On the influence of nutrition on the fluctuating variability of some plants

That nutrition has an influence on the development of plants has long been known. Also that some parts are much more sensitive in this respect than others and that, for example, the size of the stem and leaf is much more affected by good or bad nutrition than the number of stamens. As yet our knowledge on this point, especially our quantitative knowledge, is very superficial. The introduction of the statistical method, however, into botany has enabled us to formulate more sharply the formerly vague and insufficiently defined question of the influence of nutrition and also to interpret the results obtained easily and accurately. Although the number of statistical investigations on plant characteristics, carried out in recent years, is fairly numerous, yet the influence of nutrition on the value of these characteristics has not often been studied.