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1. Symptoms of copper deficiency and toxicity were studied in guar, bottle gourd, eggplant and blue panic grass using sand culture technique.2. The visual deficiency symptoms are: curling of the young leaves along the margins, chlorosis of the leaflets, necrotic spots on the leaves and drying of very young leaves in guar; loss of turgidity and drooping of lower leaves followed by chlorosis and drying of leaves in bottle gourd; faint green colour of the leaves, chlorosis of the outer rim of the older leaves, white necrotic spots and leaf scorch in eggplant; yellowish green colour of leaves, brownish white spots and depressed growth in blue panic grass.3. The toxicity symptoms are: stunted growth, drying of the lower leaves and formation of few seedless pods in guar; chlorosis of the lower leaves and marked stunted growth in bottle gourd; dull green colour and chlorosis of the leaves in eggplant; stunted growth, leaf chlorosis and burning appearance of the plant in blue panic grass.4. There is an increase in copper uptake with increase in the rates of application of copper.5. There is a decrease in. the molybdenum content with increase in copper applications indicating the inverse copper-molybdenum relationship.

Seedling emergence in different crops was studied in the soil temperature range of 5°C to 45°C. In peas and turnips seedling emergence stopped at a soil temperature of 35°C and in other crops at 45°C. The minimum temperature for seedling emergence was above 10°C in case of cotton, sorghum, rice, maize and musk melon and above 15°C in case of squash, bottle gourd and okra. Winter crops like wheat, gram, peas, and turnips emerged at 5°C but the percent emergence was low. The optimum range for seedling emergence was narrower for vegetable crops as compared with cereals.

The array of vegetable foods found in the Chinatown markets of New York and other large cities has not only excited the curiosity of those looking for exotic foods but also stimulated interest in the plants themselves.

Gourds from three localities in New Guinea are more similar to those of America and Africa (Lagenaria siceraria subsp. siceraria) than to gourds of Asia and the Pacific region (Lagenaria siceraria subsp. asiatica). Such gourds could have arrived in New Guinea by ocean currents from America or Africa, or they could have been introduced by man. Gourds are used as penis sheaths in New Guinea, South America, and Africa. If contacts between New Guinea and South America and Africa occurred in the pre-Columbian period, the gourds, along with their use as penis sheaths, may have been introduced from America or Africa to New Guinea, but no decision can be reached as to how and when these gourds arrived in New Guinea and their use as a phallocrypt was acquired.

When Dr. Porter invited me to give this address in a symposium honoring Dr. Edgar Anderson, I was, of course, delighted to accept. In my reply to him I suggested several possible topics-the origin of Solanum quitoense, the current status of introgression, variation in the bottle gourd, why did man plant seeds, and the title that he selected. I really didn't expect him to choose the one he did, for at the time I suggested it I thought it a rather clever title, but I did not have the vaguest idea as to what I would say' whereas for most of the others I did have some hard data. In a sense it is a most appropriate title, and Dr. Anderson would have enjoyed seeing that I still get into the kind of predicaments I did 30 years ago. It is also appropriate, for after a day of data and hypotheses, something different is called for, and I promise you that this will be different-if nothing else. I hesitate to give this talk for two reasons. First, I do not feel that I am old enough to give a talk of reminiscences. But the other day my son said to me, "Dad, do you realize that you are a half century old." Somehow when put this way it makes me seem old enough. Secondly, I hesitate giving this talk since it involves talking a lot about myself and exposing a brash young student still wet behind the ears, and it becomes necessary to say a lot about him to develop the theme that the title implies. By way of background I should say that I was a student at Washington University and that sunflowers have been my principal research interest for a number of years. In a sense the story began in a room in Rebstock Hall in 1939 when I took Bob Woodson's Botany 101 course. I took it as my science requirement, for at the time I had listed myself as an English major. Before the course was over I had changed my mind. However at Bob's suggestion I took no botany the next year, for he thought that I shouldn't change my major too rapidly. So I didn't really become acquainted with Edgar Anderson until my senior year and that was somewhat of an accident. That year I had planned to take an advanced taxonomy course with Woodson, but that was all changed when he was asked to give a geography course for students the Army had sent to campus. Anderson volunteered to give Woodson's course. That in itself now appears unusual to me. How many of you have colleagues who will volunteer to give your courses? There were two students in Botany 550 that year-myself and another botany major, Dorothy Gaebler (I wonder what became of her?). We soon found that this