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Description
We present VRI photometry for the globular cluster systems (GCS's) of ten elliptical and S0 galaxies in Virgo and Leo. We find that the V-I color (metallicity) distributions are quite different from galaxy to galaxy. One extreme is represented by NGC 4374 with a narrow, blue distribution. NGC 4472 has a very broad, uniform distribution in color, corresponding to -1.8 < [Fe/H] < +0.47. At the other extreme is NGC 4365, which is weighted towards red colors, and possibly has a peculiar luminosity function. We suggest that this variation of GCS metallicity depends on environment, with formation of high metallicity globular clusters inhibited in higher density environments. We compare color-color plots of the GCS's of these galaxies with the Milky Way GCS and with integrated isochrones. We find good agreement with the galaxies studied here except that the isochrones predict colors which are slightly too bright in the I band for metal-rich clusters. We also consider the radial GC color distributions in these galaxies. We find evidence for a V-I color gradient only in NGC 4374, in the sense of redder clusters toward the center of the galaxy but warn that possible systematic effects must be ruled out with the new data. Lastly, using the surface brightness fluctuation distances to these galaxies, we find supporting evidence for the universality of the globular cluster luminosity function.
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