Botany Commons^™

Further Studies In The Ecotone Between Prairie And Woodland, R. J. Pool, J. E. Weaver, F. C. Jean

University Studies (University of Nebraska) (1888–1984)

A series of intensive investigations of the ecological features of the tension zone between prairie and woodland in the Mississippi valley was begun by Weaver and Thiel in 1915. These studies were continued for two seasons in Minnesota and were also extended to the prairies of eastern Nebraska in 1916. These investigations represent the first attempt to attack the prairie-forest problem on a comprehensive scale by means of the quantitative methods of modern ecology. Some of the results secured from these studies have been published as the first paper of a series planned to deal with critical investigations in the …

Genetical Studies Of Variegated Pericarp In Maize, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Two years ago there were presented some results of a study of the inheritance of self pattern in the pericarp of maize seeds, occurring as a sporophytic2 variation in variegated ears (EMERSON1 914). Further results, in entire accord with those previously reported, have now been obtained. In addition, data bearing upon new phases of the problem are also available.

The chief results reported in the earlier paper were the following: ( I ) The more nearly self-colored the pericarp of any seed of a variegated ear, the more likely is the progeny of that seed to produce a self-colored ear …

Transpiration As A Factor In Crop Production, T. A. Kiesselbach

Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station: Historical Research Bulletins

The object of experiments reported in this bulletin has been to determine principles according to which water is used by crops. In many agricultural districts, water is frequently a seriously limiting factor in crop production. It has been thought that some means might be devised through a correct understanding of the principles involved, whereby economy in the use of water in farm practice could be increased. In this effort there are two chief points of attack, namely, (1) adjusting the external factors to the needs of the plant, and (2) selecting plants adapted to the conditions.

A Genetic Study Of Plant Height In Phaseolus Vulgaris, R. A. Emerson

Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station: Historical Research Bulletins

When pole and bush beans are crossed, 3:1 segregation results whether the pole bean is very tall or only medium in height and whether the bush bean is very short or relatively tall. To determine the interrelation of these two types of behavior by an analysis of the factors concerned in height of plants in beans and by a study of their mode of inheritance was the object of the investigations reported here.

A Brief Sketch Of The Life And Work Of Charles Edwin Bessey, Raymond J. Pool

Papers in Systematics and Biological Diversity

Charles Edwin Bessey, professor of botany and head of the department of botany in the University of Nebraska since 1884 and a conspicuous figure in American science and education, passed away at his home in Lincoln on February 25, 1915, after a critical illness of four weeks.

The Bessey family is of French extraction, the original form of the name being Besse. The tradition is that the early members of the family, who were Huguenots, were compelled on account of religious persecution to flee to England from the old home near Strassburg in Alsace. This exodus occurred in the latter …

The Inheritance Of A Recurring Somatic Variation In Variegated Ears Of Maize, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

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 Baur's experiments with Pelargonium, in which crosses of green-leaved and white-leaved forms exhibited somatic segregations in F₁ that bred true 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 founded largely upon the behavior of variegated flowers in pedigree …

Multiple Factors Vs. "Golden Mean" In Size Inheritance, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Groth's preliminary note on the "golden mean" in the inheritance of sizes in SCIENCE of April 17, 1914, pp. 581-584, deserves the attention of geneticists. Its publication is of such recent date that I need only call attention to one or two points that seem to me of particular moment.

In brief, Groth's hypothesis is that the mode

of inheritance in F_l not only of surfaces and

volumes, but also of linear dimensions is to be

expressed by √ab rather than by a + b /2

where a and b are parent sizes. The hypothesis

is based upon …

Rocky Mountain Flowers, Frederic E. Clements, Edith Schwartz Clements

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE FOR PLANT-LOVERS AND PLANT-USERS WITH TWENTY-FIVE PLATES IN COLOR AND TWENTY-TWO PLATES IN BLACK AND WHITE

The present book is an endeavor to present the materials of the Rocky Mountain flora in preliminary form from the standpoint of the experimental ecologist. The latter is concerned primarily with the relationships of "species" and their subdivisions as an organic expression or measure of habitat differences, and of the competitive relations of the various formations. Whatever the taxonomic value of the numerous segregates of the last decade or two, the fact that the binomial form conceals the relationship to the …

Shorter Articles And Discussion Simplified Mendelian Formulae, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

I was somewhat surprised by 'Morgan's and Castle's suggestions for a simplification of Mendelian formulae. My surprise was not occasioned so much by the forms these suggestions took as by the fact that any pronounced changes were deemed necessary. I had not only employed the usual formula in my own work but had found no difficulty worth mentioning in understanding the formula used by most other workers in Mendelian fields. My experience with students in elementary courses in genetics had not prepared me for the idea that such formula were particularly difficult. Nevertheless I believe in simplifying the formulae if …

The Possible Origin Of Mutations In Somatic Cells, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

That mutations are accompanied by some change in the germ-plasm is, I take it, indisputable. Have we, however, any reason to suppose that the change takes place within the germ cells? I am not sure, as a matter of fact, that genetists in general regard the gametes as the place of origin of mutations. It is true, however, that experiments in the artificial production of mutations in plants have been limited largely to treatments of the ovaries from about the time of the reduction division to about the time of fertilization. This suggests a belief on the part of investigators …

Shorter Articles And Reports: The Simultaneous Modification Of Distinct Mendelian Factors, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

In another paper on the inheritance of a recurring somatic variation in variegated ears of maize, it was shown that the amount of red color developed in the pericarp of variegated seeds bears a definite relation to the development of color in the progeny of such seeds. The relation is such that the more color there is 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 produce plants with variegated ears. Self-red ears thus produced behave just as if they were hybrids between self-red …

The Unexpected Occurrence Of Aleurone Colors In F2 Of A Cross Between Non-Colored Varieties Of Maize, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Before the Mendelian methods of analysis became available, considerable wonder would doubtless have been excited by the "mysterious" appearance in F₂ of one colored grain-purple or red-to every five or six white ones in case of a maize cross, both parents and F, of which had only white grains. An occurrence of this sort has recently been noted in one of my maize cultures and the F2 numbers are explained here as a trihybrid or tetrahybrid ratio. The crosses in question were made primarily for a study of size inheritance and fairly large numbers have been grown. The varieties …

Discussion And Correspondence Coupling Vs. Random Segregation, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

To the editor of science: The suggestion offered by Morgan, in SCIENCE of September 22, to account for the coupling and repulsion of factors for various characters in inheritance in such forms as Abraxas, Drosophila, fowls, sweet peas, etc., incites this note.

Briefly Morgan's hypothesis is (1) that the materials representing factors that couple are "near together in a linear series" in the chromosomes; (2) that, when pairs of parental chromosomes conjugate, "like regions stand opposed "; (3) that "homologous chromosomes twist around each other," but that the separation of chromosomes is in a single "plane"; (4) that, thereby the …

The Inheritance Of Sizes And Shapes In Plants, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Some years ago Lock reported a cross of a tall race of maize with a shorter race which produced an intermediate height in F₁ and exhibited no segregation in F₂ when crossed back with one of the parents. Castle's results with rabbits are very similar to those of Lock with maize. Castle summarizes his results in part as follows:

A cross between rabbits differing in ear-length produces offspring with ears of intermediate length, varying about the mean of the parental ear-lengths. . . . A study of the offspring of the primary cross-breds shows the blend of the …

Histological Studies In The Artemisia Formation, Raymond John Pool

University Studies (University of Nebraska) (1888–1984)

Many investigators have written on the subject of leaf histology and morphology in general, and a few have, in addition, touched upon the physiological significance of structures found during the progress of the study. Among these writers are Haberlandt, Pick, Stahl, Bonnier, Wagner, Hesselmann, and Clements. Most of the work, however, has been purely histological or morphological with little or no reference to environic forces. But in these later days of the development of the new ecology those forces or factors which have been potent in the evolution of plants and which are moulding plants today have come under careful …

On The Structure Of The Pistils Of Some Grasses, Elda Rema Walker

University Studies (University of Nebraska) (1888–1984)

The purpose of this investigation has been to determine to what extent there is evidence of a third carpel in the pistils of grasses. The study has been carried on, by means of cross and longitudinal sections, cut in different planes, as well as by a study of the external appearance of the pistils. The following are the results obtained:

Tribe Festuceae

Tribe Hordeae

Tribe Chlorideae

Tribe Aveneae

Tribe Agrostidcae

Tribe Phalarideae

Tribe Oryzeae

Tribe Paniceae

Tribe Andropogoneae

Tribe Maydeae

EXPLANATlON OF PLATES

On The Movements Of Petals, Esther Pearl Hensel

University Studies (University of Nebraska) (1888–1984)

The following paper has to do with an investigation of the physical causes· which bring about opening and closing movements, periodic or otherwise, of certain flowers. With that end in view, seven different species of flowering plants have been experimented upon directly, a much larger number being simply observed with respect to the nature, time, etc., of their anthotropic movements. Movement consists in the corolla taking upon itself either the open or closed position for certain periods of the day or night; for example, the morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea) opens early in the morning (from 4:00 to 5 …

The Relation Of Leaf Structure To Physical Factors, Edith Schwartz Clements

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The leaf, as the seat of important physiological functions of the plant, and because of its modification by external factors, has long been a fruitful subject for investigation. As a rule, however, investigators have confined themselves solely to the histology and morphology of the leaf, independent of its relations to physical factors. Where the latter have been considered at all, it has been in a more or less general way, or undue importance has been assigned to one or another of the physical factors, and others have been ignored entirely. In no case have they been carefully measured. The aim …

The Grasses Of Nebraska, Charles E. Bessey, Robert Bolin , Depositor

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Dr Bessey was the Nebraska State Botanist and Professor of Botany at University of Nebraska. This report contains a classification list of grasses found in the state and brief comments on the usefulness of the various grasses.

The Chimney-Shaped Stomata Of Holacantha Emoryi, Charles E. Bessey

Papers in Systematics and Biological Diversity

Last December two fine twigs and a cluster of the ripe fruits of the "burro thorn" (Holacantha emoryi Gray) were brought to the Botanical Department of the University of Nebraska by Mrs. Dorothy Bacon, who had collected them in the Salt River valley, near Phoenix, Arizona. They at once attracted attention because of their complete leaflessness, and the thorny nature of their branches. The shrub is said to grow about three meters high, and to form ail impenetrable thicket from the ground up. It grows in the desert, where it was first found about fifty years ago by Major …

The Morphology Of The Pine Cone, Charles E. Bessey

Papers in Systematics and Biological Diversity

So much has been said in regard to the morphology of the cone of the pine and its near allies that it would seem impossible as well as unnecessary to suggest anything further. However, the recent excellent summary in Coulter and Chamberlain's “Morphology of the Spermatophytes" of the many theories hitherto advanced to clear up the matter, and the conclusions reached by the authors named, show that it is by no means settled, and perhaps warrant me in presenting an interpretation which I have used in lectures before my own classes for half a dozen years or more.

The Modern Conception Of The Structure And Classification Of Diatoms, Charles E. Bessey

Papers in Systematics and Biological Diversity

In the revision of the Bacillariaceae for Engler and Prantl's “Pflanzenfamilien," Schutt has availed himself principally of the studies of Otto Muller and has given us the first clear conception of the meaning of the diatom cell, and its relation to the diatom filament. Starting with the filament, we regard it as the typical condition, from which the unicellular diatoms have been derived by the solution of the filament and the adaptation of the separate cells to an independent life. Diatoms are thus regarded as typically filamentous algae, and are no longer to be placed among unicellular plants. Accordingly their …

The Phytogeography Of Nebraska, Roscoe Pound, Frederic E. Clements

Papers in Systematics and Biological Diversity

From the preface we learn that this work is the result of nearly five years of active study of the floral covering of Nebraska, carried on by the members of the Botanical Seminar in the Botanical Survey of the State of Nebraska. The systematic study of the vegetation of Nebraska was begun by Dr. Bessey in 1884, and has since been carried on by him and his students, all previous collecting having been more or less desultory and unreliable. The Botanical Survey was organized in 1892, and its work has been directed to the collecting of specimens and observations for …

Phylogeny And Taxonomy Of The Angiosperms, Charles E. Bessey

Papers in Systematics and Biological Diversity

It is unnecessary for me to state at the outset what is evident to every botanist, that it is as yet impossible to present a complete phylogeny of the angiosperms. Phytopaleontology is too young a science, and the materials with which it deals are yet far too scanty to have given us direct evidence as to the phylogeny of all families of plants. No one can trace with great certainty from the fossil remains of plants yet discovered the genealogy of any considerable portion of the vegetable kingdom. It will be many a year before the direct evidence we so …

Report Of A Botanical Exploration Of The Sand-Hill Region Of Central Nebraska Made In The Summer Of 1893, Per Axel Rydberg

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Rydberg (1860–1931) was born Sweden and emigrated to the United States in 1882, first to mining camps in upper Michigan and eventually to Wahoo, in Saunders County, Nebraska, where he taught mathematics from 1884 to 1893 at now defunct Luther Academy. In the summers of 1891-1893, 1895, and 1896 he was a field agent for the United States Department of Agriculture and collected plants in Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado, and specimens from those and other trips are in the Bessey Herbarium at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, which house what is now known as the Charles E. …

A Second Report Upon The Native Trees And Shrubs Of Nebraska, Charles E. Bessey, Robert Bolin , Depositor

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Dr. Bessey was then Nebraska State Botanist and “Professor of Botany, State University, Lincoln Nebraska.” The State University is now called that University of Nebraska–Lincoln. This document was published as a contribution to the knowledge of the native woody plants of the state. Several reports had been published previously each containing additions and corrections. This report contains a “Special Request” that asked readers around the state to send samples of native trees and shrubs to the author.

The report contains a classification list of the various trees and shrubs along with information about where they can be found. A table …

A Meeting-Place For Two Floras, Charles E. Bessey

Papers in Systematics and Biological Diversity

About half-way across the northern part of Nebraska, a few miles east of the 100th meridian, there is a very interesting botanical locality. A small stream starts at a point about twenty or twenty-five miles south of the Niobrara River, and runs northward through a deep and winding canyon to the river mentioned. The surrounding country is absolutely treeless. and the surface is in many places thrown up into rounded hills of what must have once been drifting sand. The canyon sides are very abrupt, and they descend in many places fully two hundred feet before the bottom is reached. …

The Asparagus For Histological Study, Charles E. Bessey

Papers in Systematics and Biological Diversity

I have for several years been wanting a good Monocotyledon for histological study in the botanical laboratory, one which should be for its sub class what the pumpkin is for the dicotyledons. The indian corn, which is commonly used, is too difficult, and too greatly specialized a type, exhibiting as it does the peculiar nodal structure of the stem of the Grarninex, rather than the structure of the stem of monocotyledons in general. A good representative stem. and one which can be obtained everywhere in good condition, from early spring until the end of the season, is the asparagus. …

A Single Dendrometer, Charles E. Bessey

Papers in Systematics and Biological Diversity

A dendrometer is constructed essentially as follows: A tube, t, about two inches in diameter, and nearly or quite a foot in length, is supported in a vertical position by two pins, pp, near its upper end; and these pins rest upon a ring, r forming a simple gimbal which allows the tube by its own weight to assume an exactly vertical position. In the lower end of the tube two mirrors, A and B, are placed side by side, each occupying one half of the section of the diameter of the tube. One of these mirrors …

The Supposed Dimorphism Of Lithospermum Longiflorum, Charles E. Bessey

Papers in Systematics and Biological Diversity

The plant under consideration is a common herbaceous perennial of the prairies and great plains of North America. In the latter part of April and during the month of May it produces flowers with bright yellow salver-shaped (hypocraterimorphous) corollas, whose tubes are about thirty mm. (one and one-fifth inch) long, and from two to three mm. in diameter. About the first of June, in central Iowa, these large flowers suddenly disappear, and from this time forward until the autumn frosts, they produce only small cleistogamous flowers. The corolla lobes of the latter cohere somewhat, and remain closed, and …