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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Fig. 4. Showing Absolute Segregation in Second Hybrid Generation. These 

 red and white ears grew from a single self-pollinated ear of the first hybrid genera- 

 tion of a cross between red and white maize. 



A. D. Shamel, of the United States Department of Agriculture, crossed 

 these two types. A new type called the Halladay has been produced 

 with the higher number of leaves of the Cuban parent and the stocky 

 habit of growth and large leaves of the Havana parent. The first inter- 

 pretation of this result was that an entirely new variation had appeared, 

 for the Cuban type usually has but twenty-two or twenty-three leaves. 

 The writer has been able to show, however, that the actual strain of the 

 Cuban used as the parent of the cross has on the average twenty-six 

 leaves, and data have now been collected that show that the new variety 

 is a simple recombination of the characters possessed by the two parents 

 giving an out-door type averaging thirty per cent, greater yield than 

 the old Havana strain. In a similar way Biffen has produced a rust 

 resistant high-yielding wheat by crossing two varieties each of which 

 possessed but one of these desirable qualities. Orton has combined the 

 edible quality of the watermelon with the wilt resistance of the citron, 

 and Webber has increased the ability of the orange to resist cold by 

 crossing with the hardy trifoliate orange. 



Recent accurately controlled investigations in hybridization have 

 shown that many apparently complex results yield to simple explana- 



Fig. 5. Red Maize Ear with Pericarp removed, showing segregation of yellow and 



white endosperm beneath it. 



