Cucurbita-Strijdvragen

Summary

This paper is written in answer to Dr.Lotsy's criticism of our work with squashes. Our answer has been delayed mainly because the criticism has not reached us at an earlier date.

Ou4 method of closing buds by means of leadwire, first used byCummings is fully described in view of the fact that our critic found bees in flowers so closed by himself.

In our work, from 105 closed female flowers, on sixteen pure forms, no seeds were obtained. The only results were three parthenocarpic fruits. Parthenogenetic seed was produced from hybrid plants exclusively.

The fact that no accidental fertilization can be taken into account for our results is proven by:

• I. The absence of seeds from closed buds in non-hybrid plants, which plants set seed very freely after they were left to themselves, later in the season.

• II. The fact that from unfertilized flowers on hybrid plants either a fruit full of good seed, or a fruit without seed, or nothing was obtained, but that the occurrance of fruits with only a few seeds was not noticed.

• III. The segregation in progenies from parthenogenetic seeds, which always fell within the bounds of what could be expected to result from the cross indicated.