 1/16(4)}  =3644  families 

+  16(1/2(4)  +1/4(4)}  =48(44  + 4a)  families 

+  16(1/8(4) }  =  84a  families 

+  16(1/2(4)  +2  +  l/4(4)}  =  80(44  +  24a  +  aa)  famiUes 

+  48  (4a +  aa)  families 

+  36  (aa)  families. 
This  is  the  fact. 
In  the  next  generation  we  shall  have 

16(36  +  1/4(48)  +1/16(80)}  =  16  X  53  =  84844  famiUes 
+ 16(1/2(48)  +  1/4(80) }  =  16  X  44  =  704(44  +  4a) 

families 
+ 16(1/8(80) }  =  1604a  families 
+ 16(1/2(48)  +  8  + 1/4(80) }  =  16  X  52  =  832(44  +  24a 

+  aa)  families 
+  704 (4a +  aa)  families 
+  848aa  families. 

Succeeding  generations  follow  the  same  law  and  need  not  be 
worked  out  in  detail. 

IV.  So  far  the  discussion  has  confined  itself  to  families,  as  this 
must  be  the  basic  unit  in  the  theory  of  any  form  of  inbreeding. 
Turning  to  individuals  we  have  the  following  simple  relations  to 
pass  to  individuals. 

In  the  nth  generation  the  number  of 


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494  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVIH 

AA  (or  oa)  individuals  =  2s (o„)  V4-5(p«) +l/2s(r„), 
Aa  {or  a  A)  individuals  =  25  (gn)  +s{l/2pn)  + 1/25  (rn). 

The  first  of  the  above  expressions  multiplied  by  2  gives  the 
total  homozygotes,  and  the  second  multiplied  by  2  gives  the  total 
heterozygotes. 

Raymond  Peael 


PARALLEL  IViUTATIONS   IN  OENOTHERA  BIENNIS   L. 

In  the  summer  of  1912  I  cultivated  pure  strains  of  0.  biennis 
L.  and  of  the  0.  biennis  cruciata  de  Vr.  of  our  Dutch  dunes,  as 
well  as  of  their  hybrids,  made  with  the  purpose  of  studying  the 
behavior  of  the  cn/ciafo-character  in  crosses.  In  one  of  these 
cultures  I  unexpectedly  obtained  two  mutants,  which  because  of 
their  similarity  to  corresponding  variants  derived  from  0. 
Lamarckiana  have  been  called  0.  biennis  nanella  and  0.  biennis 
semi-gigas.  The  first  mutant,  0.  biennis  nanella,  occurred  in  the 
second  generation  of  the  cross  0.  biennis  X  0.  biennis  cruciata 
and  differed  from  0.  biennis  in  all  those  points  which  separate 
0.  Lamarckiana  nanella  from  0.  Lamarckiana,  The  other  vari- 
ant, 0.  ^biennis  semi-gigas,  appeared  in  the  second  generation  of 
the  reciprocal  cross,  0.  biennis  cruciata  X  0.  biennis,  suggesting 
immediately  by  its  much  more  vigorous  habit  and  especially  by 
the  larger  size  of  its  buds  and  flowers  the  differences  between  O. 
Lamarckiana  and  0.  gigas,  A  count  of  its  diploid  number  of 
chromosomes  proved  it  to  deserve  the  name  semi-gigas,  21 
chromosomes  being  shown  by  nuclear  plate-stages  in  the  meris- 
tematic  tissue  of  young  buds.  From  these  facts,  showing  that 
0.  iiennis  is  in  a  mutating  condition,  I  drew  the  conclusion  that 
the  phenomenon  of  mutation  in  the  genus  (Enothera  is  older  than 
the  species  0.  Lamarckiana — 0.  biennis  generally  being  consid- 
ered to  be  an  older  species  than  0.  Lamarckiana — and  further, 
that  the  mutations  in  this  group  can  not  be  the  result  of  hybridi- 
zation, as  was  assumed  by  some  authors  at  that  time — ^nobody 
doubting  of  the  purity  and  constancy  of  0.  biennis.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  both  of  my  mutants  have  been  derived  from  crosses 
between  0.  biennis  and  0.  biennis  cruciata.  But  I  laid  special 
emphasis  on  the  fact  that  0,  biennis  and  0,  biennis  cruciata  have 
exactly  the  same  germinal  constitution  except  for  the  factors  that 
determine  the  shape  of  the  petals,  0,  biennis  cruciata  being  prob- 


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No.  572]      SHORTER   ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  495 

ably  a  mutant  from  0.  biennis  itself.  Therefore,  hybrids  between 
these  two  forms  can  be  looked  upon  as  pure  0.  ^biennis  except  for 
floral  characters. 

With  this  conception  Bradley  Moore  Davis  does  not  agree.^ 
He  thinks  that  the  0.  biennis  and  0.  biennis  cruciata  of  our  dunes 
are  not  so  closely  related  types,  that  a  cross  between  them  can 
be  treated  **as  though  it  were  the  combination  of  forms  within 
the  same  species  which  have  similar  germinal  constitutions."  He 
says: 

It  should  be  made  clear  that  the  form  '^  0,  biennis  cruciata  "  is  recog- 
nized in  the  more  recent  taxonomic  treatments  as  a  true  species  sharply 
distinguished  from  types  of  biennis  by  its  floral  characters.  ...  0. 
cruciata  is  found  wild  in  certain  regions  of  New  England  and  New 
York  and  is  consequently  a  native  American  species.  .  .  .  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  origin  of  0.  cruciata  or  its  possible  relationship  to 
O.  biennis,  a  cross  between  these  t3rpes  must  certainly  be  regarded  as  a 
cross  between  two  very  distinct  evolutionary  lines  and  its  product  a 
hybrid  in  which  marked  modifications  of  germinal  constitution  are  to 
be  expected. 

From  Davis's  point  of  view  I  '* really  made  a  cross  between 
two  rather  closely  related  species''  and  obtained  in  the  second 
generation  'Hwo  marked  variants  due  to  some  germinal  modifica- 
tions as  the  result  of  the  cross. "  In  so  far  as  my  observations  bear 
upon  the  problem  of  mutation  Davis's  interpretation  is  exactly 
the  reverse  of  mine.  To  him  they  further  illustrate  the  same 
phenomenon  which  he  is  obtaining  through  his  **  hybrids  of 
biennis  and  grandiflora,  namely,  that  behavior  by  which  these 
hybrids  in  the  F^  generation  throw  oflf  variants  that  in  taxonomic 
practise  would  be  considered  new  species  readily  distinguished 
from  the  parents  of  the  cross  and  from  the  Fj  hybrid." 

It  will  be  shown  in  the  following  lines  that  the  objections  made 
by  Davis  are  not  sufficiently  justified.  My  argument  consists  of 
two  points. 

In  the  first  place,  Davis  is  mistaken  as  to  the  nature  of  the  0. 
biennis  cruciata  de  Vr.  of  our  dunes.  This  strain  is  in  reality 
quite  another  type  than  the  different  forms  of  the  American  0. 
cruciata  Nutt.,  called  by  some  authors  0.  bienrm  cruciata.  With 
this  species  it  has  in  common  only  the  character  of  the  narrow 

1  Bradley  Moore  Davis,  ''Mutation  in  (Enothera  biennis  L.t"  Tmc  Ameri- 
can Natuealist,  Vol.  XLVn,  1913,  pp.  116-121;  ''Genetical  Studies  on 
(Enothera/'  IV,  The  American  Naturalist,  Vol.  XLVII,  1913,  pp. 
546-671. 


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496  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVTEI 

petals,  all  other  features  of  the  stem,  foliage,  flowerspikes  and 
fruits  being  exactly  those  of  the  Dutch  0,  biennis  L.  It  must 
certainly  be  looked  upon  as  a  mutation  from  the  0.  biennis  L.  of 
our  sand  dunes.  Until  now  it  has  only  been  found  a  couple  of 
times  in  single  individuals  in  the  midst  of  the  ordinary  0.  biennis, 
the  first  time  in  1900  by  Dr.  Ernst  de  Vries  in  the  dunes  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Santpoort,  Holland,  in  one  individual — and 
from  this  one  specimen  all  the  subsequent  generations  of  0.  bien- 
nis cruciata  in  the  cultures  grown  by  de  Vries  and  by  myself  have 
been  derived.  Besides  this,  our  0.  biennis  and  0.  biennis  cruciata 
are  so  similar  to  one  another  except  for  floral  structure  that 
plants  of  both  types  can  not  be  separated  before  the  flowers  open. 
Therefore  we  have  the  right  to  assume  that  the  crossing  of  these 
two  forms  is  concerned  alone  with  the  floral  characters  and  that 
with  respect  to  all  other  characters  parents  as  well  as  hybrids  are 
mere  biennis.  Therefore  the  two  variants  which  arose  in  my  cul- 
tures from  crosses  between  0.  biennis  and  0.  biennis  cruciata 
obviously  prove  the  faculty  of  mutation  in  0.  biennis. 

In  the  second  place  I  have  found  now  that  it  is  not  necessary 
to  cross  0.  biennis  with  0.  biennis  cruciata  in  order  to  obtain  the 
above  named  mutants,  as  Davis  seems  to  believe.  Already  in  his 
new  book  Professor  de  Vries  figures  a  dwarf  derived  from  O. 
biennis  cruciata  grown  in  pure  line.  Shortly  afterwards  I  myself 
obtained  six  mutants  from  the  0.  ^biennis  of  our  sand  dunes  grown 
also  in  pure  line.  A  few  details  about  these  cultures  of  last  year 
may  be  given  here.  In  all  they  counted  920  individuals,  430  of 
which  belonged  to  the  third  and  490  to  the  fourth  generation  of 
a  pure  line,  the  point  of  departure  for  which  had  been  one  in- 
dividual brought  into  the  experimental  garden  in  the  rosette 
stage  from  the  dunes  near  Wyk  aan  Zee  in  the  beginning  of  1905 
and  self -fertilized  in  the  same  year.  The  six  mutants  which  ap- 
peared in  these  pure  cultures  of  0.  biennis  were  the  following. 
First  a  dwarf,  then  a  "biennis  semi-gigas  having  21  chromosomes 
and  finally  four  individuals  of  the  0.  biennis  sulfurea,  a  pale- 
flowered  form  of  0.  biennis,  which  had  been  found  already  several 
times  in  our  dunes  in  the  midst  of  the  ordinary  biennis,  but  was 
not  with  certainty  known  to  be  a  mutant  from  the  latter  form 
until  now.  The  two  flrst  named  mutants  and  one  sulfurea  ap- 
peared in  the  third  generation  of  our  pure  line,  the  nanella  and 
the  semi-gigas  coming  from  the  same  mother.  The  three  remain- 
ing ^/7/wrea-individuals  appeared  in  the  fourth  generation,  all 


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No.  5721       SHORTER   ARTICLES  AND   DISCUSSION 


497 


descending  from  the  same  motherplant.  Of  these  mutants  the 
nanella  and  semi-gigas  are  especially  valuable  because  similar 
forms  have  been  produced  by  0.  Lamarckiana,  It  will  be  seen  that 
the  MenniS'dwaris  seem  to  be  somewhat  rarer  than  the  dwarfs  of 
Lamarckiana.  Whilst  for  the  latter  the  mutation  coefficient  is  about 
1  per  cent, our  0.  biennis  nanella  appeared  as  the  only  dwarf  among 
920  individuals.  The  above  cited  0.  biennis  cruciata  nanella 
was  the  only  dwarfed  individual  in  a  culture  of  500.  And  the 
dwarf  which  I  got  in  1911  was  the  only  one  among  about  600 
plants.  In  this  connection  I  wish  to  recall  the  conclusion 
reached  by  de  Vries  that  in  0.  Lamarckiana  the  pangen  for  tall 
stature  must  be  assumed  to  be  present  in  the  labile  condition  on 
both  sides,  in  0.  biennis,  however,  only  in  the  male  sexual  type, 
whilst  in  the  female  sexual  type  active  alta-pangens  have  to  be 
supposed.  The  way  from  biennis  to  biennis  nanella  might  there- 
fore possibly  be  somewhat  longer  than  the  one  from  Lamarckiana 
to  Lam4irckiana  nanella.  The  biennis  semi-gigas  which  appeared 
in  the  last  sunmier  corresponded  in  all  points  exactly  with  the 
mutant  of  1911.  Moreover  a  count  of  the  chromosomes,  as  shown 
by  nuclear  plate-stages  in  the  meristematic  tissue  of  young  buds, 
determined  them  to  be  21  in  number.  Even  as  the  specimen  of 
this  type,  that  appeared  in  1911,  and  as  the  semi-gigas  mutants 
produced  by  0.  Lamarckiana,  the  plant  of  last  year  proved  to  be 
almost  absolutely  sterile. 

In  his  second  above-mentioned  paper  Davis  says  about  the  0. 
biennis  of  our  dunes:  **No  species  of  (Enothera  is  perhaps  so  free 
from  suspicion  as  to  its  gametic  purity.  If  Stomps  can  obtain 
mutations  from  tested  material  of  the  Dutch  biennis  grown  in 
pure  lines  he  will  have  the  basis  of  a  strong  argument.  ..." 
Portimately  the  experiment  asked  for  by  Davis,  has  been  made 
in  the  same  year  as  his  criticism.  The  Dutch  biennis  L.,  culti- 
vated in  pure  line,  has  produced  a  dwarf,  a  semi-gigas  and  some 
stdfurea-mdiyidnsls,  proving  its  mutability  beyond  all  doubt.  I 
therefore  trust  that  the  conclusions  arrived  at  in  my  first  paper, 
concerning  this  mutability  and  its  consequences,  may  now  be  ac- 
cepted as  thoroughly  valid. 

Theo.  J.  Stomps 

Amstebdam,  Holland 


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498  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVni 

In  a  recent  review^  of  Stomps 's  studies  on  CEnothera  biennis 
L.2  from  the  sand  dunes  of  Holland  I  protested  against  his  desig- 
nating as  mutants  a  naneUa  type  and  a  semi-gigas  type  which 
were  obtained  in  the  second  generation  of  crosses  between  (Eno- 
thera  'biennis  LinnsBus  and  its  variety  0.  biennis  cruciata  de 
Vries.  The  criticism  was  presented  on  the  general  ground  that 
however  close  the  possible  relationships  between  the  two  parent 
forms,  they  nevertheless  constituted  lines  so  far  apart  as  to 
render  unsafe  a  conclusion  that  marked  variants  obtained  from 
their  crossing  are  mutants  in  the  sense  of  de  Vries  and  Stomps. 
Such  variants,  it  seemed  to  me,  might  have  been  the  result  of 
hybridism  between  two  lines  suflSciently  divergent  to  upset  the 
similarity  of  germinal  constitution  shown  in  their  vegetative 
morphology,  for  the  species  biennis  and  its  variety  cruciata  are 
said  to  differ  only  in  their  flower  structure. 

In  that  review  I  incorrectly  associated  0.  biennis  cruciata  de 
Vries  with  0.  cruciata  Nutt.,  an  American  species  entirely  dis- 
tinct from  the  variety  cruciata  of  de  Vries,  which  has  been  found 
only  once  (in  the  year  1900)  on  the  sand  dunes  of  Holland 
among  plants  of  0.  biennis,  I  greatly  regret  my  confusion  of 
these  two  types,  since  I  was  led  in  my  criticism  to  regard  Stomps 's 
crosses  between  biennis  and  biennis  cruciata  as  though  they  were 
crosses  between  two  distinct  although  possibly  closely  related 
species.  In  this  I  was  clearly  mistaken,  since  all  of  the  evidence 
short  of  experimental  proof,  which  Stomps  may  yet  obtain,  indi- 
cates that  biennis  cruciata  de  Vries  is  a  variety  of  biennis  L.  and 
arose  as  a  mutation  on  the  sand  dunes  of  Holland.  The  crosses 
of  Stomps  are,  therefore,  to  be  regarded  as  between  a  species  and 
its  mutant  variety.  I  trust  that  the  mutationists  will  accept  this 
acknowledgment  of  an  error. 

There  is,  I  believe,  a  body  of  naturalists  for  whom  the  value 
of  evidence  for  mutation  rests  fundamentally  upon  the  unques- 
tioned purity  of  the  parent  stock,  and  to  them  any  cross,  no  matter 
how  close,  is  open  to  criticism.  Stomps  has  justified  his  first  con- 
clusions by  obtaining  in  later  studies  the  same  mutants  biennis 
nanella  and  biennis  semi-gigas  from  lines  of  the  pure  species  O. 
biennis  Linnaeus.    Had  he  waited  for  these  later  results  before 

1  Davis,  B.  M.,  "Mutations  in  CEnothera  biennis  L.f  American  Nat- 
uralist, Vol.  XLVII,  p.  116,  1913. 

2  Stomps,  T.  J.,  "Mutation  bei  CEnothera  biennis  L.,"  Biol.  Centralb,,  VoL 
XXXII,  p.  521,  1912. 


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No.  572]      SHORTER   ARTICLES  AND   DISCUSSION  499 

publishing  on  the  first  there  could  have  been  no  objections  to  his 
main  contention  that  0.  biennis  from  the  sand  dunes  of  Holland 
is  capable  of  giving  rise  to  true  mutants. 

Stomps  is  continuing  his  studies  on  this  same  Dutch  biennis 
with  the  view  of  determining  its  possible  powers  of  mutation,  and 
it  is  a  pleasure  to  review  his  second  paper*  which  presents  some 
extremely  interesting  data,  a  paper  in  which  no  important  criti- 
cism can  be  based  on  the  source  and  character  of  the  material  em- 
ployed. No  wild  species  of  evening  primrose  has  been  so  long 
under  experimental  and  field  observation  or  is  better  known  to 
the  workers  with  cenotheras  than  this  plant.  The  species  has 
proved  uniform  in  culture  to  a  remarkable  degree  and  it  would 
be  difficult  to  find  a  type  of  (Enothera  so  free  from  suspicion  of 
gametic  purity.  The  species  appears  to  have  been  in  Holland 
since  pre-Linnaean  days  and  is  therefore  very  old.  As  material 
for  experimental  studies  on  mutation  the  Dutch  biennis  seems  to 
the  writer  the  best  of  all  the  Oenotheras  so  far  brought  into  the 
experimental  garden. 

The  starting  point  of  Stomps 's  cultures  of  (Enothera  biennis 
was  a  plant  transplanted  from  the  sand  dunes  in  1905.  From 
seed  of  this  plant,  self -pollinated,  a  second  generation  was  grown 
in  1910,  three  selfed  plants  of  which  gave  the  seed  for  a  third 
generation  of  430  individuals,  and  a  fourth  generation  of  490 
plants  was  grown  from  two  selfed  plants  of  the  third  generation. 
Thus  in  all  930  individuals  were  observed  in  the  third  and  fourth 
generations  from  the  plant  that  gave  rise  to  these  pure  lines. 
It  is  true  that  these  lines  have  not  been  under  selection  for  many 
generations,  but,  considering  the  stability  of  the  species  and  its 
habit  of  close  pollination,  it  is  very  improbable  that  the  source  of 
the  cultures  should  have  been  a  plant  not  representative  of  the 
type.  Furthermore,  Stomps  presumably  will  continue  indefi- 
nitely the  lines  now  established  and  thus  determine  through 
later  generations  whether  their  mutating  habits  remain  constant. 

Among  the  430  plants  of  the  third  generation  there  appeared 
1  biennis  naneUa,  1  biennis  semi-gigas  and  1  individual  of  biennis 
svlfurea;  the  first  two  came  from  the  same  mother  plant.  Among 
the  490  plants  of  the  fourth  generation  appeared  3  individuals  of 
biennis  sulfurea,  all  from  the  same  selfed  mother.  The  variety 
sulfurea  differs  from  the  species  biennis  in  having  flowers  of  a 

»  Stomps,  T.  J.,  '  *  Parallele  Mutationen  bei  (Enothera  biennis  L., ' '  Ber. 
deut  lot.  Gesell,  Vol.  XXXII,  p.  179,  1914. 


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500  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [VoL.XLVm 

lighter  yellow,  and  is  reported  by  de  Vries  to  be  not  uncommon 
in  the  wild  state  mixed  with  the  species  proper.  Sulfurea  has 
been  held  systematically  to  be  a  variety  of  biennis  but  this  is  the 
first  time  that  it  has  appeared  in  the  experimental  garden  as  a 
derivative  of  that  species.  Thus  out  of  a  total  of  920  plants 
there  were  4  individuals  of  the  color  variety  s'tUfurea,  1  nanelk 
and  1  semi-gigas,  in  all  6  mutants,  a  showing  that  may  well 
gratify  Stomps. 

The  mutant  biennis  nanella  differed  from  typical  biennis  in 
much  the  same  way  that  Lamarckiana  nanella  differs  from 
Lamarckiana  and  like  the  latter  dwarf  showed  evidence  of  a 
bacterial  infection.  Certain  selfed  flowers  set  no  seed  because 
of  diseased  stigmas.  Other  flowers  pollinated  from  pure  biennis 
set  good  fruit.  The  ratio  of  the  appearance  of  biennis  nanella 
is  much  lower  than  the  mutation  coeflScient  of  one  per  cent,  which 
de  Vries  has  reported  for  Lamarckiana  nanella.  It  should  also 
be  remembered  that  de  Vriies*  obtained  a  crticiata  nanella  in  a 
culture  of  500  plants  from  0.  biennis  cruciata. 

The  mutant  biennis  semi-gigas  in  comparison  with  typical 
biennis  showed  a  stronger  habit,  broader  leaves,  thicker  buds, 
larger  flowers,  supernumerary  stigma  lobes,  and  the  presence 
of  4-cornered  pollen  grains.  Counts  of  the  chromosomes  in 
meristematic  tissue  determined  the  number  to  be  21.  Therefore 
in  this  plant,  as  in  the  biennis  semi-gigas  obtained  by  Stomps 
from  the  cross  cruciata  X  biennis,  there  is  clear  cytological  evi- 
dence that  one  of  the  gametes  which  formed  the  zygote  contained 
14  chromosomes,  i,  e,,  double  the  number  characteristic  of  the 
gametes  of  (Enothera,  This  is  another  case  of  triploid  mutants 
in  (Enothera  to  be  added  to  the  list  of  Stomps  and  Miss  Lutz. 
The  plant  was  self  sterile,  but  set  fruit  when  pollinated  by 
biennis,  although  the  yield  of  seed  was  very  poor. 

Stomps  is  justified  in  calling  attention  to  the  agreement  of  his 
second  biennis  nanella  with  the  plant  derived  in  1911  from  the 
cross  biennis  X  cruciata,  and  of  the  agreement  of  his  second 
biennis  semi-gigas  with  the  plant  from  the  cross  crudataX 
biennis.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  he  will  next  obtain  the  crumk 
variety  as  a  direct  mutant  from  the  Dutch  biennis  and  thus 
establish  its  relationship  and  origin  beyond  all  possible  doubt. 

Stomps  has  before  him  the  opportunity  of  making  through  the 
study  of  (Enothera  biennis  very  important  contributions  to  our 

*  See  ''Gruppenweise  Artbildung, "  p.  299  and  Fig.  108. 


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No.  572]      SHORTER   ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  501 

knowledge  of  the  frequency  of  mutations  and  their  importance 
in  organic  evolution.  That  retrogressive  mutations  take  place  is 
not  likely  to  be  seriously  doubted  by  any  one  who  has  followed 
thel  experimental  work  of  recent  years  both  botanical  and 
zoological.  The  loss  of  characters  through  germinal  modification, 
even  in  what  seem  to  be  **pure  lines,''  appears  to  be  not 
uncommon. 

Most  of  all  is  desired  information  on  the  possibilities,  fre- 
quency and  character  of  progressive  mutations.  Can  the  muta- 
tion theory  satisfactorily  explain  progressive  advances  in  organic 
evolution  or  must  amphimixis  chiefly  carry  that  responsibility? 
Mutants  of  the  tetraploid  gigas-like  type  would  appear  to  be  pro- 
gressive, and  we  can  see  the  reason  in  their  doubled  chromosome 
count  which  gives  larger  nuclei,  larger  cells  and  modified  tissues. 
6H^as-like  forms  are  however  very  rare  and  in  0.  Lamarckiana 
gigas  the  fertility  is  relatively  low.  More  common  are  the  trip- 
loid  semi-gigas  forms,  but  these  seem  to  be  sterile  or  almost 
sterile  when  selfed,  and  the  work  of  Geerts  indicates  that  the 
triploid  number  in  OEnothera  returns  to  the  normal  through 
the  elimination  of  supernumerary  chromosomes.  Very  inter- 
esting is  the  recent  paper  of  Gates  and  Thomas'^  which  offers 
evidence  that  lata-like  characters  are  associated  with  the  pres- 
ence of  a  single  additional  chromosome. 

And  what  of  the  series  of  forms  which  diflfer  from  the 
(Enothera  parent  types  with  as  yet  no  evidence  of  peculiarities  in 
their  chromosome  count,  hrevistylis,  IcBvifolia,  rubrinervis,  oho- 
vata,  scintUlans,  etc.  Will  forms  similar  to  these  and  perhaps 
others  in  addition  be  represented  in  a  series  of  derivatives  from 
(Enothera  biennis?  The  mutants  biennis  nanelia  and  biennis 
svlfurea  belong  to  this  group  and  have  already  been  obtained 
by  Stomps.  One  may  almost  envy  him  his  opportunity  for  an 
intensive  study  of  this  species. 

Bradley  Moore  Davis 

Univeesity  of  Pennsylvania, 
June,  1914. 

5  Gates,  B,  R.,  and  Thomas,  N.,  * '  A  Cytological  Study  of  (Enothera  mut. 
lata  and  (E.  mut.  semilata  in  Relation  to  Mutation,"  Quart,  Jour,  Mic,  Soi., 
Vol.  LIX,  p.  523,  1914. 


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502  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVHI 


THE   THEORETICAL  DISTINCTION  BETWEEN 

MULTIPLE  ALLELOMORPHS  AND 

CLOSE  LINKAGE 

Professor  Castle's  diflSculty  in  understanding  the  distinction 
made  by  Mr.  Dexter^  is  owing  to  his  iinfamiliarity  at  first  hand 
with  the  phenomenon  of  linkage.  The  distinction  between  allelo- 
morphs and  close  linkage  has  already  been  given  several  times 
elsewhere  and  need  not  be  repeated ;  but  if  Professor  Castle  has 
failed  to  note  it,  or  to  see  its  significance,  it  is  probable  that 
others  may  have  done  the  same.  I  may  be  pardoned,  therefore, 
for  attempting  once  more  to  show  why,  for  clear  thinking,  it  is 
important  to  keep  in  mind  the  difference  between  allelomorphs 
and  close  linkage.  Furthermore,  since  we  have  here  one  of  the 
newest  developments  of  Mendelism,  it  seems  to  me  that  it  may  be 
worth  while  not  to  let  Professor  Castle's  criticism  pass  un- 
challenged. 

Dexter  pointed  out  that  the  mode  of  treatment  that  Nabours 
followed  in  the  analysis  of  his  results  is  the  procedure  of  multiple 
allelomorphism,  although  Nabours  does  not  seem  entirely  con- 
versant with  the  fact,  but  treats  the  results  as  though  they  were 
regular  phenomena.  In  one  case,  however,  Nabours  got  an  un- 
conformable individual.  Dexter  points  out  that  if  this  case  is 
not  due  to  non-disjunction  (a  known  process  that  will  cover 
such  cases)  it  shows  that  here  at  least  the  factors  involved  are 
not  allelomorphs,  but  must  be  treated  as  though  closely  linked. 

How  could  the  matter  be  put  more  directly?  I  confess  I  am 
at  somewhat  of  a  loss  to  discover  why  Professor  Castle  is  con- 
fused. Perhaps  it  is  the  subsequent  development  of  Dexter 's 
explanation  that  has  troubled  him.  Let  us  again  try  to  make  the 
distinction  clear. 

If  the  factors  B  and  E  are  not  allelomorphic  to  each  other  then 
each  must  have  another  allelomorph.  This  is  nothing  but  pure 
Mendelism,  which  no  one  will,  I  suppose,  dispute.  It  is  entirely 
irrelevant  whether  we  use  small  letters  or  none  at  all  (as  Castle 
prefers)  for  the  allelomorphs.  If  they  are  a  part  of  the  Men- 
delian  machinery,  who  cares  very  much  what  we  call  them? 

If  then  we  have  here  two  pairs  of  allelomorphs,  crossing  over 
may  take  place,  as  it  does  in  other  cases  where  two  pairs  of  linked 

1  The  Ameeican  Naturalist,  June,  1914,  p.  383. 


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No.  572]      SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  503 

genes  are  involved.^  This  is  all  there  is  to  the  matter.  We  need 
not  dwell,  therefore,  at  length  on  Professor  Castle's  statement 
that  here  is  another  case  of  an  erroneous  conclusion  reached  in 
consequence  of  using  small  letters  for  **  absent"  characters, 
except  to  remark  that  Dexter  did  not  use  small  letters  for  absent 
characters,  and  that  the  erroneous  conclusion  has  been  drawn  by 
Professor  Castle  himself. 

T.  H.  Morgan 
Columbia  Uniyxbsity 

Professor  Morgan  has  called  my  attention  to  the  fact  that  in 
criticizing  a  single  point  in  Mr.  Dexter 's  review  I  have  given  the 
impression,  to  some  at  least,  that  I  regarded  Dexter 's  views  as 
erroneous.  Such  was  not  my  intention,  and  I  wish  to  correct  the 
impression,  if  I  may.  I  do  not  for  a  moment  question  the  reality 
of  '* unit-character"  inheritance  or  indorse  the  idea  of  **the  or- 
ganism as  a  whole"  as  the  only  inheritance  unit.  I  agree  here  en- 
tirely with  the  view  which  I  understand  Dexter  to  hold.  If  Na- 
bours  has  encountered  nothing  but  simple  allelomorphs  among  his 
grasshoppers  (which  I  neither  assert  nor  deny),  this  by  no  means 
proves  that  only  simple  allelomorphs  exist  even  among  said  grass- 
hoppers. An  organism  which  seems  to  have  only  one  variable 
''gene"  may  nevertheless  possess  any  number  of  other  genes 
which  are  not  varying  so  far  as  we  can  discover,  and  in  which  con- 
sequently all  zygotes  are  homozygous  and  all  gametes  similar  to 
each  other. 

It  is  only  in  Dexter 's  discussion  of  the  significance  of  the  ex- 
ceptional ^^B  E  7"  individual  that  I  should  dissent  from  any  part 
of  his  excellent  review.  Nabours's  explanation  of  this  case,  ac- 
cording to  Dexter,  is  essentially  that  of  ** non-disjunction,"  in- 
stead of  which  Dexter  himself  offers  the  explanation  of  **  link- 
age," and  proposes  a  repetition  of  the  experiment  to  decide 
between  them.  Now  I  do  not  question  for  a  moment  the  genuine- 
ness of  either  "non-disjunction"  or  "linkage,"  as  they  occur  for 
example  in  Drosophila.  Through  the  kindness  of  Professor  Mor- 
gan I  have  been  able  to  demonstrate  both  these  phenomena  re- 
peatedly to  classes  in  genetics  in  the  course  of  their  laboratory 
work  upon  Drosophila.    The  point  which  I  wished  to  make  in  com- 

2  CroBBing  over  would  not  take  place  if  the  factors  in  question  were  aUelo- 
morphic.  If  the  case  is  one  of  non -disjunction  the  subsequent  generation 
would  also  give  a  different  kind  of  result  from  that  of  linkage.  (See 
Bridges,  Jour,  Exp,  Zool,  1913.) 


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504  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVIO 

menting  on  Dexter 's  review  (and  this  is  the  only  point  in  which 
I  dissent  from  his  opinions)  is  that  the  repetition  of  the  experi- 
ment, provided  it  had  the  outcome  suggested  by  Dexter,  would 
leave  us  as  much  in  the  dark  as  we  were  before  concerning  the 
correct  interpretation  of  the  result.  Very  likely,  however,  addi- 
tional facts  might  be  observed  which  would  give  some  clue,  so  that 
I  quite  agree  with  Dexter 's  suggestion  that  the  case  should  receive 
further  study.  But  I  can  not  see  that  at  present  linkage  has 
more  in  its  favor  as  an  interpretation  than  non-disjunction. 

The  ** demonstration"  which  Mr.  Dexter  gave  of  his  argument 
by  introducing  duplicate  ** symbols"  instead  of  the  single  set  used 
by  Nabours,  seemed  to  me  quite  superfluous  and  possibly  to  have 
been  a  real  stumbling  block  in  the  logical  process.  This  is  why  I 
raised  the  question  as  to  the  significance  of  the  small  letters.  The 
terminology  is  that  of  the  ** presence-absence"  hypothesis,  as 
commonly  understood,  but  Professor  Morgan  assures  me  that 
such  is  not  the  significance  which  Dexter  attaches  to  the  symbols 
used.  It  seems  to  me  therefore  that  the  significance  attached  to 
the  symbols  is  vital  to  the  argument  in  the  ** demonstration." 

I  quite  agree  with  Professor  Morgan,  however,  that  symbols 
are  a  matter  of  small  consequence.  Suppose  we  omit  the  **  dem- 
onstration" by  means  of  symbols  altogether.  Should  we  then 
have  any  reason  to  favor  linkage  as  an  interpretation  rather  than 
non-disjunction  ?  I  can  not  see  that  we  should  have.  It  seems  to 
me  quite  possible  that  neither  explanation  will  prove  adequate. 

When  albino  mammals  are  crossed  with  cplored  ones,  piebalds 
sometimes  are  obtained  in  later  generations.  So  far  as  we  know, 
these  result  neither  from  ** non-disjunction"  nor  from  ** cross- 
overs."   Perhaps  the  5  ^  7  individual  also  is  a  tertium  qmd. 

W.  E.  Casti^ 


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NOTES  AND  LITERATURE 

BIOMETRICS 

An  Important  Contribution  to  Statistical  Theory 
One  of  Pearson's  most  valuable  contributions  to  statistical 
theory  is  his  test  for  goodness  of  fit^  It  enables  one,  with  the 
aid  of  Elderton  V  tables,  easily  to  determine  the  pirobability  that 
a  given  system  of  observed  frequencies  does  or  does  not  differ 
significantly  from  a  series  of  theoretical  frequencies  supposed  to 
graduate  the  observations.  The  significance  of  this  criterion  in 
Mendelian  woA  has  recently  been  pointed  out  by  Harris.* 

Hitherto  this  criterion  has  found  an  important  limitation  in 
the  fact  that,  as  originally  developed  by  Pearson,  it  was  appli- 
cable only  to  frequency  systems.  It  could  be  used  to  test  good- 
ness of  fit  only  where  the  observations  were  counts  of  the  number 
of  times  particular  classes  of  events  occurred.  But,  of  course, 
frequency  systems  comprise  only  one  kind  of  observational  data 
to  which  one  has  occasion  to  fit  curves.  Much  more  often  there 
is  need  for  a  criterion  of  goodness  of  fit  where  the  observations 
are  of  the  nature  of  true  ordinates,  rather  than  frequencies. 
Such  cases  include  all  data  of  the  sort  where  a  mean  y  is  deter- 
mined for  each  x,  as  in  a  growth  curve;  or  in  the  regression 
observed  in  a  correlation  table,  where  for  each  successive  value 
of  one  of  the  variables  the  mean  value  of  the  correlated  variable 
is  calculated.  There  has  been  no  method  of  testing  the  good- 
ness of  fit  for  such  curves.  From  a  visual  inspection  of  the 
plotted  regression  line  one  has  been  compelled  to  form  his  judg- 
ment as  to  whether  it  was  or  was  not  a  good  fit. 
Recently  a  Russian  statistician,  E.   Slutsky,*  has  extended 

1  Pearson,  K.,  *  *  On  the  Criterion  that  a  Given  System  of  Deviation  from 
the  Probable  in  the  Case  of  a  Correlated  System  of  Variables  is  Such  that 
it  Can  be  Beasonably  Supposed  to  Have  Arisen  from  Bandom  Sampling," 
PW.  Mag.,  5th  Series,  Vol.  L,  pp.  157-175,  1900. 

2  Biometrika,  Vol.  I,  pp.  155-163. 

•  Harris,  J.  A.,  **A  Simple  Test  of  the  Goodness  of  Fit  of  Mendelian 
Ratios,''  Ameb.  Nat.,  Vol.  46,  1912,  pp.  741-745,  1912. 

*  Slutsky,  E.,  * '  On  the  Criterion  of  Goodness  of  Fit  of  the  Regression  Lines 
and  on  the  Best  Method  of  Fitting  Them  to  the  Data, ' '  Jour,  Boy,  Stat,  Soc,, 
Vol.  LXXVII,  Part  I  (December,  1913),  issued  1914,  pp.  78-84. 

605 


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506  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVIH 

Pearson's  theory  to  cover  the  class  of  curves,   formerly   not 
amenable  to  such  test.    The  result  forms  an  extremely  valiiabl^ 
extension  of  biometric  theory. 

Briefly  Slutsky's  essential  result  may  be  put  as  follows.      "H^ 
finds  (the  complete  proof  is  not  given  in  this  paper)  that 


<t)- 


id 

where  x^  is  the  quantity  denoted  by  the  same  letter  in  Peaxrsorx 
original  work,  and  is  the  argument  in  Elderton's  table;  'W.^^ 
the  frequency  in  the  x^  SLTraj,  i.  e,,  the  number  of  observa^Liox 
on  which  each  observed  ordinate  is  based;  ep  is  the  differexic 
between  the  observed  and  the  calculated  mean  y  for  eacb  ^ 
array ;  and  a^,^  is  the  standard  deviation  of  each  Xp  array  ;  ».  < 
the  standard  deviation  of  the  group  of  observations  from  iwrliic 
each  particular  y  was  calculated.    8,  as  usual,  denotes  suxzu 


tion.    Knowing  x*,  P  is  read  directly  from  Elderton's  tables. 

Slutsky  gives  a  couple  of  examples  of  the  application  of  "tb 
method  in  his  paper.  For  illustration  here  I  have  preferr^^  1 
take  an  example  from  my  own  unpublished  data.  The  oh^^ir^^^ 
tions  (t/^p)  in  this  case  are  the  mean  butter  productions  o 
American  Jersey  cattle,  based  on  seven-day  tests.® 

The  theoretical  points  Y^^  are  calculated  from  the  equatioi 
y  =  14.21098  +  .02503?  —  .0038a;»  +  3.0104  log  x, 

the  constants  of  which  were  determined  from  the  ob8erva.t:ioxj 
by  the  method  of  least  squares. 

The  test  for  goodness  of  fit  is  carried  out  in  Table  I.  It  slioixl 
be  said  that,  following  the  suggestion  given  by  Slutsky  in  fai 
paper,  I  have  used  in  the  a«^^  column  the  graduated  rather  -tytxs. 
the  observed  values.  In  the  present  case  the  scedastic  curv^^  i 
hopelessly  far  from  a  straight  line.  It  is,  in  point  of  f  ^d 
logarithmic. 

From  this  table  we  have  x*  =  32.115.  This  is  beyond  the  rsux^ 
of  Elderton's  table.  By  a  rough,  but  sufficiently  accurate,  gr«i.l>li 
ical  extrapolation,  I  find  for  present  values  of  n'  and  x*» 

P  =  .417  about. 

In  other  words,  if  the  butter  production  of  Jersey  cows  chan-g^e 
with  age  according  to  the  curve  given,  we  should  expect;     * 

«For  data  see  *' Jersey  Sixes  and  Their  Tested  Daughters,"  publish©^  ^^ 
American  Jersey  Cattle  Club,  New  York,  1909. 


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No.  572] 


NOTES   AND  LITERATURE 


507 


get  a  worse  agreement  between  observation  and  theory  in  42  out 
of  every  100  random  samples  on  which  the  point  was  tested.  In 
other  words,  the  fit  may  be  considered  suflSciently  good.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  fit  is  extraordinarily  close  over  most  of  the 
curve.  Four  (only)  out  of  the  32  ordinates  contribute  more  than 
50  per  cent,  of  the  value  of  x*- 


TABLE  I 


^elJ? 

Obserred 

Calc.  Batter 

SUndard 

Bntter  Prodoc- 

Prodaetion 

Errors 

Frequency 

DeT.  of 

iioD  in  Lb«. 

inLb*. 

Arrays 

'P 

^-p 

^xp 

K-I^x,) 

% 

'-X, 

1.25 

14.26 

14.23 

.02 

2 

.04 

.500 

1.76 

15.15 

16.16 

.00 

46 

.97 

.000 

2.25 

16.57 

16.69 

.12 

273 

1.49 

1.771 

2.75 

16.96 

16.06 

.10 

312 

1.83 

.932 

3.25 

16.38 

16.35 

.03 

645 

2.07 

.114 

3.76 

16.72 

16.57 

.15 

611 

2.25 

2.271 

4.25 

16.92 

16.74 

.18 

704 

2.38 

4.027 

4.75 

17.09 

16.89 

.20 

632 

2.49 

3.432 

5.26 

17.01 

17.00 

.01 

656 

2.66 

.008 

5.76 

17.07 

17.09 

.OJi 

382 

2.62 

.022 

\6.25 

16.98 

17.16 

.18 

419 

2.66 

1.933 

6.75 

17.04 

17.21 

.17 

277 

2.68 

1.114 

7.26 

17.09 

17.25 

.16 

286 

2.68 

1.016 

7.76 

17.48 

17.27 

.21 

190 

2.68 

1.167 

8.25 

17.30 

17.28 

.02 

166 

2.67 

.009 

8.75 

17.17 

17.27 

.10 

121 

2.64 

.174 

9.25 

17.66 

17.26 

.31 

109 

2.61 

1.616 

9.75 

16.67 

17.21 

.54 

96 

2.57 

4.194 

10.25 

17.06 

17.17 

.12 

63 

2.62 

.143 

10.75 

17.42 

17.11 

.31 

39 

2.46 

.619 

11.25 

16.95 

17.06 

.10 

54 

2.40 

.094 

11.76 

17.00 

16.97 

.03 

28 

2.33 

.005 

12.26 

17.05 

16.88 

.17 

20 

2.26 

.113 

12.76 

16.54 

16.79 

.25 

7 

2.18 

.092 

13.25 

16.34 

16.68 

.34 

11 

2.09 

.291 

13.75 

18.14 

16.66 

1.68 

9 

1.99 

6.673 

14.26 

15.89 

16.44 

.66 

7 

1.88 

.599 

14.76 

16.16 

16.30 

.16 

6 

1.77 

.036 

15.25 

16.37 

16.16 

.21 

4 

1.65 

.065 

16.75 

16.76 

16.00 

.26 

2 

1.53 

.063 

16.25 

16.42 

16.84 

.42 

3 

1.40 

.117 

16.75 

16.76 

15.67 

1 

.08 

4 

1.27 

.016 

Totals  . . . 

1 

6,781     1 

32.115 

It  may  be  said,  in  conclusion,  that  Slutsky's  contribution  is 
one  which  will  be  highly  valued  by  all  investigators  who  have  a 
critical  interest  in  the  graduation  of  observational  data,  whatever 
the  field  in  which  they  may  be  working. 

Raymond  Pearl 


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08  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVXIX 

A  NEW  MODE  OF  SEGREGATION  IN  GREGORY'S 
TETRAPLOID  PRIMULAS 

In  a  recent  paper^  Gregory  reports  a  very  interesting  cctse  i 
which  two  different  races  of  Primulas  suddenly  gave  rise  to  ^Isu 
tetraploid  forms,  having  double  the  usual  number  of  ctix-oxri 
somes,  and  apparently  having  the  factors  doubled  also  (indi^v^d 
ally),  for  this  was  true  of  all  the  factors  which  could  be  foUo^^w- 
in  his  hybridization  experiments.  It  is  important  to  kno^'v  1x4 
segregation  will  take  place  in  such  individuals,  as  there  ar^  f  c 
allelomorphs  of  each  gene  present. 

Let  us  suppose  that  a  tetraploid  jform  pure  for  the  doan-ins 

(A  A\ 
and  therefore  of  composition  -r  t)  ^  crossed  ^^^itli 

pure  recessive  giant  f--j.     Gametes  AA  and  aa  will  m^^±^ 

A  A 

fertilization,  forming  the  hybrid  —   —  (the  maternally  de^x^^v 

a  a 

genes  are  represented  on  one  line,  say  the  upper,  the  patem::^^^^ 
derived  genes  on  the  other  line). 

Now,  if  this  were  an  ordinary  case  of  * 'multiple  factors"  *  ii^ 
diploid  organism,  although  the  two  dominant  factors,  whi(3ti.  ^ 
may  again  call  A's,  may  produce  the  same  effect  upon  the  or'g'a. 
ism,  yet  they  arei  not  interchangeable,  and  the  same  is  true  o:f  "t^ 
recessive  factors.  That  is,  if  we  call  both  dominants  A,  we  xxxti 
designate  one  of  them  as  A^,  and  the  corresponding  recesMsi'V" 
must  also  be  designated  as  a  and  a^,  for  A  will  always  &egr^^S^ 
into  a  different  gamete  from  a,  and  A^  from  a^,  there  beings  't^ 
distinct  allelomorphic  pairs.  On  the  chromosome  view  o:f  h 
redity,  we  would  say  that  A  and  a  always  lay  opposed  1 
each  other,  in  homologous  chromosomes,  on  the  spindle  of  "th 
reduction  division,  as  did  also  A^  and  a^,  but  neither  A  nor 
lay  in  chromosomes  homologous  to  those  of  either  A^  oxr  a- 
and  assorted  independently  of  them.  The  line-up  of  factors  o 
the  spindle  in  the  reduction   division  in   this  case  would      t" 

AA^       A  a^ 

equally  likely  to  be 1  or  —  v-^,  depending  merely  upon  ^wlxic 

a  a         a  a. 

iR.  P.  Gregory,  '*On  the  Genetics  of  Tetraploid  Plants  in  Trii"^'^^ 
sinensis/'  Proceedings  of  the  Boyal  Sooiety,  1914. 

2  i,  e.,  a  case  where  two  (or  mare)  independent  pairs  of  factors  pro^^*^' 
similar  effects,  upon  the  same  character.    Many  examples  of  this  are 
€.  g.j  the  inheritance  of  red  flower  in  flax. 


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No.  572]  NOTES   AND   LITERATURE  509 

way  the  pairs  are  turned  with  reference  to  each  other.  The  first 
alignment  gives  gametes  AA^  and  aa^,  the  second  gives  Aa^  and 
aA^  Thus  three  gametes  with  a  dominant  factor  to  one  pure 
recessive  would  on  the  average  be  produced,  the  ratio  being 
lA A :  2Aa :  laa,  omitting  primes. 
In  a  tetraploid  form,  however,  A  and  A^  are  alike  and  inter- 

A  A^ 

changeable,  as  also  are  a  and  a^.    In  the  hybrid j-,  therefore, 

a  a 

there  would  be  at  least  one  other  mode  of  pairing  of  allelomorphs 
possible,  giving  two  new  modes  of  line-up  on  the  reduction 

spindle,  and  they  would  occur  just  as  frequently  as  the  two 

A  A^ 
previous  kinds.     The  two  new  arrangements  would  be  -^  —  , 

a    a 

giving  gametes  AA^  and  a^a,  like  those  in  the  first  of  the  two 

A  a 
previous  cases,  and  —  jj,  giving  gametes  Aa  and  a^A^^    These 
a  A. 

latter  gametes  would  be  indistinguishable  from  the  Aa^  and  aA^ 
gametes  given  by  the  second  of  the  two  usual  arrangements  un- 
less A  could  be  distinguished  from  A^  and  a  from  a^.  This  could 
happen  only  if  the  allelomorphs  were  of  four  different  kinds  or 
if  there  were  linkage  of  these  genes  with  other  genes  for  which 
the  plant  was  heterozygous.  Unless,  therefore,  linkage  or  mul- 
tiple allelomorphism  were  involved,  we  could  not  distinguish 
between  this  mode  of  pairing  of  allelomorphs  and  the  usual  kind ; 
both  would  give  three  gametes  containing  at  least  one  dominant, 
to  one  pure  recessive  (i.  e,,  lAA:2Aa:laa,  omitting  primes). 

Still  a  third  type  of  pairing  of  allelomorphs  is  possible  in  a 
tetraploid  plant,  however.  There  seems  no  a  priori  reason,  on 
the  chromosome  view,  why,  in  a  tetraploid  plant,  a  gene  should 
have  to  segregate  from  one  of  the  -allelomorphs  derived  from  the 

A  A* 

opposite   parent.     That  is,   in   a   plant   of  composition ^ , 

a  a 

paternally  derived  genes  being  indicated  on,  say,  the  upper  line, 

maternally  derived  ones  on  the  lower,  there  is  no  apparent  reason 

A  a 
why  the  line-up  of  chromosomes  at  reduction  should  not  ^^TiTT 

A  a^ 

-r, —  or  as  often  as  it  is  one  of  the  other  types,  since  all  four 

A^  a 

chromosomes  are  homologous.  Thus  we  should  get  gametes  Aa, 
A^aS  Aa^  and  A^a. 

8  If  linkage  with  other  genes  could  be  followed,  we  should  with  this  mode 
of  pairing  obtain  crossing  over  between  the  chromosomes  containing  A  and 
a*,  respectively,  and  between  those  containing  A*  and  a,  respectively;  this 
would  not  occur  on  any  other  mode  of  pairing. 


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510  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [VoL-XLVHI 

We  could  distinguish  such  gametes  individually  from  those 
obtained  by  the  ordinary  arrangements  only  if  linkage  were  in- 
volved, for  then  we  should  sometimes  obtain  results  indicating 
that  the  chromosomes  containing  A  and  A^  had  crossed  over 
with  one  another,  and  so  had  probably  behaved  as  homologous 
chromosomes  at  the  reduction  division.  However,  we  could  also 
determine  whether  this  mode  of  pairing  occurred  or  not  merely 
by  determining  the  relative  numbers  of  the  different  kinds  of 
gametes  formed.  For,  if  the  third  type  of  pairing  occurred,  we 
should  obtain  4Aa  gametes  in  addition  to  the  2AA,  4Aa  and  2aa 
derived  from  the  other  two  types  of  pairing.  The  ratio  of 
gametes  would  then  be  five  containing  a  dominant  to  one  reces- 
sive, there  being  1 AA :  4Aa :  laa,  as  opposed  to  the  ratio 
lAA :  2Aa :  laa  obtainable  on  either  of  the  other  modes  of  segre- 
gation.* The  latter  or  more  usual  ratio  is  the  only  one  considered 
by  Gregory,  who  apparently  takes  it  for  granted  that  in  so  far 
segregation  must  be  of  the  same  sort  as  in  diploid  forms. 

Let  us  see  which  ratio  is  more  in  accord  with  his  experimental 
data.    As  the  ratio  of  oflfspring  in  a  back-cross  is  the  same  as  the 

A  A 

gametic  ratio,  it  will  be  seen  that  a  back-cross  of  —  —  by  a  reces- 
sive should  give  3 A :  la  plant  on  Gregory's  view,  the  3A's  consist- 

A  A      A  a 

ing  of  1 :  2 .    On  the  other  view,  a  back-cross  should  result 

®         a  a      a  a  ' 

A  A      Aa 

in  5A :  la,  the  5 A 's  consisting  of  1 :  4  — .    On  inbreeding  an 

a  a       a  a 

AA 

plant,    however,   owing   to    the   random   fertilization    of 

a  a 

gametes,  Gregory's  3:1  gametic  ratio  would  result  in  a  15:1 
ratio  among  the  offspring  (which  correspond  to  Pj)   and  our 
own  5 : 1  gametic  ratio  would  give  a  35 : 1  ratio  of  A  to  a  among 
the  oflEspring. 
A  summary  of  his  back-crosses  of  Pj  heterozygous  thrum-eyed 

plants  of  the  type to  recessive  pin-eyed  plants   -  -   gives 

a  a  a  a 

the  result  61  thrum: 6  pin  (10:1,  as  compared  to  the  two  ex- 
pectations 3:1  and  5:1).    Among  the  F^  thrums  there  should 

^Counts  of  cbromosomee  in  the  maturation  divisions  of  the  tetraploid 
plants  show  that  the  chromosomes  sjnapsed  in  pairs,  not  in  groups  of  four. 
Synapsis  in  fours  would  be,  in  effect,  the  same  as  pairing  of  the  random  sort 
suggested  in  this  paper,  so  far  as  any  one  set  of  allelomorphs  are  concerned, 
but  it  might  give  different  linkage  results. 


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I^OTES  AND  LITERATURE 


511 


on  Gregory's  view  be  1 :2 ,on  the  other  view  1 :4 — . 

aaaa'  aaaa 

Tests  of  twenty-one  Pj  thrums,  by  mating  them  to  themselves 

and  also  to  recessives,  showed  that  there  was  only  one  which  was 

A  A  Aa 

certainly and  15  which  must  have  been  — .     (A  few  gave 

a  a  a  a 

numbers  too  small  to  be  significant,  and  one  or  two  were  of  doubt- 
ful composition.)  This  result  is  within  the  limits  of  probable  error 
on  the  4 : 1,  but  hardly  on  the  2:1  expectation.     The  one  Pi 

AA 

thrum  plant  which  was  of  composition  —  —  gave,  on  back- 

a  a 

crossing,  67  thrums :  18  pins,  a  ratio  of  3.7 : 1,  to  correspond  with 

Gregory's  3:1  or  my  5:1  expectation.    On  inbreeding  it  gave 

44  thrums :  2  pins,  a  ratio  of  22 : 1,  to  correspond  with  Gregory's 

15 : 1  or  my  35 : 1  expectation.    The  other  Pj  thrums,  being  of 

Aa  " 

composition (aside  from  the  few  doubtful  ones),  gave,  on 

a  a 

the  average,  1  thrum:  1  pin  on  back-crossing,  and  3  thrums :  1  pin 

on  inbreeding;  these  results  would  be  expected  on  either  view. 

Crosses  were  also  made  involving  the  character  green  versus 

A  A 

red  stigma  (green  being  dominant).    Here  the forms,  on 

a  a 

back-crossing,  gave  a  total  of  114  green :  30  red  (3.8 : 1  instead  of 

3:1  or  5:1),  and  on  inbreeding  they  gave  75  green: 2  red 

(37.5:1  instead  of  15:1,  as  on  Gregory's  expectation,  or  35:1, 

on  my  own). 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  numbers  in  the  above  crosses  are  too 

small  to  be  very  significant,  individually,  for  a  settlement  of  the 

question  at  issue,  but  if  summed  up  they  become  more  decisive. 

Thus,  a  summary  of  the  offspring  of  all  back-crosses  of  the 

AA 

form  to  the  recessive  gives  242  dominants  ( A) :  54  reces- 

a  a 

sives  (a),  or  4.5:1,  as  compared  with  the  3:1  expectation  of 

Gregory  and  the  5:1  of  the  view  advocated  in  this  paper. 

"Where  the  dominants  among  these  oflBspring  were  tested  they 

Aa  A  A 

were  found  to  consist  of  1 and  15—  — ,  as  compared  with  the 

a  a  a  a'  ^ 

1 : 2  expectation  of  Gregory,  and  ours  of  1:4.    Pinally,  a  sum- 

A  A 

mary  of  the  cases  where forms  were  inbred  shows  that  119 

•^  a  a 

dominants: 4  recessives  resulted,  a  ratio  of  30:1  where  Greg- 


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512  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST        [Vol.  XLVTEI 

ory's  expectation  would  be  15:1  and  our  own  35:1.  Moreover, 
the  individual  records  fluctuate  in  both  directions  about  the 
ratios  to  be  expected  upon  our  point  of  view,  but  practically  all 
vary  in  the  same  direction  from  the  expectation  of  Gregory, 
namely,  in  the  direction  of  the  other  expectation. 

There  is  reason,  then,  to  believe  that  in  these  Primvlds  the 
factors  derived  from  the  same  parents  may  segregate  from  each 
other  as  allelomorphs,  while  allelomorphs  derived  from  opposite 
parents  meanwhile  assort  at  random.  For  although  the  allelo- 
morphs exist  in  sets  of  four  they  must  pair  two  by  two  for  segre- 
gation, as  do  the  chromosomes,  and  two  derived  from  the  same 
parent  may  happen  to  pair  with  oniB  another.  The  chance  that 
this  should  occur  is  one  third,  since  there  are  three  possible 
modes  of  pairing.  Such  a  result  is  difficult  to  explain  except  on 
the  chromosome  view  of  heredity.  It  would  give  ratios  different 
from  those  theoretically  expected  by  Gregory,  but  more  in 
accord  with  his  expqrimental  data.  The  principle  upon  which 
our  own  expectation  is  founded  may  be  briefly  summed  up  by 
saying  that  where  more  than  two  factors  which  are  normally 
allelomorphic  to  each  other  are  present,  the  pairing  of  these 
allelomorphs  with  each  other  preparatory  to  segregation  usually* 
takes  place  at  random. 

Hermann  J.  Mulleb 

8  That  this  is  not  always  true  is  shown  by  Bridges '  case  of  *  *  non-dis- 
junctional"  females  of  Drosophila,  which  contain  one  Y  and  two  X  chromo- 
somes. Any  two  of  these  chromosomes  normally  act  as  homologuee  to  each 
other  in  the  reduction  division  of  the  normal  fly,  which  contains  only  two 
of  them.  But  where  all  three  are  present  together  they  do  not  pair  at  ran- 
dom, for  they  oftener  undergo  the  segregation  X-XY  than  XX-Y,  pre- 
sumably because  the  two  X's  are  much  more  like  each  other  than  like  the 
Y,  and  so  more  apt  to  act  as  homologuee. 


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Some  New  Varieties  of  Rftig  mad  Ghiii)e»-pif  i  and  tbeir 

BelatioDf  to  Probleim  of  Color  Inheritance.   Pio- 

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Dr.  J.  Arthur  Harris. 
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Mammals  of  the  British  Isles.    Professor  T.  D.  A. 

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ShuU. 

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ofMonarchs.    V.  L.  K. 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  MAY  NUMBER 

Kellogg. 
Regeneration,  Variation  and  Correlatton  In  Thyooe, 

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Spedes-hoilding  by  HybridizaUon  and  Mutation.    Pro- 
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A  Study  of  Factors  goremingDistribuUon.    Phineas 

W.  Whiting. 
Physiological  Correlations  and  Climatic  Reactions  in 

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Misleading  Terminologies  in  Genetics.    Professor 

W.E.Ca8Ue. 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  JULY  NUMBER 

Pattern    Dereiopment  In    Mammals    and    Birds. 
QloTer  M  Allen 

Arthur  G.VestaL 
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THE 

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THE 

AMERICAN  NATURALIST 

Vol.  XLVIII  September,  19 U  No.  573 

STUDIES  ON  INBREEDING.    V 

Inbreeding  and  Relationship  Coefficients  ^ 

Dr.  RAYMOND  PEARL 
University  of  Maine 

In  the  discussion  of  inbreeding  coefficients  contained  in 
a  series  of  recent  papers  from  this  laboratory^  no  mention 
has  been  made  of  an  important  consideration  which  arises 
in  connection  with  such  coefficients.  The  further  problem, 
to  which  we  may  now  turn,  may  be  stated  in  the  follow- 
ing way. 

The  pedigree  of  an  individual  consists  of  two  halves. 
One  of  these  halves  is  made  up  of  the  sire  and  his  an- 
cestors ;  the  other  of  the  dam  and  her  ancestors.  Follow- 
ing the  conception  of  inbreeding  set  forth  in  detail  in  the 
earlier  papers  of  this  series  it  is  plain  that  the  values  of 
the  coefficients  of  inbreeding  for  a  particular  pedigree  are 
composed  of  the  following  elements. 

1.  The  occurrence  of  the  same  individual  animals  more 
than  once  on  the  sire's  side  of  the  pedigree  only. 

2.  The  occurrence  of  the  same  individual  animals  more 
than  once  on  the  dam's  side  of  the  pedigree  only. 

1  Papers  from  the  Biological  Laboratory  of  the  Maine  Agricultural  Ex- 
periment Station,  No.  69. 

« Pearl,  R.,  **  Studies  on  Inbreeding.  I.  A  Contribution  Towards  an 
Analysis  of  the  Problem  of  Inbreeding,"  Ame«.  Nat.,  Vol.  XL VII,  pp. 
577-614,  1913;  "The  Measurement  of  the  Intenwty  of  Inbreeding,"  Me. 
Agr.  Expi.  Sta.  Bui,  215,  pp.  123-138,  1913.  Pearl,  R.,  and  Miner,  J.  R., 
"Studies  on  Inbreeding.  III.  Tables  for  Calculating  Coefficients  of  In- 
breeding," Me.  Agr.  Expt  Sta.  Ann.  Rept.  for  1913,  pp.  191-202,  1913. 

513 


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514  TRE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

3.  The  reappearance  of  animals  which  appear  first  on 
one  side  of  the  pedigree  (either  the  sire's  or  the  dam's) 
on  the  other  side. 

If  only  1  and  2  are  to  be  found  in  the  pedigree  it  means 
that  the  sire  and  the  dam  are  totally  unrelated  (within  the 
limits  covered  by  the  pedigree  in  the  particular  case).  On 
the  other  hand,  the  occurrence  of  3  means  that  sire  and 
dam  are  in  some  degree  related,  and  that  a  portion  of  the 
observed  inbreeding  arises  because  of  that  fact.  Now 
the  coefficients  of  inbreeding,  in  and  of  themselves,  tell 
nothing  about  what  proportionate  part  has  been  played 
by  these  three  elements  in  reaching  the  final  result.  It  is 
a  matter  of  great  importance  to  have  information  on  this 
point,  because  of  its  genetic  significance.  It  is  the  pur- 
pose of  this  paper  to  describe  a  general  method  for  ob- 
taining this  desired  information. 

The  first  step  in  the  method,  stated  briefly,  is  to  break 
up  the  pedigree  elimination  table  formed  to  get  the  suc- 
cessive values  of  pn+i  —  gn+i,  in  our  former  notation,  into 
four  different  parts.  One  of  these  parts  will  include  the 
primary  reappearance  on  the  sire's  side  of  the  pedigree  of 
such  animals  as  appear  first  on  the  same  side.  This  may 
be  called  the  ''male  only"  table.  The  second  part  will 
include  the  primary  reappearance  on  the  dam's  side  of 
such  animals  as  first  appear  on  the  same  side.  This  is 
the  ''female  only"  table.  The  third  part  will  include  the 
primary  reappearance  on  the  dam's  side  of  such  animals 
as  first  appear  on  the  sire's  side.  The  fourth  part  is  the 
reverse  of  the  third.  These  last  two  may  be  called  the 
"cross  tables."  The  sums  of  the  totals  of  these  partial 
tables  will  give  the  total  pn+i  —  gn+i  values  for  the  succes- 
sive generations. 

The  formation  of  the  tables  on  this  plan  may  be  illus- 
trated with  some  examples.  These  examples  will  also 
show  the  skeleton  method  of  writing  pedigree  elimination 
tables,  which  saves  much  labor.  This  was  referred  to, 
but  not  significantly  illustrated,  in  the  earlier  papers.  It 
consists  simply  in  doubling  the  total  of  the  column  for 
each  generation  rather  than  the  separate  items. 


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No.  573] 


STUDIES  ON  INBREEDING 


515 


TABLE   I 

Paktial  Pedigree  Elimination  Table  fob  King  Melia  Bioteb  14th  Show- 
ing THE  Pbimaby  Eeappearances  on  the  Sire's  Side  op  the 
Pedigree  of  Animals  which  first  Appear  on  that  Side 


Generation |  2    3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10          11 

12 

Melia  Ann's  Son 

1 

(2)» 
1 



Melia  Ann  3d 

(6)» 
3 
2 
1 

1 
1 
1 
1 

1 !""•■ 

Lucy's  Stoke  Pogis  . . . 

! 

Melia  Ann 

1 

St.  Lambert  Boy 

. .[ 

Lettv  Rioter 

1 

' 

Allie  of  St.  Lambert . . . 

1               j 

Lord  Aylmer 

..L... 

1 

Amelia  2d 

(32)» 
1 
1 

1               1 

Victor  Hugo 

1 

Oakland's  Nora 

1 1 

Stoke  Pogis  3d 

1 

1 

1 
1 
1 
1 
1 

1 

bert 

1 

Sir  George  of  St.  Lam- 
bert  

1 

i 1 

Diana's  Rioter 

I 

1 

Orlofif 

1 

j 1 

Ix)me 

...J 

Huiro's  Victoria 

1 

....1--.. 

(82)» 
1 
1 

1 
1 
7 

1 
4 
2 
1 
1 
1 

1 

1 

::::::i::::::':::::' 

Victor  Hugo 

. .  1 . . 

1 

Pauline 

1 

.... 

I..:::'.::::: 

Canada's  John  Bull. .  . 

..1.--. 

1 

Oakland's  Nora 

1           ' 

Stoke  Poids  3d 

1 

Kathleen  of  St.  Lam- 
bert   

1 

1 1 

liOrd  Lisgar 

. .  1 . . 

1 

Lucy  of  St.  Lambert. . . 

1 

1           1 

Pet  of  St.  Lambert    . . 

1 

Orlofif 

1 

1 

Bachelor  of  St.  Lam- 
bert  

1 

...      1           '  . 

Ida  of  St.  Lambert .  . 

(210)' 
2 
2 
3 

1 

.  i 

Victor  Huc^ 

Bt-nk^  Pogifl  3d .  .  .  ,    ,  . 

1 

::i::i::::'::::'::::: 

. .    1.    . 

JjOTue 

1       ■ 

' :::: 

Amelia 

'Y'"!""' 

(438)» 

Lord  Lisgar 

1 

'       1 

1     I 

Pride  of  Windsor 

1 

2      

Laval. 

1 

I     i    

Amelia 

■:i::::'::::::::: 

:       2    1. 

Victor  Hugo 

1 

3      (894)» 
1 

Laval 

1 

::::*i:::::: 

Amelia 

j 

..../::::::!    i 

Lisette 

1         ,    ^ 

L . . .- .  J      1 

Berthe. 

1 1 ■. 

^ 1       1 

1            1 

Totals 

1 

3    1   16  1    41 

105 

219    1    447    ■    898 

1.796 

^  Li  this  and  the  following  table  the  numbers  in  brackets  are  in  each  case 
twice  the  sum  of  the  numbers  in  the  preceding  column.  They  represent  the 
accumulated  ancestral  reduplication  up  to  the  generation  in  question. 


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516 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHI 


The  pedigree  for  12  ancestral  generations  of  the  Jersey 
bull  King  Melia  Rioter  14th  (103901)  may  be  taken  as  the 
first  illustration. 

TABLE   II 

Partial  Pedigree  Elimination  Table  for  Kino  Mella.  Rioter  14th  Show- 
ing THE  Primary  Reappearances  on  the  Dam's  Side  of  the 
Pedigree  of  Animals  which  first  Appear  on  that  Side 

Generation  2       3       4     5     6     7     8      9      10     11       12 

King's  Rioter  Lad —    —    —     1     2     4     8     16     32     64    128 

Table  III  is  clearly  the  one  which  demands  special 
attention.  As  will  shortly  appear,  it  is  the  most  important 
for  the  theory  of  inbreeding.  Let  us  attempt  its  analy- 
sis. Just  what  does  the  first  entry  mean  genetically  f  It 
states  that  King  Melia  Rioter,  an  animal  which  first  ap- 
peared on  the  sire's  side  of  the  pedigree,  reappeared  in 
the  second  ancestral  generation  on  the  dam's  side.  What 
this  clearly  means  is  that  at  least  one  half  of  all  the  dam's 
ancestors,  in  the  third  and  higher  ancestral  generations, 
are  identically  the  same  animals  as  are  ancestors  of  the 


iOO 

do 

J/ 

// 

'P 

f=8=l 

1 
> 

1- 

A 

r/  , 

/ 

1 

/ 

i. 

M^' 

iO 

L 

¥ 

I 

1,' 

f 

0 

r 

4 

A 

Ji 

»                         M 

f                       J* 

f 

C£JVCffA  TlOftS 

Fig.  1.  Diagram  showing  (a)  the  total  Inbreeding  (heavy  solid  line)  and  (5) 
the  relationship  (heavy  broken  line)  curves  for  the  Jersey  bull,  King  Meila 
Rioter  14th.  The  high  order  of  the  Inbreeding  and  relationship  between  the  sire 
and  dam  In  this  case  Is  evident  by  comparison  with  the  lighter  lines,  which  give 
the  maximum  values  for  continued  brother  x  sister,  parent  x  offspring  and  cousin 
X  cousin  breeding. 


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STUDIES  ON  INBREEDING 


:>r 


sire.  The  next  entry  in  Table  III  indicates  that  in  the 
fourth  and  higher  ancestral  generations  at  least  5/8  of 
all  the  dam's  ancestors  were  the  same  individual  animals 
as  were  also  ancestors  of  the  sire.  One  half  of  them  were 
the  same  before  the  reappearance  of  St.  Lambert's  Rioter 
King.  He  makes  up  the  additional  1/8  of  the  dam's 
ancestry. 

TABLE    III 

Partial  Pkdigeee  Elimination  Table  for  King  Melia  Eioter  14th  Show- 
ing THE  Primary  Reappearances  on  the  Dam's  Side  op  the 
Pedigree  or  Animals  which  first  Appear  on  the  Sire  's  Side 


Generation 12 

3  1  4 

5        6 

7 

8 

9     10 :  11 

12 

King  Melia  Rioter 1 

St.  Lambert's  Rioter  Kins 

(2)   (4) 

■y\\ 

1 

(10) 

1 
1 



■    1 

King  of  St.  Lambert 

St.  Lambert  Bov 

(?4) 

St.  Lambert  Boy 1 . . 

2 
1 
1 

.... 

1 

Oakland's  Nora.                         1 

1 

St.  Lambert's  Rioter  Kinar  .      . . . !    .     . 

(56) 
1 

1 
1 

St.  Lambert  Bov 

King  of  St.  Lambert 

1 

St.  Lambert's  Lettv      .  .    . 

'  ■  ■  r  ■ " 

(118) 

1 



Lettv  Coles  2d 

.  .  .    L__  _ 

(238)  ... 

King  of  St.  Lambert 

. 

...1. ...!.... 

1    .  .. 

Liouise's  Grace L  . 

..  .1 ' 

1    ... 

1 

Totals |l 

2 

5 

12  1  28 

59 

119 

240    4809601,920 

From  these  tables  it  is  obvious  that  a  very  considerable 
portion  of  the  inbreeding  shown  in  the  pedigree  of  King 
Melia  Rioter  14th  arises  from  the  fact  that  his  sire  and 
dam  were  closely  related.  Furthermore,  both  sire  and 
dam  are  closely  inbred  in  their  own  lines.  The  curve  of 
total  inbreeding  in  this  case  is  shown  in  Fig.  1,  along  with 
the  curves  for  continued  brother  X  sister,  parent  by  off- 
spring, and  cousin  X  cousin  mating. 


TABLE    IV 
Summarized  Pedigree  Elimination  Table  for  Kino  Melia  Bioter  14th 


Generation 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

cT  only 

1 

2 

1 
5 

3 

1 

16 

2 

41 

4 

59 

105 

8 

119 

219 1  447 

898 

64 

960 

1,796 

9  only 

16 
240 

32 

480 

128 

Cro68-over 

12*  28 

1,920 

1 

1 

Together 

1      2 

6     16  146  1104 

232  1  475   959 

1,922 

3,844 

From  this  we  have,  for  the  inbreeding  coefficients, 


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518  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XL\Tn 


Zo  =  0 
Zx  =25.00 
Z,  =25.00 
Z,  =37.50 
Z4  =50.00 
Z.  =71.88 
Ze  =81.25 
Zt  =90.63 
Z.  =92.77 
Z,  =93.65 
Zi»=  93.85 
Zu=  93.85 


These  facts  will  possibly  be  made  clearer  to  those  not 
actually  working  much  with  pedigrees  by  Table  V,  which 
gives  the  first  four  ancestral  generations*  of  the  pedigree 
of  King  Melia  Rioter  14th. 

Gteneralizing  the  above  reasoning  we  get  the  following 
result. 

In  A3,  and  higher  ancestral  generations,  2/4  =  50.00  per 

cent,  of  the  dam's  ancestors  are  animals  whidi  are  also 

ancestors  of  the  sire. 
In  A4,  and  higher  ancestral  generations,  5/8  =  62.50  per 

cent,  of  the  dam's  ancestors  are  animals  which  are  also 

ancestors  of  the  sire. 
In  Ag,  and  higher  ancestral  generations,  12/16  =  75.00  per 

cent,  of  the  dam's  ancestors  are  animals  which  are  also 

ancestors  of  the  sire. 
In  Aq,  and  higher  ancestral  generations,  28/32  =  87.50  per 

cent,  of  the  dam's  ancestors  are  animals  which  are  also 

ancestors  of  the  sire. 
In  A7,  and  higher  ancestral  generations,  59/64  =  92.19  per 

cent,  of  the  dam's  ancestors  are  animals  which  are  also 

ancestors  of  the  sire. 

4  In  tbe  study  of  pedigrees  stress  is  naturally  laid  on  tbe  ancestral  genera- 
tions, rather  than  on  the  filial,  as  in  breeding  experiments.  It  beoomes  very 
convenient  to  have  a  brief  designation  for  ancestral  generations,  in  the  same 
way  that  Fi,  F,,  etc.,  are  used  to  denote  filial  generations.  I  would  suggest 
the  use  of  the  letter  A  with  sub-numbers  for  this  purpose.  We  then  have  Ai 
denoting  the  parental  generation.  A,  the  grandparental,  At  the  great-pa- 
rental, etc. 


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STUDIES  ON  INBREEDING 


519 


In  Ag,  and  higher  ancestral  generations,  119/128  =  92.97 
per  cent,  of  the  dam's  ancestors  are  animals  which  are 
also  ancestors  of  the  sire. 

In  A9,  and  higher  ancestral  generations,  240/256  =  93.75 
per  cent,  of  the  dam's  ancestors  are  animals  which  are 
also  ancestors  of  the  sire. 

In  Aio,  and  higher  ancestral  generations,  93.75  per  cent, 
of  the  dam's  ancestors  are  animals  which  are  also  an- 
cestors of  the  sire. 

In  All,  and  higher  ancestral  generations,  93.75  per  cent, 
of  the  dam's  ancestors  are  animals  which  are  also  an- 
cestors of  the  sire. 

In  A12,  and  higher  ancestral  generations,  93.75  per  cent, 
of  the  dam's  ancestors  are  animals  which  are  also  an- 
cestors of  the  sire. 

TABLE  V 
Pedigree  fob  Four  Ancestral  Generations  or  Kino  Melia  Bioter  14th 


us 

O     O 

gz 

60 

a 


i| 


No.  63200   & 

Marjorie 
Melia  Ann's 
Son. 

No.  56581                c^ 
Melia  Ann's  King. 

No.  22041                                     cT 
Melia  Ann's  Son. 

No.  100775                                    9 
Lottie  Melia  Ann. 

No.  157263               9 

Marjorie  MeUa 
Ann. 

No.  22041                                     c^ 
•  Melia  Ann's  Son. 

No.  905883                                     9 
Mary  Melia  Ann. 

No.  181544  9 

No.  58169                 cf 
King  of  All  Kings. 

No.  54896                                      cf 
St.  Lambert's  Rioter  King. 

Letty 
Silver 
Hair. 

No.  114804                                     9 
St.  Lambert's  Letty. 

No.  148456               9 

Exile's  Silver 
Hair. 

No.  32559                                      cf 

Exile  of  St.  Anne's. 
No.  60449                                       9 

SUver  Hair  4th. 

No.  73104   & 

#King  Melia 
Rioter. 

No.  63200                cf 

<g>  Marjorie  Melia 
Ann's  Son. 

No.  56581                                       d* 
<8)  Melia  Ann's  Eling. 

No.  157263                                     9 
0   Marjorie  Melia  Ann. 

No.  181544               9 
<8)  Letty  Silver  Hair. 

No.  58169                                     d 
<S)  King  of  All  Kings. 

No.  148456                                     9 
^  Exile's  Silver  Hair. 

No.  219360  9 

Dula 
Riotrees 
Maid. 

No.  62098                cf 

King  Rioter's 
Lad. 

No.  54896                                      c^ 
#  St.  Lambert's  Rioter  King. 

No.  142296                                     9 
Eling's  Riotress  Nora. 

No.  218796               9 

St.  Lambert's 
Dula  Riotress. 

No.  57778                                      c^ 
St.  Lambert's  Boy. 

No.  174761                                      9 
Rioter  Lad's  First  Daughter. 

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520  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIU 

• 
These  percentages  are  quantities  of  a  good  deal  of 

interest.  They  measure  the  degree  in  which  King  Melia 
Rioter  14th 's  sire  and  dam  were  related  to  each  other. 
Community  of  ancestry  is  the  basis  of  kinship. 

Percentages  derived  in  the  way  shown  above,  from 
cross  pedigree  elimination  tables,  I  propose  to  call  co- 
efficients of  relationship,  and  to  designate  by  the  letter 
K,  with  appropriate  sub-numbers  referring  to  the  genera- 
tion. These  relationship  coefficients  are,  with  some  limita- 
tions, independent  of  the  inbreeding  coefficients  in  the 
values  they  may  take,  though  the  two  will  usually  be  cor- 
related to  some  degree.  It  is,  however,  possible  to  have  a 
high  value  of  Z  with  K=0. 

TABLE  VI 

Comparing  the  Maximum  Possible  Values  or  the  Coefficients  of  In- 
breeding (Z)  when  the  Coefficient  of  Relationship  K 
Equals  (a)  Zero,  and  (ft)  100 

Generation  Maximum  Possible  Value     Maximum  Possible  Value 

otZyfhenK  =  0  of  Z  when  fi:  =  100 

Ai  0  0 

A,  0                          *  50.00 

As  50.00  75.00 

A^  75.00  87.50 

As  87.50  93.75 

A,  93.75  96.88 

A,  96.88  98.44 

A,  98.44  99.22 

A,  99.22  99.61 

A,o  99.61  99.80 

The  most  important  feature  of  the  relationship  coeffi- 
cients is  found  in  their  genetic  implications.  This  can  be 
indicated  best  by  an  illustration.  Let  us  consider  the  case 
of  the  maximum  possible  degree  of  inbreeding  with  K  =  0. 
This  will  be  found  when  the  sire  and  the  dam  are  each 
inbred  to  the  highest  possible  degree  (continued  brother 
X  sister  mating)  but  are  in  no  way  related  to  each  other. 
Such  a  case  would  be  afforded,  for  example,  if  a  Jersey 
bull,  the  product  of  continued  brother  X  sister  mating, 
was  bred  to  a  Hoi  stein  cow,  which  was  also  the  product 


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No.  573]  STUDIES  ON  INBREEDING  521 

of  a  continued  brother  by  sister  breeding.  Clearly  K 
would  be  0,  since  no  animal  on  one  half  of  the  pedigree 
could  even  appear  on  the  other.  The  values  of  the  suc- 
cessive coefficients  of  inbreeding  (Z's)  in  such  a  case  are 
shown  in  Table  VL  where  they  are  compared  with  the 
coefficients  of  inbreeding  in  complete  continued  brother 
X  sister  mating,  where  K  =  100.^ 

From  this  it  appears  that  an  individual^may  he  inbred 
in  10  generations  to  tvithin  two  tenths  of  one  per  cent,  as 
intensely,  measured  by  the  coefficients  of  inbreeding,  if 
his  sire  and  dam  are  in  no  way  related,  as  he  would  be  if 
his  sire  and  dam  were  brother  and  sister.  But  clearly  the 
germinal  constitution  of  the  individual  produced  would, 
except  by  the  most  remote  chance,  be  quite  different  in  the 
two  cases.  This  point  is  so  evident  as  to  need  no  elab- 
oration.   It  has  been  brought  out  by  East  and  Hayes.^ 

The  values  of  the  K^s  for  a  particular  pedigree  evi- 
dently furnish  a  rough  index  of  the  probability  that  the 
two  germ-plasms  which  unite  to  form  an  individual  are 
alike  in  their  constitution.  This  will  follow  because  of  the 
fact  that  the  probability  of  likeness  of  germinal  constitu- 
tion in  two  individuals  must  tend  to  increase  as  the  num- 
ber of  ancestors  common  to  the  two  increases.  Just  what 
is  the  law  of  this  increase  in  probability  is  a  problem  in 
Mendelian  mathematics  which  has  not  yet  been  worked 
out.    The  general  fact,  however,  seems  quite  sure. 

From  the  above  discussion  it  seems  plain  that  in  reach- 
ing a  numerical  measure  of  the  degree  of  inbreeding  it  is 
not  sufficient  to  consider  coefficients  of  inbreeding  alone. 
The  coefficients  of  relationship  must  also  be  taken  into 
account. 

It  is  suggested  that  the  two  constants  be  written  to- 
gether for  each  generation,  the  coefficient  of  inbreeding 
being  followed  by  the  coefficient  of  relationship  in  brackets. 
Thus  we  have 

fi  Since,  of  course,  all  of  a  sister 's  ancestors  are  identical  with  her 
brother 's. 

•  U.  S.  Dept.  Agr.  Bur.  Plant  Industry,  Bui.  No.  243,  pp.  1-58,  1912. 


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522  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

Inbreeding  and  Relationship  Coefficients  of  King  Melia  Biotes  14th 

Zo  (£:.)=  0         (0) 

Z,  (£:,)=  25  (0) 

Z,  (£:,)=  25.00  (50.00) 

Z.(^4)=  37.50  (62.50) 

Z4  (£:.)=  50.00  (75.00) 

Z,  (X.  )=  71.88  (87.50) 

Z^{Kr)=Sl,25  (92.19) 

Z,  (£:,)=  90.63  (92.97) 

Z,(i:,)=  92.77  (93.75) 

Z,  (£:«)=  93.65  (93.75) 

Z,o(Ku)  =93.85  (93.75) 

Zu(£:„)  =93.85  (93.75) 

The  physical  meaning  of  these  expressions  is  simple 
and  straightforward.  Z^{K^)  tells  us  that  in  the  5th  an- 
cestral generation  of  King  Melia  Rioter  14th  he  had  only 
one  half  as  many  different  ancestors  as  was  possible  for 
that  generation,  and  of  his  ancestors  three  fourths  were 
common  to  his  sire  and  his  dam.  However  one  looks  at 
the  matter  there  can  be  no  denial  that  King  Melia  Rioter 
14th  is  a  closely  inbred  animal. 

In  Fig.  1  the  heavy  broken  line  gives  the  relationship 
coefficients  for  King  Melia  Rioter  14th.  It  will  be  instruct- 
ive now  to  consider  another  example  by  way  of  contrast. 
Again  a  Jersey  bull,  Blossom's  Glorene  (102701),  will  be 
taken.    Only  the  final  result  need  be  given. 

Inbreeding  and  Relationship  OoErnciENTs  op  Blossom  's  Glcrene 

Z.{K,)=  0  (0) 

Z,  (£:,)=  0  (0) 

Z,(i:.)=  12.50  (0) 

Z,(B:,)=  12.50  (0) 

Z,(i:5)=  25.00  (0) 

Z»(i:e)  =29.69  (0) 

Z.(JS:t)  =35.94  (0) 

ZtCBTs)  =40.23  (0) 

The  total  inbreeding  and  the  relationship  curves  are 
given  in  Fig.  2. 

The  difference  in  the  breeding  of  this  bull  and  the  one 
considered  in  the  former  example  is  striking.  In  the  8th 
ancestral  generation  Blossom  *s  Glorene  has  but  60  per 


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STUDIES  ON  INBREEDING 


523 


cent,  of  the  number  of  different  ancestors  possible  in  that 
generation,  but  not  one  single  animal  in  the  ancestry  of 
his  sire  occurs  in  the  ancestry  of  his  dam  (within  the 
limits  Ai  to  Ag).  The  probability  is  that  Blossom's  Glo- 
rene  is  heterozygous  in  respect  of  most  of  his  characters, 
while  King  Melia  Rioter  14th  is  homozygous. 


dOf 

m 

1- 

J" 

^-^' 

Ih 

/ 

. 

1 

1  / 

/ 
/ 

(-■•'""■ 

_i 

) 

v»^ 

l 

/ 

/^ 

y 

0 

/■. 

Z. A 4 

f 

►-K>-< 

; 

4 

4 

A 

9                          A 

f                          A 

t 

Fig.  2.  Diagram  showing  the  total  inbreeding  (heavy  solid  line)  and  the 
relationship  (heavy  broken  line)  curves  for  the  Jersey  bull  Blos8om*s  Qlorene, 
oyer  a  period  of  eight  ancestral  generations.     Compare  with  Fig.  1. 


Summary 

The  object  of  this  paper  is  to  call  attention  to  the  fact 
that  inbreeding  of  considerable  degree  may  exist  in  the 
entire  absence  of  any  kinship  between  the  two  individuals 
bred  together,  and  to  bring  forward  a  method  of  sepa- 
rately measuring  what  proportion  of  the  observed  in- 
breeding in  a  particular  case  is  due  to  kinship  of  the  pa- 
rents, and  what  to  earlier  ancestral  reduplication.  A  pro- 
posed coefficient  of  relationship  is  described,  and  its  ap- 
plication illustrated  by  concrete  ciases. 


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THE  CHROMOSOME  HYPOTHESIS  OF  LINKAGE 
APPLIED  TO  CASES  IN  SWEET  PEAS 
AND  PRIMULA 

From  the  Zoological  Laboratory,  Ck>lumbia  University. 
CALVIN  B.  BRIDGES 

Theke  are  two  views  as  to  the  nature  of  linkage.  The 
earlier  view,  developed  by  Bateson  and  his  co-workers,  is 
that  this  phenomenon  is  an  expression  of  symmetrical 
reduplications  in  the  germ  tract  A  more  recent  view, 
developed  by  Morgan  and  his  co-workers,  treats  linkage 
on  the  basis  of  a  linear  arrangement  of  genes  in  the 
chromosomes  and  of  the  history  of  these  genes  during 
normal  gametogenesis.  The  advocates  of  the  reduplica- 
tion view  have  rarely  applied  their  principles  to  the  re- 
sults on  Drosophila  on  the  ground  that  the  results  for 
Drosophila  are  complicated  by  sex-linkage.  That  sex- 
linkage  is  simply  an  additional,  but  wholly  independent, 
phenomenon,  is  proven  by  the  many  cases  in  DrosophUa 
in  which  sex-linkage  is  not  involved,  yet  in  which  the  link- 
age of  the  genes  to  each  other  is  of  the  same  type  as  the 
linkage  of  sex-linked  genes  to  each  other. 

In  this  paper  I  shall  attempt  to  show  that  the  theory  of 
linkage  which  we  have  successfully  applied  to  all  cases  in 
Drosophila,  whether  involving  sex-linked  genes  or  genes 
which  show  no  sex-linkage,  applies  equally  well  to  the 
non-sex-linked  cases  occurring  in  sweet  peas  and  primula. 
The  only  serious  drawback  to  such  an  application  lies  in 
the  nature  of  the  data  which  have  been  collected  for  these 
cases.  The  least  satisfactory  form  of  data  from  which  to 
determine  a  linkage  value  is  that  presented  by  Fg  results. 
In  cases  in  which  two  r^cessives  enter  from  opposite  par- 
ents (** repulsion"),  the  excessive  smallness  of  the  douWe 
recessive  class  in  Fg  renders  any  calculation  subject  to  great 
error.    Slightly  better  are  the  F2  results  from  coupling, 

524 


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No.  573]    CHROMOSOME  HYPOTHESIS  OF  LINKAGE  525  ^  - 

but   here  there   is  no   direct  parallelism  between   the 

zygotic  and  gametic  ratios.    In  determining  what  gametic  l>  "^ 

ratio  underlies  the  Fg  results  given  by  an  experiment,  the 
practise  has  been  to  compare  by  the  eye  the  given  result 
with  a  series  of  Fg  results  calculated  from  selected  gametic 
ratios.  Collins  has  shown^  that  this  practise  has  led  to 
serious  error.  In  F2  coupling  cases  in  which  there  has 
been  no  crossing  over  in  one  sex  (autosome  genes  in  [t. 

Drosophila),  there  is  a  direct  relation  between  the  gametic 
and  zygotic  series,  but  only  in  certain  classes  which  com- 
prise from  one  fourth  to  less  than  one  half  of  the  indi- 
viduals of  an  experiment.  While  such  data  are  more  s 
accurate  than  the  usual  F2  results,  yet  the  percentage  of  ,  r 
individuals  which  can  be  used  directly  is  so  low  that  we  I '• 
avoid  the  use  of  such  a  method.  In  F2  results  involving  JT, 
only  sex-linked  genes,  the  efficiency  is  at  least  50  per  cent.,  ii[ 
for  here  there  is  always  a  direct  relation  between  the 
gametic  and  zygotic  ratios  in  one  half  the  flies  (the  males). 
However,  half  the  total  number  of  flies  (the  females)  are 
useless  unless  the  cross  is  made  in  such  a  way  that  Fa 
becomes  a  back  cross.  These  different  kinds  of  F2  results 
(the  two  most  advantageous  of  which  are  not  generally 
applicable)  are  separated  in  effectiveness  by  a  wide  gap 
from  the  back  cross  which  we  use  equally  well  in  all  cases, 
which  gives  a  zygotic  ratio  directly  proportional  to  the 
gametic  ratio,  and  in  which  every  individual  occurs  in  the 
most  advantageous  relations. 

Perhaps  the  least  unsatisfactory  method  of  dealing 
with  such  F2  series  as  are  available  in  the  case  of  the 
sweet  peas,  is  by  means  of  the  coefficient  of  association  as 
derived  by  Yule.  Yule^s  coefficient  of  association  is  calcu- 
lated from  a  zygotic  series  of  the  form  AB:aB:Ab:(ib  by 
the  formula: 

^    «:  .     .    .  ...  (ABXab)-'(aBxAb) 

Coefficient  of  association  =  /  aj^-^    t  (-7-/  t>  ^ .  >i  t  ( . 

(AB  XoJ))  +  (aB  X  Ab) 

To  find  the  gametic  ratio  corresponding  to  this  coeffi- 
cient, use  is  made  of  a  table  which  gives  the  coefficients 

1  Am.  Nat.,  '12. 


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526  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

calculated  from  the  zygotic  series  corresponding  to  such 
gametic  ratios  as  2.5:1,  3:1,  3.5:1,  etc.  For  the  same 
ratio  in  the  coupling  and  repulsion  series  the  coefficients 
are  slightly  different,  so  that  two  tables  should  be  made. 
Upon  the  chromosome  basis  the  best  method  of  express- 
ing the  amount  of  linkage  is  in  terms  of  percentage  of 
crossing  over.  The  gametic  ratio  ml  found  through  the 
coefficient  of  association,  when  expressed  as  a  percentage 

,  100 

becomes  — — r. 

n  +  1 

Aiccording  to  the  chromosome  hyi>othesis,  all  genes 
which  are  linked  to  each  other  lie  in  the  same  chromosome. 
In  sweet  peas  the  first  case  in  which  linkage  was  observed 
was  that  of  round  pollen^  and  red  flower  color.  Later  it 
was  found  that  hooded  standard  was  linked  to  round  and 
to  red.  The  genes  for  these  three  characters,  then,  may 
be  treated  as  though  carried  by  the  same  chromosome, 
which  we  may  call  chromosome  I,  of  the  sweet  pea. 

The  relative  distances  of  these  genes  from  one  another 
in  the  chromosome  can  be  determined  from  the  degrees  of 
linkage.  The  farther  apart  in  the  chromosome  any  two 
genes  lie,  the  greater  will  be  the  amount  of  crossing  over 
between  them.  If  two  genes  lie  very  close  together,  then 
the  percentage  of  crossing-over  will  be  very  small  (the 
gametic  ratio  very  large). 

Fortunately  Punnett  has  recently  collected  the  data, 
upon  these  linkage  cases  in  sweet  peas.  In  the  table  which 
follows,  I  have  summarized  the  data  given  by  the  various 
tables  of  Punnett.  In  the  first  column  to  the  right  of  the 
data  appear  the  coefficients  of  association.  In  the  next 
column  appear  the  corresponding  gametic  ratios  calcu- 
lated by  interpolation  to  the  nearest  tenth.  In  the  last 
column  are  the  equivalent  percentages  of  crossing  over, 
found  from  the  gametic  ratios. 

We  may  use  one  per  cent,  of  crossing  over  as  our  unit 
of  distance  in  measuring  the  space  between  two  genes. 

2  I  have  used  a  terminology  here  like  that  used  for  the  cases  in  DrasophilOj 
naming  the  gene  after  that  member  of  the  pair  of  allelomorphs  which  may 
be  considered  as  the  mutant  from  the  wild  type  of  pea. 


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No.  573]    CHROMOSOME  HYPOTHESIS  OF  LINKAGE 


527 


The  gene  for  red  is  then  about  eleven  units  from  that  for 
round,  and  the  gene  for  hooded  is  nearly  one  unit  from 
thai  for  red. 

TABLE   I 

Chromosome  I 

Bound  Pollen  and  Bed  Color 


Wild  Type 

Coefficient 
of 

ASIOCift- 

Round          Red     Round  Red      tlon 

Qftmetlc 
Ratio 

overt 

Coupling   ...  7,897 

583           614        2,197         .9596 
Bed  Color  and  Hooded  Standard 

7.9:1 

11.C 

Wild  Type 

Red         Hooded  Red  Hooded 

Coupling   ...2,568 

16             17           857         .9998 
Bound  Pollen  and  Hooded  Standard 

125.  :1 

.8 

Wild  Type 

Round      Hooded  Round  Hooded 

Coupling   ...    626 

74             83           174        .8932 

4.7:1 

18. 

Bepulsion  ...3,140 

1,413         1,438             14        .9577 

8.7:1 

10.3 

The  order  of  arrangement  of  these  genes  in  the  chromo- 
some can  be  discovered  from  a  comparison  of  the  linkage 
values  found  above.  The  linkage  value  (11.2)  for  round 
and  red  is  the  most  accurately  determined  of  those  in- 
volved, so  that  we  may  lay  this  down  as  our  initial  or 
base  line: 


0  .  11.2 

DiAOBAM  I.     Ro  =  round  pollen,  R  =  red  flower. 

The  next  most  accurate  value  is  that  for  red  and 
hooded,  namely,  0.8.  Hooded  lies  therefore  only  about 
one  unit  from  red,  but  if  these  two  values  only,  namely, 
round  red  and  red  hooded,  were  given,  we  should  be  un- 
able to  decide  whether  hooded  lies  between  round  and  red 
at  a  position  near  10  (that  is,  11.2  —  .8)  or  beyond  red  in 
a  locus  at  12  (that  is,  11.2 +  .8).  In  order  to  determine 
whether  hooded  lies  to  the  left  or  to  the  right  of  red  the 
data  for  the  third  value,  round  hooded,  need  only  be  accu- 
rate enough  for  us  to  decide  between  these  values  of  10 


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528  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

and  of  12  units.  The  data  from  the  coupling  experiments 
(which  even  though  less  extensive  then  those  from  the 
repulsion  experiments  are  probably  more  accurate)  give 
a  value  of  about  18  units.  Since  the  repulsion  data  give 
10  units,  18  is  probably  too  high,  and  an  intermediate 
•position  correct.  The  higher  (12)  of  the  two  possible 
values  is  then  the  correct  value.  The  position  at  10  is  not 
excluded  by  these  data,  but  is  far  less  probable.  In  a  case 
in  which  one  of  the  two  first  values  is  very  small,  as  here, 
the  accuracy  demanded  of  the  remaining  or  third  value  is 
much  greater  than  in  cases  where  neither  of  the  values 
are  small,  and  one  has  only  to  decide  between  two  very 
different  values  by  aid  of  the  third.  There  are  other  ways 
of  arriving  at  this  order  of  genes  which  are  independent 
of  the  size  of  the  values.  One  of  those  methods,  such  for 
example,  as  that  of  double  crossing  over,  would  definitely 
settle  the  order  of  these  three  genes,  but  unfortunately 
such  data  have  not  yet  been  published. 

If  hooded  lies  beyond  red  at  12,  the  complete  first  chro- 
mosome diagram  will  be  as  follows : 

Ro  RH 


0  11.2  12. 

Diagram    II.  .  Chromoeome   I,    Sweet   Pea.      Ro  =  round   pollen,   R  =  red   flower, 

H  =  hooded. 

In  the  above  diagram  Rq  indicates  the  locus  of  round 
(and  also  of  long).  The  symbols  in  the  diagrams  are 
used  to  designate  loci  which  may  be  occupied  by  either 
allelomorph  of  the  pair. 

It  has  been  observed  that  hooded  flowers  have  always 
a  uniform  color  in  standard  and  wings,  instead  of  having 
these  two  regions  colored  differently  as  in  the  normal  or 
bicolor  type.  Bateson  assumed  that  this  unicolorism  was 
only  another  somatic  effect  of  the  hooded  gene.  However, 
an  alternative  explanation  is  that  the  unicolor  is  caused  by 
a  specific  gene  which  is  very  closely  linked  to  hooded.  If 
this  should  be  found  to  be  the  case,  then  this  fourth  gene 
also  will  be  located  at  about  12  units  from  round. 


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No.  573]    CHROMOSOME  HYPOTHESIS  OF  LINKAGE 


529 


There  is  one  other  gene  which  probably  belongs  in  the 
first  chromosome,  namely,  the  intensifier  found  in  the 
'*  black  knight'^  race.  The  linkage  data  of  red  color  and 
intensity  of  color  have  been  given  in  Report  II  to  the 
Evolution  Committee,  page  90. 


TABLE   n 

Bed  Color  and  Intense  Color 

WUd  Tfpe 

Coefficient 
of 

Alioclft- 
Red        Interne  Redlntenie  tlon 

Gametic 
Ratio 

Percent- 
age of 
Crofi- 
overi 

Coupling  ...    149 

29             35             22         .527 

1.9:1 

35. 

If  these  data  are  significant,  then  intense  is  in  the  first 
chromosome  at  a  locus  about  35  to  the  right  or  left  of  red. 
It  should  give  about  24  (35  — 11)  or  46  (35  + 11)  per  cent, 
of  crossing  over  with  round,  depending  on  whether  it  lies 
about  24  to  the  left  of  round  or  35  to  the  right  of  red. 

The  Second  Chromosome  op  Sweet  Peas 

In  the  case  of  the  second  chromosome  in  sweet  peas, 
the  linkage  values  are  based  on  smaller  numbers,  but  the 
order  of  genes  is  more  certain. 

The  first  linkage  case  of  this  chromosome  was  that  of 
sterile  anthers  and  light  axils.  Later  the  cretin  form  of 
flower  was  found  to  belong  to  this  linkage  group.  As  in 
the  case  of  the  first  chromosome,  I  have  summarized  the 
tables  of  Punnett  in  Table  HI. 


Wild  Type 
Coupling  . . .  1,170  . 
Eepulsion    . .  1,335 


TABLE  III 

Chromosome  II 

Sterile  Anthers  and  Light  Axil 


Sterile 

41 

643 


Coefficient 

of 
Assoc!  A- 
Light    Sterile  Light   tion 

30  379         .9945 


714 


2 


.988 


Percent- 
age of 
Oftoietic       CroM- 
Ratio  oven 

22.  :1  4.4 


20.  :1 


4.9 


Wild  Type 
Coupling  ...  282 
Bepulsion    . .      48 


Light  Axils  and  Cretin  Flower 
Light  Cretin 


Light 
49 
22 


Cretin 
52 
27 


59 
3 


.734 
.610 


2.6:1 
2.7:1 


28. 
27. 


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530  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

Sterile  Anthers  and  Cretin  Flower 

WUdType        Sterile        Cretin    Sterile  Cretin 
Coupling  ...    165  58  58  78         .556  2.:1  33. 

ttepulsion    ..    764  355  345  25         .683  2.6:1        28. 

The  linkage  value  for  sterile  and  light,  namely,  4.4  units, 
is  the  most  accurately  determined  of  those  in  the  second 
chromosome.  The  value  for  light  and  cretin  is  about  28 
units.  Using  the  distance  4.4  between  sterile  and  light  as 
our  base  line,  then,  we  should  find  that  cretin  lies  at  4  +  28 
or  32  from  sterile  if  the  order  of  genes  is  sterile,  light, 
cretin ;  but  if  the  order  is  cretin,  sterile,  light,  then  cretin 
should  lie  at  28  —  4  or  24  from  sterile.  The  value  for 
sterile  cretin  should  approximate  either  24  or  32.  There 
is  no  very  small  value  here  as  there  was  in  the  first  chro- 
mosome, and  not  such  great  accuracy  is  required  of  the 
remaining  value,  since  it  should  be  easy  to  distinguish  be- 
tween 24  and  32.  The  coupling  data  for  this  value  gh^ 
33  units,  which  enables  us  to  fix  the  order  of  genes  as 
sterile,  light,  cretin.  The  following  diagram  of  chromo- 
some II  expresses  these  relations  more  clearly. 


0       4.4  32. 

Diagram   111.     Chromosome  .II,    Sweat   Pea.      S  =  sterile,   L  =  light,   C  =  cretin. 

When  crossing  over  is  as  free  as  in  the  case  of  sterile 
and  cretin  and  of  light  and  cretin  there  should  be  some 
double  crossing  over.  That  is,  crossing  over  might  occur 
in  the  section  of  the  chromosome  near  sterile  and  light 
and  at  the  same  time  another  crossover  could  occur  in  the 
section  between  light  and  cretin.  This  occurrence  would 
be  readily  seen  if  normal  plants  heterozygous  in  any  com- 
bination of  these  three  genes  were  back-crossed  to  plants 
purely  recessive  in  all  three.  A  relatively  few  plants  from 
such  a  test  would  give  very  valuable  information  on  sev- 
eral points,  while  an  experiment  of  a  few  thousand  indi- 
viduals from  such  back-cross  tests  would  enable  one  to 
discover,  through  the  phenomenon  of  interference,  much 


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No.  573]    CHROMOSOME  HYPOTHESIS  OF  LINKAGE  531 

as  to  the  character  of  the  chromosome,  the  average  length 
of  the  intemode,  and  the  i)ercentage  of  chiasmas  per  node. 

Independence  of  Chromosomes  I  and  II  of  Sweet  Peas 

If  two  groups  of  genes  are  carried  by  separate  chromo- 
somes, we  may  expect  to  obtain  free  assortment  and 
typical  9:3:3:1  ratios  in  F2,  when  any  two  genes  from 
different  groups  are  involved.  There  are  rather  extensive 
data  for  three  such  cases  in  sweet  peas,  and  in  each  there 
is  practically  complete  independence.  The  data  given  in 
Table  IV  are  summarized  from  Report  III  to  the  Evolu- 
tion Committee  (page  37)  and  Report  IV  (page  17). 

TABLE    IV 

Independence  op  the  First  and  Second  Chromosomes 

Round  Pollen   (1st)  and  Light  Axil  (2d) 

Coefficient  Percent- 

of  a^e  of 

Associa-  Gametic        CroFs- 

Wild  Type       Round       Light  Round  Light    tion  Ratio^         overs 

1,246  341  399  142  .131  1.15:1  47. 

Red  Color  (1st)  and  Light  Axil  (2d) 
Wild  Type        Red  Light      Red  Light 

1,563  545  506  232  .136  1.16:1  47. 

Red  Color  (Ist)  and  Sterile  Anthers  (2dO 
Wild  Type       Red  SteHle    Red  Sterile 

838  403  265  147  .071  1.07:1  48. 

The  greatest  departure  from  the  50  per  cent,  of  cross- 
ing over  expected  from  independent  assortment  is  only 
to  47  per  cent. 

There  are  several  other  characters  whose  genes  seem  to 
be  independent  of  those  in  the  first  and  second  chromo- 
somes. This  is  interesting  from  the  point  of  view  that 
each  independent  gene  or  group  of  linked  genes  requires 
a  distinct  chromosome  as  a  carrier. 


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1 


532  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHI 

Linkage  Cases  in  Pkimula 

In  the  case  of  primula,  linkage  was  first  found  between 
red  (versus  green)  stigma  and  red  (versus  magenta) 
flower  color.  Long  style  (versus  short)  and  dark  stem 
(versus  light)  were  found  to  be  linked  with  red  stigma. 
Indications  were  observed  that  still  a  fifth  gene,  a  domi- 
nant which  reduces  the  color  of  the  flower  to  a  tinge  in  the 
corolla  tube,  belonged  to  this  group. 

A  back  cross  involving  the  three  genes,  red  stigma,  red 
flower  and  long  style  was  made.  Credit  is  due  to  Gregory 
for  the  use  of  this  method  for  obtaining  linkage  data. 
Unfortunately  many  of  the  individuals  were  useless  for 
the  linkage  of  red  flower  color,  because  of  the  occurrence 
of  white ;  and  the  numbers  are  small. 

In  Table  V,  I  have  summarized  the  data  given  by 
Gregory.* 

table  V 
The  First  Chromosome  op  Primula 

Bed  Stigma  and  Red  Flower 
Non-crossoYera  Crossovers 


tl  i|      II  §1   iU  If    III 

Coupling 
back  cross  ...  / 28         39  17         18  1.9:1         34.6 

Wild  Red         Red    Red  Stigma  . 

Type       Stigma   Flower  Red  Flower 

Coupling  F, 1,174         305         289         232         .511         1.8 : 1         35.3 

Bed  Flower  and  Long  Style 

Non-crossovers  Crossovers 

Red  Long  Wild  Type     Red        Long 

Coupling  back  cross.      40  53  6  5  8.4:1         10.9 

Wild  Type        Red       Long  Red  Long 
Coupling  Fa 38  2  4  12         .966        8.6 : 1         10.4 

Bed  Stigma  and  Long  Style 

Non-crossovers  Crossovers 

Red  Stigma    Wild         Red 

Long       Type      Stigma      Long 

Coupling  back  cross.      44  64  35  30  1.6:1         37. 

^Jour,  Genetics,  '11,  Vol.  I;  Proc.  Bay.  8oc,,  '11,  Vol.  — ,  84. 


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No.  573]    CHROMOSOME  HYPOTHESIS  OF  LINKAGE 


633 


Repulsion 


Bed  Stigma  and  Dark  Stem 
Wild  Type  Red  Stigma  Dark  Red  Stigma  Dark 
....137  66  62  0  — 


The  three  values  are— red  stigma  red  flower  35,  red 
flower  long  style  11,  and  red  stigma  long  style  37.  Of 
these,  red  stigma  red  flower  is  based  upon  the  most  data, 
and  may  therefore  be  taken  as  our  base  line.  The  value 
■  for  red  stigma  long  style  should  be  35  — 11  or  24,  if  the 
order  of  genes  is  long,  red  stigma,  red  flower;  but  35  + 11 
or  46,  if  the  order  of  genes  is  red  stigma,  red  flower,  long. 
The  value  shown  by  the  table  is  37.  This  means  that  long 
lies  to  the  right  of  red  at  a  locus  46. 


35. 


46. 


Diagram  IV.    Chromosome  1,  Primula.    R,=  red  stigma,  R  =  red  flower,  L  =  long 

style. 
58  59         >  60  61  62 

The  apparent  discrepancy  between  the  values  46  and 
37  is  due  in  most  part  to  double  crossing  over,  the  effect 
of  which  is  always  to  lower  large  values  disproportion- 
ately more  than  short.  When  the  discrepancy  is  known, 
the  amount  of  double  crossing  over  can  be  calculated 
approximately.  Here  the  amount  of  double  crossing  over  is 

46-37 
2 


=  4.5. 


That  is,  4.5  per  cent,  of  all  the  gametes  are  the  result  of 
double  crossing  over.  A  somewhat  larger  amount  of  data 
from  a  back  cross  in  which  all  the  individuals  are  effective 
would  give  by  direct  experiment  a  true  value  for  the 
amount  of  double  crossing  over. 

A  chromosome  diagram  should  be  built  up  of  values 
independent  of  double  crossing  over.  According  to  our 
experience  with  Drosophila,  if  there  is  not  more  than  ten 
per  cent,  of  crossing  over  between  two  genes,  the  double 
crossing  over  is  negligible.  Thus  in  the  first  chromosome 
in  sweet  peas,  the  values  obtained  from  the  experiments 
are  not  changed  by  double  crossing  over.    However,  in  the 


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534  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVm 

case  of  the  second  chromosome,  where  the  total  percentage 
of  crossing  over  is  about  32,  there  is  probably  one  or  two 
per  cent,  of  double  crossing  over.  The  diagram  of  the 
second  chromosome  is  in  this  respect  only  tentative,  and 
the  plotted  position  of  cretin  will  be  moved  a  little  farther 
to  the  right  when  the  amount  of  double  crossing  over 
between  light  and  cretin  has  been  found.  The  value  4.4 
for  sterile  anther  light  axil  is  not  aflfected  by  double 
crossing  over,  since  the  section  of  chromosome  between 
these  two  loci  is  so  short  that  a  double  break  would  prob- 
ably not  occur  between  them  at  all.  The  amount  of  double 
crossing  over  between  any  two  loci  can  only  be  found 
when  there  is  a  gene  between  them.  Thus  if  a  gene 
should  be  found  which  lies  between  light  and  cretin,  either 
by  indirect  calculation  or,  better,  by  direct  experiment, 
the  amount  of  double  crossing  over  could  be  found.  The 
more  genes  which  can  be  worked  with  in  the  same  chromo- 
some, the  more  accurate  becomes  the  diagram. 

All  the  values  found  for  these  cases  in  sweet  peas  and 
primula  are  based  upon  such  small  numbers  that  they 
can  be  used  only  as  illustrations  of  the  way  in  which  one 
would  apply  to  new  cases  certain  principles  worked  out  in 
Drosophila.  While  they  serve  as  examples  in  line  with 
these  principles,  they  are  entirely  inadequate  as  proof. 
A  very  interesting  case  of  variation  in  linkage  is  pre- 
sented by  some  of  the  families  involving  chromosome  11 
of  the  sweet  pea.  In  this  article  I  have  avoided  such  data 
as  far  as  I  could,  but  it  is  possible  that  the  order  in  which 
I  have  aligned  these  genes  will  be  found  to  be  incorrect 
when  data  upon  all  three  genes  in  a  back  cross  are  ob- 
tained. Such  data  would  show,  through  the  phenomenon 
of  double  crossing  over,  what  the  order  of  genes  is,  even 
though  variations  in  the  linkage  should  occur. 

Columbia  University, 
May,  1914 


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THE  REDUPLICATION  HYPOTHESIS  AS 
APPLIED  TO  DROSOPHILA 

Dr.  a.  H.  STURTEVANT 
Columbia  University 

A  NUMBER  of  papers  developing  the  reduplication  hy- 
pothesis of  linkage  have  recently  appeared  in  the  Journal 
of  Genetics.  They  are  based  almost  entirely  on  the 
experiments  of  Gregory  ( '11)  on  Primula  and  of  Punnett 
( '13)  on  the  sweet  pea.  The  data  are  not  entirely  satis- 
factory because  of  the  relatively  small  number  of  genes 
involved,  and  because  in  most  cases  the  gametic  ratios  can 
be  only  approximately  determined.  This  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  most  of  the  data  concern  Fj  counts,  from  which 
gametic  ratios  can  not  be  calculated  directly.  In  Gregory's 
best  case  a  much  more  satisfactory  method  was  followed— 
the  heterozygous  plants  were  tested,  not  by  mating  to 
others  of  their  kind,#>ut  by  crossing  with  plants  recessive 
with  respect  to  all  the  genes  involved,  which  gives  the 
gametic  ratio  directly.  In  this  case,  however,  we  have 
only  a  relatively  small  series  of  data  involving  as  many  as 
three  pairs  of  linked  genes.  It  is  obvious  that  from  such 
data  no  adequate  test  of  the  reduplication  hypothesis  can 
be  made. 

The  phenomena  of  linkage  have  been  very  extensively 
studied,  by  Morgan  and  others,  in  the  fly  Drosophila.  In 
this  animal  there  are  many  genes  belonging  to  the  same 
linkage  groups,  and  these  have  been  studied  on  a  large 
scale.  In  the  case  of  the  sex-linked  group  there  is  never 
any  difficulty  in  calculating  the  gametic  ratio  from  F2 
results,  since  the  Fj  males  from  any  cross  always  give  it 
directly.  I  have  recently  published  a  paper  (Sturtevant, 
'14)  giving  a  complete  summary  of  the  published  results 
obtained  from  studies  of  the  linkage  of  these  genes.  In  that 
paper  I  have  adopted  the  chromosome  explanation  of  link- 

535 


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536  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

age  proposed  by  Morgan  ( '11).  Here  I  shall  use  the  same 
data  for  a  test  of  the  reduplication  theory.  It  may  be  of 
value  to  contrast  the  two  views  by  making  a  rigorous 
application  of  them  to  the  same  facts.  Since  the  data 
concerning  the  sex-linked  group  of  genes  in  Drosophila 
form  the  simplest  and  most  extensive  series  now  avail- 
able, I  ^hall  deal  more  especially  with  them.  The  reader 
is  referred  to  my  other  paper  for  the  detailed  data,  for 
references  to  original  sources,  and  for  a  full  treatment  of 
the  chromosome  hypothesis  as  applied  to  these  and  other 
data. 

It  may  be  well  to  give  first  a  brief  catalogue  of  the 
sex-linked  genes  discussed  in  this  paper.  The  nomen- 
clature is  that  suggested  by  Morgan  ('13).  This  may  be 
confusing  to  those  accustomed  to  the  '*  presence  and  ab- 
sence" system,  but  this  should  not  be  a  serious  objection 
here,  since  a  clear  conception  of  the  somatic  appearance 
of  the  animals  discussed  is  not  essential  for  our  present 
purpose.  The  relations  would  be  as  clear  if  hieroglyphics 
were  used  for  symbols. 

Y  is  the  gene  which  differentiatefe  the  wild  **gray'' 
bodied  fly  from  the  yellow  mutant,  y. 

V  diflferentiates  the  wild  red-eyed  fly  from  the  ver- 
milion-eyed mutant,  v. 

M  diflferentiates  the  ^'long"  wing  of  the  wild  fly  from 
that  of  the  miniature-winged  mutant,  m. 

R  is  another  gene  aflfecting  the  wings.  The  wild  fly 
has  R,  the  rudimentary- winged  mutant  has  r. 

Br^  occurs  in  a  dominant  mutant  form  having  a  narrow 
eye  known  as  barred.  The  allelomorph  present  in  the 
wild  fly  is  designated  fer'. 

The  other  characters  concerned  bear  such  a  relation  to 
one  another  that  the  genes  involved  are  considered  as 
forming  a  system  of  quadruple  allelomorphs.  The  alter- 
native to  this  view  is  the  assumption  of  complete  linkage, 
but  I  have  given  elsewhere  (Sturtevant,  *13)  my  reasons 
for  preferring  the  multiple  allelomorph  interpretation. 
The  eye  of  the  wild  Drosophila  is  red  in  color.    A  single 


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REDUPLICATION  HYPOTHESIS 


537 


mutant  obtained  from  it  had  white  eyes  (Morgan,  *10), 
and  this  character  proved  to  be  a  simple  sex-linked  reces- 
sive. From  the  white-eyed  form  arose  a  fly  with  eosin 
eyes  (Morgan,  12).  This  new  character  was  found  to  be 
a  sex-linked  dominant  to  white,  and  a  sex-linked  recessive 
to  red.  Finally,  there  arose  a  form  with  cherry  eye  color 
(Safir,  '13).  This  has  the  same  relation  to  red  and  to 
white  as  has  eosin.  Mated  to  eosin  it  gives  an  inter- 
mediate color,  which  splits  up  into  cherry,  intermediate, 
and  eosin  in  Fg.  The  nomenclature  adopted  in  this  case 
is  as  follows : 

Allelomorph  present  in  the  red -eyed  fly,  W. 
Allelomorph  present  in  the  white-eyed  fly,  tr. 
Allelomorph  present  in  the  eosin-eyed  fly,  w^. 
Allelomorph  present  in  the  cherry-eyed  fly,  iv<^. 

Trow  ( '13)  has  suggested  the  possibility  of  an  asym- 
metrical reduplication  series,  giving  a  gametic  series  of 
wAB:xAh:yaB:zah,  where  w  need  not  equal  z,  nor 
X  equal  y.  It  should  be  noted  that  an  actual  demonstra- 
tion of  such  a  ratio,  or  of  its  non-existence,  is  almost  ex- 
cluded for  the  reason  that  it  would  be  practically  impos- 
sible to  be  sure  one  was  not  dealing  with  a  case  involving 
diflferential  viability.  However,  perhaps  the  most  stri- 
king general  fact  brought  out  by  the  study  of  linkage  is 
that  each  pair  of  linked  genes  (allelomorphs),  considered 
separately,  follows  a  perfectly  regular  Mendelian  course. 
I  think  we  are,  therefore,  justified  in  assuming  that  the 
number  of  gametes  bearing  A  is  always  equal  to  the  num- 
ber bearing  a,  and  similarly  for  B  and  6.  Then,  in  Trow's 
asymmetrical  series, 

w  +  x^y  +  z,   . 

w  '\-y=^X'\-z. 
Hence,  « 

w=^z    and    x=^y. 

In  all  that  follows  I  shall  assume  that  the  reduplication 
series  are  always  symmetrical.  On  this  assumption  it 
becomes  unnecessary  to  consider  the  two  halves  of  the 


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538  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIU 

series  separately,  and  I  shall  therefore  use  only  two  terms 
in  speaking  of  gametic  ratios.  By  adding  together  the  two 
halves  of  the  series  larger  numbers  are  obtained,  so  that 
chance  deviations  are  relatively  smaller.  Differential 
viability  is  also  partially  overcome  in  this  way.  Of 
course  on  the  reduplication  theory  both  terms  of  the 
gametic  ratio  must  be  integers,  since  they  represent  num- 
bers of  cells,  but  nevertheless  it  has  seemed  to  me  more 
convenient  for  purposes  of  calculation  to  express  them 
always  in  the  form  nil.  Thus  a  gametic  ration  of  3:2 
may  be  written  1.5 : 1. 

It  was  suggested  by  Bateson  and  Punnett  ('11)  that 
the  intensity  of  coupling  and  of  repulsion  between  the 
same  two  pairs  of  genes  may  be  identical.    That  this  is 
substantially  the  case  has  been  shown  again  and  again  in 
Drosophila,  and  has  become  a  truism  among  those  work- 
ing on  that  form.    Before  presenting  data  on  this  point  I 
wish  to  bring  up  another  matter  on  which  the  same  data 
have  a  bearing.    Punnett  ( '13)  has  said,  *  *  But  where  three 
[pairs  of]  factors  are  concerned  .  .  .  the  value  of  the 
primary  reduplications  is  evidently  altered,  and  there 
would  seem  to  be  some  process  whereby  these  reduplica- 
tions react  on  one  another."    Bailey  ('14)  has  suggested 
that  the  nature  of  this  interaction  may  be  such  as  to  cause 
the  two  primary  series  to  be  o£  equal  intensity.    It  may  be 
categorically  stated  that  there  is  no  interaction  effect  in 
Drosophila,    The  best  data  for  a  test  of  the  relative  inten- 
sity of  coupling  and  repulsion,  and  of  ''fundamental," 
''primary''  and  "secondary"  reduplication  series,  in- 
volving the  same  allelomorphic  groups,  is  that  furnished 
by  the  relations  of  the  various  forms  of  W  {W,  tv,  tv^,  tv^) 
to  the  M  pair  of  allelomorphs  {M  and  m).    Table  I  is  a 
summary  of  the  data  on  this  case.     In  computing  the 
fundamental  series  I  have  used  only  the  data  from  such 
of  my  own  experiments  as  involve  only  two  pairs  of  genes, 
since  that  from  other  sources  is  for  the  most  part  made  tip 
of  primary  series  in  which  the  other  primary  series  in- 
volved is  masked. 


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REDUPLICATION  HYPOTHESIS 


539 


TABLE   I 

Fundamental  Series 

Nature  of  Cross                Actual  Numbers 

Gametic  Ratios 

WM  X  wm 

777:     470 

1.6  +  :  1 

Wm  X  wM 

93:     221 

1 :  2.4  — 

WM  X  w^m 

634:     348 

1.8 -f:  1 

Wm  X  weM 

46:     110 

1 :  2.4  — 

Wm  X  w^M 

461 :     855 

1:  1.9  — 

w^M  X  wm 

4,171:  1,858 

2.2  -f  :  1 

w^m  X  wM 

891:  1,898 

1 :  2.1  -h 

woM  X  wm 

75:       47 
Primary  Series 

1.6:1 
Other  Primary 

Nature  of  Cross       Actual  Numbers       Gametic 

Ratio        Series  Involved 

WM  X  w^m 

178:       85               2.1—: 

1 

MBr" 

w^m  X  wM 

69:     122                1:1.8 

— 

MBr" 

WM  X  wm 

5,838:2.911                2.0 -|- : 

1 

YW 

Wm  XwM 

1,111:2,493                1:2.2-1- 

YW 

WM  X  wm 

2,261:1,011                2.2 -h: 

1 

ME 

Secondary  Series 

Primary  Series 

WM  X  w^m 

719:407                    1.8  — 

:  1 

WV,   VM 

Wm  X  W7«M 

'  227:509                    1:2.2 

— 

WV,  VM 

It  will  be  noted  that  in  all  these  cases  the  gametic  ratio 
approximates  2 : 1,  or  1 : 2,  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
cross.  There  are  only  four  cases  showing  a  noticeable 
deviation  from  this  value,  and  of  these  two  involve  only- 
small  counts.  The  most  serious  is  the  first.  In  this  case 
there  is  a  deviation  of  54.3  from  the  2 : 1  ratio,  and  the  stand- 
ard error  is  16.7[V1/3X  2/3  X  (777 -f  470)  =  ±  16.7-]. 
Since  the  deviation  is  slightly  over  three  times  the  stand- 
ard error,  it  is  perhaps  significant,  especially  since  there 
is  at  least  one  other  rather  large  deviation  (the  second 
ratio  in  Table  I).  For  our  present  purpose,  however,  it 
is  probably  not  significant,  since  similar  deviations  occur 
in  different  experiments  of  exactly  the  same  type.  I  have 
recorded  elsewhere  (Sturtevant,  '14)  the  results  of  a  num- 
ber of  tests  of  individual  females  heterozygous  for  these 
two  allelpmorphic  groups.  Taking  only  those  cultures 
which  produced  100  or  more  flies,  we  find  the  following 
results : 


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540  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHI 

Seven  females  of  the  constitution  w^mwM  gave  gametic 
ratios  ranging  from  1.5 : 1  to  2.7 : 1,  with  the  modal  class 
at  about  2.0:1. 

Seventeen  females  w^Mwm  gave  ratios  ranging  from 
1.5:1  to  3.4:1,  with  a  single  individual  at  4.2:1.  The 
modal  class  was  at  about  2.2 : 1. 

It  seems  highly  probable  that  all  these  deviations  from 
a  2 : 1  ratio,  not  due  to  insuflficient  numbers,  may  be  satis- 
factorily explained  on  the  basis  of  differential  viability, 
which  is  known  to  occur  here  (for  a  discussion  of  the 
vagaries  of  diiferential  viability  see  Bridges  and  Sturte- 
vant,  '14).  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  arguing 
that  the  gametic  ratio  for  any  two  pairs  of  genes  is  abso- 
lutely constant,  but  only  that  it  is  in  most  cases  uninflu- 
enced by  the  way  in  which  the  genes  are  combined  and  by 
heterozygosis  for  other  genes.  That  it  may  sometimes 
show  marked  differences  is  now  well  established.  I  have 
myself  studied  two  cases  of  this  sort,  and  I  have  good 
evidence  (not  yet  published  in  detail)  that  there  are  defi- 
nite genes  which  cause  great  differences  in  the  ganietic 
ratios  for  whole  linkage  groups.  In  one  case  this  gene 
itself  shows  linkage  to  those  in  the  group  it  affects.  But 
even  here  the  intensity  of  coupling  and  of  repulsion  is 
affected  alike,  and  it  makes  no  difference  how  few  or  how 
many  genes  a  fly  is  heterozygous  for ;  the  linkage  is  strong 
or  weak  according  to  the  form  of  the  linkage-affecting 
gene  which  the  fly  happens  to  carry.  In  each  of  these 
cases  I  have  been  able  to  obtain  about  the  same  extreme 
values  both  for  coupling  and  for  repulsion. 

In  what  follows  I  shall  assume  that  the  intensity  of  the 
reduplication  series  is  not  affected  by  the  way  in  which 
the  genes  are  introduced,  nor  by  the  number  of  linked 
genes  involved  in  the  cross.  The  obvious  corollary  of 
this  is  that  reduplication  occurs  even  in  homozygous  indi- 
viduals, and  that  the  nature  of  the  series  of  divisions  is 
in  general  independent  of  the  constitution  of  the  indi- 
vidual. This  conclusion  is  directly  opposed  to  the  point 
of  view  expressed  more  especially  by  Punnett,  in  the 


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REDUPLICATION  HYPOTHESIS 


641 


passage  quoted  above  and  elsewhere.  If  reduplication 
occurs  at  all  it  is  the  same  in  the  wild  fly  as  in  the  most 
complex  linkage  experiment  we  have  yet  carried  out. 

If  it  is  assumed  that  the  intensity  of  coupling  and  re- 
pulsion is  identical,  it  becomes  unnecessary  to  consider 
them  separately.  I  shall  therefore  lump  together  all  the 
data  involving  the  same  groups  of  allelomorphs,  regard- 
less of  how  they  were  put  into  the  cross.  When  three 
pairs  of  genes  are  involved  there  are  eight  possible  com- 
binations of  them  in  F2,  but  only  four  if  we  add  together 
the  two  halves  of  the  reduplication  diagram.  There  are 
the  two  original  combinations,  which  I  shall  designate 
ABC.  Then  there  are  three  combinations  derived  from 
each  of  these  by  a  shifting  of  one  gene,  which  I  shall 
designate  ABc,  AhC  and  aBC,  the  small  letters  referring 
to  those  pairs  which  have  been  shifted.  Thus,  to  take  an 
imaginary  case,  if  we  cross  LMn  by  ImN,  the  gametes 
produced  by  the  Fi  individuals  will  be  classified  as 
follows : 

ABC  ABc  AhC  aBC 
LMn  LMN  Lmn  IMn 
ImN         lmn         IMN       LmN 


In  the  following  tables  I  shall  reduce  all  data  to  this 
form.  In  each  case  the  genes  will  be  arranged  so  that 
AB  and  BC  will  be  the  primfiry  reduplication  series.^ 

Table  II  contains  such  a  summary  of  all  the  crosses  in- 
volving three  pairs  of  sex-linked  genes.  Table  III  shows 
the  gametic  ratios  derived  from  these  data,  and  also  the 
values  for  the  secondary  series  calculated  on  the  basis  of 
Trow's  ^* special"  hypothesis.  For  the  sake  of  brevity 
only  one  term  is  used :  a  gametic  ratio  of  3 : 1  is  written  3 ; 
a  ratio  of  3 :  2  becomes  1.5,  etc.  With  the  simplifications 
introduced  here  Trow's  formula  becomes 


AC  = 


(ABXBC)+1 


AB  +  BC      ' 

1  As  was  pointed  out  by  Punnett  ('13),  in  a  system  of  three  reduplica- 
tion series  the  one  with  the  lowest  intensity  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  second- 
ary series. 


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542 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 
TABLE  n 


Allelomorphic  Groups 

ABC 

ABc 

AbC 

aBC 

YWM 

8,212 

4,013 

9 

119 

YWR 

278 

160 

0 

1 

YVM 

1,082 

58 

22 

665 

YVR 

315 

138 

55 

196 

YVBr" 

93 

34 

10 

54 

WVM 

194 

11 

1 

102 

WMR 

1,726 

535 

139 

872 

WMBr' 

220 

73 

25 

129 

TABLE    III 


Gametic  ratios 

Experiment 

Observed 

Calculated 

AB          \         BC                   AC 

AC 

YWM 

95.5                   2.1 
438.0                   1.74 

1.7  22.0 

1.8  2.6 
2.0                   3.4 
2.0                 24.7 

2.0- 

1.72 

1.5 

li 

1.7 
1.3 
1.2 

2.0 -f 

YWR 

1.74 

YVM 

1.6 

YVR 

1.3 

YVBr" 

1.4 

WVM 

1.9 

WMR 

WMBr" 

2.2                   3.9 
1.9                   3.6 

1.6 
1.4 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  every  case  the  calculated  value 
for  the  secondary  reduplication  is  higher  than  the  ob- 
served value.  The  same  relation  comes  out  in  two  experi- 
ments which  I  have  done  involving  genes  of  another 
group  in  Drosophila  (see  Table  VIII,  Sturtevant,  '14). 
Punnett's  case  is  so  involved  that  calculations  accurate 
enough  for  our  present  purpose  can  not  be  made.  In 
Gregory's  experiment  one  of  the  genes  (M)  could  not  be 
followed  in  all  the  plants  because  masked  by  another  gene. 
We  are  not  given  the  data  for  S  and  G  in  those  plants  in 
which  M  was  classified  separately  from  those  in  which  it 
was  not.  The  data  are  therefore  not  available  for  exact 
calculations,  since  the  numbers  are  too  small  to  overcome 
chance  deviations.  The  data  for  my  own  two  experi- 
ments appear  in  Table  IV. 

The  same  relation  comes  out  more  strikingly  in  another 
way.  If  we  let  m  equal  the  intensity  of  the  AB  series  and 
n  that  of  the  BC  series,  then  on  Trow's  special  hypothesis 


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REDUPLICATION  HYPOTHESIS 


543 


the  four  kinds  of  gametes  should  occur  in  the  following 
proportions : 

ABC  —  mn 

ABc  —  m 

aBC  —  n 

AhC-l 

TABLE    IV 


Observed 

Calculated 

Experiment 

AB 

BC 

AC 

AC 

BVgCv 

3.4 
2.6 

'W 

2.4 
1.0 

2.7 

BCvSp 

1.4 

That  is,  l/(m  +  l)  of  the  gametes  should  have  A  and  B 
interchanged.  Of  these,  l/{n-\-l)  should  have  B  and  C 
also  interchanged.  If  N  represents  the  total  number  of 
gametes,  then  the  size  of  the  AhC  class  should  be  repre- 
sented by  the  expression 


AbC  = 


(m  +  l)(r^+l) 


Table  V  shows  the  relation  between  the  size  of  this  class 
as  observed  and  as  thus  calculated,  in  the  ten  experiments. 

TABLE   V 

ABC 

AUelomorphic  ^ a ^ 

Groups                            Observed  Calculated 

YWM 9  42 

TWB 0  0 

YFM    22  30 

YVB   55  69 

YVBr" 10  15 

WFM 1  4 

WMB 139  208 

WMBr" 25  34 

BVgCv   2  7 

BCvSp    12  20 

Thus  it  appears  that  in  all  ten  experiments  Trow's 
formula  gives  values  for  the  AC  series  and  for  the  AbC 


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644  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIU 

term  which  are  too  large.  Moreover,  this  feature  appears 
in  a  more  complex  cross  which  I  have  carried  out,  in- 
volving four  pairs  of  linked  genes  {YWVM)^  and  in  each 
separate  part  of  all  these  experiments,  regardless  of  how 
the  crosses  were  made.  It  may,  then,  be  taken  as  a  con- 
stant relation.  It  can  only  mean  that  there  is  some  rela- 
tion between  A  and  C  besides  that  resulting  from  second- 
ary reduplication.  In  other  words,  to  use  Bailey's  terms, 
Trow's  ''special''  hypothesis  is  not  valid. 

Let  us  then  examine  what  Bailey  calls  Trow's  ''gen- 
eral" hypothesis.  Suppose  the  primary  series  to  be  of 
the  following  values : 

AB  =  l:l, 
BC  =  m:l, 
AC  =  n:l. 

Trow's  general  formula  for  calculating  what  should  be 
the  observed  value  of  the  AC  series  is 

.^      lmn-\-n 

The  special  formula  is  derived  from  this  by  assuming 
n  =  lj  when  the  formula  becomes 

Since  this  always  gives  a  value  which  is  too  large,  it 
follows  that  n  is  always  less  than  one.  This  means  that 
the  AC  primary  series  is  reversed— that  the  combinations 
present  in  the  parents  tend  to  be  reproduced  in  fewer 
numbers  than  the  new  combinations.  I  have  worked  this 
out  for  the  case  of  BCvSp  (see  Table  IV),  and  find  the 
primary  series  there  to  be  0.6:1,  though  the  observed 
series  is  1.0.  The  "fundamental"  AC  series  has  been 
obtained  for  most  of  the  cases  in  Table  III,  and  has 
always  been  found  to  be  of  the  usual  form  {i.  e.,  n:l, 


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No.  573] 


REDUPLICATION  HYPOTHESIS 


545 


where  n>l).  (See  Table  I,  Sturtevant,  14.)  In  fact, 
as  stated  above,  the  fundamental  series  always  approxi- 
mates the  secondary  (observed)  series. 

There  are  two  hypotheses  as  to  the  mechanics  of  re- 
duplication series  where  more  than  two  pairs  of  genes  are 
involved.  The  first  was  suggested  by  Bateson  and  Pun- 
nett  ( '11),  and  consists  in  the  assumption  that  when  three 
pairs  are  involved  eight  cells  are  formed  by  three  succes- 
sive divisions,  each  of  which  segregates  one  pair  of  genes. 
The  eight  cells  then  represent  the  eight  possible  kinds  of 
gametes,  and  are  supposed  to  reduplicate  independently 
until  the  proper  proportions  are  reached.  Bailey  sup- 
poses that  if  it  be  shown  that  two  primary  series  do  not 
interact  on  each  other  this  scheme  will  be  more  likely  to  be 
correct  than  will  Trow's,  which  I  shall  discuss  next.  It 
seems  to  me,  however,  that  this  hypothesis  begs  the  ques- 
tion. It  is  derived  entirely  by  working  backwards  from 
the  observed  results;  it  affords  no  basis  for  predictions; 
and  it  does  not  offer  a  simple  mechanical  explanation  of 
any  of  the  observed  results.  For  pragmatic  reasons  I 
believe  we  should  adopt  it  only  as  a  last  resort. 

Trow  supposes  that  two  cell  divisions  occur,  segregating 
two  pairs  of  genes.  The  four  resulting  cells  then  go 
through  with  their  reduplication,  which  is  a  primary  one. 
When  this  is  finished  there  occur  divisions  which  segre- 
gate the  other  pair,  and  the  other  primary  reduplication 
is  carried  out.  On  Trow's  general  hyjx) thesis,  which  I 
have  tried  to  show  is  the  only  one  which  can  hold,  it  is 
supposed  that  the  second  series  of  reduplications  is 
affected  by  both  of  the  first  two  pairs  of  genes.  C  is  re- 
duplicating more  if  with  B  than  if  with  b,  less  if  with  A 
than  if  with  a.  This  scheme  of  Trow's  has  one  great 
advantage  in  that  it  accounts  for  the  fact  that  tiie  class 
which  I  have  called  AbC  is  always  the  smallest  one. 
Reference  to  Trow's  calculations  will  show  that  this  rela- 
tion should  always  occur,  and  Table  n  shows  that  it  does 
occur.  On  the  octant  scheme  there  is  no  explanation  of 
this  relation — ^we  simply  have  to  assume  that  it  does  occur 
somehow. 


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546  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHI 

It  will  be  noted  that  several  of  the  gametic  ratios  in- 
volved here  closely  approach  2 : 1.  YV,  YM,  WV  and  WM 
are  the  most  conspicuous  examples.  It  may  seem  that 
such  a  simple  ratio  is  due  to  a  very  simple  reduplication 
series,  but  I  do  not  think  such  an  assumption  can  be  suc- 
cessfully maintained.  The  tables  given  above  show  that 
YM  and  WM  have  approximately  this  same  value  when 
they  appear  as  secondary  series,  and  the  data  for  the 
combination  YWVM  show  the  same  thing  for  YV  (see 
Sturtevant,  14). 

If,  as  I  have  maintained  above,  the  same  series  of  redu- 
plications must  occur  in  all  flies,  whether  we  can  follow  it 
or  not,  then  it  follows  that  in  these  three  cases  the  2 : 1 
ratio  is  never  due  to  a  simple  series,  but  always  to  a  long 
and  complicated  one,  since  in  all  three  one  of  the  primary 
series  is  of  high  intensity. 

It  was  pointed  out  by  Trow  that  the  intensities  of  the 
reduplication  series  afford  a  method  of  calculating  the 
number  of  cell  divisions  necessary  to  complete  the  series. 
If  we  assume  that  approximately  the  same  series  is 
occurring  both  in  homozygous  and  in  heterozygous  flies, 
we  have  the  following  series  in  Drosophila  as  a  basis  for 
such  calculations. 


Sex-linked 

Group 

YW  = 

90.1 

wr= 

2.1 

VM  = 

31.8 

MR  = 

5.0 

RBr  = 

21.7 

Second  Group 

BVg  = 

3.6 

VgCv  = 

10.4 

CvSp  = 

2.8 

SpBa  = 

10  + 

Third  Group 

PEb  = 

100  ± 

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No.  573]  REDUPLICATION  HYPOTHESIS  547 

All  of  these  series  must  be  considered  as  either  primary 
or  secondary  and  therefore  involving  primaries  of  higher 
intensity.  In  fact  there  is  unpublished  evidence  that 
many  of  them  can  not  be  simple  primaries.  A  num- 
ber of  series  of  very  high  intensity  are  known,  and  will 
appear  in  future  publications.  Therefore  all  the  calcula- 
tions that  follow  give  results  which  are  far  too  small. 

According  to  Trow,  the  minimal  number  of  successive 
cell  divisions  required  to  complete  the  series  is  given  by 
the  expression  mnp  •  •  •  where  m,  n,  p,  etc.,  are  the  larger 
terms  of  the  primary  series  involved.  In  the  present  case 
the  value  of  that  expression  is  something  over  76,000,- 
000,000.  However,  Trow's  formula  seems  to  be  wrong. 
If  a  be  the  number  of  cell  divisions  required  to  produce 
m  cells,  then  2*  =  m.  If  this  expression  gives  a  value  of 
a  which  is  not  an  integer,  then  the  next  higher  whole 
number  is  to  be  taken.  In  the  case  of  the  first  series  two 
divisions  are  necessary  to  segregate  the  genes,  and  in  the 
following  series  one  is  required.  The  number  of  succes- 
sive cell  divisions  required  then  is  (a  +  l)-f(&  +  l) 
-f-(c?-f-l)-f----f-l,  where  b,  c,  etc.,  bear  the  same  rela- 
tion to  n,  p,  etc.,  that  a  does  to  m.  In  the  case  of  Droso- 
phUa  the  value  of  this  expression  is  56.  As  pointed  out. 
however,  this  value  is  certainly  far  too  small. 

The  total  number  of  cells  required  is  given  by  the 
expression  2mnp  •  •  •  +  2np  •  •  -j-  2mn  •  •  +  2mp  •  •  • 
-f  2m  •  •  •  -f  2w  •  •  -f  2p  •  •  •  -f  •  •  •  +  2mnp  -f  2mn  -f-  2mp 
+  2np+  •  •  •  +2m  +  2n  +  2p,-\-l. 

This  gives  a  value  considerably  above  600,000,000,000— a 
manifest  absurdity.  However,  it  is  not  necessary  that  all 
these  cells  should  be  produced,  since  the  ratios  would  not 
be  appreciably  affected  by  some  lines  becoming  crowded 
out.  It  is  necessary,  on  the  other  hand,  that  all  of  the 
series  shaU  be  completed  in  every  line  which  does  live, 
since  every  female  Drosophila,^  which  is  of  the  proper 
constitution  to  be  tested,  shows  linkage  for  every  pair  of 
genes  tested. 

2  The  results  discussed  here  deal  only  with  the  linkage  in  female  flies. 


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548  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIH 

Thus  we  are  forced  to  assume  an  enormously  complex 
series  of  cell  divisions,  many  of  them  differential,  pro- 
ceeding with  mathematical  regularity  and  precision,  but  in 
a  manner  for  which  direct  observation  furnishes  no  basis. 
It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  not  desirable  to  assume  such 
a  complex  series  of  events  unless  we  have  extremely 
strong  reasons  for  doing  so.  I  can  see  no  sound  reason 
for  adopting  the  reduplication  hypothesis.  It  apparently 
rests  on  two  discredited  hypotheses :  somatic  segregation, 
and  the  occurrence  of  members  of  the  3 : 1,  7 : 1, 15 : 1,  etc., 
series  of  gametic  ratios  in  more  cases  than  would  be  ex- 
pected from  a  chance  distribution. 

The  chief  advantage  of  the  chromosome  hypothesis  of 
linkage  which  has  been  proposed  by  Morgan  ('11),  and 
which  I  have  followed  elsewhere,  seems  to  me  to  be  its 
simplicity.  In  addition  it  appeals  to  a  known  mechanism, 
and  a  mechanism  toward  which  the  experiments  of  Boveri, 
Herbst,  Baltzer  and  others  point  as  the  correct  one.  It 
explains  everything  that  any  of  the  forms  of  the  redupli- 
cation hypothesis  does,  and  in  addition  offers  a  simple 
mechanical  explanation  of  the  fact  that  **  secondary 
series"  are  always  smaller  than  Trow's  *' special  hypoth- 
esis ' '  calls  for  them  to  be.  On  the  reduplication  hypoth- 
esis this  fact  must  merely  be  accepted,  for,  I  think,  it 
<?an  not  be  explained. 

Columbia  Unr^eesity, 
May,  1914 

LITERATURE  CITED 

Bailey,  P.  G. 

'14.     Primary  and  Secondary  Reduplication  Series.    Jour,  Genet. ,  III. 
Bateson,  W.,  and  R.  C.  Punnett. 

'11.     On   Gametic   Series   Involving  Reduplication  of  Certain   Terms. 
Jour,  Genet.,  I. 
Bridges,  C.  B.,  and  A.  H.  Sturtevant. 

'14.    A  New  Gene  in  the  Second  Chromosome  of  Vrosophila,  etc.    Biol, 
Bull,  XXVI. 
Gregory,  R.  P. 

'11.    On  Gametic  Coupling  and  Repulsion  in  Primula  sinensis.     Proc, 
Boyal  Soc.y  84.    B. 
Morgan,  T.  H. 

'10.     Sex  Limited  Inheritance  in  Brosophila,    Science,  XXXII. 


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No.  573]  REDUPLICATION  HYPOTHESIS  549 

'11.    An  Attempt  to  Analyze  the  Constitution  of  the  Chromosomes  on 
the  Baeis  of  Sex-limited  Inheritance  in  Drosophila,    Jour,  Exp, 
Zool,  XI. 
'12.    Further  Experiments  with  Mutations  in  Eye-color  in  DrosopMUi. 

Jour,  Acad,  Nat,  8oi,  Philadelphia,  XV. 
'13.    Factors  and  Unit  Characters  in  Mendelian  Heredity.    Amer.  Nat., 
XLVII. 
Punnett,  B.  C. 

'13.    Beduplication  Series  in  Sweet  Peas.    Jour,  Genet.,  III. 
Safir,  S.  B. 

'13.    A  New  Eye-color  Mutation  in  Drosophila,    Biol,  Bull,  XXV. 
Sturtevant,  A.  H. 

'13.    The  Himalayan  Babbit  Case,  with  Some  Considerations  on  Mul- 
tiple Allelomorphs.    Amer.  Nat.,  XLVII. 
'14.    The  Behavior  of  the  Chromosomes  as  Studied  Through  Linkage. 
Zeiis,  f,  ind.  Ahst,-  u,  Vererb,-Lehre, 
Trow,  A.  H.  ) 

'13.    Forms     of     Beduplication — Primary     and     Secondary.       Jour, 
Genet,,  II. 


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PATTERN   DEVELOPMENT  IN   MAMMALS   AND 

BIRDS.    Ill 

GLOVER  M.  ALLEN 
Boston  Museum  op  Natural  History 

Partial  Albinism  in  Wild  Birds 

In  birds  under  natural  conditions  of  wild  life  partial 
albinism  is  fairly  common.  Lists  of  species  of  which 
aibinistic  specimens  are  known  were  published  by  Ruth- 
ven  Deane  (1876,  1880)  some  years  ago,  and  by  others. 
Scattered  instances  are  in  all  the  bird  journals  or  maga- 
zines of  general  natural  history.  In  most  cases  in  which 
the  white  markings  are  clearly  defined  against  the  pig- 
mented parts  of  the  plumage,  these  may  be  referred  to 
their  particular  primary  breaks  between  the  several 
areas  of  pigment  formation.  In  other  cases  the  pigment 
reduction  is  of  the  diffuse  type,  tending  to  form  spots. 

A  few  instances  follow  in  which  the  several  primary 
patches  have  been  observed  in  wild  birds,  either  as  acci- 
dental marks  or  as  permanent  parts  of  the  pattern. 

The  Crown  Patch. — In  1908,  a  pair  of  robins  nested 
near  Lowell  Park,  Cambridge,  one  of  which  showed  a 
partial  separation  of  the  crown  patch,  through  the  pres- 
ence of  a  white  band,  as  broad  as  the  eye^s  diameter, 
passing  from  one  eye  around  the  back  of  the  head  to  the 
other  eye.  In  the  Wilson  Bulletin  (Vol.  2,  p.  45,  1908) 
W.  E.  Saunders  records  the  capture  of  two  robins  each 
with  a  white  collar  about  the  neck,  probably  marking:  the 
separation  of  the  neck  patches  from  the  shoulder  patches. 
Coues  (1878)  records  a  brood  of  black  robins  at  St. 
John's,  N.  B.,  one  of  which  was  kept  in  captivity  by  the 
late  G.  A.  Boardman.  In  September,  after  moulting,  it 
was  still  pure  black,  except  for  white  wings  and  tail, 
which  seems  to  indicate  an  areal  restriction  of  the 
shoulder  and  rump  patches,  though  the  pigment,  where 

550 


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No.  573]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  551 

produced,  must  have  been  superabundant.  Ward  (1908) 
has  described  a  case  of  a  black  robin  becoming  albinistic 
and  reviews  a  number  of  such  cases.  The  ability  of  the 
same  feather  follicles  in  different  moults  to  produce 
feathers  with  different  sorts  or  amounts  of  pigment  is 
thus  evidenced  and  has  lately  been  carefully  studied  by 
Pearl  and  Boring  (1914)  in  the  hen. 

In  addition  to  the  case  of  the  robin  above  mentioned, 
the  white  line  marking  off  the  crown  patch  from  the  ear 
patches  is  sometimes  found  abnormally  in  other  birds. 
Thus  Sweet  (1907)  records  two  slate-colored  juncos 
{J unco  hy emails)  taken  in  March,  1903,  at  Avon,  Maine, 
in  which  there  was  a  white  line  above  the  eye,  and  the 
black  throat  patch  was  absent,  owing  no  doubt  to  the 
ventral  restriction  of  the  neck  patches,  as  often  seen,  for 
example  in  pigeons.  Maynard^  figures  the  head  of  a 
young  female  black-poll  warbler  {Dendroica  striata)  in 
autumn,  showing  an  inclination  to  assume  a  white  super- 
ciliary stripe.  I  am  convinced  that  this  mark  so  common 
in  many  birds,  is  merely  a  development  of  the  primary 
break  marking  off  the  crown  patch  from  the  ear  patches 
so  that  it  has  become  a  permanent  part  of  the  pattern. 

The  failure  of  the  crown  patch  to  develop  at  all,  as  is 
sometimes  the  case  in  the  domestic  pigeon,  results  in  a 
white-crowned  bird.  In  the  West  Indian  Columba  leuco- 
cephala,  exactly  this  modification  has  taken  place  and  the 
entire  top  of  the  head  is  permanently  white.  The  same 
condition  is  found  in  sundry  other  genera,  including  a 
humming  bird,  a  heron,  and  others.  It  would  be  inter- 
esting to  discover  by  experiment  if  it  were  not  easier  to 
produce  a  definite  white  marking  through  selecting  for 
the  non-development  of  a  certain  patch  or  patches,  than 
to  try  to  restrict  a  certain  pigment  patch  to  definite 
bounds  as  in  the  experiments  of  Dr.  MacCurdy  and  Pro- 
fessor Castle  (1907). 

The  crown  patch  as  a  separate  unit  in  pigmentation,  is 
often  of  a  different  hue  from  the  surrounding  patches. 

1 ''Birds  of  E.  North  America/'  1896,  p.  585. 


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552  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

Thus  in  the  case  of  the  terns,  the  black-capped  chickadee, 
the  black-crowned  night  heron,  and  other  birds,  a  black 
crown  patch  is  noticeably  marked  oflF. 

The  Ear  Patches. — The  ear  patches  in  birds  are  small, 
yet  often  specially  marked  out  by  white  boundaries,  which 
are  permanent  parts  of  the  pattern.  Yet  there  is  no 
doubt  but  that  the  acquisition  of  such  white  boundaries 
is  a  derived  character.  It  is  common  for  the  ear  patches 
to  be  colored  differently  from  the  surrounding  parts, 
forming  as  in  some  species  of  tanagers  a  black  auricular 
area  contrasted  with  the  blue  of  the  head  and  neck.  Of 
particular  interest  in  the  present  connection,  however, 
are  those  cases  in  which  a  pigmented  ear  patch  is  more 
or  less  clearly  marked  off  by  a  white  line  above  it  or 
below,  or  both.  The  superciliary  stripe,  so  common  in 
birds,  is  of  course  a  development  of  a  primary  break 
above  the  patch,  separating  it  from  the  crown  patch. 
Where  the  stripe  is  narrow  it  is  hard  to  say  which  patch 
has  begun  to  be  restricted,  though  often  no  doubt  both 
are  more  or  less  involved.  Thus  the  Garganey  teal  has 
a  very  wide  white  eye  stripe,  and  in  other  species  of 
ducks  the  whole  side  of  the  head  may  be  white,  indicating 
much  greater  restriction  of  pigment  formation  in  con- 
tiguous patches.  A  beautiful  example  of  the  develop- 
ment of  a  white  stripe  at  the  lower  border  of  the  ear 
patches  is  found  in  the  Inca  tern,  in  which  a  line  of  white 
feathers  runs  from  just  above  the  gape  along  the  lower 
side  of  the  auricular  patch  and  separates  it  from  the 
dark  throat.  But  not  only  is  the  white  line  developed, 
but  the  feathers  composing  it  are  specially  elongated  and 
recurved,  as  if  the  mark  were  one  of  particular  decora- 
tiveness.  The  dark  ear  patch  is  noticeable  in  many 
hawks,  separated  above  and  below  by  white  areas,  as  in 
the  duck  hawk  and  the  osprey,  though  differing  in  the 
size  of  the  white  areas. 

An  instance  in  which  the  white  line  separating  the 
crown  patch  from  the  ear  patch,  is  even  now  in  course  of 
becoming  established  as  part  of  the  permanent  pattern, 


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No.  573]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  553 

is  afforded  by  the  common  guillemot  {Uria  troille)  of  the 
northern  Atlantic.  The  other  related  species  of  the  genus 
have  the  head  and  neck  uniformly  pigmented,  but  in  U. 
troille  a  considerable  proportion  of  specimens  show  a 
narrow  white  eyebrow  and  a  postorbital  line,  in  exactly 
the  situation  of  the  stripe  in  the  albino  robin  previously 
noted,  though  not  so  broad  nor  so  extended.  Birds  so 
marked  were  formerly  considered  a  distinct  species — the 
ringed  murre  {Uria  ^^ringvia") — or  perhaps  a  plumage 
of  U.  troille,  and  much  effort  has  been  made  to  determine 
their  exact  status.  Both  plumages  are  f  oimd  in  the  same 
colonies  and  the  two  sorts  of  birds  are  known  to  have 
mated  together  (Miiller,  1862).  Verrill  estimated  that 
about  40  per  cent,  of  the  nesting  birds  he  saw  on  the 
Labrador  coast  were  of  this  variety,  but  this  is  probably 
a  rather  high  estimate.  I  am  convinced  that  the  true 
explanation  of  this  puzzling  variation  is  that  incipient 
albinism  has  gained  a  foothold,  of  such  nature  that  areal 
restriction  of  the  ear  or  crown  patches  is  developing,  so 
that  a  white  line  results  between  them.  In  the  crested 
auklet  i^thia)  a  member  of  the  same  family,  of  the 
Pacific  Coast,  such  a  line  has  become  fixed  so  that  it 
now  forms  a  characteristic  mark  of  the  species.  In  the 
case  of  the  ''ringed  murre,"  I  should  expect  to  see  the 
eye  stripe  in  the  young  as  well  as  in  the  adult  stage  of 
those  individuals  which  are  to  have  the  mark — in  other 
words  it  is  a  permanent  trait.  No  doubt  the  heredity  of 
this  white  stripe  is  of  some  definite  sort,  and  if  a  reces- 
sive character,  it  may  nevertheless  in  time  become  com- 
mon to  an  increasing  number  of  birds,  as  this  is  a 
colonial  species  and  the  possibility  of  inbreeding  is  thus 
increased. 

The  Neck  Patches. — In  birds  the  neck  patches  extend 
forward  from  the  breast  to  meet  the  crown  patch  at  the 
occiput  and  the  ear  patches  at  the  sides  of  the  head, 
thence  ventrally  to  include  the  throat  and  chin.  A  study 
of  albinifetic  pigeons,  as  previously  noted,  indicates  that 
the  neck  patches  are  two  separate  areas  of  pigmentation, 


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554  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHl 

one  on  each  half  of  the  part  covered,  with  an  ultimate 
center  at  the  base  of  the  neck,  usually  the  last  spot  to  re- 
main when  the  area  is  much  reduced. 

In  albinistic  individuals,  that  is,  those  in  which  restric- 
tion of  the  pigment  areas  has  taken  place,  the  neck 
patches  are  usually  first  reduced  at  the  upper  part  of  the 
throat,  so  that  a  white  patch  appears  from  the  chin  to 
upper  throat,  as  commonly  seen  in  street  pigeons;  in 
others,  however,  the  restriction  may  be  at  the  posterior 
end  of  the  patch,  so  that  a  white  ring  develops  at  the 
bas.e  of  the  neck. 

In  many  birds  the  neck  patches  have  been  much  devel- 
oped as  characteristic  pigmented  areas.  Two  general 
categories  may  be  here  distinguished:  (1)  those  in  which 
the  neck  is  rather  uniformly  colored  all  about,  and  (2) 
those  in  which  the  ventral  portion  is  heavily  pigmented 
and  the  dorsal  portion  much  less  so.  In  the  latter  belong 
such  birds  as  the  black-capped  chickadee  {Penthestes 
atricapillus)  with  a  black  throat  but  a  pale  neck.  So, 
too,  the  golden- winged  warbler  (Vermivora  chrysop- 
tera).  In  this  latter  category  it  is  probable  that  a  sec- 
ond factor  is  present,  comparable  to  that  producing  a 
centrifugal  type  of  pigmentation  in  mammals,  such  for 
example  as  in  the  Himalayan  breed  of  rabbit,  which  has 
the  end  of  the  nose  and  the  feet  black-pigmented,  contrary 
to  the  usual  rule  of  normal  areal  reduction  where  the 
extremities  are  the  first  to  become  white.  That  this  is 
a  separate  category  from  a  physiological  standpoint  is 
indicated  by  its  behavior  in  heredity  as  worked  out  so 
admirably  by  Faxon  (1913)  in  the  case  of  the  Brewster's 
warbler.  He  discovered  that  the  black  throat  as  present 
in  the  golden-winged  warbler  is  recessive  in  the  cross 
with  a  related  species,  the  blue- winged  warbler  (Ver- 
mivora pinus)y  a  yellow- throated  bird.  The  oflFspring 
of  this  cross  have  white  throats,— the  so-called  F.  leuco- 
bronchialis.  The  black  throat  patch  may  be  evidence  of 
*^ centrifugal"  pigmentation  as  defined  farther  on  (p.  53). 
The   essential   bilaterality   of   such  a  throat   patch    is 


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No.  573]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  555 

further  shown  by  the  fact  that  one  half  only  may  be  pres- 
ent as  in  the  golden-winged  warbler  recorded  by  Dr.  C. 
W.  Townsend  (1908). 

The  first  category,  in  which  the  neck  is  uniformly  pig- 
mented is  illustrated  by  many  of  the  duck  tribe,  and 
probably  involves  the  normal  primary  patches  only. 
The  primary  patches  are  usually  restricted  first  antero- 
ventrally  producing  a  white  throat.  Often  this  is  carried 
dorsally  so  as  to  form  a  white  ring  around  the  upper 
part  of  the  neck  by  the  separation  of  the  neck  patch  from 
the  crown  and  the  ear  patches.  Again,  if  the  neck  patches 
are  restricted  posteriorly  a  white  ring  is  formed  at  the 
base  of  the  neck,  a  comnion  permanent  character  in  many 
species.  The  peculiar  little  goose-like  hird—N ettapiis,  of 
India— has  developed  this  type  of  marking  so  that  its 
white  neck  is  encircled  by  a  narrow  black  ring,  and  the 
Labrador  duck  (Camptorhynchus)  has  a  nearly  similar 
mark  (Fig.  57).  Other  ducks,  e.  g.,  the  mallard,  have  the 
white  ring  at  the  base  of  the  neck,  only. 

In  an  interesting  paper  on  the  geese  occurring  in  Oali- 
fomia,  Swarth  (1913)  has  pointed  out  that  in  the  cack- 
ling goose  {Branta  c.  minina)  there  is  much  variation  in 
the  amount  of  white  on  the  head  and  neck.  Figs.  58  to 
62  are  traced  from  a  series  of  photographs  illustrating 
this  paper  and  show  the  throats  of  five  specimens.  The 
wide  range  of  variation  in  these  specimens  indicates  to 
my  mind  that  this  goose  is  in  process  of  reducing  the 
neck  patches,  and  thereby  developing  a  white  collar,  such 
as  is  present  in  the  mallard,  and  perhaps  also  a  white 
throat.  The  usual  condition  seen  in  Branta  canadensis 
and  in  so-called  normal  specimens  of  B.  c.  minina  is  seen 
in  Fig.  58.  The  white  cheeks  have  been  developed  long 
ago  in  the  history  of  the  species,  in  part  perhaps  by  the 
depigmentation  of  the  ear  patches.  Now  a  second  change 
is  taking  place  in  one  of  its  subspecies.    Thus  in  Figs.  59, 

61  and  62,  the  neck  patches  have  been  reduced  poste- 
riorly, a  varying  amount  in  each  case.   In  Figs.  60,  61  and 

62  these  patches  have  been  restricted  anteriorly  pro- 


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556 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 


ducing  a  white  throat,  and  as  sometimes  in  the  pigeon, 
imperfectly,  so  that  a  little  island  of  pigment  is  cut  off 
just  at  the  chin.    It  is  also  obvious  from  these  figures, 
that  reduction  may  take  place  either  at  one  end  or  tbe 
other,  or  at  both  ends  in  different  individuals.    The  ul*^^- 
mate  development  of  this  line  of  reduction  will  prodix<^^ 


r8^ 

Figs..  58-62. 


^ 


(• 


Vabiations  in  the  Development  of  the  Neck  Patches  in 
Cackling  Goose    (after  Swarth). 


TH« 


the  narrow  black  collar  seen  in  Nettapus  previously  rrx^xi- 
tioned.  It  is  worth  noting  also  that  in  this  goose  tl-ie 
limits  of  the  neck  patch  are  by  their  black  color  shax-i:>ly 
defined  posteriorly  from  the  gray  of  the  breast  whic^lzt  is 
pigmented  from  the  shoulder  patches. 

The  Shoulder  Patches. — The  shoulder  patches  apE>^-ar 
to  center  near  the  base  of  the  wing,  and  in  reduction 
produce  white  remiges,  such  as  appear  in  a  domestics.  tecJ 
race  of  guinea  fowl,  as  well  as  a  white  breast.  The 
domesticated  guinea  fowl  often  shows  this  white  area,  iri 
the  midline  of  the  breast  as  the  pigment  areas  fail  to 
spread  ventrally.  In  the  normal  pattern  of  wild  biirds, 
however,  white  wings  are  seldom  seen  except  among  cer- 
tain sea  birds.  White  wing  patches  are  often  developed, 
but  tliese  are  frequently  only  bars  on  pigmented  featla-eT* 
as  in  the  goat-suckers.  Probably  among  small  land  toi^^ 
much  white  in  the  large  wing  feathers  is  a  disadvantaj^ 


0 


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No.  573]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  557 

and  so  not  much  developed.  It  is  noticeable  that  white 
patches  in  the  wing  are  often  of  such  a  nature  that  they 
are  concealed  through  the  folding  of  the  wings  when  the 
bird  is  at  rest.  This  accords  with  my  belief  that  while 
in  flight  the  bird  is  unavoidably  conspicuous  by  reason 
of  its  motion,  and  that  white  patches  showing  at  such 
times  add  little  or  nothing  to  the  disadvantage.  In  the 
hairy  and  the  downy  woodpeckers  (Dryobates),  a  white 
stripe  down  the  back  is  developed  as  part  of  the  pattern, 
and  no  doubt  as  in  many  mammals,  marks  the  separation 
between  the  pigment  areas  of  opposite  sides.  Centrifugal 
pigmentation  is  seen  in  some  species  as  the  kittiwake  in 
which  the  outer  primaries  are  black. 

The  side  patches  are  conmaonly  continuous  with  those 
of  the  shoulders,  and  when  ventrally  restricted,  give  a 
white  abdomen.  Their  median  separation  dorsally,  is 
seen  in  the  hairy  and  downy  woodpeckers  as  above  noted. 
I  have  not  studied  any  special  developments  of  these 
areas,  and  they  are  commonly  small. 

The  Rump  Patches. — In  birds  as  in  mammals  the  two 
rump  patches  pigment  the  posterior  extremity  of  the 
body.  Their  ultimate  centers  are  dorsal  and  so  close  to- 
gether that  it  is  much  less  common  for  them  to  be  sepa- 
rated medially  than  to  be  restricted  laterally.  With  a 
slight  areal  reduction,  a  separation  takes  place  between 
them  and  the  side  patches  dorsally,  so  that  a  white  area 
on  the  rump  results.  Often  this  white  area  represents 
doubtless  a  slight  restriction  of  both  sets  of  pigment 
patches  which  by  drawing  farther  apart  increase  the 
white  area  along  the  lower  part  of  the  back.  In  the 
domestic  pigeon  much  variation  may  be  found,  from  a 
condition  in  which  the  lower  back  is  wholly  pigmented 
to  one  in  which  it  is  mostly  white.  The  primary  break 
which  causes  this  white  patch  has  been  much  developed 
in  many  groups  of  birds  as  a  particular  mark  in  the 
pattern.  In  many  species  it  is  simply  of  a  paler  hue  than 
the  surrounding  parts  as  in  the  yellow-rumped  warbler 
iDendroica  coronata)  or  the  pine  grosbeak  (Pinicola). 


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658  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

In  others  the  tendency  to  albinism  thus  expressed  has 
gone  farther  so  that  a  pigmentless  spot  is  formed.  This 
white  rump  patch  is  present  in  many  unrelated  groups 
of  birds  in  which  it  has  independently  arisen  through 
parallel  development.  Thus  it  is  seen  in  many  of  the 
smaller  petrels,  in  the  palm  swift,  the  flicker  woodpecker, 
the  white-rumped  and  other  sandpipers,  the  white- 
rumped  shrike,  the  European  house  martin  and  others. 
The  tail  feathers  are  pigmented  by  these  patches,  and 
among  various  species  show  many  steps  in  the  process 
of  pigment  reduction.  As  in  the  domestic  pigeon,  occa- 
sional albinistic  individuals  show  white  outer  tail 
feathers,  in  accordance  with  the  rule  that  the  first  pig- 
ment reduction  takes  place  at  those  parts  of  the  primary 
areas  that  are  farthest  removed  from  the  pigment  centers. 
I  have  seen  a  white  outer  tail  feather  in  wild  specimens 
of  song  sparrows  and  Lincoln  ^s  sparrow  and  it  is  occa- 
sional in  other  species.  In  others  again  this  mark  has 
become  developed  and  fixed  as  a  species  character.  Thus 
in  the  bay-winged  bunting  (Pocecetesgramineus)  there 
is  a  single  white  outer  feather  on  each  side,  in  the  junco 
{J unco  hy emails)  there  are  two.  A  white  central  tail 
feather  is  much  rarer,  but  a  pure  white  tail  is  found  occa- 
sionally as  in  the  hummingbird,  Leucuria  phalerata,  the 
bald  eagle  and  certain  gulls,  due  to  the  permanent  reduc- 
tion of  the  pigment  area  of  the  rump  at  this  extremity. 
I  once  examined  an  albino  ruffed  grouse  (Bonasa)  which 
was  entirely  white  except  for  a  single  feather  among  the 
upper  tail  coverts  at  the  left  side  of  the  rump.  This 
blemish  in  the  otherwise  pure  white  bird  seemed  inexpli- 
cable to  those  who  examined  it  with  me,  but  it  merely 
represents  the  last  remnant  of  the  left-hand  rump  patch, 
still  persisting  though  all  the  other  pigment  centers  were 
inactive. 

It  is  very  interesting  that  the  white  rump  mark,  so 
commonly  found  in  unrelated  groups  of  birds,  is  one 
which  is  conspicuous  in  flight  only,  and  the  same  is  true 
of  many  of  the  white  tail  marks,  such  as  outer  white 


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No.  573]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  559 

feathers  that  disappear  when  the  tail  is  shut.  This  points 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  development  of  a  white  mark 
which  is  ever  conspicuous  is  allowed  in  nature  in  such 
cases  only  where  it  may  be  no  detriment  to  the  species 
through  rendering  it  too  conspicuous  by  contrast.  Thus 
the  bald  eagle  or  the  black-backed  gull  have  nothing  to 
fear  from  such  a  banner  mark.  For  small  weak-flying 
birds,  however,  the  case  may  well  be  different.  Yet  even 
these  often  show  much  white  and  I  believe  that  it  would 
be  possible  for  a  species  in  its  phylogeny  to  develop  more 
and  more  white  if  at  the  same  time  its  habits  of  watchful- 
ness or  other  actions  developed  equally  to  counteract  any 
disadvantageous  result  that  might  accompany  the  in- 
crease. No  doubt  also  a  psychic  factor  is  involved,  com- 
parable to  what  among  ourselves  we  call  '* fashion." 
Thus  a  change  in  action  or  dress  which  departs  too  far 
from  the  accustomed  appearance  is  apt  to  be  disliked  at 
first,  though  in  time  it  may  if  persisted  in,  be  tolerated 
and  at  length  accepted.  In  the  development  of  white 
markings,  for  example  in  the  feathers  of  the  tail,  it 
seems  likely  that  a  series  of  small  steps  must  have  been 
made  rather  than  too  great  and  sudden  changes.  So  in 
the  rock  pigeon  the  white  of  the  tail  is  limited  to  the  outer 
vane  of  the  outer  tail  feather.  In  the  turtle  dove  the 
outer  vane  of  the  outer  feather,  and  the  entire  tips  of  the 
four  outer  feathers  are  white.  The  next  step  would  be 
to  develop  an  entirely  white  outer  feather  and  then  two 
(as  in  the  passenger  pigeon)  and  so  on.  In  the  sparrows 
similar  steps  are  shown  by  the  lark  sparrow  {Chon- 
destes)  in  which  the  tips  only  of  the  outer  feathers  are 
white,  the  bay-winged  bunting  which  has  practically  all 
the  outer  feather  white,  and  a  little  of  the  tip  of  the 
second,  the  junco  with  two  outer  feathers  and  part  of  a 
third  white.  No  doubt  steps  such  as  these  must  have  been 
passed  through  by  many  white-tailed  species. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  how  disagreeable  to  their  normally 
colored  neighbors,  albino  birds  may  be.  I  have  seen  an 
albino  robin  in  the  fall  of  the  year  with  a  flock  of  other 


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560  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHI 

robins  and  a  white-spotted  bee-eater  with  a  flock  of  its 
brethren,  in  both  cases  wholly  at  peace.  This  of  course 
was  in  flocking  time  when  the  social  spirit  is  strong.  The 
song  sparrow  (Melospiza)  with  white  outer  tail  feathers, 
previously  mentioned,  was  attacked  and  driven  off  by 
another  song  sparrow.  In  the  Journal  of  the  Maine 
Ornithological  Society  (Vol.  6,  p.  48,  1904),  C.  H.  Clark 
writes  of  a  pair  of  albino  eave  swallows  (Petrochelidon 
lunifrons)j  at  Lubec,  Maine,      . 

among  a  large  colony  of  the  common  ones  who  seemed  greatly  annoyed 
at  the  albinos'  presence  and  fought  with  them  until  they  finally  killed 
one  ...  or  rather  injured  it  so  badly  that  it  died  soon  after. 

I  also  have  a  note  of  a  white  robin  at  Montclair,  N.  J., 
which  in  early  July,  1909,  was  seen  to  be  much  beaten  and 
driven  about  by  another  robin  and  eventually  flew  at  full 
speed  against  a  tree  and  was  killed. 

Centrifugal,  Colobation 

In  addition  to  the  primary  pigment  patches  which  I 
have  discussed  at  some  length,  and  the  speckled  condition 
or  ** English"  marking,  there  is,  as  I  have  already  inti- 
mated, a  third  condition  in  which  pigment  is  developed 
at  the  extremities  or  points.  It  may  be  called  a  centrifugal 
type  and  is  almost  the  reverse  of  the  centripetal  or  ^'pri- 
mary-patch'' class. 

The  two  latter  types  of  pigmentation  may  both  be 
found  in  the  same  individual,  but  ordinarily  this  is  not 
evident  except  in  cases  where  the  primary  patches  are 
somewhat  restricted  in  area.  It  then  may  become  appar- 
ent that  pigment  is  present  at  exactly  those  points  where, 
in  the  centripetal  type  of  coloring,  it  is  first  to  be  lacking. 
Moreover  it  persists  strongly,  even  though  the  primary 
areas  are  much  reduced  or  largely  absent.  Curiously 
this  sort  of  pigment  seems  almost  always  to  be  black. 
Apparently  centrifugal  pigmentation  does  not  occur  in 
all  species.  I  have  never  seen  any  trace  of  it  in  dogs. 
In  the  house  cat  it  is  frequent,  however.    Thus  in  Figs. 


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No.  573]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  561 

18  and  19  it  appears  at  the  end  of  the  tail.  In  the  former 
figure  the  sacral  patches  are  mnch  reduced,  though  pres- 
ent, and  together  spread  nearly  half  the  length  of  the  tail. 
The  terminal  half,  or  less,  of  the  tail,  however,  is  dark- 
pigmented,  and  a  break  occurs  between  the  two  sorts  of 
markings,  due  to  the  failure  of  the  centripetal  patch  to 
spread  so  as  to  unite  with  the  centrifugal  area.    In  Fig. 

19  the  sacral  patches  have  wholly  failed  to  develop  but 
the  centrifugal  patch  still  covers  the  distal  half  of  the  tail. 
Possibly  the  dark  heel  marks  in  Fig.  16  are  patches  devel- 
oped in  the  same  way.     In  the  house  cat,  a  dark  or 
** smutty''  nose  is  often  present  in  contrast  to  an  other- 
wise white  face,  or  with  the  ear  patches  only  slightly 
reduced.   In  the  breed  of  rabbits  known  as  *  *  Himalayan, ' ' 
the  centrifugal  pigmentation  remains,  though  the  centri- 
petal markings  have  disappeared,  so  that  it  is  pure  white 
except  for  the  black  nose,  ear  tips  and  toes.    No  doubt, 
however,  it  would  be  possible  for  the  two  types  of  pig- 
mentation to  appear  in  a  single  individual.    This  is  sug- 
gestive of  the  winter  phase  of  the  Arctic  hares,  in  which 
the  black  ear  tips  contrast  strongly  with  the  otherwise 
white  pelage.    The  physiology  of  the  process  whereby 
certain  animals  acquire  a  white  winter  coat  is  not  yet 
fully  worked  out.    It  is  curious  that  in  occasional  melan- 
istic  individuals  of  the  eastern  varying  hare,  the  black 
color  is  retained  throughout  the  winter,  instead  of  being 
replaced  by  white — again  a  persistence  of  hlaclc  pigment. 
In  dappled  gray  horses  a  black  patch  sometimes  appears 
on  the  bridge  of  the  muzzle,  usually  the  first  place  to  show 
white  in  the  restriction  of  centipetal  pigmentation.    The 
feet  may  also  be  black.    Among  certain  antelopes  a  black 
muzzle  mark  is  similarly  present,  and  in  Hunter's  ante- 
lope {Damaliscus  hunteri)  a  white  border  partly  sur- 
rounds such  a  mark.    This,  I  believe,  is  due  to  a  slight 
restriction  of  the  ear  patches,  sufiicient  to  prevent  them 
from  reaching  the  muzzle,  and  of  about  the  same  nature 
as  seen  in  the  blesbok  {Damaliscus  albifrons)  in  which, 
through  the  absence  of  a  centrifugal  nose  patch,  the  entire 


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562  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

front  of  the  muzzle  is  white.  The  white  chevron  on  the 
muzzle  of  several  antelope  {Strepsiceros,  Taurotragus) 
is  probably  the  result  of  a  similar  restriction  of  ear 
patches  combined  with  a  centrifugal  nose  patch,  leaving 
a  white  line  between.  The  black  dorsal  stripe  seen  in 
many  mammals  and  the  black  tail  tip  are  probably  mani- 
festations of  centrifugal  pigmentation.  The  latter  mark 
is  common  in  stoats  (Mustela)  and  among  those  that 
change  to  a  white  coat  in  winter,  as  the  ermine,  the  tail 
tip  still  remains  black.  In  sundry  other  genera,  as 
Genetta,  a  black  tail  tip  is  part  of  the  normal  pattern. 

In  their  paper  on  albinistic  negroes,  Simpson  and 
Castle  (1913)  published  some  highly  interesting  photo- 
graphs of  *' piebald"  individuals.  In  four  persons  of  one 
negro  family  the  hair  over  the  median  part  of  the  head 
from  the  occiput  to  forehead  is  pure  white,  as  though  due 
to  a  restriction  of  the  aural  pigment  patches.  In  addi- 
tion, more  or  less  of  the  median  area  of  the  back,  as  well 
as  the  hands  (including  much  of  the  forearms)  and  feet 
(including  the  lower  part  of  the  ankle)  are  pigmented. 
These  latter  areas  may  represent  centrifugal  pigmenta- 
tion, but  it  should  be  noted  that  this  is  present  in  the 
dermis.  Possibly  there  is  a  close  relation  between  dermal 
pigment  and  that  produced  in  the  centrifugal  style  of 
pigmentation. 

Among  birds,  the  black  of  the  outer  tail  feathers  of  the 
ptarmigan  (Lagopus)  may  be  comparable.  A  black  area 
is  also  sometimes  present  on  the  middle  of  the  throat,  or 
as  in  certain  gulls  the  outer  primaries  may  be  black. 

This  form  of  pigmentation  is  not  found  universally  and 
the  conditions  governing  its  appearance  are  unknown, 
though  its  heredity  in  the  ** Himalayan''  rabbit  has  been 
somewhat  studied  by  Professor  Castle. 

Summary 

The  principal  points  of  this  paper  may  be  summed  up 
as  follows : 

1.  In  mammals  and  birds  that  normally  are  corn- 


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N'O.STS]  PATTERN  DEVELOPMENT  663 

pletely  pigmented,  there  are  certain  definite  points  of 
the  body  from  which  as  centers  the  tendency  to  develop 
pigment  in  the  epidermal  structures  may  become  less 
and  less.  Outward  from  each  of  these  centers  pigment 
formation  spreads  to  include  very  definite  areas  which  in 
wholly  pigmented  animals  overlap  slightly  at  their 
borders  or  are  at  least  contiguous. 

2.  A  reduction  in  the  area  covered  by  any  of  these 
primary  patches  results  in  a  white  mark  at  the  line  of 
junction  of  two  contiguous  color  patches,  where  no  pig- 
ment is  produced.  These  white  marks  between  the  pri- 
mary patches  are  spoken  of  as  primary  breaks. 

3.  Through  a  study  of  the  breaks  in  pied  individuals 
of  domesticated  species  of  mammals  and  birds,  the 
boundaries  of  the  primary  patches  have  been  determined. 
These  are  homologous  in  the  two  groups  and  subject  to 
a  certain  amount  of  variation  in  different  types.  They 
are:  a  median  crown  patch  unpaired,  and  five  paired 
patches  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  body,  which  are 
nanoed  from  the  general  areas  they  cover,  the  ear,  neck, 
shoulder,  side  and  rump  patches.  Their  limits  are  more 
precisely  defined  imder  the  different  species  treated. 

4.  These  patches  are  physiologically  independent  of 
each  other  and  may  be  differently  colored  in  the  same 
individual. 

5.  Pied  patterns  among  many  wild  species  have  been 
brought  about  through  the  areal  reduction  of  these  pig- 
ment patches  in  a  definite  way  so  that  the  white  markings 
resulting  as  breaks  between  the  reduced  patches  have 
become  fixed  and  form  a  permanent  part  of  the  normal 
pattern. 

6.  In  several  wild  species  this  development  of  white 
markings  is  shown  to  be  even  now  taking  place,  but  the 
amount  of  pigment  reduction  is  still  fluctuating  so  that 
the  white  markings  vary  much  in  extent  with  different 
individuals. 

7.  The  development  of  such  white  markings  takes  place 
probably  by  little  and  little,  so  that  the  departure  from 


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564  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHl 

type  is  not  so  great  as  to  arouse  antagonism  against  the 
varying  individual  on  the  part  of  others  of  its  species. 
Also,  the  gradualness  of  the  change  allows  the  species  to 
become  accommodated  to  any  disadvantage  that  might 
concomitantly  arise. 

8.  The  converse  of  this  centripetal  style  of  pigmenta- 
tion is  present  in  many  species,  and  results  in  pigmenta- 
tion (commonly  black)  at  the  extremities  or  along  lines 
where  primary  breaks  occur  in  the  centripetal  form, 
namely  at  the  tip  of  the  nose,  ears,  tip  of  the  tail  or  the 
toes ;  possibly  the  black  dorsal  stripe  is  due  also  to  centri- 
fugal pigmentation.  Patterns  may  develop  as  in  certain 
antelopes  by  a  white  break  between  patches  of  the  two 
types. 

In  conclusion,  I  wish  to  express  my  indebtedness  to 
Professor  W.  E.  Castle  for  much  helpful  criticism  and 
advice,  and  to  the  Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology  for 
permission  to  make  record  of  specimens  .in  its  study 
collection. 

REFERENCE^ 


dg^f 


Allen,  G.  M.  ,  ' 

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SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

THE   BEARING   OF   THE   SELECTION  EXPERIMENTS 

OP   CASTLE'  AND   PHILLIPS   ON   THE 

VARIABILITY  OP  GENES 

Castle  and  Phillips  have  recently  reviewed  the  results  of  six 
years'  work  in  which  they  selected  for  and  against  **hoodedness'' 
in  rats.^  In  ** hooded'*  or  ** piebald"  rats  only  part  of  the  coat 
is  pigmented;  the  area  of  dark  (versus  white)  coat  varies  greatly 
in  different  animals,  but  tends,  in  those  of  medium  grade,  to 
cover  the  head,  shoulders  and  middle  of  the  back,  like  a  hood. 
Starting  with  a  strain  which  was  probably  hybrid,  although  of 
unknown  ancestry,  and  selecting  during  thirteen  generations 
for  a  larger  extent  of  colored  coat  (**plus"  selection),  they  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  animals  with  a  greater  and  greater  area  of 
pigmentation.  The  average,  the  mode,  and  the  extremes  were 
raised.  Conversely,  selection  for  less  pigmentation  (''minus'* 
selection)  was  accompanied  by  a  gradual  but  decided  and 
continual  dimunition  in  the  dark  area.  ** Return"  selection 
also  succeeded ;  that  is,  plus  selection  was  effective  even  in  a  line 
which  was  already  lighter  than  the  average  on  account  of  a 
previous  minus  selection,  and,  vice  versa,  minus  selection  caused 
a  lightening  of  a  strain  that  had  been  made  exceptionally  dark 
by  a  prior  plus  selection. 

Certain  crosses  proved  that  more  than  one  factor  affecting 
hoodedness  is  involved  in  the  difference  between  the  different 
races.  Therefore  the  production  of  animals  of  desired  grade  by 
selection  may  perhaps  be  explained  as  a  mere  sorting  out,  into 
different  lines  of  descent,  of  different  combinations  of  the  various 
factors  for  hoodedness  originally  present  in  the  heterozygous 
ancestors.  It  is  the  opinion  of  Castle  and  Phillips,  however,  that 
this  explanation  will  not  suffice  to  account  fully  for  the  continued 
eflficacy  of  selection  in  their  experiments,  and  they  believe  it 
probable  that  a  factor  or  factors  for  hoodedness  are  undergoing 
variation  of  a  fluctuating  nature. 

1  Castle  and  Phillips,  *  *  Piebald  Bats  and  Selection,  An  experimental  test 
of  the  effectiveness  of  selection  and  of  the  theory  of  gametic  purity  in 
Mendelian  crosses. '*  Published  by  the  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washing- 
ton. See  also  Castle's  "Pure  Lines  and  Selection"  in  American  Breeders' 
Magazine,  1914. 

567 


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568  THE  AMEEICMJ  NATURALIST       [Vol,  XLVIII 

A  conclusion  so  radical  and  so  opposed  to  previous  work 
should  not  be  accepted,  however,  as  long  as  it  remains  at  all 
reasonably  possible  to  use  instead  an  explanation  in  harmony 
with  the  results  of  Johannsen  and  other  investigators.  Johann- 
sen  dealt  with  a  character — dimensions  of  seed — ^which  must  be- 
yond any  doubt  have  been  partially  dependent  upon  a  very  great 
many  factors,  yet  he  found  that  selection  had  no  effect  whatever 
after  he  had  separated  the  diflPerent  genotypes  from  one  another. 
Thus  he  proved  the  constancy  of  a  great  many  genes  **at  one 
blow'* — namely,  of  all  the  genes  appreciably  concerned  in  seed 
size.  Of  course,  if  there  had  been  a  chance  for  cross-fertilization 
in  his  experiments,  he,  like  Castle,  would  have  obtained  a  result 
from  selection,  but  this  would  have  been  due  to  recombination, 
not  variation,  of  genes.  All  our  evidence  points  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  vast  majority  of  genes  are  extremely  constant,  although 
they  differ  somewhat  in  that  very  slight  amount  of  variation 
which  they  do  show.  For  example,  in  Drosophila,  although  in 
the  case  of  most  genes  not  more  than  one  mutation  has  been 
found,  yet  in  one  case  (possibly  in  two  or  three  cases)  a  locus  has 
mutated  three  times,  each  time  in  a  different  way,  thus  giving 
rise  to  a  system  of  multiple  allelomorphs  containing  four  mem- 
bers. This  gene  evidently  is  more  subject  to  mutation  than  the 
others,  yet  this  formation  of  a  series  of  multiple  allelomorphs  can 
not  even  remotely  be  compared  to  fluctuating  variability,  for  the 
three  mutations  were  all  large  steps  (much  smaller  could  easily 
have  been  detected) ,  and  they  were  found  only  during  the  exami- 
nation of  some  millions  of  individuals  in  the  rest  of  which  the 
locus, was  not  observed  to  mutate  at  all.  Some  few  genes  are 
known,  however,  which  really  do  change  frequently  (e.  g.,  that 
for  ** variegated"  corn),  but  these  cases  are  extremely  rare; 
moreover,  here  the  degree  and  nature  of  the  change  are  fixed, 
and  also,  after  the  change  has  once  occurred  the  instability  of  the 
gene  is  lost.  Thus,  in  no  known  case  do  the  variations  of  a  gene 
among,  let  us  say,  several  thousand  immediate  descendants  of  the 
individual  passessing  it,  form  a  probability  curve,  as  neo-Dar- 
winians  might  perhaps  suppose,  nor  even  are  any  cases  known 
where  genes  can  undergo  frequent  changes  that  may  vary  at  all 
in  kind  or  amount  or  occur  successively. 

Let  us  then  inquire  into  the  probability  and  adequacy  of  that 
explanation  of  Castle  and  Phillips's  results  which  does  not  require 
the  assumption  that  a  gene  or  genes  involved  change  compara- 


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No.  573]    SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  CORRESPONDENCE     669 

lively  frequently  and  successively,  but  which  assumes  a  sort- 
ing out  of  numerous  factors.  It  is  now  pretty  generally  ac- 
cepted by  Mendelians  that  the  germ  plasm  of  any  of  the  higher 
organisms  contains  a  large  number  of  genes,  which  play  vari- 
ous roles  in  the  numberless  processes  and  reactions  of  devel- 
opment whereby  the  egg  is  transformed  into  the  adult  indi- 
vidual. The  exact  nature  and  intensity  of  any  one  characteristic  of 
this  adult  organism  (e.  ^.,  hoodednessin  rats)  is  dependent  upon 
the  nature  of  each  of  the  various  reactions  which  were  involved 
in  producing  this  character,  and  thus  dependent  upon  all  the 
genes  (and  environmental  factors  also)  involved  in  any  of 
those  reactions.  Now,  in  an  ordinary  Mendelian  cross,  all  the 
individuals  are  usually  homozygous  and  alike  in  respect  to  all 
but  one  of  the  pairs  of  genes  that  noticeably  affect  the  character 
concerned.  In  such  a  case,  then  (so  far  as  differences  in  environ- 
mental influences  do  not  obscure  the  outcome),  one  obtains  the 
simple  Mendelian  results  derived  from  the  segregation,  at  reduc- 
tion, and  recombination,  at  fertilization,  of  but  this  one  pair  of 
allelomorphs. 

The  strain  of  hooded  rats,  however,  was  probably  a  hybrid 
between  two  races  of  rather  remote  relationship.  When  two  such 
races  are  crossed,  the  individuals  often  differ  in  more  than  one 
pair  of  those  factors  that  affect  the  character  studied,  especially 
if  the  character  is  such  as  to  be  influenced  by  a  relatively  large 
number  of  genes.  It  can  not  be  questioned  that  some  characters 
are  thus  determined  or  influenced  by  a  much  larger  number  of 
developmental  reactions  than  are  others,  and  such  characters 
will  therefore  vary  more  in  inheritance,  since  if  a  difference 
exists  between  two  individuals  in  respect  to  any  given  gene, 
these  characters  are  more  likely  to  be  affected  than  others.  Gross 
size,  for  example,  is  a  character  dependent  in  this  way  upon  an 
exceptionally  large  number  of  genes,  for  any  gene  which  influ- 
ences the  size  of  any  organ  must  affect  to  some  extent  the  total 
size.  In  some  other  cases  in  which  characters  are  found  to  be 
influenced  by  relatively  many  genes,  the  reason  for  this  is  not 
so  evident,  e,  g.y  in  the  case  of  the  red  flower-color  of  flax,  or  the 
truncated  condition  of  the  wing  in  some  races  of  Drosophila, 
Here  the  production  of  the  character  may  be  conceived  to  be 
dependent  upon  some  reaction  that  can  be  easily  modified  by 
various  means.^    For  our  present  purpose  we  must  assume  that 

2  It  is  conceivable  that  differences  in  respect  to  numerous  genes  have 
sometimes  arisen  even  in  the  case  of  characters  not  naturally  very  easily 


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570  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVHI 

the  character  **hoodedness"  belongs  in  this  class  and  that  the 
ancestral  hooded  rats  used  by  Castle  and  Phillips  were  the  de- 
scendants of  a  cross  involving  many  genes  for  that  character. 

The  results  of  such  a  cross  are  of  course  complicated,  for  the 
different  pairs  of  allelomorphs  generally  can  undergo  recombina- 
tion at  the  reduction  division  of  the  hybrid,  so  that  in  P,  or 
subsequent  generations  as  many  different  genetic  types  of  indi- 
viduals are  formed  as  there  are  possible  different  combinations 
of  those  factors  wherein  the  ancestors  differed.  Not  all  these 
genetic  types,  of  course,  will  fall  into  different  phenotypes,  yet 
generally  there  will  be  a  large  number  of  overlapping  pheno- 
types among  the  progeny. 

The  larger  the  number  of  factors  in  which  the  two  ancestral 
lines  differed,  the  larger  will  be  the  number  of  different  passible 
combinations  of  these  factors,  and  accordingly  the  smaller  will 
be  the  chance  of  any  individual  having  one  of  those  particular 
combinations  necessary  to  a  relatively  high  or  a  relatively  low 
intensity  of  the  character.  In  other  words,  the  larger  the  num- 
ber of  factors  (for  one  character)  for  which  a  population  is 
heterogeneous,  the  more  numerous  are  the  possible  different 
grades  of  intensity  of  this  character  funong  the  different  indi- 
viduals, but  the  fewer  will  be  the  individuals  which  approach  the 
more  extreme  grades  theoretically  possible  in  such  a  population.* 
Suppose,  for  example,  that  two  parents  differ  in  five  pairs  of 
factors  for  hoodedness,  which  are  partially  dominant*  to  their 
allelomorphs  and  summative  in  their  action.    Then  in  Pj  not  one 

influenced  by  diverse  means,  merely  because  one  of  the  two  races  had  been 
subjected  to  a  very  long  and  drastic  selection,  so  that  any  of  those  rare 
mutations  which  affected  that  character  in  the  desired  direction  had  in  this 
race  been  preserved.  Selection  in  such  a  case,  however,  would  have  to  in- 
volve many  millions  of  individuals. 

8  One  extreme,  e.  g.,  the  **plus,'»  will  be  rather  frequent,  however,  if  all  the 
**plus"  factors  dominate  completely.  But  in  the  case  of  the  hooded  rats 
we  must  assume  either  that  dominance  is  generally  incomplete  or  that  in 
the  case  of  some  factors  the  *' minus''  allelomorph  dominates  in  the  case 
of  others  the  "plus,"  since  F,  rats  from  a  cross  of  the  plus  by  the  minus 
strain  are  on  the  average  intermediate  in  type  between  these  two  extremes. 

*  It  is  of  course  by  no  means  necessary  to  assume  incomplete  dominance 
of  the  factors.  If  dominance  is  complete  (in  some  cases  the  "minus"  fac- 
tor may  dominate,  in  others  the  "plus"),  the  rigor  of  selection  wUl  be  di- 
minished,  since  heterozygous  forms  can  not  be  distinguished  from  homozy- 
gous. Therefore,  although  a  somewhat  greater  number  of  individuals  wiU  be 
found  having  the  limiting  values,  it  will  take  longer  to  bring  the  average  up 
to  the  limit. 


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No.  573]    SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  CORRESPONDENCE    571 

individual  in  a  thousand  will  have  the  most  extreme  dark  or 
light  grade  of  hoodedness  possible.  However,  by  selecting  the 
more  extreme  individuals,  and  mating  them  together,  a  still  more 
extreme  grade  of  hoodedness  may  be  obtained  in  F3  (both  as  to 
average  and  limiting  values),  and  the  same  process  may  be  con- 
tinued for  a  good  many  generations.  The  number  of  generations 
during  which  effective  selection  is  possible  depends  on  the  num- 
ber of  factors  concerned,  the  rigor  of  selection,  and  the  amount 
of  inbreeding  of  brother  to  sister. 

In  regard  to  the  latter  point,  since  brother  and  sister  are  much 
more  apt  to  be  alike  in  their  genetic  constitution  than  are  other 
individuals,  oflFspring  from  such  a  mating  are  more  apt  to  be 
homozygous  and  alike,  or,  we  may  say,  such  offspring  will  tend  to 
be  homozygous  and  alike  in  a  larger  number  of  factors;  then, 
mating  two  individuals  homozygous  for  these  factors  together, 
there  will  be  much  less  variation  and  so  less  opportunity  to  con- 
tinue selection  among  their  progeny.  In  the  case  of  Castle  and 
Phillips's  experiments,  however,  no  such  attempt  at  inbreeding 
was  reported.  Here,  then,  the  individuals  mated  together  would 
be  more  apt  to  differ  genetically,  even  though  they  looked  alike 
(thus,  one  might  be  A  A  bb,  the  other  aA  bB),  and  their 
descendants  would  therefore  present  a  larger  number  of  different 
combinations  of  factors  for  the  selector.  Often  a  greater  effect 
may  be  eventually  produced  in  this  manner  than  by  inbreeding, 
for  a  larger  number  of  combinations  of  factors  are  thus  pro- 
duced, some  of  which  may  be  of  more  extreme  type.  The  effect 
would  usually  be  slower,  however,  since  such  matings  tend  to 
keep  the  strain  heterozygous  and  are  often  steps  backwards. 
Cross-breeding,  then,  will  help  to  explain  the  relatively  slow  but 
long-continued  and  eventually  large  effect  of  selection  in  Castle 
and  Phillips's  experiments,  although  such  a  result  could  also  be 
obtained  without  cross-breeding  if  the  factors  were  numerous 
enough. 

The  ''return  selections"  also  are  easily  explicable  on  the 
multiple  factor  view.  Due  to  the  original  difference  in  so  many 
factors,  and  the  fact  that  cross-breeding  diminishes  the  tendency 
to  homozygosis  which  selection  favors,  the  rats  were  presumably 
heterozygous  even  after  generations  of  selection.  They  would 
not  be  as  heterozygous  as  before,  of  course,  and,  correspondingly. 
Castle  and  Phillips  did  find  less  variation  in  the  rats  after  selec- 
tion.   Yet  there  would  still  be  a  good  chance  for  recombination, 


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572  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

and  an  alteration  in  the  race  could  therefore  be  produced  by 
further  selection  or  by  return  selection.  As  we  have  seen,  this  is 
especially  true  if  certain  factors  are  completely  dominant,  al- 
though dominance  is  by  no  means  a  necessary  condition. 

As  a  very  simple  illustration,  let  us  suppose  that  the  **plus" 
factors  A  and  B  dominate  over  the  ** minus"  factors  **a"  and 
**b,"  respectively,  and  each  increase  the  pigmented  area  to  about 
the  same  extent.  To  begin  with,  two  moderately  hooded  indi- 
viduals, Aa  bb  and  aa  Bb,  were  mated  together.  They  produced 
laa  bb — light-hooded,  laa  Bb  and  lAa  bb — both  moderate,  and 
lAaBb — dark.  We  first  select  for  dark;  mating  the  dark 
rats  together,  9  darks,  6  moderates,  and  1  light,  would  be  pro- 
duced (Fg).  The  average  color  of  the  oflEspring  has  thus  been 
increased  by  selection  (the  limiting  color,  too,  if  dominance  is 
incomplete).  It  can  be  still  further  increased  in  subsequent 
generations.  On  the  other  hand,  the  color  can  be  made  lighter 
again  by  a  ** return  selection,'*  for  if,  instead  of  mating  the  F^  or 
F3  darks  together,  we  mate  the  moderates  or  mate  darks  with 
moderates,  many  of  the  matings  will  give  offspring  lighter,  on  the 
average,  than  in  the  preceding  generation ;  e.  g.,  Aa  Bb  by  Aa  bb 
gives  3  dark,  4  moderate,  1  light,  as  compared  with  the  previous 
9  dark,  6  moderate,  1  light.  In  subsequent  generations,  the 
average  could  be  brought  still  lower. 

Let  us  now  see  whether  there  is  any  experimental  evidence 
in  support  of  the  multiple  factor  explanation  of  Castle  and 
Phillips's  results,  aside  from  the  fact  that  it  is  adequate  and  is 
the  only  one  consistent  with  other  work.  One  point  of  evidence 
we  have  noted — the  variability  of  the  rats  continued  to  decrease 
as  a  result  of  selection  in  either  direction.  This  we  should  of 
course  expect  on  the  multiple  factor  view,  for  selection  gradually 
tends  towards  homogeneity  in  a  population,  even  though  it  may 
require  a  long  time  to  produce  complete  homogeneity.  The 
second  and  strongest  evidence  is  from  crosses. 

The  crosses  show  that  one  of  the  factors  concerned  in  differ- 
entiating hooded  rats  from  wild  rats,  which  are  pigmented  all 
over,  or  from  ** Irish"  rats,  which  are  almost  completely  pig- 
mented, is  ** hypostatic."  In  other  words,  a  rat  having  the 
normal  allelomorphs  of  this  factor  will  always  be  self-colored,  or 
nearly  so;  one  having  the  other  allelomorphs  will  always  be 
distinctly  hooded,  although  the  amount  of  the  hoodedness  varies. 
**Self,"  as  it  happens,  is  dominant,  in  this  case,  over  hooded. 


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No.  573]    SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  CORRESPONDENCE     573 

Thus,  on  crossing  a  hooded  to  a  wild  or  Irish  rat,  all  the  F^  are 
self  (or  nearly  so) ;  in  Fj  there  are  three  selfa  to  one  hooded,  but 
the  hoodeds  vary  in  intensity.  The  question  then  is,  does  this 
variation  (so  far  as  it  is  not  due  to  **environmentar'  differences) 
depend  upon  what  other  "epistatic''  or  ** modifying"  factors  for 
hoodedness  may  or  may  not  be  present,  or  is  there  evidence  that 
it  depends  instead,  or  in  addition,  upon  a  variability  of  one  or 
more  of  the  factors  for  hoodedness  ?  As  will  be  shown  below,  it 
can  be  proved  that  different  combinations  of  modifying  factors 
do  occur  in  the  different  hooded  indiviuals :  this  being  true,  there 
can  be  no  ground  for  making  the  unusual  postulate  that  in  this 
case  or  in  the  selection  experiments  a  factor  or  factors  concerned 
undergo  variation. 

The  proof  is  that  when  light  hooded  rats  from  the  minus 
strain  are  crossed  to  wild  or  Irish  rats  the  hooded  rats  in  Fj  vary 
much  more  than  did  the  original  strain  of  hooded  rats  and  aver- 
age much  darker.  Obviously,  the  Pi  hooded  rats  differed  from 
the  wild  or  Irish  in  a  number  of  modifiers  as  well  as  in  the  hypo- 
static factor;  moreover,  as  we  should  have  expected,  this  differ- 
ence consisted  chiefly  in  the  fact  that  the  wild  or  Irish  rats  con- 
tained **plus''  allelomorphs  in  place  of  some  of  the  ''minus'' 
modifiers  present  in  the  Pi  strain  that  had  undergone  minus 
selection.  Thus  the  Fj  hooded  rats,  containing  various  combina- 
tions of  these  modifying  factors  wherein  the  two  strains  differed, 
varied  much  more  than  did  the  parental  strain  of  hooded  rats, 
and  were  on  the  average  much  darker. 

In  order  to  escape  this  conclusion  that  modifying  factors  were 
involved,  Castle  and  Phillips  at  first  postulated  that  the  reason 
that  the  Fj  hooded  were  darker  than  the  original  ** minus"  strain 
was  because  the  factor  for  hooded  had  in  many  cases  become  con- 
taminated by  its  allelomorph  j;the  factor  for  self)  in  the  Fi  rats. 
This  is  violating  one  of  the  most  fundamental  principles  of 
genetics — the  non-mixing  of  factors — in  order  to  support  a  vio- 
lation of  another  fundamental  principle — the  constancy  of  fac- 
tors. The  refutation  of  their  supposition  came  unexpectedly 
soon.  It  would  be  expected,  on  the  view  of  multiple  factors,  that 
the  wild  or  Irish  rats  (containing  the  allelomorph  for  self  in 
place  of  the  hypostatic  factor  for  hooded)  would  not  possess  as 
many  ** minus"  modifiers  as  the  hooded  strain  which  had  been 
specially  selected  to  contain  as  many  of  these  as  possible ;  neither 
would  these  **self "  rats  contain  as  many  **plus"  modifiers  as  the 


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574  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIII 

hooded  strain  which  had  undergone  plus  selection  (and  which  so 
contained  nearly  all  of  the  plus  modifiers  originally  present  in 
either  the  self  or  the  hooded  ancestors) .  Thus  it  was  to  be  ex- 
pected that,  just  as  a  cross  of  self  with  the  minus  race  gave  Fj 
hooded  rats  darker  than  the  original  minus  strain,  so  a  cross  of 
wild  or  Irish  rats  with  hoodeds  resulting  from  the  plus  selection 
would  give  Fj  hooded  rats  lighter  than  those  of  the  plus  strain. 
This  result  was  actually  obtained.  It  was  fatal  to  the  idea  that 
the  difference  between  the  Pi  strain  of  hooded  rats  and  the  F^ 
hoodeds  was  due  to  contamination  of  the  allelomorph  for  hooded 
with  that  for  self,  since  such  contamination  should  have  resulted 
in  Fg  hooded  rats  darker  than  those  of  Pj,  not  lighter.  For  wild 
and  Irish  rats  are  both  much  more  extensively  pigmented  than 
hoodeds  even  of  the  plus  strain. 

The  change  in  hoodedness  from  Pi  to  Fj  was  therefore  due 
to  recombinations  of  the  modifying  factors  wherein  the  two 
strains  differed.  That  many  such  modifiers  were  concerned  is 
indicated  by  the  evenly  distributed  variability  of  the  Fj  hoodeds 
and  the  fact  that  very  few  were  as  extreme  as  the  hooded  grand- 
parents. The  same  fact  is  brought  out  in  a  cross  of  the  minus 
with  the  plus  race ;  here  no  clear-cut  ratios  were  obtainable,  the 
classification  into  different  genotypes  being  rendered  impossible 
by  the  multiplicity  of  factors  (no  one  of  which  was  hypostatic 
as  in  the  other  crosses).  Of  course,  this  knowledge  of  so  many- 
factors  being  concerned  in  the  crosses  helps  our  interpretation 
of  the  selection  results  decidedly,  for  the  more  numerous  are  the 
factors  concerned,  the  longer  would  it  be  possible  to  continue  an 
effective  selection  on  the  progeny  of  the  hybrids,  and  the  oripr- 
inal  hooded  rats  of  the  selection  experiments  were  admittedly  in 
all  likelihood  descended  from  just  such  hybrids.  The  exact  num- 
ber and  effect  of  the  different  factors  can  not  be  determined  from 
Castle  and  Phillip's  data,  since  to  do  this  very  special  crosses 
must  be  made  and  individual  pedigrees  kept.  Selection  experi- 
ments can  be  of  little  value  so  long  as  there  are  factors  for  which 
the  individuals  may  be  heterozygous,  unless  these  factors  can  be 
accurately  followed  in  inheritance. 

Of  course,  it  is  quite  possible  that  in  the  course  of  these  long- 
continued  experiments  mutations  affecting  the  hoodedness  occa- 
sionally happened  to  arise,  especially  since  it  seems  likely  that 
this  character  is  dependent  upon  an  unusually  large  number  of 
genes,  for  then,  as  a  matter  of  mere  chance,  any  mutation  which 


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No.  573]    SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  CORRESPONDENCE     575 

occurred  would  be  more  likely  to  affect  it  than  it  would  be  to 
affect  most  characters.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  one  such 
mutation,  of  a  very  marked  and  unquestionable  character,  was 
in  fact  observed.  The  mutant  factor  proved  to  be  a  strong 
**plus"  modifier,  which  was  almost  completely  dominant,  and 
itself  showed  no  contamination  or  variation,  so  far  as  could 
be  determined.  It  arose,  as  it  happened,  in  the  plus  strain. 
A  part  of  the  effectiveness  of  selection  may  therefore  have  been 
due  to  the  occurrence  and  sorting  out  of  such  occasional  muta- 
tions, but  there  is  no  way  of  telling  how  many  of  these  took  place, 
or  any  need  for  assuming  them  at  all  in  explaining  the  result. 
These  rare  mutations,  however,  would  form  a  very  different  phe- 
nomenon from  such  fluctuating  or  frequent  and  progressive  vari- 
ation of  a  gene  or  genes  concerned  as  Castle  postulates.  Although 
the  academic  possibility  of  variation  of  the  latter  type  can  not 
be  denied,  there  is  no  experimental  evidence  which  can  be  used 
to  support  it,  and  there  is  good  evidence  against  it  in  many 
individual  cases. 

It  is  diflftcult  to  believe  that  this  suggestion  of  Castle  and 
Phillips  was  not  made  in  a  spirit  of  mysticism,  when  we  con- 
sider also  their  suggestion  that  the  genes  may  undergo  contami- 
nation, and  especially  when  we  consider  the  following  passage, 
with  which  their  paper  concludes : 

It  seems  to  us  quite  improbable  that  the  plus  mutation  could  have 
arisen  in  the  minus  selection  series.  We  believe  that  the  repeated  se- 
lection which  was  practised  had  something  to  do  with  inducing  this 
change  in  the  plus  direction.  If  one  can  increase  at  will  the  "  modi- 
fiers "  which  make  the  pigmentation  more  extensive,  it  does  not  seem 
strange  that  after  a  time  a  readjustment  should  occur  within  the  cell 
which  should  incorporate  modifiers  in  that  part  of  the  cell  which  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  unit-character  behavior  of  the  hooded  pattern.  This 
would  amount  to  a  quantitative  change  in  the  unit-character  for  hooded 
pigmentation. 

To  thus  suppose  that  independent  genes  fuse  or  induce  changes 
in  one  another,  merely  because  they  happen  to  produce  similar 
end  effects  upon  the  organism,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they 
usually  lie  in  different  chromosomes  and  are  apt  to  differ  from 
each  other  as  much  as  do  other  genes,  is  utterly  teleological. 

A  paper  by  A.  L.  and  A.  C.  Hagedoorn  criticizing  Castle's  work 
and  conclusions,  appeared  at  the  same  time  as  the  paper  of 


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576 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVUI 


Castle  and  Phillips,^  The  Hagedoorns  champion  the  multiple 
factor  hypothesis  as  an  explanation  of  Castle's  results,  and  also 
cite  certain  rather  inconclusive  experiments  of  their  own  to  sup- 
port this  point  of  view.  They  err,  however,  in  supposing  that 
the  factors  concerned  must  be  incompletely  dominant;  as  we 
have  seen,  this  is  not  a  necessary  assumption,  if  we  admit  that 
in  the  case  of  some  modifiers  the  ** minus''  allelomorph  dominates, 
in  others  the  **plus."  They  also  err  in  denying  the  possibility, 
on  the  multiple  factor  view,  of  successful  *' return  selection,"  if 
inbreeding  be  strictly  followed.  In  fact  they  offer  this  as  a  test 
of  their  point  of  view.  As  we  have  seen,  ** return  selection'* 
would  be  possible  in  some  cases,  even  if  the  animals  were  inbred; 
and  in  Castle  and  Phillips's  experiments,  where  inbreeding  was 
not  followed,  ** return  selection"  was  certainly  very  effective. 

Finally,  papers  have  recently  appeared  by  MacDowell,*  in 
which  he  gives  evidence  that  certain  other  cases  of  inheritance 
{e.  g,,  head  size  in  rabbits),  formerly  considered  by  Castle  to 
support  the  idea  of  genie  variation  and  contamination,  are 
probably  best  interpreted  on  the  view  of  multiple  factors  instead. 
His  evidence  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  characters  concerned 
are  somewhat  more  variable  in  the  offspring  of  back-crosses  than 
in  Pj,  as  we  should  expect  on  the  basis  of  recombination  of 
multiple  factors,  but  which  he  believes  could  not  plausibly  be 
explained  otherwise. 

Hermann  J.  Muluer 

«  A.  L.  &  A.  C.  Haagedorn,  ' '  Studies  on  Variation  and  Selection, ' '  Zeit,  f. 
ind,  Abst.  u,  Verdb,,  1914. 

oE.  C.  MacDowell,  "Multiple  Factors  in  Mendelian  Inheritance,"  Jour, 
Exp.  Zool,  1914,  and  Carnegie  Inst,  of  Wash.,  1914. 


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Edited  by 
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A  HoBthlr  Joamal.  MUblidied  in  1867,  Devoted  to  Um  ildvuiMmMt  «f  Um  Biolosieal  grtwrM 
with  SpMaid  RtiTmmcm  to  the  Factors  of  Orcaaie  EvolotiM  and  HwStr 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  MARCH  NUMBER 

The  Effect  of  Extent  of  Dlftributtoi/on  SpeeifttloiL 
Asa  C.  Chandler.  i 

Biology  of  the  Thysanoptera.   Dr.  A.  Franklin  Shall. 
Shorter  Artioles  and  Correspondence :  The  Endemic 

Mammals  of  the  Britishlslesr   Professor  T.  D.  A. 

CockerelL 

Notes  and  Literature :  Swingle  on  Variation  in  Fi 
Citnifl  Hybrids  and  the  Theary  of  Zygotaxis. 
Dr.  Orland  E.  White. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  APRIL  NUMBER 

The  Origin  of  X  Capeella  Bursa  pastoiis  araohnoldea. 

Dr.  Henri  Hus. 
Biology  of  the  Thysanoptera.  XL    Dr.  A.  VrankUn 

Shall. 
Shorter  Aitielei end  Discussion:  Barriers  as  to  Dla- 

tribntion  as  regards  Birds  and  Mammals.  JoMph 

Orinnell.  Yellow  Varieties  of  Bats.    rroflMsoc 

W.E.  Castle. 
Notes  and  Literature:  Hcrsdlty  «ftd  the  Influence 

ofMonarchs.    V.  L.  K. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  MAY  NUMBER 

Eetoparasitesof  Mammals.  Professor  Vernon  Lyman 

Kellogg. 
Begeneration,  Variation  and  Correlation  in  Thyone. 

Professor  John  W.  Scott. 
Shorter  Articles  and  Discussion:  Terms  relating  to 

Generic Typeif  Dr. O.F.Cook. 
Notes  and  Literature:  Linkage  in  the  Silkworm 

Moth.    A.  H.  SturteTant.    Naboun's  Breeding 

BzperimentiwithQrMshoppers.  John  a  Dexter. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  JUNE  NUMBER 

Spedes-lKiilding  by  Hybridisation  and  MutadaL  Pro- 
fessor John  H.  Geroold. 

Heredity  of  Bristles  in  the  Common  Greeobotfle  Pty~ 
A  Stady  of  Factors  goremingDistiibiition.  Phineaa 
W.  Whiting. 

Physiological  Correlations  and  Climatic  'Rcarttoiis  la 
AlfUik  Breeding.    Gea  F.  Freeman. 

Taxonomy  and  Evolution.    By  Z. 

fiborter  Artides  and  Discosslon*  NaboorsPs  Cirsis 
hoppers,  Multiple  Alldomorphlsm,  Tankage  and 
Misleading  Terminologies  in  Qenetifis. 
W.R  Castle. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  JULY  NUMBER 

Pattern  Development  in  Mammals  and  Birds. 
GloTer  M  Allen 

Internal  Belations  of  Terrestrial  Assoeiations. 
Arthur  G.VestaL 

Shorter  Articles  snA  Discussion*  Another  Hy- 
pothesis toAecounI  for  Dz  Swingle's  Experi* 
menti  with  Citnu*   A.  C.  and  A.  L.  Hsgedoom* 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  AUGUST  NUMBER 

Multiple  Allelomorphs  in  Mice.     Prtrfessor  T.  H* 
Morgan. 

Thirteen  Years  of  Wheat  Selection.    T.  B.  Hatch- 
eson. 

Pibttem    DeTelopment  in    Mammals   and   Birds. 
Glover  M.  Allen. 

The  Meadow  Jumpiof  Mousa.    Dr.  H.  L.  Babeock. 

Shorter  Articles  and  Inseussion :  _    _ 

Studies  on  Inbreeding.  Dr.  Baymond  PieaiL 
Parallel  Mutations  in  (Enothera  Mamtt  L.  De; 
J.  Stomps.  Dr.  Bradley  M.  Davis.  The  T 
ical  Distinction  between  Multiple  AUe..^ 
and  Close  Linkage.  Professor  T.H.Mofgitt. 
fessor  W.  E.  Castle. 

Notes  and  Literature: 

Biometrics.  Dr.  Raymond  Peazt.  A  New  Mod^ 
of  Segregation  in  Gregory's  Tetrapioid  Prinndae. 
Hermann  J.  Muller. 


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THE 

AMERICAN  NATURALIST 

Vol.  XLVIII  October,  19U  No.  574 

SEX -LIMITED  AND  SEX-LINKED  INHERITANCE 

PROFESSOR  T.  H.  MORGAN 
Columbia  Univbrsity 

Darwin  used  the  expression  *  inheritance  as  limited  by 
sex''  to  include  all  cases  in  which  a  character  is  peculiar 
to  one  sex.  His  list  of  such  cases  covers  in  the  main  the 
group  of  secondary  sexual  characters.  Darwin's  expres- 
sion has  been  contracted  to  sex-limited  inheritance,  and  is 
widely  employed  to-day  in  the  same  general  sense  in  which 
Darwin  used  the  expression.  For  instance,  Bateson  in 
his  book  *^ Mendel's  Principles  of  Heredity"  includes 
both  horns  in  sheep  and  color  blindness  in  man  as  sex- 
limited  characters.^ 

Now  that  the  inheritance  of  several  of  these  cases  has 
been  definitely  worked  out,  it  has  become  increasingly  evi- 
dent that  such  characters  as  color  blindness,  and  haemophi- 
lia in  man,  the  twenty-five  ^'sex-linked"  characters  in  Dro- 
scphila,  and  certain  characters  in  birds  and  in  butterflies 
follow  a  law  of  inheritance  that  is  essentially  different 
from  that  followed  by  some  of  the  other  cases.  It  has 
become  necessary,  therefore,  to  recognize  two  groups  of 
cases  that  differ  fundamentally  in  regard  to  their  heredity. 
To  one  of  these  groups  I  have  applied  the  term  sex-linked 
inheritance,  and,  for  the  present  at  least,  we  may  still  make 
use  of  the  older  expression  sex-limited  inheritance  (and 

1  See  pp.  169-174  in  section  headed  ''Heredity  Limited  bj  Sex;  the  Horns 
of  Sheep/'  where  the  term  sex  inheritance  limited  descent  (p.  172)  also 
appears. 

577 


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578  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

sex-limited  character)  to  cover  that  class  of  cases  (obvi- 
ously a  very  mixed  one  which  will  be  broken  up  as  our 
knowledge  regarding  it  becomes  more  certain)  that  in- 
cludes largely,  as  originally  intended,  the  secondary  sexual 
characters.^  In  those  cases  of  sex-linked  inheritance,  in 
which  the  male  is  heterozygous  for  the  sex  factor,  the 
grandfather  transmits  his  peculiarity,  through  his  daugh- 
ters, to  half  of  his  grandsons  only;  and  reciprocally  an 
affected  female  transmits  her  peculiarity  to  all  her  sons, 
and,  through  her  sons  bred  to  her  daughters,  to  half  of 
her  granddaughters  and  to  half  of  her  grandsons^.  More- 
over the  appearance  of  the  character  in  the  female  is  not 
exceptional  or  abnormal,  as  is  sometimes  implied  in  cases 
like  color  blindness  in  man,  for,  the  character  can  always 
be  transferred  from  the  male  to  the  female  by  suitable 
crosses. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  cases  in  which  a  character 
appears  in  one  sex  only— the  character  is  limited,  there- 
fore, to  the  male  or  to  the  female.  Such  cases  may  be 
properly  called  sex-limited,  and  were  so  called  by  Darwin. 
As  typical  examples  I  may  cite  the  horns  of  certain  races 
of  sheep  that  are  present  in  the  ram  and  absent  in  the 

2  G.  H.  Shull  has  recently  said  {Zeit,  Ind,  Ahst,  und  Vererh.,  XU,  1914, 
p.  160)  that,  in  his  opinion,  it  would  be  better  to  retain  the  term  sex-limited 
for  those  cases  that  I  call  sex-linked  and  call  other  cases  secondary  sexual 
characters.  This  view  is  not  historically  in  accord  with  Darwin's  usage  of 
the  term  ' '  limited  by  sex. ' '  This  fact,  in  itself  would  be  a  sufficient  argu- 
ment for  rejecting  ShulPs  suggestion,  but,  in  addition,  the  term  sex  limited 
is  an  actual  misnomer  for  the  class  of  cases  to  which  he  proposes  to  apply  it. 
There  are  cases  like  the  eosin  eye  of  DrosophUa  that  differ  in  the  male  and 
female  in  the  same  way  as  do  many  secondary  sexual  characters  (in  fact  they 
are  such  in  a  descriptive  sense)  but  nevertheless  show  sex-linked  inheri- 
tance. Since  a  new  name  is  required  to  express  our  fuller  information  in 
regard  to  some  of  the  characters  that  were  originally  included  under  the 
older  term,  why  not  begin  by  adopting  suitable  and  expressive  ones. 

8  In  those  cases  in  which  the  female  is  heterozygous  for  a  sex  factor,  as 
in  birds  and  in  butterflies,  the  same  principle  is  involved  but  the  sequence  is, 
in  a  sense,  reversed;  thus  the  grandmother  transmits,  through  her  sons,  her 
peculiarity  to  half  of  her  granddaughters;  and  reciprocally,  the  affected 
male  transmits  his  peculiarity  to  all  of  his  daughters,  and,  through  his 
daughters  bred  to  his  sons,  to  half  of  his  grandsons  and  to  half  of  his  grand- 
daughters. 


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No.  574]  INHERITANCE  579 

ewe  (or  else  more  developed  in  the  ram  than  in  the  ewe) ; 
the  color  of  butterflies  like  Papilio  Memnon,  with  three 
types  of  females ;  and  the  dark  spot  on  the  abdomen  of  the 
male  of  the  bug  Euchistus  variolarins.  These  characters 
can  not  be  transferred  through  the  gametes  to  the  female 
of  their  own  race  by  any  known  combination. 

Whether  one  likes  or  does  not  like  the  particular  terms 
used  to  denote  these  two  classes  of  cases,  the  fact  remains 
that  there  are  two  such  categories,  and  to  ignore  their 
existence  is  only  to  make  obscure  a  distinction  that  is  per- 
fectly plain. 

Concerning  the  mechanism  involved  there  is  something 
more  that  may  be  said.  It  has  been  suflSciently  shown  in 
the  case  of  sex-linked  inheritance  that  the  sex-linked  char- 
acter follows  the  known  distribution  of  the  sex  chromo- 
somes. It  is  imnecessary  to  repeat  here  the  abundant 
evidence  in  support  of  this  statement.  The  simplest  inter- 
pretation of  this  known  relation  is  that  the  character  ia 
dependent  for  its  realization  on  the  sex  chromosomes.  I 
do  not  mean,  of  course,  that  the  sex  chromosomes  alone 
produce  the  character  but  that  something  in  these  chromo- 
somes, some  ^^ factor,''  acting  in  conjunction  with  the  rest, 
of  the  cell,  conditions  the  character. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  case  of  sex-limited  characters: 
the  facts  can  not  be  explained  on  the  assumption  that  the 
characters  follow  the  sex  chromosomes.  It  is  clear  that 
they  do  not  do  so.  But  we  can  give  a  consistent  interpre- 
tation of  the  facts  if  we  assume  that  sex-limited  characters 
follow  the  distribution  of  the  ordinary  chromosomes. 

Since  this  relation  has  recently  been  not  understood 
and  misinterpreted  I  may  be  pardoned,  I  hope,  for  taking 
up  the  question  once  more. 

Wood  crossed  homed  Dorset  sheep  with  hornless  Suf- 
folks.  The  sons  had  horns,  the  daughters  lacked  them. 
Inbred  these  gave  in  the  Fg  generation— homed  c?,  3^ 
hornless  c?,  1;  homed  $,  1;  hornless  %  3.  Bateson  and 
Punnett  have  shown  that  the  results  are  explicable  on  the 
basis  that  one  factor  for  horns  in  the  male  produces 


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580  TEE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

horns  but  one  factor  is  insuflScient  in  the  females.  This 
conclusion  was  put  to  the  test  by  breeding  an  Fj  hornless 
ewe  to  a  hornless  ram.  The  Fj  ewe  should  be  hetero- 
zygous for  the  factor  for  horns,  and,  therefore,  when  she 
is  bred  to  a  homozygous  hornless  ram,  half  of  her  off- 
spring should  be  heterozygous  for  homlessness  and  half 
homozygous  for  homlessness.  Since  half  of  her  sons 
should  have  a  factor  for  horns  they  are  expected  to 
develop  horns,  and  this  is  what  occurred.  Half  oi  the 
daughters  also  should  have  a  factor  for  horns,  but  should 
not  develop  horns,  and  this  also  was  true. 

It  has  been  recognized  for  several  years  that  this  and 
related  cases  can  not  be  explained  on  the  assumption  that 
the  factors  involved  are  carried  by  the  X  or  by  the  Y 
chromosomes.  But  we  can  interpret  the  statement  that 
one  factor  for  horns  is  sufficient  in  the  males  to  call  forth 
horns,  but  not  sufficient  in  the  female  ^*in  terms  of  chromo- 
somes,'' if  a  factor  for  horns  is  carried  by  one  of  the 
•chromosomes  other  than  the  sex  chromosome.  In  other 
wrords  we  need  only  appeal  to  a  mechanism  with  which  we 
are  familiar  to  cover  the  results. 

The  second  illustration  is  furnished  by  the  recent 
experiments  of  Foot  and  Strobell,  and  since  the  authors 
have  rejected  the  chromosome  hypothesis  as  inapplicable 
to  their  results,  and  since  in  the  case  of  insects  the  condi- 
tions are  simplified  because  castration  experiments  have 
shown  that  the  sex  glands  are  not  themselves  responsible 
for  the  secondary  sexual  characters,  we  may  profitably 
consider  this  case  even  more  fully. 

In  one  of  the  bugs,  Eiichistus  variolari/us,  the  male  has 
a  black  spot  on  the  abdomen.  The  female  lacks  the  spot. 
A  female  of  this  species  was  crossed  to  a  male  of  another 
species,  viz.,  Euchistus  servus,  having  no  spot  in  eitiier 
sex.  The  daughters  had  no  spot,  the  sons  had  a  spot 
fainter  than  that  of  variolarius.  Inbred  these  gave,  in  F„ 
249  females  without  a  spot,  107  males  with  a  spot  (devel- 
oped to  different  degrees)  and  84  males  without  a  spot 
The  Fi  results  show  that  one  factor  for  spot  in  the  male 


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No.  574]  INHERITANCE  581 

suflSces  to  call  forth  in  some  degree  the  spot  in  the  hybrid. 
Its  intensity  varies  from  a  condition  approaching  that  in 
pure  variolcurius  to  a  faint  spot  (possibly  even  to  no  spot 
at  all).  The  Y^  results  show  also  that  a  single  factor  in 
the  female  fails  to  cause  the  spot  to  develop  in  that  sex. 
In  the  Fi  male  the  failure  of  the  spot  to  reach  in  most 
cases  its  full  development  shows  obviously  that  the  same 
conditions  that  produce  a  male  that  is  perfect  so  far  as 
his  sex  gonad  is  concerned,  do  not  suflSce  to  cause  the  full 
development  of  the  spot,  although  the  factor  for  the  spot 
is  present  in  one  dose  at  least.  The  only  confusion  that 
is  liable  to  arise  is  that  in  none  of  the  Fg  females  did  the 
spot  appear,  although  in  some  of  them  there  must  have 
been  a  double  dose  of  spot.  But  the  difficulty  is  imaginary 
as  a  little  thought  will  show.  In  the  first  place  the  female 
of  E.  variolarius  herself  does  not  show  the  spot,  yet  this 
female  must  have  a  double  dose  of  spot  if  spot  is  in  the 
X  chromosome  or  in  any  other  chromosome  {except  the  Y). 
Foot  and  Strobell  by  an  elaborate  analysis  of  the  case 
show  that  the  factor  can  not  be  carried  by  either  the  X  or 
the  Y  chromosome.  It  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  their 
argument ;  for,  if  the  factor  were  carried  by  the  X  chromo- 
some, only  half  of  the  grandsons  should  show  it,  while,  in 
fact,  many  more  than  half  of  them  show  it;  and  it  could 
not  be  carried  by  the  Y  chromosome  because  the  Y  chromo- 
some of  variolarius  is  not  present  in  the  female,  hence 
could  not  have  entered  the  cross  as  made.  We  are  con- 
cerned then  only  with  a  third  possibility,  viz.,  that  there  is 
something  in  the  female  condition  itself  that  is  inimical  to 
the  development  of  the  spot.  Since  neither  X  nor  Y 
carries  the  factor  in  question  it  must  be  present  in  duplex 
in  the  female  of  variolarius  {if  every  gamete  mu^t  have  it 
in  simplex  and  the  e:fperiment  shows  that  this  is  the  case), 
cmd  since  the  spot  does  not  show  in  the  female  of  vario- 
larius, it  is  obvious  that  it  can  not  appear  in  thai  sex  even 
in  duplex.  If  it  be  grafted  that  the  character  is  like  other 
Mendelian  characters,  cmd  the  authors'  evidence  show  thai 
it  is  inherited  as  are  Mendelian  characters,  the  conclusion 


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582  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVni 

is  self  evident;  for,  in  demonstrating  thM  all  of  the 
gametes  of  variolarius  carry  spot  the  authors  actually 
destroy  their  own  argument. 

It  only  remains  to  point  out  some  of  the  different  ways 
in  which  a  factor  being  present  in  duplex  both  in  the  male 
and  in  the  female  produces  its  effect  only  in  the  male.  In 
some  cases  it  has  been  shown  that  the  ovary  produces 
some  substance  that  is  inimical  to  the  production  of  cer- 
tain characters.    For  instance  in  fowls  and  in  ducks  the 
presence  of  the  ovary  suppresses  the  development  of 
the  male  plumage.    That  the  factors  for  the  male  plumage 
are  present  is  shown  by  its  development  when  the  ovary 
is  removed.    But  in  some  insects  it  has  been  found  that 
neither  the  ovary  nor  the  testis  produces  these  kinds  of 
substances;  for,  when  the  testis  or  the  ovary  is  removed 
the  secondary  sexual  characters  are  not  affected.    Here 
the  mode  of  explanation  must  be  different    But  the  con- 
ditions, or  complex,  or  factors  that  produce  the  ovary  in 
the  female  are  acting  in  every  cell  of  the  body,  and  con- 
sequently an  effect,  that  is  indirectly  caused  in  the  fowl 
or  duck,  might  be  directly  caused  in  the  insect.    For,  each 
cell  is  a  chemical  factory.    Such  a  factory  may  help  to 
produce  an  ovary  and  the  ovary  produce  a  substance  that 
demonstrably  suppresses  the  male  plumage,  or  the  same 
kind  of  factory  may  do  similar  work  through  the  activity 
of  some  other  part  of  the  body,  or  conceivably  it  may  do 
its  work  in  every  cell  of  the  body.    This  it  seems  to  me  is 
the  most  reasonable  view  to  take  of  the  matter  in  the  case 
of  the  variolarius-servus  cross.    "We  can  express  the  same 
thought  in  symbols  by  representing  the  female  of  vario- 
larius  by   XXAABBCCDDSS,   etc.,   and   the  male  by 
XTAABBCCDDSS,  etc.     The  chemical  interaction  be- 
tween  two  X  's  and  the  rest  of  the  cell  is  of  such  kind  that 
it  produces  a  female,  and  the  female  complex,  as  such,  is 
inimical  to  the  development  of  a  spot  and  favorable  for 
the  development  of  the  accessory  organs  of  reproduction 
and  of  all  secondary  sexual  characters  of  the  female,  while 
XY  and  the  rest  of  the  cell  is  inimical  to  the  development 


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No.  574]  INHERITANCE  583 

of  the  acessory  organs  and  of  the  secondary  sexual  char- 
acters of  the  female,  and  favorable  for  the  development  of 
the  accessory  sexual  organs  and  of  the  secondary  sexual 
organs  of  the  male.  This  view  is  of  course  compatible 
with  the  idea  that  there  may  be  special  factors  for  these 
organs  in  chromosomes  other  than  the  sex  chromosomes, 
and  the  view  holds  both  in  a  general  way  and  on  the 
special  chromosome  hypothesis  as  well. 

To  assume  that  all  the  factors  for  characters  that  are 
shown  by  the  male  or  by  the  female  must  be  carried  by  a 
sex  chromosome  of  some  kind,  if  carried  at  all  by  chromo- 
somes, is  a  travesty  of  the  point  of  view  of  those  who  hold 
to  the  chromosome  hypothesis  as  a  reasonable  working 
hypothesis  to  account  for  Mendelian  inheritance.  Just 
as  it  has  been  shown  that  there  are  factors  in  the  sex 
chromosomes  that  affect  many  parts  of  the  body,  that  are 
not  concerned  with  differences  of  sex;  so,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  evidence  shows  that  there  are  factors  in  other 
chromosomes  that  are  influential  in  producing  secondary 
sexual  characters. 


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INHERITANCE    OF   ENDOSPERM   TEXTURE  IN 
SWEET  X  WAXY  HYBRIDS  OF  MAIZE 

G.  K  COLLINS  AND  J.  H.  KEMPTON 
U.  S.  Department  of  Agricui/tubb 

Introduction 

In  a  previous  publication,^  the  first  and  second  genera- 
tion of  crosses  between  sweet  and  waxy  varieties  of  maize 
were  reported  and  a  tentative  explanation  of  their  be- 
havior was  suggested.  It  is  now  possible  to  add  the 
results  of  the  third  season,  which  to  some  extent  afford  a 
test  of  the  explanation  proposed  in  our  first  publication. 

The  immediate  result  of  crosses  between  the  Chinese 
variety  of  maize  having  a  waxy  endosperm  and  varieties 
with  sweet  endosperm  was  the  production  of  seeds  having 
a  horny  endosperm  indistinguishable  from  that  of  ordi- 
nary field  varieties  of  maize.  In  the  second  xenia  genera- 
tion all  three  kinds  of  endosperm  reappeared  in  the  pro- 
portion of  9.20  horny,  3.95  sweet,  and  2.85  waxy.  This 
ratio  was  accepted  as  a  9:4:3  dihybrid  ratio.  For  al- 
though the  deviations  of  the  individual  ears,  individual 
families  and  the  totals  were  too  large  to  be  ascribed  to 
chance,  the  deviations  were  not  consistently  in  one  direc- 
tion and  to  predicate  more  complicated  formulae  would 
have  necessitated  different  assumptions  for  different  ears. 
The  only  interest  in  treating  the  problem  in  this  way  would 
be  that  of  solving  a  mathematical  puzzle,  for  it  would  be 
practically  imi>ossible  to  secure  individuals  enough  to  test 
adequately  the  validity  of  the  assumptions  which  it  would 
have  been  necessary  to  make. 

Admitting,  then,  that  the  ratios  were  only  an  approxi- 
mation representing  a  general  tendency,  it  became  of 

1  Collins,  Q.  N.  and  Kempton,  J.  H.,  '  *  Inheritance  of  Waxy  Endosperm  in 
Hybrids  with  Sweet  Corn,"  Circular  120,  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture, 
Bureau  of  Plant  Industry,  1913. 

684 


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No.  574] 


INHERITANCE 


685 


interest  to  learn  whether  predictions  were  still  possible. 
For  the  purpose  of  maMng  comparisons  easy,  the 
origuial  diagram  representing  the  second  xenia  genera- 
tion is  here  repeated.  (See  Fig.  1.)  The  meaning  of  the 
symbols  is  as  follows :  S  is  the  factor  for  sweet,  and  X  the 
factor  for  waxy.  When  both  S  and  X  are  present  the  seed 
is  expected  to  be  horny.  Small  letters  indicate  the  absence 
or  latency  of  the  factors. 


5a      5x      sX 


sx 


sx 


X 


sx 


sx 


SX 


sX 


sx 

mmr\ 


/3 


SX 

Msm 


sx 


5X^ 


m[£r 


to 


/4 


5. 


ex 


=X 


5X*^5?( 


«X 

urn 


sX 


15 


WXf 


ax 


sx 


fHom 


sx 

Sim 


ta. 


sX 


sx 

mr 


sx 
sx 


Fig.  1.     Diagram  showing  the  gametic  composition  of  second-generation  hybrids 
between  waxy  and  sweet  varieties  of  maize. 

Since  in  both  sweet,  and  waxy  the  alternative  factor 
necessary  to  produce  horny  is  assumed  to  be  lacking,  the 
gametes  produced  by  sweet  varieties  are  represented  by 
Sx  and  the  gametes  produced  by  varieties  with  waxy  endo- 
sperm by  sX.  The  synthetic  horny  produced  by  crossing 
waxy  and  sweet  is  then  represented  by  a  combination  of 


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586  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

these,  or  SxsX.  Assuming  a  chance  recombination  of 
these  factors  in  the  gametes  derived  from  these  synthetic 
horny  seeds,  the  gametes  will  be  of  four  kinds.  Both  the 
sweet  and  the  waxy  may  be  present  (SX)  or  the  sweet 
may  be  present  without  the  waxy  {Sx)j  or  the  waxy  with- 
out the  sweet  (5X),  or  both  may  be  absent  (sx).  At  ferti- 
lization each  of  these  kinds  of  gametes  may  unite  with 
any  one  of  the  four  corresponding  kinds  derived  from  the 
other  parent,  producing  16  zygotic  combinations.  In  the 
diagram  the  four  classes  of  gametes  from  one  parent  are 
given  in  the  horizontal  row  at  the  top,  and  the  same  four 
classes  from  the  other  parent  in  the  vertical  row  at  the 
left.  Each  gametic  combination  from  the  top  is  repeated 
four  times  in  the  squares  below,  while  each  combination 
at  the  side  occurs  four  times  in  the  corresponding  hori- 
zontal row  of  squares.  Thus  each  of  the  squares  repre- 
sents the  result  obtained  by  combining  the  gametes  repre- 
senting the  horizontal  and  vertical  rows  that  intersect  at 
that  point.  In  all  cases  where  both  S  and  X  occur  together 
the  seed  should  be  homy,  where  only  S  occours  the  seed 
should  be  sweet,  when  only  X  occurs  it  should  be  waxy, 
and  in  one  square  (No.  16),  where  neither  S  nor  X  occurs 
there  is  a  new  combination  which  the  results  have  shown 
to  be  a  new  type  of  sweet  seed,  indistinguishable  from 
ordinary  sweet  seed  but  behaving  differently  when  crossed 
with  other  types  of  endosperm. 

In  accordance  with  the  above  analysis  the  expected  re- 
sults in  the  third  xenia  generation  were  as  follows : 


Self -pollinated  horny. 


Self-pollinated  sweet. 
Self -pollinated  waxy. 


Proportion- 
ate No.  of 
Ears. 

Proportions 
of  Seed 
Classes. 

1 
2 
2 
4 

All  horny 
3  horny:  1  sweet 
3  horny:  1  waxy 
9  homy:  4  sweet: 

All  sweet 

1 
2 

All  waxy 

3  waxy:  1  sweet 

3  waxy 


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No.  574] 


INHERITANCE 


587 


Crosses  between  different  plants 
from  homy  seeds. 


Crosses  between  different  plants 
from  sweet  seeds. 

Crosses  between  different  plants 
from  waxy  seeds. 


Crosses  between  homy  and  sweet. 


Crosses  between  horny  and  waxy. 


Crosses  between  sweet  and  waxy. 


25 
20 
20 
16 


5 
4 

3 
6 
1 
2 
2 
4 

5 

4 

10 

8 

1 
1 
2 
2 
2 
4 


All  homy 

3  homy:  1  s'weet 

3  homy:  1  waxy 

9  homy:  4  sweet:  3  waxy 

AH  sweet 


All  waxy 
3  waxy:  1 


sweet 


All  horny 

1  horny:  1  sweet 

1  homy:  1  waxy 

3  horny:  1  waxy 

1  horny:  2  sweet:  1  waxy 

3  homy:  4  sweet:  1  waxy 

All  homy 

3  horny:  1  sweet 

1  homy:  1  waxy 

3  horny:  2  sweet:  3  waxy 

All  homy 

All  waxy 

1  homy:  1  sweet 

1  homy:  1  waxy 

1  sweet:  1  waxy 

1  homy:  2  sweet:  1  waxy 


Third  Xenia  Oeneration 

Four  of  the  ears  bearing  second  xenia  generation  seed 
were  selected  for  planting  in  1913,  one  self-  and  one  cross- 
I>ollinated  ear  from  each  of  the  two  hybrid  families  Dh  216 
and  Dh  221.  These  families  were  selected  because  in  1913 
the  family  Dh  221  showed  the  greatest  deficiency  of  sweet 
seeds  and  Dh  216  was  the  only  family  that  showed  sweet 
seeds  in  excess  of  the  expected.  The  three  classes  of 
seeds  from  each  of  the  ears  were  planted  separately. 

Unfortunately  as  the  result  of  an  accident  crosses  were 
not  made  between  the  plants  grown  from  the  different 
classes,  but  a  total  of  77  selfed  ears  were  obtained,  a  num- 


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588  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [VoL.XLVin 

ber  sufScient  to  indicate  whether  the  initial  assumption 
regarding  the  gametic  compositions  was  of  value  in 
arranging  the  observed  facts. 

Pkogeny  of  Sweet  Seeds 

Sweet  seeds  were  assumed  to  result  from  squares  6,  8, 
14  and  16.  It  will  be  seen  that  in  none  of  these  is  there 
any  factor  other  than  8  and  since  the  absence  of  both 
factors,  as  in  square  16,  is  also  assumed  to  produce  sweet, 
we  should  expect  nothing  but  all  sweet  ears  from  self- 
pollinated  plants  grown  from  sweet  seeds. 

Seventeen  self -pollinated  ears  were  secured  from  plants 
grown  from  sweet  seeds.  All  the  seeds  of  these  ears  were 
sweet  with  the  exception  of  one  waxy  seed.  This  one  waxy 
seed  was  colored  and  since  it  occurred  on  an  ear  from  a 
white  sweet  seed  that  otherwise  produced  only  white 
sweet  seeds,  the  exception  may  reasonably  be  ascribed  to 
accidental  foreign  jwllen. 

Pkogeny  of  Waxy  Seeds 

Waxy  seeds  were  assumed  to  have  resulted  from  the 
combinations  shown  in  squares  11, 12  and  15.  Seeds  from 
square  11  should  produce  only  waxy  seeds.  Squares  12 
and  15  should  produce  ears  with  waxy  and  sweet  seeds 
in  proportion  of  3  waxy  to  1  sweet.  There  should,  there- 
fore, be  one  all  waxy  ear  to  two  with  both  waxy  and  sweet 
seeds.  There  were  in  all  29  ears  from  waxy  seeds,  11  of 
which  were  all  waxy  and  18  with  both  waxy  and  sweet 
seeds.  The  numbers  are  small  but  at  least  both  kinds  of 
ears  were  secured  and  the  proportion  does  not  violate  the 
original  assumption.  The  18  ears  with  both  waxy  and 
sweet  seeds  all  produced  them  in  approximately  the  3:1 
ratio.  The  numbers  are  given  in  Table  I.  The  totals  with 
3,154  seeds  indicate  that  if  there  is  a  deviation,  it  is  almost 
certainly  less  than  2  per  cent. 

All  the  sweet  seeds  that  occur  on  ears  grown  from  waxy 
seeds  are  assumed  to  belong  to  the  new  class  of  sweet 
seeds  corresponding  to  that  represented  in  square  16. 


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No.  574] 


INHERITANCE 


589 


Plantings  of  such  seeds  axe  being  made  for  comparison 
with  the  ordinary  class  of  sweet  seeds  having  the  same 
ancestry.  These  are  represented  by  the  sweet  seeds  occur- 
ring on  ears  having  homy  and  sweet  seeds. 

TABLE   I 

Waxy  Seeds  SELr-poLLiNATED.    Ears  Showing  Waxy  and  Sweet  Seeds. 

Expected:  25  Per  Cent.  Sweet 


Parent  Ear 

PediRree 
Number 

Total 
No. 

No. 
Waxy 

No. 
Sweet 

Per  Cent,  of 
Sweet  Seeds 

Devla- 

tiou  -1- 

,   Prob. 

Seeds- 

Seeds 

Seeds 

Error 

[1938 

301 

216 

85 

28.2  =b  1.7 

+1.9 

1939 

112 

85 

27 

24.1  ±  2.7 

-  .3 

Dh  216-1 

(Crosa-Pollinated) 

1940 

264 

202 

62 

23.5  =b  i:8 

-  .8 

1942 
1943 

18 
349 

14 
258 

4 
91 

22.2  ±  6.6 
26.1  =b  1.6 

-  .4 
+  .7 

1949 

149 

100 

49 

32.9  ±  2.6 

+3.0 

1950 

138 

103 

35 

25.4  ±  2.5 

-  .2 

1972 

389 

302 

87 

22.4  ±  1.4 

-1.9 

1973 

187 

136 

51 

27.3  ±  2.2 

+1.0 

Dh  216-2 

(Self-PoUinated) 

1974 

174 

138 

36 

20.7  ±  2.1 

-2.0 

1975 
1976 

85 
34 

67 
21 

18 
13 

21.2  ±  3.0 
38.2  =fc  5.6 

-1.3 

+2.4 

1977 

313 

232 

81 

25.9  ±  1.7 

+  .5 

1978 

109 

79 

30 

27.5  =b  2.9 

+  .9 

ri994 

136 

105 

31 

22.8  ±  2.4 

-  .9 

Dh  221-2 

1  1995 

155 

116 

39 

25.2  =fc  2.3 

,  +  -1 

(Self-Pollinated) 

1  1996 

51 

31 

20 

39.2  =t  4.6 

1  +3.1 

1 1997 

190 

146 

44 

23.2  ±  2.1 

1   -  .9 

Total... 

3,154 

2,351 

803 

25.5  =fc    .5 

+1.0 

Pkogeny  of  Horny  Seeds 
From  the  horny  seeds  the  expected  results  are  more 
complicated.    They  may  be  tabulated  as  follows : 

1  ear  (Square  1)  with  seeds  all  horny 

2  ears  (Squares  2  and  5)  with  seeds  3  homy:  1  sweet 
2  ears  (Squares  3  and  9)             with  seeds  3  horny:  1  waxy 

4  ears  (Squares  4,  7,  10  and  13)  with  seeds  9  horny:  4  sweet:  3  waxy. 

Ears  were,  therefore,  expected  in  the  projwrtion  of  1  all 
homy  ear,  2  with  homy  and  sweet  seeds,  2  with  homy 
and  waxy  seeds  and  4  with  all  three  classes.  Thirty  ears 
were  secured  from  seed  classed  as  homy.  These  ears 
were  distributed  as  follows :  1  all  homy,  5  with  homy  and 


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590  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

sweet  seeds,  3  with  homy  and  waxy  seeds,  19  with  horny, 
sweet  and  waxy  seeds  and  2  all  sweet. 

The  two  all  sweet  ears  are  entirely  outside  the  expected. 
Their  appearance  may  be  explained  on  the  assumi>tion 
that  seeds  classed  as  homy  in  1912  were  in  reality  sweet 
No  microscopical  examination  of  the  starch  was  made 
and  the  seeds  were  classified  on  their  appearance, 
wrinkled  seeds  being  classed  as  sweet  and  smooth  seeds 
as  homy.  The  separation  of  homy  from  sweet  seeds  is 
more  difficult  to  make  than  waxy  from  either  homy  or 
sweet.2 

There  were,  however,  very  few  doubtful  seeds  in  the 
second  xenia  generation  and  in  suggesting  this  interpre- 
tation, we  may  with  some  propriety  be  accused  of  attempt- 
ing to  explain  away  ^^ green  balls.*'* 

The  two  all  sweet  ears  were  descendants  of  an  ear  Dh 
221-2,  which  showed  an  excess  of  homy  seeds  and  a 
deficiency  of  sweet.  The  expected  number  of  sweet  seeds 
in  Dh  221-2,  which  had  a  total  of  493  seeds,  was  123  and 
only  106  were  classified  as  sweet.  If  this  deviation  re- 
sulted from  a  faulty  classification,  that  is,  if  some  of  the 
sweet  seeds  failed  to  show  the  characteristic  wrinkled 
exterior,  we  might  exi)ect  that  about  17  of  the  300  seeds 
classed  as  homy  would  produce  ears  with  all  sweet  seeds. 
Eleven  of  the  ears  secured  from  homy  seeds  in  1913  were 
descendents  of  this  ear. 

The  remaining  28  ears  from  horny  seeds  are  distributed 
among  the  3  classes  in  reasonably  close  agreement  to  the 
expected.  Measured  by  Pearson's  formula  for  the  good- 
ness of  fit,^  it  appears  that  such  a  deviation  might  be 
expected  once  in  about  twenty  times. 

2  The  difficulty  of  distinguishing  between  sweet  and  starchy  seeds  in 
crosses  where  the  starchy  variety  has  small  seeds  has  been  pointed  out  by 
East  and  Hays,  ''Inheritance  in  Maize/'  Bull.  167,  Ck)nn.  Ag.  Exp.  Sta., 
1911,  p.  40. 

»  Pearson,  K.,  and  Heron,  D.,  "On  Theories  of  Association,"  BiometrQca, 
IX,  pp.  309-314. 

-*P/n7.  Mag,,  Vol.  L,  1900,  pp.  157-175.  The  application  of  Pearson's 
formula  to  data  of  this  kind  was  called  to  our  attentioki  by  Mr.  G.  Udney 
Yule. 


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No.  574] 


INHERITANCE 


591 


The  three  ears  with  homy  and  waxy  seeds  produced 
these  classes  in  the  expected  3 : 1  ratio.  The  numbers  are 
given  in  Table  11, 

TABLE   n 

Horny  Seeds  Selp-pollinated.    Eaes  Showing  Horny  and  Waxy  Seeds. 

Expected:  25  Per  Cent.  Waxy 


Parent  Ear 

Pedigree      ToUl 

1 

No. 
Horny 
Seeds 

No. 
Waxy 
Seeds 

,  Deria- 
Per  Cent,  of    |  tion  + 
Waxy  Seeds      Prob. 

1  Error 

Dh  216-2 

(Self-PoUinated) 
Dh  221-2 

(Self-PolUnated) 

1 

1962    1    327 
/2000        312 
\  2007        121 

247 

235 

82 

80 
77 
39 

24.5  ±  1.6    '      .3 
24.7  =b  1.6          .2 
32.2  =b  2.9        2.5 

Total...     760    i    564    1    196 

25.8  ±1.1          .7 

Four  of  the  five  ears  that  produced  horny  and  sweet 
seeds  were  also  as  close  as  could  be  expected  to  the  3 : 1 
ratio.  The  fifth,  however,  Ped.  1965,  with  249  seeds,  had 
only  19  sweet  seeds  or  7.6  per  cent.  The  numbers  are 
given  in  Table  m.     The  only  explanation  that  can  be 


TABLE  ni 
Horny  Seeds  Self-pollinated.    Ears  Showing  Horny  and  Sweet 
Expected:  25  Per  C?ent.  Sweet 


Seeds. 


Parent  Ear 

Pedigree 
Number 

ToUl 

No. 

Seeds 

No. 
Horny 
Seeds 

No. 
Sweet 
Seeds 

Per  Cent,  of 
Sweet  Seeds 

Devia- 
tion-*. 

Prob. 

Error 

Dh  216-1 

(Cro8&.Pollinated) 

Dh  216-2 

(Self-PoUinated) 

Dh  221-1 

(Cross-PolUnated) 

Dh  221-2 

(Self-PoUinated) 

1965 
1979 

1988 

/2003 
\2008 

249 
442 

160 

175 
179 

230 
344 

121 

134 
141 

19 
98 

39 

41 
38 

7.6  ±  1.1 
22.2  ±  1.3 

24.4  ±  2.3 

23.4  ±  2.1 
21.2  ±  2.1 

16.0 
2.2 

.3 

.8 
1.8 

j  Total...  1  1,205      970    '    235 

19.5  di    .8 

6.9 

offered  in  connection  with  this  exceptional  ear  is  that 
suggested  for  the  occurrence  of  the  two  all  sweet  ears 
among  those  grown  from  seeds  classed  as  homy,  namely, 
the  existence  of  sweet  seeds  which  failed  to  show  a 


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592  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVin 

wrinkled  surface.  This  explanation  is  rendered  less  prob- 
able, however,  by  the  unusual  behavior  of  the  aleurone 
color  in  this  same  ear.  In  the  previous  discussion  the 
aleurone  color  has  not  been  considered.  To  treat  of  the 
aleurone  color  would  naturally  lead  to  the  question  of 
correlation  between  that  character  and  endosperm  texture, 
a  subject  which  in  these  crosses  is  very  complicated  and 
for  the  treatment  of  which  the  results  thus  far  obtained 
are  inadequate.  It  may  be  said,  however,  that  with  the 
exception  of  Ped.  1965  the  proportions  of  colored  to  white 
seeds  in  all  the  ears  bear  out  the  assumption  that  the  in- 
heritance of  the  aleurone  color  is  governed  by  two  factors, 
both  of  which  must  be  present  to  produce  color.  In  Ped. 
1965,  however,  which  was  grown  from  a  colored  seed,  only 
23  of  the  249  seeds  were  white.  The  colored  and  white 
seeds  are  beautifully  distinct  with  no  intermediate  or 
doubtful  seeds.  The  ratio  of  9.2  per  cent,  white  might  be 
explained  as  an  approximation  to  the  dihybrid  ratio  of 
6.25  per  cent,  but  we  must  then  admit  that  instead  of  both 
factors  being  necessary  for  the  development  of  color 
either  factor  alone  may  produce  color. 

The  19  ears  from  horny  seeds  that  showed  all  three 
classes  are  assumed  to  have  the  same  gametic  composi- 
tion as  the  original  second  xenia  generation,  previously 
reported.  The  numbers  are  given  in  Table  IV.  The  last 
column  of  the  table  gives  the  odds  in  1,000  that  deviations 
equal  to  those  observed  are  not  chance  deviations  from  the 
expected  proportions,  as  calculated  by  Pearson's  formula. 
Thus  in  Pedigree  1953  the  odds  are  809  to  191,  or  practi- 
cally 4  to  1,  that  the  deviation  is  not  the  result  of  chance. 

As  in  the  original  ears,  the  approximation  is  sufficiently 
close  to  render  futile  any  attempt  to  predicate  a  different 
arrangement  of  factors,  but  many  of  the  deviations  are 
too  large  to  be  ascribed  to  chance.  In  the  totals  the  sweet 
class  is  too  low  and  the  waxy  too  high,  in  fact  there  is  no 
significant  difference  between  the  totals  for  these  two 
classes.     The  deviation  from  the  expected  is,  however, 


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No.  574] 


INHERITANCE 


593 


largely  the  result  of  two  ears  Ped.  1954  and  1967,  and  if 
the  explanation  suggested  for  the  two  all  sweet  ears  from 
horny  seeds  is  admitted,  it  may  also  account  for  the  devia- 
tion in  these  two  ears.  In  both  ears  the  deficiency  of 
sweet  seeds  is  accompanied  by  an  excess  of  homy  seeds, 
while  in  neither  ear  is  there  a  significant  excess  of  waxy 
seeds. 

TABLE  IV 

HoBNY   Seeds    Self-pollinated.     Eabs   Showing   all   Thbee   Glasses. 

Expected:  56.25  Per  Cent.  Hobnt,  25  Pee  Cent.  Sweet 

18.75  Per  Cent.  Waxy 


Pedi- 
gree 

Total 
No. 
Seeds 

Horny 

Seeds 

Sweet  Seeds 

Waxy  Seeds 

Cbancei 
Id  1000 

that  the 
Devia- 
tion 
is  not 
Accl- 
denUl 

Parent  Ear 

No.  Ex- 
pected 

No.  Ob- 
served 

No.  Ex- 
pected 

No.  Ob- 
served 

No.  Ex- 
pected 

No.  Ob- 
served 

1953 

39 

22 

26 

10 

5 

7 

8 

809 

1954 

360 

197 

236 

87 

36 

66 

78 

999-1- 

1955 

198 

111 

103 

50 

55 

37 

40 

470 

Dh  216-1               1 

(Cross-             , 

PoUinated)' 

1956 

69 

39 

42 

17 

11 

13 

16 

777 

1957 

148 

83 

74 

37 

42 

28 

32 

664 

1958 

176 

99 

100 

44 

41 

33 

35 

133 

1963 

540 

304 

289 

135 

133 

101 

118 

832 

1964 

70 

1       39 

44 

18 

8 

13 

18 

983 

1966 

170 

1       ^ 

101 

42 

35 

32 

34 

524 

,1967 

158 

1       «^ 

108 

39 

23 

30 

27 

995 

Dh  216-2              ' 

1 

(Self-               1 

Pollinated)'     1980 

35 

20 

16 

9 

11 

7 

8 

486 

Dh  221-1              1 

ri985 

258 

1      145 

131 

65 

73 

48 

54 

784 

(Cross-             , 

1986 

120 

'       67 

72 

30 

26 

23 

23 

443 

Pollinated)- 

1987 

375 

211 

201 

94 

92 

70 

82 

716 

[  f  1999 

77 

'       43 

42 

19 

16 

14 

19 

676 

Dh  221-2              1 

2001 

27 

15 

.       15 

7 

7 

5 

5 

0 

(Self.                1 

'  2002 

118 

i       66 

71 

30 

29 

22 

18 

426 

PoUinated)! 

2004 

134 

'       75 

81 

34 

29 

25 

24 

455 

,2009 

79 

1       44 

48 

20 

10 

16 

21 

979 

1 

Total 

3,141 

1,767 

1 

1.800 

785 

681 

589 

660 

999.99 

With  these  two  ears  excluded  the  deviation  in  the  total 
for  the  remaining  17  ears  may  be  ascribed  to  chance. 
Tested  by  Pearson  *s  formula  such  deviations  might  be 
expected  once  in  about  50  times. 


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594  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

Conclusions 

The  immediate  (xenia)  result  of  crossing  varieties  of 
maize  having  sweet  and  waxy  endosperm  was  the  produc- 
tion of  seeds  with  a  homy  endosperm  resembling  that  of 
ordinary  field  varieties.  In  the  second  xenia  generation 
all  the  ears  contained  seeds  of  the  three  classes,  sweet, 
waxy  and  horny,  in  fairly  definite  ratios.  The  data  were 
arranged  in  accordance  with  the  Mendelian  formula  corre- 
sponding most  nearly  to  the  observed  numbers. 

The  third  generation,  like  the  second,  gave  results  suffi- 
ciently close  to  dihybrid  ratios  to  render  unprofitable  the 
assumption  of  more  complicated  ratios.  There  are,  how- 
ever, deviations  from  the  expected  numbers  of  too  great 
magnitude  to  be  ascribed  to  chance. 

The  ratios  of  waxy  to  non-waxy  seeds  were  regular  as 
far  as  the  conditions  of  the  experiment  could  determine, 
except  for  a  slight  excess  in  the  number  of  waxy  seeds  in 
nearly  all  the  ears  in  which  all  three  classes  appeared 
(Table  IV).  A  deviation  in  number  of  waxy  seeds  as 
large  as  that  shown  in  the  total  would  not  be  expected  to 
occur  as  the  result  of  chance  more  often  than  once  in  one 
thousand  times. 

The  ratios  between  sweet  and  homy,  while  approxi- 
mating the  predicted  ratios,  show  numerous  irregularities. 
Wherever  there  is  a  significant  deviation  in  the  number 
of  sweet  seeds,  the  observed  number  is  below  the  expected. 
Eeasons  are  advanced  for  believing  that  the  deficiency  of 
the  sweet  class  may  result  from  a  failure  of  some  sweet 
seeds  to  develop  a  wrinkled  exterior  rather  than  from  any 
irregularities  in  segregation. 

The  results  show  the  value  of  representing  the  char- 
acters by  gametic  factors.  This  method  provides  an 
orderly  arrangement  of  the  facts  of  heredity  thus  far 
observed  with  respect  to  these  characters  and  makes  pos- 
sible fairly  accurate  predictions  regarding  the  genetic  be- 
havior of  the  various  seed  classes. 

Washington,  D.  C, 
July,  1914 


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A  STUDY  OF  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE 
W.  J.  YOUNG 

Assistant  Horticulturist,  Washington  Experiment  Station 

As  a  rule  the  subject  of  variation  in  the  several  char- 
acters of  the  apple  has  been  given  but  incidental  attention, 
and  that  usually  in  connection  with  the  study  of  other 
problems.  As  a  result  the  literature  on  the  subject  is  of 
a  fragmentary  character  consisting  usually  of  a  few  ob- 
servations here  and  there  in  papers  dealing  with  other 
subjects. 

It  is  perhaps  worth  while  to  note  a  few  of  the  investi- 
gations which  have  thrown  some  light  in  an  incidental 
way  upon  the  causes  of  variation  in  apples.  In  fertilizer 
tests  which  were  made  at  the  New  York  Geneva  station^ 
and  elsewhere,  no  well-defined  and  uniform  influence  of 
the  various  elements  of  plant  food  upon  the  color  could 
be  detected,  though  the  New  York  station  reports  more 
decided  results  in  seasons  when  the  natural  conditions 
were  unfavorable  to  the  development  of  highly  colored 
fruit.  In  the  comparison  of  tillage  and  sod  mulch  in  an 
apple  orchard,  also  conducted  by  the  New  York  Q-eneva 
station,^  it  was  found  that  the  fruit  from  an  orchard  in 
sod  was  more  highly  colored  and  matured  one  to  three 
weeks  earlier  than  that  from  the  tilled  plot,  though  the 
latter  was  better  in  quality  and  kept  four  weeks  longer  in 
common  storage.  The  influence  of  the  stock  upon  the 
character  of  the  fruit  is  a  matter  of  much  obscurity,  the 
investigation  of  which  presents  such  difficulties  that  it 
has  received  little  attention.  The  effect  of  pollination 
also  is  still  far  from  settled.  It  was  thought  at  one  time 
that  the  characters  of  the  fruit  were  profoundly  modified 
by  the  pollen  received  by  the  blossom.    The  data  on  this 

iBiiU.  289. 
«  Bull.  314. 

595 


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596  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLMH 

subject  have  been  collected  by  Munson,^  who  found  that 
evidence  that  the  pollen  has  any  direct  effect  upon  the 
fruit  is  largely  lacking.  Aside,  then,  from  indirectly 
modifying  the  size  of  the  fruit,  the  influence  of  the  pollen, 
in  so  far  as  our  present  knowledge  goes,  may  be  left  out 
of  account  in  a  study  of  apple  variation. 

Without  doubt  the  most  noteworthy  contributions  to 
the  knowledge  of  apple  variation  are  the  recent  papers 
by  Shaw,  of  the  Massachusetts  station,  and  Stewart  of  the 
Pennsylvania  station.     Shaw's  first  paper,   which  ap- 
peared in  the  Massachusetts  station  report  for  1910,  deals 
entirely  with  the  variation  of  the  Ben  Davis  apple.   In 
comparing  specimens  grown  in  a  number  of  widely  sepa- 
rated localities  it  was  noted  that  variations  due  to  eU- 
matic  condition  were  strongly  marked  and  affected  prac- 
tically all  characters  of  the  fruit.    Modifications  of  form 
were  especially  noticeable     The  depth  of  coloration  was 
looked  upon  as  correlated  with  latitude,  being  pink  in  the 
specimens  from  Arkansas  and  deep  crimson  in  those 
grown  farther  north.    The  amount  of  overcolor  seemed 
to  be  controlled  by  local  conditions.    The  color  was  espe- 
<;ially  good  in  the  apples  from  the  Pacific  coast  and  those 
from  Colorado,  Pennsylvania,  and  Indiana.    In  a  given 
orchard  temperature  appears  to  be  the  most  influential 
factor  governing  size.    The  flesh  was  notably  white  in  the 
fruit  from  Colorado.     The  apples  from  Colorado  and 
California  were  less  firm  than  those  from  other  localities. 
The  southern-grown  specimens  were  more  juicy  and  of 
better  quality  than  those  from  the  north,  which  were  apt 
to  be  dry,  hard,  flat,  and  sometimes  astringent.    It  ap- 
pears that  a  mean  temperature  of  at  least  60°  F.  for  the 
growing  season  is  required  for  the  satisfactory  produc- 
tion of  the  Ben  Davis.    The  poor  quality  of  the  northern- 
grown  specimens  is  apparently  due  to  a  lack  of  sufficient 
heat  to  properly  develop  the  fruit. 

In  Shaw's  second  paper  in  the  Massachusetts  station 
report  for  1911  the  fact  is  emphasized  that  the  grower 

»Me.  Sta.  Rept.  (1892),  pp.  29-32. 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  597 

should  choose  those  varieties  which  he  can  grow  to  the 
highest  degree  of  perfection  under  his  conditions  of  soil 
and  climate.  The  causes  of  variation  are  summarized, 
giving  special  attention  to  the  influence  of  temperature  as 
a  factor  in  the  distribution  of  apple  varieties.  The  north- 
em  limit  is  regarded  as  fixed  by  the  lowest  temperature 
which  the  tree  will  stand,  while  the  effect  of  summer 
heat  upon  the  development  of  the  fruit  is  looked  upon  as 
limiting  the  distribution  southward.  The  elongation 
of  the  fruit  was  found  to  be  correlated  with  a  low  tem- 
perature for  two  or  three  weeks  after  blooming.  A  low 
summer  temperature  produces  greater  acidity,  higher 
content  of  insoluble  solids,  greater  astringency,  smaller 
size,  and  scalding  in  storage.  The  extent  of  coloration 
was  regarded  as  decreasing  from  the  center  of  distribu- 
tion in  passing  either  north  or  south,  while  the  intensity  of 
coloration  was  considered  greatest  in  high  latitudes  and 
altitudes.  Excessive  summer  heat  results  in  uneven 
ripening,  premature  dropping,  rotting  on  the  tree,  poor 
keeping  quality,  lack  of  flavor,  mealiness,  less  intense 
color,  and  smaller  size.  For  each  variety  there  is  a  mean 
summer  temperature  at  which  it  reaches  its  highest  de- 
velopment. 

It  will  be  noted  that  Shaw's  method  of  investigating 
the  problem  consisted  in  securing  fruit  for  comparison 
from  widely  separated  localities  and  attempting  to  corre- 
late the  various  characters  with  the  conditions  of  produc- 
tion. Stewart,  on  the  contrary,  confined  his  study  to 
apples  grown  in  one  locality  and  noted  the  effect  of  modi- 
fying one  at  a  time  those  factors  within  his  control.  This 
is  the  more  scientific  method  of  procedure,  but  has  the  dis- 
advantage that  the  variations  are  far  less  striking  and  a 
smaller  number  of  factors  can  be  studied.  An  account  of 
Stewart's  experiments  and  the  results  so  far  attained  is 
found  in  the  reports  of  the  Pennsylvania  station  since 
1907.  These  papers  deal  largely  with  the  effect  of  fer« 
tilizers  and  different  cultural  methods  on  the  yield,  color, 
size  and  growth  of  the  apple.    The  various  factors  influ- 


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598  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 

encing  these  characters  are  enumerated  and  the  results 
are  given  of  the  studies  made  of  them.  It  is  noted  that 
the  factors  are  so  interrelated  that  the  best  conditions  for 
producing  one  effect  are  often  injurious  in  some  other 
direction  and  that  the  chief  problem  in  orchard  manage- 
ment is  a  proper  balance  of  the  various  factors.  An 
**  optimum  principle  "  is  recognized,  according  to  which 
plant  growth  and  development  increase  as  the  most  dis- 
tant essential  factors  approach  the  optimum.  The  factor 
farthest  from  the  optimum,  therefore,  whether  below  oi 
above,  may  control  the  results  from  a  crop 

Outline  of  the  Expekiment 

Since  the  season  of  1912  was  one  of  full  crop  in  nearly 
all  centers  of  apple  production,  conditions  were  especially 
favorable  for  the  study  of  variation  in  this  fruit.  The 
writer  accordingly  obtained  specimens  for  study  and  com- 
parison grown  in  a  number  of  localities  under  quite  dis- 
similar conditions.  The  method  employed  was  therefore 
that  of  Shaw,  as  pointed  out  in  the  last  paragraph,  rather 
than  that  of  Stewart.  The  study  has  been  pretty  largely 
confined  to  Washington-grown  apples,  though  a  few  have 
been  obtained  for  purposes  of  comparison  from  the  east 
and  middle  west.  The  formal  investigation  of  the  prob- 
lem has  been  carried  on  but  a  single  season,  which  is  en- 
tirely too  brief  a  study  to  demonstrate  conclusively  all 
points  touched  upon.  The  conclusions  reached,  however, 
are  strongly  supported  by  many  observations  in  various 
localities  extending  over  a  number  of  seasons,  and  are  so 
suggestive  of  further  lines  of  study  as  to  justify  a  report 
at  this  time. 

In  carrying  on  this  investigation  the  aim  has  been  to 
secure  as  much  information  as  possible  regarding  the  con- 
ditions under  which  the  fruit  was  grown.  The  endeavor 
has  been  to  get  into  communication  with  the  growers  and 
obtain  from  them  through  correspondence  data  regarding 
the  character  of  the  soil,  rainfall,  irrigation,  elevation, 
exposure,   temperature,  age  of  trees,  fertilization  and 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  599 

cultivation.  The  chief  line  of  observation  had  to  do  with 
the  variations  which  occur  in  the  different  samples  of  the 
same  variety  as  obtained  from  different  sources.  To  get 
at  this  side  of  the  problem,  careful  observations  were 
made  as  to  the  condition  of  the  apples,  and  their  various 
characters  were  recorded  in  a  complete  technical  descrip- 
tion of  each  sample  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  compara- 
tive study  of  the  samples  of  the  several  varieties.  In  ad- 
dition to  this  written  description,  photographs  were  made 
showing  typical  specimens  in  various  positions  and  when 
cut  in  cross  and  longitudinal  sections.  In  general  it  may 
be  said  that  variations  are  found  in  the  form,  size,  color, 
internal  structure,  texture,  flavor,  quality,  specific  grav- 
ity, chemical  composition,  time  of  ripening,  and  keeping 
quality.  The  attempt  is  made  to  correlate  these  char- 
acters with  the  conditions  of  growth  in  so  far  as  they  are 
known  and  to  work  out  the  law  of  the  relation  of  environ- 
mental factors  to  the  characters  of  the  fruit. 

The  following  apples  were  made  use  of  in  the  study: 
Arkansas,  one  sample;  Arkansas  Black,  one  sample; 
Baldwin,  eight  samples;  Ben  Davis,  nine  samples;  Deli- 
cious, three  samples;  Esopus,  seven  samples;  Gano,  seven 
samples;  Grimes,  seven  samples;  Jonathan,  eight  sam- 
ples; Lawver,  one  sample;  Mcintosh,  one  sample;  North- 
em  Spy,  seven  samples;  Rhode  Island  Greening,  three 
samples ;  Rome,  eleven  samples ;  Stayman,  five  samples ; 
Tompkins  King,  four  samples;  Wagener,  six  samples; 
White  Peamain,  three  samples;  Willow,  one  sample; 
Winesap,  ten  samples;  Winter  Banana,  one  sample;  Yel- 
low Bellflower,  four  samples;  Yellow  Newtown,  seven 
samples;  and  York  Imperial,  two  samples,  making  a  total 
of  117  samples  embracing  24  varieties.  These  apples 
were  obtained  from  fourteen  localities  in  the  state  of 
Washington  and  also  from  one  locality  in  each  of  the  fol- 
lowing states:  New  Hampshire,  Indiana,  Missouri,  New 
York,  and  West  Virginia. 

Before  leaving  the  preliminary  portion  of  this  paper 
the  writer  wishes  to  express  his  appreciation  of  the  aid 


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600  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

received  from  those  who  have  helped  in  various  ways  in 
the  investigation.  Thanks  are  due  to  the  members  of  the 
staff  of  the  department  of  horticulture  for  suggestions 
and  encouragement,  to  the  members  of  the  library  staff 
who  have  rendered  aid  in  the  study  of  the  literature  of  the 
subject,  to  Mr.  Geo.  A.  Olson,  chemist  of  the  experiment 
station,  who  has  analyzed  the  various  samples  of  Grimes, 
Jonathan,  Yellow  Bellflower,  and  Winesap,  and  finally 
to  the  various  fruit  growers  and  others  who  have  cooper- 
ated in  seculring  the  fruit  and  have  furnished  notes  on  the 
conditions  of  production.  To  all  these  the  writer  takes 
pleasure  in  acknowledging  his  gratitude  and  indebted- 
ness. 

Environmental  Factors 

Aside  from  small  individual  differences,  better  called 
fluctuations  than  variations,  and  other  more  striking 
modifications  of  comparatively  infrequent  occurrence 
and  obscure  origin,  which  it  is  customary  to  explain  as 
bud  variations,  if,  indeed,  the  application  of  a  name  to  a 
phenomenon  can  pass  as  an  explanation,  it  is  quite  gener- 
ally recognized  that  variation  in  any  variety  of  fruit  is 
due  to  the  operation  of  external  influences.  A  knowledge 
of  the  various  factors  which  make  up  the  environment 
and  their  influence  upon  plant  life  is  necessary  to  an  in- 
telligent study  of  variation.  It  should  be  noted,  however, 
that  this  influence  is  not  necessarily  the  same  with  plants 
propagated  vegetatively  as  with  those  grown  from  seed. 
In  the  latter  case  certain  modifications  of  an  adaptive 
nature  which  enable  the  plant  to  fit  in  more  perfectly  with 
its  surroundings  are  apt  to  persist,  while  less  favorable 
modifications  tend  to  disappear  by  the  elimination  of  the 
individuals  possessing  them.  In  the  former  case,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  modifications  observed  are  the  direct  re- 
sult of  the  conditions,  unaffected  by  selection,  and  whether 
desirable  or  not  they  persist  as  long  as  the  environment  is 
unchanged  and  the  vegetative  propagation  is  continued, 
unless,  indeed,  the  environment  is  so  unfavorable  that  the 


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No.  574] 


VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE 


601 


changes  induced  are  pathological  in  nature  and  the  plant 
can  not  survive. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  factor  to  which  plant  life 
is  subjected  is  the  moisture  relation.  This  may  be  deter- 
mined by  the  amount  of  moisture  actually  present  or  by 
the  modifying  influence  of  other  coexistent  factors  which 
interfere  with  the  availability  of  the  moisture  and  the 
capacity  of  the  plant  to  make  use  of  it.  Among  such  in- 
direct influences  may  be  noted  the  modifying  effect  of 
temperature  upon  the  rate  of  absorption  and  transfer  of 
moisture,  the  presence  in  the  soil  of  certain  salts  or  humic 
acids  which  interfere  with  the  osmotic  activity  of  the 
roots,  and  certain  atmospheric  conditions  favorable  to 
rapid  transpiration.  In  such  cases  car^  is  necessary  to 
determine  which  is  the  direct  and  which  the  indirect  cause 
of  the  modifications.  If  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  many 
factors  cause  variation  through'  their  influence  on  the 
moisture  supply  confusion  may  often  be  avoided. 

The  temperature  relation  is  much  more  obscure  than 
the  moisture  relation  in  its  effect  upon  plant  growth. 
Heat,  being  a  molecular  phenomenon,  acts  directly  upon 
the  protoplasm  and  its  effects  are  therefore  physiological. 
It  is  now  pretty  well  understood  that  heat  alone  is  in- 
capable of  modifying  plant  structure,  but  acts  indirectly 
through  othQr  factors  and  the  functions  of  the  plant.  The 
direct  effect  of  temperature  is  limited  very  largely  to  its 
influence  upon  the  rate  and  amount  of  development.  A 
slight  difference  in  the  average  temperature  of  the  grow- 
ing season  influences  greatly  the  relative  development  of 
apple  varieties.  The  accompanying  table  gives  the  mean 
monthly  temperature  during  the  growing  season  at 
Geneva,  N.  T.,  and  Pullman,  Wash.,  since  the  establish- 
ment of  the  experiment  stations  at  those  points,  as  well  as 
the  mean  for  two  years  at  White  Salmon,  Wash. 


Locality. 

April 

May 

June 

July 

Aug. 

Sept. 

Oct. 

Aver. 

Geneva.  N.Y 

Pullman.  Wash 

White  Salmon,  Wash. . 

44 
47 
50 

57 
52 
56 

67 
59 
63 

71 
66 
70 

69 
66 
67 

63 

68 
60 

50 
48 

!     63 

60 
67 
60 

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602  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      L  V^OL.  XLVIII 

The  difference  in  the  development  of  certain  varieties 
of  apples  at  these  places  will  be  noted  later.  It  will  be 
seen  that  the  season  opens  slightly  earlier  in  Pullman 
than  in  Geneva  and  closes  at  about  the  same  time.  It 
would  appear,  therefore,  that  the  better  development  of 
most  varieties  at  the  latter  station  is  due  rather  to  the 
higher  temperature  than  to  a  difference  in  the  length  of 
season.  At  White  Salmon  the  season  is  considerably 
longer  than  at  either  of  the  other  stations,  while  the  tem- 
perature from  May  to  September  is  intermediate. 

Latitude  and  altitude  are  frequently  mentioned  as  im- 
portant factors  in  the  modification  of  varieties.  These, 
however,  are  not  primarily  factors,  but  depend  for  their 
influence  upon  the  effect  of  other  factors,  which  in  turn  are 
influenced  by  the  location.  Differences  in  altitude  espe- 
cially result  in  marked  changes  in  climate  often  in  places 
geographically  near  together. 

The  light  relation  is  of  much  importance  to  the  fruit 
grower.  It  is  clearly  evident  that  the  development  of 
color  in  apples  is  largely  dependent  upon  the  sunshine, 
and  quality  also  may  be  affected  through  the  production 
of  sugars.  Both  intensity  of  insolation  and  duration  of 
the  daylight  must  receive  consideration.  In  general,  trop- 
ical, arid  or  alpine  situations  are  characterized  by  high 
insolation,  while  a  long  period  of  daylight  during  the  sum- 
mer months  is  a  factor  in  northern  latitudes. 

The  effect  of  atmospheric  influences  is  largely  indirect. 
It  has  already  been  noted  that  the  condition  of  the  air 
may  modify  the  moisture  relation  through  its  effect  upon 
transpiration,  thus  dryness,  high  temperature,  and  rar- 
ification  all  favor  evaportion,  and  this  effect  may  be  in- 
creased in  windy  situations.  Atmospheric  pressure  is  a 
factor  of  importance  in  high  altitudes. 

The  soil  may  be  of  importance  as  a  factor  in  causing 
variation  through  either  its  chemical  composition  or  its 
physical  properties.  The  former  leads  to  a  consideration 
of  the  influence  of  fertilization,  the  latter  to  the  effect  of 
different  methods  of  culture.    Here  again  other  factors, 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  603 

and  especially  the  moisture  relation,  have  an  important 
bearing,  since  one  of  the  primary  results  of  cultivation  is 
the  conservation  of  the  soil  moisture.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  nature  of  the  soil  greatly  affects  the  crop  and  the 
matter  has  been  given  much  study.  The  intimate  associa- 
tion of  other  factors,  however,  makes  it  somewhat  diflScult 
to  pick  out  those  influences  for  which  the  nature  of  the 
soil  is  directly  responsible. 

The  influence  of  other  organisms  includes  not  only  a 
consideration  of  the  effect  of  insect  and  fungus  pests  but 
in  the  broad  sense  embraces  such  items  as  pollination, 
pruning  and  thinning,  intercrops,  cover-crops  and  plant- 
ing distance.  Human  agencies,  including  all  operations 
of  orchard  management,  might  properly  be  included  here. 
Many  of  these  are,  of  course,  indirect,  exerting  an  influ- 
ence through  theii^  effect  upon  some  other  factor. 

The  Law  of  the  Optimum 

Having  enumerated  the  chief  external  influences  to 
which  plants  are  subjected  during  their  period  of  develop- 
ment and  to  which  variation  is  largely  due,  the  question 
naturally  occurs  whether  there  can  be  formulated  any 
basic  principle  or  law  which  will  express  the  manner  in 
which  plants  react  with  the  environment.  Such  a  law 
would  be  of  use  not  only  in  the  study  of  variation,  but 
would  shed  m^uch  light  on  the  adaptation  of  plants  to  new 
environments.  It  would  constitute  a  unifying  principle 
whereby  isolated  facts  and  disconnected  observations  ap- 
pear in  proper  relation  and  perspective.  Though  a  dis- 
cussion of  this  subject  might  logically  be  delayed  until 
after  the  characters  of  the  several  varieties  and  their 
modifications  have  been  noted,  it  is  thought  most  fitting  to 
introduce  the  statement  at  this  point  and  examine  the 
fruit  in  the  light  of  such  generalizations  as  it  has  been 
possible  to  make. 

A  plant  can  live  and  perform  its  functions  only  within 
certain  intensities  of  the  various  factors  of  the  environ- 
ment.    The  degrees  of  intensity  beyond  which  activity 


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604  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

ceases  are  known  as  the  zero  points.  The  plant  does  not 
necessarily  die  at  once,  but  passes  into  a  dormant  state. 
If  the  intensity  becomes  still  more  unfavorable  a  point  is 
finally  reached  at  which  death  occurs.  The  minimum  de- 
gree of  intensity  of  a  factor  at  which  the  plant  may  re- 
main active  is  known  as  the  lower  zero  point,  while  the 
greatest  intensity  is  called  the  upper  zero  point.  With 
some  factors  these  points  are  wide  apart,  so  that,  other 
conditions  being  favorable,  the  plant  will  continue  to  de- 
velop after  a  fashion  at  any  but  the  most  extreme  intensi- 
ties of  such  factors.  With  other  factors  the  limits  are 
comparatively  narrow.  A  plant  will  reach  that  degree  of 
development  only  which  is  permitted  by  that  factor  which 
is  in  the  least  favorable  degree  of  intensity.  Such  factors 
are  called  limiting  factors.  In  passing  from  one  zero 
point  toward  the  other,  a  point  is  finally  reached  at  which 
any  given  function  of  a  plant  reaches  its  highest  state  of 
activity.  This  point  is  known  as  the  absolute  optimum  for 
that  function  and  may  not  correspond  to  the  most  favor- 
able intensity  of  that  factor  for  the  performance  of  the 
other  functions  of  the  plant.  The  point  of  intensity  of  a 
factor  at  which  all  the  functions  of  the  plant  are  per- 
formed to  the  best  advantage  is  termed  the  harmonic 
optimum.  If  each  factor  is  of  an  intensity  corresponding 
to  the  harmonic  optimum,  the  plant  is  in  a  condition  of 
equilibrium  known  as  the  ecological  optimum  and  will 
reach  the  highest  state  of  activity  of  which  it  is  capable.* 
As  the  life  of  a  plant  is  made  up  of  various  functions, 
so  its  structure  is  made  up  of  a  number  of  organs  having 
various  characters.  These  characters  are  the  result  of 
development,  which  in  turn  is  dependent  upon  the  per- 
formance of  the  several  functions  of  the  plant  under  the 
influence  of  those  external  conditions  which  make  up  the 
environment.  If  a  factor  of  the  environment  is  modified 
in  its  intensity,  the  balance  of  the  functions  of  the  plant 
is  disturbed  and  the  plant  reacts  to  its  changed  environ- 
ment by  a  modification  of  its  functions  which  may  result 

4  Schimper,  A.  F.  W.,  '^ Plant  Geography.*' 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  605 

in  a  different  kind  of  development,  or  in  other  words  a 
variation.  Having  observed  the  close  connection  between 
the  characters  and  the  functions  of  the  plant,  we  may  now 
inquire  whether  the  former  maintain  a  relation  to  the 
environment  similar  to  that  maintained  by  the  latter. 
Putting  aside  generalizations  for  the  present  and  confin- 
ing attention  to  the  apple,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  both  Shaw 
and  Stewart  foreshadowed  such  a  relationship  in  the 
papers  already  noted.  Neither,  however,  carried  the 
analysis  far  enough  to  formulate  a  rule  of  general  appli- 
cation, though  Stewart  came  near  doing  so.  Sha^  recog- 
nized that  the  highest  perfection  in  any  given  variety 
could  be  attained  only  under  the  most  favorable  summer 
temperature.  Stewart  applied  this  idea  to  other  factors 
than  temperature  in  his  ''optimum  principle,"  which  is 
''  that  plant  growth  and  development  increase  as  the  most 
distant  essential  factors  approach  the  optimum."  His 
failure  to  recognize,  the  connection  between  the  various 
factors  of  the  environment,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  sepa- 
rate characters  of  the  apple,  on  the  other,  may  be  ac- 
counted for  by  the  fact  that  his  investigations  dealt  only 
with  fruit  grown  under  slightly  modified  conditions,  which 
resulted  only  in  such  slight  variations  that  the  independent 
modification  of  the  separate  characters  escaped  notice. 

In  examining  various  samples  of  apples  produced  under 
the  influence  of  quite  dissimilar  combinations  of  environ- 
mental factors,  the  writer  has  many  times  noted  the  modi- 
fication of  certain  characters  more  or  less  independently 
of  others.  It  is  true  that  characters  are  often  found  to 
vary  together  through  a  relationship  of  direct  or  inverse 
correlation.  Such  cases,  however,  are  possibly  as  often 
due  to  the  response  of  the  various  characters  to  the  same 
factor  of  environment  as  to  any  direct  connection  between 
the  characters,  though  the  latter  no  doubt  exists  in  many 
cases.  Keeping  in  mind  these  facts  and  also  the  close 
relationship  of  function  and  character,  the  writer  has 
formulated  a  principle  which  he  believes  is  of  general  ap- 
plication not  only  to  apples  but  to  other  horticultural 


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606  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVIH 

crops  and  perhaps  in  a  degree  to  all  plant  life.  For  this 
generalization,  which  expresses  the  relationship  of  char- 
acters to  environmental  factors  the  name  '^  Law  of  the 
Optimum  "  is  proposed. 

This  law  may  be  stated  as  follows:  For  any  given 
variety  there  is  for  each  character  a  certain  intensity  of 
each  essential  factor  of  the  environment  at  which,  other 
conditions  remaining  the  same,  that  character  reaches  its 
highest  development.  When  all  essential  factors  are  in  a 
condition  of  optimum  intensity  for  any  character,  that 
character  will  reach  the  most  perfect  development  of 
which  it  is  capable.  A  modification  of  the  intensity  of  any 
such  factor  either  above  or  below  the  optimum  will  be  ac- 
companied by  a  less  perfect  condition  of  the  character 
concerned.  The  optimum  intensity  of  a  factor  may  be 
wide  or  narrow  in  its  limits  and  the  optimum  for  one  char- 
acter may  or  may  not  overlap  the  optimum  for  others. 
A  variety  will  be  at  its  best  when  grown  in  an  environ- 
ment the  factors  of  which  are  as  near  as  may  be  to  the 
optimum  intensity  for  all  characters.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances the  variety  is  in  a  state  of  balanced  adapta^ 
Hon  to  its  environment.  If  removed  from  such  an  en- 
vironment to  one  in  which  certain  factors  are  distant  from 
this  state  of  average  optimum  intensity  for  all  characters, 
the  equilibrium  is  destroyed  and  the  variety  is  thrown 
into  a  state  of  unbalanced  adaptation,  in  which  those 
characters  farthest  removed  from  their  respective  optima 
are  injuriously  affected,  while  others  may  be  bettered  by 
being  placed  in  a  combination  of  factors  of  an  intensity 
nearer  their  optima.  A  discussion  of  the  practical  appli- 
cation of  this  law  and  its  bearing  upon  apple  culture  in 
the  northwest  will  be  deferred  for  the  present  and  taken 
up  in  a  later  section. 

A  COMPABATIVE   StUDY  OF  THE   SAMPLES 

A  close  study  of  the  various  lots  of  apples  used  in  this 
experiment  brings  to  light  variations  in  practically  all 
characters.    Many,  however,  are  modifications  of  charac- 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  607 

ters  inconspicuous  in  themselves  or  are  slight  in  amount 
and  so  do  not  attract  attention.  A  complete  account  of  all 
variations  noted  would  comprise  a  full  technical  descrip- 
tion of  each  sample  which  would  far  exceed  the  limits  of 
this  paper.  For  this  reason  it  is  thought  best  to  append 
only  some  brief  comparative  notes  regarding  the  more 
conspicuous  variations  noted  in  each  variety.  In  this 
connection  it  is  well  to  note  the  origin  so  far  as  known  of 
the  varieties  included  in  this  study.  Arkansas  and  Arkan- 
sas Black,  Arkansas;  Baldwin,  Massachusetts;  Ben 
Davis,  probably  Kentucky  or  Tennessee ;  Delicious,  Iowa ; 
Esopus,  New  York;  Gano,  probably  Kentucky  or  Mis- 
souri; Grimes,  West  Virginia;  Jonathan,  New  York; 
Lawver,  possibly  Kansas;  Mcintosh,  Ontario,  Canada; 
Northern  Spy,  New  York;  Ehode  Island  Greening,  Ehode 
Island ;  Eome,  Ohio ;  Stayman,  Kansas ;  Tompkins  King, 
New  York ;  Wagener,  New  York ;  White  Pearmain,  prob- 
ably Eastern  States;  Willow,  Virginia;  Winesap,  New 
Jersey;  Winter  Banana,  Indiana;  Yellow  Bellflower,  New 
Jersey;  Yellow  Newtown,  New  York;  York  Imperial, 
Pennsylvania.  It  will  be  observed  that  all  originated  in 
the  east  or  middle  west.  Most  no  doubt  appeared  as  seed- 
lings and  were  selected  and  propagated  because  of  their 
excellence  and  value  when  grown  under  those  conditions 
of  environment  which  prevail  at  their  places  of  origin ;  in 
other  words  they  were  individuals  which  happened  to  be 
in  a  condition  of  balanced  adaptation  to  that  environment. 
Their  behavior  under  other  environments  could  be  deter- 
mined only  by  actual  tests,  and  some  notes  on  the  subject 
are  included  in  the  following  paragraphs. 

ArkansorS  {Mammoth  Black  Twig). — ^As  only  one  sam- 
ple of  this  variety  was  examined  its  behavior  can  be  com- 
pared only  with  what  is  known  of  the  variety  in  other 
localities.  The  fruit  was  more  elongated  and  conical  in 
shape,  smaller  in  size  and  less  highly  colored  than  that 
produced  in  the  warmer  apple-growing  sections  of  the 
east.  The  flesh  was  inferior  in  texture,  indicating  poor 
development.    The  variety  seems  not  at  all  adapted  to 


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608  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [Vol.  XLVUI 

the  location  where  grown,  but  might  do  better  at  lower 
altitudes  and  in  warmer  situations  in  the  state.  Never- 
theless, the  quality  is  not  good  enough  to  recommend  the 
variety  for  dessert,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  will  not  be 
planted  extensively  in  the  northwest.  The  keeping  qual- 
ity was  excellent. 

Arkansas  Black. — This  variety  of  the  Winesap  group 
attains  a  deeper  color  than  the  Winesap  and  equals  that 
variety  in  size  and  quality.  The  specimens  examined 
were  not  especially  well  colored  though,  it  is  known  to 
color  well  in  the  irrigated  valleys.  It  seems  to  be  better 
adapted  to  the  conditions  of  the  state  than  the  Arkansas. 
In  keeping  quality  it  was  among  the  best. 

Baldwin. — The  Baldwin  attains  its  highest  perfection 
in  New  York  and  New  England,  where  it  is  a  great  favor- 
ite in  the  markets  and  is  produced  more  largely  than  any 
other  variety.  As  grown  in  this  state  the  fruit  is  snaailer 
and  more  elongated  than  the  eastern  product  and  Jms  a 
more  deeply  furrowed  basin.  As  grown  at  Pullman  the 
color  lacks  intensity,  though  the  fruit  is  well  covered.  In 
the  western  part  of  the  state  the  fruit  is  well  colored, 
especially  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Puget  Sound  Basin. 
The  lots  from  White  Salmon  show  a  good  many  poorly 
colored  fruits  mixed  with  those  of  better  color,  while  the 
quality  is  rather  better  than  in  those  examined  from  other 
parts  of  the  state.  It  is,  however,  inferior  to  the  eastern- 
grown  Baldwin  and  is  evidently  poorly  adapted  to  the 
conditions  of  the  northwest.  All  of  the  Washington- 
grown  fruit  displayed  a  tendency  to  wilt  in  storage  and 
some  of  the  lots  from  the  western  part  of  the  state  rotted 
seriously  as  a  result  of  fungous  infections  not  apparent  on 
the  fruit  at  the  time  of  storage. 

Ben  Davis. — Though  displaying  considerable  lack  of 
balance  in  the  adaptation  of  the  different  characters  to 
conditions  in  certain  parts  of  the  state,  this  variety  seems 
on  the  whole  to  reach  a  good  degree  of  development  in  the 
warmer  valleys.  In  quality  the  lot  from  Missouri  was 
superior  to  those  from  any  part  of  Washington,  though 


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r  .574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  609 

many  of  the  Washington-grown  apples  of  the  variety  were 
equal  to  those  from  most  sections  of  the  east.  Striking 
variations  in  form  were  displayed  by  the  fruit  from  dif- 
ferent localities.  Those  lots  from  the  more  elevated  and 
cooler  sections  of  the  state  were  of  an  oblong,  conic  form 
and  usually  had  shallow  irregular  basing,  while  those 
from  the  warm  valleys  were  less  elongated  and  had  deep 
and  usually  quite  regular  basins,  being  more  like  the  fruit 
from  the  Ben  Davis  belt  of  the  east.  The  fruit  developed 
better  texture  and  quality  also  in  the  valleys  though  it  was 
coarser  and  more  spongy  than  the  eastern  fruit.  Most  of 
the  Washington  grown  samples  of  Ben  Davis  were  more 
decidedly  striped  than  those  from  the  east.  This  effect  is 
produced  by  the  clearer  yellow  ground  color,  which  in  the 
eastern-grown  fruit  is  more  or  less  suffused  with  red. 
The  apples  from  the  elevated  localities  of  Pullman, 
Cloverland  and  White  Salmon  were  relatively  small  in 
size  and  poorly  colored.  Because  of  its  low  dessert  qual- 
ity, the  planting  of  this  variety  for  shipment  to  the  east 
can  not  be  recommended.  The  most  desirable  feature  of 
the  Ben  Davis  fruit  is  its  good  keeping  quality.  A  tend- 
ency to  mealiness  late  in  the  season  was  observed  in 
some  of  the  fruit  from  the  irrigated  valleys,  while  those 
grown  at  Pullman  and  Cloverland  wilted  badly  toward 
the  close  of  the  season. 

Delicious. — This  is  one  of  the  newer  varieties  and  when 
well  grown  is  a  dessert  apple  of  fine  appearance  and  high 
quality.  In  many  of  its  characters,  but  especially  in  flavor 
and  aroma,  Delicious  resembles  the  White  Pearmain, 
though  in  color  it  bears  a  likeness  to  the  Winesap  group. 
In  moderately  elevated  situations  in  some  parts  of  the 
state  it  displays  a  well-balanced  adaptation  and  attains 
excellent  size,  color,  texture  and  quality,  though  none  of 
those  examined  were  quite  equal  in  quality  to  the  Deli- 
cious from  New  York.  When  grown  in  too  low  and  warm 
a  location  the  fruit  has  a  tendency  to  become  overripe  and 
when  stored  tends  to  soften  in  the  center,  after  which  it 
loses  greatly  in  quality.    The  sample  from  Clarkston  had 


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610  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [V0L.XLVUI 

a  beautiful  dark  red  color,  while  that  from  Cloverland 
was  dull  in  color  and  poor  in  texture. 

Esopus  (Spitzenburg). — This  is  almost  the  only  variety 
which  the  writer  has  examined  that  attains  the  first  rank 
as  a  dessert  apple  in  this  state.  In  certain  sections  it  dis- 
plays a  better  balance  of  adaptation  so  far  as  flesh  charac- 
ters are  concerned  than  any  other  variety.  The  samples 
obtained  from  White  Salmon  and  the  irrigated  valleys 
were  of  excellent  quality  as  dessert  apples,  though  of 
scarcely  as  good  texture  as  the  variety  attains  in  the  east. 
Overgrown  apples  are  especially  coarse  in  texture.  West 
of  the  Cascades  and  in  the  more  elevated  locations  the 
Esopus  does  not  reach  as  high  quality  as  elsewhere.  This 
variety  is  inclined  to  wilt  in  storage  unless  well  grown. 

G(mo.— This  is  an  apple  of  the  Ben  Davis  tyi)e,  but  of  a 
more  uniform  red  color.  Practically  all  the  remarks  in- 
cluded under  Ben  Davis,  aside  from  those  dealing  with  the 
distribution  of  color,  apply  equally  well  to  the  Gano.  At 
its  best,  the  Gano  is  of  slightly  better  quality  than  the  Ben 
Davis,  which  fact,  together  with  its  more  handsome  ap- 
pearance, renders  it  a  more  desirable  variety  to  plant,  yet 
neither  can  be  recommended  in  a  section  desirous  of  build- 
ing up  a  reputation  and  market  for  dessert  apples.  It  is 
interesting  that  both  the  highest  color  and  the  best  as  well 
as  the  poorest  quality  was  attained  by  apples  from  the 
east  and  middle  west. 

Grimes  (Grimes  Golden). — This  variety,  like  the  Ben 
Davis,  displays  considerable  variation  in  form,  depending 
on  the  locality  of  production.  The  specimens  from  the 
middle  west  were  roundish  to  decidedly  oblate,  while  those 
grown  in  Washington  were  all  more  or  less  elongated. 
Those  grown  west  of  the  Cascades  displayed  a  greater 
tendency  to  a  conical  shape  than  those  from  the  eastern 
part  of  the  state,  and  were  also  poorer  in  quality.  When 
grown  in  the  more  elevated  sections,  as  at  Pullman, 
Grimes  appears  poorly  developed  and  immature  and  is 
inferior  in  size  and  quality.  Those  from  Grandview  dis- 
played the  best  balance  of  characters  and  it  seems  prob- 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  611 

able  that  this  variety  is  better  adapted  to  the  irrigated 
valleys  than  to  other  sections  of  the  state.  All  samples 
were  more  or  less  wilted  by  midwinter,  except  the  fruit 
from  Grandview,  which  remained  firm  but  showed  some 
tendency  to  rot.  Scald  was  very  bad  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  season. 

Jonathan. — ^Although  rather  extensively  grown  in  a 
number  of  localities  in  Washington,  none  of  the  fruit 
which  the  writer  has  examined  gave  evidence  of  a  well- 
balanced  adaptation  to  the  conditions  of  growth  which 
prevail  in  the  state.  All  were  inferior  in  color  to  the  fruit 
obtained  from  the  east  and  middle  west.  The  apples  from 
Clarkston  and  the  Yakima  Valley  were  of  good  size  but 
lacked  both  richness  of  flavor  and  aroma.  The  same  lack 
was  evident  in  the  fruit  from  the  western  part  of  the  state. 
At  Pullman  a  pretty  good  quality  is  attained,  but  the 
fruit  does  not  come  up  to  the  requirements  as  to  size  and 
gives  other  evidence  of  imperfect  development.  At 
Cloverland  and  in  other  elevated  locations  fruit  of  a  poor 
texture  and  deficient  coloring  is  produced.  Jonathan 
seems  to  reach  its  highest  development  in  certain  sections 
tributary  to  the  Ohio  valley  and  the  Washington-grown 
Jonathans  can  not  compete  with  fruit  from  that  section 
when  well  grown.  The  samples  from  Morgantown,  West 
Virginia,  were  of  a  beautiful  clear  dark  red  color,  good 
size,  fine  tender  flesh,  and  very  high  quality.  In  storage 
these  specimens  remained  firm  and  retained  their  flavor 
until  April.  The  others  wilted  considerably  after  mid- 
winter. 

Lawver. — This  variety  attains  good  size  and  fine  color 
in  the  irrigated  valleys,  but  the  quality  is  not  good  enough 
to  recommend  it  to  the  fruit  growers  of  the  northwest. 
The  variety  ordinarily  keeps  well  but  the  specimens 
stored  proved  to  have  poor  keeping  quality — owing  to 
fungous  infection. 

Mcintosh. — The  Mcintosh  is  deserving  of  attention  as  a 
variety  of  high  quality  which  appears  to  have  a  fairly 
well-balanced  adaptation  to  certain  sections  of  the  north- 


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612  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  X:X:^"VIII 

•west.  At  Pullman  the  elevation  is  too  great  for  th^^  \^%t 
development  of  the  variety,  but  the  Spokane  Valleji;^  -pto- 
duces  Mclntoshes  of  a  high  degree  of  excellence.  1IBI?l:iere 
is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  valley  of  the  nor: — tlxem 
and  northeastern  sections  of  the  state  can  rival  the  in^itter 
Eoot  valley  of  Montana  in  the  production  of  this  v^t^zari^ty. 
The  fruit  stored  wilted  badly  by  midwinter  and  lost  ii^cxuch 
of  its  flavor  soon  after. 

Northern  Spy. — Of  all  the  varieties  examine  <^:3.  the 
Northern  Spy  seems  least  adapted  to  the  conditicz:^  :i3.  s  of 
growth  in  this  state.  As  produced  in  New  York  an<:3^  JSew 
England  this  fruit  is  a  dessert  apple  of  the  highest  qi^^^o^ality 
when  well  grown  and  properly  colored.  In  Washi^angton 
east  of  the  Cascades  the  color  fails  to  develop  aMizi-ci  the 
quality  is  much  inferior  to  that  of  the  eastem-growraL  fruit. 
In  the  western  part  of  the  state  the  color  develops  ea^ss  well 
as  in  the  eastern  states,  but  the  quality  is  no  bett^  zar-  than 
elsewhere  in  the  state.  The  unsurpassed  cooking  ci  "U-^lity 
of  this  variety  seems  to  be  largely  retained,  ho^v^^^ver, 
which  is  its  only  redeeming  feature.  It  may  be  ^^v^orth 
planting  to  a  limited  extent  as  a  culinary  fruit  iowr  liome 
use,  but  can  not  eoini>ete  in  the  markets  with  the  e^^  stem- 
grown  Northern  Spys.  The  specimens  from  the  v^^  stern 
part  of  the  state  were  largely  infected  with  fungi,  :r*^  suit- 
ing in  much  decay  early  in  the  season.  Those  fronci.  I^uU- 
man  and  Clarkston  kept  fairly  well,  though  the  f  oXT^aer 
wilted  badly  late  in  the  season. 

Rhode  Island  Greening. — This  variety,  togethexr     ^with 
Baldwin  and  Northern  Spy,  constitutes  the  most    j^-x'Oini- 
nent  and  successful  apples  in  the  orchards  of  New    "STork 
and  New  England.    They  are  also  amcng  the  varieties  1^35t 
adapted  to  the  conditions  found  in  this  state.    Their  per- 
fect balance  of  adaptation  to  eastern  conditions  is    jpx'cih 
ably  to  a  large  degree  responsible  for  their  "popxHsLirH^y  ^^ 
the  east  and  may  also  account  for  the  lack  of  "b^J^^^ 
which  they  display  in  the  northwest.    As  grown  at  Wbite 
Salmon  and  at  Pullman  the  Greening  reached  a  good  ^^^/ 
but  was  decidedly  inferior  in  quality  to  the  specim^^^ 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  613 

from  New  Hampshire.  At  Pullman  the  fruit  was  rather 
flat  and  strongly  ribbed,  while  at  White  Salmon  the  apples 
were  oblong  in  shape  and  had,  as  a  rule,  rather  small 
cavities.  It  can  not  be  recommended  for  Washington, 
except  possibly  for  local  use  as  a  culinary  fruit.  This 
variety  is  a  fairly  good  keeper.  Those  grown  at  Pullman 
wilted  badly  late  in  the  season,  while  the  lot  from  White 
Salmon  gave  evidence  of  considerable  fungus  infection. 
Ro7ne  {Rome  Beauty). — This  is  one  of  the  most  popu- 
lar varieties  grown  in  the  state  east  of  the  Cascade  Moun- 
tains  and  is  about  the  only  commercial  variety  which 
reaches  good  marketable  size  in  the  high  uplands  of  the 
Inland  Empire.  The  Eome  reaches  its  highest  develop- 
ment in  the  Jonathan  belt  of  the  middle  west.  The  best 
specimens  examined,  all  characters  considered,  came  from 
Morgantown,  West  Virginia.  They  were  of  a  nearly  uni- 
form deep  red  color,  of  good  size  and  attractive  form,  and 
of  pretty  good  quality  for  the  variety.  In  many  parts  of 
Washington  the  Eome  fails  to  color  well.  The  specimens 
from  White  Salmon  and  Grandview  were  especially  poor 
in  color.  The  latter  were  overgrown  and  of  poor  quality, 
while  the  former  were  among  the  best  of  the  variety.  The 
usual  form  of  the  variety  is  round  or  nearly  so,  varying 
to  somewhat  roundish  conic  or  roundish  ovate.  The  form 
of  the  cavity  is  subject  to  quite  a  little  variation.  As  pro- 
duced at  Pullman  and  other  elevated  sections  of  the  state 
the  cavity  is  very  shallow^  but  becomes  deeper  in  the  val- 
leys. The  specimens  from  West  Virginia  had  fairly  deep 
cavities.  Indeed  it  seems  probable  that  those  localities 
which  produce  Ben  Davis  of  the  elongated  type  also  pro- 
duce Eomes  with  the  shallow  cavities.  The  Eome  is  by 
nature  a  culinary  apple.  In  quality  it  is  but  little  better 
than  Ben  Davis.  It  seems  unfortunate,  therefore,  for  the 
lasting  reputation  of  the  industry,  that  it  should  have  be- 
come so  firmly  established  in  northwestern  horticulture. 
It  is  to  be  earnestly  hoped  that  it  may  in  time  be  replaced 
by  a  variety  of  better  quality.  In  its  adaptations  to  the 
conditions  of  the  state,  the  Eome  seems  to  be  fairly  well 


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614  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 

-balanced  in  most  of  its  characters.  The  balance,  however, 
is  not  the  same  in  all  sections  and  is  nowhere  quite  so  per- 
fect as  in  certain  localities  in  the  middle  states.  Most 
samples  kept  well  until  the  latter  part  of  the  season  and 
then  became  mealy.  The  overgrown  specimens  from 
Grandview  were  the  first  to  break  down  in  this  way. 
Those  grown  at  a  greater  elevation  showed  a  slight  tend- 
ency to  wilt  late  in  the  season.  None  of  the  samples  dis- 
played an  inclination  to  rot  until  late  in  the  season. 

Stay  man  Winesap,— In  both  size  and  quality  the  Stay- 
man  is  the  best  of  the  Winesap  group.    Its  most  serious 
fault  is  a  rather  dull  color  which  often  fails  to  cover  the 
fruit  well.    The  samples  obtained  from  the  middle  west 
were  of  better  €olor  and  texture  than  those  grown  i?5v 
Washington,  though  the  lot  from  Indiana  were  very  coar  ^ 
in  texture.     Those  grown  at  Pullman  were  small  and  v>:x 
ferior  in  every  way.     The  fruit  from  Grandyiew  v?^^^ 
especially  large,  flat,  and  fairly  well  colored,  while  tlcx^^v 
from  White  Salmon  was  more  elongated,  slightly    X^^^ 
colored,  and  rather  more  aromatic  in  flavor.    These     'tr^^^ 
lots  retained  their  firmness  in  storage  much  longer  fcTtx^^ 
the  others  and  those  from  White  Salmon  scalded  l>.^3^.<iiy 
late  in  the  season.    It  is  very  similar  to  the  Winesa.  ^^>   in 
its  adaptations. 

Tompkins  King, — This  variety  is  popular  in  the 
'ern  part  of  the  state,  where  it  attains  a  large  size  and 
color,  though  the  latter  character  develops  well  at 
man.    None  of  the  samples  equaled  in  quality  the  va^ 
as  grown  in  New  York.    Those  grown  at  Pullman  \m^  ,^a^   ^ 
very  good  flavor,  though  the  flesh  characters  were  tho  ^o  O;^  '" 

poorly  matured  fruit.    The  fruit  from  the  western  pa^  -mrt.  o^p  1 1 

the  state  was  of  a  fairly  elongated  conic  form,  whil^      ±l3.s^^  • ,/  ^ 

grown  at  Pullman  was  shorter  and  strongly  ribbed.       rTiix^  ^   ■ 

variety  appears  to  be  but  poorly  adapted  to  Washima-^^o^ 
conditions.    The  fruit  grown  at  Pulhnan  wilted  badly"  la*Q 
in  the  season,  while  that  from  western  Washington  irottec^ 
considerably  owing  to  fungus  infections. 

Wagener. — Though  of  the  Northern  Spy  clasf^,      tb^ 


it 


.1  ^ 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  615 

Wagener  displays  a  much  better  balance  of  adaptation  to 
the  conditions  of  the  state  than  the  Northern  Spy.  It 
seems  to  reach  its  best  development  in  the  cooler  regions 
of  the  state.  The  specimens  from  Grandview  were  of 
good  size  and  very  juicy,  but  were  poor  in  color,  coarse 
in  texture,  and  deficient  in  flavor.  Wagener  develops 
especially  well  in  the  Spokane  Valley.  The  specimens 
from  Opportunity  were  large,  well  colored,  and  of  excel- 
lent quality,  though  somewhat  coarse  in  texture.  Those 
grown  at  Pullman  were  more  aromatic  but  possibly  not  so 
rich  in  flavor  and  did  not  develop  sufficient  size.  This 
variety  does  well  west  of  the  Cascades  and  especially  in 
the  northern  part  of  the  Puget  Sound  Basin.  The  speci- 
mens from  Eastsound  were  large,  highly  colored,  and  fine 
in  texture,  but  less  aromatic  than  the  eastern  Washington 
fruit.  The  samples  obtained  from  West  Virginia  gave 
evidence  of  having  been  grown  too  far  south.  They  were 
poorly  colored  and  of  rather  poor  texture,  but  of  good  size 
and  excellent  flavor.  In  form  the  fruit  from  Opportunity 
was  roundish,  that  from  Eastsound  roundish  conic,  while 
the  remainder  was  decidedly  flattened  and  all  samples 
were  more  or  less  strongly  ribbed.  This  variety  shows 
very  little  tendency  to  wilt  in  storage.  The  fruit  from  the 
highlands  keeps  well,  but  that  from  the  irrigated  valleys 
shows  a  tendency  to  physiological  decay.  Scald  is  serious 
after  midwinter. 

White  Pearmain  {White  Winter  Pearmain). — In  gen- 
eral appearance  this  variety  often  closely  resembles  the 
Yellow  Newtown,  but  is  usually  more  elongated  and  more 
largely  blushed.  Moreover,  it  is  quite  different  in  flavor 
and  is  remarkable  for  its  fine  aroma.  It  is  a  variety  of 
high  quality  and  attractive  for  a  yellow  apple,  moreover, 
it  attains  its  good  qualities  in  the  irrigated  valleys  better 
than  on  the  highlands,  the  specimens  from  Cloverland  be- 
ing dull  and  green  in  color  and  poor  in  texture,  but  well 
blushed  and  highly  aromatic.  Its  worst  fault  is  suscepti- 
bility to  the  apple  scab.  It  would  seem  to  be  better 
adapted  to  growing  in  the  state  than  some  of  the  more 


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61 6  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

popular  varieties.  The  fruit  from  the  Yakima  Valley 
retained  its  firmness  much  better  than  that  from  Clover- 
land,  but  lost  somewhat  in  flavor  toward  the  close  of  the 
season. 

Willow  {Willow  Twig). — The  writer  has  examined  this 
variety  only  as  grown  in  the  elevated  portions  of  eastern 
Washington.    In  such  locations  it  does  not  develop  espe- 
cially well  in  either  size  or  color  and  is  of  too  poor  quality 
to  be  worthy  of  consideration.    Moreover,  it  wilts  badly^ 
in  storage,  though  when  well  grown  the  fruit  has  excellent 
keeping  quality.    It  is  evidently  poorly  adapted  to  thi^ 
section. 

Winesap. — In  some  of  the  irrigated  valleys  this  varietj?^ 
is  one  of  the  most  popular  apples  grown.    It  attains  e^ 
good  marketable  size  and  an  attractive  color,  though  non^^ 
of  the  samples  examined  were  equal  in  color  or  quality  tc:^ 
the  Winesaps  from  Indiana  and  West  Virginia.    In  el^ — 
vated  localities,  as  at  Pullman,  Cloverland  and  Whit^^ 
Salmon,  the  fruit  is  small  and  poorly  colored  and  has  fleslzm. 
characters  indicating  imperfect  development  and  matur^ — 
ity.    As  grown  in  the  irrigated  valleys  the  fruit  is  apt  t  ^i^* 
be  deficient  in  flavor,  and,  if  large,  coarse  in  texture.   Th.  ^^ 
lot  from  Cashmere  showed  the  best  balance  of  character*  a^ 
of  any  Washington,  grown  specimens,  but  these  were  in  ii.«3 
way  superior  to  the  Winesaps  from  West  Virginia.    It  i-  ^3 
probable  that  the  better  grown  fruit  from  the  easter^Hria  ^ 

Winesap  districts  is  equal  to  that  grown  in  Washington  f  ^y^  ^ 

all  respects,  with  the  possible  exception  of  size,  which,  irff 
large,  is,  as  noted,  apt  to  be  accompanied  by  deterioratio  ^ac* 
in  quality.    It  is  evident  then,  that  the  balance  of  adapts*-— 
tion  of  this  variety  to  northwestern  conditions  is  impe:Kr"— 
feet  at  best  and  that  the  planting  of  Winesaps  in  Waslr»-— 
ington  may  easily  be  overdone.    This  variety  proved  to  t^^ 
one  of  the  best  in  keeping  quality.    Those  from  Pullma^:»3 
and  Cloverland  wilted  late  in  the  season,  though  most  o:^ 
the  other  lots  were  in  excellent  condition  in  April  and    ^» 
few  were  held  in  storage  until  July. 

Winter  Banana. — ^As  only  a  single  lot  of  this  variety 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  617 

was  examined  in  detail,  it  is  difficult  to  make  very  positive 
statements  regarding  its  behavior  in  the  state.  Though 
less  desirable  than  a  red  apple,  it  is  a  variety  of  handsome 
appearance  and  is  fairly  good  in  quality.  It  is  perhaps 
rather  better  adapted  than  the  average  to  certain  sections 
of  the  state  and  appears  to  develop  best  in  fairly  elevated 
situations.  It  is  especially  well  liked  in  the  Spokane  Val- 
ley, and  fruit  grown  there  is  said  to  have  good  keeping 
quality,  though  the  specimens  from  western  Washington 
were  past  season  by  midwinter.  They  wilted  badly  and 
showed  much  scald. 

Yellow  Bellflower. — This  variety  appears  to  be  better 
adapted  to  the  western  part  of  the  state  than  to  the  irri- 
gated valleys.  The  apples  from  Clarkston  were  coarser 
in  texture,  milder  in  flavor  and  poorer  in  quality  than 
the  samples  received  from  the  east.  There  were  no  very 
striking  differences  in  form,  structure  or  appearance  ex- 
cept that  the  eastern  Bellflowers  were  more  often  blushed 
than  those  from  Clarkston.  The  apples  from  Puyallup 
were  overgrown  specimens  from  young  trees,  were  coarse 
and  spongy  in  texture,  and  inferior  in  quality.  As  this  is 
a  tender  fruit,  easily  injured  by  careless  handling,  •  and 
does  not  appear  to  be  especially  well  balanced  in  its 
adaptations,  it  is  not  desirable  to  plant  extensively  for 
shipping.  Moreover,  it  is  not  a  good  keeper.  The  speci- 
mens from  Puyallup  were  practically  past  season  when 
received  and  those  obtained  from  the  east  were  more  or 
less  injured  and  such  specimens  decayed  quickly.  Some 
of  the  lot  from  Clarkston,  however,  kept  sound  and  firm 
until  past  midwinter,  but  deteriorated  in  flavor  toward  the 
last. 

Yellow  Newtown. — ^When  at  its  best,  this  variety  has 
few  equals.  It  is  narrow  in  the  limits  of  its  adaptations 
and  its  successful  culture  in  the  eastern  states  is  confined 
to  small  areas,  where,  however,  it  is  in  nearly  perfect 
equilibrium  with  its  environment.  In  many  places  in  the 
northwest  it  is  grown  successfuUjj,  though  it  scarcely 
equals  in  quality  the  best  eastern  product.  The  fruit 
from  White  Salmon  and  some  of  the  irrigated  districts 


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618  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST       [VoL.XLVm 

was  of  excellent  quality,  but  coarser  and  less  delicate  in 
texture  and  of  not  quite  so  good  flavor  as  the  apples  from 
West  Virginia.  The  specimens  from  Cloverland  were 
hard  and  green  and  gave  evidence  of  imperfect  maturity. 
Evidently  the  elevation  is  too  great  for  its  proper  devel- 
opment. The  single  sample  from  western  Washington 
consisted  of  well-colored,  extensively  blushed  fruit,  but 
was  inferior  in  quality.  Owing  to  its  limited  area  of  suc- 
cessful production  in  the  east,  it  is  worth  planting  in 
Washington  wherever  its  characters  give  evidence  of  a 
fair  degree  of  balance  of  adaptation  with  the  environ- 
ment. This  variety  is  perhaps  a  better  keeper  than  Wine- 
sap.  Some  of  the  fruit  from  White  Salmon  kept  in  good 
condition  until  July,  though  overgrown  fruit  and  that 
which  has  been  exposed  to  heat  before  storage  showed 
signs  of  physiological  decay  late  in  the  season.  Under- 
developed specimens  wilted  in  storage. 

York  Imperial. — ^In  sections  of  Virginia  and  neighbor- 
ing states  the  York  Imperial  occupies  the  place  of  su- 
premacy held  by  the  Baldwin  farther  north.  This  is 
doubtless  due  to  its  perfect  balance  with  the  environmental 
conditions  of  that  region,  and,  like  the  Baldwin  and  other 
sorts  perfectly  adapted  to  their  eastern  habitat,  this 
variety  finds  itself  out  of  equilibrium  when  moved  to  the 
northwest.  The  apples  from  western  Washington  were 
of  good  size  and  color,  but  were  coarse  and  undesirable 
in  texture  and  poor  in  quality.  The  specimens  grown 
at  Pullman  were  smaller,  more  elongated,  and  less  com- 
pressed than  the  others,  and  the  axes  were  less  oblique. 
They  were  somewhat  better  in  quality,  though  not  good 
enough  to  justify  more  extensive  planting.  The  fruit 
wilted  in  storage,  and  that  from  western  Washington 
gave  evidence  of  fungous  infection  and  scalded  badly  after 
midwinter. 

Discussion  of  the  Effect  of  Environment  Upon  Apple 

Chabactebs 
Size. — Size  is  the  direct  result  of  development.    An 
apple  will  reach  its  maximum  in  growth  when  all  factors 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  619 

are  at  the  variety  optimum  for  the  physiological  proc- 
esses upon  which  development  depends.  A  departure 
from  this  optimum,  whether  toward  a  greater  or  less  in- 
tensity, means  a  decrease  in  size,  as  is  observed  in  ap- 
proaching either  the  northern  or  southern  range  of  a 
variety.  It  has  been  frequently  noted,  however,  that  the 
optimum  for  growth  is  not  the  best  combination  of  fact- 
ors for  the  development  of  certain  other  desirable  char- 
acters, so  that  it  is  well  to  choose  an  environment  having 
certain  factors  in  a  somewhat  less  degree  of  intensity, 
being  content  with  fruit  of  fair  size  but  superior  in  other 
respects.  Since  the  apple  contains  about  85  per  cent,  of 
moisture  it  is  evident  that  the  water  supply  is  a  factor  of 
prime  importance  in  determining  size.  It  is  possible  by 
excessive  irrigation  to  force  an  abnormal  growth  of  the 
fruit,  though  always  apparently  at  the  expense  of  text- 
ure, flavor,  and  keeping  quality.  It  is  evident,  then,  that 
if  fruit  of  good  quality  is  expected,  irrigation  must  be 
moderate  in  amount,  especially  with  vigorous  young 
trees.  Thinning  may  result  in  increased  size  owing  to 
the  larger  amount  of  moisture  available  for  each  fruit. 
Temperature  and  length  of  season  are  of  importance  in 
determining,  respectively,  the  rapidity  of  growth  and  de- 
gree of  development  attained. 

Form. — One  of  the  striking  features  revealed  by  the 
study  of  a  number  of  varieties  from  several  localities  is 
the  fact  that  the  modification  in  shape  due  to  the  differ- 
ence in  environment  is  by  no  means  uniform  for  the 
several  varieties.  Some  varieties  are  quite  constant  in 
shape  while  others  are  much  more  plastic  in  this  respect. 
Moreover,  certain  varieties  are  much  more  easily  in- 
fluenced than  others  which  respond  in  the  same  way, 
while  still  others  respond  differently  to  the  same  factors. 
One  of  the  most  frequently  observed  and  conspicuous 
modifications  of  form  consists  of  the  elongation  of  the 
axis  of  the  fruit  relative  to  the  horizontal  diameter.  This 
character  has  been  especially  studied,  in  the  case  of  the 
Ben  Davis,  by  Shaw,  who  found  the  elongation  most 
noticeable  in  fruit  from  the  northeastern  states,  the  mari- 


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620  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VokXLVm 

time  provinces  of  Canada,  and  the  Pacific  coast.   Shaw's 
papers  dealing  with  this  subject  have  already  been  noted. 
Upon  studying  the  climate  in  these  localities,  it  was  found 
that  the  temperature  for  two  or  three  weeks  after  the 
blooming  season  was  notably  lower  than  in  the  sections 
where  the  Ben  Davis  assumes  its  normal  shape.    Since 
this  appeared  to  be  the  only  factor  constant  for  the 
several  localities,  it  is  suggested  as  the  explanation  of 
this  variation.    It  has  been  shown,  however,  that  temper- 
ature is  incapable  of  influencing  form  except  by  its  action 
through  the  functions  of  the  plant  in  modifying  the  effect 
of  some  other  factor.    It  is  the  writer's  opinion  that  the 
elongation  is  due  to  the  relative  moisture  supply  of  the 
different  parts  of  the  apple  at  this  period  of  develop- 
ment as  influenced  by  the  temperature ;  that  it  is  primar- 
ily a  modification  due  to  the  moisture  relation  rather 
th^n  to  the  direct  effect  of  temperature,  the  latter  being 
a  secondary  cause.    The  rapidity  of  circulation  of  the  sap 
and  therefore  the  supply  of  moisture  to  the  organs  of  the 
plant  is  greatly  influenced  by  the  temperature.    It  is  a 
well-known  fact  of  plant  physiology  that  much  less  moist- 
ure passes  through  the  plant  in  the  cool  days  of  spring 
than  during  the  warmer  weather  of  midsunmaer.    A  re- 
duction of  the  temperature  at  this  time  results  in  a  still 
more  sluggish  movement  of  the  sap.    In  the  period  im- 
mediately after  blooming  the  energy  of  the  plant,  so  far 
as  the  development  of  the  fruit  is  concerned,  is  directed 
primarily  to  the  proper  nourishment  of  the  growing  seeds 
and  the  adjacent  parts.    If  at  this  time  the  circulation 
of  the  sap  is  retarded  by  a  temperature  unwontedly  low 
for    the  variety,  the  moisture  supply  of  the  fruit  is 
lessened  and  a  relatively  larger  amount  goes  to  the  seeds 
and  adjacent  parts,  while  the  pulpy  portion  of  the  fmit 
receives  a  more  scant  supply.    As  a  result,  the  axillary 
development  is  proportionately  greater  than  the  sweUing 
of  the  fruit  due  to  the  accumulation  of  moisture  in  the 
superficial  tissues.    After  some  two  or  three  weeks  the 
form  of  the  fruit  becomes  fixed  and  is  not  noticably  in- 
fluenced by  the  moisture  supply  thereafter. 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  621 

The  elongation  of  the  fniit  is  usually  accompanied  by 
a  constriction  of  the  apex  resulting  in  a  conical  form. 
This  may  be  due  to  the  greater  development  of  the  basal 
portion,  which  is  adjacent  to  the  point  where  the  sap 
enters  the  fruit  and  may  therefore  be  better  supplied, 
though  the  physiology  of  fruit  development  is  in  need  of 
further  study.  In  the  Grimes,  however,  an  oblong  form 
results.  The  Mcintosh,  as  grown  at  Pullman,  is  often 
decidedly  obovate,  a  variation  which  the  writer  ascribes 
to  the  same  influences  that  produce  the  elongated  conic 
form  of  the  Ben  Davis  and  other  varieties,  though  in  this 
variety  the  response  is  somewhat  different.  The  Ehode 
Island  Greening,  Willow  and  Wagener,  as  a  rule,  fail  to 
assume  an  elongated  form  in  localities  where  it  is  well 
marked  in  some  other  varieties.  Also  in  certain  varie- 
ties which  are  naturally  conic  in  form  and  considerably 
elongated,  as  Delicious  and  Yellow  Bellflower,  this  effect 
is  not  evident.  The  larger  number  of  varieties,  when 
grown  in  this  state,  have  a  more  ribbed  form  than  the 
same  varieties  in  the  east.  This  seems  to  be  due  to  a  lack 
of  balance  in  adaptation,  though  the  particular  factor 
which  gives  rise  to  the  variation  has  not  been  determined. 
Some  varieties,  like  the  York  Imperial  and  the  Yellow 
Newtown,  are  compressed  in  form,  that  is  elliptical  in 
section,  and  have  an  oblique  axis  when  grown  in  certain 
environments.  These  characters  seem  to  be  in  some  way 
related  to  the  better  development  of  the  fruit,  as  they  are 
less  evident  in  fruit  from  the  elevated  and  unfavorable 
.  sections  of  the  state.  Beach  has  noted  in  the  *'  Apples  of 
New  York''  a  similar  difference  between  the  Newtowns 
of  western  New  York  and  those  of  the  Hudson  Valley,  the 
latter  having  a  more  oblique  axis  and  elliptical  form. 

Stem. — The  stem  is  one  of  the  most  variable  structures 
of  the  apple,  and,  owing  to  the  fact  that  stems  of  different 
lengths,  diameters  and  shapes  are  commonly  found  in 
any  lot  of  apples  grown  under  practically  uniform  con- 
ditions, it  is  difficult  to  associate  such  variations  with  the 
environment.  The  writer  has  noted,  however,  in  the  case 
of  some  short-stemmed  varieties,  like  the  York  Imperial, 


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622  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 

that  those  lots  grown  under  less  favorable  conditions  had, 
on  the  average,  longer  stems  than  others  grown  under  a 
more  favorable  environment. 

Cavity. — The  most  conspicuous  variation  in  the  cavity 
is  in  its  depth.  This  is  of  especial  note  in  the  Rome,  which 
has  a  very  shallow  cavity  in  most  parts  of  the  state.  This 
is  doubtless  due  to  the  same  cause  which  produces  the 
elongated  form  of  the  fruit  in  many  varieties,  namely  the 
elongation  of  the  axis  resulting  from  a  deficient  moisture 
supply  incident  to  a  low  temperature  after  the  blooming 
season.  In  this  variety  the  elongated  axis  obliterates  the 
cavity  instead  of  modifying  the  general  outline  of  the 
fruit.  The  same  variation  is  also  noted  to  a  less  degree 
in  a  number  of  other  varieties.  An  especially  furrowed 
cavity  is  often  observed  associated  as  a  rule  with  the 
ribbed  form  of  fruit. 

Calyx. — The  writer  has  failed  to  observe  any  modifica- 
tions of  importance  in  the  calyx  lobes  of  the  fruit.  The 
size  of  the  calyx  cup  or  ''  eye  '*  of  the  apple  is  influenced 
by  the  development  of  the  fruit.  In  large  fruit  this  open- 
ing is  apt  to  be  large,  so  that  the  lobes  are  separated,  re- 
sulting in  an  open  or  partly  open  calyx.  Small  or  poorly 
developed  apples,  on  the  other  hand,  usually  have  the 
calyx  closed. 

Basin. — The  depth  of  the  basin  seems  to  depend  upon 
the  same  factors  as  that  of  the  cavity  and  seems  to  be 
much  more  readily  influenced  than  the  latter.  The  width 
is  often  associated  with  the  form  of  the  apple,  a  very  con- 
stricted apex  resulting  in  a  narrow  basin.  A  much  fur- 
rowed basin  results  from  a  combination  of  factors  un- 
favorable to  the  best  development  of  the  fruit. 

Skin. — Statements  have  often  appeared  in  regard  to 
the  effect  of  various  climatic  factors  upon  the  thickness 
and  toughness  of  the  skin.  Estimates  of  these  characters, 
however,  appear  to  be  based  entirely  upon  sense  impres- 
sions of  the  observers,  although  it  would  seem  that  exact 
measurements  would  not  be  especially  difficult.  In  the 
absence  of  such  accurate  data,  an  expression  of  opinion 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  I!^  THE  APPLE  623 

would  be  premature.  Dry  air  and  sunshine  are  favorable 
to  the  production  of  clear,  smooth  skin. 

Color. — There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  the  coloration 
of  apples  depends  upon  the  influence  of  several  factors  of 
which  light  is  usually  the  most  important.  The  impor- 
tance of  light  is  easily  demonstrated  by  covering  the  fruit 
during  development  either  wholly  or  in  part.  The  in- 
tensity of  illumination  is  also,  evidently,  quite  narrow  in 
its  limits,  so  that  a  point  is  soon  reached  at  which  the 
color  begins  to  pale  owing  to  excess  of  illumination.  It 
has  been  frequently  noted  that  apples  grown  near  the 
southern  limit  of  the  range  of  a  variety  are  paler  than 
those  grown  farther  to  the  north.  This  effect  appears  to 
be  the  result  of  an  excess  of  the  two  factors,  heat  and 
light.  It  has  been  mentioned  in  the  discussion  of  the 
characters  of  several  varieties  that,  contrary  to  the  gen- 
eral impression,  those  grown  in  Washington  east  of  the 
Cascades  where  insolation  is  intense  were  less  highly 
colored  than  those  from  western  Washington  or  the  east- 
ern states.  The  most  marked  example  of  this  kind  which 
the  writer  has  observed  is  the  Northern  Spy.  Again, 
contrary  to  the  general  impression,  most  of  the  samples 
from  elevated  locations  were  poorly  colored,  a  fact  which 
may  be  attributed  partly  to  the  strong  insolation  and 
partly  to  the  poor  development  due  to  the  low  summer 
temperature.  It  appears,  therefore,  that  either  too 
strong  or  too  weak  illumination  may  result  in  poorly 
colored  fruit  and  that  the  best  color  is  developed  under  a 
condition  of  optimum  intensity  of  the  light. 

It  is  suggested  above  that  temperature  may  influ- 
ence color.  This  is  most  commonly  observed  in  the 
case  of  apples  grown  under  conditions  of  too 
high  summer  temperature,  though  a  deterioration 
in  color  also  results  if  the  temperature  is  much 
below  the  optimum  for  the  variety.  It  is  often 
stated  that  apples  become  more  highly  colored  the  farther 
north  they  are  grown.  This  is  only  true  in  part.  Those 
varieties  which  are  adapted  to  the  most  northerly  por- 
tions of  the  apple  belt  are  able  to  develop  their  highest 


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624  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  5^x^-^n. 

color  at  the  limit  of  winter  hardiness  of  the  tree*  ^\e 

southern  varieties,  on  the  other  hand,  require  for  tlx.^^    "best 
development  of  color  a  higher  summer  temperatur-^^     -fciau 
is  experienced  in  the  northern  localities.    The  Wi:B=^^sa^^ 
for  example,  when  grown  in  Central  New  York  is  :E3«i.rV5^ 
covered  with  a  pale  red.    At  Pullman  the  major^il^^r     of 
varieties  color  poorly,  due  at  least  in  part  to  th.^^      <^<yol 
climate.    That  the  temperature  and  not  the  shortn^^^ss   of 
the  season  is  the  factor  involved  is  shown  by  the  fa^:^  t  i:laat 
most  of  these  varieties  color  well  in  central  New^       "5E"orlf 
which  has  a  season  of  about  the  same  length  fcTfcioxi^k 
averaging  several  degrees  warmer. 

Cultural  conditions  may  influence  the  color  to      ^3l.    cer- 
tain degree.    In  general  those  processes  of  orcharc3^    xman- 
agement  which  favor  the  early  maturity  of  the  fr-^jia.it;  re- 
sult in  improved  color,  especially  in  localities  ha^^^ixig  a 
short  growing  season.    Pruning  and  wide  planti»:ziL.gr  are 
regarded  as  favoring  high  coloration  by  admittin^^^     light 
into  the  tree,  though  it  is  possible  that  in  regions      ^^^^here 
the  light  is  intense  these  factors  may  not  be  of  so       .^great 
importance  in  their  effect  upon  color  as  in  less  sunn.  -^^^    loca- 
tions.   Something  has  been  said  of  the  influence       '^z^rC  the 
soil  in  the  discussion  of  the  literature  and  it  ha-  g=^       been 
noted  also  that  studies  of  the  effect  of  fertilizers  upi^  .«>xi  the 
color  have  not  yielded  satisfactory  or  uniform  r:--^^^ults. 
The  influence  of  iron  compounds  is  worthy  of  brL  '^3^:C  dis- 
cussion in  this  connection.    It  seems  evident,  frcz^:*^^"^  the 
chemical  studies  which  have  been  made,  that  the  r^^^*  <^  PSf- 
ment  includes  iron  in  its  composition.    This  has-         some- 
times been  assumed  to  mean  that  the  chief  requixT'^^^^^^Dt 
for  highly  colored  fruit  is  the  presence  of  plenty  of  ^a^v^u- 
able  iron  compounds  in  the  soil.    As  a  matter  of^     :t^et, 
iron  is  also  necessaly  to  the  formation  of  chlorophyJ^  ^-^^ 
most  soils  contain  an  abundance  of  that  element  fox*    ^ie 
purpose.    From  the  chemical  data  compiled  by  Ste^^'^^^^^ 
it  appears  that  the  ash  of  the  fruit  contains  a,  ZOT^<^i 
smaller  proportion  of  iron  than  that  of  the  leaves.    It^  is 
logical  to  conclude,  therefore,  that  soils  containing  stx^' 

6  Pa.  Sta.  Eept.  for  1910-11. 


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No.  674]  VABIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  626 

cient  iron  for  the  development  of  chlorophyll  in  the  leaves 
are  also  fully  supplied  for  the  formation  of  the  red  pig- 
ment of  the  apple. 

Internal  Structure. — ^The  form  and  relative  develop- 
ment of  the  core  and  associated  structures  are  subject  to 
numerous  variations,  which,  however,  are  seldom  so  con- 
spicuous as  to  attract  attention  unless  closely  studied, 
and  appear  to  be  of  little  practical  importance  to  either 
the  grower  or  consumer  of  the  fruit.  The  number  of 
seeds  may  be  mentioned  as  an  indication  of  the  thorough- 
ness of  cross  pollination  and  in  most  varieties  the  pres- 
ence of  one  or  more  well  developed  seeds  is  a  requisite 
to  the  proper  development  of  the  fruit.  Small  or  poorly 
developed  fruit,  the  result  of  too  short  a  season  or  too 
low  a  temperature,  is  apt  to  have  the  core  closed  and  axile, 
or  nearly  so,  while  in  the  same  varieties  good  develop- 
ment is  usually  associated  with  a  more  open  abaxile  core. 
The  carpels  of  such  poorly  developed  fruit  are  usually 
entire  and  smooth,  while  those  of  the  better-grown  fruit 
are  more  or  less  cleft  and  often  tufted. 

Flesh  Characters. — From  the  standpoint  of  the  con- 
sumer, these  are  by  all  odds  the  most  important  charac- 
ters of  the  fruit,  though  lost  sight  of  through  the  empha- 
sis placed  on  external  characters,  and  no  grower  who 
has  at  heart  the  permanent  prosperity,  extension  and 
normal  development  of  the  industry  can  aflford  to  look 
upon  quality  as  a  secondary  consideration.  Neglect  in 
this  matter  is  sure  to  result  sooner  or  later  in  a  bad  repu- 
tation for  the  fruit  among  a  considerable  proportion  of 
buyers,  which  appearance  and  advertising  will  not  be 
competent  to  overcome.  The  fact  can  not  be  denied  that 
the  great  majority  of  varieties  fail  to  attain  as  high 
quality  in  the  northwest  as  when  grown  in  the  eastern  or 
middle  states  where  nearly  all  of  them  .originated,  while 
^t  the  same  time  they  may  excel  in  other  important  char- 
acters. This  is  especially  true  of  most  of  the  choice 
dessert  apples.  Such  unequal  development  can  have  no 
other  interpretation  than  that  these  varieties  are  in  a 
state  of  unbalanced  adaptation  to  the  environment.    This 


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626  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  Xt^^^v^j^ 

fact  being  recognized,  the  main  question  is,  How  cam^  fliis 
disadvantage  be  overcome  T  Evidently  the  solution  ^ioes 
not  consist  in  a  steadfast  refusal  to  face  the  situ-^^^^-t^Q^^ 
and  vehement  declaration  that  the  fruit  of  any  parti  ^^z^xilar 
district  is  the  best  that  can  be  produced.  Such  ta^  -^z^tics, 
though  well  meant,  can  be  permanently  successful  only 

when  the  statements  are  justified  by  the  facts.  If  ^^^.^^pie 
(Culture  in  Washington  is  to  be  maintained  upon  a  ^  '^z>T3iid 
basis  it  will  be  necessary  first  of  all  that  growers  aslaall 
exercise  great  care  in  planting  to  choose  those  var*i_^^ties 
most  nearly  in  equilibrium  with  the  environment  Lzbzx  the 
various  sections  of  the  state,  at  the  same  time  avc^  iciing 
over-irrigation  or  other  errors  in  orchatd  manag^^  zaacieiit 
which  may  tend  to  an  unequal  development  of  the  ^3 liar- 
acters  of  the  fruit,  usually  at  the  expense  of  qc»..«ility. 
Even  this,  however,  may  be  but  a  temporary  mak^  ^laift^ 
since  few  if  any  of  the  better  varieties  possess  tl=^  -^  re- 
quisite power  of  adaptation.  It  will  be  necessary  fi^^Hcrst  of 
all  to  determine  if  the  variations  which  appear  -'^v^heii 
apples  are  grown  from  seed  in  the  northwest  are  ^^aote 
favorable  in  character  than  those  which  are  display^^<3  by 
introduced  varieties.  If  such  should  prove  to  be  tk^3  oase 
the  writer  is  under  the  conviction  that  the  apple  (*-irM-T  ttire 
of  the  northwest  should  ultimately  be  largely  mad  ^3  C3ver 
on  a  basis  of  new  varieties  of  local  origin.  A  num"li>^r  ^^ 
such  varieties  have  already  appeared,  but  unfortu-:*^^^*'*^'^ 
some  of  them  have  been  chosen  with  little  regamr-cfl  ^^] 
quality.  No  work  of  greater  value  to  the  future  laorti- 
culture  of  the  region  can  be  undertaken  by  the  expezKr^i^"^^^^' 
stations  of  the  northwestern  states  than  the  develoX^-'^^f^'' 
of  apple  varieties  of  high  quality  and  perfect  adap>*"^*^^° 
to  the  various  sections  of  their  respective  states. 

The  apples  of  high  quality  which  show  a  fair  deg'X*^^ 
adaptation  to  the  irrigated  sections  are  Esopus,  "ST^J^^^ 
Newtown,  Delicious  and  White  Pearmain.    The  last^    ^^^^ 
found  by  Lewis,  of  the  Oregon  station,  to  be  one   o:f  ^^ 
best   poUenizers   on   every   variety   tested.     Joaatl^^/ 
Winesap  and  Stayman,  though  largely  grown,  sho^i^^  ^^ 
general  a  poorer  balance  of  characters.     In  the  more 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  62T 

elevated  valleys  Wagener,  Delicious  and  Mcintosh  are 
doubtless  most  worthy  of  culture.  The  highlands  of 
eastern  Washington  are  very  poorly  adapted  to  the  grow- 
ing of  winter  apples,  though  some  of  the  early  apples  do 
fairly  well,  among  which  may  be  mentioned  Oldenburg, 
Gravenstein  and  Yellow  Transparent.  On  account  of 
the  abundance  of  sunshine  the  Oldenburg  develops  a  high 
sugar  content  for  the  variety  which  counteracts  its  natural 
acidity  and  results  in  an  apple  of  pretty  good  dessert 
quality.  Of  the  winter  apples,  Eome  reaches  good 
marketable  size  but  the  quality  is  not  high  and  the  east- 
em  market  should  not  be  jeopardized  by  shipping  this 
variety.  The  Palouse,  an  apple  of  local  origin,  is  of 
much  better  quality,  but  has  little  standing  in  the  market 
as  yet.  The  Dutch  Migonne,  a  variety  from  western 
Europe,  shows  a  better  balance  of  characters  in  eastern 
Washington  than  in  most  other  sections  of  this  country. 
It  is  of  good  size,  fairly  well  colored  and  excellent  in 
quality. 

Many  varieties  popular  in  the  eastern  states  color 
better  west  of  the  Cascades  than  in  eastern  Washington, 
though  there  is  usually  manifest  a  lack  of  balance  in 
other  characters.  In  certain  respects  the  environment 
resembles  that  of  western  Europe  and  many  of  the  va- 
rieties of  cherries,  plums,  prunes,  and  other  fruits  of 
that  country  do  very  well  here  and,  indeed,  in  other  sec- 
tions of  the  state  as  well,  though  in  a  number  of  instances 
varieties  of  northwestern  origin  are  gaining  in  favor 
rapidly.  Apple  breeding,  however,  requires  more  time 
for  its  accomplishment  and  further  importations  of 
fruits,  especially  apples,  adapted  to  the  mild  climate  of 
western  Europe  would  no  doubt  prove  an  advantage 
through  the  possible  discovery  of  sorts  adapted  espe*- 
cially  to  the  western  part  of  the  state. 

Quality  is  not  in  itself  a  simple  character.  It  depends 
upon  all  the  characters  of  the  flesh  which  determine  the 
desirability  of  the  fruit  for  eating,  such  as  texture,  juici- 
ness, aroma  and  flavor.  Fineness  of  texture  evidently 
depends  upon  a  proper  combination  of  favorable  factors. 


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628  TRE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

Conditions  favoring  rank  growth  result  in  coarse  texture, 
as  was  observed  in  several  instances  in  the  case  of  apples 
grown  under  irrigation,  especially  if  the  fruit  was  over- 
grown. Some  of  the  fruit  from  young  trees  also  was 
overgrown  and  coarse.  Tenderness  depends  upon  the  de- 
velopment. Poorly  grown,  under-developed  fruit  grown 
where  the  temperature  is  too  low  or  the  season  too  short 
for  the  variety  has  hard  flesh  which  becomes  spongy 
rather  than  mellow  toward  the  end  of  the  storage  season. 
Overgrown  fruit  of  certain  varieties,  on  the  other  hand, 
often  shows  lack  of  coherence  between  the  cells,  often  ac- 
companied apparently  by  larger  intercellular  spaces,  and 
jsuch  fruit  tends  to  become  mealy  as  the  season  pro-  | 

gresses.    Juiciness  is  primarily  a  manifestation  of  the  J 

amount  of  moisture  in  the  fruit,  but  is  also  associated  » 

with  the  tenderness  of  the  cell  walls  and  their  tendency 
to  break  rather  than  to  separate.     In  general  an  ^^"^l^g^ 
dance  of  moisture  results  in  juicy  fruit  though  the      ^    ^  '■ 

ness  is  not  in  proportion  to  the  moisture  supply.    Th^  •^^^^^^^^'  ' 

stances  which  give  the  apple  its  aroma  are  pres^^^^^^  ^^^ 
such  small  amounts  that  their  investigation  is  dl^jfj  in 

They  are  volatile  compounds  and  affect  the  flavor    '€z>:f  ^^^' 
apple  largely  by  their  action  on  the  sense  of  sm^Xl, 
cool  climate  is  favorable  to  their  production  and  i-fc    -^^ 
often  observed  that  they  were  most  strongly  develo  :^=^^<3^  : 
the  apples  from  elevated  situations.     Flavor  d^^>^j,^ 
upon  the  kinds,  amounts  and  relative  proportions     -^z^f  the 
soluble  solids,  especially  the  balance  between  suga:BC!^  ^    and 
acids,  and  will  be  given  further  consideration  in  tl::».  ^    dig-  i 

cussion  of  the  chemical  composition.  Immatur^-^^  and 
under-developed  apples  contain  some  tannic  acid,  ^^iT^hich 
is  often  sufficient  in  amount  to  give  an  astringent  (^Tti^^rac-  • 

ter  to  the  fruit.  ' 

^ Keeping  Quality. — In  its  relation  to  the  enviTo:M:^TX2entf  . 

keeping  quality  evidently  follows  the  same  rule  as    other 
variable  characters  of  the  apple,  namely,  that  for    ^ny 
variety  the  keeping  quality  depends  upon  the  optimum 
intensity  of  the  various  external  factors.    Apples  grown  \ 

where  the  temperature  is  too  low  or  the  season  too  short 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  629 

to  develop  the  fruit  to  a  proper  stage  to  keep  well,  soon 
wilt,  lose  flavor  and  scald,  or  show  other  evidence  of  de- 
terioration as  was  frequently  observed  in  the  fruit  from 
high  altitudes.  On  the  other  hand,  too  great  excess  of 
certain  factors  results  in  overgrown  or  overripe  fruit 
having  a  tendency  to  rot,  mealiness,  or  physiological  de- 
cay, as  in  the  case  of  the  Yellow  Bellflowers  from  Puyal- 
lup  and  some  of  the  fruit  from  the  warm  valleys.  The 
balance  of  factors  favorable  to  good  keeping  quality  does 
not  appear  to  differ  much  from  that  which  produces  the 
fruit  which  is  most  desirable  in  other  characters,  though 
it  is  possible  that  the  required  intensity  of  some  factors 
may  be  slightly  lower.  It  appears,  therefore,  that  a  good 
balance  of  the  other  characters  of  the  fruit  and  perfect 
adaptation  to  the  environment  will  be  accompanied,  as  a 
rule,  by  good  keeping  quality,  provided  that  the  fruit  is 
properly  handled  and  not  infected  with  disease,  while  aa 
unbalanced  adaptation  of  characters  to  environment  ia 
likely  to  result  in  poor  keeping  quality.  It  seems  prob^ 
able  that  irrigation  in  itself  does  not  result  in  poor  keep- 
ing except  when  improperly  applied  or  carried  to  excess: 
or  associated  with  other  factors  in  such  a  way  as  to  de-^ 
stroy  the  equilibrium  of  the  environment.  The  relation; 
of  specific  gravity  to  the  keeping  quality  is  discussed  in 
a  succeeding  paragraph. 

Specific  Gravity.— It  has  long  been  understood  that 
varieties  of  apples  differ  in  their  relative  weights;  thus 
Wolf  River  is  comparatively  light  and  Baldwin  is  gener- 
ally regarded  as  a  heavy  apple.  The  only  record  found 
of  the  determination  of  specific  gravity  of  apples  is  that 
of  Howard's  work  in  the  National  Bureau  of  Chemistry, 
Bulletin  94,  in  which  it  is  noted  that  the  specific  gravity 
diminished  3  per  cent,  to  5  per  cent,  during  storage. 
From  the  account  it  is  not  clear  whether  the  determina- 
tions at  the  different  dates  were  made  with  the  same 
apples.  The  decrease  of  specific  gravity  is  ascribed  to  the 
increase  of  air  spaces  between  the  cells  due  to  the  soften- 
ing of  the  middle  lamella.  In  the  specific  gravity  determi- 
nations made  by  the  writer  a  number  of  points  was  noted. 


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630  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XU'-^V^rj-ji 

The  different  lots  of  a  variety  may  differ  considerabB^-^y-    \^ 
specific  gravity,  though  as  a  rule  running  somewhat  ci^-Tl^oae 
together,  thus  Ben  Davis  and  Gano  are  apples  of  low      s^;t)e- 
cific  gravity,  while  Grimes,  Stayman,  Wagener,  and  Y^=^  ^^  ^^ 
Newtown  run  rather  high  and  Baldwin  and  Rome  m^_  ^^^^    ]^ 
classed  as  medium  in  this  respect.     Overgrown  afz:^  3|p>^eg 
were  low  in  specific  gravity,  probably  owing  to  mor^^^r     ^[^ 
space  between  the  cells.     This  is  more  apparent  'm.zi^.^f^on 
examining  the  results  for  individual  apples  than  "mj=».^poii 
comparing  the  average  for  different  lots,  as  in  the  l-^^^^tter 
case  the  extremes  are  modified  by  averaging  with  tlm.  -^^    le- 
sults  for  more  normal  specimens.     On  the  other  tzM^-^i^nd, 
small  and  rather  undeveloped  apples  are  apt  to  ha^^^^?-c  a 
high  specific  gravity  on  account  of  their  solid  flest*^        land 
usually  closed  core.    Juicy  apples,  if  not  overgrown,      ZMoM^SLve 
a  high  specific  gravity  when  the  juiciness  is  due  to  £u       Hxigh 
moisture  content. 

The  relation  of  specific  gravity  to  keeping  quality        i  s  of 
interest.     While  some  late  keeping  varieties  have  xior- 

mally  a  low  specific  gravity,  those  lots  of  a  given  v^ik:  jriety 
having  a  high  specific  gravity  for  the  variety  are  u^  -•J-Silly 
the  best  keepers.    This  is  in  line  with  the  fact  that  c^  ^mr±.  ain 
■causes  which  give  rise  to  fruit  of  poor  keeping  qmii«-^iJity 
also  produce  a  low  specific  gravity.    This  is  shown^        ^v^ery 
strikingly  by  a  comparison  of  the  specific  gravities  am-  ^s    <5al- 
culated  month  by  month  through  the  season.     A^  ^3      the 
calculations  were  made  at  the  time  the  fruit  was  z^" ovinia 
fit  for  use,  the  monthly  averages  show  the  steady  inc^^^*^^^^ 
in  specific  gravity  with  the  better  keeping  quality  ^z^^^  ^^^ 
fruit,  though  modified  somewhat  by  the  peculiarit  i  ^  ^  ^' 
the  different  varieties  which  happened  to  be  in  sea^^  ^:>xi  at 
different  times.    These  averages  are  as  follows:  N<z^^^^^^' 
ber  and  December,   0.787;   January,   0.787;   Feb^r^'*^-^^''' 
0.810;  March,  0.831;  April,  0.852.    Though  these  j-^^tJ^s 
may  seem  to  be  at  variance  with  Howard's  obserir.^t'*^^^^ 
it  is  possible  that  if  the  same  specimens  had  been  -fc^^^^ 
at  intervals  a  decrease  in  specific  gravity  would     ii^ve 
been  noted. 

Chemical  Composition.— In  order  to  throw  some  HS'^^ 


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No.  574]  VARIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  631 

if  possible,  upon  the  relation  of  chemical  composition  to 
the  other  characters  of  the  apple  and  to  determine 
whether  the  composition  is  influenced  by  the  environment, 
the  juice  of  the  various  samples  of  Grimes,  Jonathan, 
Winesap  and  Yellow  Bellflower  was  analyzed  by  the  de- 
partment of  chemistry. 

The  juice  of  the  Grimes  and  Winesap  contains,  as  a 
rule,  a  decidedly  higher  percentage  of  total  solids  than 
that  of  the  Jonathan  and  Yellow  Bellflower.  It  is  also 
generally  higher  in  specific  gravity  and  has  a  greater 
viscosity.  In  Grimes  and  Yellow  Bellflower  the  juice  of 
the  eastern-grown  fruit  contains  a  large  proportion  of 
total  solids  than  that  of  the  Washington  grown  fruit, 
though  this  rule  does  not  hold  good  in  the  other  varieties. 
The  apples  from  the  irrigated  valleys  and  western  Wash- 
ington were  low  in  total  solids  with  the  single  exception 
of  the  Winesaps  from  Cashmere.  The  analyses  fail  to 
show  any  constant  difference  in  sugar  content  in  favor  of 
the  fruit  produced  in  the  sunny  climate  with  long  hours 
of  daylight  characteristic  of  the  apple-growing  sections 
of  the  state. 

In  Grimes  the  total  sugars  are  fairly  high  and  the  pro- 
portion of  sucrose  is  especially  large.  The  acid  content, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  low  as  a  rule.  The  result  is  a  rich, 
mild  or  nearly  sweet  flavor.  A  sample  from  Puyallup 
showed  the  lowest  sucrose  content  combined  with  the 
highest  acid  content,  and  this  was  the  least  rich  as  well  as 
the  most  acid  in  flavor. 

,  Jonathan,  on  the  other  hand,  displays  a  low  content  of 
total  sugars  and  especially  sucrose,  while  the  acid  content 
is  slightly  higher  than  in  Grimes,  indicating  a  subacid 
apple,  lacking  in  richness.  The  lots  from  Missouri  and 
Indiana  were  highest  in  sucrose  but  were  of  scarcely  as 
good  quality  as  the  Jonathans  from  West  Virginia.  The 
latter  were  low  in  both  sucrose  and  acid,  but  displayed  a 
good  balance  between  these  constituents,  indicating  an 
apple  with  rather  thin  juice,  not  very  rich,  but  pleasant 
and  refreshing.    Its  evident  superiority  resulted  largely 


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632  TEE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

from  the  fine  texture  and  well-developed  flavoring  con- 
stituents not  shown  by  the  analysis, 

The  Winesaps,  though  high  in  total  sugars,  are  low  in 
sucrose,  indicating  a  heavy  juice  rather  lacking  in  rich- 
ness. The  comparatively  high  acid  content  corresponds 
to  the  sprightly  subacid  character  of  the  fruit.  The  high- 
est acid  content  was  found  in  the  fruit  from  Cloverland, 
where  it  is  associated  with  a  total  lack  of  sucrose  result- 
ing in  a  comparatively  poor  fruit.  The  apples  from 
Cashmere  and  White  Salmon  were  also  devoid  of  sucrose 
in  the  juice,  but  the  acid  content  was  low  and  the  flavor- 
ing principles  well  developed,  as  a  result  of  which  the 
quality  was  fairly  good.  The  poorly  developed  Winesaps 
grown  at  Pullman  were  deficient  in  sucrose,  acid,  and 
flavors  and  were  correspondingly  poor  in  quality. 

The  Yellow  Bellflowers,  though  low  in  total  sugars, 
were  rather  high  in  sucrose  and  also  in  acid.  The  bal- 
ance between  these  constituents  is  good  and  results  in  a 
moderately  rich,  pleasant,  subacid  flavor. 

SUMMABY 

The  opportunity  for  the  study  of  apple  variation  was 
unusually  good,  owing  to  the  facilities  afforded  for  the 
examination  of  fruit  from  various  localities  and  different 
environments,  and  it  has  been  possible  to  work  out  the 
fundamental  principle  upon  which  variation  resulting 
from  external  factors  depends  and  to  apply  it  in  the  study 
of  environmental  adaptations.  This  principle,  the  Law  of 
the  Optimum,  states  that,  for  any  given  variety  there  is 
for  each  character  a  certain  intensity  of  each  essential 
factor  of  the  environment  at  which,  other  conditions  re- 
maining the  same,  that  character  reaches  its  highest  de- 
velopment. 

In  the  application  of  this  law  to  varietal  adaptations, 
the  essential  point  is  the  proper  balance  between  char- 
acters and  environmental  factors,  that  is,  all  factors 
should  be  of  such  an  intensity  as  to  permit  a  good  all- 
round  development  of  the  fruit.    In  the  absence  of  such 


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ilo.574]  VABIATION  IN  THE  APPLE  633 

a  balance  certain  characters  may  fail  to  reach  a  proper 
degree  of  development  while  others  develop  to  excess. 

The  failure  in  quality  and  other  respects  of  many  of 
the  best  dessert  varieties  of  apples  when  grown  in  Wash- 
ington is  due  to  such  a  lack  of  balance.  Practically  all  of 
them  originated  under  a  much  different  environment  and 
were  selected  and  came  into  prominence  owing  to  their 
perfect  balance  of  adaptation  in  localities  having  a  set  of 
external  conditions  similar  to  those  under  which  they 
originated.  The  hope  of  northwestern  apple  culture  in 
the  future  lies  in  the  careful  selection  of  varieties  and  the 
origination  locally  of  varieties  of  high  quality  showing 
adaptation  to  the  conditions  of  growth  in  the  various  sec- 
tions. In  the  meantime  plantings  should  be  made  from 
those  varieties  of  high  quality  which  show  the  best 
adaptation.  These  are  Esopus,  Yellow  Newtown,  White 
Pearmain  and  Delicious  for  the  irrigated  valleys,  and 
Wagener,  Delicious  and  Mcintosh  for  the  higher  valleys 
of  northern  and  eastern  Washington.  Jonathan,  Stay- 
man  and  Winesap  show  a  poorer  balance  and  should  not 
be  planted  too  recklessly.  The  climate  of  the  Pacific 
coast  resembles  that  of  western  Europe  more  than  that 
of  the  eastern  states,  and  further  importations  of  Euro- 
pean varieties  is  desirable  especially  for  testing  west  of 
the  Cascades. 

The  moisture  relation  is  probably  the  most  important 
factor  in  inducing  variations,  and  is  doubtless  responsible 
for  certain  variations  which  have  been  ascribed  to  other 
causes  which  act  indirectly  by  modifying  the  moisture 
supply.  The  elongation  of  the  fruit  following  a  cool 
period  after  blooming  may  result  from  a  diminished  cir- 
culation of  the  sap,  giving  rise  to  an  insuflBcient  supply  to 
provide  for  the  simultaneous  development  of  the  fleshy 
portion  and  elongation  of  the  axis.  Variation  in  the 
depth  of  the  cavity  and  basin  in  certain  varieties  is  prob- 
ably to  be  explained  in  a  similar  way. 

Color  modifications  depend  to  a  great  extent  upon,  the 
light  relation  and  somewhat  upon  development  as  influ- 
enced by  temperature.     The  optimum  intensity  for  the 


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634  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVin 

production  of  red  pigment  is  quite  narrow  in  most  varie- 
ties and  poor  color  may  result  from  either  deficiency  or 
excess.  Latitude  and  altitude  affect  the  color  only  as 
they  modify  the  factors  upon  which  color  depends,  caus- 
ing them  to  approach  or  recede  from  the  optimum.  The 
influence  of  elements  in  the  soil  is  not  well  understood. 
It  is  probable  that  soils  containing  sufficient  iron  for  the 
proper  development  of  chlorophyll  contain  an  abundance 
for  the  production  of  red  pigment  in  apples. 

Aside  from  such  differences  as  depend  upon  the  hand- 
ling of  the  fruit,  variations  in  keeping  quality  appear  to 
follow  the  law  of  the  optimum  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
other  characters  of  the  fruit.  Conditions  which  favor  the 
best  all-round  development  result,  as  a  rule,  in  good  keej)- 
ing  quality.  Apples  grown  under  irrigation  are  said  to 
keep  poorly  probably  because  of  their  unbalanced  adapta- 
tion to  the  environment.  Certain  factors  which  favor  de- 
velopment and  maturity  are  present  in  excess,  resulting 
in  overgrown  or  overripe  fruit. 

Varieties  differ  in  specific  gravity  according  to  the 
extent  of  intercellular  spaces  in  the  flesh  and  the  open- 
ness of  the  core.  Overgrown  specimens  are  low  in  speci- 
fic gravity.  As  a  rule,  those  lots  which  kept  best  in  any 
variety  had  the  highest  specific  gravity. 

Chemical  composition  is  associated  somewhat  with 
quality.  High  sucrose  content  results  in  richness  of 
flavor.  Fruit  of  high  quality  has  the  sugars  and  acids 
well  balanced  and  the  flavoring  constituents  well  devel- 
oped. A  heavy  juice  is  usually  associated  with  a  high 
content  of  soluble  solids.  Fruit  grown  under  irrigation 
is  ordinarily  rather  low  in  soluble  solids.  There  seems 
to  be  no  constant  relation  between  the  amount  of  sunlight 
and  the  production  of  sugars,  and  flavors  appear  to  de- 
velop best  in  a  relatively  cool  climate. 


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SHOETEE  AETICLES  AND  DISCUSSION 

VARIATION  AND  CORRELATION  IN  THE  MEAN  AGE 
AT  MARRIAGE  OF  MEN  AND  WOMEN 

Somewhere  in  sociological  literature  we  have  met  with  the 
statement  that  whereas  the  mean  age  at  marriage  of  men  diflfers 
from  district  to  district  because  of  social  and  economic  conditions, 
the  mean  age  at  marriage  of  women  varies  but  little  because  of 
these  factors.  In  view  of  the  high  ''assortative  mating'* 
coefficient^  for  age  of  bride  and  groom,  this  statement  seemed  so 
remarkable  as  to  be  open  to  question. 

Its  validity  can  be  very  easily  tested  provided  the  mean  age  at 
marriage  of  men  and  women  from  a  series  of  districts  differing 
in  economic  and  social  conditions  are  available.  If  the  mean  age 
of  women  is  independent  of  these  conditions,  or  far  less  depend- 
ent upon  them  than  that  of  men,  one  should  find  (i)  that  the 
variation  of  mean  age  of  brides  is  lower  than  that  of  mean  age 
of  grooms,  and  (ii)  that  for  a  series  of  districts  the  coeffiicent  of 
correlation  between  the  mean  age  of  brides  and  grooms  is  very 
low. 

The  only  suitable  series  of  data  that  we  have  been  able  to  find 
is  that  given  by  A.  Dumont*  for  the  average  age  in  years  and 
months  at  first  marriage  of  the  males  and  females  of  the  87 
departments  of  France.  Grouping  his  data  in  classes  of  five 
months'  range,  we  find,  in  terms  of  months:' 

1  See  Lutz,  Science,  N.  S.,  Vol.  22,  pp.  249-250,  1905.  For  a  general  re- 
view of  the  literature  of  assortative  mating  see  Harris,  Pop.  8ci,  Mo.,  Vol. 
80,  pp.  476-492,  1912. 

2Dumont,  A.,  Bev.  Ecole  Anthrop,  Paris,  Vol.  14,  p.  163,  1904. 

8  The  results  given  by  the  ungrouped  data  are : 

For  Men  For  Women 

Mean 337.87  ±  .83  284.45  ±  1.01 

Standard  deviation 11.49  ±  .69  14.00  ±    .72 

Coefficient  of  variation 3.40  ±  .17  4.92  ±    .25 

Considering  the  shortness  of  the  series,  the  results  are  in  as  good  agreement 
as  could  be  expected. 

For  Men  For  Women 

Mean 337.76  ±  .80  284.43  ±  1.03 

Standard  deviation* 11.03  ±  .56  14.25  ±    .73 

Coefficient  of  variation 3.26  ±  .17  5.01  ±    .26 

-*  Without  Sheppard's  correction  for  the  second  moment. 

635 


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636 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


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Mean  Age  of  Men. 

We  note  that  the  women  many  on  an  average  about  four  years 
and  five  months  younger  than  the  men.  Contrary  to  what  we 
have  been  told,  their  mean  age  at  marriage  both  absolutely,  as 
measured  by  the  standard  deviation,  and  relatively,  as  measured 
by  the  coeflBcient  of  variation  is  more  variable  than  that  of  men. 
The  diflferenee  in  standard  deviations  for  the  ungrouped  material 
is  2.51  It  .93  and  for  the  grouped  records  3.22  db  .92.  These  are 
2.71  and  3.49  times  their  probable  error,  and  hence  perhaps 
significant.  For  the  coefficient  of  variation,  the  differences  by 
the  two  methods  are  1.52  it  .31  and  1.74  ±l  .31.  These  are  5.69 
and  4.96  times  their  probable  errors  and  their  significance  is 
even  more  probable  than  those  for  the  standard  deviations. 

The  correlation  coefficient  from  the  grouped  data  by  the  prod- 
uct moment  method,  using  the  means  and  standard  deviations 
given  above,  is 


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No.  674]        SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  637 

rmf  =  . 781  ±.028.^ 

Thus  on  a  scale  of  —  1  to  +1  the  interdependence  of  mean 
ages  of  men  and  women  is  very  close  indeed.*  Expressing  the 
same  relationship  in  terms  of  regression  by  the  well  known 
formula 


\  <ri»     /         (Tin 


where  the  bars  indicate  population  means  and  the  sigmas  popula- 
tion standard  deviations  of  m= males  and  /= females, 

/=— 56.474  +  1.009  m. 

Thus  we  see  that  each  month's  increase  in  average  male  age  is 
followed  by  a  month's  increase  in  mean  female  age.  The  fit  of 
the  straight  line  to  the  empirical  means  as  shown  in  the  diagram 
is  excellent — considering  the  small  number  of  the  district  means 
from  which  the  equation  is  deduced. 

Thus  the  available  data  show  that  the  mean  age  at  marriage  of 
women  instead  of  being  less  variable  from  district  to  district  than 
that  of  men  is  actually  more  variable — ^both  absolutely  and  rela- 
tively. 

In  short,  there  is,  as  far  as  our  data  go,  no  evidence  for  the 
assertion  that  while  the  time  of  marriage  of  men  is  closely  de- 
pendent upon  the  complex  of  social  and  economic  conditions  that 
of  women  is  practically  independent  of  them. 

We  have  published  this  note  in  the  hope  that  it  may  suggest 
to  some  one  with  the  opportunities  of  obtaining  really  adequate 
data  an  investigation  of  the  problem  which  has  several  rather 
important  points  of  interest. 

J.  Arthur  Harris, 
RoxAKA  H.  Vivian 

Cold  Spbino  Habbob 

s  Tbe  difference  method  applied  to  the  ungrouped  material  gives 

r=. 763  ±.030. 

The  difference  is  of  no  significance. 

« Possibly,  however,  the  relationship  is  in  part  spurious.  The  mean  of 
males  and  females  were  taken  on  the  basis  of  the  same  N,  or  approximately 
the  same  N,  for  the  various  districts.  Data  for  investigating  this  question 
are  not  available.  The  point  should  be  borne  in  mind  by  a  subsequent 
worker. 


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638  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

DUPLICATE  GENES 

Some  interesting  questions  are  raised  by  a  recent  article  by 
Gregory:  **0n  the  Genetics  of  Tetraploid  Plants  in  Primula 
sinensis,"^  Reciprocal  crosses  of  two  races  of  P.  sinensis  were 
made.  One  cross  gave  entirely  normal  results  in  Fg  as  regards 
chromosome  number  and  hereditary  characters.  The  reciprocal 
cross  gave  an  Fj  generation  which  was  sterile  with  the  parents 
and  produced  only  a  giant  variety  in  Fj.  This  proved  to  have 
the  tetraploid  chromosome  number.  Experiments  indicated  that 
the  genetic  factors  had  also  all  been  doubled,  a  very  significant 
parallelism. 

Gregory  uses  the  nomenclature  A  AAA,  AAAa,  AAaa,  Aaaa, 
and  aaaa  to  represent  all  the  possible  conditions  as  regards  a 
pair  of  Mendelian  factors.  He  states  that  heterozygotes  of  the 
form  AAAa  should  give  gametes  AA  and  Aa,  and  should  pro- 
duce, on  selfing,  the  zygotes  AAAA,  2AAAa  and  AAaa,  and  that 
the  last  class  selfed  should  produce  recessives.  On  the  chromo- 
some theory  of  heredity,  this  assumes  that  the  four  chromosomes 
concerned  are  equally  likely  to  pair  in  synapsis  in  any  of  the 
possible  ways,  a  very  interesting  phenomenon  if  the  assumption 
proves  correct.  But  it  is  conceivable  that  two  independent 
synaptic  pairs  may  be  formed.  It  may  be  that  only  chromo- 
somes from  the  same  original  race  pair  in  synapsis.  It  is  true 
that  the  first  of  the  original  crosses  shows  that  the  chromosomes 
of  the  two  races  can  enter  into  normal  mitosis  and  presumably 
into  synapsis  with  each  other.  But  the  reciprocal  cross  indicates, 
perhaps,  that  in  the  environment  of  the  cytoplasm  of  this  cross, 
they  can  not  enter  into  synapsis.  If  this  condition  continues  in 
later  generations,  we  should  represent  the  zygotes  as  AAA' A', 
AAA'a',  AaA'a',  etc.  This  is  the  way  in  which  duplicate  genes 
have  been  represented  previously  as  by  Nilsson-Ehle,  East  and 
ShuU.  With  this  representation,  heterozygotes  of  the  form 
AAA'a'  could  neVer  give  rise  to  recessives  after  selfing  for  any 
number  of  generations. 

Which  hypothesis  is  true  in  this  case  could  easily  be  deter- 
mined by  experiment.  The  published  results  are  not  sufficiently 
explicit  on  this  point.  If  the  original  cross  were  of  the  type 
AA  X  a'a',  producing  in  Fi  Aa',  the  Fg,  AAa'a',  would  be  a 
homozygote  on  the  second  hypothesis,  and  recessives  should  never 

1  Proc.  Boy,  Soc,  B  87,  1914. 


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No.  574]  NOTES   AND  LITERATURE  639 

appear.  On  Gregory's  Tiypo thesis  reeessives  should  appear  in 
later  generations.  On  the  second  hypothesis,  homozygous  races 
of  the  types  AAa'a'  and  aaA'A'  would  be  obtainable,  in  appear- 
ance like  heterozygotes.  These  would  breed  true  indefinitely 
when  self ed,  but  should  give  reeessives  in  Fg  after  crossing,  as  in 
a  case  proved  by  Nilsson-Ehle. 

Sbwalii  Wright 
BussEt^  Institution, 
Forest  Hills,  Mass., 
June  19,  1914 


NOTES  AND  LITEEATUEE 
A  STUDY  OF  DESERT  VEGETATION^ 

Between  three  and  four  years  ago  Dr.  W.  A.  Cannon,  of  the 
Desert  Botanical  Laboratory  at  Tucson,  Arizona,  visited  southern 
Algeria  in  order  to  become  acquainted  with  the  more  obvious 
features  of  the  plant  physiological  conditions  of  the  desert,  and 
to  make  detailed  studies  of  the  root  habits  of  certain  desert 
plants.  Prom  Algiers  the  journey  proceeded  nearly  due  south 
about  three  hundred  miles  to  Ghardaia,  thence  east  about  one 
hundred  miles  to  Ouargla,  and  another  hundred  miles  to  Toug- 
gourt,  returning  through  Biskra,  and  Batna  to  the  northern  coast. 
Throughout  this  long  and  wearisome  journey  the  vegetation  was 
studied  in  connection  with  the  geographical  and  climatic  environ- 
ment and  the  results  are  brought  together  in  a  volume  of  some- 
what more  than  eighty  pages  of  text  and  thirty-seven  plates,  one 
of  which  is  an  outline  map  of  the  region  visited. 

Dr.  Cannon  speaks  of  the  similarity  of  the  flora  of  Algeria  to 
that  of  southern  Spain,  France  and  Italy,  where  one  is  reminded 
of  the  yegetation  of  portions  of  California.  Once  in  the  desert  on 
the  way  south  low-growing  shrubs  on  the  plain  become  char- 
acteristic, including  species  of  Tamarix,  Zizyphus  and  Artemisia, 
Where  water  is  available  for  irrigation,  oases  occur  with  their 
luxuriant  vegetation  of  date  palms,  apricots,  figs,  mulberries, 
peaches,  pears,  oranges,  as  well  as  artichokes,  beans,  carrots, 
melons,  peas,  potatoes,  squashes,  etc.     Further  south  the  plain 

1  Botanical  Features  of  the  Algerian  Sahara.  By  William  Austin  Cannon, 
Washington,  D.  C.  Published  by  the  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington, 
1913. 


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640  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

is  covered  with  small  stones  and  pebbles  and  ''not  a  tree,  shrab, 
or  herb  appears  to  hide  the  bare  ground.  The  moimtains  are 
naked  rock,  while  the  harsh  outline  of  desert  ranges  and  the 
distant  low  sand  ridges  give  no  evidence  of  plant  life.  But  a 
closer  examination  of  plain,  dune  and  mountains  reveals  the 
presence  either  of  living  forms  or  of  the  dried  remains  of  plants 
of  a  preceding  moist  season,  in  numbers  and  in  kinds  not  at  first 
suspected.''  All  of  which  might  well  describe  the  desert  condi- 
tions in  our  own  southwest.  This  similarity  is  emphasized  by  the 
resemblance  of  many  of  the  plants  to  those  found  in  our  Arizona 
deserts.  Thus  the  **quidad''  (AcanthylUs  tragacanthoides)  **has 
a  very  close  resemblance  to  small  specimens  of  'ocotillo'  (Fott- 
quieria  splendens)  of  the  southwestern  United  States."  And 
this  resemblance  extends  to  the  structure  of  the  spines  and  the 
return  of  the  foliage  after  rains.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
the  natives  bum  off  its  numerous  spines,  after  which  the  stems 
'*are  eaten  with  avidity  by  camels,*'  reminding  us  of  the  similar 
treatment  and  use  of  some  cactuses  in  Arizona.  Further  to  the 
south  the  vegetation  is  still  more  sparse  and  xerophytic,  includ- 
ing Ephedra,  Retama,  Haloxylon,  and  among  grasses,  Arisiida 
pungens.  Near  Ouargla,  the  southern  point  reached,  there  are 
places  where  no  vegetation  is  present,  as  on  the  dunes,  and  yet 
on  ^  the  fixed  sand  nearby  were  found  Euphorbia  guyoniana, 
Retama  retam  and  Oenista  saharce. 

Much  attention  was  given  to  the  root  habits  of  the  plants 
encountered,  and  in  the  general  summary  which  follows  the 
account  of  the  journey  comparisons  are  made  with  the  root  habits 
of  Arizona  plants. 

With  this  meager  introduction  we  must  refer  the  reader  to  the 
volume  itself,  which  it  is  quite  impossible  to  summarize  in  these 
pages.  One  thing  impresses  itself  forcibly  upon  the  reader,  and 
that  is  that  a  desert  is  a  hungry  place  in  which  the  permanent 
vegetation  maintains  itself  against  plant-eating  animals  by  a 
thorny  or  spiny  protection.  Yet  Dr.  Cannon  points  out  that  in 
this  character  of  spininess  the  American  desert  plants  excel  those 
of  the  plants  of  the  Sahara  region. 

Charles  E.  Bessey 

The  Univebsity  of  Nebraska 


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A  Moathlr  Joanal,  MtaUkbed  in  1867. 
wi&  Spwaal  Rmtunmem  to  IIm 


to  Um  AdvancMBMit  of  tk 
of  Orsasie  Erololioa  and 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  APRIL  NUMBER 

The  Origin  of  X  CapMlla  Bursa  pastorif  araohnoldea. 

Dr.  Henri  Hub. 
BlolofyoftbeTbyfMK^tera.   II.    Dr.  A.  Fruiklin 

8hull. 
Shorter  Artielet  and  Difonition :  Barritn  m  to  Dit- 

tribntlon  m  regard!  Blrdi  and  Mammalt.   Joseph 

Orinnell.  Yellow  Varletiee  of  Bate.    Profeetor 

W.E.  Castle. 
Notes  aM  Literature :  Heredity  and  the  Influence 

ofMoaarchs.    Y.  L.  K. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  MAY  NUMBER 

Xetoparasitesof  Mammals.  Professor  YemoDLTmaa 

Kellogg. 
Begeneratlon,  Variation  and  Correlallon  in  Tbyoaa, 

Professor  John  W.  Soott 


Shorter  Arttcletand  Discussion:  Vmna xelalfag  to 
Generic  Types.   Dr.O.F.Oook. 

Notes  and  Literature:  Linkage  in  th»  SUkwonn 
Moth.  A.  H.  Bturterantw  Nabonie's  Breedli« 
Brpertments with  Qraeshoppera,  Johna  Dexter* 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  JUNE  NUMBER 

Spedes-lmildlng  by  Hybridization  and  Mutation.  Pro- 
fessor John  H.  GeronM. 

Heredity  of  Bristles  in  the  Common  Oreenbottle  Fly— 
A  Study  of  Factors  goremlng  Distribution.  Fhlnees 
W.  Whiting. 

Physiological  CorrelationB  and  Climatic  BeacticDS  in 

AlfiBlfk  Breeding.    Geo.  F.  Freeman. 
Taxonomy  and  Evolution.    By  X. 
Shorter  Ajrtidles  and    DucuBslon*    Nabours's  Grass- 

hoppen,  Multiple  Allelomorphism,  Tankage  and 

Misleading  Terminologies  in  GenetioB.    Profiessor 

W.E.  Castle. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  JULY  NUMBER 

Pattern  DeTeiopment  in  M^"**«^'«  and  Birda. 
Glorer  M  Allen 

Internal  Belations  of  Teneetrial  JjMWiafeleiH. 
Arthur  G.VestaL 

Shorter  Articles  and  Discnsslott*  Another  Hy- 
pothesis to  AooounI  for  Di  Swingle's  Szpert- 
ments  with  dtnu.   A  a  and  A.  U  Hagadoocn, 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  AUGUST  NUMBER 

Multiple  Allelomorphs  in  Mice.      Professor  T.  H 
Morgan. 

Thirteen  Years  of  Wheat  Selection.    T.  B.  HuUh- 
eson. 

Pattern    Deyelopment   in    Mammals   and   Birds. 
GloTorM.  Allen. 

The  Meadow  Jumping  Mouse.    Dr.  H.  L.  Baboock. 

Shorter  Articles  and  Inscussion : 

Studies  on  Inbreeding.  Dr.  Baymond  Pearl. 
Parallel  Mutations  in  (Enothera  IriamU  L.  Dr. 
J.  Stomps,  Dr.  Bradley  M.  Dayis.  The  Theoret- 
ical Distinction  between  Multiple  AUelomorj^ 
and  Close  linkage.  Professor  T.H.  Morgan.  Pro 
fessor  W.  E.  Castle. 

Notes  and  Literature: 

Biometrics.  Dr.  Baymond  Peait.  A  New  Mod- 
of  Segregation  in  Gregory's  Tetrapioid  Primulase 
Hermann  J.  Muller. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  SEPTEMBER  NUMBER 
Studiet  on  Inbreeding.    Dr.  Raymond  PearL 
The  Chromosome  Hypothesis  of  Linkage  applied  to 

Cases  in  Sweet  Peas  and  Primula.    CalTln  B. 

Bridges. 
The  Reduplication  Hypotheaia  ae  applied  to  Droao- 

phila.   Dr.A.H.  SturtOTant. 
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THE 

AMERICAN  NATURALIST 

Vol.  XLVni  November,  19U  No.  575 

A  COMPAEISON  OF  THE  EESPONSES  OF 

SESSILE  AND  MOTILE  PLANTS 

AND  ANIMALS 

PROFESSOR  VICTOR  E.  SHELFORD, 

University  of  Illinois 

I.  Introduction   642 

II.  Basis  of  Discussion 642 

1.  Responses   643 

2.  Sessile  and  Motile  Organisms 644 

3.  The  Individual  and  its  Relation  in  Colonies  and  Groups 644 

(a)  Animals  and  Plants  made  up  of  Single  Individuals  ....    644 
(&)  Colonial  or  Multiple  Individualed  Plants  and  Animals.  645 

i.  Numbers  of  Individuals   645 

ii.  Stems 646 

iii.  Metabolic  and  Reproductive  Relations  of  Individ- 
uals     647 

(c)  Response  of  Motile  Organisms 649 

i.  Movements   649 

ii.  Structural  Response 650 

(<J)  Response  of  Sessile  Organisms 651 

i.  Structural  RespouFes   651 

ii.  Movements   653 

(c)  Behavior   of   Sessile-motile   Organisms    653 

(/)  Response  and  Taxonomy  of  Sessile  Organisms 653 

III.  Parallelism  between  Sessile  and  Motile  Organisms  with  reference 

to  Ecology    654 

1.  Breeding 654 

2.  Comparison  of  Sessile  and  Motile  Elements  of  the  Biota 655 

3.  Sessile  Motile  Organisms  in  Ecological  Succession 656 

rV.  Influence  of  Response  Phenomena  upon  Biological  Theory  and  Con- 
troversy       657 

1.  Topological  View 657 

2.  Natural  Selection  View 658 

3.  Supposed  Non-inheritance  of  Response  and  the  Grerm  Plasm 

Doctrine 660 

4.  Influence  of  the  Study  of  Response  on  Present-day  Biological 

Theory  661 

5.  Aspects  of  the  Untenability  of  the  Germ  Plasm  Doctrine 662 

6.  Measure  of  Values  in  Biological  Science 664 

7.  Summary  and  Conclusions 669 

V.  Literature  Cited    672 

641 


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642  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVni 

I.     INTRODUCTION 

During  the  past  few  years  the  attention  of  hiologists 
has  turned  more  and  more  from  those  phenomena  which 
were  supposed  to  be  comparatively  fixed,  to  responses  to 
stimuli.  Physiologists  have  long  been  concerned  with 
the  mechanism  of  response ;  psychologists  are  interested 
in  its  modification.  Geographers,  climatologists  and 
ecologists  have  recently  turned  their  attention  to  re- 
sponses in  natural  environments  and  zoologists  have 
become  interested  in  response,  particularly  from  the  point 
of  view  of  its  specificity.  In  these  quite  independent 
investigations  and  compilations  there  has  been  little 
attempt  at  analysis  with  a  view  to  determine  legitimate 
lines  of  comparison  among  the  exceedingly  diversified 
types  of  organisms  which  have  been  investigated,  and 
some  confusion  has  resulted.  For  example,  since  the 
more  obvious  responses  of  plants  are  structural,  persons 
not  familiar  with  comparable  phenomena  among  animals 
have  made  erroneous  comparisons  of  sessile  plants  and 
motile  animals.  This  paper  is  written  to  present  in  as 
nearly  uniform  terms  as  practicable  (a)  analysis  of  kinds 
or  aspects  of  response,  (6)  justifiable  kinds  of  compari- 
son, and  (c)  the  bearing  of  response  phenomena  on 
biological  theory  and  controversy.  It  aims  to  show  that 
the  numerous  kinds  of  response  are  reducible  to  a  few 
simple  types  common  to  both  plants  and  animals,  and  that 
the  failure  to  consider  all  types  has  been  responsible  for 
confusion  and  various  one  sided  theories.  It  further  aims 
to  show  that  study  of  response  during  the  past  few  years 
has  led  to  an  unusual  broadening  of  our  conceptions. 

II.     BASIS  OF  DISCUSSION 

As  a  basis  for  discussion  we  must  first  have  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  character  and  definition  of  response. 
Secondly,  we  must  determine  what  constitutes  an  indi- 
vidual in  those  plants  and  animals  that  are  made  up  of 
repetitions  of  parts.  Thirdly,  we  must  note  whether  or 
not  the  organism  is  sessile  or  motile,  capable  of  playing 
the  part  of  either,  or  colonial  pelagic. 


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No.  575]       RESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS 

1.    Responses 

The  word  response  is  used  in  various  slightly  different 
senses.  In  general  it  refers  to  more  complex  and  time- 
requiring  phenomena  than  *  *  reaction. ' '  In  geography  the 
term  has  been  used  (Goode,  *04)  to  cover  all  changes  in 
culture  supposed  to  be  produced  by  climate  or  other 
geographic  conditions.  It  is  also  applied  by  geographers 
and  geologists  to  changes  in  the  physical  characteristics 
of  man  (evolution)  which  Goode  ('04)  has  stated  are 
slower  than  the  cultural  responses.  In  general  botanists 
have  used  the  term  to  cover  changes  of  plant  structure 
and  function  induced  by  external  conditions.  Cowles 
('11),  however,  uses  the  word  ** reaction"  to  cover  these 
phenomena.  Coulter  ('09)  used  the  term  response  as 
synonymous  with  adaptation  in  plants.  Zoologists  have 
used  the  term  to  apply  to  changes  in  animals  due  to  exter- 
nal conditions,  but  with  little  agreement  as  to  what  is  to 
be  included.  We  will  use  it  here  to  include  reactions, 
changes  in  functions,  structure,  color, 'induced  by  external 
conditions  either  directly  or  indirectly,  without  regard 
to  how  simple  or  how  complex  the  processes  involved 
may  be.^  The  length  of  time  required  to  bring  the 
changes  about  may  arbitrarily  be  taken  as  not  exceeding 
the  time  required  to  breed  five  to  ten  generations  of  the 
species  concerned.  All  organisms  respond  to  stimuli 
because  each  stimulus  acts  upon  some  internal  process. 
Strictly  speaking,  the  response  is  the  change  or  changes 
in  the  physical  or  chemical  processes  of  the  organism  (or 
the  part  or  parts  concerned)  which  results  from  the 
disturbance. 

Those  things  which  we  commonly  see  and  term  response 
are  often  the  later  and  less  important  phases  of  the  dis- 
turbance. The  striking  phases  of  responses  of  motile 
organisms  are  usually  movements  which  follow  closely 
upon  stimulation.  In  sessile  organisms  the  noticeable 
responses  often  appear  only  after  a  considerable  period. 
In  both  sessile  and  motile  organisms  some  responses  are 

iFor  good  representative  bibliography  see  Adams,  '13,  Ch.  VIII  and 
IX. 


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644  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 

not  evident  because  they  concern  internal,  chemical  and 
physical  processes  which  aflfect  neither  form  nor  move- 
ment. Changes  in  the  enzymes  secreted  by  digestive 
glands,  which  accompany  changes  in  food  (Jennings,  '06, 
p.  347),  are  examples.  While  thus  recognizing  that  re- 
sponses are  concerned  primarily  with  internal  processes, 
we  must  of  necessity  refer  chiefly  to  the  external  phases. 

2.    Sessile  and  Motile  Organisms 

Sessile  organisms  are  those  which  are  sedentary  in 
habit,  whether  attached  or  possessing  slight  powers  of 
locomotion.  Motile  organisms  are  those  that  habitually 
move  about.  Vagile  or  creeping  forms  as  well  as  swim- 
ming, walking,  flying,  burrowing  types  are  included. 
Most  sessile  animals  are  capable  of  moving  their  parts, 
while  only  a  few  sessile  plants  possess  this  capacity,  and 
these  only  to  a  slight  degree. 

There  is  no  sharp  distinction  between  sessile  (seden- 
tary) and  motile  organisms.  Every  possible  gradation 
exists  between  fixed  non-motile  types  as  trees  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  pelagic  fishes  on  the  other.  It  is  the 
extremes  which  we  will  compare. 

3.    The  Individual  and  Its  Relations  in  Colonies 
AND  Groups 

The  following  comparison  of  animals  and  plants  is  an 
attempt  to  distinguish  potential  or  incomplete  individuals 
in  colonial  organisms  and  compound  organisms  which, 
while  not  comnjonly  recognized  as  colonial,  are  made  up  of 
incomplete  individuals. 

(a)  Animals  and  Plants  made  up  of  Single  Individuals 
The  vast  majority  of  animals  belong  here.  Most  pro- 
tozoa, solitary  sponges,  solitary  hydroids,  sea  anemones, 
worms  not  preparing  for  asexual  division,  echinoderms, 
moUusks,  arthropods  and  vertebrates.  Only  single-celled 
plants,  young  seedlings  and  possibly  a  few  adults  of  multi- 
cellular plants  which  possess  but  one  grotving  point 


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No.  575]       RESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  646 

(exclusive  of  roots)  belong  in  this  group.  Single  indi- 
viduals as  described  here  are  the  basis  for  determining 
what  shall  be  called  individuals  in  colonial  and  compound 
types. 

(6)  Colonial  or  Multiple  Individualed  Plants  and  Animals 

A  number  of  animals  and  the  vast  majority  of  the 
plants  belong  here.  The  group  can  be  roughly  divided 
into  two  types,  (a)  those  having  a  chain  or  plate  arrange- 
ment of  incomplete  individuals  and  (6)  those  having  a 
branching  or  tree-like  arrangement.  The  groups  of  in- 
complete individuals  of  type  a  occur  among  the  Protozoa, 
worms  undergoing  asexual  reproduction,  many  of  the 
Bryozoa  and  some  of  the  Tunicates;  both  sessile  and 
pelagic  (plankton)  forms  occur.  On  the  plant  side  type 
a  includes  plate-like  colonies  of  algae,  filamentous  algae, 
some  thallose  plants  and  probably  some  of  the  fungi, 
though  the  great  multiplicity  of  forms  makes  the  separa- 
tion of  this  group  from  the  branching  tree-like  types, 
diflBcult. 

Type  b  includes  some  of  the  colonial  Protozoa,  the 
majority  of  the  sponges,  hydroids,  corals  and  the  branch- 
ing Bryozoa.  The  algae,  fungi,  mosses,  ferns  and  flower- 
ing plants  are  all  represented.  The  colonies  are  usually 
attached  to  the  substratum  (sessile). 

i.  Numbers  of  Individuals. — Among  the  animals  the 
number  of  so-called  zooids  is  the  number  of  incomplete 
individuals.  In  the  sponges  there  are  as  many  zooids  as 
there  are  excurrent  openings  (osculae)  (Minchins,  '00, 
p.  91).  Zooids  usually  possess  a  mouth  opening  and 
organs  for  securing  food,  though  in  some  cases  they  may 
be  specialized  for  reproduction,  defence  or  locomotion  as 
in  some  of  the  Coelenterates.  Among  the  colonial  plants 
there  are  as  many  incomplete  individuals  as  there  are 
buds  or  growing  points  (vegetative  regions).  There  are 
no  regularly  occurring  organs  in  animals,  strictly  com- 
parable to  leaves.  However,  any  organs  such  as  tentacles, 
gills,  etc.,  which  secure  or  absorb  nutriment  may  be  re- 


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646  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVm 

garded  as  analogous  to  leaves.  Each  potential  fcwd  with 
its  leaf  may  be  compared  to  a  zooid.  In  comparing  plants 
and  animals,  roots  can  perhaps  be  compared  luitk  the 
holdfast  organs  of  hydroids.  In  both  groups,  roots  and 
root-like  organs  are  individuals  of  a  very  low  order  of 
individualization  and  of  a  type  not  well  represented 
among  animals.  The  holdfast  organs  of  animals  are  not 
important  absorbers  of  food  and  water. 

ii.  Stems  and  Other  Connecting  Organs  (Conducting 
Tissues). — The  most  striking  difference  between  the  in- 
complete individualed  or  colonial  plants  and  colonial  ani- 
mals is  the  presence  in  the  former  of  specialized  stems  and 
highly  complex  conducting  tissues  (Cowles,  '11;  Piitter, 
'11,  pp.  361-66).    The  conduction  of  food  materials  from 
the  root  to  other  parts  of  the  plant  and  from  the  leaves  to 
the  root  is  a  functional  necessity  not  paralleled  even  in 
those  colonial  animals  showing  the  greatest  division  of 
labor.    In  animals  stems  are  relatively  undifferentiated 
and  are  often  made  up  of  living,  relatively  unspecialized 
zooids,  as,  for  example,  in  many  Bryozoa  such  as  Crisis, 
The  tendency  to  cauliflory  in  some  plants  and  the  ability 
of  cambium  to  produce  shoots  and  of  the  stems  of  most 
hydroids  to  produce  individuals  indicates  that  such  a  con- 
dition may  be  potentially  present  in  all.     In  stalked 
Protozoa  the  stems  are  solid,  while  in  most  Coelenterates 
they  are  tubes,  usually  simple  though  sometimes  complex, 
made  up  by  mere  elongation  and  branching  of  the  stock 
of  the  simple  single  forms  such  as  the  Hydra.   The  lumen 
is  usually  ciliated  and  makes  possible  a  transfer  of  mate- 
rial which  renders  practicable  such  division  of  labor  as 
occurs  in  this  group  (Piitter,  '11).    In  the  Bryozoa  the 
different  zooids  have  their  body  cavities  joined  in  the 
simpler  forms  merely  as  a  branching  lumen  of  the  main 
wall  of  the  colony ;  in  others  by  small  openings  the  more 
specialized  of  which  are  sieve-like  plates  (Harmer,  '01, 
pp.  471  and  496;  Delage  and  Herouard,  '97,  Vol.  5,  p.  62). 

The  connection  between  the  individuals  of  the  tunicate 
colonies  is  often  very  complex,  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the 


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No.  575]       RESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  647 

most  complex  types  the  stolon  (stem)  gives  rise  to  new 
individuals  and  possesses  all  the  layers  of  cells  which 
take  part  in  forming  them.  The  connection  between 
different  individuals  differs  in  different  groups  and  is 
determined  by  the  particular  mode  of  asexual  reproduc- 
tion. As  the  individuals  are  quite  independent  of  one 
another  in  function,  these  connections  do  not  have  the 
same  significance  as  in  plants.  Even  where  there  is  a 
common  blood  circulation,  as  for  example  in  the  Clavel- 
linidcB  (Harmer,  '04,  p.  71),  there  is  no  noteworthy  divi- 
sion of  labor. 

iii.  Metabolic  and  Reproductive  Relations  of  Individ- 
uals.— The  flat  worms  at  certain  times  consist  of  chains 
of  zooids  at  various  stages  of  development  and  with 
various  degrees  of  independence.  Child  ( '13)  has  found 
that  these  chains  of  zooids  present  a  series  of  gradients 
in  rate  of  metabolic  reaction.  The  rate  is  highest  at  the 
anterior  end  of  the  whole  chain  and  decreases  toward  the 
posterior  end,  not  uniformly,  however,  for  the  rate  is 
lower  inamediately  in  front  of  each  head  region  than  it 
is  in  the  head  region  itself.  A  gradient  is  present  in  the 
axis  of  each  zooid.  The  most  anterior  head  dominates  so 
long  as  the  chain  remains  intact.  In  the  corals  certain 
zooids  dominate  (Wood-Jones,  '11)  over  the  others. 
Some  types  have  a  single  dominant  zooid  and  some  more, 
while  in  other  cases  all  are  equal. 

Among  plants  whose  form  is  that  of  a  chain  or  a  plate 
the  individuals  are  less  closely  bound  together  and  domi- 
nant vegetative  regions  are  probably  less  well  developed. 
In  the  branching  types,  dominant  vegetative  regions  occur 
(Cowles,  "11,  p.  747;  Goebel,  '00,  Vol.  I,  p.  206).  In  the 
conifers,  for  example,  there  is  a  leader,  a  dominant  grow- 
ing region  at  the  tip  of  the  main  stem  just  as  in  certain 
madrepore  corals  (Wood-Jones,  p.  83).  Other  plants  like 
the  elm  have  several  vegetative  regions  which  dominate 
over  others,  as  they  do  in  the  branching  madrepores. 

Q-rowth  form  or  colony  form  varies  according  to  cer- 
tain laws  dependent,  in  part  at  least,  upon  the  metabolic 


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648  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVm 

relations  of  individuals.  Thus  Wood-Jones  says  of  the 
corals — 

a  colony  may  grow  according  to  five  different  types  of  vegetative  growth 
...  it  may  grow  as  (1)  a  spherical  mass,  (2)  an  encrusting  layer,  (3)  a 
free  plate,  (4)  a  branching  tree-like  growth,  or  (5)  a  mere  amorphous 
lump. 

He  further  notes  the  division  of  all  the  corals  into  two 
groups  of  normal  growth-forms;  for  all  the  zooids  may 
take  an  eqiud  share  in  the  asexual  reproduction  or,  again, 
some  may  be  of  greater  importam^ce  than  others,  and  the 
asexual  reproductive  functions  may  be  lodged  in  a  very 
few  individuals  only.  Considering  the  first  division 
(all  zooids  taking  equal  share,  the  principal  types  of  bud- 
ding vary  from  each  other  in  the  actual  site  of  origin  of 
the  daughter  zooid  from  the  parent,  in  the  degree  of  final 
separation  of  the  two  zooids,  and  in  the  thickess  of  the 
intervening  partition  between  the  two  zooids.  The 
amount  of  rising  above  the  general  surface  by  each  indi- 
vidual zooid  is  likewise  subject  to  variation. 

Turning  now  to  the  corals  that  constitute  the  second 
class  (some  zooids  of  greater  importance  than  others) 
which  in  the  words  of  Wood-Jones  have  some  of  their 
units  specialized  as  active  agents  of  growth, 

it  is  at  once  seen  that  the  possibilities  of  variation  of  normal  vegetative 
habit  are  greatly  increased.  All  the  elaborate  branching  forms,  plates 
and  leaf-like  growths  belong  to  this  class ;  and  all  are  evolved  by  special 
peculiarities  of  the  growing  point.  The  zooids  that  constitute  the  grow- 
ing point  may  take  various  forms;  they  may  be  arranged  as  a  cluster,  as 
a  creeping  edge,  or  as  many  varieties  of  terminal  shoots  of  branches. 

In  the  first  instance,  it  is  necessary  to  draw  very  sharp  distinctions 
between  two  subdivisions  of  this  group.  In  Group  1  come  all  those 
forms  like  Montipora,  whose  distal  zooids  are  the  newest  formed  mem- 
bers of  the  colony;  and  in  Group  2  are  included  the  Madrepora,  whose 
distal  zooid  is  the  most  ancient  individual  in  the  whole  group. 

In  dealing  with  Group  1  many  forms  have  to  be  considered,  for  when 
the  youngest  are  the  active  zooids  their  growth  cluster  may  be  variously 
disposed,  and  on  its  disposition  the  resulting  vegetative  form  entirely 
depends. 

In  Group  2,  however,  this  state  of  things  is  entirely  altered,  for  there 
one  zooid,  which  is  situated  at  the  extremity  of  the  stem,  and  which  I 


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No.  575]       RESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  649 

shall  call  throughout  the  " dominant  apical  zooid"  constitutes  the  grow- 
ing point;  and  this  zooid  is  the  parent  of  the  entire  colony. 

Various  writers  make  comparable  statements  or  show 
comparable  principles  among  hydroids  (Motz-Kossowska, 
^08)  and  Bryozoa  (Davenport,  '91,  et  al.)  and  among 
plants  (Goebel,  '00).  Of  the  colony  form  of  the  tntiicates 
Herdman  ('04,  p.  82)  says: 

The  marked  differences  in  the  appearance  of  the  colonies  of  conijxmnd 
Ascidians  is  largely  due  to  the  methods  of  budding;  even  in  those  of 
stolon  type  where  the  budding  is  practically  the  same  in  essential  nature, 
the  results  may  be  different  in  superficial  appearance,  according  as  the 
buds  are  formed  on  a  short  stolon  close  to  the  parent  body,  or  from  the 
extremity  of  the  post  abdomen  or  from  the  long  epicardiac  tube  which 
may  extend  for  some  inches  from  the  ascidiozooid. 

Thus  we  conclude  that  the  innate  causes  of  diflFerent 
growth-forms  (colony  forms)  of  colonial  organisms  are 
(a)  the  mode  of  division  of  the  zooids  or  vegetative 
regions,  (fe)  the  ratio  of  stem  elongation  to  number  of 
zooids  or  buds  produced  or  uniformity  or  lack  of  uni- 
formity of  stem  elongation  (Wood-Jones,  p.  76)  closely 
related  to  {c)  the  presence  or  absence,  number,  position 
and  region  of  influence  of  the  dominant  growing  regions 
or  dominant  zooids,  and  (d),  in  some  cases,  the  grand 
period  of  growth  and  the  length  period  of  the  internodes 
(Johnson,  '11).  The  innate  tendencies  are  thus  reducible 
to  a  few  principles  applicable  to  both  plants  and  animals. 

{c)  Responses  of  Motile  Organisms 

i.  Movements, — In  motile  organisms  the  most  striking 
responses  are  changes  in  position  brought  about  by 
movements  usually  more  or  less  random,  and  which  bring 
the  organism  into  various  conditions  one  of  which  usually 
relieves  the  disturbance.  The  organism  resumes  nonnal 
activity  in  conditions  which  brought  the  relief  (Jennings, 
'06).  These  conditions  are  not  necessarily  advantageous, 
but  are  usually  so  when  the  stimuli  are  those  encountered 
in  nature  (Mast,  '11).  Behavior  of  motile  organisms  is 
also  modified  by  repetition  of  action  even  in  animals  as 
low  in  the  animal  series  as  the  Protozoa  (Holmes,  '11). 


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660  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLniI 

Jennings  ('06)  has  quoted  various  botanical  workers' 
observations  on  motile  plants  the  behavior  of  which  prob- 
ably follows  the  general  laws  governing  the  behavior  of 
motile  animals.  As  a  result  of  the  quick  behavior  re- 
sponses of  motile  organisms,  their  distribution  at  any 
given  time  is  a  better  index  of  the  conditions  at  that  time 
than  the  distribution  of  sessile  organisms,  because  when 
the  conditions  at  a  given  point  become  unfavorable  the 
motile  organisms  usually  move  to  another  situation, 
while  the  sessile  forms  remain  and  perhaps  die. 

ii.  Structural  Responses. — ^Among  motile  animals, 
structural  and  color  changes  occurring  as  a  response  to 
environmental  conditions  (stimuli)  are  usually  not  of 
importance  to  the  organism  concerned.  The  color  differ- 
ences induced  in  Lepidoptera  by  heat  and  cold  (Stanfuss; 
Fischer)  and  the  structural  differences  in  Crustacea  such 
as  were  brought  about  in  Cladocera  by  Woltereck,  and 
other  modifications  brought  forward  recently,  are  usually 
of  no  known  advantage  or  disadvantage  to  the  anhnals 
concerned  (Bateson,  '13,  Ch.  IX  and  X).  Such  re- 
sponses in  color  and  general  form  do  not  ordinarily  take 
place  in  adults  subjected  to  such  conditions.  The  strik- 
ing structural  responses  of  motile  animals  are  often 
responses  to  the  organism's  activity.  The  use  and  disuse 
phenomena  of  the  Lamarckians,  the  increase  in  size  and 
form  of  muscles,  thickening  of  skin  in  man  and  mammals, 
are  well-known  examples  of  a  type  of  responses  which 
have  influenced  zoological  speculation.  Child  ( '04)  con- 
trolled the  form  of  Leptoplana  by  controlling  activity. 
Holmes  ('07)  found  that  the  movements  of  pieces  of 
Loxophyllum  have  an  important  part  in  shaping  the 
general  outline  of  the  bodies  of  the  resulting  forms.  The 
general  forms  of  motile  animals  are  correlated  with  their 
activities  but  whether  form  or  structure  correlated  with 
it  appeared  first  in  the  course  of  evolution  has  been  the 
subject  of  considerable  fruitless  speculation. 


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No.  575]       BESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  651 

(d)  Responses  of  Sessile  Organisms 

i.  Structural  Responses. — The  striking  phases  of  re- 
sponses among  colonial  sessile  organisms  are  often 
changes  in  form  and  structure,  or  the  relative  position 
of  the  parts.  The  changes  in  structure  or  position  of 
parts  are  not  necessarily  advantageous  or  useful,  but  are 
usually  so  when  the  stimuli  are  those  commonly  encoun- 
tered in  nature  (Cowles,  ^11;  Loeb,  '06,  p.  124;  Wood- 
Jones,  '11;  Ch.  VIII).  Indifferent  and  detrimental  re- 
sponses are  often  given  under  experimental  conditions  and 
no  doubt  the  absence  of  such  variants  among  sessile  ani- 
mals collected  in  a  wild  state  is  due  in  part  to  the  failure 
of  such  organisms  to  survive.  A  few  sessile  colonial 
organisms  such  as  ca;cti  (Cowles,  '11)  show  little  or  no 
plasticity. 

Among  sessile  animals,  the  observations  of  Wood- 
Jones  form  the  best  examples  of  response.  He  found 
that  the  branching  type  of  corals  dominated  in  barrier 
pools,  tall  slender  non-branching  types  in  deep  water, 
and  massive  boulder  types  on  surf  beaten  shores.  Thus 
he  figures  similar  colonies  of  each  of  three  genera  which, 
while  possessing  certain  peculiarities  of  their  own,  are  in 
general  agreement  as  to  growth  form  just  as  sessile 
plants  usually  are ;  and  this  in  part  for  comparable  rea- 
sons. Thus  various  conifers  occur  as  Krummholz  in  the 
high  mountains,  due  to  severe  conditions  (Cowles,  '11, 
p.  732),  wind,  snow,  and  in  part  to  the  injury  of  terminal 
growth  regions  of  the  main  stem  which  gives  rise  to 
lateral  branches.  The  boulder-like  corals  with  the  zooid 
at  the  same  level  occurring  on  the  surf-beaten  shores  of 
coral  islands  are  due,  in  the  case  of  Madrepora,  for  ex- 
ample, to  repeated  injury  of  the  terminal  dominant  zooids. 
Conifers  in  protected  situations  often  grow  into  tall 
slender  trees  comparable  with  the  (deep)  still-water 
corah.  The  barrier  pools  aflFord  conditions  where  the 
terminal  buds  are  less  often  injured  than  in  the  surf  and 
the  tree-like  branching  corals  result  from  minor  injuries 
to  dominant  zooids. 


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652  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.XLVITI 

Wood-Jones  finds  further  that  still-water  corals  are 
less  strongly  calcified  than  those  in  rongh  water,  the 
strains  producing  increased  secretion  analogous  to  in- 
creased tissue  production  as  a  result  of  mechanical 
strains  in  plants  (Cowles,  p.  669).  Corals  show  diflFerent 
kinds  of  growth  under  diflFerent  environments  partic- 
ularly when  injured.  The  new  part  may  be  diflFerent 
from  the  rest  and  adjusted  to  the  environment  thus 
making  it  appear  as  though  two  '* species"  occurred  in 
the  same  colony.  The  mode  of  division  of  the  zooid  is 
also  diflFerent  under  diflFerent  conditions.  Plants  show 
similar  variation  with  changes  of  conditions,  particularly 
in  the  leaves  which  are  divided  in  submerged  portions  of 
amphibious  plants  and  entire  in  the  emerging  portions 
(Cowles,  '11,  p.  595). 

As  has  been  noted,  there  is  nothing  in  sessile  animals 
that  is  more  than  roughly  analogous  to  leaves.  Leaves 
show  marked  structural  diflFerences  on  diflFerent  parts  of 
the  same  tree  where  the  environmental  conditions  are 
diflFerent,  as,  for  example,  in  the  diflFerences  which  occur 
between  the  upper  and  lower  portions  of  a  forest  tree. 
While  there  are,  no  doubt,  diflFerences  in  similar  details 
(histology)  in  the  organs  of  display  in  diflFerent  parts 
of  the  same  colony  of  sessile  animals,  little  or  nothing 
has  been  done  upon  them.  As  a  further  indication  of  the 
prevalence  of  structural  response  in  sessile  organisms 
of  the  hydroids  Hickson  states  that  there  is  probably  but 
one  species  of  Millepora  which  occurs  in  a  large  number 
of  growth  forms.  The  commercial  sponges  (Moore,  '08) 
and  common  freshwater  sponges  and  polyzoa  show  many 
diflFerent  forms  under  diflFerent  environmental  conditions. 

The  major  diflFerences  in  growth  form  induced  by  ex- 
ternal stimuli  in  colonial  organisms  result  from  modifica- 
tions of  the  rate  and  character  of  growth  with  respect  to 
the  four  innate  tendencies  toward  various  growth  or 
colony  forms  discussed  above,  and  which  may  be  briefly 
enumerated  as  follows:  (a)  mode  of  division,  (b)  amount 
of  stem  elongation,  (c)  influence  of  dominant  regions  and 


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No.  575]       RESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  653 

(d)  grand  period  of  growth  and  the  length  of  period  of 
internodes. 

The  principles  are  concerned  with  asexual  reproduction 
and  apply  to  motile  organisms  only  exceptionally  as  for 
example  in  the  case  of  colonial  pelagic  forms.  The  laws 
are  applicable  to  both  plants  and  animals. 

ii.  Movements. — Movements  of  sessile  animals  are 
usually  contractions  or  extensions  of  parts  or  of  the 
entire  body.  Tentacles  and  comparable  organs  are  capa- 
ble of  movements  for  securing  prey.  Such  organs  often 
tend  to  wrap  about  objects  which  are  in  motion.  Many 
sessile  animals  are  capable  of  opening  and  closing  a 
mouth  opening  and  of  bending  or  twisting  the  entire  body. 
Plants  possess  a  comparable  capacity  only  occasionally. 

(e)  Behavior  of  Sessile  Motile  Organisms 
Most  sessile  animals  are  capable  of  some  movement 
and  r.eact  by  contraction  of  parts.  The  reactions  may  be 
modified  by  repeated  stimulation  (Jennings,  '06)  and 
usually  by  physical  factors.  Some  animals,  as  Hydra, 
Stentor  and  many  others  are  both  sessile  and  vagile  or 
free-swimming,  and  show  different  types  of  behavior 
when  attached  and  when  free.  Jennings  states  that  such 
protozoa  have  a  more  complex  behavior  than  motile 
forms.  This  is  due  to  their  combining  the  types  of 
behavior  of  sessile  and  motile  animals. 

(/)  Response  and  Taxonomy  of  Sessile  Organisms 
Hickson  ('98)  has  stated  that  there  is  but  one  species 
of  Millepore  and  believes  that  sex  organs  will  be  found 
to  be  the  best  taxonomic  characters.  Wood-Jones  states 
that  there  are  far  fewer  species  of  corals  than  has 
formerly  been  supposed,  and  states  further  that  growth 
form  can  not  be  used  to  distinguish  species.  Among 
fresh-water  sponges  and  Bryozoa  reproductive  bodies 
{gemmules  and  statoblasts)  have  been  found  to  possess 
satisfactory  taxonomic  characters.  This  is  a  situation 
quite  parallel  with  that  in  plants  where  reproductive 


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654  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.XLVIII 

organs  are  used  as  classification  characters.  The  ideas 
of  the  reproductive  organs  of  plants  are  now  at  the 
*/ fixity'^  stage  which  on  the  animal  side  is  paralleled  by 
the  idea  of  fixed  tropisms  and  fixed  instincts,  of  a  few 
years  since.  Variability  of  tropisms  is  now  well  recog- 
nized and  reproductive  organs  in  plants  are  being  found 
plastic,  as  those  of  animals  will  probably  be  found  also. 

HI.     PARALLELISM   BETWEEN   SESSILE   AND   MOTILE    OBGAX- 
ISMS  WITH  REFERENCE  TO  ECOLOGY 

From  a  summary  of  the  considerations  above  it  will 
be  seen  that  for  practical  comparison  the  division  of 
organisms  into  plants  and  animals  may  be  abandoned  and 
only  reference  to  sessile  and  motile  organisms  made.  We 
may  now  turn  to  a  discussion  of  a  few  general  principles 
making  the  division  into  sessile  and  motile  organisms  only. 
The  behavior  of  motile  organisms  is  plastic.  There 
are  innumerable  cases  of  modification  of  reaction  by 
variations  of  physical  factors  (Jennings,  '06;  Loeb,  '06; 
Mast,  '11).  If  for  purposes  of  discussion  we  put  the 
usual  ''normal"  reactions  of  motile  animals  over  against 
''normal"  structure  of  sessile  animals,  we  note  that  the 
behavior  response  of  the  former  parallels  the  structural 
response  of  the  latter. 

1.    Breeding 

Motile  Organism  Fixed  (Sessile)   Organisms 

(a)  The  breeding  activities  take  (a)  Breeding  and  other  acti\'i- 

place  within  narrower  limits  than  ties  within  same  limits,  except  that 
any  other  activities.  Merriam,  dispersal  may  take  place  over  wide 
'90;  Herrick,  '02;  Reighard,  '08;  areas  through  detachability  of 
Shelford,  'lla,  b,  c,  '12a,  h.  seeds  and  other  reproductive  bod- 

ies. 
(h)  The   selection   of   breeding  (b)  Less  marked  because  a  se- 

place  and  breeding  activities,  in-  lection  of  abode  by  sessile  organ- 
eluding  first  activities  of  the  isms  takes  place  through  the  be- 
young,  are  governed  by  the  same  havior  of  motile  young  stages  or 
general  laws  as  other  activities.  through  wide  dissemination  of  non- 

motile  bodies  by  wind  (etc.)  with 
growth  under  favorable  conditions 
and  failure  elsewhere. 


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No.  575]       RESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  655 

(c)  The  breeding  activities  are  (c)    The    reproductive    organs 

probably  least  modifiable  and  least      and    early   embryonic   stages   are 
regulatory.  less  modifiable  than  the  vegetative 

parts. 

{a,b,c)  The  maple  tree,  a  sessile  organism,  is  entirely 
stationary  in  its  adult  stages.  The  seeds  are  blown  by 
the  wind.  One  would  not  accomplish  much  in  the  study  of 
ecology  by  studying  the  distribution  of  the  seeds  of  the 
maple,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  by  the  study  of  the  distribu- 
tion of  adult  birds,  without  some  further  discrimination. 

Sessile  organisms  are  not  diflScult  to  associate  with 
their  proper  environmental  conditions  in  their  adult 
stages.  As  we  proceed  in  our  study  to  forms  which  can 
move  readily  and  rapidly,  the  diflBculty  of  associating 
them  with  their  definite  environmental  conditions  in- 
creases. Sessile  organisms  have  stages  which  are  small 
and  capable  of  easy  dispersal,  as  in  the  case  of  the  maple. 
Sessile  marine  animals  and  some  sessile  plants  frequently 
have  motile  forms  in  young  stages.  In  these  motile 
stages  they  are  governed  by  the  same  laws  as  other  motile 
organisms.  The  conditions  under  which  the  motile  stages 
develop  into  the  sessile  forms  are  crucial. 

Most  fresh-water  forms  and  some  marine  forms  of 
sessile  organisms  are  without  the  free-swimming  stage, 
and  they  produce  non-motile  stages  physiologically 
comparable  to  the  seeds  of  higher  plants.  The  winter 
bodies  (statoblasts)  of  the  Bryozoan  {Pectinatella)  com- 
mon near  Chicago,  and  which  is  a  strictly  sessile  organ- 
ism, are  comparable  to  seeds  and  probably  require 
'*  ripening '^  by  cold,  just  as  do  many  seeds  and  the  repro- 
ductive bodies  of  some  other  species  of  the  same  group. 
Organisms  which  are  highly  motile  in  the  adult  stages 
are  not  motile  in  the  egg  and  young  stages.  The  eggs 
and  young  of  birds,  for  example,  do  not  move  about,  yet 
birds  are  the  most  motile  of  all  animals. 

2.     COMPABISON  OF  THE  SeSSILE  AND  MoTILE  ELEMENTS  OP 

THE  Biota 
(a)  The  motile  organisms  of  a  (a)  The  sessile  organisms  of  a 

given  habitat  usually  react  simi-      given  habitat  (particularly  plants) 


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656 


THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [VoL-XLVIU 


(6)  The  various  structuiraLl  de- 
vices which  meet  the  conditions  of 
the  environment  are  ecolog:dcally 
equivalent. 


larly  to  two  or  more  stimuli  not      usually    show    similar   functionai 
differing  greatly  in  intensity  from      rates,    such    as    similar   rates  ot 
their  optimum,  t.  e,,  the  percent-      transpiration    among    sand  dtiU® 
age  of  positive  or  negative  trials  is      plants, 
essentially  the  same  for  standard 
intensities.    There  is  also  probably 
similarity  in  the  rates  of  metabol- 
ism, etc. 

{h)  The  specificities  of  behavior 
such  as  the  mode  of  moving  the 
organs,  e,  g.,  of  locomotion,  and 
in  some  cases  the  combined  results 
of  different  behavior  reactions  are 
similar  and  hence  are  ecologically 
equivalent.  The  size  and  efficiency 
of  the  organs  are  also  involved. 

A  testing,  for  example,  of  the  rheotaxis  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  brook- rapids  animals  has  shown  them  to  be 
strongly  positive,  and  when  active  individuals  onl>'  are 
considered  the  percentage  of  positive  trials  is  v^ery 
similar  for  the  entire  rapids  community.  Likewise  they 
are  in  accord  in  their  avoidance  of  sand  bottom.  Id^aiiy 
of  the  animals  have  special  means  of  attachment  \^liicb 
may  be  brought  into  play  with  speed. 

As  has  already  been  pointed  out  elsewhere,  ecological 
equivalence  is  illustrated  here.    The  darters  (fish)    ^^^ 
strong  swimmers  and  are  able  to  live  in  rapids  by  vjj^tVg 
of  their  swimming  powers  and  positive  reaction,  x^lj// 
snails  meet  the  same  general  conditions  through  po^itl^^ 
rheotaxis  and  the  strong  foot  which  enables  them  to  hol(j 
to  rocks. 

3.    Sessile  and  Motile  Organisms  in  Ecological 

Succession 
(a)  Ecological  succession  is  succession  of  ecological 
(physiological)  types  over  a  given  area,  due  to  changes  of 
conditions  which  both  cause  migration  of  physiological 
types  and  transformation  of  such  types  as  remain  (Shel- 
ford,  '11a,  'lib,  'lid,  '12a,  '12b  and  citations).  Changes 
of  conditions  are  geographic,  i.  e.,  physiographic,  climatic, 


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No.  575]      RESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  657 

etc.,  and  biological  (due  to  organisms).  Sessile  plants 
are  the  chief  biological  cause  of  successipn  on  land  and 
in  fresh  water,  while  sessile  animals  are  the  chief  biolog- 
ical cause  in  the  shallow  portions  of  the  sea,  especially  in 
coral  reef  regions  (Wood- Jones,  *11).  Sessile  organisms 
are  more  important  causes  of  succession  than  motile  ones 
because  they  (a)  build  up  the  substratum  with  detritus 
and  skeletons,  (6)  interfere  with  the  movement  of  the 
surrounding  medium,  (c)  cut  off  light  from  the  sub- 
stratum where  other  organisms  must  reside  and  their 
own  young  secure  foothold,  and  (d)  they  usually  iiffect 
their  own  environments  with  excretory  products  more 
than  do  motile  organisms.  In  general  we  recognize 
ecological  succession  of  motile  animals  through  the  differ- 
ences of  behavior  which  accompany  changes  in  conditions. 
The  differences  are  physiological ;  differences  in  behavior 
are  the  easiest  index  of  the  physiological  condition.  The 
character  of  nests,  burrows,  etc.,  are  often  good  indi- 
cators also. 

IV.     INFLUENCE  OF  RESPONSE  PHENOMENA  UPON  BIOLOGICAL 
THEORY  AND  CONTROVERSY 

A  glance  at  some  aspects  of  biological  speculation 
since  before  the  publication  of  Darwin's  ''Origin  of 
Species''  is  essential  to  our  understanding  of  the  atti- 
tude of  biologists  until  recently,  toward  responses. 

1.  Teleological  View 
In  the  matter  of  animal  behavior  response,  the  earlier 
workers  interpreted  the  reactions  as  intelligent  and  pur- 
poseful, ascribing  human  sensations,  etc.,  to  animals  as 
low  in  the  scale  as  protozoa.  This  teleological  tendency 
was  paralleled  on  the  plant  side  by  the  idea  of  purposeful 
adaptive  responses.  Many  common  plants  respond 
(structurally)  readily  to  environmental  conditions.  As 
has  been  noted,  the  commonest  of  the  surviving  responses 
of  the  wild  state  are  apparently  advantageous.  This  led 
some  botanists  to  a  Lamarckian  teleological  conception  of 
.response,    perhaps    best    represented    by    Kerner    and 


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658  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

Oliver's  work  on  the  natural  history  of  plants.  Accord- 
ing to  this  view,  responses  are  advantageous  and  for  the 
purpose  of  preserving  the  plant.  Thus  response  and 
adaptation  become  synonymous  (Coulter,  '08),  a  usage 
quite  inapplicable  to  animal  structure.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  recognition  of  the  response  phenomena  of  corals 
Wood-Jones  takes  essentially  the  view  of  adaptation 
which  botanists  have  tried  and  rejected. 

Lamarck,  who  was  for  many  years  engaged  in  botanical 
work,  must  have  noted  many  cases  of  advantageous 
structural  response  in  plants.  Later  he  undertook  the 
study  of  invertebrates  which  show  great  plasticity,  and 
was  naturally  much  influenced  in  the  development  of  his 
theory  of  transmutation  of  species  by  the  response  phe- 
nomena in  the  plastic  organisms  which  he  studied.  Thus 
the  responses  of  motile  (as  well  as  sessile)  organisms 
which  result  from  their  own  activities  or  the  action  of 
their  environments  formed  an  important  feature  of 
Lamarck's  (Packard,  '01;  Cope,  '96)  theory  of  transmu- 
tation of  animal  species.  His  theory  is  clearly  in  accord 
with  the  material  he  studied  most.  The  nature  of  his 
contention  and  various  well-known  circumstances  caused 
his  ideas  not  to  be  accepted. 

2.    Natubal  Selection  View 

Characters  used  in  classification  of  motile  animals 
before  and  since  the  time  of  Darwin  are  quite  frequently 
adaptation  characters.  Thus  the  large  pectoral  fins  and 
absence  of  an  air  bladder  are  characteristics  of  an  entire 
group  of  fishes,  the  darters.  The  divided  eyes  of  the 
Gyrinidce,  which  swim  at  the  surface  of  the  water,  are  so 
adjusted  that  one  half  looks  downward  into  the  water, 
and  the  other  outward  into  the  air.  This  character  com- 
bined with  the  paddle-like  hind  legs  would  have  served  to 
distinguish  the  family.  Again  larvsB  with  a  head  and 
thorax  modified  to  fit  a  circular  burrow  and  with  hooks  on 
the  dorsal  surface  of  the  fifth  abdominal  segment,  which 
is  supposed  to  be  an  adaptation  to  prevent  the  animals 


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No.  575]      RESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  659 

from  being  drawn  from  their  cylindrical  burrows  by 
their  prey,  could  serve  to  distinguish  the  entire  family  of 
CidndelidcB  (tiger  beetles).  Such  cases  might  be  multi- 
plied indefinitely. 

Following  Lamarck  came  Darwin,  who,  being  more  par- 
ticularly a  zoologist,  was  probably  (proportionately,  at 
least)  less  familiar  with  structural  response  phenomena. 
He  was  apparently  impressed  with  the  *' fixity"  of  the 
so-called  adaptation  characters  in  motile  animals,  and 
with  the  fact  that  they  are  often  family,  generic  or  specific 
characters.  With  the  assumption  that  they  originated  in 
the  environment  in  which  they  are  now  found,  Darwin 
and  his  followers  on  the  zoological  side  credited  '*  natural 
selection"  of  structural  characters  with  the  origin  of 
species.  Though  broader  than  Lamarck,  this  important 
feature  of  Darwin's  theory  was  quite  clearly  drawn  from 
data  on  motile  animals.  After  the  acceptance  of  Darwin's 
theory,  biologists  were  for  many  years  engaged  in  elabo- 
rating the  ideas  of  phylogeny  and  natural  selection  by 
working  out  recapitulations  and  homologies  and  by  point- 
ing out  cases  of  adaptation.  The  investigation  was 
largely  confined  to  the  highly  individuated  animals.  The 
morphological  method  of  this  period,  which  indeed  has 
still  continued  in  use  among  a  minority  of  zoologists  and 
which  finds  a  parallel  in  the  recent  morphological  study 
of  the  sex  organs  of  plants,  belongs  to  descriptive  rather 
than  to  analytical  science.  Since  its  conclusions  are  often 
based  upon  the  arrangement  of  species  or  of  stages  in 
development  into  series  chosen  by  the  investigator,  it  is  a 
method  which  often  allows  free  play  of  subjective  fancy. 
Thus  unconsciously  experimental  study  of  modification  by 
environment  became  more  and  more  neglected,  and  the 
dominant  type  of  investigation  being  such  as  to  show 
only  the  usual  course  of  events  in  development,  the  ideas 
of  fixity  grew  more  and  more.  Thus  the  fact  that  the 
external  form,  structure  and  color  of  animals  are  not 
easily,  modified  without  careful  experimental  methods, 
and  that  the  structural  responses  of  sessile  animals  were 


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660  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVm 

SO  little  known,  resulted  in  structure  in  animals  being  fre- 
quently regarded  as  fixed  and  every  resemblance  and 
peculiarity  being  too  often  regarded  as  significant.  The 
explanations  of  supposed  adaptations  among  animals  fell 
largely  to  the  theory  of  natural  selection  which  was 
strained  by  some  (see,  for  example,  in  Komanes,  '92,  p. 
269)  to  explain  origins  in  great  detail,  largely  on  the  basis 
of  the  competition  of  species  for  food,  etc.  Explanations 
along  this  line  were  carried  to  a  reductio  ad  ahsurdum  as 
indicated  by  Livingston  ( '13)  and  have  by  no  means  dis- 
appeared from  the  scientific  calendar.  This  tendency 
was  less  important  on  the  plant  side.  More  attention  was 
given  to  speculation  concerning  adaptive  response. 

From  a  consideration  of  the  facts  just  presented,  we 
note  that  the  characters  of  the  two  leading  early  view 
points  in  evolution  were  no  doubt  influenced  if  not  actually 
caused  to  crystallize  into  their  peculiar  form  by  the  failure 
of  workers  to  recognize  the  entire  series  of  phenomena 
which  we  have  presented  above.  Thus  a  review  of  the 
responses  of  sessile  and  motile  organisms  throws  much 
light  on  the  influences  leading  to  the  first  conceptions  and 
later  modification  of  these  two  leading  doctrines.  Botan- 
ists for  many  years  dwelt  mainly  on  the  response  of  sessile 
organisms  and  crystallized  a  Lamarckian  conception  of  the 
origin  of  adaptations  through  the  fixing  of  advantageous 
responses  as  hereditary  characters.  During  the  same 
period  zoologists  essentially  ignored  sessile  and  other 
multiple  individualed  .animals  and  their  great  plasticity 
and  crystallized  the  Darwinian  idea  into  Weismannian 
germplasm  doctrine  based  on  highly  specialized  single 
individualed  animals. 

3.    Supposed  Non-Inheritance  of  Response  and  the 
Germ  Plasm  Doctrine 

The  theory  of  the  independence  9£  the  germ-plasm  from 
the  soma,  and  its  continuity  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion, was  brought  strongly  to  the  attention  of  zoqjogists 
in  1885  by  Weismann.  It  was  the  natural  outgrowth  of 
the  methods  and  theories  of  the  preceding  period  and 


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No.  575]       RESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  661 

was  largely  based  upon  the  non-inheritance  of  mutila- 
tions and  the  fact  that  the  germ  cells  of  a  few  organisms 
are,  morphologically,  early  differentiated  from  the  soma. 
Turning  to  its  influence  upon  ideas  concerning  response, 
we  note  that  from  this  viewpoint  details  of  structure 
were  not  of  fundamental  importance  unless  traceable  to 
the  germ  plasm.  Still,  structural  details  were  more  im- 
portant than  response,  because,  with  the  exception  of 
instincts,  responses  were  believed  to  occur  independently 
of  the  germ  plasm  and  hence  were  of  interest  only  on 
their  own  account.  Thus  the  methods  used  in  applying 
Darwin's  theory  led  to  neglect  of  experimental  study  of 
response  and  culminated  in  the  extreme  views  of  Weis- 
mann.  The  germ-plasm  theory  or  the  ideas  of  heredity 
which  are  associated  with  it  has  dominated  zoological 
thought  almost  if  not  quite  down  to  the  present  day.^ 

4.    The  Influence  of  the  Study  of  Response  on 
Present-Day  Biological  Theory 

One  of  the  most  striking  developments  of  recent  years 
has  been  the  discovery  that  behavior  responses  are  modi- 
fiable to  a  high  degree.    Small  traces  of  reagents  reverse 

2  Unconsciouslj  suggestions  of  the  supernatural  which  come  up  in  connec- 
tion with  heredity  and  evolution  have  stimulated  investigators  to  study  and 
speculation,  though  they  have  often  approached  the  question  of  heredity  wiih 
an  unscientific  attitude.  This  is  indicated  by  such  statements  as  ''I  could 
not,  however,  resist  the  temptation  to  endeavor  to  penetrate  the  mystery  ui 
this  most  marvelous  and  complex  chapter  of  life"  and  "the  momentous 
issues  involved"  and  "no  more  fundamental  problem  could  well  be 
stated"  bear  out  this  statement.  The  ardency  which  appears  here  and 
elsewhere  in  the  discussion  of  scientific  questions,  appears  to  the  writer  to 
be  associated  with  the  discussion  of  problems  which  can  not  be  referred 
to  existing  facts  for  solution.  Few  of  the  present  generation  of  scientific 
men  acquired  a  working  knowledge  of  the  methods  of  science  before  the 
age  of  twenty-five  years,  and  the  early  habits  of  mind  were  formed  in  the 
atmosphere  of  the  supernatural  and  dogmatic,  which  has  characterized 
hutnan  thought  for  centuries.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  majority  of  us  can 
maintain  a  scientific  attitude  for  more  than  a  short  period;  we  must  con- 
stantly come  back  to  our  tests  and  principles.  This  may  account  for  many 
of  the  contradictions  regarding  scientific  principles  which  one  finds  in  the 
conversation  of  scientific  men.  When  the  methods  of  science  have  become 
the  methods  of  society  we  may  expect  a  group  of  scientific  men  far  more 
eflfective  than  we  ourFelves  can  hope  to  be. 


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662  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VouXLVIlI 

reactions.  Intelligent  behavior  occurs  in  the  lower 
Arthropods.  Even  Paramoecium  shortens  the  time  re- 
quired to  turn  around  in  a  tube,  by  repetition.  Actions 
formerly  regarded  as  instinctive  now  appear  to  be  mere 
innate  tendencies  perfected  by  repetition.  Thus  the  ideas 
of  fixity  have  essentially  disappeared  from  this  field. 

The  response  of  organisms  to  injuries  and  the  general 
control  of  form  in  the  lower  groups  has  done  much  to 
break  down  the  ideas  of  fixity  developed  by  Weismann 
and  embryological  schools.  Thus  Child,  the  leading 
American  worker  in  this  line,  is  able  to  control 
size,  form,  number  of  eyes  in  the  case  of  Planarians. 
Various  writers  have  found  modifications  inherited  after 
several  generations  of  repeated  stimulation  (see  Bateson, 
'13).  The  development  of  anti-bodies  (immunity)  has 
been  shown  to  be  a  response  occurring  in  connection  with 
many  normal  processes.  The  discovery  of  responses  of 
so  many  types  has  led  to  abandoning  ideas  of  fixity  even 
among  students  of  embryology  and  genetics.  Thus  we 
note  the  recent  decline  of  the  doctrine  of  continuity  and 
independence  of  the  germ  plasm  and  kindred  doctrines 
and  points  of  view,  which  constitute  the  central  ideas  of 
fixity.  It  will  accordingly  be  profitable  to  consider  some 
further  facts  which  make  the  germ-plasm  doctrine  un- 
necessary. 

5.   Aspects  of  the  Untenability  of  the  Gterm 
Plasm  Doctbine 

The  presence  of  primordial  germ  plasm  is  assumed 
even  in  sessile  colonial  organisms  such  as  plants,  coelen- 
terates,  and  in  flatworms,  etc.,  where  under  certain  con- 
ditions any  small  part  of  the  body  may  give  rise  to  a 
complete  organism.  Here  the  theory  is  not  needed  to 
explain  the  facts. 

Child  ('11)  said: 

The  theory  of  the  continuity  of  the  germ  plasm  as  a  system,  inde- 
pendent of  the  soma,  except  as  regards  nutrition,  has  played  an  im- 
portant part  in  biological  thought  during  the  last  two  decades,  but  I 
am  convinced  that  it  has  led  in  the  wrong  direction  and  that  it  is  re- 


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No.  575]       RESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  663 

sponsible  for  many  pseudo-problems  of  heredity  and  development, 
which  on  the  basis  of  a  different  theory  could  never  have  occupied  the 
attention  and  wasted  the  energy  of  biologists.  Briefly  my  position  is, 
that  the  gonad  primordium  is,  at  least  up  to  a  certain  stage  of  develop- 
ment, physiologically  a  part  of  the  individuality  as  are  other  organs, 
and  that  its  further  history  of  differentiation  into  male  and  female 
gametes  indicates  that  it  becomes  specified  in  a  particular  direction,  at 
least  partly  in  consequence  of  its  correlative  environment  in  the  or- 
ganism. 

The  independence  of  the  germ  plasm  is  not  well  sup- 
ported physiologically.  Thus  Wilson  ( '12,  p.  163)  says 
of  the  effect  of  prolonged  ingestion  of  alkaline  salts  by 
mice: 

No  obvious  changes  were  evident  in  the  liver,  kidneys,  lungs,  spleen 
and  intestines  but  in  the  testes  some  extraordinary  alterations  were 
found.  These  results  are  of  especial  interest  because  as  the  cells  of  the 
testes  except  the  basal  cells  are  regarded  by  many  cjrtologists  as  out  of 
coordination  with  the  somatic  cells.  As  a  result  of  these  experiments 
it  would  seem  that  they  are  more  susceptible  to  changes  in  reactivity 
than  the  surrounding  plasma. 

Dungay  ('13)  and  authors  cited  have  thrown  compara- 
ble light  on  this  question. 

The  facts  of  embryology  themselves  are  but  a  pseudo 
argument  in  its  favor.  The  organisms  in  which  continu- 
ity is  supposedly  demonstrable  are  highly  individuated 
and  their  organs  highly  specialized  and  many  different 
organs  are  early  separated  from  the  common  mass  of 
cells.  The  germ  cells  thus  follow  the  general  law  of 
development  in  such  animals.  The  germ  plasm  is  prob- 
ably no  more  independent  of  other  parts  of  the  organism 
than  is  the  liver  or  any  other  special  tissue.  *'Germ 
plasm''  and  ''germinal  continuity,''  if  such  exist,  may 
thus  be  merely  incidental  to  the  particular  type  of  organi- 
zation of  the  specialized  individuals  in  which  they  occur. 

It  should  further  be  noted  that  on  the  botanical  side 
this  doctrine  of  the  independence  and  continuity  of  the 
germ  plasm  has  received  little  attention  and  has  been 
given  little  credence  because  ''germ  plasm"  arises  from 
different  tissues  and  is  neither  set  aside  early  from  the 
soma  nor  is  it  in  any  other  sense  clearly  continuous. 


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664  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVU[ 

Furthermore,  the  plasticity  of  plant  structures  made  the 
application  of  the  doctrine  of  natural  selection  to  sup- 
posed adaptations  untenable,  and  this  type  of  explanation 
has  received  little  more  attention  with  botanists  than  have 
Lamarckian  speculations  with  zoologists.  The  adaptation 
characters  of  plants  can  not  ordinarily  be  used  as  taxo- 
nomic  criteria  (Coulter,  '08). 

6.  The  Measure  op  Values  in  Biological  Science 
One  hears  reference  to  pure  science  as  something  quite 
apart  from  applied  science.  It  is  indeed  true  that  inves- 
tigators in  pure  science  are  to  some  degree  prompted  to 
push  forward  in  research  by  interest  in  the  problems  for 
their  own  sakes.  But  the  human  mind  does  not  work  long 
isolated  from  practical  affairs  or  the  main  channels  of 
human  interest,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  the  pure-science 
investigator  continues  long  in  this  way.  Observations  are 
soon  connected  up  in  some  way,  actual  or  possible,  with 
some  human  interest,  be  it  as  remote  as  the  improvmg  of 
human  stock  in  remotely  future  generations.  Thus  "fure 
science"  defined  as  investigation  for  investigation's  sake 
hardly  exists  so  far  as  the  pure-science  workers  are 
concerned,  but  may  be  best  defined  as  an  indirect  method 
of  attacking  problems  of  general  importance.  It  differs 
from  applied  science  in  that  application  to  practical 
problems  is  not  its  aim,  though  the  estimated  value  of 
theories  and  results  in  ''pure''  science  are  often  greatly 
modified  by  applicability  to  practical  questions. 

Certain  problems  and  groups  of  facts  in  biology  are 
sometimes  referred  to  as  fundamental.  Some  one  has 
said  that  a  fundamental  problem  is  one  the  solution  of 
which  biologists  have  decided  will  give  greatest  progress. 
It  is  doubtless  true  that  a  few  leaders  reach  such  decisions 
with  regard  to  particular  questions,  but  the  real  causes 
of  their  general  acceptance  as  fundamental  are  social 
and  imitative.  Thus  when  one  investigator  or  a  small 
group  of  investigators  arrives  at  such  a  decision  many 
others  usually  become  active  along  the  same  lines  largely 
because  it  is  a  popular  topic.    Thus  under  the  influence 


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No.  575]       RESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  666 

of  a  group  of  investigators  among  whom  Weismann  was 
a  conspicuous  leader,  problems  of  the  germ  cells,  the 
egg^s  early  development,  and  heredity,  became  *'funda- 
nouental  problems.''  They  evidently  argued  that  since  all 
comes  from  the  egg  and  germ  cell,  all  must  be  discover- 
able in  the  egg.  If  germ  plasm  were  as  independent  from 
soma,  as  completely  insulated  from  environment  as  con- 
tinuous from  generation  to  generation  as  has  been 
assumed,  the  study  of  germ  plasm  would  be  the  only  way 
to  the  solution  of  the  problems  of  heredity  and  evolution. 
This  follows  no  matter  whether  the  chromosomes  or 
almost  the  entire  egg  are  credited  with  carrying  heredi- 
tary qualities;  only  the  postulation  of  continuity  and 
independence  from  soma  and  insulation  from  environ- 
ment are  necessary.  If  the  independence  of  germ  plasm 
from  soma  be  accepted  even  in  a  weakened  and  modified 
form  it  follows  that  studies  of  somatic  characters  can  at 
most  be  of  secondary  importance  from  the  point  of  view 
of  heredity  and  evolution.  Thus  in  some  quarters  the 
value  of  various  lines  of  zoological  work  has  been  esti- 
mated largely,  unconsciously,  no  doubt,  in  proportion  to 
the  nearness  or  remoteness  of  their  relation  to  the  ''germ 
plasm' ^  question. 

Thus  it  is  true  that  in  biology  as  in  all  other  fields 
values  are  measured  consciously  or  unconsciously  by 
criteria.  In  recent  years  another  better  criterion  of  value 
has  made  its  appearance  among  zoologists.  The  germ 
plasm  criterion  already  discussed  was  primarily  morpho- 
logical; the  second  is  physiological,  borrowed  no  doubt 
from  physiologists.  It  measures  values  on  the  basis  of 
the  analysis  of  the  organisms  into  terms  of  physics  and 
chemistry  or  is  concerned  with  a  mechanistic  conception 
of  life  in  all  its  manifestations.  From  this  viewpoint  the 
study  of  each  and  every  part  of  the  organism  is  important 
because  the  discovery  of  laws  governing  one  part  is 
usually  or  at  least  often  of  general  importance.  Investi- 
gations from  this  viewpoint  have  shown  that  the  germ 
plasm  criterion  is  clearly  illogical  in  its  application  to  the 
study  of  somatic  characters  because  it  is  based  upon  the 


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666  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

tacit  assumption  that  the  soma  is  governed  by  different 
laws  from  the  living  matter  which  makes  up  the  germ 
plasm  from  which  it  arose.  In  other  words  it  is  assumed 
that  the  germ  plasm  is  so  different  from  the  soma  that 
the  discovery  of  laws  governing  the  soma  is  a  type  of 
investigation  o£  relatively  little  significance. 

Some  criterion  of  values  is  of  course  necessary  in  sci- 
ence as  well  as  elsewhere,  and  for  the  sake  of  argument  we 
would  be  willing  to  accept  the  second  when  broadly  stated 
and  the  first  when  broadened  and  modified  so  as  to  accord 
with  the  second  as  appears  to  be  the  case  among  certain 
students  of  genetics.  In  other  words,  problems  of  the 
germ  cells,  the  egg,  and  heredity,  are  of  much  importance 
when  the  germ  cells  themselves  are  regarded  as  dynamic 
and  in  their  relations  to  the  dynamics  of  the  organism 
as  a  whole. 

Granting  that  these  are  true  and  tenable  criteria  of 
values  in  present-day  biological  science,  what  is  to  be  the 
method  of  application?  Should  biology  demand  that 
results  be  of  direct  application  to  these  '* central''  prob- 
lems? One  has  but  to  look  at  the  history  of  almost  any 
branch  of  science  to  find  that  great,  if  not  the  greatest, 
advances  have  come  through  following  up  results  at 
points  where  relations  to  the  central  problems  of  the 
period  were  quite  unsuspected,  or  by  the  transference 
of  methods,  principles  and  results  from  one  field  to  an- 
other where  relations  between  the  two  were  not  suspected. 
Take,  for  example,  immunity  and  immunization,  the  his- 
tory of  which  is  ably  sketched  by  Adami  ( '08,  pp.  451- 
528).  It  has  been  known  for  ages  that  one  attack  of  many 
infectious  diseases  yields  more  or  less  complete  immunity 
from  subsequent  attacks.  Thus  for  centuries  in  India 
and  the  East  individuals,  chiefly  children,  have  been  pur- 
posely inoculated  with  matter  or  by  contact.  The  prac- 
tise grew  out  of  experience  showing  that  diseases  thus 
communicated  to  healthy  individuals  from  weaker  ones 
are  less  severe.  In  1796  the  results  of  Jenner  on  vaccina- 
tion with  cowpox  were  published.    This  may  have  influ- 


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No.  575]       RESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  667 

enced  Pasteur,  who  over  eighty  years  later  laid  the 
foundation  for  the  modern  epoch  of  development,  by 
combating  a  plague  of  diarrhoea  in  poultry  (1880). 
During  the  twenty  years  following,  various  investigators 
added  noteworthy  contributions,  and  about  1900  Ehrlich 
and  Morgenroth  evolved  the  ** side-chain  theory"  by 
which  a  large  number  of  possible  conditions  can  be  pre- 
dicted and  all  the  observed  facts  of  immunity  explained. 
While  not  expressed  in  strictly  chemical  terms,  the  theory 
and  the  experiments  which  support  it  are  very  important 
both  practically  and  theoretically.  In  recent  years  the 
knowledge  of  immunity  and  comparable  phenomena  have 
been  greatly  extended.  Various  workers  (Pf offer,  Vol. 
II,  p.  262)  have  shown  similar  phenomena  in  the  increased 
resistance  of  plants  to  poisons,  thus  making  the  responses 
of  plants  and  animals  still  more  generally  comparable. 
Most  recently  workers  on  problems  such  as  fertilization 
(LiUie,  '13),  standing  in  close  relation  to  the  older  germ- 
plasm  doctrine,  have  discovered  facts  belonging  to  this 
field  and  made  use  of  Ehrlich 's  theory  to  explain  the  ob- 
servations. This  development  has  helped  to  confirm  the 
conclusion  of  some  investigators  that  immunity  phe* 
nomena  represent  important  features  of  the  chemical 
mechanism  of  life.    Adami  has  remarked. 

That  a  plague  of  diarrhoea  in  a  poultry  yard,  studied  by  a  professor 
of  chemistry,  should  be  the  seed  from  which  has  grown  the  vast  de- 
velopment of  later  years  is  a  strange  fact,  but  a  fact  nevertheless. 

What  was  the  attitude  of  pure  science  so  called,  of 
germ-plasm  doctrinairies,  and  biologists  generally  during 
the  long  period  which  elapsed  before  they  could  make 
use  of  his  results?  Clearly  it  was  one  of  indifference,  if 
not  disgust,  toward  the  subject.  The  probable  result  of 
such  attitudes  on  the  progress  of  the  investigation  of 
immunity  phenomena,  had  it  not  been  for  their  immense 
practical  significance,  is  clear.  They  could  not  have 
received  their  proper  share  of  attention.  Thus  in  the 
pursuit  of  the  analysis  of  the  chemical  mechanism  of  life 
men  who  sought  it  directly  have  failed  in  this  one  imp^r- 


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668  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

tant  step,  and  the  chief  contribution  has  come  from  verj'' 
remote  indirect  methods.  Generally  speaking  the  inves- 
tigators who  choose  a  direct  method  of  attack  often  put 
themselves  somewhat  in  the  position  of  the  chemist  who 
would  make  chemical  analysis  of  living  matter  when  his 
first  step  defeats  its  own  purpose  by  killing  the  substance 
to  be  analyzed.  The  failure  of  exclusively  direct  methods 
is  often  evident.  Still  the  ability  to  obtain  results  by  the 
method  of  direct  attack,  combined  with  a  far  too  rare 
ability  to  tie  with  them  indirectly  obtained  data,  some- 
times gives  noteworthy  contributions. 

It  accordingly  remains  to  be  seriously  considered 
whether  or  not  biology  can  afford  to  apply  criteria  to  the 
measure  of  the  values  of  investigation.  Their  application 
is  of  course  largely  unconscious,  but  the  effects  are  not 
thereby  modified.  Noteworthy  results  of  their  applica- 
tion are  (a)  concentration  of  work  in  certain  lines  indi- 
cated by  a  given  criterion,  and  (6)  an  actual  abandoning 
to  a  large  degree  of  remote  and  indirect  methods  of 
attacking  the  problems  which  the  criterion  involves.  This 
means  the  partial  abandoning  of  the  methods  for  which 
pure  science  stands. 

Criteria  can  be  safely  used  only  in  a  very  broad  gen- 
eral way,  and  in  application  more  often  to  past  progress 
than  to  current  investigation.  They  are  perhaps  most 
valuable  as  a  guide  to  individual  investigators  working 
on  problems  remote  from  these  more  or  less  central 
**pure  science"  questions.  That  some  guide  should  be 
in  the  hands  of  such  workers  is  beyond  question.  In  the 
hands  of  those  attacking  the  problems  directly  they  often 
appear  detrimental  because  they  soon  take  on  an  extreme 
form  and  become  regarded  as  fundamental.  At  this 
stage  they  are  usually  in  need  of  extensive  revision.  If 
the  investigator  is  contributing  observations  and  details 
only,  he  is  doing  a  great  service,  for  such  information  is 
needed  everywhere.  If  he  is  able  to  combine  his  own  and 
others  results,  he  almost  invariably  draws  data  from  all 
sc^rces,  direct  and  indirect,  far  and  near.    Granted  the 


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No.  575]       RESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  669 

ability  to  synthesize,  the  opportunity  to  use  the  ability 
sometimes  comes  to  those  who  attack  the  so-called  cen- 
ti^l  problems  directly.  It  comes  equally  often  (we  believe 
more  often)  to  those  who  have  led  up  to  the  central  prob- 
lem from  some  remote  viewpoint,  frequently  condemned 
by  the  followers  of  direct  method  of  attack.  Granting 
the  importance  of  synthesis,  if  the  biologist  seeks  the 
solution  of  such  a  problem  as  the  germ-plasm  problem, 
he  should  encourage  workers  to  start  at  points  as  remote 
from  the  subject  as  possible,  that  they  may  approach  it 
with  new  light  and  from  new  angles. 

In  judging  the  work  of  another,  its  value  should  be 
determined  more  by  the  (a)  strictness  of  scientific  method 
used,  (6)  the  thoroughness  and  completeness  of  the  in- 
vestigation, and  (c)  (and  perhaps  most  important  of  all) 
evidence  of  ability  to  synthesize  and  combine  other  re- 
sults with  his  own  with  a  view  to  broader  generalization. 
It  must,  however,  also  be  recognized  that  there  are  many 
biological  problems  of  much  human  importance,  which 
must  be  solved  quite  independently  of  the  ideal  central 
problems  of  pure  science. 

6.  Summary  and  Conclusions 
From  the  data  presented  above,  we  note  that  the  doc- 
trine of  purposeful,  advantageous  response  (including 
anthropomorphic  ideas)  arose  from  the  uncritical  non- 
experimental  study  of  the  responses  (structural)  of  ses- 
sile and  (behavior)  motile  animals.  The  idea  of  the  all- 
sufficiency  of  natural  selection  is  largely  the  outcome  of 
observational  study  of  apparently  fixed  and  yet  appar- 
ently adaptive  characters  of  motile  highly  individuated 
animals.  The  doctrine  of  the  continuity  of  the  germ 
plasm  is  likewise  the  outgrowth  of  the  study  of  highly 
individuated  animals  in  which  the  various  organs  are 
early  differentiated  in  the  dividing  egg.  No  one  of  the 
doctrines  is  wholly  tenable ;  no  one  is  more  than  a  partial 
truth.  Each  appears  to  have  arisen  from  a  recognition 
of  certain  more  or  less  unconsciously  selected  and  un- 
critically interpreted  phenomena  by  each  of  several  men 


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670  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XL^TLII 

who  secured  different  facte  and  attempted  explanations. 

In  a  few  animals  the  ''germ  plasm''  may  be  morpho- 
logically early  differentiated  and  reasonably  continuous, 
though  governed  by  the  same  laws  as  other  tissues.  In 
others,  any  part  of  the  general  tissues  may  give  rise  to  a 
complete  organism.  The  behavior  of  some  organisms  is 
intelligent  and  purposeful,  while  that  of  others  is  largely 
mechanical.  Some  structural  responses  of  sessile  organ- 
isms are  advantageous,  some  indifferent  and  some  harm- 
ful. Some  of  the  more  fixed  structures  of  the  highly  indi- 
viduated animals  are  advantageous,  some  indifferent, 
and  some  disadvantageous  (Metcalf,  '13).  No  other  type 
of  general  statement  appears  to  be  tenable,  yet  each 
extreme  of  each  proposition  has  at  some  time  or  other 
been  the  subject  of  some  all-inclusive  doctrine. 

Such  are  the  limitations  of  an  individual's  knowledge 
and  the  psychic  limitations  of  our  race  and  generation. 
In  considering  the  psychology  of  religion,  Ames  ('10, 
p.  394)  points  Qut  similar  well-recognizable  tendencies  in 
that  field  of  human  activity  and  quotes  Cooley  on  social 
development  as  follows : 

Much  energy  has  been  wasted  or  nearly  wasted,  in  the  exclusive  and 
intolerant  advocacy  of  special  schemes — single  tax,  prohibition,  state 
socialism  and  the  like,  each  of  which  was  imagined  by  its  adherents  to 
be  the  key  of  millennial  conditions.  Every  year  makes  converts  to  the 
truth  that  no  isolated  scheme  can  be  a  good  scheme,  and  that  real  prog- 
ress must  be  advanced  all  along  the  line. 

Advance  all  along  the  line  is  tvhat  biological  science 
must  achiev^e.  This  I  believe  means  the  encouraging  of 
all  lines  of  indirect  attack,  whether  they  at  first  throw 
light  on  the  ideal  central  question  of  pure  science  or 
important  practical  problems  or  not.  .It  means  the  exer- 
cising of  extreme  caution  in  the  application  of  criteria  of 
values  to  scientific  results.  Such  measures  tend  not  only 
to  stifle  the  best  initiative  in  good  investigators,  but  also 
tend  to  check  the  building  up  of  fruitful  hypotheses. 
The  latter  danger  is  greatest  in  connection  with  the 
mechanistic  criterion  referred  to  above.  As  has  already 
been  stated,  criteria  of  values  can  be  safely  applied  only 


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No.  575]      BESPONSES  OF  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  671 

as  broad  general  guides,  and  investigation  should  be 
measured  on  the  basis  of  its  thoroughness,  the  originality 
shown,  etc. 

In  science  special  schemes  of  course  do  not  exist  recog- 
nized as  such,  but  intolerant  application  of  criteria  of 
values  results  in  essentially  the  same  condition.  One 
often  hears  the  statement  made  by  so-called  scientific 
men,  that  this  or  that  line  of  investigation  has  been  pur- 
sued for  several  years,  but  has  failed  to  yield  important 
advances  or  generalizations,  but  they  add,  we  will  be  very 
glad  to  recognize  it  as  soon  as  its  value  is  proven.  This 
seems  to  us  to  be  a  distinctly  unscientific  attitude,  and 
but  a  polite  modern  statement  of  a  spirit  which  in  former 
generations  often  sent  men  to  the  stake  or  dungeon.  This 
is  true  because  to  these  i>olite  objectors  its  value  is 
rarely  or  never  proven.  It*is  '* schemes''  (preconceived 
theories)  thus  presented  that  have  in  the  recent  past 
stifled  the  study  of  responses  by  discouraging  efforts  in 
Nhat  direction  and  thus  contributed  materially  toward 
making  zoology  the  unorganized  science  which  it  is 
to-day.  We  must  recognize  that  the  various  aspects  of 
zoology  pure  and  applied  have  never  been  well  corre- 
lated, less  so  we  believe  than  in  any  other  branch  of 
natural  science,  clearly  less  than  in  botany.  In  general, 
animal  physiology  has  been  isolated  in  medical  schools 
and  genetics,  faunistics  and  morphology  have  not  been 
properly  influenced  by  it,  while  morphologists  for  many 
years  held  themselves  aloof  from  other  workers. 

In  a  discussion  dealing  mainly  with  the  doctrine  of 
natural  selection  in  the  origination  of  adaptations, 
Mathews  ('13)  has  sounded  the  keynote  of  a  growing 
attitude  toward  all  response  questions.  Out  of  the  infi- 
nite different  combinations  which  may  enter  into  the 
proteid  molecule  and  the  varying  rates  at  which  metabolic 
action  may  go  forward,  innumerable  types  of  irritability 
and  correlated  structure  have  been  and  still  are  arising 
under  the  influence  of  environment  external  and  internal. 
Of  these  some  are  incompatible  with  life,  others  indiffer- 


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672  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VouXLVHI 

ent,  and  others  advantageous.  Upon  these  physiological 
characters  natural  selection  has  operated  to  eliminate, 
and  with  time  has  perhaps  rendered  of  less  frequent 
occurrence,  those  characters  that  are  incompatible  with 
their  conditions  of  existence.  External  form,  color  orna- 
mentation, etc.,  while  no  doubt  often  of  importance  them- 
selves are  more  often  the  advantageous  or  indifferent 
correlatives  of  physiological  or  irritability  types  which 
are  compatible  with  their  conditions  of  existence.  The 
study  of  irritability  and  response  may  be  pursued  in 
many  ways — ^by  experiment,  by  observation  in  nature 
alone  or  combined  with  experiment.  The  mapping  of 
stimulating  conditions  in  nature,  of  the  distribution  of 
types  of  irritability  and  response,  which  is  one  function 
of  field  ecology  and  modern  geography,  can  hardly  fail 
to  contribute  materially  to  tbe  advance  of  knowledge  in 
many  lines,  including  that  of  the  physico-chemical 
mechanism  of  life.  The  student  of  experimental  ecology 
has  an  infinite  field  of  problems  and  methods  thrown  # 
open  to  him  by  the  organization  of  such  information 
relative  to  responses.  Still  in  our  attempt  to  make  ad- 
vances along  the  line  of  the  study  of  responses,  we  must 
not  forget  that  it  is  but  one  of  several  lines  of  advance, 
all  of  which  must  sooner  or  later  be  correlated  with  a 
view  to  broader  generalization. 

Hull  Zoological  Laboeatory, 
Univebsity  or  Chicago, 
April  1,  1914 

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an   Account   of   the  Breeding  Habits    of   the  Horned  Dace. 

Bull  Bur.  of  Fish,,  XXVIH,  1908,  pp.  1111-1136. 
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437-441. 
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man Vol.),  Vol.  XXII,  pp.  551-618. 

('lid).  Ecological  Succession,  III.  A  Beconnaissance  of  its  Causes  in 
Ponds  with  Particular  Beference  to  Fish.     Biol.  Bull.,  Vol. 

XXII,  pp.  1-38. 

('12a).    Ecological   Succession,   IV.     Vegetation  and  the  Control    of 

Land  Communities.    Biol  Bull,  Vol.  XXIII,  pp.  59-99. 
('126).     Ecological  Succession,  V.     Aspects  of  Physiological  Classifi- 
cation.   Biol.  Bull,  Vol.  XXIII,  pp.  331-370. 
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AN  APTEROUS  DBOSOPHILA  AND  ITS 
GENETIC  BEHAVIOR 

CHARLES  W.  METZ 
Department  op  Zoology,  Columbia  University 

Among  the  various  mutants  of  the  fruit-fly,  Drosophila 
ampelophila,  which  have  arisen  from  cultures  in  this 
laboratory,  is  one  entirely  destitute  of  wings,  and  hence 
called  apterous.^  The  study  of  the  heredity  of  this  form 
has  been  difl5cult  because  of  its  almost  complete  (appar- 
ent) sterility.  In  order,  therefore,  to  determine  to  which 
of  the  three  groups  of  linked  characters  of  Drosophila  it 
belonged  I  was  obliged,  in  most  crosses,  to  make  use  of 
heterozygous  flies  that  carried  the  factor  for  apterous. 
As  this  process  is  unique  in  certain  regards,  it  will  be 
described  in  some  detail. 

Methods  of  Study 

At  first  it  was  thought  that  the  apterous  mutant  was 
completely  sterile,  since  none  of  the  first  flies,  as  they 
appeared  occasionally  in  certain  cultures,  could  be  crossed 
even  with  normal  individuals.  At  last,  however,  offspring 
were  obtained  from  an  apterous  female  by  a  wild  male, 
and  a  permanent  line  started.  But  this  line  could  not  be 
perpetuated  by  means  of  apterous  individuals,  for  these 
were  unable  to  breed.^  It  had,  therefore,  to  be  kept  up 
by  means  of  heterozygous,  winged  flies.  The  method  was 
as  follows :  The  original  cross  of  winged  by  apterous  gave 
in  F2  approximately  3  winged  to  1  apterous.  Of  the 
winged  class  approximately  two  thirds  were  heterozygous 
for  apterous,  and  when  mated  together  gave  the  same 

1  This  apterous  fly  is  quite  distinct  from  that  called  wingless  in  earlier 
papers  by  Morgan,  and  now  known  as  vestigial. 

2  Only  twice,  aside  from  the  original  mating,  were  apterous  individuals 
successfully  crossed,  and  then  only  to  winged  specimens,  never  to  their  own 
kind.    These  two  cases  axe  given  in  experiments  II  and  III. 

675 


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676  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

3 : 1  ratio.  Selecting  again  from  the  winged  flies,  the  proc- 
ess could  be  repeated  indefinitely.  The  only  diflBculty  lay 
in  the  fact  that  no  visible  character  differentiated  the 
heterozygous  from  homozygous  winged  flies,  and  conse- 
quently all  matings  had  to  be  made  in  pairs  taken  at 
random,  with  the  result  that  about  56  per  cent,  of  the 
cultures  were  rendered  worthless.  In  actual  practise  large 
numbers  were  mated  in  pairs,  and  then  all  discarded  save 
those  producing  apterous.^  This  was  the  method  used  in 
keeping  up  stock. 

To  obtain  the  necessary  combination  of  apterous  with 
other  mutant  factors,  winged  offspring  from  apterous- 
throwing  parents  were  mated  in  pairs  to  flies  of  the 
desired  stock.  One  third  of  the  normals  from  apterous 
stock  were  pure  for  the  normal  allelomorph  of  apterous 
and  rendered  worthless  all  matings  in  which  they  were  in- 
volved; but  the  other  two  thirds  were  heterozygous  for 
apterous,  and  when  crossed  with  the  desired  stock  gave 
in  Fa  some  apterous  offspring.  If  the  Fi  flies  were  bred 
671  masse,  approximately  15  winged  to  1  apterous  were  ob- 
tained, but  if  bred  in  pairs,  certain  pairs  (those  in  which 
both  members  were  heterozygous  for  apterous)  gave  3 
winged  to  1  apterous.  The  latter  method  was  the  one 
actually  used  in  most  cases.  In  this  manner  the  same  end 
result  was  attained  as  would  have  been  secured  by  using 
apterous  individuals  in  crosses  with  other  stocks,  the 
only  difference  being  in  the  amount  of  labor  involved  in 
making  up  a  larger  number  of  cultures.  Both  kinds  of 
crosses  were,  in  fact,  used,  as  will  be  seen  below. 

The  use  of  symbols  in  this  paper  follows  the  system 
recently  adopted  by  Morgan  and  other  students  of  Droso- 
phila  (Morgan,  1913,  a  and  6).  That  is,  for  any  pair  of 
allelomorphic  characters  a  capital  letter  is  used  to  indicate 
the  dominant,  and  a  small  letter  the  recessive  factor — ^the 
symbol  being  taken  from  the  name  of  the  mutant  Since 
the  apterous  character  is  recessive,  the  symbols  for  the 

8  In  the  fourth  experiment  a  character  (black)  was  introduced  which  dif- 
ferentiated homozygous  from  heterozygous  and  thus  made  it  possible  to  pick 
out  the  heterozygous  individuals. 


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No.  575]  AN  APTEROUS  DROSOPHILA  677 

apterous  fly  become  Op-Op,  and  those  for  the  winged  fly 
Ap-Ap.  In  other  words,  Ap  is  a  factor  in  the  wild  fly 
necessary  for  wing  production,  while  Op  is  its  modified 
homologue  responsible  for  lack  of  wings  in  the  mutant. 
The  apparent  contradiction  in  using  Ap,  not  for  the  factor 
responsible  for  apterous,  but  for  its  normal  allelomorph, 
may  be  confusing  at  first  sight,  but  a  little  familiarity  with 
the  system  obviates  this  difficulty. 

Experiments 

Experiment  /.—Long-winged,  red-eyed  c?  by  apterous, 
white-eyed  2  (from  miniature  wing  stock). 

Fj  All  winged.    Long-winged,  red-eyed  females. 

Miniature  winged,  white-eyed  males. 


Fa  Winged  and  apterous  as  follows : 

Long-winged,  red-eyed  males  and  females. 
Long- winged,  white-eyed  males  and  females. 
Miniature-winged,    red-eyed    males    and 

females. 
Miniature-winged,  white-eyed  males  and 

females. 


Winged 


.  [Apterous,  red-eyed  males  and  females. 

^  [Apterous,  white-eyed  males  and  females. 

This  experiment  shows  the  inheritance  of  the  apterous 
character  to  be  Mendelian,  giving  in  Fj  all  winged,  and  in 
Fa  approximately  3  winged  to  1  apterous.  Table  I  con- 
tains a  summary  of  the  offspring  from  21  pairs  of  the  F^ 
and  Fg  individuals,  giving  a  total  of  1,405  winged  to  450 
apterous,— a  ratio  of  3.12  to  1. 

The  absence  of  apterous  flies  in  Fi  indicates  at  once 
that  the  apterous  character  is  not  sex-linked.  The  pres- 
ence of  miniature-winged  flies  in  Fj  and  Fg  indicates  that 
the  apterous  factor  is  independent  of  the  miniature-wing 
factor,  which  latter  must  have  been  carried  by  the  apterous 
female  (coming  from  miniature  wing  stock),  and  trans- 
mitted to  her  offspring  unaffected  by  the  apterous  factor. 


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678  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVin 

Analysis  of  the  cross: 
Apy  factor  necessary  for  wing  production,    (h,  its  alle- 
lomorph, in  the  apterous  fly. 
M,  factor  necessary  for  the  production  of  long  wings 

(sex-linked). 
m,  allelomorph  of  If  responsible  for  miniature  wings. 
W,  factor  necessary  for  tiie  production  of  eye  color 

(sex-linked). 
w,  allelomorph  of  W  responsible  for  white  eyes. 

Pi  Long,  red  male  ApMWX-Apf 

Apterous,  white  female  a^mwX-cipmwX. 

Fj  Long  red  females  ApMWX-aprmoX,    • 

Miniature  white  males  ApHipfif^wX. 


Fg,  leaving  out  of  account  the  sex-linked  factors  and 
considering  only  winged  vs.  apterous : 

Gametes  of  Fi    Ap,  ch. 

Apf  Qfp, 


F^ 

Winged 


Ap-Op- 
Ap—Ap, 

Apr-Op. 


Apterous  Op-Op. 

Experiment  //. — Long  vermilion  $  by  apterous,  white  ^.^ 
.  This  cross  is  practically  the  reciprocal  of  Exp.  I,  except 
that  vermilion  replaces  red  eye  color  in  the  winged  parent 
Like  Experiment  I  it  involves  two  pairs  of  sex-linked  char- 
acters, aside  from  the  apterous  character.  The  results  are 
essentially  like  those  of  Experiment  I  and  may  be  passed 
over  briefly. 

Pi    Long,  vermilion  2    ApMWX-ApMWX, 
Apterous,  white  c?    OpinwX-dp'^ 


*  The  white-eyed,  apterous  c?  in  this  cross  is  white-vermilion,  t.  e.,  the 
double  recessive,  and  therefore  when  crossed  with  vermilion  it  gives  vermilion 
instead  of  red  in  F,. 


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No.  575] 


AN  APTEROUS  DROSOPHILA 


679 


Fx 


F. 


Long,  vermilion  $ 
Long,  vermilion  c? 


AjMWX-opmwX, 
AvMWX-^. 


Long  vermilion  $  and  c? 
Long,  white  c? 
Miniature,  vermilion  ^ 
Miniature,  white  c? 

Apterous,  vermilion  $  and  c? 
Apterous,  white  c? 

TABLE    I 


.  Winged. 


Apterous. 


Offspring  from  Pairs  Heterozygous  for  Apterous  in  Experiment  I. 
Parents  taken  from  F„  F,  and  F, 


Mating  No. 

Winged 

Apterous 

Ratio 

41 

122 

32 

3.8  :  1 

53 

41 

14 

2.9  : 

56 

29 

12 

2.5  . 

64 

46 

30 

1.5 

65 

29 

16 

1.8 

80 

85 

28 

3.04 

83 

71 

20 

3.5 

84 

13 

3 

4.3 

85 

40 

9 

4.4 

111 

183 

64 

2.8 

112 

20 

10 

2 

117 

99 

42 

2.4 

118. 

28 

10 

2.8 

130 

32 

7 

4.5 

131 

76 

26 

3.1 

132 

71 

19 

3.7 

134 

92 

36- 

2.6 

151 

68 

12 

4.8 

170 

78 

10 

7.8 

171 

63 

15 

4.5 

177 

129 

35 

3.6 

1.405 

450 

Average  ratio  of  winged  to  apterous,  3.12:1. 

An  analysis  of  the  Fg  is  not  essential  here  aad  is  omitted 
for  the  sake  of  brevity.  It  may  be  derived  from  the  Fj 
formulae.  Table  11  indicates  the  expected  classes  and 
ratios  in  Fg  and  gives  the  actual  numbers  obtained  in  cul- 
ture No.  59,  in  which  each  class  was  recorded  separately. 
In  subsequent  cultures  of  this  experiment  no  attempt  was 
made  to  separate  any  but  the  winged  and  apterous  classes. 
Counts  of  the  latter  are  given  in  Table  III. 


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680 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VouXLYin 


TABLE   n 
Mating  59 

id  Classes                    1  Expected  lUtio 

Actaftl  Ratio 

Actatl  No. 

1 

12 
3 
3 
3 
3 

4 
2 
2 

13.8  :  1 
4.2:1 
2.4:1 
2     :1 
4     :1 

3.2:1 
1.2:  1 
2     :1 

185 

67 

31 

26 

53 

44 

1 

15 

! 

24 

Long  verm.  9 

Long  verm,  cf 

Long  white  cf 

Miniature  verm,  cf . 
Miniature  white  cf . 

Apterous  verm.  9  . . 
Apterous  verm,  cf  . . 
Apterous  white  cf  . . 


TABLE  in 
F,  FBOM  Mass  Cultubss 


Culture  No. 

Winged 

Apterous 

RaUo 

58 

367 

78 

4.7  :  1 

59 

352 

83 

4.2 

96 

556 

114 

4.8 

97 

306 

70 

4.3 

120 

597 

103 

5.08 

135 

554 

104 

5.3 

137 

405 

49 

8 

154 

298 

45 

6.6 

157 

405 

53 

7.6 

3.840 

699 

Average  ratio,  5.6 

1. 

Fa  FROM  PaIES 


Culture  No.    | 

WiDged 

Apterous 

Ratio 

155  1 

156  1 

141 
38 

35 
11 

4.1 
3.4 

:  1 
:  1 

1 

179 

46 

Average  ratio.  3.9 

:  1. 

F,  FROM 

Pairs 

Culture  No. 

Winged 

Apterous 

RaUo 

160 

119 

25 

4.7  :  1 

162 

123 

27 

4.6 

172 

266 

62 

4.3 

173 

87 

26 

3.4 

174 

165 

37 

4.5  • 

175 

167 

42 

4 

176 

171 

46 

3.7 

177 

129 

35 

3.6 

178 

92 

23 

4 

1.319 

323 

Average  ratio,  4.08:  1 

179  46 

1,319  323 

Total  from  pairs,  1,498  369 


Ratio,    4.6  :  1. 


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No.  575]       AN  APTEROUS  DROSOPHILA  681 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  apterous  classes  fall  a  little 
below  the  expected  numbers  in  most  cases.  This  is  char- 
acteristic of  all  weak  races  of  Drosophila,  and  is  doubtless 
due  to  the  inability  of  some  flies  to  mature.  Of  the  winged 
classes  the  first  two  and  the  fifth  exceed  the  Mendelian 
ratios,  while  the  other  two  fall  short,  due  to  linkage  be- 
tween white,  vermilion  and  miniature.^  The  distribution 
of  apterous,  however,  is  entirely  independent  of  the 
others,  showing  that  the  factor  responsible  for  it  is  not  a 
member  of  the  group  (Containing  those  responsible  for 
vermilion  eyes,  white  eyes,  or  miniature  wings. 

The  ratio  of  winged  to  apterous  in  this  particular  cul- 
ture is  4.2 : 1.  Table  III  includes  a  summarj^  of  this  and 
nineteen  similar  cultures  in  which  the  parents  were  all 
descendants  of  the  long-winged,  vermilion-eyed  female  by 
the  apterous  male  mentioned  above.  The  first  nine  are 
mass  cultures,  the  next  two  are  pairs,  from  Fj  flies.  Below 
these  are  offspring  from  nine  pairs  of  Fg  flies. 

It  is  noticeable  that  the  ratio  of  apterous  to  winged  is 
greater  in  cultures  where  pairs  are  used  than  in  mass  cul- 
tures, though  all  parents  in  the  latter  are  heterozygous. 
This,  I  believe,  is  unquestionably  due  to  the  low  viability 
of  the  apterous  flies,  which  prevents  some  of  them  from 
maturing  in  cultures  where  the  competition  is  severe.  For 
this  reason  the  averages  are  given  separately  for  pairs 
and  for  mass  cultures.  The  average  from  pairs  is  4.06 : 1, 
while  that  from  mass  cultures  is  5.5 : 1.  This  low  viability 
is  also  shown  by  pairs,  if  the  food  conditions  are  not  good, 
or  if  the  culture  becomes  very  dry. 

Experiment  III.— To  determine  the  relation  between 
apterous  and  characters  in  Group  III. 

It  is  obvious  from  Experiments  I  and  II  that  apterous 
is  not  a  sex-linked  character  (Group  I).  The  present  ex- 
periment is  for  the  purpose  of  determining  its  relation  to 
characters  of  Group  III.  As  a  representative  of  the  latter 
group  pink  eye  color  was  chosen.  The  results  of  the  cross 
between  this  and  apterous  may  be  passed  over  briefly 

5  For  d'seussion  of  linkage  between  these  characters  Fee  Morgan,  1911. 


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682 


THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


since  they  are  similar  to  previous  results  in  showing  no 
linkage.  A  winged,  pink-eyed  male  bred  to  an  apterous, 
vermilion-eyed  female  (from  Experiment  HI)  gave,  as 
expected,  winged,  vermilion-eyed  males  and  winged,  red- 
eyed  females  in  Fi.  These  inbred  gave  four  classes  of 
winged  and  four  classes  of  apterous,  i.  e.,  red,  vermilion, 
pink  and  orange.®  The  ratios  are  such  as  to  show  inde- 
pendent segregation  of  apterous  and  pink.  Below  is  a 
summary  of  the  expected  and  actual  results. 


Pj    Apterous,  vermilion  $ 
Winged,  pink  c? 


Fi    All  winged. 


Red  $ 
Verm,  c? 


OpvPX-OpvPX, 
ApVpX-App. 

chvPX-ApVpX, 
ChvPX-App. 


Eight  kinds  of  eggs  and  four  kinds  of  spermatozoa  are 
formed  by  these  Fi  flies,  giving,  through  random  fertiliza- 
tion, 32  classes  of  offspring  divided  into  eight  groups,  as 
shown  in  Table  IV. 

TABLE  IV 


Ft  Expected  Results 


ClasMt 


Ratio 


Actaal  Results  in 

Experiments 

627 

6287     1     629 

630     {     6S1 

^h^ 

34 

120 

35 

70 

fo35 

3 

38 

11 

24 

?3> 

15 

32 

11 

21 

I}- 

0 

10 

2 

7 

Total 


Winced,  red 

Winged,  vermilion . . 

Winged,  pink 

Winged,  orange. .  . . 

Apterous,  red 

Apterous,  vermilion. 

Apterous,  pink 

Apterous,  orange.  .  . 


402 

111 

114 

34 


In  the  table  red  and  vermilion  have  been  considered 
together  as  one  class,  because  they  both  contain  P;  and 
similarly  pink  and  orange  have  been  considered  together 
because  they  both  contain  p.  The  total  numbers  for  the 
four  classes  give  the  ratios  402:111:114:34,  or  10.8:3.6: 
3.35 : 1,— a  sufl5ciently  close  approximation  to  the  expected 

«  Orange  eye  is  the  double  recessive  pv-pv, 

7  In  this  culture  the  ratios  are  seen  to  diverge  widely  from  the  expected, 
due,  I  believe,  to  the  poor  cultural  conditions  in  this  case  which  prevented 
some  of  the  weaker  pink  and  orange  flies  from  maturing 


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No.  575] 


AN  APTEROUS  DROSOPHILA 


683 


9:3:3:1.    These  results  clearly  show  the  independence 
(t.  e.,  lack  of  linkage)  of  apterous  and  pink. 

Table  V  includes  all  matings  (giving  apterous)  in  Ex- 
periment m,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  ratio  of 
winged  to  apterous. 

TABLE  V 


Mating  No. 


Winged 


Apterous 


Ratio 


627 

178 

628 

37 

629 

168 

630 

46 

631  • 

94 

646 

48 

649 

81 

650 

44 

661 

124 

662 

92 

674 

60 

692 

76 

1,027 

60 

3.66  :  1 

16 

2.47  :  1 

42 

3.7  :  1 

13 

3.53  :  1 

28 

3.36  :  1 

10 

4.8  :  1 

27 

3.1  :  1 

14 

3.16  :  1 

37 

3.36  :  1 

34 

2.7  :1 

19 

2.63:  1 

27 
(16 

3.16  .  1 

Average  ratio  winged  to  apterous^  3.25:1. 

Experiment  IV.— To  determine  the  relation  between 
apterous  and  characters  in  Group  II. 

The  mutant  called  *' black"  (having  black  body  and 
wings)  was  used  in  this  experiment  as  a  representative  of 
Group  n.  No  direct  matings  with  apterous  individuals, 
such  as  obtained  in  the  three  preceding  cases,  could  be 
effected  here,  and  consequently  the  winged  brothers  and 
sisters  of  apterous  had  to  be  used  for  crossing  with  black, 
according  to  the  method  described  in  the  introduction. 
Matings  of  this  kind  (in  pairs)  gave,  in  Fj,  winged  flies, 
some  of  which  were  heterozygous  for  apterous  and  black. 
These  inbred  (also  in  pairs)  gave  winged  and  apterous, 
and  gray  and  black,  as  shown  below : 

Pi  Black  (?  homozygous  for  wings         Apb-Apb, 
Gray  ?  heterozygous  for  apterous    ApB-OpB. 

Fi  Winged,  heterozygous  for  black  Apb-ApB, 

Winged,  heterozygous  for  black  and  apterous  Arb-apB. 

Only  pairs  in  which  both  members  were  of  the  second 
type  (^pfe-^pB,— heterozygous  for  apterous)  could  pro- 


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684  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIU 

duce  apterous.    The  others,  therefore,  are  ignored.    Con- 
sidering the  second  type  alone,  the  analysis  becomes  : 

Fj  gametes  (expected)     Apb-ApB-Oph-OpB, 

Aph-ApB-dpb-OvB. 


Fg  Expected  classes. 

OpB-OpB  apterous,  gray. 

OpB-Opb  apterous  (heterozygous  for  black). 

OpB-ApB  winged,  gray. 

dpB-Aph  winged,  heterozygous  for  black. 

Opb-OpB  apterous,  heterozygous  for  black. 

Opb-Opb  apterous,  black. 

Opb-ApB  winged,  heterozygous  for  black. 

Opb-Apb  winged,  black. 

ApB-OpB  winged,  gray. 

ApB-Opb  winged,  heterozygous  for  black. 

ApB-ApB  winged,  gray. 

ApB-Apb  winged,  heterozygous  for  black. 

Apb-OpB  do. 

Apb-<ipb  •  winged,  black. 

Apb-ApB  winged,  heterozygous  for  black. 

Apb-Apb  winged,  black. 

Expected  ratios :  3  winged  black ;  6  winged  heterozygous 
for  black;  3  winged  gray;  1  apterous  black;  2  apterous 
heterozygous  for  black ;  1  apterous  gray. 

Actual  results :  winged  black,  winged  heterozygous  for 
black,  and  apterous  gray,  as  shown  in  Table  VI. 

In  the  last  two  matings  black  and  heterozygous  oflF- 
spring  were  counted  as  one  class. 

Total:  winged  701;  apterous  174  or  4.02:1. 

The  expectation  for  the  F2  if  Ap  and  B  segregate  inde- 
pendently is  equal  numbers  of  black  and  gray  among  the 
winged  and  among  the  apterous  offspring.  Actually,  how- 
ever, the  apterous  flies  are  all  gray,  and  the  winged  flies 
are  all  black  or  heterozygous  for  black.    Furthermore,  the 


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No.  575] 


AN  APTEROUS  DROSOPHILA 


685 


ratio  of  heterozygotes  to  pure  blacks  in  the  winged  class 
shows  that  the  flies  which  should  have  been  gray  accord- 
ing to  expectation  have  been  added  to  the  heterozygotes. 
Likewise  the  gray  flies  in  the  apterous  class  are  about  four 
times  as  numerous  as  anticipated,  showing  that  the  ex- 
pected heterozygotes  and  blacks  are  here  gray.  From  this 
it  is  evident  that  the  factors  Op  and  B,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  Ap  and  b,  on  the  other,  have  remained  associated  in 
the  combination  which  they  formed  in  the  parents,  instead 
of  independently  segregating.  Such  an  explanation  ac- 
counts for  the  absence  of  ApB  and  apb  gametes  in  the  Pi 
generation,  and  consequently  for  the  absence  of  gray, 
winged  flies,  and  of  black  or  heterozygous  apterous  flies 
in  Fg.  The  evidence  accords  with  that  obtained  for  many 
other  mutant  characters  in  Drosophila,  and  the  explana- 
tion is  the  same  as  that  given  for  the  previous  cases  {e.  g., 
Morgan,  1911, 1912 ;  Morgan  and  Lynch ;  Sturtevant,  1913 
a  and  b;  Dexter). 

TABLE  VI 
Actual  Besults 


Mating 

Winged 

Apteroui 

» 

No.*^ 

Gray 

Black 

Heterozygous 

Gray 

Black 

Heterozygous 

703 

0 

16 

62 

18 

0 

0 

724 

0 

22 

71 

26 

0 

0 

732 

0 

20 

64 

16 

0 

0 

733 

0 

29 

69 

16 

0 

0 

741 

0 

19 

50 

19 

0 

0 

745 

0 

35 

86 

30 

0 

0 

746 

0 

16 

42 

13 

0 

0 

166 

414 

136 

726 
734 


63 
79 


14 
24 


The  presence  of  a  definite  linkage  or  association  be- 
tween apterous  and  black  (t.  e.,  between  either  Op  or  Ap 
and  b  or  B  depending  upon  the  nature  of  the  cross)  as 
shown  by  this  experiment,  together  with  the  absence  of 
any  such  linkage  with  characters  in  Groups  I  and  HE,  as 
shown  by  the  preceding  experiments,  indicate  that  apter- 


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686  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVni 

ous  is  a  member  of  Group  11  and  is,  presumably,  asso- 
ciated or  linked  with  all  other  characters  belonging  to 
that  group. 

Supposedly  this  association  of  the  characters  results 
from  an  association  of  the  factors  responsible  for  them 
in  the  germ  cells.  And  this  latter  association  has  been 
explained  upon  the  assumption  that  factors  responsible 
for  linked  characters  are  located  in  the  same  chromosome. 
The  hypothesis  has  even  been  carried  so  far  as  to  postulate 
a  linear  arrangement  of  the  factors  within  the  chromo- 
some— the  relative  position  of  the  factors  being  deter- 
mined by  the  degree  or  amount  of  linkage  existing  between 
them.  This  conception  and  the  data  upon  which  it  is 
based  have  been  amplified  by  Morgan  and  by  Sturtevant, 
and  need  not  be  dwelt  on  here.  In  the  present  case  no 
attempt  has  been  made  to  ascertain  the  exact  degree  of 
linkage  between  apterous  and  other  characters  in  the 
group,  except  black,  because  of  the  difficulty  of  breeding 
the  apterous  flies.  Apparently  the  linkage  between  apter- 
ous and  black  is  very  close,  if  not  complete,  since  no  ease 
of  ** crossing  over'*  was  observed  among  the  875  Fa  off- 
spring in  this  experiment  (Table  VI).  There  is  a  possi- 
bility that  the  classification  of  the  Fj  apterous  flies  as  all 
gray  is  not  absolutely  correct,  because,  owing  to  the  diffi- 
culty of  distinguishing  gray  from  heterozygous  black  in 
apterous  specimens,  an  occasional  heterozygous  fly  might 
have  passed  for  pure  gray.  However,  if  there  had  been 
any  appreciable  number  of  cross-overs  in  this  direction, 
there  would  also  have  been  some  in  the  opposite  direction, 
which  fact  would  have  been  indicated  by  the  presence  of 
winged,  gray  flies.  And  since  none  of  these  were  obs?rved, 
it  is  safe  to  conclude  that  few  or  no  cross-overs  occurred, 
and  hence  that  apterous  is  very  closely,  if  not  completely, 
linked  to  black. 

Experiment  F.— To  determine  the  relation  between  the 
apterous  mutant  and  the  '* vestigial'*  mutant. 

Among  the  mutant  characters  of  Group  11  is  one  called 
'* vestigial  wing.''    Flies  having  this  character  are  more 


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No.  575]  AN  APTEROUS  DROSOPHILA  687 

like  the  apterous  individuals  than  are  any  of  the  other 
mutants,  and  since  the  two  characters  belong  to  the  same 
group  the  question  arose  as  to  whether  or  not  the  factor 
responsible  for  one  might  be  simply  a  modification  of  that 
responsible  for  the  other.  Experiment  V  was  performed 
to  determine  this  point. 

Long-winged  flies  heterozygous  for  apterous  were 
crossed  with  vestigial  winged  individuals,  and  Fi  and  Fj 
generations  raised.  The  Fi  flies  were  all  long  winged, 
which  fact  in  itself  indicates  the  independence  of  the  two 
characters,  for  if  they  were  allelomorphs  either  apterous 
or  vestigial  should  have  appeared.  In  Fg  both  vestigial 
and  apterous,  as  well  as  long-winged,  flies  appeared, 
showing  conclusively,  the  independence  of  the  two 
characters. 

Summary  of  Experiments 

Experiments  I  and  II  show  that  the  apterous  character 
is  a  simple  Mendelian  recessive,  which  independently 
mendelizes  with  miniature  wings,  white  eyes  and  ver- 
milion eyes,  and  hence  is  not  sex-linked  (i.  e.,  not  a  mem- 
ber of  Group  I). 

Experiment  III  shows  that  the  apterous  factor  is  trans- 
mitted independently  of  the  factor  for  pink  eye,  thus  indi- 
cating that  apterous  is  not  a  member  of  Group  HE. 

Experiment  IV  shows  a  linkage  ratio  to  result  from 
crosses  involving  apterous  and  black,  the  ratio  being  such 
as  to  indicate  a  very  close  linkage  between  apterous  and 
black,  and  to  identify  apterous  as  a  member  of  Group  II. 

Experiment  V  shows  apterous  to  be  distinct  from  ves- 
tigial wing,  to  which  it  bears  a  considerable  degree  of 
resemblance. 

Origin  and  Characteristics  of  the  Apterous  Mutant 

The  description  of  the  apterous  fly  has  been  deferred 
up  to  this  point  in  order  that  it  might  be  combined  with  a 
discussion  of  the  experimental  results. 

The  mutant  has  appeared  upon  several  occasions,  but 


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688  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVHl 

always  in  the  same  stock  (miniature  white),  and  always 
with  the  same  evidence  of  weakness  and  low  viability. 
Fig.  1  is  a  camera  drawing  of  a  typical  specimen,  made 
by  Miss  E.  M.  Wallace.    In  morphological  characters  the 

fly  differs  from  the  normal  in 
being  entirely  destitute  of  wings 
and  in  possessing  greatly  re- 
duced balancers.  Likewise  in 
Pig.  1.   aptbbous  Mutant  op  physiological  characters  it  de\i- 

Drosophila  ampelophUa,  *     "^  .,  .       i       . 

ates  strikingly  trom  the  normal. 
This  is  best  shown  by  means  of  a  comparison  between 
apterous  flies  and  normal  flies  from  which  the  wings 
have  been  removed.  The  latter  are  not  appreciably 
inconvenienced  by  their  loss  of  wings ;  they  show  char- 
acteristic vigor  in  their  active  running  and  jumping 
movements,  they  easily  right  themselves  if  overturned, 
or  extricate  themselves  if  entangled  in  food  or  cotton,  and 
they  are  long  lived  and  breed  as  prolifically  as  do  winged 
individuals.  In  fact  they  show  no  ill  effects  except  the  in- 
ability to  fly.  The  true  apterous  individuals,  on  the  other 
hand,  show  marked  abnormalities  in  all  these  respects.  In- 
stead of  being  vigorous  and  active  they  are  weak  and  usually 
sluggish ;  if  overturned  they  have  great  diflSculty  in  right- 
ing themselves ;  or,  if  entangled  in  food  or  cotton,  they  are 
usually  unable  to  extricate  themselves  and  consequently 
perish.  Moreover,  they  are  always  short  lived,  even  when 
kept  under  the  best  possible  conditions  and  prevented  from 
becoming  entangled  in  food  or  cotton.  And  lastly  they 
exhibit  a  most  marked  inability  to  breed,  as  noted  in  the 
experiments.  This  characteristic,  as  has  been  mentioned 
above,  is  so  marked  that  the  apterous  flies  were  at  first 
thought  to  be  sterile.  I  am  convinced  now,  however,  that 
the  diflBculty  is  not  one  of  sterility  at  all,  but  is  due  to  a 
physical  weakness  which  makes  it  extremely  diflScult  for 
the  flies  to  copulate,  and  for  the  females,  even  when  fertil- 
ized, to  produce  and  lay  eggs.  Cytological  examination 
has  shown  that  the  males  produce  spermatozoa  in  an  ap- 
parently normal  manner,  yet  prolonged  observation  of 


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No.  576]  AN  APTEROUS  DROSOPEILA  689 

the  flies  has  not  revealed  a  single  copulation  or  attempt  at 
copulation  on  the  part  of  an  apterous  male.®  Similarly 
the  females  have  been  shown  to  produce  rudimentary  eggs 
in  an  apparently  normal  manner,  and  in  two  cases  females 
have  produced  offspring  when  fertilized  by  winged  males, 
thus  indicating  their  fertility.  But  many  other  cases 
have  been  observed  in  which  apterous  females  were  fertil- 
ized by  winged  males  (or  at  least  in  which  copulation  took 
place),  and  yet  in  these  observed  cases  the  females  invari- 
ably died  without  producing  offspring,®  because,  I  believe, 
of  their  physical  weakness. 

From  these  facts  it  appears  practically  certain  that  the 
apparent  sterility  is  not  due  to  infertility  of  either  sperm 
or  eggs,  but  results  from  a  weakness  which  makes  it  very 
difficult  for  the  apterous  flies  to  perform  the  reproductive 
processes. 

This  explains  why  no  crosses  have  been  secured  between 
apterous  and  apterous,  although  each  sex  has  been  suc- 
cessfully crossed  to  winged.  It  is  also  supported  by  the 
fact  that  from  the  cross  between  apterous  male  and 
winged  female  a  large  number  of  offspring  were  secured, 
since  the  winged  female  could  produce  many  eggs, — 
whereas  in  the  two  crosses  between  apterous  females  and 
winged  males  only  a  very  few  offspring  were  secured, 
because  the  apterous  females  could  only  produce  a  few 
eggs. 

When  the  experiments  were  first  begun  it  was  hoped 
that  sooner  or  later  one  or  more  inherently  vigorous 
apterous  flies  would  appear  which  might  give  rise  to  a 
vigorous  race.  But  nothing  of  the  sort  took  place, 
although  numbers  of  the  apterous  flies  were  given  oppor- 
tunity to  breed  all  through  the  course  of  the  experiments. 
Obviously,   then,    the    physiological   characteristics,    as 

«  Copulation  in  nonnal  flies  can  be  observed  with  very  little  difficulty.  It 
is  evident  that  at  least  one  case  of  copulation  by  an  apterous  male  occurred, 
namely  in  Experiment  II. 

»  Judging  from  the  cases  observed  a  large  number  (probably  one  hundred 
or  more)  of  apterous  females  must  have  been  fertilized  by  winged  males 
during  the  course  of  these  experiments,  yet  only  three  of  these  gave  progeny. 


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690  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

shown  by  vigor  and  viability,  are  directly  associated  with 
morphological  characters  and  are  not  to  be  separated  from 
them  by  selection.  In  other  words,  the  ** factor*'  respon- 
sible for  lack  of  wings  is  also  responsible  for  physiological 
disturbances. 

The  only  suggestion  of  an  inherent  difference  between 
different  races,  or  strains  of  apterous,  is  the  slight  differ- 
ence in  the  percentage  of  apterous  offspring  in  Experi- 
ments I  and  in  as  compared  with  n  and  IV.  In  I  and  III 
the  ratios  of  winged  to  apterous  are  3.12 : 1  and  3.24 : 1, 
respectively,  while  in  Experiments  11  and  IV  they  are 
4.06 : 1  and  4.02 : 1.  This  deviation  is  not  great,  but  it  is 
fairly  constant,  and  is  sufficient,  I  believe,  to  indicate  a 
real  difference.  But  whether  it  is  to  be  explained  upon 
the  assumption  that  in  I  and  HI  the  apterous  parents  were 
inherently  stronger  than  in  11  and  IV  is  not  so  clear.  It 
might  equally  well  be  explained  upon  the  basis  of  differ- 
ences in  the  winged  races  to  which  apterous  was  crossed 
Unfortunately,  an  experimental  analysis  of  the  question  is 
prohibited  by  the  difficulty  of  breeding  the  apterous  flies, 
and  it  must,  therefore,  be  left  open.  One  fact,  however, 
is  clear,  namely  that  there  is  no  progressive  increase  in 
viability  of  the  apterous  flies,  for  the  apterous  parent  in 
Experiment  II,  where  the  viability  appears  to  be  low,  was 
descended  directly  from  that  in  I  where  it  appears  to  be 
high,  and  likewise  the  parent  from  the  apterous  side  in 
IV  was  obtained  directly  from  HI. 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  profitable  to  call  to  mind 
briefly  the  bearing  of  certain  of  the  above  data  on  the 
question  of  the  nature  and  behavior  of  Mendelian 
''factors.*' 

The  present  case  of  a  definite  correlation  between  lack 
of  wings,  reduction  in  size  of  balancers,  and  weak  physical 
constitution  in  the  apterous  race  of  Drosophila,  shows 
clearly  that  one  factor  may  have  far  reaching  effects,  and 
not  be  limited  to  any  particular  part  or  organ,— a  fact 


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No.  575]  AN  APTEROUS  DROSOPHILA  691 

which  has  been  long  known,  and  often  mentioned,*®  bnt 
by  no  means  universally  recognized. 

Correlated  with,  or  resulting  from  this  principle  is  the 
conception  that  the  final  result  of  ontogenetic  develop- 
ment is  not  due  to  the  independent  action  of  various 
factors  and  their  products,  but  is  due  to  the  combined 
action,  or  the  mteraction  of  these  products  during  devel- 
opment. To  illustrate  by  the  wing  of  a  fly, — it  is  probable 
that  the  normal  development  of  such  an  organ  is  not 
dependent  solely  upon  one  factor,  but  that  it  is  influenced 
by  many  factors.  This  is  strongly  suggested  by  data 
derived  from  the  various  wing  mutations  in  Drosophila. 
These  have  dealt  with  a  large  number  of  factors,  each  of 
which  is  responsible  for  a  definite  wing  modification.  For 
instance,  one  factor  is  responsible  for  miniature  wings, 
another  for  vestigial,  another  for  rudimentary,  another 
for  curved,  etc.*  *  From  the  fact  that  these  mutant  factors 
(which  may  be  considered  as  modifications  of  factors  in 
the  normal  fly)  influence  the  wings,  it  seems  highly  prob- 
able that  their  normal  allelomorphs  also  influence  wing 
production  in  the  wild  fly. 

Finally  I  wish  to  thank  Dr.  T.  H.  Morgan  for  kindly 
f^ssistance  and  advice  in  connection  with  this  work. 

BIBLXOGRAPHY 

Dexter^  John  S. 

1912.    On  Coupling  of  Certain  Sex-linked  Characters  in  Drosophila. 
Biol  Bull,  Yo\.  23,  p.  183. 
Morgan,  T.  H. 

1911.    An  Attempt  to  Analyze  the  Constitution  of  the  Chromosomes  on 
the  Basis  of  Sex-limited  Inheritance  in  Drosophila.    Jour,  Exp, 
Zool,  Vol.  2,  p.  365. 
1912a.    Eight  Factors  that  Show  Sex-linked  Inheritance  in  Drosophila. 
Science,  N.  S.,  Vol.  35,  p.  472. 

10 Most  recently,  perhaps,  by  Morgan  (1913a,  page  9):  '*A  change  in  a 
factor  may  have  far-reaching  consequences.  Every  part  of  the  organism 
capable  of  reacting  to  the  new  change  is  affected.  Though  we  seize  upon  the 
most  conspicuous  difference  between  the  old  type  and  its  mutant,  and  make 
use  of  this  alone,  every  student  of  heredity  is  familiar  with  eases  where  more 
than  the  part  taken  as  the  index  is  affected.  Weismann's  theory,  on  the 
other  hand,  seems  to  identify  each  character  with  a  special  determinant  ..." 

11  The  same  is  true  for  various  eye  colors,  and  body  colors. 


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692 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 


1912b.  A  Modification  of  the  Sex  Batio,  and  of  Other  Batios,  :n 
Drasophila  through  Linkage.  Zeit,  f,  ind.  Ahst.  «.  Vererb., 
Bd.  7,  p.  323. 

19X20.  Heredity  of  Body  Color  in  Drosaphila.  Jowr.  Exp.  Zool.,  Vol. 
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191 2d.  The  Explanation  of  a  New  Sex-jatio  in  Drosophila  and  Com- 
plete Linkage  in  the  Second  Chromosome  of  the  Male.  Science, 
N.  a,  Vol.  36,  p.  718. 

1913a.  Factors  and  Unit  Characters  in  Mendelian  Heredity.  Aiceb. 
Nat.,  Vol.  47,  p.  5. 

191 3&.     Simplicity  versus   Adequacy  in   Mendelian  Formulae.     Aic£&. 
Nat.,  Vol.  47,  p.  372. 
Morgan,  T.  H.,  and  C.  J.  Lynch. 

1912.  The  Linkage  of  Two  Factors  in  Drosophila  that  Are  Not  Sex- 

linked.    Biol,  Bull,  Vol.  23,  p.  174. 
Morgan,  T.  H.,  and  E.  Cattell. 

1913.  Additional  Data  for   the  Study  of  Sex-linked  Inheritance    in 

Drosophila,    Jour,  Exp,  Zool,,  Vol.  14,  p.  33. 
Sturtevant,  A.  H. 

1913a.     The    Linear    Arrangement     of     Six     Sex-linked     Factors     in 

Drosophila,  as  Shown  by  their  Mode  of  Association.     Jour, 

Exp,  Zool,  Vol.  14,  p.  43. 
1913&.    A  Third  Group  of  Linked  Genes  in  Drosophila  ampelophxla. 

Science,  N.  S.,  Vol.  37,  p.  990. 


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SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION 
FORMULA  FOR  THE  RESULTS  OF  INBREEDING 

In  connection  with  Pearl's  recent  valuable  analyses  of  the 
results  of  inbreeding  (1,  2,  3),  a  comparison  of  these  results  with 
those  from  self-fertilization  is  of  interest.  In  my  note  on  the 
latter  (4),  I  gave  a  formula  for  the  rate  at  which  organisms 
become  homozygotic  through  continued  self-fertilization.  This 
occurs  more  slowly  in  the  various  types  of  inbreeding,  but  Pearl 
gives  no  general  formula  for  it.  For  purposes  of  comparison  I 
have  worked  out  from  Pearl's  data  the  general  formula  for  the 
rate  at  which  organisms  become  homozygotic  through  continued 
brother  by  sister  mating;  as  such  formulae  appear  to  be  of  perma- 
nent value,  it  is  here  given.^  What  the  formula  gives  is,  pre- 
cisely, (1)  the  proportion  of  individuals  that  will  be  homozygotic 
for  any  given  character  after  any  number  of  unbroken  genera- 
tions of  such  inbreeding,  (2)  the  average  proportion  of  the  char- 
acters of  a  given  individual  that  will  be  homozygotic  after  any 
number  of  unbroken  generations  of  such  inbreeding.  The  nu- 
merical value  so  obtained  may  conveniently  be  called  the  co- 
efficient of  homozygosis. 

The  formula  turns  out  to  be  a  combination  of  the  successive 
powers  of  2,  with  the  successive  terms  of  the  Fibonacci  series, 
which  appears  in  so  curious  a  way  in  various  natural  phenomena. 
In  this  series  every  term  is  the  sum  of  the  two  preceding  terms, 
the  series  beginning :  0,  1,  1,  2,  3,  5,  8,  13,  etc. 

Let  x  =  the  coefficient  of  homozygosis. 

n  =  the.  number  of  inbred  generations   (the  number  of 
times    successive    brother   by    sister   mating    has 
occurred). 
fu  Uy  /s»  etc.,  =  the  successive  terms  of  the  Fibonacci  series 
(thus  /i  =  0,  /,  =  !,  etc.). 
Then  the  formula  for  the  coefficient  of  homozygosis  is: 
_2n-i+/^ .  2«-2+72  .  2*'-»  .  .  .  etc. 

(The  terms  in  the  numerator  are  continued  until  the  exponent 
of  2  becomes  0.) 

1  In  conversation,  Dr.  Pearl  urged  the  publication  of  the  present  note, 
otherwise  I  should  not  at  this  time  have  dealt  with  a  matter  which  he  has 
under  analysis. 

693 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [V0L.XLVIII 


Thus,  if  the  number  of  inbreedings  (w)  is  1. 

a?  =21  ==1/2,  or  50  per  cent. 

If  n  =  4 

23  +  0.2«  + 1.2^  +  1.2« 


—  =11/16,  or  68.75  per  cent. 


If  n  =  9 


2«  +  0»2^  + 1>2"  + 1-2°  +  2.2*  +  3.2»  +  5.2^  +  8.2» 


l.^t 


If  n  =  16 

_  63819 
^~  65536 


2» 
=  457/512,  or  89.26  per  cent. 

or  97.38  per  cent. 


As  these  examples  show,  the  formula  gives  the  results      *^^^ 
were  obtained  by  Pearl  in  the  detailed  woAing  out  (so   "f  ^^"^  ^ 
this  was  carried),  as  given  in  Pearl's  table  I  (2,  p.  62).    (X'fc    ''^^'l 
be  noted  that  Pearl  counts  as  generation  1  the  one  before  int>x"0«d- 
ing  has  occurred,  so  that  his  generation  10,  for  example,  is  t^l^^-'^  ^T^ 
which  there  have  been  9  inbreedings  (n  =  9).) 

If  one  is  working  out  the  values  of  the  coefiScient  x  for  a   j^ei^^"* 
of  generations,  the  above  formula  may  be  expressed  as  a  siTX^f^. 
rule,  applicable  after  the  value  for  n  =  l  is  obtained.       ^^ 
rule  is : 

The  value  of  the  coefficient  of  homozygosis  x  for  any  term  (^ 
the  ntK)  is  obtained  by  doubling  the  numerator  and  denominaio^ 
of  the  fraction  expressing  the  value  for  the  previous  term,  and 
adding  to  the  numerator  the  corresponding  (n — 1th)  term  of 
the  Fibonacci  series. 

Or,  in  view  of  the  peculiar  nature  of  the  Fibonacci  series,  the 
rule  may  be  expressed  as  follows : 

Double  the  numerator  and  denominator,  and  add  to  the  nu- 
merator the  sum  of  the  last  two  numbers  so  added. 

Thus,  since 


if 


X  for  1  inbreedings  1/2 

^    „   „  „        _2Xl  +  0 


2X2 

X2  4 

2X4 

_2X5  +  1_ 


=  2/4 


2X4     -^/^ 


2X8 


11/16,  etc. 


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No.  575]       SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  695 

After  obtaining  x,  or  the  proportion  of  homozygotes  for  any 
one  pair  of  characters,  the  proportion  y  for  any  number  m  of 
pairs  is  obtained  simply  by  raising  x  to  the  mth  power,  that  is : 


Thus,  after  two  generations  of  brother  X  sister  mating,  the 
proportion  of  homozygotes  for  three  pairs  of  characters  is 
(l/2)»  =  l/8,  or  12.5  per  cent.  After  8  generations  of  such 
inbreeding  the  proportion  homozygotic  for  10  pairs  of  char- 
acters is : 


/222y«_ 
\256y'     ~ 


24.05  per  cent. 


The  corresponding  value  in  the  case  of  continued  self-fertili- 
zation is  99.61  per  cent.  (4,  p.  491). 

Whether  it  may  be  possible  to  obtain  a  similar  formula  for 
the  coefficient  of  homozygosis  in  the  cases  of  mating  of  cousin  X 
cousin  or  of  parent  X  offspring,  remains  to  be  discovered. 

Pearl's  "coefficient  of  inbreeding"  gives  the  percentage  of 
lacking  ancestors  in  a  given  pedigree,  as  compared  with  the 
number  that  would  be  present  if  all  the  parents  were  unrelated. 
In  order  to  compare  self-fertilization  with  inbreeding  in  this 
respect,  Pearl 's  formulae  for  the  coefficient  of  inbreeding  may  be 
expressed  in  terms  of  the  number  of  successive  inbreedings  (n) ; 
for  many  purposes  the  formulae  appear  more  convenient  so  ex« 
pressed.  The  following  gives  these  formulae  for  self-fertilizatiop 
and  the  three  types  of  inbreeding,  together  with  those,  so  far  as 
worked  out,  for  the  proportion  of  individuals  homozygotic  with 
respect  to  a  given  character.  In  all  these,  n  is  the  number  of 
successive  self-fertilizations  or  inbreedings. 

Coefficient  of  Inbreeding.  Coefficient  of  Homozygosis. 

2*  -  1  2*  -  1 

Self-fertilization  —^-  ~~2» 

i>    *u     V.  Q-  *     2"  -  2                                  2»-»  +/,  ■2"-^+/f2"-« . .  -etc. 
Brother  X  Sister     ^n  ~  " 2* 

2*"*  —  2 
Cousin  X  Cousin        ^ —  ? 

2»»  —  n  —  1 
Parent  X  Offspring  ~   O"  ^ 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  self-fertilization  the  value  of  the 
coefficient  of  inbreeding  is,  curiously,  the  same  as  that  of  the 
coefficient  of  homozygosis,  while  in  the  other  cases  there  is  no 
evident  simple  relation  between  the  two.    Further,  the  coefficient 


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696  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 

of  inbreeding  in  brother  X  sister  mating  is  the  same  as  for  self- 
fertilization,  save  that  it  lags  one  generation  behind  the  latter; 
thus  the  coefScient  for  the  fourth  generation  of  self-fertilization 
is  the  same  as  that  for  the  fifth  of  brother  X  sister  mating.  Pearl 
(1,  p.  592)  has  already  pointed  out  that  in  cousin  mating  the 
coefficient  is  one-half  that  for  brother  X  sister,  with  a  lag  of  one 
generation;  as  compared  with  self-fertilization  the  lag  is  two 
generations.  No  such  simple  relation  is  apparent  between  the 
proportions  of  homozygotes  resulting  from  the  diverse  methods 
of  breeding,  though  possibly  such  may  yet  be  discovered. 

H.  S.  Jennings 

PAPEES  CITED 

1.  Pearl,  E.    A  contribution  toward  an  analysis  of  the  problem  of  inbreed- 

ing.   This  JoUENAL,  XLVII,  October,  1913,  pp.  577-614. 

2.  .    On  the  results  of  inbreeding  a  Mendelian  population;  a  correction 

and  extension  of  previous  conclusions.     This  Journal,  XLVllI,  Jan- 
uary, 1914,  pp.  57-62. 

3.  ,    On  a  general  formula  for  the  constitution  of  the  nth  generation  of 

a  Mendelian  population  in  which  all  matings  are  of  brother  X  sister. 
This  Journal,  XLVIII,  August,  1914,  pp.  491-494. 

4  Jennings,  H.  S.  Production  of  pure  homozygotic  organisms  from  hetero- 
zygotes  by  self-fertilization.  This  Journal,  XLVI,  August,  1912,  pp. 
487-491. 

A  SHOET-<:!UT  IN  THE  COMPUTATION  OP  CERTAIN 
PROBABLE  ERRORS 

In  his  handbook  of  statistical  methods,  on  p.  38,  Dr.  C.  B. 
Davenport^  ^ves  a  short  method  for  the  calculation  of  the  prob- 
able errors  of  some  of  the  commonest  statistical  constants,  in  a 
table  of  logarithmic  formulae.  It  would  seem  that  the  simple 
and  obvious  short-cut  involved  has  not  been  given  the  attention 
it  deserves  in  connection  with  non-logarithmic  calculation.  The 
logarithmic  formulae  are  as  follows:^ 

(1)  log  Ej,  =  log  .6745  +  log  0-  -  ^  log  n   since  Ej,  =  .6745  ~    . 

log  E,  =  log  i;^  -  ^  log  2    since  E^  =  .6745  -J-, 

(2)  L  V2n 

or,    £.  =E^^V2j, 

1  Davenport,  C.  B.,  ' '  Statistical  Methods  with  Special  Belerence  to  Bio- 
logical Variation,''  2d  ed.,  1904,  New  York,  John  Wiley  &  Sons. 

2  A  indicates  the  weighted  arithmetic  mean,  <r  the  standard  deviation,  and 
C  the  coefficient  of  variability. 


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No.  576]       SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  697 

(3)3  log  Ec  =  Jog  E,  -  log  A  [since  E^^E,^  A]. 

Now,  if  one  is  working  with  a  calculating  machine,  he  can 
simply  carry  the  value  of  Ej^  to  two  or  three  more  decimal  places 
than  are  to  be  retained,  and  then  divide  by  the  square  root  of 
2  to  get  E^;  similarly,  the  latter  value,  divided  by  the  mean, 
gives  Ec* 

The  writer  prefers,  however,  to  calculate  the  values  in  the 
ordinary  way  on  the  machine,  using  Miss  Gibson  V  table  for 

-— p—  and  '    —    ,  and  then  to  use  the  short  method  in  checking. 
Vn  ^|2n 

The  original  computations  can  be  indicated  and  performed  with 
great  confidence  and  rapidity,  since  it  is  hardly  possible  to  make 
an  error  that  will  not  be  discovered  in  the  checking.*  It  is 
obviously  safer,  as  well  as  much  quicker,  to  check  in  this  way 
than  to  repeat  the  original  processes.  Howard  B.  Frost 

citeus  expbeiment  station, 
Riverside,  Cal. 

GALTON  AND  DISCONTINUITY  IN  VAEIATION 

It  seems  not  to  be  generally  realized  that  Galton  recognized 
both  continuity  and  discontinuity,  both  in  variation  and  inherit- 
ance. Of  course,  all  biologists  are  familiar  with  '  *  Galton 's  poly- 
gon,'' in  which  slight  oscillations  of  the  polygon  on  one  of  its 
faces,  but  without  a  change  of  face,  are  compared  with  **  small 
unstable  deviations"  (fluctuations),  while  a  larger  oscillation,  in 
which  the  polygon  moves  over  to  a  new  face,  is  compared  to  a 
sport  ...  of  such  marked  peculiarity  and  stability  as  to  rank  as  a  new 
type,  capable  of  becoming  the  origin  of  a  new  race  with  very  little  as- 
sistance on  the  part  of  natural  selection.^ 

Galton 's  polygon  illustrated  for  him  how  the  following  condi- 
tions may  co-exist: 

(1)  Variability  within  narrow  limits  without  prejudice  to  the  purity 
of  the  breed.  (2)  Partly  stable  sub-types.  (3)  Tendency,  when  much 
disturbed,  to  revert  from  a  sub-type  to  an  earlier  form.  (4)  Occasional 
sports  which  may  give  rise  to  new  types. 

These  four  types  would  seem  to  correspond  rather  well  to  what 

8  Formula  (3)  gives,  of  course,  the  approximate  or  uncorrected  value 
of  EC. 

♦  Gibson,  Winifred,  "Tables  for  Facilitating  the  Computation  of  Prob- 
able Errors,"  Biometnka,  4:  385-393.    3  tables. 

s  Unless,  of  course,  one  misreads  the  figures  from  the  machine  in  checking. 

1" Natural  Inheritance,"  London,  1889,  p.  28. 


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698  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [V0L.XLVUI 

are  now  called  (1)  fluctuations  or  *' non-inherited"  (in  reality,  I 
think,  partially  inherited)  continuous  variations;  (2)  instability 
resulting  from  a  heterozygous  or  partially  heterozygous  condi- 
tion; (3)  reversions,  now  believed  to  result  chiefly  from  cross- 
ing; and  (4)  mutations. 

Galton  is  equally  explicit  in  other  statements  on  this  subject. 
Like  Darwin,  he  admitted  the  facts  both  of  continuity  and  dis- 
continuity in  variation;  but,  unlike  Darwin,  he  also  recognized 
discontinuity  or  alternation  as  well  as  continuity  or  blending,  in 
inheritance.  Thus  he  says,  in  a  paragraph  headed  "stability  of 
sports":^ 

Experience  does  not  show  that  those  wide  varieties  which  are  called 
"  sports  "  are  unstable.  On  the  contrary,  they  are  often  transmitted  to 
successive  generations  with  curious  persistence.  Neither  is  there  any 
reason  for  expecting  otherwise.  While  we  can  well  understand  that  a 
strained  modification  of  a  type  would  not  be  so  stable  as  one  that  ap- 
proximates more  nearly  to  the  typical  center,  the  variety  may  be  so  wide 
that  it  falls  into  different  conditions  of  stability,  and  ceases  to  be  a 
strained  modification  of  the  original  type. 

In  another  paragraph,*  headed  ''Evolution  not  by  minute 
steps  only,''  he  says: 

The  theory  of  evolution  might  dispense  with  a  restriction,  for  which 
it  is  difficult  to  see  either  the  need  or  the  justification,  namely,  that  the 
course  of  evolution  always  proceeds  by  steps  that  are  severally  minute, 
and  that  become  effective  only  through  accumulation.  That  the  steps 
may  be  small  and  that  they  must  be  small  are  very  different  views;  it  is 
only  to  the  latter  that  I  object.  .  .  .  An  apparent  groxmd  for  the  com- 
mon belief  is  founded  on  the  fact  that  wherever  search  is  made  for  in- 
termediate forms  between  widely  divergent  varieties,  whether  they  be  of 
plants  or  of  animals,  of  weapons  or  utensils,  of  customs,  religion  or 
langfuage,  or  of  any  other  product  of  evolution,  a  long  and  orderly  series 
can  usually  be  made  out,  each  member  of  which  differs  in  an  almost  im- 
perceptible degree  from  the  adjacent  specimens.  But  it  does  not  at  all 
follow  because  these  intermediate  forms  have  been  found  to  exist,  that 
they  are  the  very  stages  that  were  passed  through  in  the  course  of  evo- 
lution. Counter  evidence  exists  in  abundance,  not  only  of  the  appear- 
ance of  considerable  sports,  but  of  their  remarkable  stability  in  hered- 
itary transmission. 

Again,   Galton  not  only   believed  in   the  existence  of  both 
blended  and  alternative  inheritance,  but  he  recognized  the  im- 
2  L.  c,  p.  30. 

8  L.  c,  p.  32. 


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No.  575]       SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  699 

portance  of  the  latter  in  connection  with  the  survival  of  new 
races.    Thus  he  writes:* 

The  quadroon  child  of  the  mulatto  and  the  white  has  a  quarter  tint; 
some  of  the  children  may  be  altogether  darker  or  lighter  than  the  rest, 
but  they  are  not  piebald.^  Skin-color  is  therefore  a  good  example  of 
what  I  call  blended  inheritance.  .  .  . 

Next  as  regards  heritages  that  come  altogether  from  one  progenitor  to 
the  exclusion  of  the  rest.  Eye-color  is  a  fairly  good  illustration  of 
this.  .  .  . 

There  are  probably  no  heritages  that  perfectly  blend  or  that  abso- 
lutely exclude  one  another,  but  all  heritages  have  a  tendency  in  one  or 
the  other  direction,  and  the  tendency  is  often  a  very  strong  one. 

On  the  following  page  Galton  remarks  that 

A  peculiar  interest  attaches  itself  to  mutually  exclusive  heritages, 
owing  to  the  aid  they  must  afford  to  the  establishment  of  incipient  races. 

He  thus  recognizes  the  invalidity  of  Darwin's  objection  to 
"single  variations"  as  a  factor  in  evolution,  namely,  that  they 
would  certainly  be  swamped  by  crossing  with  the  general  popu- 
lation. 

It  would,  therefore,  appear  that  in  his  recognition  of  continu- 
ity as  well  as  discontinuity  both  in  variation  and  heredity,  Galton 
was  in  advance  of  his  time,  and  more  in  accord  with  some  of  the 
current  views.  B.  Buggles  Gates 

Univebsity  or  London 

EEPULSION  IN  MICE 

In  the  February  number  of  the  American  Naturalist  Dr.  C. 
Little  criticizes  the  results  of  my  mouse-breeding  experiments 
which  I  published  in  the  Zeitschrift  fur  Induktive  Abstam- 
mungS'  und  Vererbungs-lehre  Bd.  VI,  Heft  3.  The  chief  point, 
on  which  he  disagrees  with  me,  is  the  interpretation  of  the  results 
I  obtained  in  breeding  black  and  albino  mice  together. 

The  fact  is,  that  in  my  paper  on  mice,  I  overlooked  a  serious 
error.  In  three  sentences  on  page  126,  relating  to  test  matings 
of  albinos,  the  words  "black"  and  ** agouti"  changed  places.  As 
printed  in  the  paper  these  sentences  run: 

Without  exception  they  have  given  black  or  equal  numbers  of  black 
and  albino  young,  depending  upon  the  purity  of  the  black  used.  But 
never  has  one  of  these  albinos  produced  a  single  agouti  young  in  a  mat- 
ing with  black.  Counting  together  the  colored  young  of  such  families  I 
get  89  black  young. 

4X.  c,  p.  12. 

B  Cases  of  piebaJdism  in  such  crosses  are  of  course  now  well-known. 


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700  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

These  errors  were  corrected  in  an  "errata"  in  Band  VI,  heft  5, 
which  Dr.  Little  unhappily  did  not  find.  The  sentences  should 
read: 

Without  exception  they  have  given  agouti,  or  equal  numbers  of  <igout% 
and  albino  young,  depending  upon  the  purity  of  the  black  used.  But 
never  has  one  of  these  albinos  produced  a  single  hlack  young  in  a  mating 
with  black.  Counting  together  the  colored  young  of  such  families  I 
get  89  agouti  young. 

Professor  Punnett  was  so  kind  as  to  draw  my  attention  to 
these  mistakes.    They  were  corrected  in  the  reprints  sent  out 

The  facts  were  simply  these :  Albinos  were  bred  of  two  sorts, 
with  and  without  0  (the  gene  which  agoutis  have  more  than 
blacks) .  These  albinos  can  only  be  distinguished  by  test-mating 
them  to  blacks.  The  albinos  with  O  (aO)  give  agouti  young,  if 
mated  to  black  (Ag),  the  ag  albinos  give  black  young  from  such 
a  mating.  In  one  series,  some  agoutis  were  produced,  which 
were  heterozygous  for  A  as  well  as  for  0{AaOg).  Ordinarily, 
sueh  agoutis,  when  mated  inter  se,  produce  9  agouti  (1  AAOO, 
2  AAOg,  2  Aa60,  4  AaOg),  3  black  (1  aaOO,  2  oaGg)  and  4 
albinos  (  1  aaOO,  2  aaOg,  1  aagg)  in  every  sixteen.  Mated  to 
albinos  without  0{ag)  the  ordinary  AaOg  animals  give  four 
kinds  of  young,  agoutis  (AaOg),  blacks  (Aagg)  and  two  kinds 
of  albinos  (aaOg)  and  (aagg)  in  equal  numbers. 

Now  these  particular  AaOg  animals  did  not  produce  four 
kinds  of  gametes,  as  expected,  namely,  AO,  Ag,  aO  and  ag,  but 
only  two  kinds,  Ag  and  aO.  Thirty  one  agoutis  were  test-mated 
to  adgg  albinos.  These  test  matings  gave  181  young,  of  which  94 
were  black  (Aagg)  and  87  albino  (aaOg).  No  agoutis  were 
produced. 

As  a  further  proof,  the  result  of  breeding  these  agoutis  inter  se 
can  be  adduced.  These  matings  gave  73  agouti  (AaOg),  37  black 
(AAgg)  and  32  albinos  (aaOO) .  Of  these  32  albinos,  thirteen 
were  tested  by  inating  them  to  blacks.  If  one  of  them  should 
have  lacked  0,  it  would  have  given  black  young.  But  no  black 
young  were  produced.  Some  young  were  albino  (when  the  black 
parent  was  heterozygous  for  A),  but  all  the  colored  young  were 
agouti  (89  in  all). 

This,  I  hope,  will  make  it  perfectly  clear,  that  in  this  series 
we  have  been  dealing  with  a  case  of  repulsion  between  the  genes 
A  and  0,  A.  L.  Hagedoorn 

BussuM,  Holland 


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No.  575]       SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  701 

THE  OSTEOLOGY  OP  A  DOUBLE-HEADED  CALF 

Through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Charles  0.  Reed,  taxidermist,  of 
Fairmont,  W.  Va.,  the  writer  received  the  skulls  and  anterior 
cervical  vertebrae  of  a  double-headed  calf  which  seemed  of  suflR- 
cient  interest  to  warrant  a  brief  description. 

According  to  Mr.  Reed  the  calf's  mother  was  a  four-year-old, 
thoroughbred  Herford,  living  at  Grafton,  W.  Va.,  owner  not 
mentioned. 

At  her  first  labor  this  cow  gave  birth  to  twins,  supposedly 
normal,  though  it  was  not  so  stated.  The  second  calf  was 
''slightly  deformed,"  but  in  what  way  Reed  did  not  know.  The 
third  labor  produced  the  double-headed  calf  in  question,  which 
was  of  unusual  size,  and  was  killed  in  parturition.  According 
to  Reed  "This  calf  would  have  lived  if  it  could  have  been  brought 
through  0.  K."  He  dissected  it  and  found  the  "alimentary 
canal,  blood  vessels  and  trachea  normal." 

The  bones  in  the  occipital  region  are  slightly  broken,  probably 
done  in  disarticulating  the  skulls  from  the  neck ;  and  in  the  left 
skull  the  left  premaxilla  was  lost  and  was  replaced  by  a  roughly 
carved  piece  of  wood  for  the  sake  of  synunetry. 

In  macerating  the  skulls,  for  the  purpose  of  removing  all  the 
flesh,  many  of  the  loose  sutures  separated,  and  in  gluing  the  bones 
together  again  it  was  not  always  possible  to  completely  close  the 
sutures. 

As  may  be  seen  in  the  figures  there  is  a  considerable  though  not 
very  great  difference  in  the  size  of  the  skulls,  the  right  being  the 
larger.  They  were  detached  from  the  cervical  vertebrae  when 
received,  but  the  photographs  show  their  approximate  position  in 
relation  to  the  neck  and  to  each  other. 

Each  skull  is  twisted  and  bent  away  from  the  other,  the  bend 
being  most  marked  just  cephalad  to  the  orbits.  The  left  skull  is 
the  more  distorted. 

The  articulation  of  the  skulls  with  the  fused  atlas  was  so  crude 
that  Reed,  who  had  seen  the  skulls  before  disarticulation,  had  to 
be  appealed  to  to  decide  which  skull  was  right  and  which  was  left. 

Pig.  1  is  a  photograph  of  the  dorsal  aspect  of  the  skulls  and 
the  first  three  cervical  vertebrae.  The  distortion  of  the  two  skulls 
is  of  about  the  same  character  but  is,  as  noted  above,  more  marked 
in  the  left  skull. 

The  parietal  (p)  is  normal.  The  posterior  regions  of  the  fron- 
tals  (/)  are  normal,  but  their  anterior  ends  are  bent  laterally. 


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702  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 

which  causes  a  slight  curvature  in  the  sagittal  suture.  It  is  in  the 
region  of  the  lachrymals  (1)  that  the  distortion  is  most  marked, 
so  that  the  lachrymal  on  the  convex  side  of  the  bend,  especially 


Fig.  1.    DoBSAi.  Views  op  the  Two  Skulls  and  of  the  First  Tbbee  Cervical 

VBRTEBRiE.      MAKDIBLBS   IN   POSITION. 

Oj  atlas ;  ax,  axis ;  e,  extra  bone  between  maxilla  and  premaxllla ;  /,  frontal ; 
I,  lachrymal ;  m,  malar ;  mx,  maxilla ;  n,  nasal ;  o,  occipital ;  p,  parietal ;  pm, 
premaxllla. 

in  the  left  skull,  is  much  longer  than  that  on  the  opposite  side ; 
the  same  is  true  of  the  malars  (m),  of  the  maxillaries  (mx),  and, 
to  a  less  degree,  of  the  premaxillae  (pm).  The  nasals  (ti)  are  also 
unsynmietrical,  but  do  not  differ  much  in  size;  they  are  simply, 
as  a  pair,  pushed  to  the  side. 

Fig.  2.  The  ventral  aspect  of  the  skull  shows  even  greater  ab- 
normalities than  the  dorsal.  The  occipital  (o),  as  noted  above, 
was  somewhat  injured  by  the  person  who  disarticulated  the  skulls 
from  the  neck,  but  it  is  quite  unsymmetrical,  especially  in  its 
exoccipital  region.  In  the  left  skull  (right  in  this  figure)  all  the 
other  bones  seen  in  this  aspect  are  bent,  but  in  the  other  skull 
most  of  the  bones  are  comparatively  straight. 

In  the  right  skull  a  suture  in  front  of  the  teeth  separates  off  an 
extra  bone  (e)  on  each  side,  between  the  maxilla  and  the  pre- 
maxilla,  that  of  the  right  side  being  much  the  larger.  In  the  left 
skull  these  extra  bones  are  not  present  though  a  partial  suture, 


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No.  575]       SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  DISCUSSION  703 

extending  about  half  way  through  the  left  maxilla,  is  visible  in 
this  view  of  the  skull. 


Fig.  2.     Vbntbal  Views  of  the  Skulls  and  the  Fibst  Two  Cervical  Ver- 
TEBRJB.     Mandibles  Removed. 

Fig.  3  shows  the  curious  distortion  of  the  mandibles,  which  seem 
to  be  bent  in  more  or  less  the  same  direction.  In  the  right  man- 
dible the  left  half  has  four  incisor  teeth,  the  right  half  has  three. 
In  the  left  mandible  the  right  half  has  four  teeth,  the  left  half  has 
three,  though  one  tooth  is  missing  from  each  half. 

As  noted  above,  the  skulls,  when  received,  were  disconnected 
from  the  vertebras;  but  the  latter,  three  in  number,  were  strung 
together  on  a  small  piece  of  rope  and  presumably  were  the  first 
three  cervicals;  they  are  shown  in  a  dorsal  view  in  Fig.  1,  ven- 
tral view  in  Fig.  2,  and  anterior  view  in  Fig.  3.  The  first  of 
these  is  presumably  a  compound  atlas  (a)  since  it  articulates 
with  each  of  the  skulls,  though  in  a  very  crude  way.  It  consists 
of  eight  loosely  united  elements  which  became  completely  sepa- 
rated in  cleaning  and  had  to  be  glued  together  again.  In  the 
dorsal  view.  Fig.  1,  is  seen  a  small,  irregular  bone  from  which 
radiate  three  somewhat  symmetrical  bones,  the  largest  lying  in 
the  median  plane  between  the  bases  of  the  skulls.     This  larger 


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704  TRE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VoL.XLVin 

bone  is  pierced  by  two  large  foramina;  eadi  of  the  other  two 
bones  shows  in  this  view  a  foramen  which  branches  and  opens 
both  on  the  antero-median  and  the  postero-lateral  surfaces.    The 


Fig.  3.    Dorsal  Views  of  the  Mandibles  and  Anterior  Vibws  of  ths  Fibist 
Three  Cervical  Vertebra. 

ventral  view,  Fig.  2,  shows  a  very  irregular  group  of  bones,  the 
smallest  of  which  is  for  articulation  with  the  following  vertebra. 

The  second  vertebra  (oa;),  supposedly  the  axis,  exhibits  no 
indication  of  an  odontoid  process  and  articulates  in  a  very  crude 
way  with  the  preceding  bone.  Its  dorsal  spine  is  rather  elon- 
gated in  an  antero-posterior  direction,  but  otherwise  it  bears  no 
closer  resemblance  to  an  axis  than  to  any  other  cervical  vertebra. 
Its  centrum  was  so  loosely  fused  with  the  arch  on  either  side 
it  became  detached  in  cleaning  and  had  to  be  glued  in  place. 

The  third  vertebra  exhibits  no  peculiarities  that  warrant  de- 
scription. 

A.  M.  Reese. 

West  Virginia  Univeesity, 
Morgantown 


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with  Sp«cUI  lUf erenc*  to  the  Factors  ol  Orgwiic  Evolutkm  mnd  H«M<lity 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  MAY  NUMBER 

EetoparMltMofltommAlt.  ProfettorV^monLyiiuui 
Kellogf. 

Regeneration,  Variation  and  Conelation  in  Thyone. 

Professor  John  W.  Scott. 
Shorter  Artlelefland  DitcnsBion:  Teimt  relating  to 

Generic Typei.   Dr.O. F.Cook. 
Notes  and  Literature:  Linkage  in  the  Bilkworm 

Moth.    A.  H.  Stnrterant.    Naboon't  Breeding 

BxperimentiwithGraiihoppezB.  John  a  Dexter. 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  JUNE  NUMBER 

liassor  John  H.  Gerould. 
Heredity  of  BrlsUes  in  the  Common  Gieenhottle  Fly— 
A  Study  of  Factors  goTeming  Distribution.  Phinew 
W.  Whiting. 

Physiological  Con«]iitions  tnd  CUmatie  iGeaetifloe  in 

AlfiUfk  Breeding.    Gea  F.  Fxeeman. 
Taxonomy  and  Erolution.    By  X 
Shorter  Articles  and    Discussion*    Nabonr^a  fhass 

Misleading  Terminologies  in  GeneticsL    Ptotaeor 
w.  E.  Castle. 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  JULY  NUMBER 
Pattern    Pereiopment  in    Mumtnftif    gm^    Birde. 

Glorer  M  Allen 
Internal    Belatione    of    TMr^f^ri^i    AffKTdatfimf. 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  AUGUST  NUMBER 

Molttple  Allelomorphs  in  Mioe.     Professor  T.  H 

Morgan. 
Thirteen  Yean  of  Wheat  Selection.    T.  B.  Hntch- 

ItSrHr^^li^l^i^^^:  ^  H.L.Babcock. 

J.  Stomps.  Dr.  Bradley  M.  Dayis.    Th»  Thearet* 
ical  DisUnction  betw^  Multiple  AUdomoraS 

f<S2o?w*Rc!SlS:  ^^'--^'.H.Mo^SSuS^ 

KotM  and  literature: 

Biometrics.   Dr.  Raymond  Peail.   A  New  Mod- 
Hermann  J.  Muller. 

Arthur  G.  Vestal. 
Shorter  Articles    and   Difconion*  Another  Hy- 
pothesis to  Aeeonnft  for  Dt   Swingle's  Expert* 
menti  with  Cltni.   A.  C.  and  A.  L.  Hagedoom, 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  SEPTEMBER  NUMBER 

Studies  on  Inhreeding.    Dr.  Raymond  Pearl. 

The  Chromosome  Hypothesis  of  Linkage  ap'pUed  to 

Cases  in  Sweet  Peas  and  Primula.    Calrin  B 

Bridges. 
The  RedupUcation  Hypothesis  as  applied  to  Droso- 

phila.   Dr.  A.  H.  Stmrteyant. 
Pattern  Deyelopment  in  Mammals  and  Birds.    Dr 

GloTer  M.Allen. 
Shorter  Articles  and  Correspondence : 

The  Bearing  of  the  Selection  Experiments  of 

Castle  and  Phillips  on  the  VariaMllty  of  Genes. 

Utrmann  J.  Muller. 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  OCTOBER  .NUMBER 

Sex-limited  and  Sex-linked  Inheritance.   Professor 
T.H.  Morgan. 

Inheritance  of  Endoepenn  Texture  in  Sweet  x  Waxy 
Hybrids  of  Mahse.    G.  N.  Ccdllns  and  J.  H.  Kemp- 
ton. 

A  Study  of  Variation  in  the  Apple.    W.J.Toung. 

Shorter  Articles  and  Discussion : 

Variation  and  Correlation  in  the  Mean  Age  at 
Marriage  of  Men  and  Women.     Dr.  J.  Arthur 
Harris,  Roxana  H.  Vivian.     DupUcate  Genes. 
Sewall  Wright. 

Notes  and  Literature: 

A  Study  of  Desert  Vegetation.    Professor  Charles 
E.Be88ey. 

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70L.  Xim.  NO.  676  DECEMBER,  1914 


THE 

AMERICAN 
NATURALIST 


A  HOHTHLT  JOUSHAL 

DeTotad  to  the  Advftnoement  of  the  Biological  Scienoei  Witt 

Special  Beference  to  the  Factors  of  Bvolvtion 

OOVTBVTS 

L    The  FaUnro  of  Btlier  to  Prodnco  Mntattona  In  DrofophiU. 

Profenor  T.  H.  Mobqak  706 

n.    Tho  Analyiif  of  a  Oaio  of  Contiimoiu  YArtatloii  In  DroiopbiU  by  a  Btody 

of  lU  Linkago  Belatloni.    ProfeBsor  John  S.  Dbxtbb    -      -      -      -   7ia 

m.    Bliorter  Articles  and  Oorrospondenco :  On  the  Progressiye  Increase  of  Homo- 

zygoos  Brother-Sister  Matings.    H.  D.  Fish  ---■.--       769 

IV.    Notes andUtoratnre :  Mendelian  Fluctuations:  Q.U.Y. 763 

V.    Index  to  YolnmeXLin     -----------     763 

THE  SOIENOE  PRESS 

LAHOASTEB,  PA.  OABBIBON.  H.  T. 

HEW  TOBK:  SUBSTATION  84 


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Short  artiolee  ooRtaloiog  eoMMmrieo  of  rotearoli  work  bearing  oe  the 
probloMO  of  orgulo  ovolotioa  are  oopoelally  woleoae,  aid  will  bo  itvee  prefisreaeo 


One  baadrofl  reprleto  of  eontribatloBe  are  eappliod  to  autbero  f^ee  of  ebarge. 

Ill  DO  eappiied  at  eoet 
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Fartber  roprlnte  will  be  eappliod  at  eoet 


enbeoription  priee  ie  fear  dollare  a  year. 

Canadian  poetaie  twonty-llvo  eonte  additional.    Tbe  ebarfo  for  elnfle  oopieo  ie 

fbrty  eonte.   Tbe  advertleini  ratee  are  Fear  Dollare  fbr  a  page. 


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amt  on  appBeatlon.  State  whie^ 
to  dariied.  Per  priee  I  ata  and  aS 
Infonnatkm  wgarding  naatann], 
addrtaa 

GBO.  li.  GRAY,  Cutator,  Wooda  Hole.  Una 
The  aannal  annoonoement  will  be  aent  on  appBoatioa  te 
The  Dinetor,  ICariae  Bioiockal  Labocatuy,  Weeds  Bola 
Maw- 


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THE 

AMERICAN  NATURALIST 

Vol.  XLVIII  Decemb^  19U  No.  676 


THE  FAILUEE  OF  ETHER  TO  PRODUCE  MUTA- 
TIONS IN  DROSOPHILA 

PROFESSOR  T.  H.  MORGAN 
Columbia  Univebsitt 

The  many  mutants  of  Drosophila  ampelophila  that  have 
appeared  ** under  domestication"  have  raised  the  question 
as  to  the  cause  or  causes  that  have  brought  about  the  re- 
sult. Since  every  fly  that  has  passed  through  our  hands 
has  been  etherized  once  in  its  life,  usually  before  it  begins 
to  lay  its  eggs  if  a  female  or  before  mating  if  a  male,  it 
might  appear  that  this  recurring  condition  was  respon- 
sible for  the  mutations.  At  any  rate  it  seemed  worth 
while  to  put  this  view  to  a  test,  if  for  no  other  reason 
than  to  remove  from  one's  mind  the  suspicion  that  ether 
''did  it.'' 

Preliminary  trials  showed  that  two  drops  of  ether  (on  a 
piece  of  cotton)  in  a  quart  milk  bottle,  tightly  stoppered 
with  a  cotton  plug,  would  not  noticeably  ajBfect  the  flies  in 
half  an  hour,  three  drops  made  them  slightly  ''stupid," 
four  drops  more  so,  and  five  drops  quieted  them.  It  was 
found  that  they  would  for  tiie  most  part  recover  even 
after  6,  7  and  8  drops  of  ether.  If  etherized  twice  daily 
the  flies  were  so  far  weakened  that  they  generally  died 
without  laying  any  eggs.  Therefore  in  the  later  experi- 
ments the  flies  were  etherized  only  once  a  day  or  once  in 
two  days. 

The  larvae  (beginning  two  days  after  the  eggs  were  laid, 

705 


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706  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

at  which  time  the  eggs  have  hatched)  can  stand  more 
etiier.  Twice  daily  throughout  their  larval  and  pupal 
lives  (approximately  11  days)  6,  or  7,  or  8,  or  9  or  even  10 
drops  of  ether  were  added  to  the  quart  bottles.  The  ether 
excited  the  larvae  at  first,  then  quieted  them ;  later  they  re- 
covered. In  such  tests  the  larvae  were  kept  almost  con- 
tinuously in  an  atmosphere  of  ether  from  birth  to  emer- 
gence of  the  fly  and  in  a  few  cases  the  etherization  was  con- 
tinued with  the  flies  also.  By  covering  a  wide  range  of 
stages  and  conditions  I  hoped  to  find  the  critical  point,  if 
any  such  existed,  when  etiier  would  act.  Since,  as  the 
sequel  will  show,  no  specific  results  were  obtained  it  seems 
unnecessary  to  give  the  details  of  all  these  trials. 

Double,  and  in  one  case  triple  recessive,  stocks  were 
used  for  the  work,  because  experience  had  already  shown 
that  even  with  great  care  contamination  may  occur.  One 
or  two  flies  that  came  from  escaped  mutants  would  ruin 
the  value  of  the  data,  but  the  operator  can  protect  himself  by 
using  stocks  that  have  already  two  or  more  recessive  char- 
acters. If  such  flies  mutate  in  one  of  the  characters  in- 
volved the  presence  of  the  other  one  will  make  it  certain 
that  the  mutant  belonged  to  this  culture,  and  had  not  come 
in  from  outside ;  if  a  change  appeared  in  some  other  part, 
the  double  recessive  character  would  still  identify  the 
stock.  Two  of  the  stocks  used  had  sex-linked  characters, 
i.  e.,  eosin  miniature  and  cherry  club  vermilion.  If  a 
mutation  should  appear  that  involved  tiiese  characters  it 
would  become  evident  at  once  in  the  male  offspring;  for, 
tiie  male  gets  his  single  sex  chromosome  from  his  mother 
and  exhibits  her  sex-linked  factors.  Of  course  this 
would  be  equally  true  for  any  other  sex-linked  char- 
acter that  appeared,  but  in  practise  it  is  impossible  to 
thoroughly  examine  each  fly  in  every  possible  part,  so  that 
I  had  to  confine  my  attention  to  certain  organs,  and  in 
these  cases  I  concentrated  on  tiie  mutant  characters.  Con- 
spicuous mutations  in  other  parts  would,  I  think,  have 
been  picked  up,  but  minor  ones  would  probably  have  been 
missed.    On  the  other  hand,  if  changes  taking  place  in 


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No.  576]  MUTATIONS  IN  DROSOPHILA  707 

the  chromosomal  material  are  the  basis  for  mutation  it 
would  seem  perhaps  a  priori  unlikely  that  the  same 
changes  should  occur  at  the  same  time  in  both  members  of 
a  pair,  and  if  not  the  effect  would  not  appear  in  the  next 
generation,  and  not  until  two  flies  of  the  later  progeny 
each  carrying  one  mutant  factor  met.  Whatever  weight 
may  be  attached  to  this  argument— we  know  really  nothing 
as  to  the  origin  of  mutations— it  seemed  necessary  to 
carry  some  stocks  to  anotiier  generation;  and  this  was 
done. 

The  following  are  the  totals  of  offspring  produced  by 
flies  from  larvae  that  had  been  etiierized  twice  daily  from 
the  time  of  hatching  to  the  winged  state : 

Black  vestigial -I  ._ 

Pink  black    1,390 

Eosin  miniature  871 

Cherry  dub  vermilion 364 

Pink  ebony  sepia 1,311 

Total   4,802 

In  the  next  case  fewer  drops  of  ether  were  used — four 
or  five  throughout  larval  and  pupal  life.  The  parent  flies 
were  changed  to  new  bottles  quite  often  to  prevent  crowd- 
ing and  abundant  food  was  supplied : 

Black  vestigial   2,122 

Pink  black 6,762 

Eosin  miniature  : . . .  2,603 

Pink  ebony  sepia 953 

Total    12,440 

The  following  data  are  from  the  offspring  of  the  flies 
that  had  8  and  10  drops  of  ether  twice  daily: 

Pink  black 3,440 

Eosin  miniature   2,775 

Total     6,215 

The  next  data  are  the  records  of  the  offspring  of 


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708  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

adult  flies  that  had  been  etherized  several  times  (usually 
twice  a  day)  just  after  they  had  hatched: 

Black  vestigial   (6  times)    870 

Black  vestigial   (7  times)    H3 

Black  vestigial   (8  times)    694 

Pure  black  (6  times)    81 

Eosin  miniature  (3  times)   206 

Eosin  miniature  (5  times)   428 

Cherry  club  vermillion  (8  times)   713 

Cherry  club  vermillion  (8  times)   476 

Total   3,611 

Finally  some  of  the  flies  that  had  appeared,  in  the  ex- 
periments in  which  8  and  10  drops  of  ether  had  been  used 
throughout  the  larval  and  pupal  life,  were  bred  and  gave 
in  the  next  generation  the  following  records : 

Pink  black 2,186 

Eosin  miniature   666 

Cherry  club  vermillion   709 

Pink  ebony  sepia 539 

Total   4,100 

In  a  grand  total  of  31,168  flies  subjected  to  ether,  there 
was  not  a  single  mutation  observed.  It  seems  highly 
probable  therefore  that  ether  has  no  specific  effect  in  pro- 
ducing mutations  in  DrosophUa  ampelophUa.  It  might, 
of  course,  still  be  said  that  mutations  are  so  rare,  that, 
although  caused  by  ether,  tiiey  still  are  not  frequently 
enough  produced  to  make  31,000  flies  a  sufficient  guaran- 
tee. Granting  this,  it  still  remains  that  since  no  mutants 
appeared  under  this  excessive  treatment,  ether  does  not 
play  the  role  of  a  specific  agent  causing  the  mutations  of 
DrosophUa,  and  one  is  inclined  to  look  elsewhere  for  a 
solution  of  the  problem. 

One  of  the  first  mutants  that  I  observed  in  ampelophUa 
appeared  in  the  offspring  of  flies  that  had  been  treated 
with  radium  and  although  there  was  no  proof  that  the 
radium  had  had  a  specific  effect  I  felt  obliged  to  state  the 
actual  case,  refraining  carefully  from  any  statement  of 


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No.  576]  MUTATIONS  IN  DR080PHILA  709 

causal  connection.^  Nevertheless,  I  have  been  quoted  as 
having  produced  the  first  mutants  by  the  use  of  radium. 
I  may  add  that  repetition  of  the  experiment  on  a  large 
scale  both  with  the  emanations  of  an  X-ray  machine  and 
from  radium  salts  has  failed  to  produce  any  mutations, 
although  the  flies  were  made  sterile  for  a  time.  Loeb  and 
Bancroft  also  tried  the  ejBfect  of  radium.^  They  found  a 
black  mutant  tyi>e  after  treatment  with  radium  but  since 
the  same  type  appeared  in  the  control  they  do  not  believe 
that  its  appearance  had  any  connection  with  the  radium. 
They  also  state  that  after  treatment  a  white-eyed  female 
appeared  in  the  first  generation,  and  suggest  that  a  white 
eyed  male  may  have  existed  in  a  previous  generation  that 
escaped  notice,  but  if  it  had  been  found  in  a  previous  gen- 
eration, the  mutation  or  the  contamination  must  have 
been  earlier  than  the  one  that  produced  the  white-eyed 
female ;  for,  a  white-eyed  male  takes  two  generations  to 
reappear  again.  Pink-eyed  flies  were  also  found  both  in 
the  control  and  in  the  treated  flies.  In  regard  to  another 
mutant  type,  they  state : 

We  succeeded  in  producing  short  winged  specimens  in  two  different 
cultures  by  treating  them  with  radium,  while  thus  far  we  have  not 
observed  this  mutation  in  cultures  not  treated  with  radium. 

But  although  *'two  hundred  different  cultures"  were 
subsequently  treated  with  radium  and  no  short-winged 
(miniature)  flies  appeared,  I  get  the  impression  that 
Bancroft  and  Loeb  must  have  had  stock  that  was  already 
contaminated  by  some  recessive  mutant  factors.  All  of 
these  mutants  had  been  obtained  and  described  by  us,  and 
the  stock  used  by  Bancroft  and  Loeb  was  obtained  in  part 
at  least  from  my  friend  Dr.  Frank  E.  Lutz,  who  had  at 
that  time  in  his  possession,  as  a  letter  I  have  from  him 
states,  certainly  two  of  these  mutants,  black  and  minia- 
ture, that  he  had  received  from  me.  It  seems  to  me  not 
improbable  that  the  collector,  who  got  the  stock  from  Dr. 

1  Science,  XXXIII,  1911. 

2  Loc,  cit. 


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710  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VouXLVm 

Lutz  for  Professor  Loeb,  included  by  mistake  some  flies 
heterozygous  for  these  two  characters;  for  in  our  very 
extensive  experience  with  wild  stock  from  Cold  Spring 
Harbor  (the  origin  of  most  of  Dr.  Lutz^s  stock)  and  else- 
where" these  mutants  have  never  arisen  again. 

At  various  times  experiments  have  been  made  in  this 
laboratory  involving  wide  ranges  of  temperature,*  salts, 
sugars,  acids,  alkalis  without  any  resulting  mutation. 
In  fact,  our  experience  with  DrosophUa  has  given  us  the 
impression  that  mutations  are  rare  events,  although  the 
actual  number  of  our  mutants  is  now  quite  large. 

Guyenot*  also  has  treated  ampelophila  to  high  tempera- 
tures, to  radium  and  to  X-rays  without  result.  When  the 
adult  flies  were  treated  with  ultra-violet  light,  however,  a 
definite  type  of  *  ^  black  ^^  fly  was  obtained.  The  first  eggs 
tiiat  such  females  lay  are  normal  and  give  rise  to  normal 
flies.  The  eggs  laid  later  fail  to  hatch,  although  they  ap- 
pear to  begin  their  development  On  the  third  day 
amongst  the  abnormal  eggs  some  were  found  that  gave 
rise  to  flies  that  were  apparently  normal.  It  happened 
that  they  were  not  examined  again  until  after  the  flies  of 
the  next  generation  had  appeared  (many  of  them  had 
died).  Both  among  the  living  and  the  dead  flies  there 
was  a  considerable  percentage  of  black  flies.  The  black 
females  laid  eggs  which  did  not  develop,  even  although 
normal  males  were  added.  Why  the  black  males  were  not 
also  tested  by  outcrossing  is  not  apparent.  The  descrip- 
tion of  the  black  flies  given  by  Guyenot  tallies  in  some 
points  with  our  stock  of  ebony  in  which  the  females  were 
at  first  usually  infertile  but  the  males  fertile.  At  first, 
indeed,  we  kept  the  stock  by  breeding  the  ebony  males  to 
the  heterozygous  females.  These  are  intermediate  in  color. 
In  fact,  Guyenot  seems  to  have  had  heterozygous  flies  but 
did  not,  according  to  his  account,  obtain  any  black  flies 
from  them.  However,  if  the  ultra-violet  light  is  a  specific 
agent  for  these  mutations  the  experiment  can  easily  be 
repeated. 

8  Science,  XXII,  1910. 

^Bull   Scientifique,  XLVm,   1914. 


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No.  676]  MUTATIONS  IN  DB080PHILA  711 

It  should  be  added  that  only  one  of  Guyenot's  two 
lines  gave  dark  flies  after  treatment  with  ultra-violet  light. 
This  might  seem  to  indicate  that  the  first  result  was  acci- 
dental, or  due  to  the  presence  of  a  recessive  mutation  in 
the  stock  prior  to  treatment  were  it  not  that  a  careful 
control  is  recorded.  Guyenot  himself  speaks  with  much 
caution  concerning  the  interpretation  of  his  results.  De- 
cision as  to  their  value  may  be  reserved  until  repetition  of 
the  experiment  gives  confirmation.  Our  own  experience 
with  Drosophila  shows  that  mutations  appear  under  con- 
ditions where  all  the  other  flies  in  the  same  culture  are 
normal  and  we  have  become  unduly  sceptical  perhaps 
towards  evidence  which  refers  a  particular  mutabt  to  some 
unusual  treatment  to  which  the  flies  have  been  subjected. 
Until  we  can  get  definite  information  as  to  how  mutants 
arise,  whether  through  external  influences,  through  acci- 
dents of  mitosis,  through  hybridizing,  or  through  changes 
in  the  chromosomes  with  its  consequent  dislocations  of 
the  machinery  of  crossing  over,  or  in  some  other  way,  it 
seems  futile  to  discuss  the  question. 


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THE  ANALYSIS  OF  A  CASE  OF  CONTINUOUS 

VARIATION  IN  DROSOPHILA  BY  A  STUDY 

OF  ITS  LINKAGE  RELATIONS 

PROFESSOR  JOHN  S.  DEXTER, 

Olivet  Collbqb 
I.  Introduction. 
II.  (The  Germinal  Constitution  of  Beaded  Flies. 

A,  Crosses  between  Beaded  and  Normal  WOd  Flies. 

1.  Behavior  in  First  Generation. 

2.  Behavior  in  Second  Generation. 

3.  Behavior  in  Third  and  Fourth  Generations. 

B,  Crosses  between  Beaded  Flies  and  Other  Mutants. 

1.  The  Fi  Generation. 

2.  Linkage  Belations. 

(a)  Sex  Linkage. 

(&)  Linkage  to  Sex-linked  Genes. 

(c)  Linkage  to  Second  Chromosome  Genes. 

(d)  Linkage  to  Third  Chromosome  Genes. 

III.  The  Effect  of  Environmental  Conditions  on  the  Development  of  Beaded 
Wings. 

A.  General  Statement. 

B.  The  Effects  of  Belative  Moisture. 

C.  The  Effects  of  Covering  with  Paraffine  the  Mouth  of  the  Bottle 

in  which  the  Flies  are  Developing. 

D.  The  Effects  of  Acidity  and  Alkalinity. 

E.  The  Effect  of  Belative  Temperature. 

F.  The  Effect  of  Darkness. 

rv.  The  Effect  of  Selection  on  the  Production  of  Different  Types  of  Bead- 

edness. 
v.  Mutation  in  Beaded  Stock. 

A,  General  Statement. 

B,  Perfect  Notched  Wings. 
C  Spread  Wings. 

J).  Stumpy  Wings. 
VI.  Summary. 

L    INTRODUCTION 

Haedly  had  the  principles  of  Mendelism  been  worked 
out  in  one  species  of  plant  than  apparent  exceptions  to 
these  principles  were  discovered.  MendePs  own  case  of 
the  breeding  true  of  species  hybrids  in  Hieracium  was  the 
first  of  these,  and  since  1900  others  have  be^n  reported. 

712 


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No.  576]  VARIATION  IN  DROSOPHILA  713 

Further  analysis  has  shown  that  many  of  these  early 
cases  are  readily  interpreted  on  Mendelian  principles, 
while  for  other  exceptions,  like  that  of  Hieracium,  for 
instance,  the  true  explanation  has  been  found  without  in 
any  way  coming  into  conflict  with  Mendelism. 

The  masking  of  a  Mendelian  ratio  may  be  effected  in 
many  ways,  and  some  of  the  most  important  of  the  recent 
work  in  genetics  has  dealt  with  this  problem.  Among 
the  conditions  so  far  brought  to  light  may  be  mentioned 
the  following : 

(a)  Multiple  Factors. — ^Recent  papers  by  MacDowell 
(1914)  and  Shull  (1914)  have  discussed  at  length  the 
literature  and  history  of  this  subject.  In  brief,  the  work 
that  has  been  done  shows  that  in  both  animals  and  plants 
the  production  of  certain  characters  is  brought  about 
through  the  action  of  two  or  more  independently  Men- 
delizing  pairs  of  genes  that  have  similar  effects  on  the 
developing  organism.  If  the  effect  of  these  genes  is 
cumulative,  so  that  the  character  is  more  or  less  produced 
according  to  the  number  of  dominant  genes  present,  the 
type  of  inheritance  known  as  blended  inheritance  is 
produced.  If  the  effect  is  not  cumulative,  the  recessive 
character  does  not  appear  with  the  frequency  of  1 :  3,  but 
with  the  frequency  of  1 :  15,  1 :  63,  etc.,  according  to  the 
number  of  pairs  of  genes  concerned. 

(&)  The  Effect  of  the  Environment. — ^A  typical  case 
of  this  sort  is  reported  by  Baur  (1912).  In  crossing  a 
dark  red  to  a  red  strain  of  Antirrhinum,  a  complete  series 
between  the  red  and  the  dark  red  appeared  in  the  Fg  gen- 
eration; the  effect  of  light  on  the  plants  was  such  that 
plants  that  had  developed  in  a  bright  light  had  a  darker 
color  than  those  that  had  developed  in  a  less  intense  light. 
The  analysis  of  the  Fg  generation,  however,  proved  con- 
clusively that  one  fourth  of  the  Fg  plants  had  been  homo- 
zygous dark  reds,  one  fourth  had  been  homozygous  red, 
and  two  fourths  had  been  heterozygotes.  Morgan  (1912a) 
has  described  a  case  in  Drosophila  in  which  moisture 
conditions  in  the  bottle  in  which  the  flies  are  developing 
determine  to  a  certain  extent  whether  or  not  certain 


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714 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVDI 


characters  shall  appear;  and  Hoge  (1914)  has  shown 
that  certain  temperatures  are  necessary  for  the  develop- 
ment of  reduplicated  legs  in  Drosophila.  Other  examples 
may  be  found  in  the  literature  of  genetics. 

(c)  Lethal  Characters. — There  have  been  reported  sev- 
eral instances  in  recent  years  of  animals  and  plants  which 
are  unable  to  live  if  homozygous  for  certain  genes.    The 


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No.  576] 


VARIATION  IN  DROSOPHILA 


716 


case  of  yellow  mice,  Baur's  ^wrea-strain  of  Antirrhinum 
(Banr,  1912)  and  the  modified  sex-ratios  in  Drosophila 
reported  by  Morgan  (1912eZ)  are  examples  of  tMs  phe- 
nomenon. 

The  object  of  the  present  paper  is  to  describe  a  case  of 
inheritance  in  Drosophila  that  for  some  years  seemed  to 


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7 1 6  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVni 

defy  Mendelian  analysis.  Though  all  the  details  of  the 
ease  have  not  been  worked  out,  enough  has  been  done  to 
show  that  it  is  brought  about  by  factors  which  segregate 
in  the  ordinary  Mendelian  fashion,  and  that  the  diffi- 
culties which  it  still  presents  are  not  opposed  to  that 
hypothesis. 

The  case  under  consideration  is  that  of  Beaded  wings, 
which,  according  to  Morgan  (1911a),  first  appeared  in 
May,  1910,  among  flies  that  had  been  exposed  during  part 
of  their  early  life  to  radium  rays. 

The  appearance  of  these  wings  can  best  be  understood 
from  the  figures  (Figs.  1-12),  which  represent  a  few  of 
the  forms  that  may  appear  in  a  stock  culture.  All  grada- 
tions may  be  found  between  wings  perfectly  normal  and 
mere  strips,  such  as  shown  by  Figure  11. 

In  the  early  days  of  its  history,  according  to  Morgan, 
the  Beaded- winged  flies  did  not  breed  true,  but  for  many 
generations  produced  many  normal-winged  offspring. 
At  the  time  when  I  took  up  the  experiment,  however,  the 
stock  bred  almost  100  per  cent,  pure ;  that  is,  almost  every 
fly  hatched  had  wings  more  or  less  Beaded.  I  have  at 
present  a  strain  which  breeds  true,  throwing  only  Beaded- 
winged  offspring,  and  most  of  the  offspring  have  the 
Beading  in  an  extreme  form.  Most  of  my  work  has  been 
done  with  this  stock. 

II.  THE  GERMINAL  CONSTITUTION  OP  BEADED  PLIES 

A.   Crosses  between  Beaded  and  Wild  Flies 

1.   Behavior  in  First  Generation 

When  a  Beaded  fly  is  mated  to  a  normal  fly  of  a  normal 
Wild  stock,  a  considerable  number  of  flies  with  Beaded 
wings  usually  appears  in  the  first  generation  (F^).  The 
percentage  is  not  constant,  but  varies  between  zero  and 
about  fifty  per  cent.  (See  Table  I.)  From  Chart  1,  it 
appears  possible  that  the  average  percentage  of  Beaded- 
winged  offspring  per  pair  is  near  10-15  per  cent,  or  else 
near  30-35  per  cent,  of  the  total  offspring.    The  exact 


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VARIATION  IN  DROSOPUILA 


717 


average  is  25.5  per  cent.    That  there  is  a  bimodal  curve 
produced  may  perhaps  not  be  significant,  as  will  appear 

TABLE  I 

Crosses  op  Beaded  to  Wild  Flies,  showing  Peecentaqes  of  Beaded- 
winged  Offspring 


Per  Cent,  of  Flies  with  Beaded  Wings 

^      «»      ^.     *.     «».     «»     ^.     ^'     «i     «*. 

2;-A.i|i*   i   s   i   ^   I   I 

i 

Number  of  broods  giving  this  per- 
oentage 

1      5 

in 

fi      7      7    14     a  '      2     2 

2 

Average  aixe  of  brood 

203  172!  148  120180  113  101  96  130  60 

73 

from  the  following  facts,  although  later  evidence  will 
show  that  it  very  possibly  is  significant. 

The  per  cent,  of  Beaded-winged  offspring  given  by  one 
pair  (Beaded  X  Wild)  may  vary  at  different  times  and 


o    o> 


•^^ 


Chart  I 


Numbers  of  broods   giving  certain   percentages   of  Beaded-winged   off- 
spring in  Fj  generation  of  Beaded  X  Wild.     (See  Table  I). 

under  different  conditions.  For  instance,  if  a  pair  are 
put  into  a  bottle  with  food  and  are  left  there  for  ten  days, 
and  are  then  put  into  another  bottle  with  fresh  food  and 
left  another  ten  days,  the  percentage  of  Beaded-winged 
offspring  will  be  different  in  the  two  broods.  Table  II 
gives  the  records  of  such  tests.    The  first  two  were  made 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVni 


with  single  pairs.    In  the  third  case,  a  Beaded  male  was 
given  four  virgin  females,  so  that  although  all  the  off- 

TABLE   II 

DnTEBENT   Percentages   of   Beaded-winged   Oitsp&ing   by   the   Saks 

Paeents  During  Two  Separate  Tbn-dat  Periods 

IN  DipPBRENT  Bottles 


First  Ten  Days 


No.  of  Oir- 
spring 


Per  Cent. 
Beaded 


Second  Ten  Days 


No.  of  Off- 
spring 


Per  Cent. 
Beaded 


First  pair 126  I  21 

Second  pair 117  7 

One  father  X4  mothers..  389  I  20 


179 
146 
301 


41 
22 

28 


spring  have  the  same  father,  they  come  from  four 
mothers.  Inspection  of  this  table  shows  that  it  is  quite 
impossible  to  assign  the  parents  of  any  one  brood  to  any 
definite  class  based  on  the  percentage  of  Beaded-winged 
offspring  that  they  give. 

Table  II  shows  also  that  the  parents  gave  a  larger  per- 
centage of  Beaded-winged  offspring  during  the  second 
ten  days  than  during  the  first  period.  That  this  is  a 
coincidence  appears  from  Table  HI.  Here  it  is  shown 
from  the  records  of  fifty  broods  chosen  at  random,  that 

TABLE   III 

Percentages  op  Beaded-winged  Flies  in  the  First  Count  op  a  Brood 

Compared  with  Those  op  the  Last  CJount  (Interval  op 

PROM  Eight  to  Ten  Days).    Based  on  CJounts  prom 

FiPTY  Broods,  Chosen  at  Bandom 


First 

Last 

First 

Count 

Count 

Count 

36 

7 

10 

4 

0 

42 

10 

0 

71 

20 

0 

0 

1 

0 

5 

48 

20 

64 

45     1 

4 

37 

37     1 

40 

17 

33 

15 

10 

21     1 

0 

10 

Last 

First 

Last 

First 

Last 

First 

ILt 

Count 

Count 

Count 

Count 

Count 

Count 

Count 

0 

10 

33 

10 

13 

3 

7 

24 

1 

0 

25 

24 

51 

30 

25 

8 

1 

24 

0 

23 

11 

1 

19 

7 

11 

3 

15 

12 

5 

3 

0 

32 

0 

43 

8 

15 

36 

10 

40 

0 

42 

0 

3 

25 

3 

46 

9 

32 

6 

6 

18 

0 

60 

0 

50 

40 

0 

47 

10 

16 

0 

29 

4 

0 

28 

20 

52 

0 

56 

29 

Larger  percentage  of  Beaded-winged  offspring  the  first  count,  44  broods. 
Larger  percentage  of  Beaded-winged  offspring  the  last  count,  5  broods. 
Equal  percentage  of  Beaded- winged  offspring  both  counts,  1  brood. 


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No.  576]  VARIATION  IN  BROS  OPE  ILA  719 

the  counts,  made  in  the  first  few  days  after  the  flies  of 
any  brood  begin  to  hatch  show  almost  invariably  a  very 
much  larger  percentage  of  Beaded-winged  offspring  than 
do  the  last  counts  made.  This  fact  will  be  considered  at 
some  length  in  the  section  on  environmental  effects. 

Enough  has  been  said,  at  least,  to  show  that,  whether 
the  results  here  described  are  genetic  or  environmental 
effects,  the  F^  generation  is  remarkably  inconstant  with 
reference  to  the  percentage  of  Beaded-winged  offspring 
that  appear.  It  is  evident  that  this  percentage  can  be 
readily  altered  by  (1)  changing  the  length  of  the  period 

Chaet  2. 
Bdcf  XWad9 


daughters,  33%  Bd  sodb,  13%  Bd 

Bd  cf  X  Wfld  9 


daughters,  16%  Bd  sons,  3%  Bd 

Bd  cf  X  Wild  9 


daughters,  23%  Bd  sons.  9%  Bd 


during  which  the  brood  is  allowed  to  run;  (2)  by  chang- 
ing the  parents  from  one  bottle  to  another.  Extensive 
studies  of  environmental  effects  have  shown  other  ways 
in  which  the  percentages  can  be  altered,  but  of  this  we 
will  treat  later. 

2.   Behavior  in  the  Second  Generation 

The  question  at  once  arises  whether  the  Beaded  and 
normal  Fj  flies  are  alike  genetically.  To  the  solution  of 
this  problem  two  different  breeding  tests  were  applied: 
viz.,  matings  of  Fj  normal  by  normal,  normal  by  Beaded, 
and  Beaded  by  Beaded ;  and  back  crosses  of  both  normal 
and  Beaded  to  Wild  stock.  The  results  of  these  tests  are 
given  in  Tables  IV  and  V.    These  tables  show  that  when 


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Beaded- winged  flies  of  the  Fj  generation  are  used  as  par- 
ents, more  Beaded-winged  young  are  produced  than  when 
normal- winged  Fj  flies  are  used.    This  holds  true  for  each 


TABLE    IV 

Matings  Betwbbn  Fi  Plies  op  the  Cross  Beaded  by  Wild,  Showing 
Percentages  or  Beaded  Offspbing  in  Individual  Broods 


Per  Cent,  of  Flies  Beaded 


0-4.9 
5-9.9 
10-14.9 

(7>    1  o»       a» 

^     S     ^ 

30-34.9 
35-39.9 
40-44.9 

45-49.9 
50-54.9 

6.V50.9 
60-61.9 

1 

Normal  X  Normal 

.-..    8      2  !  2 
. . .    1    . . . 

1 

1 

......     1 

...     3       1 

1 

1     ... 

Normal  XBeaded 

...     2 
1      2 

Beaded  XBeaded 

i . . . 

1       1 

1 

1 

TABLE   V 

Back-crosses  to  Wild  op  F^  Flies  of  the  Cross  Beaded  X  Wild,  Show- 
ing Percentages  op  Beaded  Offspring  in  Indiyidual  Broods 


Percentage  of  Ofl^pring  Beaded 


t  i 


I  I' I' I 


I 


Normal  XWild 9 

Beaded  X  Wild 3 


6       3 


of  the  five  crosses  shown  in  the  two  tables.  Normal- 
winged  Fi  flies  do,  however,  have  some  Beaded-winged  off- 
spring, both  when  mated  among  themselves,  and  also, 
though  more  rarely,  when  back  crossed  to  Wild. 

These  Fg  and  back-cross  results  give  little  satisfaction 
at  first  sight  to  the  student  of  Mendelism.  If  we  suppose 
that  there  is  one  gene  on  which  the  Beaded  condition 
depends,  and  that  it  is  partially  dominant,  then  Beaded 

TABLE    VI 

Beaded  and  Normal  Offspring  by  Sexes  When  One  Parent  is  Beadkd 
AND  the  Other  Wild 


Beaded 
9  9 

Normal 
9  9 

Beaded 

Normal 

Per  Cent. 
9  9  Bd. 

Per  Cent. 
cfcf  Bd. 

Father  Beaded.. 
Mother  Beaded  . 

1.246      . 
894     ; 

4.488 
2.959 

948 
1,139 

4,481 
2,684 

21.7 
23.2 

17.6 
29.8 

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No.  576]  VARIATION  IN  DROSOPHILA  721 

and  normal  F^  flies  should  give  the  same  results  when 
used  as  parents.  Or  if  we  were  dealing  here  with  a  case 
like  the  * 'yellow  mouse '*  case,  in  which  homozygous 
yellows  do  not  exist:  that  is,  if  homozygous  ^'Beadeds'^ 
do  not  exist,  then  one  quarter  of  the  flies  produced  by  two 
Beaded  parents  from  the  stock  should  be  normal.  But  as 
was  said  before,  the  stock  breeds  true,  every  fly  produced 
having  Beaded  wings. 

It  may  be  noted  that  a  pair  of  Fj  normal  flies  usuallly 
produce  less  than  10  per  cent,  of  Beaded  offspring.  If 
these  normal  flies  carried  a  recessive  gene  for  Beaded- 
ness,  they  should  produce  twenty-five  per  cent.  Beaded 
offspring.  The  Beaded  Fj  offspring,  on  the  other  hand, 
though  they  produced  in  sdl  cases  more  than  twenty-five 
per  cent.,  did  not  produce  75  per  cent.  Beaded  offspring, 
as  they  should  have  done  if  a  single  dominant  gene  for 
Beaded  wings  were  heterozygous  in  them. 

3.   Behavior  in  Third  and  Fourth  Generations 

Beaded  offspring,  that  appeared  in  the  Fj  generation 
of  the  cross  Beaded  X  Wild,  were  back  crossed  to  Wild 
The  process  was  again  repeated  with  the  Beaded  off- 
spring that  appeared,  till  four  generations  had  been  pro- 
duced. The  results  of  this  test  are  given  in  Tables  VII 
and  VIII  and  in  Chart  4. 

A  striking  result  is  that  an  Fj  Beaded  fly  or  even  a  fly 
of  later  generations  heterozygous  for  Beaded  wings  some- 

TABLE    VII 

Bepeated  Back-crosses  of  B£ADEI^WINGED  Flies  from  the  Cross  Beaded 
BY  Wild  to  Wild  Stock  to  Show  Percentages  of  Beaded- 
winged  Offspring,     See  Chart  IV 


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722  TBE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

TABLE   VIII 

Normal  Females  from  Family  2,  Generation  2,  Back-crossed  to  Wild 
Males,  Showing  Percentages  op  Beaded-winged  Oitspring 


Beaded 

Normal 

^Bd 

Type  X 

2 
50 

1.040 
342 

.02 

TypeY 

16.3 

times  has  as  large  a  percentage  of  Beaded-winged  oflf- 
spring  when  mated  to  Wild,  as  does  a  fly  direct  from  pure 
Beaded  stock  when  mated  to  Wild,  though  a  comparison 
of  Tables  I  and  V  shows  that  this  is  not  the  usual  occur- 
rence. This  suggests  at  once  the  action  of  a  lethal  gene 
(Morgan,  1912&).  Morgan  has  shown  that  in  a  certain 
stock  of  Drosophila  there  are  twice  as  many  females  as 
males  in  the  offspring  of  one  half  the  females.  No  matter 
to  what  male  such  a  female  be  mated,  her  daughters  are 
twice  as  numerous  as  her  sons,  and  one  half  of  her 
daughters  also  repeat  this  phenomenon,  and  one  half  of 
the  daughters  of  these  again.  This  fact  finds  its  explana- 
tion in  the  assumption  that  there  is  in  one  of  the  sex- 
chromosomes  of  such  females  a  gene  which  prevents  the 
development  of  any  male  which  gets  it. 

Now  if  such  a  gene  had  the  power  of  expressing  itself 
as  a  dominant  in  those  flies  that  carried  it  in  the  hetero- 
zygous condition,  if,  for  example,  it  caused  the  wings  to  be 
Beaded,  it  would  be  possible  to  select  such  flies  at  sight, 
and  these  flies  could  then  be  depended  upon  to  repeat  the 
phenomenon.  (Morgan  accomplishes  the  same  end  by 
mating  such  flies  to  mutants  carrying  a  gene  with  which 
the  lethal  gene  shows  close  linkage,  such  as  that  for  white- 
eyes.  He  then  finds  that  the  red-eyed  females  carry  the 
lethal  gene,  unless,  as  rarely  happens,  a  ** cross-over'*  has 
occurred.) 

Such  a  sex-linked  lethal  gene  producing  a  dominant 
wing  character  has  actually  been  found  to  occur  in  the 
case  of  a  mutant  which  arose  in  the  Beaded  stock,  and 
which  will  be  discussed  later.  For  the  present  we  must 
note  that  if  the  lethal  gene  were  not  associated  with  sex, 
its  presence  could  be  detected  by  the  absence  of  certain 


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expected  ratios,  or  classes,  or  in  some  other  peculiarity  of 
genetic  behavior.  In  the  case  before  us,  we  found  that 
the  Fj  generation  consisted  of  at  least  two  types;  viz., 
Beaded  and  not-Beaded  flies.  These  were  shown  to  differ 
genetically.  To  obtain  such  a  result  must  mean  that  at 
least  one  of  the  parents  was  heterozygous  in  at  least  one 
gene.  This  result  is  however  a  fairly  constant  one ;  and 
by  virtue  of  the  long-continued  inbreeding  of  the  Beaded 
stock  this  heterozygosity  must  surely  have  been  weeded 
out  before  now  if  there  were  no  serious  hindrance  to 
homozygosity.  The  classic  example  of  this  sort  of  effect 
is  that  of  the  yellow  mice. 

But  the  development  of  Beaded  wings  can  not  be 
brought  about  by  the  action  of  a  single  lethal  gene,  for  if 
this  were  true  it  would  be  impossible  to  obtain  a  stock 
of  Beaded  flies  that  would  breed  true,  and  yet  such  a 
stock,  as  has  already  been  said,  is  the  one  from  which 
these  very  crosses  derive  their  Beaded  ancestors.  There 
must  therefore  be  at  least  one  pair  of  allelomorphs  of 
which  one  member  is  effective  in  producing  Beaded  wings, 
and  can  exist  in  the  homozygous  condition  and  possibly 
also  another  pair  of  allelomorphs  of  which  one  member  is 
a  recessive  lethal  gene.  We  can  explain  many  of  the 
facts  so  far  obtained  on  the  supposition,  that  there  are 
these  two  independently  Mendelizing  pairs  of  allelo- 
morphs concerned  in  the  production  of  Beaded  wings. 
The  pair  containing  the  lethal  gene  we  will  call  L  (nor- 
mal) and  1  (lethal) ;  and  the  other  pair  B'  (Beaded)  and 
b'  (normal).  The  occurrence  of  the  two  genes  B'  and  1 
in  one  individual  usually  causes  such  an  individual  to 
have  Beaded  wings,  though  Beaded-winged  flies  also 
occur  which  do  not  carry  the  lethal  gene,  but  are  homo- 
zygous for  B^. 

It  should  be  possible  then  to  isolate  a  stock  of  Beaded- 
winged  flies  not  carrying  this  lethal  factor,  1.  Such  flies 
should  give  a  much  smaller  percentage  of  Beaded- winged 
offspring  in  the  Fj  generation  of  a  cross  with  Wild  stock 
(or  perhaps  none  at  all,  if  B'  were  recessive),  than  would 
those  flies  carrying  IL.    Such  a  stock  has  not  yet  been  ob- 


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724  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [VouXLVm 

tained,  but  occasionally  a  strain  of  Beaded  flies  is  met 
with  that  gives  only  low  percentages  of  Beaded-winged 
offspring.  See,  for  instance,  Family  4,  Table  VII.  Pos- 
sibly such  a  stock  would  not  be  recognized  at  once,  espe- 
cially if  it  were  so  affected  by  environmental  conditions 
that  even  flies  homozygous  for  the  factor  B'B^  sometimes 
had  normal  wings.  Normal-winged  flies,  as  will  be 
pointed  out  in  a  later  section  of  this  paper,  do  very  fre- 
quently appear  in  Beaded  stock,  but  these  flies  when 
mated  to  each  other  appear  to  throw  as  many  Beaded- 
winged  offspring  as  do  the  Beaded-winged  flies  of  the 
stock,  and  often  100  per  cent,  of  their  offspring  have 
Beaded  wings. 

In  this  connection  it  will  be  of  interest  to  recall  that 
Chart  1,  and  Table  I  gave  results  that  might  be  inter- 
preted as  evidence  of  the  bimodal  curve  that  should  be 
expected  if  the  above  hypothesis  is  correct. 

Normal  females  from  the  second  generation  of  Family 
2  were  also  back-crossed  to  Wild  males.  The  results  are 
given  in  Table  VIII.  Most  of  these  normal  females  gave 
very  few  or  no  Beaded  offspring  (Type  X)  while  two  of 
them  gave  a  considerable  number  of  Beaded  offspring 
(Type  Y).  The  explanation  here  is  perhaps  that  the  type 
Y  females  were  genetically  like  most  of  the  Beaded 
females  of  an  Fj  generation  (on  our  hypothesis,  B'  L  b'  1) 
while  the  females  of  Type  X  were  genetically  lacking  in 
the  factors  that  are  usually  present  in  Beaded  Fj  flies 
(i.  e.,  they  were  B'  L  b'  L).  That  such  an  occurrence  is 
not  infrequent  in  Drosophila  is  seen  in  Table  IV  in  which 
three  broods  out  of  fifteen  raised  from  normal  Fi  flies 
gave  25  per  cent,  or  more  of  Beaded  offspring  though  the 
other  twelve  broods  gave  less  than  fifteen  per  cent.,  and 
eight  broods  less  than  five  per  cent,  of  Beaded  offspring. 
It  seems  certain  therefore  that  there  are  two  types  of 
normal-winged  offspring  in  the  Fj  generation  of  the  cross, 
Beaded  by  Wild;  one  of  these  is  genetically  like  the 
Beaded  flies  of  the  same  generation  and  the  other  is 
genetically  different  from  its  Beaded  brothers  and  sisters. 

Types  X  and  Y  have  been  found  to  occur  in  all  of  the 


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No.  576]  VARIATION  IN  DBOSOPHILA  725 

tests  made  of  Fi  flies  whether  of  matings  to  Wild  stock 
or  of  matings  to  other  mutants  such  as  Black,  Pink,  Arc, 
Ebony,  etc.  Table  XXVI  shows  these  two  types  as  they 
appeared  in  back  crosses  to  normal  Pink  males  of  normal 
and  Beaded  females  of  the  cross  Pink  Beaded  by  Wild. 
Here  it  was  found  that  more  of  the  normal  than. of  the 
Beaded  Fj  flies  were  of  Type  X,  and  conversely  that  more 
of  the  Beaded  than  of  the  normals  were  of  Type  Y. 

It  has  not  been  possible  to  distinguish  with  certainty 
between  these  two  types  even  by  their  offspring  because 
of  the  large  amount  of  fluctuation  that  occurs  in  the  per- 
centages of  Beaded  offspring.  For  example  it  would  be 
difficult  to  say  whether  a  fly  giving  five  per  cent,  of  its 
offspring  Beaded  would  belong  to  Type  X  or  Type  Y. 

It  would  be  expected  that  Type  Y  would  be  given  by 
those  flies  that  carried  both  factors  for  Beaded,  and 
Type  X  by  those  that  lack  the  lethal  factor,  and  it  wiD 
be  seen  later  that  on  the  whole  the  evidence  supports 
this  view. 

B.    Crosses  between  Beaded  Flies  and  Other  Mutants 

1.   The  Fj  Generation 

If  we  examine  the  Fj  generation  when  Beaded  flies  are 
crossed  to  other  mutants,  i.  e.,  to  flies  of  a  stock  that  is 
perfectly  normal  so  far  as  Beadedness  is  concerned,  but 
which  is  unlike  the  normal  Wild  flies  in  some  other  wing 
character,  or  in  eye  color  or  body  color,  etc.,  we  find  an 
even  greater  amount  of  variability  in  the  percentage  of 
Beaded-winged  offspring  than  in  the  Fj  generation  of 
Beaded  by  Wild.  (See  Tables  I  and  IX;  also  Charts 
1  and  3.) 

The  details  may  be  gathered  from  Table  IX,  where  it 
can  be  seen  that  there  is  a  certain  specificity  in  the  per- 
centage of  Beaded  offspring  that  appear  in  any  specific 
mating. 

For  instance,  it  appears  that  more  of  the  offspring 
have  Beaded  wings  if  a  cross  is  made  with  Vermilion- 
eyed  flies  than  when  Beadeds  are  mated  to  Pink-eyed 


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TABLE   IX 

The  Peecentaoes  or  Beaded-winged  Flies  in  the  Fx  Generation  of 
Crosses  Between  Beaded  Flies  and  Other  Mutants 


Percentages 


Mutant  Involved 


Oil  a* 

III 


9     0>     Ok     O) 


i?i 


t>>    io  '  35 1  cii    cS 


Vermilion  Yellow 1 

Vermilion 

Miniature  Eosin 

White 


Pink  Beaded  XWhite  ...   2 

Pink  Beaded  X  Wild 4 

Pink I.. 

Pink  Ebony |.. 

Sepia 

Pink  Black '  1 

Black ll 

Purple  Curved ' . . 

Truncate 

Vestigial 

Antlered ' . ; . . 

Strap I . .  I 


44 


1  1   ....   1 

..  ..   1    4   .. 

..   1    ...... 

14   3    11 

2  ....   1    .. 
1 


1 


1 


Total 8    6;5 

1    6|6    8672.11. 

.   1   .. 

..,..    1  ,.. 

BeadedX Wild  (Table I) . !  1    5  lo'  6  !  7 

7  14  3    2    2    2  ! . .  . 

..'..I..  .. 

Grand  Total 9  11  15 

'     1     1 

7 

12  13  22  8    9    4    2    11. 

1 

.   1   .. 

..;..ll    .. 
1      i      ; 

Chart  III 


oo^^Si     ^    ^    ^   ^    «;^    &^S5;^^     ^t?^^ 


Distribution  of  broods  giving  certain  percentages  of  Beaded-winged  off- 
spring in  Fj  generation  of  Beaded   X   Normal   (other  Mutants  or  Wild). 

(See  Table  IX.) 


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No.  576]  VARIATION  IN  DROSOPHILA  727 

flies,  or  more  in  the  crosses  with  White-eyed  flies  than 
in  those  with  Black  body  color.  (In  every  case,  where 
the  contrary  is  not  stated  the  flies  are  normal  in  other 
respects  than  the  one  named,  e.  g.,  White-eyed  flies  in 
these  crosses  have  Gray  bodies  and  Long  normal  wings.) 

No  explanation  of  this  specificity  by  the  assumption 
of  a  segregation  of  factors  in  the  germ  cells  appears  to 
be  available  here,  though  such  a  possibility  has  not  yet 
been  ruled  out,  or  can  be  ruled  out  till  certain  other  phe- 
nomena are  understood.  Tha  easiest  way  of  **  explain- 
ing" it  is  that  the  dominance  of  the  genes  for  Beadedness 
varies  in  accordance  with  many  other  circumstances, 
among  which  are  differences  in  the  other  genes  present, 
such  as  those  for  Vermilion,  White  or  Pink.  Such  an 
assumption  as  this,  as  will  appear  later,  would  seem  to  be 
fully  in  accord  with  the  behavior  of  the  genes  for  Beaded 
wings  when  in  still  different  relationships. 

It  is  assumed,  then,  for  example,  that  the  percentages 
of  Beaded-winged  flies  in  the  Fj  generation  of  a  cross 
between  Beaded  and  White  are  higher  than  those  in  the 
Fj  generation  of  a  cross  between  Beaded  and  Black,  be- 
cause the  gene  for  Black  is  relatively  to  the  gene  for 
White  eyes  an  inhibitor  of  Beadedness.  It  would  appear 
as  though  a  series  might  be  made  of  the  mutants  of 
Drosophila  beginning  with  those  in  which  the  genes  for 
Beaded  wings  are  most  dominant  and  ending  with  those 
in  which  the  Beaded  genes  are  recessive.  In  order  to 
construct  such  a  series  a  large  number  of  pairs  would 
have  to  be  made  for  each  cross  in  order  to  determine  the 
limits  of  variability  of  Beadedness  for  the  cross  con- 
cerned. The  work  would  probably  be  greater  than  the 
value  of  the  results  obtained,  and  therefore  the  attempt 
has  not  been  made  to  carry  out  this  test.  From  what  has 
.  been  done  incidentally  in  carrying  out  other  experiments, 
it  will  be  seen  that  in  general  the  darker  eye  colors  and 
body  colors  are  associated  with  a  low  percentage  of 
Beadedness  in  the  Fj  generation,  and  the  brighter  colors 
with  a  higher  percentage.  This  may,  however,  only  be  a 
coincidence. 


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728  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIIl 

2.   Linkage  Relations 
(a)    Sex  Linkage 

If  in  the  crosses  thus  far  described  the  sex  of  parents 
and  offspring  that  show  Beaded  wings  be  considered,  it 
may  appear  at  first  as  though  we  may  be  dealing  with  a 
partially  sex-linked  gene.  For  it  very  frequently  happens 
that  when  the  mother  is  Beaded,  and  the  father  is  normal 
(either  of  Wild  stock  or  of  some  mutant  stock  not  carry- 
ing Beadedness),  more  of  .the  sons  than  of  the  daughters 
are  Beaded.  For  example,  in  one  such  brood,  there 
were  17  Beaded  to  128  normal  females,  and  5  Beaded 
to  130  normal  males,  or  12  per  cent,  of  the  females 
and  3.5  per  cent,  of  the  males.  Both  of  these  examples 
were  deliberately  chosen  because  they  were  good  ex- 
amples of  the  phenomenon  described.  It  would  be  possi- 
ble to  select  from  my  records  several  examples  of  the 
reverse  phenomenon,  where  Beaded  females  had  more 
Beaded  daughters  than  Beaded  sons,  and  where  Beaded 
males  had  more  Beaded  sons  than  Beaded  daughters. 
Nevertheless,  the  records  of  all  broods  available  have 
given  the  numbers  shown  in  Table  VI,  where  it  appears 
that  more  sons  are  Beaded  when  only  the  mother  is 
Beaded  and  more  daughters  when  only  the  father  is 
Beaded. 

It  may  perhaps  be  significant,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
when  the  mother  is  Beaded  a  slightly  larger  percentage 
of  her  daughters  is  Beaded  than  of  the  daughters  of  a 
Beaded  male,  while  a  very  much  larger  percentage  of  her 
sons  is  Beaded  than  the  sons  of  a  Beaded  male.  In  other 
words,  it  seems  that  the  daughters  are  affected  to  ap- 
proximately the  same  extent,  whether  they  get  their 
Beadedness  from  father  or  mother,  while  the  sons  are 
affected  also  by  the  mother,  whether  or  not  she  carries 
Beadedness.  This  might  mean  that  there  is  some  gene  in 
the  sex  chromosome  that  does  not  show  except  when  other 
Beaded  factors  are  present.  That  this  is  not  the  case 
will  appear  from  Chart  2,  which  records  three  generations 
of  flies  in  each  of  which  the  mother  was  normal  (Wild) 


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No.  576]  VARIATION  IN  DROSOPHILA  729 

and  the  father  Beaded.  This  shows  that  although  the 
father  transmitted  his  Beadedness  more  to  his  daughters 
than  to  his  sons,  yet  his  Beaded  sons  also  had  the  capac- 
ity to  affect  their  daughters  more  than  their  sons,  and 
these  sons  again  repeated  the  phenomenon.  Yet  these 
males  could  not  have  received  their  X-chromosome  from 
their  father,  unless  non-disjunction  (see  Bridges,  '13) 
had  occurred.  In  fact,  to  produce  the  results  here  given 
non-disjunction  must  occur  in  one  half  the  females  of 
the  Wild  stock.  Frequent  tests  with  the  Wild  stock  by 
practically  all  of  the  students  in  the  laboratory  make  it 
certain  that  this  is  not  the  case.  I  also  tested  a  consider- 
able number  of  the  females  by  mating  them  to  sex-linked 
mutants  and  found  no  non-disjunction. 

This  apparent  sex-linkage  that  does  not  follow  the 
** ordinary  rules"  of  sex-linkage  must  be  left  for  the  time 
being  as  one  of  the  still  unsolved  problems.  The  only 
possibility  of  explanation  that  occurs  to  me  is  that  the 
above-described  effect  would  be  produced  if  in  the  cyto- 
plasm of  the  egg  of  the  Beaded  female  something  were 
present  which  is  absent  in  the  egg  of  the  normal  female, 
and  to  which  the  males  are  more  responsive  in  their 
development  than  are  the  females.  This  suggestion  has 
not  a  particle  of  cytological  evidence  to  support  it.  Mor- 
gan (1912(i)  has  suggested  that  the  influence  of  cytoplasm 
may  cause  certain  peculiar  results  obtained  in  crosses 
between  Miniature- winged  and  Rudimentary-winged  flies. 

(6)  Linkage  to  Sex-linked  Genes 

Matings  of  Beaded  flies  to  flies  with  sex-linked  char- 
caters,  including  Vermilion  and  Vermilion-yellow,  have 
been  made  and  the  Fg  generation  raised.  No  sign  of 
linkage  was  observed.  The  Fg  figures  are  given  in  Tables 
X  and  XI.  These  cases  definitely  establish  that  there  is 
no  gene  for  Beaded  wings  in  the  X-chromosome. 

Although  no  sex-linked  gene  for  Beaded  wings  are 
known,  there  has  arisen  in  the  Beaded  stock  by  mutation 
a  fly  with  notched  wings  (Fig.  13)  that  proved  to  be 


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TRE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


TABLE  X 
P,  Counts  peom  the  Ceoss  Vermilion  J  X  Beaded  <? 


V.B(L9 
39 


V.Bd.cf 
26 


V.N.  9 
93 


V.N.cf 
77 


RedBd.9 
33 


R-Bd.cf 
22 


R.N.9 
81 


60 


Bd.V:NV.«66  :  170 

Bd.Red  :  N.Red  -  66  :  141  . . . 
Bd.Total  :  N.Total  -  120  :  311 


%Bd. 

27.6 
28.0 
27.8 


Expected  No.  of  Bd.  if 

no  coupling  ezista 

65.4 

54.6 

(120) 


TABLE    XI 
Pa  Counts  from  the  Cross  Vermiluon  Yellow  X  Beaded 


^eaded 

Normal 

Beaded 

Normal 

Beaded 

Normal 

Beaded 

Gray 

Gray 

Gray 

Gray 

YeUow 

YeUow 

YeUow 

Red 

Red 

Vermil. 

Vermil. 

Red 

Red 

Vermil. 

165 

227 

35 

34 

41 

34 

50 

Normal 
YeUow 
Venml. 

88 


I 

%  Beaded 

Bd.R.  :  N.R.  -  206  :  261 44.1 

Bd.V.  :  N.V.  -  85  :  122 41.0 

Bd.G.  :  N.G.  -  200:  261 '  43.4 

Bd.Y.  :  N.Y.  -  91  :  122 42.7 

Bd.Total  :  N.Total  -  291  :  383 43.2 


Expected  No.  of  Bd.  if 

no  coupUng  exists 

201.7 

89.4 

199.1 

92.0 

(291.0) 


caused  by  a  dommant  sex-linked 
factor  lethal  when  homozygous. 
(See  page  754.)  It  will  be  dis- 
cussed under  the  name  **  Perfect 
Notched'*  and  its  peculiarities 
described  in  the  section  on  *' Mu- 
tation in  Beaded  Stock.*' 

(c)  Linkage  to  Second  Chromo- 
some Q^nes 

For  the  reasons  given,  it  seems 
certain  that  there  is  in  the  group 
of  sex-linked  genes  no  gene  con- 
cerned in  the  production  of  Beaded 
wings.  We  shall  later  bring  for- 
ward evidence  to  show  that  there 
is  such  a  gene  in  the  third  chromo- 
some group.  (Sturtevant,  1913.) 
The  crosses  made  with  flies  showing  characters  whose 


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No.  576]  VARIATION  IN  DROSOPHILA  731 

genes  are  in  the  second  chromosome  are  still  perplexing; 
for  while  the  second  chromosome  exerts  an  influence  on 
the  statistical  results,  as  will  be  evident  from  the  figures 
to  be  presented,  the  nature  of  this  influence  is  not  fully 
determined. 

The  second  chromosome  characters  with  which  tests 
have  been  made  are  the  wing  characters,  Arc,  Curved, 
Vestigial,  Antlered,  and  Strap,^  the  body  color.  Black; 
and  the  eye  color.  Purple. 

Vestigial,  Antlered,  and  Strap  stand  for  wing  char- 
acters of  such  a  nature  that  it  is  not  possible  to  distin- 
guish Beaded-winged  individuals  if  any  of  these  other 
characters  are  also  present.  They  are  therefore  of  no 
use  for  determining  whether  or  not  there  is  a  second 
chromosome  gene  for  Beaded  wings.  The  crosses  be- 
tween Beaded  flies  and  flies  with  these  characters  do  not 
especially  interest  us  here.  It  may  be  said  in  passing, 
however,  that  in  every  case  in  the  Fj  generation  between 
these  flies  and  Beaded  flies,  from  60  to  90  per  cent,  of  the 
offspring  had  non-normal  wings,  and  the  author  was  put 
to  serious  straits  to  classify  the  new  wing  types  that 
appeared.  These  were  similar  in  all  the  crosses,  however, 
and  on  the  whole  resembled  Beaded  wings. 

In  the  Fg  generation,  and  in  back  crosses  to  Beaded 
Stock  and  to  Vestigial  Stock  further  complications  arose 
with  more  new  types  of  wings,  including  a  new  **  muta- 
tion" which  bred  true  from  the  start,  and  which  will  be 
discussed  briefly  and  described  under  the  name  ** Spread'^ 
in  the  section  that  concerns  mutation. 

We  may  now  return  to  the  crosses  between  Beaded  flies 
and  Black,  or  Purple,  or  Arc,  or  Curved.  These  crosses 
give  results  that  can  be  used  for  the  study  of  linkage, 
and  they  present  in  common  a  number  of  distinguishing 

1  strap  Wings  is  a  mutant  much  resembling  Extreme  Beaded  in  appear- 
ance but  its  mode  of  inheritance  has  not  yet  been  worked  out.  It  may  be 
that  it  actually  is  Beaded  plus  some  at  present  unknown  gene.  Beadedness 
i0  suspected  to  occur  also  in  Vestigial  and  Antlered  stock.  This  may  very 
likely  be  true  since  Strap  and  Antlered  arose  in  Vestigial,  and  Vestigial  in 
Beaded. 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


characteristics.    Tables  XII  to  XX  give  the  results  in 
systematic  form. 

TABLE    XII 
P,  Counts  op  the  Cross  Beaded  ?  X  Curved  <J 


Beaded 
Curved 

Normal 
Curved 

Beaded 
Straight 

Normal 
Straight 

Exp.  Bd. 
Curved 

Kxp.  Bd. 
Straight 

Type  1 

4 

61 
.     25 

16 
18 

246 
106 

4 
3.6 

16 

Type  2 

2 

16.4 

One  of  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  these  second 
chromosome  crosses  is  that  the  Fj  flies  fall  into  two 
classes  or  possibly  into  three  classes  with  reference  to  the 
offspring  that  they  produce.  These  classes  I  have  called 
Type  1,  Type  2,  and  Type  3. 

In  Type  1  there  is  no  linkage  between  Beaded  wings 
and  the  second  chromosome  character,  but  Beaded- 
winged  flies  occur  with  equal  frequency  in  all  classes  of 

TABLE  XIII 
Pa  Counts  op  the  Cross  Beaded  J  X  Arc  <$ 


Beaded 
Arc 

Normal 
Arc 

Beaded 
Straight 

Normal 
Straight 

Exp.  Bd. 
Arc 

i   Exp.  Bd. 
'   Straight 

Typel 

Type  2 

39 
41 

200 
152 

184 
330 

970 
452 

38.+ 
73 

185 
298 

offspring.  In  Type  2  there  is  linkage  of  Beaded  wings 
with  the  second  chromosome  characters,  so  that  the 
Beaded  wings  appear  more  frequently  in  flies  showing* 
the  characters  of  the  Beaded  parent.  In  Type  3,  which 
occurs  only  a  very  few  times  and  is  not  very  marked 
except  in  Table  XX,  Beaded  wings  appear  to  a  greater 
percentage  in  the  offspring  whose  other  characters  are 
not  those  of  the  Beaded  parent.  (/.  e.,  * '  repulsion  * '  occurs 
between  the  factor  for  Beadedness  and  that  for  the 
second  chromosome  character  with  which  it  entered  the 
cross.)  I  do  not  wish  to  emphasize  Type  3,  but  concern- 
ing the  other  two  it  is  important  to  note  that  about  one 
half  of  the  Fj  flies  seem  to  be  of  Type  1  and  one  half  of 
Type  2. 
In  Type  2  in  the  cases  here  adduced  the  linkage  is 


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VARIATION  IN  DROSOPHILA 


733 


strongest  with  the  character  Arc  and  weakest  with  Black. 
If  there  is  a  gene  in  the  second  chromosome  which  aids  in 
producing  Beaded  wings,  it  seems  probable  that  it  is 
located  nearer  to  Arc  than  to  Black  and  on  the  side  of 
Arc  away  from  Black. 

TABLE    XrV 

Baoe-ckosses  of  Ft  Beaded-winged  Males  or  the  Cross  Beaded  J  X 
Purple  Curved  J  to  Purple  Curved  Females  op  Normal  Stock 


Beaded  Pr. 
Curved 

Normal  Pr. 
Curved 

Beaded  Red  Normal  Red 
Straight    1    Straight 

Exp.  Nor. 
Bd.  Pr.  Cv. 

Exp.  Nor. 
Bd.  R,  Strt. 

Type  1 

15 
2 

125 
29 

15                154 
28                 27 

13.6 
10.8 

16.4 

Jype2 

19.2 

It  remains  to  consider  Type  1,  and  to  find  the  reason 
for  the  existence  in  the  Fj  generation  of  flies  whose  off- 
spring show  no  linkage  between  Beadedness  and  second 
chromosome  characters,  and  in  the  same  brood,  flies  whose 
offspring  do  show  such  linkage.  The  most  obvious  **  ex- 
planation *^  would  be,  of  course,  that  the  factor  in  the 

TABLE    XV 

Back-cbosses  of  Fi  Beaded-winobd  Females  or  the  Cross  Beaded  J  X 
Purple  Curved  J  to  Purple  Curved  Males  op  Normal  Stock 
Brood  2  is  of  Type  3  for  Purple  and  of  Type  1  for  Curved. 


Bd.  Pr. 
Cv. 

N.  Pr. 

cv. 

B.  Pr. 

St. 

.  N.  Pr. 
St. 

Bd.Red 
Cv. 

N.  R. 
Cv. 

'  Bd.  R. 

1     St. 

N.  R. 

St. 

Brood  1 

Brood  2 

7 

......       10 

49 
47 

1 
4 

22 
_6 

1 
0 

17 
12 

16 
1     14 

61 
71 

second  chromosome  was  a  *' lethal"  such  as  the  factor  1, 
described  in  an  earlier  section  of  this  paper.  If  this  were 
the  case,  there  should  be  some  flies  in  the  Beaded  stock 
homozygous  for  L,  the  normal  allelomorph  of  this  gene, 
and  also  for  B',  i,  e.,  B'LB'L.  These  flies  should  have 
fewer  Beaded  offspring  than  those  heterozygous  for  1, 
and  none  of  these  Fj  offspring  should  give  linkage  with 
second  chromosome  characters.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in 
the  Fg  results  given  in  Table  XVI  for  Beaded  by  Black, 
no  linkage  was  observed;  but  this  case  is  not  good  evi- 
dence, for  it  was  made  in  the  first  attempts  to  solve  the 
problem  of  Beaded  wings,  and  I  had  not  yet  learned  the 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


value  of  Fj  counts,  matings  in  pairs,  and  back-crosses  to 
normal.  It  stands  however  as  the  only  evidence  of  ite 
sort  that  I  can  give  at  present. 

TABLE   XVI 
P,  Counts  op  the  Cross  Beaded  ?  X  Black  c? 


Beaded 
BUck 

Normal 
Black 

Beaded 
Gray 

Normal 
Graj 

-  Expected 
No.  Bd.  Bl. 

Expeeted 

NoVBd. 

Gny 

Typel j       19 

375 

82 

1602 

19 

82 

Type  3  is  not  easy  to  explain.  There  are  no  known 
cases  of  this  sort  elsewhere  in  Drosophila  and  I  prefer 
not  to  attempt  to  answer  this  question  at  present. 


TABLE    XVII 


Back-ceosses  op  Pi  Males  op  the 
Females  op 

Cross  Beaded  <?  X  Black  J 
Normal  Stock 

TO  Black 

Beaded 
Black 

Normal 
Black 

Beaded 
Gray 

Normal 
Gray 

Expected 
No.  Bd.  Bl. 

Expected 

NoVBd. 

Gray 

Type  1 

7 
5 

162 

110 

9 
40 

187 
97 

7.3 
20.5   • 

8.6 

Type  2 

24.5 

In  general,  it  may  be  noted  that  technical  diflSculties 
have  disturbed  the  crosses  with  second  chromosome  char- 
acters. The  wing  character  Arc  is  not  always  easy  to 
recognize,  as  it  is  very  often  nearly  normal  in  appearance. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  flies  with  Curved  wings,  though 
always  distinct,  occasionally  get  ** stuck  up*'  with  the 
food  and  in  their  bedraggled  condition  it  can  not  always 
be  determined  whether  or  not  the  wings  are  Beaded  as 
well  as  Curved.  I  was  at  first  inclined  to  attribute  the 
apparent  coupling  (which  was  discovered  for  Arc  and  for 
Curved  before  it  was  discovered  for  Black)  to  errors 
made  in  the  counts. 

As  for  Black,  the  Fj  and  later  generations  give  a  much 
lower  percentage  of  Beaded  offspring  than  do  most  other 
crosses,  and  this  necessitates  raising  large  numbers  of 
offspring.  The  results  are,  however,  trustworthy  when 
obtained. 


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VARIATION  IN  DROSOPHILA 


735 


The  crosses  with  Purple-eyed  flies  presented  no  diffi- 
culties but  ran  smoothly  aside  from  the  fact  that  the 
purple-eyed  flies  had  Curved  wings,  and  as  remarked 
above,  Curved  wings  sometimes  get  bedraggled. 

TABLE  xvm 

Back-ceossbs  op  Fi  Temales  op  the  Cross  Beaded  <J  X  Black  ?  ro 
Black  Males  op  Normal  Stock 


Beaded 
Black 


Normal 
Black 


Beaded 
Qraj 


Normal 
Graj 


Expected 
No.  Bd.  Bl. 


Expected 

No.  Bd. 

Graj 


Type  1. 
'IVpe2. 


78 
457 


2 
28 


91 
493 


3.3 
15.5 


3.7 
17.5 


(d)  Linkage  to  Third  Chromosome  Genes 

We  have  said  tentatively  that  there  was  perhaps  a  non- 
sex-linked  lethal  gene  for  Beaded  wings  in  the  second 
chromosome,  and  that  possibly  the  cytoplasm  carried  by 
the  egg  disposes  males  toward  or  away  from  Beadedness 
according  to  whether  the  fly  that  bore  the  egg  was  or  was 
not  Beaded.  These  relations  are  not  securely  deter- 
mined, and  the  data  are  still  incomplete.  The  relation  of 
Beaded  wings  to  characters  whose  genes  are  in  the  third 
chromosome  is  much  clearer.  All  crosses  that  bear  on 
this  problem  point  to  one  fact,  namely,  that  there  is  a 
gene  for  the  production  of  Beaded  wings  in  the  third 
chromosome,  and  that  this  gene  is  very  closely  linked  to 
Ebony,  and  very  loosely  linked  to  Pink.  Tests  have  been 
made  between  Beaded  and  the  third  chromosome  char- 
acters. Maroon,  Sepia,  and  Pink  eyes  and  Ebony  body 
color. 

TABLE    XIX 


F,  Counts  op  the  Cross  Pink  Beaded  <J  X  Black  J 


Type  1  (?) 


Pink 
Bd.BI. 


Pink 
N.Bl. 

26 


Pink  Bd. 
Graj 

20 


PlnkN. 
Gray 

57 


RedBd. 
Black 


RedN. 
Black 


45 


RedBd. 
Graj 

3 


RedN. 
Gray 

278 


Expected    No.     Bd.     if    no 

1  coupling  occurs 

Bd.Pink  :  N.Pink  =  22  :  82 j  6 

Bd.Red  :  N.Red  -  3  :  323 '  19 

Bd.Black  :  N.Black  -  2  :  70 4 

Bd.Gray  :  N.Gray  =  23  :  336 21 

Bd.Total  :  N.Total  -  26  :  406 (25) 


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TRE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 


In  the  cross  of  Beaded  by  Maroon-eyed  flies,  1,369  flies 
were  raised  in  the  F^  generation.  Fifty-seven  of  these 
flies  had  Beaded  wings ;  only  one  of  the  Beaded-winged 
flies  had  Maroon  eyes,  while  fifty-six  were  red-eyed,  ( See 
Table  XXI.) 

TABLE    XX. 

Back-crosses  of  F^  Females  of  the  Cboss  Pink  Beaded  ^  X  Black  $ 
TO  Pink  Black  Males  fbom  Normal  Stock 


PinkBd. 

Pink  N. 

Pink  Bd. 

Pink  N. 

RedBd. 

RedN. 

RedBd. 

'  RedN. 

Black 

Black 

Gray 

Graf 

Black 

Black 

Gray 

Gray 

Typel..... 

5 

98 

8 

113 

6 

92 

1 

122 

Types 

12 

68 

6 

68 

7 

78 

3 

76 

Totals  . . . 

17 

166 

14 

171 

12 

170     i       4 

198 

Expected  No.  Beaded  if  no 

coupling  occurs 

Bd.Pink  :  N.Pink  -  31  :  337. 



23 

Bd.Red  :  N.Red  »  16  :  368. . 

...J                      24 

Bd.Black  :  N.Black  -  29  :  33 

8 

..J                      23 

Bd.Gray  :  NOmv  a  18  -  .^69 

24 

Bd.Total  :  N 

.Total  - 

•  47  :  70( 

> 

•  •  •  •  1 

(47) 

Fi  males  of  the  cross  Sepia  by  Beaded  were  back- 
crossed  to  normal  Sepia  females.  Inasmuch  as  cross- 
overs probably  do  not  occur  in  the  male  (Morgan,  1912c), 
no  Beaded  Sepia  flies  should  occur  in  the  offspring  of  this 
cross.  Table  XXII  shows  that  none  occurred.  The  num- 
bers are  not  large,  but  since  they  are  entirely  in  accord 
with  the  other  third  chromosome  results,  it  was  not 
thought  worth  while  to  increase  them.  That  apparent 
cross-overs  may  very  rarely  occur  will  appear  possible 
when  we  consider  the  results  of  crossing  Beaded  by  Pink, 
and  the  probable  significance  of  the  phenomenon  will  be 
considered. 

TABLE   XXI 
F,  Results  op  the  Cross  Beaded  J  X  Maroon  (J 


Bd.  Maroon  1     N.  Maroon 

Bd.Red 
56 

N.Red 

Exp.Bd.N. 

Exp.  Bd.  R. 

1                     318 

994 

13 

44 

In  Fg  counts  of  the  crosses  involving  Beaded  and  the 
body  color  Ebony,  totaling  4,417,  in  which  1,205  Beaded- 
winged  offspring  occurred,  not  one  had  the  body  color 
Ebony,  and  only  eleven  had  Pink  eyes.   Repeated  attempts 


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737 


to  obtain  Ebony  flies  with  Beaded  wings  have  failed.  The 
possibility  that  for  some  ^'inherent  peculiarity''  an 
Ebony  fly  can  not  have  Beaded  wings  has  suggested  itself, 


TABLE   XXn 

Back-ceosses  of  Fi  Beaded  Males  op  the  Cross  Beaded  <f  X  Sepia  ?  to 
Sepia  Females  op  Normal  Stock 

Bd.  Sepia                       N.  Sepia 

Bd.Red      '       ! 

N.Red 

0                                 134 

»          i 

132 

and  although  this  would  seem  very  improbable,  it  may 
nevertheless  be  the  fact.  At  any  rate,  it  appears  that 
Beadedness  either  depends  on  genes  which  in  the  presence 
of  the  Ebony  body  color  are  completely  recessive,  or  that 
the  third  chromosome  gene  for  Beadedness,  B',  lies  so 
close  to  that  for  Ebony  that  cross-overs  are  extremely 
rare  even  in  the  female. 


TABLE  xxin 
F,  Eesults  op  the  Cross  Beaded  J  X  Ebony  c? 


Beaded  Ebony 


Normal  Ebon  j 


Beaded  Gray 


Normal  Gray 


151 


17 


525 


Very  extensive  experiments  were  carried  out  with  Pink- 
eyed  flies.  The  important  facts  brought  out  are  presented 
in  condensed  form  in  Tables  XIX,  XX,  and  XXIV-XXIX. 

In  Table  XXIV  are  shown  the  Fg  counts  for  Beaded  by 
Pink  Ebony.  From  the  eleven  Pink  Beaded  flies  obtained 
a  new  stock  was  derived,  which  was  '* purified^*  by  a  few 

TABLE    XXIV 
Fa  Eesults  op  the  Cross  Beaded  $  X  Pink  Ebony  cJ 


^b.^-'N.P.Eb. 

Bd.  R.  Eb. 

N.  R.  Eb. 

Bd.P.Gray 

0            847 

0 

182 

11 

N.  P.  Gray!  Bd.  R.Gray 
157       I      1,177 


N.  R.  Gray 
1.360 


IBd.Ebony  :  N.Ebony  -  0  :  1029. 
'Bd.Gray  :  N.Gray  =-  1188  :  1507. 
;Bd.Pink  :  N.Pink  -  11  :  1004.  . . 
iBd.Red  :  N.Red  -  1177  :  1532.. . 


Expected  No.  Bd.  if  no  coup- 
ling occurs 
328 
860 
324 
864 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


Chart  IV 
Family  1, 
Bd9,86;  25M 

Bd9,226;  26.7^ 


Bd9,  110;  27.3^ 


n 


Bd<f,405;19?f 

Bdd*.  185;  8.99( 
Family  2, 

Bdd<,  460;  28.9< 


Bd9    Bd9    Bd9    Bdc^    Bdcf    Bdc^    Bd<^    Bdrf"    Bdc^   Bdc^    Bdd"    Bdc^   Bd<f   Bd  cf 

168       177        162        147        221        220        117        148        284        149        281        167        247        139 
46.8^    38.4^      8.6^     42.9^     29.4^     15^     37.6j<     11.9^     28.2^     23.5f(    18.4^     16.2^      13^       SS.lfC 


Bd(^ 

106 
19.8^ 


Bdc? 

27 
33,3^ 


Bdc? 
68 
27f» 


Family  3, 

Bdd<,  690;  28.2 


.r-. 


Bd  cf ,  26 
50^ 


r 


1 


Bd(^,  193 
16.6^ 


Bd  c^,  237 
9.7j< 


Bdcf"  Bdd 


Bdd'  Bdcf"  Bdd"  Bdc 


Bdd*,  190 

18.4)( 


Bdd'  Bdd"  Bdd*  Bdd"  Bdd'  Bdc 


Bdd*  Bdd'  Bdd'  Bdd"  Bdd"  Bdd'  Bdd"  Bdd'  Bdd'  Bd 

192        41        206       177       190      154       114        90        168       189      215       182       195        80  43 

6.7;*     41.5j«    36.9^    16.45<     6.89^     13^    21. H    17.8^    IBM     1%     IZ.Si    IB.7^   20.5?t    W.ejf    37.2* 

Family  ^. 

Bd9,48;  4.2^^ 


Bdd",  187;  1.5^< 


Bd  d",  209 ;  2.4'i 
Bd  d",  237 ;  4.2;f 


Family  5. 
Bd  9 ,  82 ;  15.9^ 


Bd 


d-,  314;  7.65< 


Bd  9,282;  1.8^ 
Bd9,60;  8.3{( 


Bd  d*,  175  ;  9.7' 


I 

Bd  d',  144  ;  24.8 


Bd  d",  50 ;  32'<  Bd  d",  82 ;  20.7?^ 

Repeated  baok-erosses  of  Beaded  X  Wild  in  successive  generations,  show- 
ing sex  of  Beaded  parent,  number  of  offspring,  and  percentage  of  offspring 
with  Beaded  wings. 


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generations  of  selection,  and  now  gives  approximately  100 
per  cent.  Beaded  offspring,  though  no  selection  has  been 
practised  for  nearly  a  year.  This  stock  has  been  used  in 
one  series  of  crosses  to  supplement  another  series  in 
which  Pink  and  Beaded  enter  the  cross  from  opposite 
parents.  The  results  in  each  case  are  essentially  similar, 
and  show  that  when  Beadedness  enters  with  Red  it  comes 

TABLE   XXV 
Fj  Results  op  the  Cross  Pink  Beaded  X   Wild 


Bd.  Pink       Normal  Pink  <    Beaded  Red        Normal  Red     Exp.  No.  Bd.  P.  Exp.  No.  Bd.  R, 


171 


213 


366 


964 


120 


417 


out  more  with  Red  than  with  Pink.  They  show  that  in 
the  Fj  female  crossing  over  occurs  almost  independently 
of  Pink,  so  that  almost  the  same  percentage  of  Beaded- 
winged  individuals  appears  in  each  class,  though  usually 
the  class  that  is  similar  to  the  Beaded  parent  is  consider- 
ably the  largest.  In  Table  XXVII,  however,  a  record 
is  given  in  which  a  very  considerable  '* repulsion"  oc- 
curred, and  the  high  Beaded  class  is  not  Pink  Beaded, 
as  is  there  expected,  but  Red  Beaded.  The  results  from 
back-crosses  of  the  brothers  of  these  females  to  Pink 
normal  stock  show  that  no  mistake  was  made  in  record- 
ing the  cross,  which  therefore,  though  somewhat  surpris- 
ing, must  stand. 

TABLE   XXVI 

Back-crosses  of  Fj  Females  of  the  Cross  Pink  Beaded  X  Wild  to  Pink 
Males  or  Normal  Stock 


Bd.  Pink       N.  Pink        Bd.Red    |     N.  Red 

I 


Exp.  No.       Exp.  No. 
Bd.  P.  Bd.  R. 


TypeX 

TypeY 

3 

71 

333 
332 

2 
58 

337 
369 

2.5 
62.6 

2.5 
66.4 

Total 

74 

665 

60 

706 

65 

69 

The  tables  show  also  that  in  the  males,  crossing  over  is 
of  very  rare  occurrence,  if,  indeed,  it  occurs  at  all.  The 
records  show  that  out  of  566  Beaded  flies  (Tables  XXVII 
and  XXIX)  which  occurred  as  the  offspring  of  an  Fj  male 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIII 


back-crossed  to  Pink  normal  stock,  six  flies  of  the  cross- 
over class  appear.  For  reasons  to  be  mentioned,  it  is 
improbable  that  these  represent  cross-overs,  however,  but 
rather  they  may  be  due  perhaps  either  to  the  presence  of 
the  second  chromosome  gene,  1,  which  usually  does  not 
manifest  itself  in  the  absence  of  the  third  chromosome 
gene,  or  to  mutation,  or  to  some. unknown  abnormality. 
Through  carelessness  only  one  of  these  males  was  tested 

TABLE    XXVII 

Back-crosses  or  Fj  Males  of  the  Cross  Pink  Beaded  X  Wild  to  Pink 
Females  op  Normal  Stock 


Bd.  Pink 


N.  Pink 


Bd.  Ked 


N.  Red         Exp.No.  Bd.P.Exp.No.Bd.R. 


66 


710 


805 


29 


32 


or  used  further  in  breeding.  They  were  very  slightly 
Beaded,  and  had  only  a  very  slight  **nick^'  at  the  tip  of 
the  wing,  even  smaller  than  that  shown  in  Fig.  3.  The 
single  Pink  Beaded  male  mentioned  in  Table  XXTX  was 
mated  to  several  females  but  was  sterile.  Another  test 
is  also  possible,  and  was  made  as  follows.  Pink  normal 
males  and  females  from  Table  XXIX,  which  of  course 
should  not  carry  the  third  chromosome  gene  for  Beaded 

TABLE    XXVIII 

Repeated  Back-crosses  of  Fi  Flies  op  the  Cross  Pink  Beaded  X  Wild 
to  Pink  Flies  or  Noemal  Stock 


Bd. 
Piok 

N. 
Pink 

Bd. 
Red 

N. 
Red 

Exp. 

No. 

Bd.P. 

Exp. 

No. 

Bd.  H. 

Fi  Q  XPink  c^. 

Type  X 

1 
24 

228 
379 

1 
79 

272 
383 

1 
48 

1 

Fi$  XPink  d^. 

TypeY 

!  ^ 

Total 

25 

607 

80 

655 

49 

56 

Ficf  XP$ 

7 

133 

0 

135 

3.5 

i     3.5 

wings,  were  then  mated  together,  and  among  their  374 
offspring  three  males  with  slight  ** nicks*'  at  the  tip  of 
their  wings,  exactly  like  those  of  the  Pink  Beaded  male 
before  mentioned,  were  produced.  One  of  these  males 
was  sterile.    One  of  the  remaining  two  was  fertile,  but 


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No.  576]  VARIATION  IN  DROSOPHILA  741 

gave  no  Beaded  offspring  either  in  the  first  generation  or 
in  the  Fg  generation,  although  nearly  one  thousand  of  his 
grandchildren  were  carefully  examined.  The  remaining 
male  was  abundantly  fertile  and  had  one  son  exactly  like 
his  father  in  appearance  (with  a  slight  nick  at  the  tip  of 
the  wings).  The  rest  of  his  offspring  were  normal.  This 
son  was  sterile. 

TABLE    XXIX 

Back-cbosses  or  Fj  Plies  or  the  Cross  Beaded  X  Pink  to  Pink  Flies 
OF  Normal  Stock 


FicT  XPink  9 
Fi9  XPink  cf 


Beaded 
Pink 


1 
70 


Normftl  Beaded    |    Normal       Exp.  Bd. 

Pink  Red       I        Red  Pink 


869  504 

114       I       114 


580  223 

106  84 


Exp.  No. 
Beaded  R. 


282 
100 


The  results  of  these  tests  with  five  of  these  supposed 
** cross-over*'  males  show  clearly  that  they  were  not  nor- 
mal Beaded  flies.  As  said,  they  might  represent  muta- 
tions, or  the  dominance  of  the  gene  1,  or  some  abnormality. 
These  are  mere  guesses,  but  since  there  are  no  authentic 
cases  on  record  in  Drosophila  of  crossing  over  in  the  male 
sex  in  those  cases  where  the  mutants  dealt  with  are  well 
known  genetically,  i.  e.,  since  the  only  apparent  cases 
occur  in  the  Beaded  wings  and  some  of  the  other  not 
well-known  and  peculiar  mutants  of  Drosophila,  we  are 
not  justified  in  assuming  that  such  crossing  over  takes 
place  here. 

ni.    THE  EFFECT  OF  ENVIRONMENTAL  CONDITIONS  UPON  THE 
PRODUCTION   OF  BEADED  WINGS 

A.  Geneeal  Statement 

If  we  have  so  far  interpreted  the  evidence  correctly  we 
may  formulate  the  following  statement  as  a  provisional 
hypothesis.  A  gene  B'  located  in  the  third  chromosome 
near  that  for  Ebony  is  directly  responsible  for  the  pro- 
duction of  Beaded  wings.  By  itself  in  the  homozygous 
condition,  the  fly  bearing  it  may  have  normal  wings, 
though  it  usually  will  have  wings  somewhat  Beaded.  In 
the  heterozygous  condition,  it  is  rarely,  though  sometimes, 


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742  THE  AMEBIC  AN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

dominant.  The  conditions  so  far  presented  which  canse 
it  to  be  dominant  are  two.  (1)  The  presence  of  a  gene  1 
in  the  second  chromosome  which  can  not  exist  in  the 
homozygous  condition.  (2)  The  influence,  particularly 
noticeable  in  the  males,  of  non-chromosomal  constituents 
of  the  egg  from  which  the  individual  arose,  so  that  if  the 
mother  had  been  Beaded,  the  appearance  of  Beaded  wings 
in  her  sons  would  be  increased,  and  if  the  mother  had  been 
normal  the  appearance  of  Beaded  wings  in  her  sons  would 
be  reduced. 

Certain  facts  already  brought  out  (namely,  those  pre- 
sented in  Tables  II  and  III)  show  that  the  tale  is  not  yet 
told.  Our  hypothesis  does  not  explain  the  fact  that  from 
definite  numbers  of  eggs  laid  at  different  periods  in  the 
life  of  an  individual  very  different  percentages  of  Beaded- 
winged  offspring  arise,  and  these  differences  do  not  form 
a  definite  series  progressing  to  or  from  a  high  percentage 
as  the  individual  grows  older,  but  are  extremely  irregular. 
We  have  not  gained  control  over  this  phenomenon,  but 
the  evidence  we  have  to  present  points  strongly  to  the 
suggestion  that  the  environmental  conditions  are  the  final 
determiners  of  the  percentage  of  the  Beaded-winged  off- 
spring. This  environmental  control  might  lie  in  three 
'distinct  methods :  (1)  The  destruction  of  a  certain  class  of 
•offspring  by  their  differential  viability.  (2)  In  the  case 
of  Table  III  the  results  might  be  explained  on  the  theory 
that  Beaded  flies  had  a  shorter  life  cycle.  This  supposi- 
tion has,  however,  been  disproved  as  follows.  Five  non- 
virgin  females  from  Beaded-winged  stock  and  five  non- 
virgin  females  from  normal-winged  stock  were  put  to- 
gether without  males  in  the  same  bottle.  When  the  off- 
spring began  to  hatch  they  were  examined  daily.  During 
the  first  three  days  73  flies  hatched,  of  which  11,  or  15  per 
cent.,  had  Beaded  wings.  During  the  following  five  days 
261  flies  hatched,  of  which  54,  or  20  per  cent.,  had  Beaded 
wings.  Since  I  was  particular  to  take  Beaded  flies  several 
days  old  as  the  parents  of  these  Beaded  offspring,  the 
experiment  shows  that  if  there  is  any  difference  in  the 
length  of  the  larval  life,  that  of  normal-winged  flies  is 


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the  shorter.  (3)  The  determination  of  whether  or  not  a 
fly  of  a  given  germinal  constitution  shall  have  Beaded 
wings.  The  first  of  these  effects  is  probably  not  the 
significant  one,  in  view  of  the  following  facts. 

Although  as  a  rule  Fj  normal  flies  give  few  Beaded  off- 
spring, and  Fi  Beaded-winged  flies  relatively  many, 
nevertheless,  as  has  been  said,  at  times  normal  flies  give 
a  high  percentage  of  Beaded  offspring  and,  occasionally, 
Beaded  flies  give  a  low  percentage.  This  can  only  mean 
that  the  dominance  of  the  factor  B'  is  variable,  and  con- 
sidering the  large  number  of  times  that  it  shows  itself  as 
a  recessive,  it  must  be  that  this  varying  dominance  has  a 
marked  effect  on  the  percentage  of  Beaded-winged  off- 
spring that  appear. 

The  possible  amount  of  variation  in  the  environment 
surrounding  a  brood  of  Drosophila  developing  under 
laboratory  conditions  is  enormous,  even  when  the  attempt 
is  made  to  keep  conditions  constant.  These  variations 
depend  upon  the  exact  ripeness  of  the  bananas  used  aa 
food,  the  length  of  time  the  food  has  been  fermenting,  the 
amount  of  food  and  filter  paper  used,  the  size  of  the  bottle 
in  which  the  larvae  are  developing,  the  tightness  of  the 
cotton  plug,  the  temperature  of  the  laboratory,  etc.  Due 
to  these  causes  there  arise  very  great  differences  in  the 
relative  moisture  content  and  carbon  dioxide  content.  If 
the  food  is  not  properly  prepared  it  may  rot  instead  of 
fermenting,  or  it  may  mould,  or  the  reaction  may  be  in 
one  bottle  quite  alkaline  and  in  another  very  acid.  A 
perfect  control  thus  becomes  an  impossibility,  and  there- 
fore the  experiments  to  be  described  must  be  considered 
as  trials  only,  and  not  as  decisive  tests. 

In  all  the  experiments  on  this  subject.  Beaded  flies  of 
pure  stock  were  mated  to  normal  flies  of  Wild  stock  in 
order  to  learn  the  effect  of  particular  environments  on 
the  percentage  of  Beaded  offspring  in  the  Fj  generation. 
On  our  hypothesis,  the  pure  Beaded  flies  from  stock  should 
be  of  two  kinds,  viz.,  those  with  the  lethal  gene  1  (i.  e., 
B'lB'L),  and  those  without  1  {i.  e.,  B'LB'L).  Correspond- 
ingly there  should  be  two  types  of  offspring  in  the  F, 


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THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


generation,  one  of  which  (B'lb'L)  should  have  a  consider- 
ably higher  percentage  of  Beaded  offspring  than  the 
other  (B'Lb'L).  If  it  is  possible,  however,  that  B'  should 
be  dominant  in  the  heterozygous  condition  and  in  the 
absence  of  1,  then  it  should  also  be  possible  theoretically 
to  produce  an  Fj  generation  every  individual  of  which 
should  have  Beaded  wings,  while  those  with  1  as  well  as 
B'  (constituting  one  half  the  progeny)  should  have  a 
more  extreme  form  of  Beading.  In  practice  it  is  not 
usual  even  under  the  best  of  conditions  to  get  more  than 
40  per  cent,  of  Beaded-winged  flies,  while,  as  has  been 
seen,  the  average  amount  is  about  25  per  cent. 

B.  The  Effect  of  Relative  Moisture 
Table  XXX  and  Charts  5  and  6  present  the  data  for 

table    XXX 

Percentages  of  Beaded-wikged  Flies  in  the  Fj  Geneeation  in  Rela- 
tively Wet  and  Dey  Bottles.    Not  Done  in  Pairs,  but 
Each  Bottle  Contained  Several  Pairs 


Dry  Bottles 

Wet  Bottles 

No.  1        1        No.  2 

No,  3 

No.  4 

No.  5 

No. 
Flies 

Md.    ^{i,    jSBd. 

.^i^ee     ^Bd. 

No. 
Flies 

f(Bd. 

F^i^esl^Bd.. 

let  count 

2d  count 

38 
122 
34 
33 
59 
95 

31.6 
14.7 
20.6 
27.3 
20.3 
10.5 

32  ,  43.7 
58  '  17.2 
19     21.1 
34       8.8 
72     25.0 
37     35.1 

26  i  26.9 
79     32.Q 

14 
87 
16 
17 
30 

28.6 
20.7 
37.5 
41.2 
36.7 

26     30.8 
131     26.7 

3d  count 

24 

41.fi 

37     37.9 

4th  count 

6th  count 

6th  count 

39     35.9 
35     31.4 

43     41.7 
53     18.9 

Total 

281 

17  R      2.'i9      24  fi 

203  '  3.'?.5 

164 

^fi 

2on     9Q  a 

_...     _._        _._ 

Tot 

xvr«    1                ,       --          -- 

Total  Dry I 

>33 

%] 

3d.  20.5 

al  Wet,  657 

%  Bd.  30.3 

Counts  not  made  every  day. 

Bottle  No.  2  was  very  dry  and  the  flies  very  small  during  time  of  last 
two  counts. 

this  test.  The  parents  were  put  into  bottles  of  similar 
size  with  plenty  of  food.  In  three  of  these  bottles  the 
food  was  very  wet  and  from  time  to  time  juice  was  added 
in  sufficient  amount  to  Keep  the  food  saturated.  The 
other  two  bottles  were  made  relatively  dry  by  putting  a 


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lib 


Chart  V 

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Effect  of  Relative  Moisture  in  Food  on  Percentages  of  Beaded-winged 
Flies  In  F^  Generation  of  Beaded  X  Wild. 

large  amount  of  filter  paper  into  the  bottle  at  night  and 
removing  it  the  following  morning.  After  two  or  three 
days  of  this  treatment  the  bottles  were  so  dry  that  I  did 
not  venture  to  carry  the  process  farther;  the  flies  from 


Chart  VI 


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Effect  of  Relative  Moisture  in  Food  on  Production  of  Beaded  Wings,  as 
shown  by  Individual  Bottles. 


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746 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


these  dry  bottles  were  rather  small  and  in  bottle  No.  2, 
they  were  extremely  small  in  the  last  two  counts. 

From  Chart  6,  where  the  records  are  given  of  the  indi- 
vidual bottles,  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  a  good  deal  of 
irregularity  from  day  to  day. 

Special  attention  should  be  called  to  the  curve  of  pro- 
duction  of  bottle  2,  which  beginning  with  a  high  per- 
centage of  Beaded  offspring  gives  fewer  and  fewer  for 
the  first  four  counts  (about  six  days)  and  then  the  per- 
centage rapidly  mounts  again.  The  offspring  given  dur- 
ing the  last  two  counts  were  of  surprising  minuteness  and 
gave  as  high  a  percentage  of  Beaded  individuals  as  the 
average  of  all  the  bottles  on  the  first  day.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  it  may  not  be  wetness  or  dryness  or  any  one 
specific  thing  that  brings  out  the  Beadedness,  but  condi- 
tions that  are  unfavorable  to  the  organism  as  a  whole, 
resulting  in  poor  nourishment.    It  has  frequently  been 

TABLE    XXXI 

The  Influence  op  Acid,  Alkaline,  and  Fresh  Food  on  the  Development 

OF  Beaded  Wings 


^  ! 


«  s    . 

a.  *'o 


Food  Sour 
Mother  Beaded ;  Father  normal 
Father  Beaded;  Mother  normal 

Food  Freah 
Mother  Beaded;  Father  normal 
Father  Beaded;  Mother  normal 

Food  Alkaline 
Mother  Beaded;  Father  normal 
Father  Beaded;  Mother  normal 


40|151 

7     60! 


23    25 
54*15 


41  ' 
16  1 


85 
147, 

I 

4o: 

57l 


129 
61 

92 
164 

41 

58 


14.7 
13.0 

21.3 
26.9 

46.8 
32.9 


23.8 
10.3 

21.4 
8.4 

50.0 
21.6 


19.1 
11.7 

21.3 
18.2 

48.7 
27.7 


noted  that  those  bottles  which  gave  very  tiny  flies  gave 
also  a  higher  percentage  of  Beaded  individuals  than  the 
bottles  whose  flies  were  of  average  size.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  first  flies  of  a  brood  are  almost  invariably  larger 
than  the  later  ones,  and  yet,  as  has  been  seen,  they  are 
more  Beaded.  This  is  a  paradox,  but  the  behavior  of 
bottle  No.  2  suggests  that  as  a  hatch  proceeds  and  the 
bottle  becomes  drier,  there  may  be  a  certain  optimum 
point  for  the  production  of  normal  winged  offspring,  and 


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No.  576]  VARIATION  IM  DROSOPHILA  747 

that  this  point  is  so  low  that  the  flies  are  poorly  nourished 
for  lack  of  water,  though  they  can  survive  an  even 
greater  water  reduction. 

It  is,  perhaps,  needless  to  say  that  an  effort  has  been 
made  after  these  experiments  to  keep  the  moisture  con- 
tent high  and  fairly  uniform  in  cases  where  other  envi- 
ronments were  being  tested. 

C.  The  Effects  of  Covering  with  Paraffine  the  Mouth 
OF  THE  Bottle  in  which  the  Flies  are  Developing 

On  observing  that  the  proportion  of  Beaded  to  Normal 
offspring  was  lowered  as  a  hatch  continued,  it  seemed 
possible  that  this  might  be  due  to  one  or  to  both  of  two 
causes:  (1)  The  diminishing  water  content.  This  matter 
has  already  been  considered.  (2)  To  a  changing  carbon- 
dioxide  content.  When  a  brood  is  first  counted  the  cotton 
plug  that  has  been  for  several  days  in  the  mouth  of  the 
bottle  is  removed,  and  in  removing  the  flies  the  air  within 
the  bottle  is  very  apt  to  be  much  changed.  With  this  pos- 
si]?ility  in  mind  a  number  of  bottles  were  supplied  with 
food  and  flies,  and  after  ten  days  (when  the  larvae  were 
beginning  to  pupate)  the  parent  flies  were  removed,  a 
little  new  food  put  into  the  bottle  and  a  paraffine  cap 
melted  over  the  cotton  so  that  the  bottles  were  tightly 

table  xxxii 

Counts  op  Seven  Broods  which  Hatched  During  Two  Periods,  the  First 

OF  Which  was  Spent  in  a  Bottle  Sealed  with  Paraffine, 

AND  the  Second  in  a  Bottle  Covered  with  Cheese 

Cloth.    Bottle  No.  7  was  not  Sealed  with 

Paraffine  but  had  been  Lightly 

Stoppered  with  Cotton 


Bottle  1    Bottle  2   Bottle  3 

s  0  s  a 

3 

Ist  count 

2d  count 

75 

54 

36    82    40    54 
9    32      3    17 

44 
6 

Total,  first  count,  426,  per  cent.  Bd.,  36. 
Total,  second  count,  228,  per  cent.  Bd.,  6. 
Total,  both  counts,  654,  per  cent.  Bd.,  25. 


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748  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vou  XLVIH 

sealed.  At  the  same  time  other  bottles  were  very  loosely 
covered  with  a  light  cotton  plug.  The  bottles  remained 
covered  till  flies  had  been  hatching  for  four  or  five  days 
and  then  the  plugs  were  removed  and  the  flies  counted. 
The  paraflBne  plugs  were  not  replaced ;  after  carefully 
renewing  the  air  in  the  bottles,  they  were  covered  with 
cheese  cloth  and  their  brood  counted  again  in  four  days. 
The  results  of  this  test  are  given  in  Table  XXXII.  The 
results  are  striking  enough  at  first  sight,  but  I  do  not 
know  just  what  their  significance  is.  They  show  exactly 
the  same  phenomenon  that  is  described  earlier  and  illus- 
trated in  Table  III.  They  are  more  striking  than  any 
case  I  have  yet  found  of  the  sort,  and  yet  the  first  infer- 
ence drawn,  viz.,  that  the  markedly  higher  percentage  of 
Beaded  flies  in  the  first  count  is  due  to  these  flies  having 
undergone  their  late  development  in  a  ''close'*  atmos- 
phere, must  be  qualified  by  the  statement  that  ''close*' 
does  not  refer  to  the  carbon-dioxide  content. 

At  first  suspecting  this  to  be  the  case,  I  made  an  appa- 
ratus by  means  of  which  fresh  air  could  be  drawn  through 
a  bottle  during  the  entire  development  of  the  brood.  By 
this  means  the  carbon-dioxide  content  could  not  become 
very  high.  In  order  to  prevent  drying  out,  a  large  amount 
of  food  was  put  into  the  bottle  and  the  air  which  was  to 
enter  the  bottle  was  first  passed  through  water.  The 
hatching  period  was  prolonged  in  the  cool  sink.  The  re- 
sults were  decisive.  One  hundred  and  sixty-nine  flies 
were  hatched  in  the  first  four  days,  of  which  32  per  cent, 
were  Beaded.  One  hundred  and  eighty-four  flies  were 
hatched  in  the  next  four  days,  of  which  10  per  cent,  were 
Beaded. 

The  same  flies  that  were  the  parents  of  this  brood  were 
in  the  meanwhile  transferred  to  another  bottle,  which  was 
covered  with  paraffine.  The  first  four  days  of  hatching 
gave  108  flies,  of  which  15  per  cent,  were  Beaded. 

This  case  shows  conclusively  that  the  carbon-dioxide 
content  of  the  bottles  is  not  the  feature  of  the  closed 
bottles  that  determines  whether  or  not  a  fly  shall  have 
Beaded  wings.    It  leaves  the  question  still  unsettled  as 


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No.  576]  VARIATION  IN  DROSOPHILA  749 

to  the  effect  of  moisture,  but  corresponds  to  the  results 
obtained  in  the  study  of  moisture  effects. 

D.  The  Effects  of  Acidity  and  Alkalinity  of  the  Food 

Normally  the  reaction  of  food  at  the  time  of  putting  it 
in  the  bottles  is  acid,  the  degree  of  acidity  depending  upon 
the  length  of  time  it  has  been  fermenting.  This  sourness 
usually  passes  gradually  away  as  the  larvae  grow  older, 
and  by  the  time  a  brood  begins  to  hatch  the  reaction  is 
frequently  quite  alkaline,  unless  fresh  food  has  been  put 
recently  into  the  bottle. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  acidity  of  the  food  is  neutral- 
ized at  the  beginning  with  sodium  hydrate  or  carbonate, 
or  if  the  reaction  is  made  alkaline  while  yet  there  remains 
a  good  deal  of  unfermented  banana,  the  acidity  will  re- 
turn for  a  time  if  not  carefully  guarded  against.  There- 
fore to  keep  the  reaction  acid  or  alkaline  is  a  difficult 
matter,  and  requires  occasional  stirring  of  the  food  to 
make  the  reaction  uniform;  this  operation  is  likely  to 
prove  disastrous  for  the  developing  pupae. 

In  the  tests  here  recorded  I  used  food  that  had  been 
fermenting  for  one  month,  so  that  it  had  a  very  acid 
reaction  that  lasted  till  hatching  time.  For  studies  of  the 
effect  of  alkalinity  I  used  food  that  had  been  fermenting 
about  one  day  and  mixed  with  it  sodium  carbonate, 
sodium  hydrate  or  ammonia.  The  results  were  unsatis- 
factory and  the  reaction  did  not  remain  constant  in  spite 
of  my  efforts,  though  on  the  whole  it  remained  alkaline, 
and  became  strongly  alkaline,  and  also  slimy  towards  the 
end  of  the  experiment,  and  not  a  great  many  flies  hatched. 

I  also  used  food  that  had  not  been  allowed  to  ferment 
at  all,  and  although  I  do  not  know  its  reaction,  it  was 
certainly  not  so  alkaline  as  the  last  mentioned,  nor  so 
acid  as  the  first.  It  was  soon  attacked  by  mold  (Bread 
mold).    I  refer  to  it  here  as  fresh  food. 

The  results  are  given  in  Table  XXXI,  but  may  be  more 
briefly  summarized  here. 

Of  483  flies  raised  on  sour  food,  17  per  cent,  were  Beaded. 
Of  605  flies  raised  on  fresh  food,  19.3  per  cent,  were  Beaded. 
Of  317  flies  raised  on  alkaline  food,  38.1  per  cent,  were  Beaded. 


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750  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

In  other  words,  a  high  percentage  of  Beadedness  came 
from  flies  raised  on  alkaline  food,  a  low  percentage  from 
flies  raised  on  acid  food,  and  intermediate  amount  from 
flies  raised  on  fresh  food. 

A  careful  study  of  Table  XXXI  will  reveal  the  curious 
partial  sex-linkage  of  which  I  spoke  on  pages  15  et  seq., 
and  here,  too,  the  explanation  suggested  there  seems  to 
apply  as  in  other  cases  of  the  sort.  It  is  not  a  littlef 
peculiar  that  in  all  of  these  food  tests  this  phenomenon 
should  have  occurred,  though  I  consider  this  purely  a 
coincidence.  In  any  case,  if  we  can  draw  any  conclusion 
at  all  from  its  appearance,  it  would  only  be  that  the  re- 
action of  the  food  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  occurrence 
of  the  phenomenon  rather  than  the  reverse. 

E.  The  Effects  of  Relative  Temperatubes 

No  evident  effect  was  produced  by  rearing  the  Fj  gen- 
eration in  an  ice-chest,  but  ratios  were  as  varying  as  when 
the  flies  were  raised  at  room  temperature.  Ratios  of  15.4 
per  cent.,  19.2  per  cent.,  10.3  per  cent.,  20  per  cent,  of 
Beaded  offspring  are  examples  of  those  given  by  broods 
raised  at  low  temperatures.  The  cold  does,  however, 
lengthen  greatly  the  larval  life  and  flies  were  in  the  case 
of  the  brood  last  mentioned  twenty-eight  days  in  hatching. 
The  brood  consisted  of  312  normal  and  77  Beaded-winged 
flies. 

Similar  results  were  obtained  in  experiments  with 
heat,  except  that  here  the  larval  life  was  correspondingly 
shortened  and  was  at  times  reduced  to  eight  days.  It 
was  not  found  practicable  to  keep  the  flies  at  higher  than 
30°-33°  Centigrade,  as  they  soon  died  at  higher  tempera- 
tures. 

F.  The  Effects  of  Dabkness 

Flies  were  raised  in  complete  darkness  and  sister 
broods  in  full  daylight,  but  no  differences  appeared  in  the 
offspring.  Of  484  flies  raised  in  darkness  30  per  cent, 
had  Beaded  wings.  Of  360  flies  raised  in  the  daylight, 
29  per  cent,  had  Beaded  wings.    This  experiment  seems 


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No. 576]  VARIATION  IN  DBOSOPHILA  751 

to  show  conclusively  that  light  and  darkness  do  not  influ- 
ence the  percentages  of  Beaded- winged  flies. 

IV.    THE    EFFECT    OF    SELECTION    ON    THE    PRODUCTION    OF 
DIFFERENT  TYPES  OF  BEADEDNESS 

Just  how  much  can  be  accomplished  by  selection  in 
Beaded  stock  was  one  of  the  first  questions  that  arose. 
Morgan  (1911a)  describes  the  origin  of  pure  Beaded  stock 
as  having  occurred  through  the  selection  of  Beaded  flies  in 
the  early  generations  after  its  first  appearance.  He  says 
the  first  Beaded  fly  found  arose  in  a  culture  of  Droso- 
phila  that  had  been  exposed  to  radium.  Mated  to  his 
sisters,  1.6  per  cent,  of  the  offspring  were  Beaded.  When 
these  Beaded  flies  were  inbred  3  per  cent,  of  the  offspring 
were  Beaded.  These  inbred  gave  8.5  per  cent.  Beaded 
offspring. 

The  same  process  continued  through  many  generations  has  finally 
produced  stock  that  gives  in  certain  cultures  nearly  100  per  cent. 
Beaded  wings. 

In  continuing  these  selection  experiments,  he  says  more 
extreme  forms  of  Beaded  wings  appeared,  and  at  the 
time  of  publishing  (March,  1911)  he  was  attempting  ''to 
fix  some  of  these  extreme  variations."  While  engaged  in 
this  work  other  wing  forms  arose,  most  of  which  are 
among  the  best -known  mutants  of  Drosophila.  Among 
these  are  Truncate,  Miniature,  Rudimentary,  Vestigial 
and  Balloon  wings,  and  the  Black  and  Yellow  body  colors. 
Most  of  these  forms  have  been  ''purified"  now  and 
Beadedness  never  appears  in  them  though  it  can  still  be 
found  in  Vestigial  stock.  All  of  the  above-n^med  forms, 
by  the  way,  with  the  exception  of  Truncate  and  Rudi- 
mentary bred  true  from  the  start.  The  Truncate  case  is 
not  yet  published  and  Rudimentary  has  proved  (Morgan 
and  Tice,  1914)  to  be  due  to  a  single  Mendelian  factor. 
The  Rudimentary  flies  were  at  first  self  sterile  and  highly 
non- viable,  and  therefore  gave  peculiar  results  in  breeding 
tests. 

When  I  first  began  work  with  Beaded  flies  (Sept.,  1912) 
the  stock  gave  100  per  cent.  Beaded-winged  offspring. 


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762  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

So  soon  that  I  did  not  realize  it,  nor  think  to  count  the 
generations,  I  had  one  stock  that  gave  offspring  much 
more  extremely  Beaded  than  the  ordinary  stock,  and  this 
stock  is  the  one  on  which  most  of  this  report  is  based. 
About  December,  1912, 1  started  one  stock  bottle  to  form 
the  basis  for  a  ^'No  selection '^  test.  The  parents  of  this 
brood  were  '*pure  stock  Beaded '^  males  and  females. 
The  first  generation,  no  normal-winged  flies  appeared. 
The  generations  following  were  made  up  by  shaking  at 
random  from  the  bottle  of  the  generation  before  a  dozen 
or  two  flies  into  a  new  bottle. 

The  second,  third  and  fourth  generations  gave  three 
normal-winged  flies  to  325  Beaded.  The  sixth,  3  normal 
to  100  Beaded.  In  later  generations  I  occasionally  found 
normal  flies.  The  stock  is  in  its  27th  generation  now, 
the  25th  generation  having  given  rise  to  a  large  brood 
of  which  I  counted  541  flies  (284  $  and  257  c?),  all  of 
which  had  Beaded  wings  of  a  type  averaging  like  those  of 
Figs.  4-6.  It  is  very  apparent  that  the  stock  is  not  under- 
going any  marked  change,  though  I  can  not  guarantee 
that  it  would  give  exactly  the  same  results  in  other 
respects  as  the  extreme  (selected)  Beaded  stock  that  I 
have  used  in  the  linkage  tests. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  have  not  been  able  thus  far  to 
increase  the  Beadedness  of  the  selected  stock  beyond  a 
point  which  it  apparently  reached  many  generations  ago. 
The  Figs.  1-12  (excepting  2  and  4),  which  are  here  re- 
produced, were  made  under  Dr.  Morgan's  direction  long 
before  I  took  up  the  work,  and  the  forms  he  had  drawn 
then  are  as  extreme  as  any  that  I  now  have. 

If  this  extreme  stock  be  allowed  to  go  without  selection 
for  two  or  three  generations,  it  ''reverts"  to  a  less  ex- 
treme form,  from  which  it  can  apparently  be  recovered 
by  one  mass  selection.  I  feel  confident  that  in  selecting 
the  extreme  forms  one  merely  selects  a  large  percentage 
of  individuals  that  are  heterozygous  for  1,  and  of  course 
when  the  stock  is  not  selected  for  a  while,  LL  forms  be- 
come relatively  more  numerous.  This  would  account  for 
all  the  facts  here  recorded. 


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No.  576]  VARIATION  IN  DROSOPHILA  753 

On  the  other  hand,  selection  for  less  extreme  Beading 
is  also  rapidly  effective  and  normal-winged  forms  appear 
soon,  but  this  effect  soon  reaches  its  limit  apparently, 
and  a  normal  strain  or  even  a  strain  throwing  a  high 
percentage  of  normals  has  not  yet  been  obtained.  I  am 
not  yet  certain  that  it  can  not  be  done.  I  selected  in  each 
direction  for  eleven  generations  without  marked  success 
beyond  that  here  recorded. 

V.    MUTATION  IN  BEADED  STOCK 

A.  General  Statement 

As  will  be  gathered  from  statements  made  in  the  last 
section,  the  Beaded  stock  has  been  prolific  in  giving  muta- 
tions. There  has  been  no  especial  attempt  made  to  see 
how  many  different  mutants  could  be  obtained  from  the 
stock,  and  yet  a  goodly  number  have  appeared.  Most  of 
these  have  been  marked  types  showing  little  variation  and 
coming  out  regularly  and  distinctly  in  Mendelian  propor- 
tions in  crosses  with  other  types.  They  have  in  general 
bred  true  from  the  start  without  further  selection. 

A  few  of  these  have  been  of  a  sort  to  confuse  for  a  time 
the  study  that  I  have  been  making,  because  of  their  re- 
semblance to  certain  types  of  Beaded  flies.  The  criterion 
in  every  case  as  to  whether  or  not  a  fly  was  an  ordinary 
Beaded  fly  or  a  new  '* mutant**  was  its  genetic  behavior, 
and  the  cases  to  be  here  described  have,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Stumpy,  shown  themselves  to  be  due  to  a  single 
gene  conforming  in  general  to  those  of  other  well-known 
mutants  of  Drosophila. 

B.  Perfect  Notched  Wings 

In  the  beginning  of  my  work  on  Beaded  wings  I  thought 
it  might  be  possible  to  isolate  definite  types  from  the 
Beaded  stock  by  crossing  out  to  Wild  and  extracting  the 
Fg  types  that  appeared ;  or  by  back-crossing  the  Fj  forms 
to  Wild  again  and  extracting  new  types,  etc.  Several 
thousand  flies  were  raised  in  the  hope  of  accomplishing 
this,  but  the  *' types'*  found  did  not  breed  true,  but  con- 
tinued to  behave  like  ordinary  Beaded  flies,  from  whose 


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754  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

many  original  types  none  were  distinguishable.  Finally 
a  genuine  new  *'type''  appeared,  with  both  wings  alike 
and  definitely  '^notched"  (Fig.  13,  p.  730).  This  female 
which  was  at  sight  named  Perfect  Notched,  was  mated 
to  Wild.    Her  ancestry  was  as  follows : 

The  grandmother  came  from  pure  Beaded  stock,  and 
the  grandfather  from  Wild  stock.  Their  offspring  con- 
sisted of  13  Beaded  and  69  normal  flies. 

A  Beaded  female  of  this  generation  was  mated  to  a 
normal  brother  and  gave  100  Beaded  offspring,  male  and 
female,  and  one  ''perfect  notched'*  female. 

This  female  and  her  descendants  behaved  in  a  very 
different  manner,  genetically,  than  the  Beaded  stock 
from  which  she  arose. 

She  was  mated  to  a  Wild  male  and  gave  62  Beaded  off- 
spring and  112  normal  offspring.  Of  the  Beadeds,  50 
were  notched  in  a  way  resembling  the  parent  and  of  the 
50,  49  were  females.  Several  other  peculiar  wing  types 
appeared  among  the  remaining  12  Beaded  flies  of  this 
generation,  but  did  not  breed  true  and  were  later  dis- 
carded. / 

The  notched  male  gave  ordinary  Beaded  and  normal 
offspring  and  never  gave  in  either  the  first  or  later  gen- 
erations any  ''notched'*  offspring.  He  was  probably  an 
extreme  variant  of  a  common  Beaded  type  (Fig.  4). 

Of  the  normal  offspring  of  the  Perfect  Notched  female 
four  pairs  were  made  up.  Seven  hundred  and  forty-nine 
normal  sons  and  daughters  appeared,  and  no  notched. 

Of  the  notched  daughters  of  the  perfect  notched  female, 
two  were  mated  to  normal  brothers  and  two  to  Wild 
males.    Their  progeny  was : 

Notched  9   Notched  cf   Nonn*l  9     Norm*!  cf 

By  normal  brothers   53  0  79  69 

By  wild  males    56  0  47  46 

Six  of  the  notched  females  of  this  generation  were 
mated  to  normal  brothers  and  gave 

Notched  9  Notched  <^  Normal  9  Normal  cf 

126  0  144  120 

At  this  time,  June,  it  was  necessary  to  leave  New  York. 
In  traveling,  the  Perfect  Notched  stock  was  lost.    Enough 


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No.  576]  VARIATION  IN  DBOSOPHILA  765 

had,  however,  been  done  to  show  definitely  the  nature  of 
the  mutation  involved.  It  is  clear  that  the  perfect  notched 
wings  owed  their  appearance  to  a  dominant  sex-linked 
gene,  lethal  for  males.  This  accounts  for  the  fact  that 
the  males  are  only  half  as  numerous  as  the  females,  and 
none  of  them  notched,  while  notched  and  normal  females 
occur  in  nearly  equal  numbers.  It  also  accounts  for  the 
fact  that  the  normal  females  of  these  generations  gave  no 
notched  offspring. 

Other  sex-linked  lethal  genes  have  appeared  from  time 
to  time  in  the  crosses  of  Beaded  flies  with  others,  but 
none  of  them  were  dominant,  and  therefore  they  made 
themselves  evident  only  by  preventing  the  development 
of  one  half  of  the  males.  I  have  not  worked  out  the 
inheritance  of  these  cases. 

C.  Spread  Wings 

Comment  has  already  been  made  on  the  extreme  num- 
ber of  wing  types  that  appeared  both  in  the  Fj,  Fg,  and 
back-cross  generations  of  the  cross  between  Beaded  and 
Vestigial  flies.  Most  of  these  forms  gave  results  too  com- 
plex to  be  analyzed  at  present.  However,  among  the  off- 
spring of  a  considerable  number  of  the  Fj  females  there 
were  flies  with  wings  perfectly  normal  in  appearance  save 
that  they  were  held  at  right  angles  to  the  long  axis  of  the 
body.  In  all,  60  flies  with  Spread  wings  appeared.  One 
of  the  60  had  wings  very  slightly  Beaded.  Some  of  them 
were  mated  together  and  produced  only  spread-winged 
offspring  with  no  sign  of  Beadedness.  Spread-winged 
males  were  mated  to  Pink  Black  females  in  order  to  test 
the  linkage  of  Spread.  (Pink  is  in  the  third  chromosome 
group,  and  Black  in  the  second.)  The  Fj  generation  gave 
only  flies  with  red  eyes,  gray  bodies  and  normal  wings 
(neither  Spread  nor  Beaded).  In  the  Fo  generation  were 
Black  flies.  Gray  flies,  and  Red-eyed  flies  with  normal 
and  with  Spread  wings,  but  none  of  the  Pink-eyed  flies 
had  Spread  wings,  though  a  large  number  of  Fg  Pink 
normal  flies  appeared.  The  Pink-eyed  flies  were  also 
mated  inter  se,  but  no  Spread-winged  flies  appeared  in 
the  F3  generation.    This  definitely  places  the  gene  for 


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756  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 

Spread  wings  in  the  third  chromosome  gronp.  Beaded 
wings  have  not  appeared  in  the  stock  bottles  of  Spread 
which  breeds  perfectly  tme. 

D.   Stumpy  Wings 

Eecently  a  new  non-lethal  sex-linked  character  has  ap- 
peared in  the  offspring  of  the  cross  of  an  Fj  Beaded  male 
to  a  Wild  female.  Its  nature  has  not  yet  been  worked 
out,  since  only  males  have  thus  far  appeared.  The  flies 
have  wings  resembling  those  of  Vestigial,  save  that  they 
are  not  held  at  right  angles  to  the  body,  but  in  the  normal 
position.    Vestigial  is  not  a  sex-linked  character. 

SUMMABY 

The  character  under  consideration  is  that  of  Beaded 
wings  in  Drosophila  ampelophila.  All  gradations  of 
form  between  that  of  normal  wings  (Fig.  1)  and  those 
shown  in  Figs.  2  to  12  occur  in  the  stock  bottles,  though 
certain  selected  strains  of  the  stock  give  no  normal- 
winged  offspring. 

When  a  Beaded  fly  is  mated  to  a  fly  of  a  stock  not 
carrying  genes  for  Beadedness  in  its  germ  plasm  a  vary- 
ing percentage  of  the  Fj  offspring  is  Beaded.  If  the  male 
parent  is  Beaded  the  majority  of  the  Beaded  offspring 
are  usually  females ;  and  if  the  female  parent  is  Beaded, 
the  majority  of  the  Beaded  offspring  are  usually  males. 
A  female  Beaded  fly  however  gives  a  larger  percentage 
of  Beaded  daughters  than  does  a  male  Beaded  fly.  This 
phenomenon  is  repeated  from  generation  to  generation, 
no  matter  whether  a  given  Beaded  fly  has  come  from  a 
male  or  female  Beaded  parent,  and  this  shows  that  the 
phenomenon  is  not  caused  by  a  sex-linked  gene. 

This  phenomenon  is  not  caused  by  non-disjunction  of 
a  sex-linked  gene,  for  tests  of  both  the  Beaded  and  "Wild 
stocks  showed  non-disjunction  to  be  a  rare  phenomenon. 
The  only  explanation  suggested  was  that  the  male  off- 
spring were  somewhat  influenced  to  or  away  from  Beaded- 
ness by  the  nature  of  the  cytoplasm  that  was  brought  in 
with  the  eggj  while  females  were  not  readily  influenced 
in  this  way. 


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No.  576]  VABIATION  IN  DROSOPHILA  767 

A  study  of  the  Fg  generation  shows  that  the  majority 
of  the  normal  Fi  offspring  differ  from  the  majority  of 
the  Beaded  Fj  offspring  genetically  in  that  normals  give 
fewer  Beaded  offspring  in  the  Fg  generation  than  do  the 
Beaded  flies. 

Beaded  wings  showed  no  linkage  to  any  sex-linked 
character. 

Approximately  one  half  of  the  flies  of  the  Fj  generation 
of  a  cross  between  Beaded  flies  and  flies  with  characters 
whose  genes  were  in  the  second  chromosome,  showed 
linkage  in  the  following  generation  to  second  chromo- 
some characters,  while  one  half  of  the  flies  did  not  show 
such  linkage.  The  cases  where  linkage  did  not  occur 
gave  a  slightly  lower  percentage  of  Beaded  offspring 
than  did  those  where  linkage  was  present.  An  explana- 
tion of  these  phenomena  is  sought  in  the  suggestion  that 
there  was  in  the  second  chromosome  a  gene,  here  called  1, 
that  was  recessive  but  that  in  the  heterozygous  condition 
intensified  the  dominance  of  another  gene,  called  B', 
which  was  not  in  the  second  chromosome.  This  gene  1 
behaves  as  a  lethal  factor  preventing  the  development  of 
any  fly  that  carries  it  in  a  homozygous  condition. 

All  of  the  Ft  offspring  of  the  crosses  of  Beaded  flies 
by  flies  with  characters  caused  by  genes  in  the  third 
chromosome  showed  linkage  in  the  following  generation 
between  Beaded  wings  and  the  third  chromosome  char- 
acters. This  was  taken  to  signify  that  there  was  in  the 
third  chromosome  a  non-lethal  gene  concerned  in  the 
development  of  Beaded  wings.  This  gene  was  called  B^ 
This  gene  was  shown  to  be  the  essential  germinal  factor 
in  the  production  of  Beaded  wings.  It  is  sometimes 
dominant  and  sometimes  recessive. 

The  determination  as  to  whether  B^  should  be  dominant 
or  recessive  seems  to  lie  in  several  possibilities :  1st,  the 
nature  of  the  egg  cytoplasm ;  2d,  the  presence  or  absence 
of  the  gene  1;  3d,  the  nature  of  the  environmental  con- 
ditions. 

With  reference  to  environmental  conditions,  it  was 
shown  that  a  larger  percentage  of  the  Fi  generation  had 
Beaded  wings  when  the  culture  was  wet  than  when  it  was 


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758  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVm 

dry;  and  more  when  the  food  was  alkaline  than  when  it 
was  acid.  No  other  environmental  factors  were  discov- 
ered which  influenced  the  production  of  Beaded  wings. 

Selection  of  more  or  less  extreme  Beaded  flies  very 
quickly  moves  the  average  Beadedness  of  the  offspring 
in  the  direction  of  the  selection,  but  this  selection  appar- 
ently becomes  further  ineffective  in  a  very  few  genera- 
tions. 

Mutation  is  of  very  frequent  occurrence  in  the  Beaded 
stock  and  the  new  mutants  obtained  have  in  most  cases 
shown  themselves  to  be  produced  under  the  influence  of 
one  normally  Mendelizing  gene. 

I  acknowledge  with  pleasure  the  kindly  interest  and 
suggestions  made  from  time  to  time  by  Dr.  A.  H.  Sturte- 
vant  and  Mr.  H.  J.  MuUer.  These  have  been  of  much 
assistance  to  me.  My  thanks  are  also  especially  due  to 
Dr.  T.  H.  Morgan  whose  advice  and  criticisms  at  critical 
points  have  never  failed  to  aid  in  clearing  up  the  situation, 

BiBLIOQEAPHY 

Baur,  E.     1912.     EinfUhrung  in  die  experimentale  Vererbungslehre. 
Bridges,  C.  B.     1913.     Non-disjunction  of  the  Sex  Chromosomes  of  Vro- 

sophila.    Jour.  Exp,  Zooh,  Vol.  15. 
Hoge,  M.  A.     1914.     The  Influence  of  Temperature  on  the  Development  of 

a  Mendelian  Character.    Jour.  Exp.  Zool.    In  press. 
MacDowell,    E.    C.      1914.      Multiple    Factors    in    Mendelian    Inheritance. 

Jour.  Exp.  Zool,  Vol.  16. 
Morgan,  T.  II.     1911a.     The  Origin  of  Nine  Wing  Mutations  in  DrosophUa, 

Science,  N.  S.,  Vol.  33. 
Morgan,  T.   II.     1911&.     A  Dominant   Sex-limited  Character.     Proc,  Soc. 

Exp.  Biol,  and  Med.,  Vol.  9. 
Morgan,  T.  H.     1912a.     The  Masking  of  a  Mendelian  Eesult  by  the  Influ- 
ence of  the  Environment.    Proc.  Soc,  Exp,  Biol,  and  Med,,  Vol.  9. 
Morgan,  T.  H.    1912&.    The  Explanation  of  a  New  Sex-ratio  in  DrosopMla, 

Science,  N.  S.,  Vol.  36. 
Morgan,  T.  H.    1912c.    Complete  Linkage  in  the  Second  Chromosome  of  the 

Male.     Science,  N.  S.,  Vol.  36. 
Morgan,  T.  H.    191 2d.    A  Modification  of  the  Sex-ratio  and  of  other  Ratios 

in  Drosophila  through  Linkage.     Zts.  ind.  Abst.  u.  Vererh.,  Bd.  VTI. 
Morgan,  T.  H.,  and  Tice,  S.  C.     1914.     The  Influence  of  the  Environment 

on  the  Size  of  Expected  Classes.    Biol.  Bull.,  Vol.  26. 
Shull,  G.  H.     1914. 
Sturtevant,  A.  H.     1913.     A  Third  Group  of  Linked  Genes  in  Drosophila 

ampelophila.    Science,  N.  S.,  Vol.  37. 


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SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

ON  THE  PROGRESSIVE  INCREASE  OP  HOMOZYGOSIS 
BROTHER-SISTER  MATINGS 

It  has  been  brought  to  my  attention  that  the  note  concerning 
inbreeding,  written  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Phineas  W.  Whiting  to 
add  to  his  paper  on  **  Heredity  of  Bristles  in  the  Common  Green- 
bottle  Ply,  Lucilia  Sericata  Meig.,''  which  appeared  in  the  Amer- 
ican Naturalist  for  June,  1914,  might  be  taken  to  mean  that  my 
data  had  been  sent  by  Dr.  E.  M.  East  to  Dr.  Raymond  Pearl  by 
whom  it  had  been  published  as  his  own.  I  wish  to  make  it  clear 
by  a  statement  of  the  facts  herewith  that  no  such  interpretation 
should  be  placed  upon  the  note.  I  was  seriously  ill  at  the  time 
and  did  not  submit  my  manuscript  to  Dr.  Castle  or  Dr.  East  for 
revision,  as  I  should  ordinarily  have  done.  In  that  case  no 
doubt,  any  ambiguity  of  statement  would  have  been  pointed  out 
to  me. 

Mendel,  in  his  original  paper,  showed  that  if  equal  fertility 
of  all  plants  in  all  generations  is  assumed,  and,  furthermore,  if 
every  plant  is  always  self-fertilized,  then  in  the  nth  generation 
the  ratio  of  any  allelomorphic  pair  (A,a)  would  be  2"  —  1  AA.: 
2  Aa :  2*»  —  1  aa.  This  statement  was  generalized  in  1912  by  East 
and  Hayes^  for  any  nimiber  of  allelomorphic  pairs.  **The  prob- 
able number  of  homozygotes  and  any  particular  class  of  heterozy- 
gotes  in  any  generation  r  is  found  by  expanding  the  binomial 
[l+(2''  —  1)]"  where  n  represents  the  number  of  character 
pairs  involved.  The  exponent  of  the  first  term  gives  the  number 
of  heterozygous  and  the  exponent  of  the  second  term  the  number 
of  homozygous  characters.*'  A  little  later  Jennings  independ- 
ently showed  how  homozygotes  are  produced  from  heterozygotes 
by  self-fertilization.^ 

East  and  Hayes^  published  no  generalized  formula  for -calcu- 
lating the  reduction  toward  homozygosis  through  any  other  type 
of  mating,  but  that  this  was  thought  to  be  a  proper  conclusion 
deducible  from  the  above  is  shown  by  the  following  quotation 
(p.  21)  : 

1 U.  8.  Dept.  Agr.,  Bur.  Plant  Ind.,  BuU.  No.  243. 
2  Ames.  Nat.,  Auijust,  1912. 
.    iLoc,  cit. 

769 


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760  THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVIH 

Close  selection,  of  course,  tends  toward  the  same  end  (homozygosis), 
but  not  with  the  rapidity  or  certainty  of  self-fertilization. 

This  idea  is  further  shown  by  their  statements  under  the  head- 
ing "Extension  of  Conclusions  to  the  Animal  Kingdom"  (pp. 
39-43). 

A  little  later  Mr.  Whiting  had  occasion  to  work  out  the  results 
of  random  matings  of  brothers  and  sisters,  in  connection  with  his 
work  at  the  Bussey  Institution.  He  found  that  the  amount  of 
heterozygosis  was  reduced  one  eighth  in  matings  of  the  Pj  gen- 
eration and  from  this  concluded  that  the. remaining  heterozygosis 
was  reduced  one  eighth  in  each  succeeding  generation,  so  that  in 
the  nth  generation  the  number  of  matings  which  would  produce 
at  least  some  heterozygous  offspring  would  be  (7/8)"-^.  He 
showed  these  figures  to  Dr.  East,  who  agreed  with  the  general 
conclusion  (tendency  toward  homozygosis),  but  thought  that  the 
ratio  would  not  hold  for  offspring  after  the  Fg  generation.  Dr. 
East,  however,  after  a  casual  examination  was  not  able  to  show 
Mr.  Whiting  the  fallacy  in  his  work  and  did  not  go  into  the 
matter  further. 

In  the  American  Naturalist  for  October,  1913,  Dr.  Raymond 
Pearl  criticized  the  extension  of  the  conclusions  for  self -fertilized 
plants  to  the  animal  kingdom.*  He  applied  the  figures  of  Pear- 
son, 1904,*^  for  random  matings,  which  show  that  the  relative 
number  of  homozygotes  and  heterozygotes  remains  constant  in 
a  population  where  all  factors  of  fertility,  virility  and  environ- 
ment have  the  same  effect  upon  each  individual  in  each  genera- 
tion. Dr.  Pearl's  error,  as  he  has  since  recognized,  lies  in  the 
fact  that  in  the  Pj  generation  random  mating  involves  only 
brothers  and  sisters,  while  in  all  subsequent  generations  it  also 
involves  other  relationships. 

When  I  read  Dr.  Pearl's  article  in  October  I  naturally  won-' 
dered  why  there  was  such  a  difference  of  opinion  between  Dr. 
East,  Mr.  Whiting  and  Dr.  Pearl.  Before  finishing  the  article  I 
computed  the  amount  of  homozj'gosis  in  the  Fj  generation  as  0 
per  cent. ;  in  Pj,  50  per  cent. ;  Pg,  50  per  cent. ;  P4,  62.5  per  cent, 
and  P5,  68.25  per  cent.  As  soon  as  possible  after  that  I  figured 
other  generations  until  the  heterozygosis  would  be  reduced  to 
one  half  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  maximum  of  heterozygosis  in  the 

-•East  and  Hayes,  1912,  loc.  cit 

^PMl.  Trans.  Boy,  Soc.  (A),  Vol.  203,  pp.  59  and  60. 


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No.  576]  SHORTER  ARTICLES  AND  CORRESPONDENCE     761 

Fj  generation  and  found  that  this  was  accomplished  in  the  F^, 
generation,  the  amount  of  heterozygosis  in  each  generation  being: 

Pe,  75.000  per  cent.  Fj,,  94.312  per  cent.  r»,  98.710  per  cent. 

Ft,  79.687  per  cent.  Fj^,  95.398  per  cent.  Fa,  98.956  per  cent. 

Fs,  83.594  per  cent  F„,  96.277  per  cent.  Fa,  99.155  per  cent. 

F„  86.719  per  cent.  F„,  96.988  per  cent.  Fa,  99.317  per  cent. 

Fio,  89.258  per  cent.  F,t,  97.563  per  cent.  F,»,  99.447  per  cent. 

F,i,  91.309  per  cent.  Fi^,  98.029  per  cent.  F^,  99.553  per  cent. 

Fu,  92.969  per  cent.  F^,  98.405  per  cent.  Fa,  99.638  per  cent. 

With  the  approval  of  Dr.  Castle  and  Dr.  East  I  prepared  to  pub- 
lish these  figures. 

Shortly  after  this  Dr.  Pearl  wrote  to  Dr.  East  asking  for  an 
opinion  upon  his  article.  Dr.  East,  in  the  meantime,  by  a  method 
diflfering  from  mine,  had  worked  out  the  ratios  independently. 
Before  answering  Dr.  Pearl's  letter,  however,  Dr.  East  compared 
his  results  with  mine.  They  agreed.  Dr.  East  then  wrote  to  Dr. 
Pearl,  giving  a  short  rebuttal  of  Dr.  Pearl's  arguments,  enclosing 
some  of  his  own  figures  and  adding  that  a  student  of  Dr.  Castle's 
(myself)  was  thinking  of  publishing  the  complete  figures.  Dr. 
Pearl  immediately  acknowledged  his  mistake  and  very  gener- 
ously asked  if  he  should  wait  until  I  had  published  my  article 
before  he  published  a  correction.  Dr.  East  replied  that  he  could 
see  no  reason  for  delaying  the  correction  and  advised  me  of  this 
reply. 

Since  it  seemed  proper  for  Dr.  Pearl  to  correct  his  previous 
article,  I  decided  to  withhold  my  own  figures  and  incorporate 
them  later  in  a  paper  bearing  also  upon  other  matters.  Dr. 
Pearl's  second  article  came  out  in  the  American  Naturalist  for 
January,  1914,  and  this  paper  together  with  the  third  article  in 
the  same  journal  for  June,  1914,  shows  that  his  work  was  en- 
tirely independent  of  Dr.  East's  or  my  own. 

When  Mr.  Whiting  asked  me  for  a  note  giving  the  figures 
showing  what  might  be  expected  in  the  way  of  an  automatic  in- 
crease in  homozygosity  when  brothers  were  mated  with  sisters  in 
successive  generations,  as  Mr.  Whiting  had  done  with  his  flies,  I 
naturally  was  pleased  to  have  him  accept  my  figures  as  correct- 
ing his  own,  and  at  the  same  time  give  me  an  opportunity  to  ac- 
knowledge my  indebtedness  to  those  who  furnished  the  idea  upon 
which  my  figures  were  based. 

H.  D.  Pish 

BussEY  Institution, 
Forest  Hn.LS,  Mass. 
August  18,  1914 


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NOTES  AND  LITEEATUEE 

MENDELIAN  FLUCTUATIONS^ 

When  the  observed  proportions,  say  of  dominants  and  reces- 
sives,  in  any  Mendelian  experiment  are  worked  out  for  small 
groups,  such  as  individual  litters  or  the  seeds  on  individual  plants 
in  individual  fruits,  considerable  fluctuations  round  the  expected 
proportions  may  be  observed.  In  the  present  note  the  magnitude 
of  these  fluctuations  is  compared  with  the  magnitude  to  be  ex- 
pected if  the  fluctuations  were  the  result  merely  of  chances  of 
sampling — corresponding  to  the  fluctuations  that  would  be  ob- 
served in  drawing,  say,  samples  of  black  balls  from  a  bag  con- 
taining white  and  black  balls  in  the  proportion  of  3  to  1.  In  so 
far  as  there  is  good  agreement,  this  is  additional  confirmation  of 
the  Mendelian  process  holding  good  in  its  simplest  form:  if 
the  fluctuation  observed  is  markedly  greater  than  this  theory 
would  indicate,  some  source  of  disturbance  is  certainly  present, 
but  whether  this  disturbance  arises  from  irregularities  in  the 
distribution  of  the  gametes  or  merely  from  extraneous  circum- 
stances (varying  death-rates  or  diflSculties  of  sorting)  can  not, 
of  course,  be  determined  from  the  data  alone.  For  albinos  in 
individual  litters  of  mice  (Darbishire's  data),  and  for  numbers 
of  ** green''  or  ** wrinkled''  in  Mr.  Bateson  and  Miss  Killby's 
crosses  of  peas  I  find  exceedingly  good  agreement,  at  least  if  very 
small  plants  are  omitted.  Lock's  data  for  maize  give  good  agree- 
ment for  the  DR  X  DR  cross,  but  poor  agreement  for  the 
DR  X  RR  cross.  Some  data  given  me  by  Miss  E.  R.  Saunders 
for  seed  characters  in  the  individual  fruits  of  stocks  show  rather 
irregular  results.  Further  comparisons  on  similar  lines  would 
be  of  interest,  especially  for  the  DR  X  RR  cross,  for  which  very 
few  data  are  available.  For  the  case  to  afford  a  good  test  the 
sorting  should  be  clear  and  there  should  be  nothing  in  the  data 
to  suggest  differential  death  rates  obviously. 

G.  U.  Y. 

1 '* Fluctuations  of  Sampling  in  Mendelian  Ratios,"  G.  Udny  Yule  (Proc. 
Cambridge  Phil.  Soc,  XVII,  425). 


76^ 


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INDEX 

NAMES  OF  CONTRIBUTORS   ARE  PRINTED  IN   SMALL   CAPITALS 


Age,  Mean,  at  Marriage  pf  Men 
and  Women,  Variation  and  Cor- 
relation, J.  Arthur  Harris  and 
RoxANA  H.  Vivian,  635 

Alfalfa  Breeding,  Physiological 
Correlations  and  Climatic  Reac- 
tions in,  Geo.  F.  Freeman,  356 

Allelomorphism,  Multiole,  W.  E. 
Castle,  383 

Allelomorphs,  Multiple,  in  Mice,  T. 
H.  Morgan,  449;  and  Close  Link- 
age, The  Theoretical  Distinction 
between,  T.  H.  Morgan,  502;  W. 
E.  Castle,  503 

Allen,  Glover  M.,  Pattern  Devel- 
opment in  Mammals  and  Birds, 
385,  467,  550 

Analysis  of  a  Case  of  Continue  as 
Variation  in  Drosophila  by  a 
Study  of  its  Linkage  Relations, 
John  S.  Dexter,  712 

Animals,  and  Plants,  Sessile  and 
Motile,  Comparison  of  Resnonses 
of,  Victor  E.  Shelpord,  641 

Ants,  Gynandromorphous,  described 
during  the  Decade  1903-1913, 
William  Morton  Wheeler,  49 

Apple,  A  Study  of  Variation  in  the, 
W.  J.  Young,  595 

Apterous  Drosophila  and  its  Genetic 
Behavior,  Charles  W.  Metz,  675 

Arachnoidea,  The  Origin  of  X  Cap- 
sella  Bursa-pastoris,  Henri  IIus, 
193 

Babcock,  II.  L.,  The  Meadow  Jump- 
ing Mouse  (Zapus  Hudsonius) 
especially  regarding  Hibernation, 
485 

Behavior,  Genetic,  An  Apterous 
Drosophila  and  its,  Charles  W. 
Metz,  675 

Bessey,  Charles  E.,  A  Study  of 
Desert  Vegetation,  639 

Biology  of  the  Thysanoptera,  A. 
Franklin  Shull,  '161,  236 

Biometrics,  Raymond  Pearl,  505 

Birds,  and  Mammals,  Barriers  to 
Distribution,  Joseph  Grinnell, 
248;  Pattern  Development  in, 
Glo\t:r  M.  Allen,  385,  467,  550 

Breeding,  Experiments  with  Grass- 
hoppers, Nabours's,  John  S. 
Dexter,  317;  Alfalfa,  Physiolog- 


ical Correlations  and  Climatic 
Reactions  in,  Geo.  P.  Freeman, 
356 

Bridges,  Calvin  B.,  The  Chromo- 
some Hvpothesis  of  Linkage  ap- 
"  plied  to  Cases  in  Sweet  Peas  and 
Primula,  52  i 

Bristles,  Heredity  of,  in  the  Com- 
mon Green-bottle  Fly,  Phineas 
W.  Whiting,  339 

British  Islands,  The  Endemic  Mam- 
mals of  the,  T.  D.  A.  Cockerell, 
177 

Calf,  Double-headed,  The  Osteology 
of,  A.  M.  Reese,  701 

Capsella  Bursa-pastoris  arachnoidea. 
The  Origin  of  X,  Henri  Hus,  193 

Case,  E.  C,  Restoration  of  Edaph- 
osaurus  cruciger  Cope,  117 

Castle,  W.  E.,  Some  New  Varieties 
of  Rats  and  Guinea-pigs  and  their 
relation  to  Problems  of  Color  In- 
heritance, 65;  Yellow  Varieties  of 
Rats,  254;  Nabours's  Grasshop- 
pers, Multiple  Allelomorphism, 
Linkage  and  Misleading  Termin- 
ologies in  Genetics,  383;  The 
Theoretical  Distinction  between 
Multiple  Allelomorphs  and  Close 
Linkage,  503 

Castle  and  Phillips  on  the  Variabil- 
ity of  Genes,  The  Bearing  of  the 
Selection  Experiments  of,  Her- 
mann J.  Muller,  567 

Chandler,  Asa  C,  The  Effect  of 
Extent  of  Distribution  on  Specia- 
tion,  129 

Chromosome  Hypothesis  of  Linkage 
applied  to  Cases  in  Sweet  Peas 
and  Primula,  Calvin  B.  Bridges, 
524 

Citrus,  Hybrids,  Swingle  on  Varia- 
tion in  F„  and  the  Theory  of  Zy- 
gotaxis,  Orland  E.  White,  185; 
Dr.  Swingle's  Experiments  with, 
another  Hypothesis  to  account  for, 
A.  C.  and  A.  L.  Hagedoorn,  446 

Climatic  Reactions  in  Alfalfa  Breed- 
ing, Geo.  F.  Freeman,  356 

Cockerell,  T.  D.  A.,  The  Endemic 
Mammals  of  the  British' Islands, 
177 


763 


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764 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


Collins,  G.  N.  and  J.  H.  Kbmpton, 
Inheritance  of  Endosperm  Tex- 
ture in  Sweet  X  Waxy  Hybrids  of 
Maize,  584 

Color  Inheritance,  Some  New  Vari- 
eties of  Bats  and  Guinea-pigs, 
and  their  Eelation  to  Problems  of, 
W.  E.  Castle,  65 

Cook,  O.  F.,  Terms  relating  to  Gen- 
eric Types,  308 

Correlation,  and  Variation  in  the 
Mean  Age  at  Marriage  of  Men 
and  Women,  J.  Arthur  Habbis 
and  EoxANA  H.  Vivian,  635 

Correlations,  Physiological,  and  Cli- 
matic Eeactions  in  Alfalfa  Breed- 
ing, Geo.  F.  Fbeeman,  356 

Correspondence  and  Shorter  Articles, 
57,  122,  177,  248,  308,  383,  446, 
491,  567,  635,  693,  759 

Davis,  Bradley  Moore,  Stomps 's 
(Enothera  biennis  L.,  498 

Desert  Vegetation,  A  Study  of, 
Charles  E.  Besset,  639 

Dexter,  John  S.,  Nabours's  Breed- 
ing .Experiments  with  Grasshop- 
pers, 317;  The  Analysis  of  a  Case 
of  Continuous  Variation  in  Dro- 
sophila  by  a  Study  of  its  Linkage 
Relations,  712 

Differential  Mortality  with  Bespect 
to  Seed  Weight  occurring  in  Field 
Cultures  of  Pisum  sativum,  J. 
Arthur  Harris,  83 

Discontinuity  in  Variation,  Galton 
and,  R.  Ruggles  Gates,  697 

Distribution,  The  Effect  of  Extent 
of,  on  Speciation,  Asa  C.  Chand- 
ler, 129;  Barriers  to,  as  regards 
Birds  and  Mammals,  Joseph 
Grinnell,  248;  A  Study  of  Fact- 
tors  governing,  Phineas  E.  Whit- 
ing, 339 

*  *  Dominant ' '  and  '  *  Recessive ' ' 
Spotting  in  Mice,  C.  C.  Little,  74 

Drosophila,  The  Reduplication  Hy- 
pothesis as  applied  to,  A.  H. 
Sturtevant,  535;  An  Apterous, 
Charles  W.  Metz,  675;  The 
Failure  of  Ether  to  produce  Mu- 
tations in,  T.  H.  Morgan,  705; 
Analysis  of  a  Case  of  Continuous 
Variation  in,  its  Linkage  Rela- 
tions, John  S.  Dexter,  712 

Duplicate  vienes,  Sewall  Wright, 
638 

East,  E.  M.,  and  H.  K.  Hayes,  A 
Genetic  Analysis  of  the  Changes 
produced  by  Selection  in  Experi- 
ments with  Tobacco,  5 


Ectoparasites  of  Mammals,  Vernon 
LvMAN  Kellogg,  257 

Edaphosaurus  cruciger  Cope,  Res- 
toration of,  E.  C.  Case,  117 

Emerson,  R.  A.,  The  Inheritance  of 
a  Recurring  Somatic  Variation  in 
Variegated  Ears  of  Maize,  87 

Endemic  Mammals  of  the  British 
Islands,  T.  D.  A.  Cockerell,  177 

Endosperm  Texture  in  Sweet  X 
Waxy  Hybrids  of  Maize,  Inherit- 
ance of,  G.  N.  Collins  and  J.  H. 
Kempton,  584 

Environmental  Work,  Humidity — a 
Neglected  Factor,  Frank  E. 
LUTZ,  122 

Errors,  Probable,  A  Short-cut  in  the 
Computation  of  Certain,  Howard 
B.  Frost,  696 

Ether,  The  Failure  of,  to  produce 
Mutations  in  Drosophila,  T.  TL 
Morgan,  705 

Evolution,  and  Taxonomy,  X,  369 

Fish,  H.  D.,  On  the  Progressive  In- 
crease of  Homozygosis  Brother  X 
Sister  Matings,  758 

Fluctuations,  Mendelian,  G.  Udny 
Yule,  764 

Fly,  the  Common  Green-bottle,  He- 
redity of  Bristles  in,  Phineas 
W.  Whiting,  339 

Formulae  for  the  Results  of  Inbreed- 
ing, H.  S.  Jennings,  693 

Freeman,  Geo.  F.,  Physiological 
Correlations  and  Climatic  Reac- 
tions in  Alfalfa  Breeding,  356 

Frost,  Howard  B.,  A  Short-cut  In 
the  Computation  of  Certain  Prob- 
able Errors,  696 

Gates,  R.  Ruggles,  Galton  and  Din- 
continuity  in  Variation,  697 

Generic  Types,  Terms  relating  to,  O. 
F.  Cook,  308 

Genes,  The  Bearing  of  the  Selection 
Experiments  of  Castle  and  Phil- 
lips on  the  Variability  of,  Her- 
mann J.  MuLLER,  567;  Duplicate, 
Sewall  Wright,  638 

Genetic,  Analysis  of  the  Chang^ 
produced  by  Selection  in  Experi- 
ments with  Tobacco,  E.  M.  East 
and  H.  K.  Hayes,  5;  Behavior  of 
an  Apterous  Drosophila,  Charles 
W.  Metz,  675 

Genetics,  Misleading  Terminologies 
in,  W.  E.  Castle,  383 

Gerould,  John  H.,  Species-bmlding^ 
by  Hybridization  and  Mutation, 
321 


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No.  576] 


INDEX 


765 


Grasshoppers,  Nabours  's  Breeding 
Experiments  with,  John  S.  Dex- 
TEE,   317 

Gregory's  Tetraploid  Primulas,  A 
New    Mode    of    Segregation    in, 

HeEMANN  J.  MULLEE,  508 

GsiNNELL,  Joseph,  Barriers  to  Dis- 
tribution as  regards  Birds  and 
Mammals,  248 

Guinea-pigs,  and  Bats,  Some  New 
Varieties  and  their  Belation  to 
Problems  of  Color  Inheritance,  W. 
E.  Castle,  65 

GuLiCK,  John  T.,  Isolation  and  Se- 
lection allied  in  Principle,  63 

Gynandromorphous  Ants,  described 
during  the  Decade  1903-1913, 
William  Moeton  Whbeleb,  49 

Hagedcorn,  a.  C.  and  A.  L., 
Another  Hypothesis  to  account  for 
Dr.  Swingle's  Jiixperiments  with 
Citrus,  44b 

Hagedoobn,  a.  L.,  Eepulsion  in 
Mice,  d9y 

Harris,  J.  Arthur,  On  Differential 
Mortality  with  respect  to  Seed 
Weight  occurring  in  Field  Cul- 
tures of  Pisum  sativum,  83;  and 
EoxANA  H.  Vivian,  Variation  and 
Con  elation  in  the  Mean  Age  at 
Marriage  of  Men  and  Women,  635 

Ha^es,  n.  K.,  and  E.  M.  East,  A 
Genetic  Analysis  of  the  Changes 
produced  by  Selection  in  Experi- 
ments with  Tobacco,  5 

Heredity,  and  **The  Influence  of 
Monarchs,"  V.  L.  K.,  255;  of 
Bristles  in  the  Common  Green- 
bottle  Fly,  Phineas  W.  Whiting, 
339 

Hibernation,  Notes  on  the  Meadow 
Jumping  Mouse,  L.  H,  Babcock, 
485 

Homozygosis  Brother-Sister  Ma- 
tings,  The  Progressive  Increase 
of,  H.  D.  Fish,  758 

Humidity — a  Neglected  Factor  in 
Environmental  Work,  Frank  E. 
LUTZ,  122 

Hus,  Henri,  The  Origin  of  X  Cap- 
sella  Bursa-Pastoris  Arachnoidea, 
193 

HuTCHESON,  T.  B.,  Thirteen  Years 
of  Wheat  Selection,  459 

Hybridization  and  Mutation,  Spe- 
cies-building by,  John  H.  Ger- 
OULD,  321 

Inbreeding,  a  Mendelian  Population, 
Raymond  Pearl,   57;    Notes  on. 


Baymo^^d  Pearl,  491;  and  Bela- 
tionship  Coefficients,  Baymond 
Pearl,  513;  Formulae  for  the  Be- 
suits  of,  H.  8.  Jennings,  693 

Inheritance,  Color,  Some  New  Va- 
rieties of  Bats  and  Guinea-pigs 
and  their  Belation  to  Problems 
of,  W.  E.  Castle,  65;  of  a  Becur- 
ring  Somatic  Variation  in  Varie- 
gated Ears  of  Maize,  B.  A.  Emer- 
son, 87;  Sex-limited  and  Sex- 
linked,  T.  H.  Morgan,  577;  of 
Endosperm  Texture  in  Sweet  X 
Waxy  Hybrids  of  Maize^  G.  N. 
Collins  and  J.  H.  Kempton,  584 

Internal  Belations  of  TerrestriiQ  As- 
sociations, Arthur  G.  Vestal, 
413 

Isolation  and  Selection  allied  in 
Principle,  John  T.  Gulick,  63 

Jennings,  H.  S.,  Formulae  for  the 
Besults  of  Inbreeding,  693 

K.,  V.  L.,  Woods  on  Heredity  and 
**The  Influence  of  Monarchs," 
255 

Kellogg,  Vernon  Lyman,  Ectopar- 
asites of  Mammals,  257 

Kempton,  J.  H;  and  G.  N.  Collins, 
Inheritance  of  Endosperm  Tex- 
ture in  Sweet  X  Waxy  Hybrids 
of  Maize,  584 

Linkage,  in  the  Silkworm  Moth,  A.. 
H.  Sturtevant,  315;  and  Mis- 
leading Terminologies  in  Genetics, 
W.  E.  Castle,  383;  Close,  and 
Multiple  Allelomorphs,  T.  H. 
Morgan,  512;  W.  E.  Castle,  503; 
Chromosome  Hypothesis  of,  ap- 
plied to  Cases  in  Sweet  Peas  and 
Primula,  Calvin  B.  Bridges,  524; 
Belations,  Analysis  of  a  Case  of 
Continuous  Variation  in  Dro- 
sophila  by  a  Study  of  its,  John 
S.  Dexter,  711 

Literature  and  Notes,  185,  255,  315, 
505,  639,  762 

Little,  C.  C,  '* Dominant"  and 
"Becessive'*  Spotting  in  Mice,  74 

Lucilia  sericata  Meig.,  the  Com- 
mon Green-bottle  Fly,  Heredity 
of  Bristles  in,  Phineas  W.  Whit- 
ing, 339 

LuTZ,  Frank  E.,  Humidity — a  Ne- 
glected Factor  in  Environmental 
Work,  122 

Maize,  The  Inheritance  of  a  Becur- 
ring  Somatic  Variation  in  Varie- 
gated Ears  of,  B.  A.  Emerson, 


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766 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


87;  Inheritance  of  Endosperm 
Texture  in  Sweet  X  Waxy  Hy- 
brids of,  G.  N.  Collins  and  J. 
H.  Kempton,  584 

Mammals,  The  Endemic,  of  the  Brit- 
ish Islands,  T.  D.  A.  Cockeeell, 
177;  and  Birds,  Barriers  to  Dis- 
tribution, Joseph  Grinnell,  248 ; 
Ectoparasites  of,  Vebnon  Lyman 
Kellogo,  257;  and  Birds,  Pat- 
tern Development  in,  Glovee  M. 
Allen,  385,  467,  550 

Marriage  of  Men  and  Women,  Vari- 
ation ,  and  Correlation  in  the 
Mean  Age  at,  J.  Arthur  Harris 
and  RoxANA  H.  Vivian,  635 

Matings,  Homozygosis  Brother  X 
Sister,  The  Progressive  Increase 
of,  H.  D.  Fish,  759 

Meadow  Jumoing  Mouse  (Zapus 
Hudsonius)  especially  regarding 
Hibernation,  H.  L.  Babcock,  485 

Mendelian,  Population,  On  the  Re- 
sults of  inbreeding  a,  Raymond 
Pearl,  57;  Fluctuations,  G. 
Udny  Yule,  762 

Metz,  Charles  W.,  An  Apterous 
Drosophila  and  its  Genetic  Be- 
havior, 675 

Mice,  ** Dominant"  and  ''Recess- 
ive," Spotting  in,  C.  C.  Little, 
74;  Multiple  Allelomorphs  in,  T. 
H.  Morgan,  449;  Repulsion  in,  A. 
L.  Haoedoorn,  699 

"Monarchs,  The  Influence  of,"  and 
Heredity,  V.  L.  K,  255 

Morgan,  T.  H.,  Multiple  Allelo- 
morphs in  Mice,  449;  The  Theo- 
retical Distinction  between  Mul- 
tiple Allelomorphs  and  Close  Link- 
age, 502;  Sex-limited  and  Sex- 
linked  Inheritance,  577 ;  The  Fail- 
ure of  Ether  to  produce  Mutations 
in,  705 

Mortality,  Differential,  with  respect 
to  Seed  Weight  occurring  in  Field 
Cultures  of  Pisum  sativum,  J.  Ar- 
thur Harris,  83 

Moth,  Silkworm,  Linkage  in  the, 
A.  H.  Sturtevant,  315 

Motile  and  Sessile  Plants  and  Ani- 
mals, A  comoarison  of  the  Re- 
sponses of,  Victor  E.  Shelpord, 
641 

Mouse,  Meadow  Jumping  (Zapus 
Hudsonius),  especially  regarding 
Hibernation,  H.  L.  Babcock,  485 

Muller,  Hermann  J.,  A  New  Mode 
of  Segregation  in  Gregory's  Tet- 
raploid  Primulas,  508;  The  Bear- 
ing of  the  Selection  Experiments 


of  Castle  and  Phillips  on  the 
Variability  of  Genes,  567 

Multiple,  Allelomorphism,  W.  E. 
Castle,  383;  Allelomorphs  in 
Mice,  T.  H.  Morgan,  449;  Allelo- 
morphs and  Close  Linkage,  T.  H. 
Morgan,  502;  W.  E.  Castle,  503 

Mutation,  and  Hybridization,  Spe- 
cies-building by,  John  H.  Gebt 
OULD,  321 

Mutations,  Parallel,  in  CEnothera 
biennis  L.,  Theo.  J.  Stomps,  494 ; 
Bradley  M.  Davis,  498;  in  Dro- 
sophila, The  Failure  of  Ether  lo 
Produce,  T.  H.  Morgan,  705 

Nabours  's,  Breeding  Experiments 
with  Grasshoppers,  John  S.  Dex- 
ter, 317;  Grasshoppers,  W.  E. 
Castle,  383 

Notes  and  Literature,  185,  255,  315, 
505,  639,  762 

CEnothera  biennis  L.,  Parallel  Muta- 
tions in,  Theo.  J.  Stomps,  494; 
Bradley  M.  Davis,  498 

Osteology  of  a  Double-headed  Calf, 
A.  M.  Reese,  701 

Pattern  Development  in  Mammals 
and  Birds,  Glover  M.  Allen,  385, 
467,  550 

Pearl,  Raymond,  On  the  Results  of 
Inbreeding  a  Mendelian  Popula- 
tion, 57;  Studies  on  Inbreeding, 
491;  Biometrics.  505:  Inbreeding 
and  Relationship  Coefficients,  513 

Phillips,  and  Castle,  The  Bearing  of 
Selection  Experiments  on  the 
Variability  of  Genes,  Hermann 
J.  Muller,  567 

Physiological  Correlations  and  Cli- 
matic Reactions  in  Alfalfa  breed- 
ing, Geo.  F.  Freeman,  356 

Pisum  sativum.  Differential  Mortal- 
ity with  Respect  to  Seed  Weight 
occurring  in  Field  Cultures  of,  J. 
Arthur  Harris,  83 

Plants  and  Animals,  Sessile  and  Mo- 
tile, A  Comparison  of  the  Re- 
sponses of,  Victor  E.  Shelford, 
641 

Primulas,  Tetraploid,  Gregory's,  A 
New  Mode  of  Segregation  in, 
Hermann  J.  Muller,  508 

Rats  and  Guinea-pigs,  Some  New 
Varieties  of,  and  ttieir  relation  to 
Problems  of  Color  Inheritance,  W. 
E.  Castle,  65;  Yellow  Varieties 
of,  W.  E.  Castle,  254 

''Recessive,*'     and     **  Dominant," 


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No.  576] 


INDEX 


767 


Spotting  in  Mice,  C.  C.  Little,  74 
Beduplication  Hypothesis  as  applied 

to  Drosophila,  A.  H.  Stubtevant, 

535 
Reesk,  a.  M.,  The  Osteology  of  a 

Double-headed  Calf,  701 
Regeneration,  Variation  and  Corre- 
lation in  Thyone,  John  W,  Scott, 

280 
Repulsion    in    Mice,    A.    L.    Haoe- 

DOORN,   699 
Responses   of  Plants   and   Animals, 

Sessile  and  Motile,  A  Comparison 

of  the,  Victor  E.  Shelpobd,  641 
Restoration    of    Edaphosaurus    cru- 

ciger  Cope,  E.  C.  Case,  117 

Scott,  John  W.,  Regeneration, 
Variation  and  Correlation  in 
Thyone,  280 

Seed  Weight  occurring  in  Field  Cul- 
tures of  Pisum  sativum.  Differen- 
tial Mortality  with  Respect  to,  J. 
Arthur  Harris,  83 

Segregation,  A  New  Mode  of,  in 
Gregory's  Tetraploid  Primulas, 
Hermann  J.  Muller,  508 

Selection,  in  Exneriments  with  To- 
bacco, Genetic  Analysis  of  the 
Changes,  E.  M.  East  and  H.  K. 
Hayes,  5;  and  Isolation,  allied  in 
Principle,  John  T.  Gulick,  63; 
Wheat,  Thirteen  Years  of,  T.  B. 
Hutcheson,  459;  Experiments  of 
Castle  and  Phillips,  bearing  on 
the  Variability  of  Genes,  Her- 
mann J.  Muller,  567 

Sessile  and  Motile  Plants  and  Ani- 
mals, A  Comparison  of  the  Re- 
sponses of,  Victor  E.  Shblford, 
641 

Sex-limited  and  Sex-linked  Inherit- 
ance, T.  H.  Morgan,  577 

Shelpord,  Victor  E.,  A.  Comparison 
of  the  Responses  of  Sessile  and 
Motile  Plants  and  Animals,  641 

Short-cut  in  the  Computation  of  Cer- 
tain Probable  Errors,  Howard  B. 
Frost,  696 

Shorter  Articles  and  Correspond- 
ence, 57,  122,  177,  248,  308,  383, 
446,  491,  567,  635,  693,  769 

Shull,  a.  Franklin,  Biology  of  the 
Thysanoptera,  161,  236 

Silkworm  Moth,  Linkage  in  the,  A. 
H.  Sturtevant,  315 

Speciation,  The  Effect  of  Extent  of 
Distribution  on,  Asa  C.  Chand- 
ler, 129 

Species-building    by    Hybridization 


and  Mutation,  John  H.  Gerould, 
321 

Spotting  in  Mice,  "Dominant'' 
and  **  Recessive, "  C.  C.  Little, 
74 

Stomps,  Theo.  J.,  Parallel  Muta- 
tions in  CSnothera  biennis  L.,  494 

Stomps 's  CSnothera  biennis  L., 
Bradley  M.  Davis,  498 

Sturtevant,  A.  H.,  Linkage  in  the 
Silkworm  Moth,  315;  The  Re- 
duplication Hypothesis  as  applied 
to  Drosophila,  535 

Sweet  Peas  and  Primula,  Chromo- 
some Hypothesis  of  Linkage  ap- 
plied to  Cases  in,  Calvin  B. 
Bridges,  524 

Swingle  on  Variation  in  Fi  Citrus 
Hybrids  and  the  Theory  of  Zygo- 
taxis,  ORLANiy  E.  White,  185 

Swingle's  Experiments  with  Citrus, 
Another  Hypothesis  to  account 
for,  A.  C.  and  A.  L.  Hagedoorn, 
446 

Taxonomy   and    Evolution,    X,    369 
Terrestrial     Associations,     Internal 

Relations  of,  Arthur  G.  Vestal, 

413 
Thyone,      Regeneration,      Variation 

and    Correlation    in,    John    W. 

Scott,  280 
Thysanoptera,    Biology    of    the,    A. 

Franklin  Shull,  161,  236 
Tobacco,  A  Genetic  Analysis  of  the 

Changes  produced  by  Selection  in 

Experiments    with,    E.    M.    East 

and  H.  K.  Hayes,  5 
Types,   Generic,   Terms  relating  to, 

O.  F.  Cook,  308 

Variability  of  Genes,  The  Bearing 
of  the  Selection  Experiments  of 
Castle  and  Phillips  on  the,  Her- 
mann J.  Muller,  567 

Variation,  in  Variegated  Ears  of 
Maize,  The  Inheritance  of  a  Re- 
curring Somatic,  R.  A.  Emerson, 
87;  in  F,  Citrus  Hybrids  and  the 
Theory  of  Zygotaxis,  Swingle  on, 
Orland  E.  White,  185;  Regen- 
eration and  Correlation  in  Thy- 
one, John  W.  Scott,  280;  in  the 
Apple,  W.  J.  Young,  595;  and 
Correlation  in  the  Mean  Age  at 
Marriage  of  Men  and  Women,  J. 
Arthur  Harris  and  Roxana  H. 
Vivian,  635;  Galton  and  Discon- 
tinuity in,  R.  RuQGLEs  Gates, 
697;  Continuous,  Analysis  of  a 
Case  in  Drosophila  by  a  Study  of 


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768 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURALIST      [Vol.  XLVHI 


its  Linkage  Belations,  John  S. 
Dexter,  712 

Vegetation,  Desert,  Charles  E. 
Besset,  639 

Vestal,  Arthur  G.,  Internal  Eola- 
tions of  Terrestrial  Associations, 
413 

Vivian,  Boxana  H.,  and  J.  Arthur 
Harris,  Variation  and  Correla- 
tion in  the  Mean  Age  at  Mar- 
riage of  Men  and  Women,  635 

Wheat  Selection,  Thirteen  Years  of, 
T.  B.  Hutcheson,  459 

Wheeler,  William  Morton,  Gy- 
nandromorphons  Ants  described 
during  the  Decade  1903-1913,  49 

White,  Orland  E.,  Swingle  on 
Variation  in  F,  Citrus  Hybrids 
and  the  Theory  of  Zygotaxis,  185 

Whiting,  Phineas  W.,  Heredity 
of  Bristles  in  the  Common  Green- 


bottle  Fly,  Study  of  Factora 
Governing  Distribution,  339 

Woods  on  Heredity  and  the  "In- 
fluence of  Monarchs,"  V.  L.  K,, 
255 

Wright,  Sewall,  Duplicate  Genes, 
638 

X,  Taxonomy  and  Evolution,  369 
X    Capsella    Bursa-pastoris    arach- 

no^dea,    The    Origin    of,    Henri 

Hus,  193 

Yellow  Varieties  of  Rats,  W.  E. 
Castle,  254 

Young,  w.  J.,  A  Study  of  Varia- 
tion in  the  Apple,  595 

Zygotaxis,  Swingle  on  Variation  in 
F,  Citrus  Hybrids  and  the  Theory 
of,  Orland  E.  White,  185 


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A  Ifomiilr  loonuJ.  •stablidiMl  in  1M7.  Derotod  to  th*  Adnne^muA  ci  th*  Biological  SctecM 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  JUNE  NUMBER 

tbmot  John  H.  GerouM. 
Heredity  of  Brisaes  In  the  Oomnum  Greenbottto  Flj— 

A  Stadj  of  Factors  gOTemingDistribation.   PhlneM 

W.  Whiting. 
FhyslologlGal  Conelationfl  and  GUmatio  BeMtiona  in 

AlfUik  Breeding.    Geo.  F.  Freeman. 
Taxonomy  and  Erolation.    By  X. 

Mialeading  Terminologlee  In  Genetica.    Proftesor 
W.RCaatle. 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  JULY  NUMBER 

Pattern    Dereiopment  in    Maaimahi    and    Birds. 
GloTer  M  Allen 

Arthur  G.VestaL 
Shorter  Articles    and   Discussion*  Another  Hy- 
pothesis to  Account  for  Dz    Swingle's  Bxperi- 
meatf  with  Citrus.   A.  a  and  A.  L.  Hagedoora, 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  AUGUST  NUMBER 

Homple  AUekmorpha  in  Mice.     ProfcMor  T.  H 

Morgan. 
Thirteen  Tewni  of  Wheat  Selection.    T.  B.  HoUh- 

eaon. 
Pattern    Deyelopmtnt  in    Manunala   and    Birda. 

Glover  M.  Allen. 
The  Meadow  Jamplsff  Mooae.    Dr.  H.  L.  Babooek. 
Shorter  Articles  and  DiacuaBion : 

Parallel  MntaUona  in  (Enothera  biennis  L.     Dr. 
J.  Stomps.  Dr.  Bradley  M.  Dayia.    The  Theoret* 
loiU  Distinction  between  Mnltiplt  Allelomorphs 

Notea  and  literature:                                          ^ 
Biometrica.   Dr.  Raymond  Peail.   A  New  Mod- 
of  Segregation  in  Gregory 's  Tetrapioid  Prtmnlasa 
Hermann  J.  Mailer. 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  SEPTEMBER  NUMBER 

Studies  on  Inbreeding.    Dr.  Baymond  Pearl. 

The  Chromosome  Hypothesis  of  Linkage  applied  to 

Cases  in  Sweet  Peas  and  Primula^    Calrin  B. 

Bridget. 
TheRedupUcatlon  Hypothesis  as  applied  to  Droso- 

phila.   Dr.A.H.Sturtevant. 
Pattern  Dereiopment  in  Mammals  and  Biida.    Dr. 

GloTer  M.Allen. 
Shorter  Articles  and  Correspondcnoe : 

The  Bearing  of  the  Selection  Experiments  of 

Castle  and  Phillips  on  the  VftriabUity  of  Genet. 

Hermann  J.  Muller. 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  OCTOBER  NUMBER 

8ez-limited  and  Sez-Onked  Inherltanoe.   Professor 

T.  H.  Morgan. 
Inheritance  of  Endosperm  Texture  in  Sweet  x  Waxy 

Hybrids  of  Maize.    Q.  N.  Collins  and  J.  H.  Kemp. 

ton. 
A  Study  of  Variation  in  the  Apple.    W.  J.  Tonng. 
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Variation  and  Correlation  in  the  Mean  Age  at 

Marriage  of  Men  and  Women.     Dr.  J.  Arthur 

Harris,  Boxana  H.  Vivian.     Duplicate  Genes. 

Sewall  Wright. 
Notes  and  Literature : 

A  Study  of  Desert  Vegetetion.    Professor  Charles 

E.Bes8ey. 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  NOVEMBER  NUMBER 

A  Comparison  of  the  Bcsponses  of  Sessile  and  Motite 
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An  Apterous  Drofophila  and  its  Genetic  BehaTlor. 

Charles  W.Mets. 

Shorter  Articles  and  Discussion : 

Formulse  for  the  Results  of  Inbreeding.  Ptofessog 

ol  Certain  Probable  Errors.    Howard  B.  Frost. 
Galton  and  Discontinuity  in  Variation.    Dr.  R. 
Buggies  Gates.     The  Osteology  of  a   Double- 
headed  Call    Professor  A.  M.  Btese. 

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