On the growth of a meromorphic function and its derivatives

The relative rates of growth of a function F meromorphic in the complex plane and its q derivative F (q) are studied via the Nevanlinna Characteristics T(r.F)and T(r.F (q)) and It is shown that lim inf T(r.F)/T(r.F (q)) ≤ 3ethat for all meromorphic functions. A lower bound on the size of the set {r>1 T(r.F) T(r.F (q))for K 1 is obtained. The upper bounds established for T(r.F)/T(r.F′)justify in a weakened form an old conjecture of Nevanlinna.