INDIAN STATISTICAL INSTITUTE

Telegram: STATISTICA CALCUTTA-35 203, BARRACKPORE TRUNK ROAD
Telephones Cossipore 3222-23 & 3225-26 CALCUTTA-35

India.
February 13, 1958.
Dear Lederberg ,

Many thanks for " The Chemical Basis of Heredity". I had just seen it
before my migration. I shall now read it. It is clearly a most useful book.
But such books are one of the curses of this country. One tends to quote them,
instead of quoting the original work on which they are based. To do this might

involve a journey to Delhi or Bombay , or even further.

We are gradually getting to work here. Helen has just got the Fo
ef her moths, and I am getting some plant genetics started. When one comes
back to it after 20 years all kinds of questions are obvious. For example I
don't know of any genes affecting seed characters ( except maternal characters
such as the seed coat ) in Leguminosae except yellow cotyledons and wrinkled
( stachyose ) in Pisum. I am putting a young man onto Vigna sinensis on which

some work is being done elsewhere in India. Suppose we weigh or measure seeds

(1) two selfed pure lines A& B
(2) on A and B each pollinated by tk other
(3) on the Fy ( selfe-fertilized )
(4) on the Fo ( self-fertilized).

I should expect the variances to be (4) > (3) > ) (2). Whereas in
the parent plants I should expect Fg >( &4&B)> Fy. 1 1a11 make the young
man in question read this letter and try to see what I ama ir.

We have a rather amusing case of a Brazilian plant, 7 ichhornia crassipes
which has become a pest here. It was originally trimorpk*7aliy heterostylic,but

has now taken to clonal reproduction, so different " mating types" occur in

different areas.
We greatly enjoyed your visit, and hope you rm later visit this country

for a bit longer.

Prof.Joshua Lederberg, Yours sincerely,
Dept. of Genetics, J, f. ¢ Meet dar
University of Wisconsin, ( J.B.S.Haldane

Madison 6. Wis., U.S.A,