420 BOTANY [CHAP. XI 



Saxonka." Mr. Wilson's paper of 1880 gives the results of his inquiry. 

 He concludes (basing his views partly on analogous cases and partly on 

 his study of the Russian wheats) that the supposed transformation is 

 explicable in chief part by the greater fertility of the Saxonka wheat 

 leading to extermination of the other form. According to Mr. Wilson, 

 therefore, the Saxonka survivors are incorrectly assumed to be the 

 result of the conversion of one form into the other. 



Letter 750 Down, April 24th, 1878. 



I send you herewith some specimens which may perhaps 

 interest you, as you have so carefully studied the varieties of 

 wheat. Anyhow, they are of no use to me, as I have neither 

 knowledge nor time sufficient. They were sent me by the 

 Governor of the Province of Samara, in Russia, at the request 

 of Dr. Asher (son of the great Berlin publisher) who farmed 

 for some years in the province. The specimen marked 

 Kubanka is a very valuable kind, but which keeps true only 

 when cultivated in fresh steppe-land in Samara, and in 

 Saratoff. After two years it degenerates into the variety 

 Saxonica, or its synonym GJiirca. The latter alone is im- 

 ported into this country. Dr. Asher says that it is universally 

 known, and he has himself witnessed the fact, that if grain 

 of the Kiibanka is sown in the same steppe-land for more 

 than two years it changes into Saxonica. He has seen a 

 field with parts still Kubanka and the remainder Saxonica. 

 On this account the Government, in letting steppe-land, 

 contracts that after two years wheat must not be sown until 

 an interval of eight years. The ears of the two kinds appear 

 different, as you will see, but the chief difference is in the 

 quality of the grains. Dr. Asher has witnessed sales of 

 equal weights of Kubanka and Saxonica grain, and the price 

 of the former was to that of the latter as 7 to 4. The 

 peasants say that the change commences in the terminal 

 grain of the ear. The most remarkable point, as Dr. Asher 

 positively asserts, is that there are no intermediate varieties ; 

 but that a grain produces a plant yielding either true 

 Kubanka or true Saxonica. He thinks that it would be 

 interesting to sow here both kinds in good and bad wheat 

 soil and observe the result. Should you think it worth while 

 to make any such trial, and should you require further in- 

 formation, Dr. Asher, whose address I enclose, will be happy 

 to give any in his power. 



